[QuickGold]

Disney is testing out a new meet-n-greet "holding pen" at Hollywood Studios to try to better organize guests.

Photo: http://www.studioscentral.com/images/10040...s-meet-n-greets

They are being tested where no queue currently exist (i.e. in front of the Sorcerer's Hat). The purpose is to create a well-organized space for character interactions and photos. From what I hear, guest reaction has been positive. Designs would vary by park/land.

I like the idea, but am not liking the design in the photo above...looks like a police crime scene to me

[acp]

QuickGold, on Oct 7 2009, 03:45 PM, said:

Disney is testing out a new meet-n-greet "holding pen" at Hollywood Studios to try to better organize guests.

Photo: http://www.studioscentral.com/images/10040...s-meet-n-greets

They are being tested where no queue currently exist (i.e. in front of the Sorcerer's Hat). The purpose is to create a well-organized space for character interactions and photos. From what I hear, guest reaction has been positive. Designs would vary by park/land.

I like the idea, but am not liking the design in the photo above...looks like a police crime scene to me

Someone needs to show this idea to Disneyland Paris. Guests there have no concept of queueing and just form a mob around the characters

Andy.

[Rinjo]

acp, on Oct 7 2009, 08:52 PM, said:

Someone needs to show this idea to Disneyland Paris. Guests there have no concept of queueing and just form a mob around the characters

Andy.

Really? My experience has been a lot different and I go there all the time!

Lets see... Mickey is always qued very well, when minnie is in front of the studios she is qued well... Now that you mention it... it is HORRIBLE! Aside from mickey and minnie most everyone else is mobbed!

I withdraw my statement... what are they thinking???

[squishybear]

I agree with installing this in Disneyland Paris. Went I went there last, I was horrified at the attack characters had to endure from families.
Parents would literally shove their kids into Pluto's face to take a picture with him. It felt like a stampede to get to the characters.

I do have to agree that the photo above looks like a crime scene. Perhaps we can have red rope and carpet (like a movie premier) or something instead.

[QuickGold]

Character queue boxes have been temporarily discontuned at the Studios, according to a CM on Twitter

[RAXIP]

So it's been awhile, but we started testing redesigned queue boxes today at the Sorcerer Hat area. The boxes are smaller and the fugly blue tripods and red chains have been replaced with more traditional black, retractable-belt stanchions.

[QuickGold]

Thanks for the update Paul. I'm guessing they are using these once more to handle crowds

[RAXIP]

I'm not sure if their return is directly related to the holiday crowds or pure coincidence. There are still only two prototypes and apparently it takes a while to get the designs approved, since they need to go through several different departments. The new design is a great improvement over the first version. It both looks a lot nicer and and is much easier to set up.

[QuickGold]

Here's a photo from this morning http://plixi.com/p/65715233

[surfpark]

The updated one looks a lot better. I think these corals need to be visible, yet, forgettable. It's kind of sad that people are such animals that they even need these. Although in defense of the public, Disney is trying to make control and order appear in the middle of a tourist-filled plaza at random spurts of the day. I don't even know if the characters has a cast member 'handler' back in the early days.

I think these new corrals might have something to do with the NY Times article regarding crowd control. Disney is spending more time tweaking and shaping crowds, and using characters to draw people into less populated areas of the park is one tactic. I imagine the sorcerers's hat/Great Movie Ride area gets kind of sparse around dinner time, especially with the Osborune Lights, American Idol, or Fantasmic going on.