Follow Your Nose! Experience: Smell.

Hello there,

    Today's focus will revolve around the Smell experience at Walt Disney World Resort. This particular sense is a delicate one to master for any kind of business, even more for an amusement park. With smell, a pleasant experience can turn into an unpleasant one in a matter of seconds. If you ever went to your local fair or into any amusement park, I am pretty sure that you spotted that nasty greasy spot in a corner of the site, or the disgusting (and smelly) pond of barf just besides the exit of an intense ride. No matter how beautiful the view, if it stinks somewhere, Guests won't stay much longer.

I can't resist the smell of fresh baked products.

    I could describe smell as a double-edged sword. And it becomes an art that is very difficult to even attempt outside on a windy day for example. Should you manage to master this tricky sense, and please your Guests with an exquisite olfactive ambiance, you can create extraordinary memories that can last. And to the opposite, you can ruin it all.

    There is no secret that general cleanliness is an absolute essential first step before trying to attempt to satisfy your Guests with olfactive experiences. And for it to become possible, every cast member must participate to the task, all the time, no excuses.

    This is not just another empty promise, and I can tell about it as I experienced it first hand at least a hundred times. The last significant one was during the ''Keys To The Kingdom Tour'' at Magic Kingdom. Jonnie, the cast member who was in charge of our group, picked up at least a half dozen of pieces of paper laying on the ground, threw them away in trashcans without interrutping his speech. Done as naturally as if this was his own living room.

Myself with cast-member Jonnie.

    So to be able to enhance your environment with olfactive experiences, cleanliness must become a standard for everyone. Once this is achieved, the Imagineers' imagination is the only limit to attempt to enhance an experience using fragrant ambiances.

    The smell, even for experts, is a challenging art to master because of it's complexity. Even the nicer of smell, used to profusion could create an unwanted effect for Guests; the over-stimulation of this sense. Everyone has an aunt who wears too much perfume... A good dosage must be taken in consideration to keep everything in balance. Easier said than done!

    How does Walt Disney World Resort manages to work and enhance some of their attractions with the help of smell? I will devellop a little more on this question on another occasion.

    Have a magical day,

           Frank.