Tangent Review: The Afterlife of the Queen

Destination Long Beach: The Queen Mary Story (2007 Edition), by Renee B. Simon; Long Beach, CA: RMS Foundation, 2001/2007; 124 pp.

This week, I'll be doing the first of what I call "tangent reviews". A tangent review is a review of a book whose primary topic is about something other than the Disney theme parks, but contains some mention of Disney theme parks and resorts. Why do tangent reviews? Because sometimes you'll find interesting bits of information about Disney theme park history in a book about something other than the Disney parks. (This also allows me to review books that I thought had a connection to the parks, but actually had next to nothing about them. Yeah, it's sneaky and it's lazy. So sue me.)

Believe it or not, I have other interests besides the Disney theme parks. (Shocking, I know, but true.) Chief among these interests are the theme park and amusement industry, transportation (mainly trains and ships), and 20th century history. Today's book covers a subject that has all of these things rolled into one very large package: the RMS Queen Mary.

For 31 years, the Queen Mary ferried passengers all around the world - mainly across the North Atlantic, but she made her way to other places as well. When she was in service, she was the epitome of luxury and speed, but sadly the world passed her by, and in 1967 Cunard, her operator, put her up for sale. Most histories of the Queen Mary end with The Last Great Cruise, her voyage from Southampton to Long Beach, California, to be turned over to the City of Long Beach, and a brief mention that she's now a hotel and tourist attraction. But the Queen Mary has been in Long Beach for almost 41 years and has been a tourist attraction for 37 years - both longer than she sailed for Cunard - and there's not a lot out there about what happened to the Queen after she came to California. That's why I was happy to see that the RMS Foundation, the attraction's operators, commissioned a book about that part of her story.

Destination Long Beach is an informative book about the long, strange history of the Queen and her adopted home, from the efforts by the city to buy her and bring her to California, the grand plans to turn her into a museum, hotel, and tourist destination, to the disappointing result of the plans going awry and a glimmer of hope that her unlucky situation might be about to change for the better. Along the way, we get to see how the City of Long Beach bought her almost on a whim, how it created a tangle of operating responsibilities that would have almost guaranteed problems even if the attraction had been as successful as they had expected, and how folks like hotelier and real estate tycoon Jack Wrather got things going in the right direction. We briefly see the Walt Disney Company take control of operating the ship as part of the deal where Disney reclaimed the Disneyland Hotel , the hope of a grand new theme park in Long Beach allowing the Queen to live up to her original expectations, and what looked like the end for the attraction when the idea for the park fell through and Disney decided that they didn't want anything more to do with her. Finally, we get to see a new regime take over operations, which initially brings the hope that the person now in charge will be able to make the Queen Mary do what she's never really been able to do the whole time she's been in Long Beach - be a popular place to go and to turn a profit - and then see her future again called into question when the relations between the new operators and the city turn sour. It's a fascinating story, and one that really deserves to be told.

Renee Simon does a pretty good job with the book. She's not shy about tweaking the noses of the people who made mistakes or questionable decisions, for the most part (more on that later), and the book contains some interesting photographs of the ship during her conversion (some would argue her demolition) and her new life as a tourist attraction. It's a fast read, as well; I was able to finish the book in a couple of hours.

So what's not to like about Destination Long Beach? My biggest issue with the book is that since the book was published by the folks who currently operate the Queen Mary, it's got a strong bias in favor of those folks, and especially the operating company's recently removed leader, Joseph Prevratil. For all of Renee's willingness to point out how many of the people who were responsible for creating the problems that the Queen Mary suffers from today, she's not willing to question anything that the RMS Foundation has done during their tenure - and I know from other research I 've done that they've made some pretty questionable decisions. I would have liked to see a lot more information about the time that Wrather and Disney operated the Queen Mary and what they did - right and wrong - while they were in charge; if we were to go simply by Renee's description in the book, the Disney tenure at the Queen Mary could be summed up as grandiose plans that they might or might not have been truly committed to, combined with general indifference. Finally, while this is a nice coffee table book with some decent photographs and text, it's still a coffee table book - the story of the Queen Mary in Long Beach deserves a more in-depth look than it gets in 124 pages full of photographs. But something's better than nothing, I guess.

If you're looking for a treasure trove of information about Disney's operation of one of Southern California's best-known (and least-visited) attractions and about the ill-fated DisneySea theme park, Destination Long Beach is going to be disappointing. But if you're interested in the challenges faced by people trying to create a tourist destination, in California history, or in learning about a little-known facet of a great ship's history, than you should consider giving this book a read. The book will also give you a reason to explore one of the great unappreciated treasures of Long Beach - figuratively and literally, since the only place I know of that you can get this book is from the Queen Mary Store on the ship. But hey, it won't kill you to spend a couple of hours away from Disneyland for one day.

