Attractions Experts Q&A: Joe Schott

By Kendall Wolf

Schott’s work with The Walt Disney Company has taken him to Walt Disney Attractions in Japan, Disneyland Paris, Disney Parks and Resorts in Florida, and currently to Shanghai Disney Resort, where he has been for over five and a half years, currently serving as the resort’s president and general manager.

What theme park souvenir might we be surprised to find on your shelf, and what’s the story behind it?

I have a giant Duffy Bear in my office. Duffy and Friends are a hugely popular franchise here in Shanghai and also in Japan and Hong Kong. My Duffy Bear has traveled around with me since I lived in Tokyo, mainly because I’m passionate about the franchise and what it means to people, especially in this market, in this region. There’s a sense of companionship and just a simple story about friendship. These characters are five and six years old, so their adventures are really wholesome and speak to the joy and happiness we like to bring to people’s lives.

And also, it’s disarming for people as they come into my office because he’s seated on the couch and as you sit next to him, you can’t help but turn to him and say a few words.

What theme park have you always wanted to visit but have never been to? 

I’ve been to most of the theme parks in the world that I really want to go to, so if I had my druthers, I would dial us forward 20 years and see what the industry’s come up with. I think when Shanghai Disney opened, it was on the cutting edge as far as what we did, and I can’t wait to see where some of the new innovations will take us 20 years down the line. I’m excited for the future about what our parks can be.

Was there a theme park or attraction that made you want to be in this industry? How did it inspire you?

I grew up in Central Florida. In 1971, I was seven years old, and my mother took me to a preview night of the Magic Kingdom. I had watched “The Wonderful World of Disney” on TV and never thought at that time about having the opportunity to work in the industry. But that was really the spark for me.

I remember walking in with my mother. It was nighttime, and it stayed in my mind, being amazed by the monorail and the magical environment of walking onto Main Street for the first time, never knowing that 10 years later, I would be in a position to actually work in that same place. It was an awe-inspiring moment and something that still sticks with me.

What was your favorite ride or attraction as a child, and why?

I do remember my favorite. It was going on the Jungle Cruise for the first time and seeing all the animals and the person running it, looking like he knew exactly what he was doing. As it turns out, 10 years later, I had that job.

It’s kind of amazing where you start in this business. As an operating guy my entire career, that gave me insights into how people communicate. For every group of guests that got onto the Jungle Cruise boat, I remember having to assess, is this joke going to be funny? Is that comment going to work? How should I phrase it to communicate better? And I really think that was a lot of the secret for success later, in not just being able to evaluate things from not a guest perspective, but also how to communicate with people on different levels.

The one impression that I would pick up later in terms of my adaptation to the international markets as I went from place to place was that the core essence of the experience, especially the Disney experience, was exactly the same everywhere in the world. The adaptation to the market is what was unique and different. And that has to be unique to each individual or group of people you’re coming in contact with. The culture, customs, and traditions are always going to be different, so our delivery needs to be a little bit different.

That first time on the Jungle Cruise is a fond memory for me as a child and is definitely something I didn’t expect to become a lifelong career.

Was there a ride, attraction, or character that frightened you as a child?

On the same exact experience of being awed by the monorail and loving the Jungle Cruise, I was scared to death by Snow White’s Scary Adventures. It had a series of moments in which the witch would pop out at you, and I remember being terrified as a child. I only found out later, when I started to work for Disney, that the intent there is that you are Snow White and you’re looking at the story through her eyes, but from a child’s perspective, that’s not how I saw it.

Understanding that the storyteller’s intent versus how the audience receives it can be quite different is part of shaping what we want to see and how we craft products today. I can understand the creative point of view from an Imagineering standpoint when they pitch an idea and get into the depth of it, but the guest read on that it is never going to be as deep as the original pitch, and they may actually see things or resonate with things that are quite different than what the original intent was. Adjusting that to make sure that the point of view can resonate with guests is the magic of what clever ride and attraction creators do in our industry.

What was your oddest or coolest job in a theme park?

I think it was around 1988 — my first real job was at Disney — I joined when I was 17. And almost 42 years later, here I am. One of the jobs I had was kind of cool (and a really good gig). They were running a seasonal event at Epcot called the Epcot Circus Spectacular, which was literally high-wire motorcycles, acrobats, and elephants. My job at that time was to coordinate the audience control — how guests moved in and out of the space — and to make sure the elephants could enter. I thought that was the coolest job ever because it was a daytime shift, and I got the days off I wanted. But that was also where I would meet my wife as she walked to her attraction for her first day of work. We met there, and it turned out to be a lifelong memory.

What ride or attraction do you think everyone needs to experience and why?

My favorite attraction in the whole world is Pirates of the Caribbean here in Shanghai Disneyland. I appreciate different attractions by genre, but Pirates is my all-time favorite.

The immersion of that ride is unparalleled. It’s disappointing that many industry fans probably won’t make it to Shanghai to experience something like that, but it is, for me, by far the most immersive and impressive of the bunch. We have a lot of great attractions, but that’s the one that I think everyone needs to see.

If you were tasked with creating a new theme park food, what would it be?

Interesting, you should ask that because we’re in the process of working on Zootopia, which we’ll launch later this year. In Zootopia, animals don’t eat animals, so that affects the food options we’re developing. I don’t think we’ve ever had the opportunity to create huge popsicles, gigantic donuts, and other fun treats that will be unique to that particular land. I think food is a great way to unlock storytelling at a different level. Sometimes it relates to the specific intellectual property you’re featuring, and sometimes, it just adds depth and texture to the land. Those sweet treats will be really important, but we also need to offer savory choices that are vegetarian. They are going to be quite fun and popular as well, but we’ll have more to say about that later.

