Bob Weis, former president of Disney Imagineering, talks Shanghai’s Pirates and why theme parks matter | Attractions Expert Q & A

Bob Weis spent nearly four decades designing parks, resorts, and cruise ships around the world for The Walt Disney Company. He was president of the company’s famed Walt Disney Imagineering unit for six years. He also had his own consulting business, Design Island, and served as design consultant to the Smithsonian, Disney, DreamWorks, Sony, Fox, and the United States Navy.

Currently Bob is an author and speaker, having recently published “Dream Chasing” about his personal experiences and “Ghost Dog,” his tribute to the Haunted Mansion. He is also an academic industry advisor to the Savannah College of Art and Design.

---

---

---

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

I have a lot of stuff from Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, when it first opened. I don’t collect really big things, but I have lots of little tchotchkes. I have a series of plaster characters that are about three inches tall that I acquired at a flea market in Japan. And it turns out they are plaster figurines of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy that are from back in the 1930s. And how they got Tokyo in the 1980s, I don’t know, but I bought the whole set of them. 

They’re antiques and have “Walt Disney Productions” stamped on the bottom. They’re made out of plaster and then hand painted. Somehow, they got there back in the 1930s, so I asked the collector that I bought them from how he got them, but he didn’t have any idea. 

I also have a Haunted Mansion tombstone that came out several years ago during Halloween. It’s pretty big, like two by three and a half feet. It’s modeled after the tombstones outside the Haunted Mansion. It says, “Here lies good old Fred, a great big rock fell on his head,” (a tribute to Disney Legend Fred Joerger). I have lots of books and maps and things like that, and this is probably one of the few things that I have that’s quite large. But I don’t get it out until Halloween. 

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

I’ve been to every Disney park, certainly, and I’m pretty current to the last round of stuff that we did when I was president of Imagineering. But I have not been to Universal Studios Japan, and I want to go. I’d love to see that. And I haven’t been to Epic Universe. 

There’s always something new out there that I haven’t seen. Universal Studios Japan has been around for a while, but I’ve just never gotten over there. So those two are very high on my list. This this fall, during IAAPA, I’ll probably go to Epic. 

Early theme park memories and aspirations

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

I think I was most inspired to be in the industry when I was going to architecture school at Cal Poly in Pomona, and I got a summer job at Disneyland. I didn’t know anything about Imagineering then because Imagineering was very secretive. Nobody knew about Imagineering. But later when I graduated, Imagineering was recruiting. And it turned out that all those years that I spent in my youth really loving Disneyland paid off because I knew a lot about the park.

I grew up in Southern California and I went to Disneyland a lot with my family. I saw the evolution of the park over my generation of time. I remember going on It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion for the first time. I couldn’t tell you the exact date, but I could tell you it was during the first years they were open. I also went to Walt Disney World in 1972 with my family. Aside from being a designer and a professional in the business, I have always been a lifelong fan of Disneyland.

The first job I had at Disneyland was serving the public with ice cream and popcorn on Main Street. When I was hired, I thought I was going to run Pirates of the Caribbean or some entertainment — I had very arrogant ideas about all the skills I had that they were going to take advantage of — even though I was only a junior in college. And then they said, “You’re gonna sell ice cream and popcorn.” And I was like, “Is that it? That’s my job?” 

But it was a great job because I got to be in Disneyland all day and it was really fun. And as I think about it in retrospect, I was in charge of guests’ happiness for that day. Your job was not about you. It was about making somebody else happy. That day at Disneyland could be something the family had been saving up to do, or sometimes I saw people who look like they had a child who had been ill for a long time, and maybe they went to Disneyland to get away from everything. 

And you were there really to create that experience for them. I think I always took that seriously, and I think most of the people I met always took that seriously. That doesn’t mean you don’t get to work in a bad mood or tired, but you become pretty energized by the guests. It’s really all about their experience, and that in itself is a great thing. You take pride in it. You’re the ambassador to happiness — that’s the job. And so, I really did love it. I’d like to go back. I told Disney Publishing, who put my book out, that sometime I’d like to go back and stand at an ice cream wagon all day and sign books in the park.

What was your favorite ride/attraction as a child?

As a child, and as an adult, it’s the Haunted Mansion — the original at Disneyland. I just have never seen anything better than that, including any projects I’ve ever worked on. The ride is timeless and there are lots of different variations, like the holiday version — and I like them all — but my absolute favorite attraction truly is the original one that Marc Davis, Paul Frees, and all the other guys put together, along with Leota Toombs. It’s just a wonderful creative vision and I love it.

It still enchants me every time I ride it. I even wrote a book about it. I thought I would never do anything that great, so I ended up writing a children’s book during COVID called “Ghost Dog,” which takes place at the Haunted Mansion. And that was my way of personally celebrating it. 

