1. They are presumably sitting on a mountain of internal research on the science of herding people efficiently. My favorite example was how they seat people for Captain EO.  One entire side of the theater opens up and people are naturally guided in lines that form parallel to the rows and eventually feed into them.  The whole process takes about 1 minute to seat about 500 people.  The host asks those in the front of the lines to go 2/3 of the way down.  They know that a request to go all the way to the edge would be ignored so they offer a compromise which is mostly honored.
  2. There is now a system called “fastpass” which allows you to reserve a time 1-2 hours later when you are able to bypass nearly all of the line.  The efficiency doesn’t come from allowing people to take more rides.  The easy way to see that is to note that each ride runs a fixed number of times in a day and if every ride has a line all day then the total number of rides taken is that fixed number.  Rather the efficiency comes from allowing patrons to spend less time in line (and more time in the gift shops.)
  3. The cars in Autopia must have been grandfathered by the California legislature because they still burn fossil fuels and would not pass California emissions standards.
  4. They are the residual claimant for just about anything that goes wrong for their patrons.  Not surprisingly we have never been to a restaurant anywhere near as knowledgeable and accommodating for my son’s food allergies.
  5. The debate about whether commercial developers provide the socially optimal level of public parking could be informed by comparing the number of restrooms per square foot on Main Street in Disneyland, to say Broadway.
  6. Some rides have lines that fork and you have to commit to one branch without full knowledge of the relative wait times.  Pick the side with the most shade.  Not just because shade is good, but also because people cluster in the shady sopts reducing the total density and making the wait time shorter per fixed line length.
  7. I got RSI from the Buzz Lightyear “ride.”
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