Disneyland is indeed the famous amusement center branching out from many different parts of the world. From its day of establishment in 1971, consumers have always been families, related groups and children. Walt Disney has undoubtedly reached its core of fame in the late 20^th centuries after establishing Disneyland theme parks in different areas of the world: Hong Kong, Paris, California, etc. Why did Disneyland became so popular? Well, aside from the famous Disney characters that dramatically appealed to the young individuals, the most important reason is its ideal and family-oriented atmosphere.

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From 1971 up to the present, Disneyland consumers and public support have been continuously increasing. Needless to say, Disneyland has maintained its good reputation throughout these years. The act of being family-centered, children-advocate, and all the good figures have attracted most of their market. However, according to Disneyland’s former Duty Manager, Spencer Craig, his working experience for the last 10 years allowed him to understand the business concept of the magic kingdom – the main objective of the business is to increase the risks of their rides in order to emphasize the so-called “Disneyland experience.”

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Unfortunately, this strategy has produced unwanted tragedies and accidents that are left unreported or hidden from the public and media. Disneyland has guidelines for their “security personnel staff – passenger surveillance ratio”, which is technically known as “Operation Hourly Ride Capacity (OHRC)”. According to Disneyland supervisors, the park usually closes if the maximum attendance hits 50,000… or so they say. In 2007, the number of attendance even hit over 14,800,000 people, which made Disneyland the second most visited park in the world. According to Mr. Craig, adding to the overpopulation of the crowd is the decrease of available manpower due to the cost-cutting directed by the Disney.  Therefore, tragedies are indeed inevitable.

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In October 1999, Mrs. Pat Shenck and her 8 year old boy had taken the water sprite jet skis on one of the park lagoons. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shenck’s ski got stuck during the water shift. Meanwhile the 23-year old inexperienced ferryboat captain of the Kingdom Queen was unaware of the case. Going against the safety rules of the ride, he reversed the route of the ferry consequently sucking Mrs. Shenck towards the ship’s blades. Eventually, death was resulted by the blades that shredded her body to pieces. By the time the police came in, Disneyland’s paid divers had already collected the body leaving no evidence of the scene. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shenck’s son was there the whole time around.

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In December 1998, the special time of Christmas, Disneyland did not even consider the strict safety implementations in their Tall Ship. According to witnesses, the ship was getting too fast pulling the metal out of the dock where it should be properly attached. Unfortunately, the knot untangled easily probably due to the force and eventually hitting the couple, Luan Dawson and Lieu Vuong, and their employee, Christine Carpenter. Dawson died due to brain hemorrhage and skull fracture, while his wife suffered tremendous face disfigurement. Meanwhile, the employee underwent dramatic surgical operations for her lacerated foot and leg. Needless to say, the evidences were immediately cleared out three hours after the incident.

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According to the Santa Clara Sgt. Anton Morec Morec,

“Maybe the worker was under the influence, maybe the maintenance records indicate this cleat was due for maintenance two weeks earlier. You treat it as a crime scene until you know otherwise …you need to have an independent investigation that would be uninfluenced by Disney.”