Walt’s Apprentice: Keeping the Disney Dream Alive by Dick Nunis

Author:Dick Nunis [Nunis, Dick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Editions
Published: 2022-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

“Disney’s Finally Done It!”

Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971. My life had changed a lot since the opening of Disneyland, but there was the same excitement and apprehension. Of course, now I was responsible for fixing anything that went wrong. I also felt enormous ownership. I was there before the swampy area got a $400 million makeover.

On our first day, we welcomed more than 6,500 guests. Our stock dropped nine points. The Wall Street Journal headline read, “Disney’s Finally Done It…They Failed!”

Roy O. Disney called the now infamous “you bet your job” meeting. I had my approach prepared. I reminded him that because we opened Disneyland on that busy July Sunday so many years ago, we had deliberately planned for a low-attendance October opening in Florida. We chose the slowest week of the slowest month to allow time to make it all work to perfection before the busy season was upon us. The guests would not notice the operational fixes I knew that we needed to run the park smoothly. We needed more cafeterias and break rooms. We also had to find more office space, local housing, and transportation solutions. There were also leaks we needed to plug at the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea submarine voyage.…

I said to Roy, “If we don’t have a capacity crowd the day after Thanksgiving, then we know we’re in trouble.” We both knew that attendance at Disneyland surged during Thanksgiving weekend.

No one was ever so overjoyed to witness a Central Florida traffic jam. On Friday, November 26, 1971, they had to open every toll booth to accommodate all the cars, which seemed to be backed up all the way to Atlanta. We had a winner. Our Florida Cast Members got a crash course in peak capacity, but they couldn’t have been happier. The guests were smiling even if they had to wait for attractions and restaurant service. The only people who were not smiling were Florida Highway Patrol troopers. I didn’t have the heart to warn them regarding what they could expect for Christmas.

The Wall Street Journal never printed a retraction, but as we all know now, the rest is history.

LESSON LEARNED

Don’t believe everything you read—especially when it’s about you.

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