An Interview with Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss - Part One
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The opening of a bug's land with DavJohn
Lasseter, Dave Foley, Flik and Cynthia Harriss
and Tower of Terror construction in the right background
LP: Of course the next big thing in California is Tower of Terror.
CH :Have you noticed it?
LP: Its fun to be watching an attraction go up. again
CH: And you cant miss this one.
LP: What goes into the decision of whether to bring over an existing successful attraction or build something completely new.
CH: I think its, first and foremost, its how popular it is with the guest. This is what I love about our company. Staying close to the guests is such an important aspect of it. I would say that in the five years Ive been here at Disneyland, the number one attraction people have asked about is when are we going to bring Tower of Terror here. And to me personally, but beyond that, when weve done focus groups, anecdotal or whatever, and say "what do you like best about a Disney experience?" Tower of Terror comes up as one of the top ones. I would say since Indiana Jones, in our company, Tower of Terror probably has had the most enthusiasm by our guests at large and consequently thats why we wanted to bring it here. Its kind of like we have to. Certainly with Hollywood being the perfect land for it and as you can imagine this was planned all along thats why we have that great spot out there. Its in the perfect place. Itll be that perfect entrance. It was just frankly having another reason to come back in a couple of years thats even more extraordinary.
LP: Going out even further than that, one of the popular topics on our boards is always Disneylands 50th. What, if anything, can you say at this point about Disneylands 50th.
CH: Itll be the biggest thing in our lifetime is all I can say (laughs). Youre going to have to get ready to live here, Doobie, because therell be so much going on. I think probably the best way I can characterize it is 03 and 04 will be leading up to the 50th. Were clearly going to be having so many additions to the Disneyland Resort between 03 and 04. Not only in attractions, but entertainment with the big Aladdin show coming and a variety of other things that weve got in the works that were going to finalize in the next couple of months to bring to bear that will be leading up to it. So itll be lots of fun and all that. But the 50th will be the biggest event in our companys history. It truly will be. Disneyland is the crown jewel of our company. It is the heart and soul. It is what started this phenomenon in the mass public - thats how we brought films to life here. And theres so much to celebrate, the millions and millions of people that weve touched their hearts. So for us to invite everyone whos ever been to Disneyland and ever wanted to come to Disneyland to come during this momentous year, it truly needs to be extraordinary. So what I will guarantee is that there will be extraordinary entertainment, extraordinary celebrations. There will be reasons to come every single day and something that we just cant wait to see.
Harriss at Disneyland's 46th Birthday with Actor
Martin Landau and Imagineering Legend Marty Sklar
LP: Will it focus on Disneyland or will it encompass the whole Resort or even the whole company?
CH: Certainly Disneyland Resort is the vacation experience. So well be celebrating throughout the whole Resort. In fact Im confident that the whole company will be celebrating but clearly Disneyland, which was the place Walt built personally, will be where we can have the opportunity to remember, to celebrate very specific things that only happened at Disneyland and to highlight many of those things. But it will a resort wide celebration. There will be things to do throughout the whole resort.