Disneyland's Opening Failures
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A story about Disneyland's chaotic opening day and subsequent success.
"When they opened the park, they only invited about 1,500 people - it was an invite-only launch. But somebody counterfeited the tickets, so double the number of people showed up with counterfeit tickets on day one.
Because double the number of people showed up, everything broke. The plumbing broke because there were too many people using water in the park, more than the load could handle. They came to Walt and said 'We got a problem with the plumbing, you have to make a choice - toilets or water fountains.' He chose toilets, so there was no drinking water that day.
The asphalt was still so freshly poured that women's high heels were getting stuck in the cement because it was caving in. It was basically a giant disaster.
Walt did some PR and basically said 'Look, we had to work out the kinks, give me a month.' They gave him some time, and sure enough within a month the place was humming. In 7 weeks, they hit 1 million visitors. It was an immediate hit once they got it working."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.