Disney Offering Business Lessons

Walt Disney Co.-style lessons in group dynamics and business strategies are now being offered to organizations booked into the Disneyland Pacific Hotel and the Disneyland Hotel.

Disney bills its Experiential Activities and Recreation programs, or EARS, as a winning addition to business meetings, training programs and social events. The programs include sushi making, wine dinners, speeches on guest service, and six-hour group adventures on Tom Sawyer Island aimed at motivating employees and creating emotional bonds among boards of directors.

Disney itself has used something like the latter program in training its own managers. Insiders tell stories of odd doings out on the island in the dead of night, with shouts and laughter echoing across the deserted Rivers of America and Frontierland.

Also new at Disneyland: daily all-you-can-eat breakfasts with Disney characters in the Plaza Inn Restaurant, (adults, $16.99; kids 4-12, $9.99), and “E-ticket Friday nights” on Oct. 22 and Nov. 5, when 5,000 Disney hotel guests and annual pass holders will pay $12 each for the privilege of staying three hours past the 10 p.m. closing to ride major attractions with no crowds.