When I worked in theme parks, I called it the “three o’clock parade problem.”
As people started to gather for Disney’s afternoon parade, some would walk up and ask me, “what time is the three o’clock parade?” That seems that a silly question, until you discover that my answer was usually “3:15.”
That is because I recognized that people were not asking what time the three o’clock parade started. They knew that it was scheduled to step off at 3 p.m. They wanted to know the time the parade would get to where they were standing, which ended up being about 15 minutes later. So the “three o’clock parade problem” is the challenge that business people face in knowing the difference between what customers ask for and what they actually want and need.
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Disneyland has announced that Luke Skywalker will be appearing in its Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge land for the first time, starting next month for the park’s Season of the Force event. Disney’s decision to add the popular character appears to represent a switch in policy for its Star Wars land, one that may reflect a change in the way that Disney is addressing the three o’clock parade problem in this land.
A wrinkle in the three o’clock parade problem is that fans often want contradictory things. When Galaxy’s Edge opened, Imagineers shared that everything that happened in the land would be canon. Visitors were to be characters in the Star Wars universe, having an authentic experience within it. That forced Galaxy’s Edge to exist at a specific moment in time. From the events of the Star Wars Rise of the Resistance attraction, we know that time to be somewhere between Episodes 7 and 8 in the Star Wars movies.
But that choice meant excluding characters that many fans wanted to meet. Luke is supposed to be in exile on Ahch-To during the Galaxy’s Edge timeline. So unless he is appearing on Batuu as a Force projection, Disney is breaking its established canon to bring Luke to Galaxy’s Edge. That would mean Disney is abandoning its effect to give fans the authentic Star Wars experience they wanted in favor of allowing them to spend time with another character they wanted to meet.
That’s a fair choice. Disney has made no effort to set its Avengers Campus in a specific moment, allowing that land to feature characters from throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Granted, time travel exists in Marvel but not in Star Wars, but that is not explained in Avengers Campus.
Disney’s rival Universal tried to appease fans’ desire to spend time with beloved film and TV characters by creating screen-based attractions starring their actors. But fans howled in complaint about the screens, leading Universal to switch tactics. Now, the company is investing in roller coasters and animatronic-driven dark rides.
You can try to give fans what they say they want. But to be successful, you need to make the right choices in delivering what fans actually need. And no fan needs a stubborn company that will not change to make a better experience.