Monday, June 23, 2008

Instantaneous Capacity Study

Not a very exciting title for a first post, but this schedule reminder is the first concrete evidence I have of planning for the "Second Gate". Imagineering had been planning a second gate at least as early as 1988 (which is when I attended a presentation by Imagineer, Jeff Kurtii, where the idea was mentioned as an upcoming project).







The Second Gate was probably intended to be Westcot at the time of this study, but I think that the plans were still top secret in July of 1992. The information collected from the study was intended to be used to determine capacities of food and merchandise locations at the Second Gate.


So what is an "Instantaneous Capacity Study"? My memory is a little fuzzy but I think it was basically a report of how many people were at each particular location at various times throughout the day. For example, my assignment might have been New Orleans Square Restaurants. At set times I would be responsible for counting the number of people waiting in line at the French Market, sitting on the French Market patio, using the New Orleans restrooms, and inside Marche aux Fleurs.



I can only guess that Paul Pressler and friends didn't use these studies for planning DCA, based on the number of restaurants that were shuttered in the early days of that park.


Next time we'll visit the original Stromboli and catch a puppet show in Fantasyland.

1 comment:

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Awesome first post!!! Westcot has always fascinated me. As a socal resident I was so exited about an addition to Disneyland. I wish I had paid better attention thru it all, I might not have been so disappointed when we didn’t get anything like what was first talked about. I linked you on my blog, welcome to the blog-o-sphere!