Anytime you create a land or an attraction, you’re looking to evoke all the senses for the visitors coming to those unique places. The sensation of smell, sound, what you see, and what you feel — all of those things need to be in harmony to create that magic. And food is a critical part of that.

What types of attractions would you like to see more of and why?

Our industry sometimes gets enamored with coasters and heavy metal rides, but I believe some of the best experiences are dark rides that cater to the whole family. I go back to what the inspiration was for Disneyland, which was one guy with his daughters trying to figure out how they could do things together. At times we get so caught up with the thrill in general that we lose the reason why people actually come to this three-dimensional environment to begin with. It’s the experience you’re having with each other, doing things together.

When I was talking about theme parks of the future, I was thinking about how these storytelling moments have evolved — from the Haunted Mansion’s Pepper’s Ghost effect and the ballroom with the ghosts — to what we would be able to do with a digital sandbox of ideas in the future, that are more holographic and dimensional to give texture. I think our Zootopia has a mix of both those digital moments and also animatronics to create depth and texture. That kind of immersion you can enjoy with your family and friends is critical to what our industry will be like in the future. I subscribe to the fact that when you’re creating a product, you need to create experiences that get family or groups of friends to make the decision to come to your place rather than go somewhere else. It needs to be something that appeals to everybody.

Do you have any interesting theme park pandemic stories?

I would say it was unique and different for everybody, depending on where you were at the time, because each country and government had a different way of approaching everything. I spent a lot of time with the group of executives who lead the 13,000 people we have at Shanghai Disney Resort, making difficult choices. Many of those choices had to do with the health and well-being of our cast first, as well as decisions about whether we could put forward the right kind of experience for our guests. We needed to make tough choices about continuing to operate or closing because we couldn’t equal the experience we were looking for.

The reputation we built during that time period had a lot to do with making decisions that were the right thing to do as opposed to the easy thing to do from a business standpoint. We didn’t want to impact our cast in any way that would be detrimental to our recovery in the future. We also wanted to be able to provide unique moments to the guests, and being able to figure out a way to do that required us to be more innovative than I’ve ever seen us have to be in any of the places that I’ve worked or interacted with. We had to use pretty much every tool in our toolbox. We were the first to close, and we were the first to reopen, which meant there was no blueprint and no game plan for the way to do things. We had to come up with all the ways to create a safe but magical experience while we were going through all that. An example of the changes we had to consider was that we needed to keep a meter between the guests queuing in line, so a typical 30-minute wait might stretch way outside the experience.

As a group, we grew during that time period here locally, and we were able to share those experiences with other parks to give them a head start on the way they should be thinking about how they reopen. We went to school with each other on a routine basis. In terms of memorable moments, I think about the comradery that was formed during that time and the caring for both the guests and the cast, which was unparalleled to anything I’ve seen in any of my time with the company.

Can you talk about what you are working on these days?

We’re working heavily on Zootopia right now, but we are also focused on our summer program. What we do routinely in Shanghai that’s been very popular is to promote characters that have to do with a particular season. Over the last few years, we’ve tried to present new characters that the audience hasn’t seen before. For our summer program, we introduced the Wreck-It Ralph characters, Ralph and Vanellope, and they do a nighttime dance show in Tomorrowland that’s been very popular. We also have Summer Blast — a big water show in front of the Castle — and also a Duffy’s Splashing Pre-Parade, with special food and merchandise.

Each season we change the feel and decor of the park, as well as the foods and scents. So right now, we have palm trees and water effects, and directly following that, we’ll go into Duffy month in September. In October, we’ll celebrate Halloween and then start “Frostival,” our Winter festival. These events are always on a cycle for us to be thinking about 18 – 24 months in advance — what we’re going to do so that we have a new and unique product that is going to be something the guests will want to see and give them the urgency to want to come back.

You are going to your favorite theme park. Which industry people (dead or alive) are you taking with you?

I would love to walk around Disneyland with Walt and Roy, the brothers of Disney. I say that because there was a special chemistry between the two of them that was really important. Roy tended to be the practical guy who secured the financing, and Walt was the visionary. And the struggle between the two of them created something unique. There are very few people that can do both of those well. You need to have a good balance between somebody who is pushing the envelope creatively and somebody who is going to be able to say, this is still a business. That balance gives us an amazing overall product.

I would really value getting that point of view of what Disneyland is today from Walt, who said, “Disneyland will never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world.”  I just think he’d be so proud of some of the things that he would see, but there are other things that he would have a completely different point of view on. I’m sure if you took captains of the industry who are legends in the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) world, for example, and walked them through some of these rides or attractions, they would have a similar story to tell.

There’s a lot to consider when designing a park or attraction. That’s what makes our industry so magical — nobody’s got the perfect formula of what’s right to do. Everybody’s got a different perspective on what that is. We have expertise in every one of those arenas, and if we’re not getting out and learning from each other, we’re not doing the right thing. We have to be humble, stay hungry, and have no pride in ownership regarding good ideas. If there’s a good idea that we could make great if we just made some adjustments, that’s typically what happens.

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Writer Kendall Wolf is a long-time consultant in the themed entertainment industry. She has worked with designers, producers, and fabricators to help developers create unique and successful projects around the world. In 2017, she introduced Merlin Entertainments to a development group in Sichuan province for the first Legoland park in China. Kendall continues to consult for the developer to open more themed resorts in China.