A Spoken Word CD Counts As A Book!

The Audio Guide to Walt Disney World: Main Street USA, by Lou Mongello; 2007; Louis A. Mongello/Second Star Media LLC. Audio CD; approx. 73 minutes.

Sorry for the delay in getting a new post up, folks - between the Real Job the Disney Fan Job, and a recent illness, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

The next book I’ll be reviewing here is… a CD?!? OK, at this point a few of you might be wondering if I just hit my head with a Disney Big Fig, but stick with me, folks – this isn’t your typical CD.

A couple of years ago, I read “The Walt Disney World Trivia Book, Volume 2”, a collection of trivia questions about one of our favorite Disney destinations. I was really impressed by the book and the knowledge of its author, Lou Mongello. Well, since then Lou’s come up with another way to share his knowledge of Walt Disney World with Disney fans and casual guests – the first of a series of audio CDs where Lou acts as our tour guide on a “guided walking tour of the history, trivia, hidden treasures, and overlooked details of Walt Disney World.”

Appropriately enough, the first CD in Lou’s audio guide to Walt Disney World takes us to the first place many of us see when we first visit – Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. Starting just outside the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, Lou takes us through the turnstiles, under the Walt Disney World Railroad and into Town Square; Lou then takes us on a tour of Town Square’s buildings and up Main Street USA until we reach the Plaza. Along the way, Lou shares some of the history of Walt Disney World and of the buildings were visiting and passing through, as well as pointing out details that enhance the park going experience but might be missed by the average guest (and even by some devoted Disney fans like me).

If you ever wanted an easy way to get away for a visit to Walt Disney World without really getting away, this CD may just be what you’re looking for. With his narration and through the use of music and sound effects, Lou is able to put you right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom; Lou describes the sights of Main Street USA in enough detail and provides you with enough background audio cues that it’s easy for you to close your eyes and imagine yourself walking through the theme park on a beautiful day. Lou shares just enough information that even the biggest Walt Disney World fan should learn something new, but not necessarily so much that someone will turn off the CD feeling totally overwhelmed. I had a great time listening to this audio guide.

We’ve talked about how Lou’s CD can make you feel like you’re spending the day in Florida while you’re sitting at home, but how does it work as a guide if you’re already there? I haven’t had a chance to try out Lou’s CD at the Magic Kingdom myself, but I turned it over to a willing test subject who was still in Florida (my lovely fiancée, who didn’t have to come back from vacation as soon as I did), and she reported that Lou’s CD was a great way to enhance her visit to the Magic Kingdom – and had the advantage of being a lot easier to carry around and enjoy than a paper guidebook.

Is the Audio Guide to Walt Disney World perfect? Well, besides not being nearly long enough to suit me, I can’t find too much wrong with it. At the time that I got that I got the CD, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t just download Lou’s guide straight to my iPod (a situation Lou has corrected by offering the Audio Guide online at disneyworldtrivia.com). I’m also a little disappointed that the Guide CD is one long track, which means if you’re listening on CD, you’ll have to stop and start over from the beginning if you have to stop listening for some reason. But these are minor quibbles. My fiancée and I had a great time listening to the first volume of the Audio Guide to Walt Disney World, and we can’t wait for the next volume!

I'll be back to reviewing paper books in the next post. In the meantime, thanks for indulging me!

The Only English Book on Tokyo Disneyland?

Riding The Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland (Harvard East Asian Monographs 173), By Aviad E. Raz; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999, 236 pp.

Last Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of the opening of Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney theme park opened outside of the United States. I thought it'd be fun in honor of the anniversary to review something about TDL. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done; to date, nobody's written a English-language guidebook to Tokyo Disneyland, and there's only one book I'm aware of that is dedicated to the topic. It's been a while since I read it, so I figured it'd be worth another look.

Riding The Black Ship is a monograph covering some of the sociological issues about TDL. The title refers to Commodore Matthew Perry's American warships that forcibly re-opened Japan to the West in 1853; some intellectuals have argued that like Commodre Perry's warships, Tokyo Disneyland is a cultural "black ship", forcing American popular culture onto Japan and the Japanese. After spending some time observing TDL, Disney, and Japanese culture, Aviad Raz argues that the Japanese have done the same thing they've done with many other things they've found in foreign cultures - they've taken something that interests them and adapted it to made it their own. The Japanese are thus not victims of a cultural invasion, but masters of a unique cultral phenomenon - they're riding and steering the "black ship" of TDL.