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

No, I don’t think so. I’m more frightened now than I ever was as a kid. Even after years of designing rides, including thrill rides, I’m now kind of scared of anything fast-moving. I’ll go on roller coasters to try them and experience them, but they’re not necessarily my choice anymore. They’ve gotten faster. 

The ones I don’t particularly like are super spindly, very tall outside steel coasters. There’s just nothing fun about those for me. It’s hard to believe they could even be held up right — they’re just on this little rail, way up like ten stories in the air. That scares me!

For some reason I avoid them now unless I have to. There are rides I’ve tried like Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, California Screamin’, Tower of Terror, and Tron — rides that I worked on, and I can go on anytime. And while I completely respect that people love them, they are not for me. But I do enjoy the wooden roller coasters — the very tall and rickety wooden coasters that pretty much throw your neck and back out. I do like those. But the pure steel roller coaster is just too perfect for me.

Career capstones, from Shanghai’s Pirates to the U.S. Navy

What was the oddest or coolest job you’ve had in your career?

If you put it in a Disney context, the coolest job in my career was being able to create a whole new park in Shanghai: to be able to think through all the aspects of a Disneyland for the future and what makes a classic and what you could do to improve on it. After having worked in the parks starting as a college student, that was a great experience for me. 

Also being able to do the things we did, like redesigning Pirates of the Caribbean for Shanghai. And like what I said about the Haunted Mansion, I feel the same way about most Disney rides — they represent a time and a creative genius — and you’ve got to be careful and not just willy nilly redo them, because there’s something about hem that works really well. But we decided it was time to redo Pirates because it was for the Chinese audience, and they were not aware of Disneyland. 

The Chinese audience was familiar with the movies that they had seen in theaters. So we felt that Pirates should try to represent the visual splendor and characters of those films. We redesigned it and I feel really good about what we accomplished. In fact, I just rode it a month ago in Shanghai and I feel like it still holds together really well. 

I enjoyed the opportunity to revisit classics, but also do something completely new like Tron, which we did in Shanghai. So in terms of a Disney career, I guess I’ve had the coolest job ever just to be able to create parks and attractions and work in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. It’s incredible and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do all that. 

Another inspiring job for me was when I spent quite a few years working with NASA at the Kennedy Space center. I wasn’t going into space or sending anybody to space; I was working on the visitor experience. But I got to go to so many launches and meet so many astronauts and climb into the space shuttle when it was on the ground. While at my consulting company, Design Island, Tim Steinouer and I were able develop the exhibit for the Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center, which is its permanent home now that the program has been retired. 

I had the opportunity to interview Eileen Collins, the amazing woman flyer and astronaut, the first woman to be captain of a space shuttle mission and the first shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. These were just incredibly heroic, remarkable people. So that was a great non-Disney experience. 

And then I was hired by the United States Navy. I was very lucky to be selected to work on a project to build a training simulator for the Navy at Great Lakes Training Base in Illinois. It’s basically a huge soundstage with a giant ship inside of it. 

They put Navy recruits in there in the middle of the night, and they would play out a disaster with floods and fires, and the recruits have to fight it back all night. And then the next morning if they were successful, they graduate. It’s the last thing — it’s like their final exam. But the Navy wanted it to be very realistic. They wanted real fire and real water, so they sought out people from the entertainment business to help create it. 

I was the lead designer when we first started working with the Navy to figure out how to build something that looked and felt just like a ship and could come to life with a missile hit and then have various compartments that would flood and fires that would break out. And these recruits would have to prove that they could work together to overcome this disaster. 

And I thought the Navy was going to be challenging and bureaucratic, but they were amazing. They were great entrepreneurial thinkers, super smart people with great vision. And so they were a great client. They use Navy history the same way we use storytelling in the parks, telling stories about naval battles to train recruits how they should react. 

Later on, I ran into a guy on a plane, and we happened to talk for a minute. He said he was in the Navy, so I asked him if he went through the Great Lakes Battle Stations Project. He said yes, that every Navy recruit goes through it anywhere in the world.

So if you meet somebody in the Navy, they’ve gone through it, and it’s probably saved hundreds of lives. I think that’s a great way to see your skills reused in a different way and know they have application for another purpose.

The reason for theme parks

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

I think what people need to experience is a moment of community when everybody’s out together. And I’m thinking of anything from fireworks to “World of Color” to World Showcase Lagoon and so many different places.

It could be in a public park near where they live and there’s fireworks, music, and a sense of common purpose. There’s this kind of common feeling that we are all together on this planet Earth. And I think that’s one of the big, powerful things about theme parks, what those in entertainment call the kiss good night—the last show of the evening, the big spectacular. But it’s also very pervasive with lots of holidays celebrated in different ways in different countries.

It is a unifier and people feel like they’re all living the same life on Earth. I think that’s really important, the unification. And in a world that’s more and more divided all the time, these are experiences that I think people love because it is a unifying moment. So it’s not a ride, but I think it’s a great experience for everyone.

