CoasterBuzz Podcast #140 posted

Jeff most weekends(in busy season) I have seen SFOG have company picnics at the pavilion.I guess companies buy admissions with a picnic pass For lunch .
I have even seen them do two companies at the same time.

There is a sign by the road/path to the pavilion that says something to the effect For invited guests of AT&T only

I assume Six flags is doing the catering.Six Flags uniform employee's are doing the serving .You can see there from ninja real well and ninja does not usually have a line.

P.S. I am very amused by the freestyle music park ad that is on the right side while listening to gonch trash the park

Why doesn't Disney do this for the Nemo musical?

They do---I own a copy. Disney's been doing this sort of thing for a while now for several different attractions, parades, etc.

Finding Nemo: The Musical is even on iTunes.

As for the show at Dollywood. It was good but not great. The music and performers were excellent. There was some cool props they used (including a flying rig that brought the performers out over the crowd) but the rest of the set and the story-line was mediocre.

Then let me rephrase... why aren't they selling Nemo CD's at the exits? They don't do a very good job of making it obvious that the recorded music is available.

Same thing with the Festival of the Lion King. They have a sound track for that as well.. But you have to hunt around the CD section of the gift shops for that too.. (to which I bought and absolutely love playing.)

I think it would benefit them more to put it near the attraction.. Cirque does it, Blue Man (another of my favorite) does it. I always see people lined up right after they get out with dollars in hand..

Funny, those were the two examples I was going to bring up!

Got me. The exits from most attractions run you through mandatory gift shops. I don't know why this one doesn't.

Now that I think about it, most of the "shows" don't do this, but most of the "rides" do...maybe a guest flow issue?

Perhaps unloading a thousand people through a gift shop at once is not ideal. Although they do it at Universal.

Jeff said:
Then let me rephrase... why aren't they selling Nemo CD's at the exits? They don't do a very good job of making it obvious that the recorded music is available.

They do around the park and at the exits, also at the DTD World of Disney store with all the park music and other things. I think they even sell it at Epcot in Mousegear, not sure though...

I didn't see any music at all at Mousegear, or the Downtown store for that matter (and I spent a lot of time at both while Diana looked for the "perfect" bag). I still think they'd sell a metric assload if they had a cart or something just outside the exits. See Universal's carts outside the Blue Man Group venue in Orlando, for example.

Jeff said:
I didn't see any music at all at Mousegear, or the Downtown store for that matter (and I spent a lot of time at both while Diana looked for the "perfect" bag). I still think they'd sell a metric assload if they had a cart or something just outside the exits. See Universal's carts outside the Blue Man Group venue in Orlando, for example.

Really? Last time I was at World of Disney it was near the DVD's/Books and there was a stand outside of Nemo or at least close to it. Odd, maybe they've changed the layout, but I'll know for sure in July!

That place was a zoo. I was probably not looking very hard. I just wanted to get the hell out of there!

Jeff said:
That place was a zoo. I was probably not looking very hard. I just wanted to get the hell out of there!

And they say per capita spending is down! Psha!

Jeff, In regards to Six Flags and 'company picnics' -- when I have gone to corporate events at SFGAm, we have never utilized the picnic pavillions - the company usually gave out "Bugs Bunny Bucks" along with every ticket for people to buy their own food.

They did catering for the two events we had there, but I don't know if an enthusiast buffet counts as "company picnic" business. :)

They still do some catering (especially for smaller groups) but for large companies, the logistics are insane, plus the fact of having a space big enough to hold all the people is what drives the Bugs Bucks...

That seems like such a missed opportunity. Kings Island, Cedar Point and Hershey (spread out) have a ton of catering space.

Re: Music/DVDs

At World Of Disney (downtown), its near the Pins Section before you go in.. Not an extremely large area, but its there.. But all it takes is 3 people in front to obstruct it.

At Mousegears its located near the scrapbook section (wife drags me in that area and I slowly drift out). Again, not a large section.

The bigger area is in Once Upon a Toy in the back.. They have lots of DVDs and Music CDs there.