Aviad Raz was somewhat handicapped by an almost total lack of cooperation from the Oriental Land Company (the company that owns TDL), but still put together an interesting study of Tokyo Disneyland and how it's made its mark on Japanese culture, and vice versa. The book provides some interesting information about how TDL is operated, how the corporate culture of the U.S. Disney theme parks was adapted to suit the OLC and the Japanese, how other companies have adapted some of America's and Disney's organizational and training strategies to their businesses (or rejected them, as the case may be), and the appeal of TDL and Disney to various age groups in Japan.

You get a basic explanation of how OLC created TDL, information about the differences between how hourly employees are trained and do their jobs (which is influenced by the techniques of the U.S. parks) and how managers and higher-level employees are trained and how they work (which mirrors more traditional Japanese business culture). Raz demostrates how TDL modifies the Disney theme park experience to suit the Japanese by comparing three attractions at the park (two of which have sadly closed since the book was written) to their American or Japanese equivalents, and discusses how the Japanese workers react to some elements of the "Disney Way". The book provdes some fascinating insights into Japan's culture in general and Japan's business culture, with (of course) an emphasis on the business of theme parks.

Riding The Black Ship is an interesting book, particularly if you're curious about Japanese culture or have a strong interest in TDL and OLC, but make no mistake - this is an academic text, and it wasn't meant for a general audience; if a reading assignment in your college textbooks left your head swimming for a while afterward, you're not going to have a lot of fun reading this book. The information about TDL and OLC is pretty limited; Raz provides some interesting information about the park and the Oriental Land Company, but a lot more goes uncovered, and most of the reference material cited in the book was published only in Japan and in Japanese, so your options to explore the topic further are limited. Time has also caught up with this book; there's only a very brief mention of Tokyo DisneySea as an upcoming project, and attendance figures and trends have changed in the U.S. and the Japanese leisure industry since this book was published.

A lot of us Disney fanatics would love to see an in-depth discussion of Tokyo Disneyland - either a guide to the parks or a history of its construction and operation. Unfortunately, Riding The Black Ship doesn't quite fit the bill, but for now it's all we've got. This book is definitely for folks who enjoy academic texts or are fascinated enough by TDL or Japan to take what they can get. As for everyone else, well, here's hoping we're not in this same situation in another 25 years.

Apologies...

To all you wonderful folks who are reading this blog about the frequency of the reviews lately. Unfortunately, I have quite a bit going on in my life right now, and it's been a struggle to get a review up even every two weeks. But I promise I'll keep writing if you'll keep reading. Thanks!

An Orlando Guide About Orlando

Pauline Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando (1st Edition), by Jason Cochran; Pauline Frommer, Series Editor. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2007; 330 pp.

Hello. My name's Paul and I'm addicted to theme park guidebooks. (Hi, Paul!)

For some unknown reason, I've read and I own a large collection of guidebooks to the Disney theme parks - official and unofficial. I don't know if there's a good reason for it; I've probably been to Disneyland and Walt Disney World enough times that I don't really need to refer to a guidebook, but I keep reading them and buying them - new and used. Maybe it's because they're the easiest books about the Disney parks to find. Maybe it's because they provide a snapshot of the parks at a particular moment in time. Maybe it's my way of going to the parks without actually visiting them. Whatever the reason, I'm going to review them here, and my first victim... er, subject... will be the Pauline Frommer's Guide to Walt Disney World and Orlando.

For those of you who read the above title and said "Pauline who?", Pauline Frommer is the daughter of travel expert Arthur Frommer (the author of Europe of $5 A Day and the founder of the Frommer's Travel Guides). Pauline's apparently no slouch as far as travel knowledge is concerned, and she's started a series of travel guides under her own name, which are being published by the same company that prints the Frommer's Guides. In the case of the WDW guide, just because Pauline's name is in the title doesn't mean she wrote the thing; she's the editor of the series, which I guess means she's responsible for coming up with and maintaining the overall concept and philosophy of the guides.

In any case, I was really impressed by Pauline Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando. Jason Cochran, the author of the book, really seems to know his stuff about central Florida and the Disney theme parks and has done a great job of writing a thorough and opinionated guide to what's out there for the visitor to see. Jason's well-versed in the history and the workings of the Disney theme parks and other places, and he's not one of those people who looks at Disney through Mouse-colored glasses; the end result is a guide that provides unabashed opinions about what Disney management (and other theme park operators and hoteliers) are doing right and doing wrong, and that points you toward the places and things that he feels deserve your time, money and attention.