I would also say from a purely Disney point of view, from my background, I think it would be a great thing for people to go on the cruise ships. I think the cruise ships are a really magical part of the Disney experience — just to be able to live Disney with your family for a few days is really a great adventure. I always highly recommend it because I think it’s just a more intimate relationship with the characters, with the stories. You have a lot of time up close with characters, like you do in the parks, but on the cruise ship, even more. You may be watching a show, and the characters are up on-stage dancing with guests. You’re all on a ship together and it’s big, but not as big as a theme park. And there are people on board from all over the world. The cast is amazing. Your hosts are from every corner of the planet. It’s quite inspiring, and people have a lot of fun together. It’s really a special part of the Disney experience.

I also think do D23. I think D23 is really special too. People who go to D23 really get a great connection to Disney, the Imagineers, the parks, the films, Pixar, animation, Marvel. There are just so many things in publishing, consumer products, and artists. There’s a lot at D23, and it’s kind of staggering to see how much goes into creating Disney. Anybody who has a chance to go to D23, I think it’s a great thing to do. 

Dreaming about the parks

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

I’ll say my favorite food, which is my choice snack at Disneyland: a hot dog from a vendor on the way out. You’re walking down Main Street, the night is almost over, and you squeeze your way into the corner and grab a hot dog before you exit.

I love that. I love Dodger dogs for the same reason. It’s not because they’re great hot dogs, but because they’re just part of the place. It’s a placemaking thing. And you can have lots of different takes on the same food — a hot dog with chilies or hot peppers or cheeses — maybe a brie hot dog. You can sit on a bench for a while, and just watch people come out. A nice moment at the end of the day. 

You’re a walk-around character for a day – who do you choose?

I was a character for the day, and I would be the same one again, which is Tigger. We had a management meeting, and at the end of this weeklong workshop, they actually took us out and we got to play a character in the park. And I didn’t really think about it ahead of time, but people said, “Oh my God, you got Tigger.” And I was like, “Okay great, I got Tigger.” But I remember once they had me in that costume, I became Tigger. I truly became Tigger. I was looking in the mirror and I started moving in what at least I thought Tigger should move like. 

I began running around the hub and they told us that we would be going out for about 20 minutes and then they would bring us back in. And they said there were lots of kids around so to watch where we stepped. But by then I had taken off. And I remember hearing in the background, way in the background somewhere, “Oh, Tigger, it’s to time to come back.” But I had already left the real world and gone into the Tigger world, the Hundred Acre Wood. And I loved it. I have a theater background as well as an architecture background, so it was pretty easy to get me to dress up in a costume and play a character. 

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

I love to see great storytelling, regardless. I like shows that are exciting, that have some real action to them. We did a stunt show based on Pirates of the Caribbean for Shanghai, which has wonderful actors and thrilling moments, but also has a great, touching story. I like that kind of show in rides. I love storytelling and rides — my kind of ride is epic storytelling, and with some thrill elements, but not where it’s just about thrill. I like the storytelling first, with the thrill in it. 

I like what everyone now calls immersive, experiences that people can somehow get involved with, using their phones or interactivity or something. And I think we’ll see more of that, but I also think from a parent’s point of view, this is the ultimate family time, being in the park.

I think people often will say that what they really want their kids to do, and what the kids will say they want their parents to do, is put their phones away while they’re at Disneyland and enjoy that together time, which we all lack enough of these days. So I think there’s a balance has to be struck between experiences that you can control, versus experiences that you just want everybody to be together in. 

I was just in London, and we visited several museums. I know a lot of people love audio tours in museums. But for someone like me who has designed a lot of museum exhibits, I’m not a huge fan of audio tours. And the reason is because you’re in this incredible room at the V&A Museum or the British Museum and there are lots of people around you and these incredible artifacts, and you become isolated in your own world, wearing an earpiece that’s scrolling through specific parts of it. I know it really works for some people, but I love to hear music in exhibits. I love to see the art, hear the music, look at the lighting and listen to the other people. 

So I prefer to be in an environment with a lot of people and sometimes, you’re not even on a tour, but you could just follow them along and hear what the tour guide is saying. And I think it’s all part of the experience. I prefer that if you go to all the trouble to create a place, I love the idea that everybody is together for that day or that hour.

Canceled Disney theme parks

Was there any challenge or surprise in your career?

I think it’s all surprises. It’s all these kinds of twists and turns, and maybe that’s okay. You think you’re going to do one thing and then you end up doing something else. 

