Monday, February 19, 2007
Disneyland's Grier talks about his plans for the park
Disneyland Resort president Ed Grier talks about his new job.
By ANDREW GALVIN
The Orange County Register
Ed Grier is finally settling in at Anaheim's Disneyland Resort, where he was appointed president in July.
Grier, 51, is taking measure of the resort's challenges and opportunities, including recruiting new employees (called "cast members" by Disney) and the possibility of Disney opening a third "gate," or park, to accompany Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.
After being named to replace Matt Ouimet, who left Disneyland to join Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Grier took several months to fully transition from his previous post as the top Disney official at the Tokyo Disney Resort, which is operated by a licensee. During those months, he traveled frequently between Anaheim and Tokyo. He is now living in Tustin with his wife of 26 years, Valerie, and two of their three sons (one is away at boarding school).
Grier, who joined Disney as an accountant in1 981, sat down last week for an introductory interview with the Register.
Q. You took over as president of the Disneyland Resort just as the 50th anniversary promotion was concluding. Coming from Japan, what are your perceptions of Disneyland?
A. Well you just spoke about the 50th anniversary, by all accounts a tremendous success, not just for Disneyland but for the whole community. So everyone benefited from it economically. And also it was a great experience for our guests and our cast and our leaders as well. … So from that perspective I think that's something I want to capitalize on. …
What I can tell you coming from Japan is the Disney brand is very, very strong and it's amazing that it resonates with guests all over the world.
Q. Have you had a chance to size the place (Disneyland) up and figure out what you want to do?
A. We have a great property here. I think all of our Disney parks are great and we just want to make them better, so that's what we're sizing up now, how we continue to grow from the 50th …So that's really about learning the property, learning the environment, learning the community and being a big part of that, that's my focus right now.
(The business is) locally based here as compared to Walt Disney World – that's a destination that draws upon distant travel. So that's probably the fundamental difference here.
Q. Have you identified anything that you feel needs some work?
A. No. I think overall we're doing great. Our resorts, from a hotel standpoint, are doing very, very well. Our parks are doing very, very well. So, work – there's always work. We're never satisfied. I don't think our parks are ever finished. I think that dates back even to Walt, you know, they're never complete. So we always want to make them better.
Q. The Disneyland Resort employs 20,000 people. How do you recruit new employees to keep those properties staffed as the cost of living in Orange County rises?
A. I think recruiting is a challenge for all businesses in this part of the country. I think the unemployment rate is 3.6 percent, which is very, very low. So there's a lot of choices for our cast members that we try to recruit. So that's the biggest challenge … But we have great opportunities for cast members who come here. It's a great learning experience. We have lifelong lessons they learn when they come here from a leadership standpoint, dealing with the guests. So we feel very good about our cast members that we get here.
Q. Does Disneyland need to make an initiative in terms of creating more local affordable housing opportunities for cast members?
A. Well, affordable housing is an issue for all of Anaheim and all of Orange County. So it isn't a Disney issue per se. Certainly we are supportive of the efforts that Anaheim is striking out on to improve affordable housing in the area.
Q. As you mentioned, the Disneyland Resort tends to draw much of its business from residents of Southern California, so you get a lot of repeat visitors. Can they expect to see any new attractions in the parks in the near future?
A. We're going to bring back the subs. 20,000 Leagues was the location. That closed a while ago. But we're very glad to bring back the subs, and it will be a totally different, Nemo-based theme, that will be quite exciting. Actually, I was on the site yesterday walking around and we saw some of the glimpses that the guests will see. It will still be a submarine-based ride, but totally new media, totally new sound, totally new experience with Nemo and the cast of characters (from) "Finding Nemo." So we're very fortunate that we have that relationship with Pixar. This is going to be a home run for us. It opens this summer in the Disneyland park.
Q. Anything else?
A.There's some other things that we're – no, that's probably enough for now (laughs).
Q. Disney's California Adventure – there's been some talk about possible changes there. What can you tell me?
A. Well, like I said before, we're constantly trying and we do improve our parks and the experience for our guests and we listen to our guests. California Adventure has had some significant improvements, in my mind: Tower of Terror opened; the Monsters Inc. attraction. So those are two. And if you look out there's a little bit of construction going on, there's a new attraction that will open and I can't give that one away yet, but I will tell you, it's an interactive attraction and it's going to add some totally new excitement when it opens out there. Don't want to tell you everything but if you like interactive, being part of, immersed into the attraction, you're going to love this attraction that opens in '08.
Q. Any update on a third gate?
A. Third gate? We only have two (laughs).
Q. I know there's only two now, but there's a piece of land off of Harbor (Boulevard) that Disney owns, isn't there?
A. Yes, there is.
Q. Any plans for that?
A. Land is very valuable in this part of the country as we know. So we're making plans on how we could expand our property and adding more exciting new things for our guests, but we're not at a point now where we can really talk about those.
Q. Can you give me an example of the sorts of questions you're getting from cast members?
A. I think surprisingly enough our cast members want to know about the other Disney parks. They feel so good about their product here, and they're very proud, like you know, this is THE park. I mean obviously, Walt was here and you can walk in his footsteps, that sort of thing. But they really want to know about our other parks. Do the guests act differently? Is the acceptance of the Disney brand there? That's a big question I get all the time. And they really are very interested in that.
Q. You have an open-door policy for employees. Can you tell me about a time a cast member took advantage of that?
A. Probably an easy example would be, this is not exactly the same, but just to show you how our cast members are very comfortable, I was at a cast Christmas party last night and one of the cast members was working the party and I had never met her. And she said I work in the watch shop and I said, OK, and she said your watch you're wearing now is not nearly as good as the watches we have for sale for our guests. So that's just an example. I think they're very comfortable with me and I think they know who you are and they come up to you all the time and they just want to talk.
Q. So she was trying to sell you a watch?
A. (laughs) Well, that, and I think the other thing is she just wanted to talk to me and I like to be very approachable. Our cast are very – they know that, they know it's OK to do that. Maybe not coming up literally in the door but they will also tell you we love the park here, we love what you're doing here, keep going with that. But if there's something else, they'll tell you that as well. So I like that. They're very candid.