One of the things that most impressed me about Pauline Frommer's (sorry, but I'm not writing the full title over and over again) is its coverage of what there is to see and do and where there is to stay outside the realms of the Big Three (that's Disney, Universal and Anheuser-Busch, in case you're wondering). Where many guides to WDW and Orlando pretty much only discuss the major theme parks and provide a smattering of information about the major tourist corridors and a quick word or two about stuff in downtown Orlando (and some only talk about stuff on Disney property), Jason touches a variety of topics, such as second-tier attractions, parks and wildlife refuges, museums, areas and places where locals go to have fun or get a good meal or do a little shopping. Jason recognizes that there's more to Orlando than the theme parks and the tourism corridors, and encourages you to really take some time to experience it.

Have I mentioned that Jason is opinionated? Even if I have, it bears repeating. If it's a given to you that the WDW experience - particularly if you're staying on-property - is pure Disney magic, Jason's gonna tick you off. But that doesn't mean he's anti-Disney -- based on the information that he shares about Walt Disney World's history and details, I'd say he's pretty passionate about WDW, but he doesn't cut Disney much slack when he feels that parts of the Disney experience don't live up to the blissful picture painted by the marketing folks at WDW.

If it makes you feel any better, Jason's just as opinionated about the non-Disney stuff he covers in the book; this is probably the first Orlando guidebook I've read that argues that none of Orlando's many accommodations - even the best ones - offer a truly world-class experience, and that folks coming to visit the Mouse should seriously consider staying in a vacation home or even - gasp! - off the WDW property to get the most bang your your tourism buck.

If you're a die-hard Disney fan who sees any negative comment about Disney or the Disney theme park experience as bashing, this probably isn't the guidebook for you. The same is true if your goal in getting a guidebook is to use it to lay out your plan of attack for most efficiently visiting the WDW theme parks; Pauline Frommer's not going to provide you with touring plans. If you've pretty much made up your mind that the only time you'll be off the WDW property will be to drive to and from the airport, a lot of the information that's in this book isn't going to be of any use to you; if you're looking for lots of information about what you'll find at WDW or other parks, you'll probably either want to give this book a complete pass or use it on conjunction with another guidebook (I'd recommend The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World or Passporter Walt Disney World).

If you want to get a feel for what central Florida has to offer and you're not averse to going off-property, consider Pauline Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando - it's better than a lot of the guides to Orlando put out by most of the major travel publishers. You'll get a guidebook that provides you information about options you might not have considered (or even known about) as far as accommodations, attractions, and dining, and it's an entertaining and informative read. I'm glad to add this guidebook to my already way too large collection.

Setting Sail With Disney Cruise Line

Birnbaum's Official Guide to Disney Cruise Line 2008, by Jill Safro (editor); New York: Disney Editions, 2008, 220 pp.

Okay, some folks out there may dispute my reviewing this book in this blog, since it's about the cruise ships owned by Disney, not one of the theme parks. But so many people take advantage of a Walt Disney World vacation to try cruising with Disney that it really didn't seem like that much of stretch to me; besides, Disney markets the cruises along with their theme parks, WDI had a role in designing them, they're under the same division of the Walt Disney Company as the parks, and the characters are everywhere - if they can't be considered part of the Disney theme park family, they're at least close relatives. Now that we've got that settled...

The Birnbaum Official Guide to the Disney Cruise Line is the latest addition to the series of Disney's official guides to their destinations; like the rest of the books in the series, it lays out the basic information about your destination, some of your options as far as accommodations and things to do, explains some of Disney's policies and procedures for your visit, and does it all while including many images from the destination and of the Disney characters.

As a guidebook, it's a pretty good introduction to the DCL ships and cruise itineraries. The information in the book's concise (maybe a little too much so in some cases), it gives you a pretty good feel for what'll be happening, and it's a quick read (I was able to finish it in a couple of hours, and I didn't have to devote my full time to it). If you had your heart set on a Disney cruise or someone in your family surprised you by announcing that you were going on a DCL cruise, this is a pretty good way to get your feet wet (pun intended). There are plenty of general guides to cruising out there, with varying amounts of information, but few books out there that narrow the focus so precisely.

Unfortunately, the book has a couple of problems. The biggest one's the result of its biggest selling point - it's an official guide produced by Disney, and as such the book's pretty uncritical about Disney and it's activities; it also tends to be a bit vague on some details, like the costs of the items not covered in the cruise price. There were also a couple of really bad screw-ups in the book, like a map of the 7-day Western Caribbean cruise that shows the wrong destinations, even though the itinerary is published right next to the map, and the book contains little information about special itineraries and no information about upcoming changes to the cruise line, like new itineraries and the new ships. Now, I realize a fair amount of information in any guidebook's going to be out of date almost from the minute it leaves the printers, but it doesn't look good when an official guide that you're paying for has less accurate and up-to-date information that a brochure you can pick up from your travel agent for free.