We all thought were going to build Disney’s America in Virginia. The project was going well, and we were starting to work with the government. But we ended up not doing it and though I don’t regret not doing it, it was a sharp turn. At one point we thought we might do a project in Sydney, Australia, which I was really excited about, but we decided not to do that. And then some things just transform. We were going to add Disney’s Hollywood Studios next to Tokyo Disneyland, and it got canceled. We were all downtrodden after working on it for a couple years, but the end result was that it became Tokyo DisneySea, so you just never know where it’s going to lead you, and what you’re going to learn from it. And I think the fun of it actually, is really not knowing. 

I think my colleagues who work at Universal or Tivoli or anywhere else have all had that experience where you think you’re working in one direction, then you find out there’s a different angle that’s better, and being open to that kind of unexpected move is really important to everybody. You get very focused, and these projects take a long time. Once you decide to do something, it could take a couple years or even seven years, depending on what it is. Especially in the early stages, you don’t quite know what you’re going to do, and it can be quite unpredictable. If you can keep yourself open, that’s the fun of it.

Often the story shifts, or the way we’re going to do it shifts, and that goes all the way back to Walt Disney. Walt was originally planning for Haunted Mansion to be more of a museum kind of attraction. The Hall of Presidents was going to be like a wax museum. And then they became much more immersive. So, even with Walt, things changed a lot as the technology became available, and he changed his mind. 

The future and Walt’s legacy

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

I can talk about what I’m working on now because although I’ve retired from Imagineering, I haven’t actually retired by any stretch of the imagination. I’m writing full time. And I just published my book, “Dream Chasing.“

I discovered writing is something I really love, and I never really wrote before. And now I’m working on a big book also by Disney Editions, based on Marty Sklar, who was at Imagineering for 50 years. He left behind a storehouse of more than a thousand boxes of stuff from his history. And so we’ve spent the last three years scanning and documenting all of that, and I’m writing a book about the whole collection which has been great. That’s been going on for several years and is starting to take form.

I also wrote “Ghost Dog,” which is a small novel about the Haunted Mansion, which came out last year too. And I have a couple more books in line with Disney. So I’ve just really enjoyed writing.

And then I advise the Savannah College of Art and Design on their academic programs in theme design. They’ve got a new Bachelor of Fine Arts coming out this fall that I’m going to be helping with, and I love that a lot too. And then I do a little bit of consulting, but mostly on projects that I find really interesting or compelling, but that don’t require me to go somewhere and work full time anymore. I’m really prioritized on my writing now. I love giving advice and traveling around and doing things, but I also like the quiet life of being a writer. I’ve chosen a kind of a second career and it’s been great. 

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

Of course for me it would be Walt Disney. If I had the chance to walk around Disneyland, or any park, with Walt Disney, that would certainly be great. 

I think it would be amazing to hear whatever he said about how he put things together. And certainly what he might have to say about what we’ve done since he was there. You might even get some criticism about it. But I think generally speaking, the thing about Walt Disney was that he never let paint dry around him — he was constantly moving forward and so he never expected the parks to become museums — and said that himself many times. I think it would be great to have a conversation with Walt about the creation of Disneyland, where it’s gone, and what he would be still thinking about. 

Working with Disney, I’ve been very lucky to be able to travel around the world. My first job at Imagineering was in Tokyo, so I’ve always had a very international view of Disney as opposed to staying in the U.S. When you’re trying to build something that’s big and complicated, you have to have people to make it a reality, and in the case of Tokyo or Paris or Shanghai, you have to have a lot of people, a lot of talented people, and you can’t just bring everybody from Glendale. 

So I got used to the idea that theme parks are unique businesses with diverse talents, and they are global collaborations. As a result, you can get as much excitement from an audience in Tokyo as you can from an audience in Anaheim or even more so. And Disney, Universal, Lego, and so many other companies have managed to be successful all over the world, with many languages, and very different audiences. That’s what I think is the magic of it, that we are this kind of unified world of entertainment.

Unlike a movie, which is made at Pixar, or in Hollywood, or France or someplace, and goes around the world, maybe dubbed and slightly changed, but for the most part, it plays everywhere exactly the way the filmmaker intended. Our work becomes completely different, whether it’s in Tokyo or Hong Kong or Paris. And that’s what’s exciting — it’s constantly changing; it’s constantly evolving. 

Also, what’s fun is the crazy diversity of people’s talents, from artists to engineers and architects — just the amazing creativity in this business — such a wide variety of people and such dedication. Every time you do a project, you find yourself with a whole new crop of friends who you can call up anytime and say, “Hey, can you answer this question?” So that’s been great. I did try to capture that in my own way in “Dream Chasing,” the fact that nothing really happens unless you can get a lot of people behind it and get them all to work together. And that’s what’s exciting. 

---

---

---

More Attractions Magazine stories:

Follow us:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• Bluesky
• X
• Facebook
• TikTok

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.

Whether you’re ready for your next Disney Destinations vacation or your first, our trusted partner Mouse Fan Travel will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation-planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable Disney vacations. Visit Mouse Fan Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.