In a 400,000 square-foot warehouse in Cerritos, Disney cast members create magic. It’s the facility where cast members create decor for the park — right now they are putting the finishing touches on Halloween and have already started winter holiday-scapes — fix everything from restaurant appliances to the iconic spinning teacups; it’s where signs get fresh coats of paint and carousel horses receive tender loving care. The facility houses machine shops, fabrication shops, a sewing team, a paint shop, and all kinds of skilled professionals who keep Disneyland beautiful and running efficiently.
And all the creativity and skill behind the decor and park enhancement is there to serve the storytelling. We always approach it story-first,” says 21-year veteran Phil Rahn, director, resort enhancement & horticulture. When he got a job at Disneyland, “I started buying the decor from property control”: cast members get to buy retired items at a deep discount.
And I started creating a portfolio using the existing decor here at Disneyland.” Parks Enhancement noticed, and Tierney landed his dream job. The team was finishing up the decor for the Main Street USA Pumpkin Festival. The lamp posts on Main Street were set to be topped with the popular Mickey Mouse-shaped pumpkins backed with traditional fall foliage.
Bunting will be attached using a clever slider system and secured with grommets to keep it in place. The pumpkins are fiberglass, a big improvement over the foam ones previously used. Everything is hand-carved, painted and sewn in the facility but craftspeople.
Every leaf, pumpkin, ribbon, paint and fabric must withstand the harsh Southern California sun and heat — the park officially unveils its Halloween decor Aug. 21 and on Nov. 1 it comes down. And those months are some of the hottest in the region. We do a rehab on all our items, so every item goes through each decorator station,” Tierney says, adding that the team will make fixes and adjustments.
We need to make sure that it’s show ready and it’s safe. And this is just part of the checks we do for our over 8,000 pieces of individual pieces of decor.” The enhancement team also experiments with installation techniques — the quicker the better as they must do their work after the park closes (sometimes that’s midnight) and before it opens at 7:30 a.m. And that team can be 12-15 people or more, depending on the size and scale of the projects, as Disneyland works with outside vendors to make sure that the decor is ready to go by opening time.
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