Almost half of the book is devoted to the shore excursions available in each of the DCL ports, with prices and brief critiques based on the authors' personal experiences or the experiences of others who've taken the shore excursions included. It's a nice touch - again, many books on cruising in general don't share much information on ports or share information about many ports besides that ones you'll actually be visiting. There's very little about the destinations themselves, however; if I were serious about shore excursions, I think I'd still pick up or check out a separate guide to Caribbean cruise ports to learn a little more about my options.

Overall, Birnbaum's Official Guide to Disney Cruise Line is a good starting point for the person who's serious about booking a Disney cruise or finds themselves going on a Disney cruise but really doesn't know what to expect. Like most of the Birnbaum Guides, I'd consider the book only as a starting point for someone who wants to get their most out of their Disney experience. It's a good start, but realize that if you want to be really serious about saving time and money and being ready for your Disney cruise, it's only a start.

A WD-Eye On DAK

The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom, by The Imagineers; New York: Disney Editions, 2007, 128 pp.

A couple of years ago, Disney came up with a great concept for a series of books. Each book in the series would take the casual guest on a tour of the Disney theme parks led by the Imagineers, giving them an idea of what went into creating the theme parks and showing them a few of the little details that went into creating new and unusual attractions and environments for the guests to enjoy. The series started out with a book on Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and followed up with a book on Epcot. The latest book in this series, on Disney's Animal Kingdom, came out last year, and I hadn't had a chance to read the book until now, so I decided to use the Imagineering Field Guide to Animal Kingdom to take an armchair tour of the park. It was a very quick read, but I came away with a greater appreciation for what the Imagineers do and a better understanding of the themes expressed in the park.

The book starts out with a very brief history of Walt Disney Imagineering, then gives brief overviews of the various creative disciplines at WDI and a quick run-though of some of the language used by the Imagineers to describe what they do. This was probably my favorite part of the book - if you've always felt that your dream job is to be an Imagineer, you can use these first few pages to get an idea of what type of job you could actually do there if you had the chance!

After your introduction to Imagineering, the book takes you section by section through the theme park, explaining the overall theme or message that a particular land in the park is trying to convey and how the various design elements work together to convey it. This book isn't so much about telling you about every single detail you might see and explaining what it means and how it got there (although there is certainly quite a bit of information about many details you'll see in the park); the purpose of the book is to point out the overall idea and a few elements that help get across that idea, in the hope that you as a guest will spend the time looking for more details and trying to figure out how they contribute to the story the Imagineers are trying to tell.

The main impression I walked away with after reading this book is that anybody who complains that there isn't enough to see at Disney's Animal Kingdom just isn't trying hard enough. As you read through this book, you get a real feel for how much there is to experience and enjoy about this park and how much work goes into creating the overall feel of your surroundings. The amount of effort that goes into creating elements of the park that most people may never notice is absolutely amazing. I've always been impressed by what Imagineers do, but after reading this book, I'm even more impressed. I can only hope that the casual park guest who picks up this book and takes it with them on their park visits is equally impressed
and takes the time to really focus on what they're experiencing.

So, is this book the perfect guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom? As much as I love the book, I have to say "not quite". My main objection to the book can be summed up in three words: It's too small. Now, I realize the concept behind this book (and all of the Imagineering Field Guides) is to provide something that a guest to the park can lug around in their back pocket or purse as they visit, and that's fine. The problem is, I came away feeling that there were more stories to share and more details that could be pointed out, but that I wasn't going to be able to find out more because the book was constrained by the need to keep it down to a manageable size. Worse, the size of the book demands that the WDI concept art that's included also has to be kept small, so you can't take in all the rich detail that went into creating it. I'm not sure how you could get past these limitations - a larger size edition of this book? An online supplement? - but I'd love to see someone try. Are these limitations severe enough that you should leave this book and the others in the series on the shelf? Absolutely not.

Most of us are never going to get to explore a Disney theme park with an Imagineer as their personal guide, but the Imagineering Field Guides are a pretty good substitute. Although the hard-core Disneyana fan may be a little unsatisfied with the amount of information and art shared in the Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom, this book and the other books in the series provide a good jumping off point for exploring and appreciating the little details that make the Disney theme parks so special. I can't wait to see the rest of the books in this series!