Disneyland's management destroys a happy fantasy

My two daughters, aged 11 and 14, who have been Disney fans since they were at kindergarten, were distraught on reading recent stories in the South China Morning Post about Hong Kong Disneyland's pay disputes with its costume workers.

Mickey, Minnie and Donald Duck are their idols. The night before we took them to Disneyland, they couldn't sleep, staying up until late talking to their Disney toys about visiting them the next day at their new home. To them, Disneyland is a place of happy fantasy. You can imagine how disturbed they were to learn that the characters they have long adored are, in fact, underpaid and overworked people choking in their costumes.

Shame on you, Disney, for creating such fantasy in the hearts and minds of innocent youngsters, and then allowing publicly paraded pay disputes to demolish their dreams.

JILLIAN HO DELVIS, Pokfulam

I am no expert in theme-park management but I have been running a successful retail and catering business in Hong Kong for the past eight years. I have also been to a lot of theme parks, including Hong Kong Disneyland, and have witnessed its fall from talk of the town to 'clown jewel of HK', as a letter writer aptly described it (letters, May 14). So here are my suggestions to Disneyland on how to get out of its hole:

1)Your prices are unfriendly and out of touch with reality. Reduce them to $220 for adults, $130 for children and $90 for seniors, irrespective of the day of the week. I know of no other business in Hong Kong that charges different prices on weekends.

2)Launch another Salute to Hong Kong Residents programme - not to thank us, this time, but to apologise for the shame you've brought to your hosts. Following your offer of free tickets to taxi drivers (which I hear has not been well received), immediately extend a similar offer to the aged, handicapped, orphaned and underprivileged. You need all the goodwill you can generate.