New MiceAge 'Article', 6-28

[WorldEpcot]

A typical Al Lutz article:

"The carpeting, the scaffolding - it all looks, well, inexpensive."
Sure, like Disney wants to spend millions on a one day premiere?

"possibly due to online word getting out about the park being such a mess"
Exactly! Can't believe how bad it was! By the way, were you there?

"For a company that touts all the synergy it has between its divisions, it sure dropped the ball on this project."
No, dropping the ball would not having a premiere at all...

"Note the inexpensive fabric covering the rails."
*cough, cough* spoiled *cough, cough*

"all plainly visible to riders today"
Only if you we're looking for it...

"Costuming apparently can't get their act together to replace them."
Maybe they just didn't want them anymore, or maybe *gasp*, just maybe- Budget cuts?

----Now, from the totally scripted letter:

"Blocked off, big ugly bleacher was sitting there, guide ropes going up everywhere. We had to backtrack through Frontierland over to Adventureland behind New Orleans Square to get over to the other side of the park."
Oh my God! Walking your butt around the park really takes a toll!

"Splash Mountain is one of my favorite rides, but I wound up riding it just once, mainly due to the fact that it was such a pain in the hindquarters just to go over there."
Be grateful you got to ride it...

"So here’s the thing. This has got to be one of the more, sorry but I’ve got to say it, dumb*** ideas someone has ever come up with."
Oh shut up, your just mad because you didn't have someone feeding on your every hand and foot.

"And all those people who paid good money to come to Disneyland get their vacations made just that much more difficult for a movie premier which they have no chance of getting in to see."
Do regular people really ever see a premiere? And- they could have rescheduled.

"I know from reading your website that there was a battle between the movie and the parks division, and we know who won this one."
Yep! The battle that never happened...

"p.s. Tomorrowland is a ghost town. How sad for what used to be the central happening place in Disneyland. They should take it off the Disneyland map. It’s actually sad to walk back in there."
Then don't walk back there-

Yeah, Mr. Lutz, was this before or after the martians came to examine your mind- no, head?

[Sydney]

Hey worldepcot! make sure you read the comments about the article posted in this thread too (discussion of the article starts about half way down the first page)-- you'll find most of us agree with you 100%.

[Less Than Jake]

WOW, Miss Epcot.... I have never seen such fire in you before.....

[Mickeyman187]

This is getting so annoying. Wow, for like one day they have to be inconvinienced. Tough. People annoy me and especially the Disney nerds who only got to ride Splash Mountain once because it was packed. Like they can't come back. And since when should Disney nerds care about the guests they hate (sicne the normal huiman being doesn't know how many hidden mickys there are in DLR or own a bagillion pins)
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Ugghhh...they annoy me more than the mindless tourists who go to DLR.

[dsnywrkr]

I would just like to state that as a Security CM and working the west side of DL today, we had absolutly no problems. There were no irate guests to speak of, as a matter of fact everyone was completely understanding. On the matter of going cheap..... I wonder if lutz knows how much Disney really spent on this premier... I guarantee it was more than he has made in his life!

anyway, I could write a book on how he is wrong with just this one event, so as to not bore any of you, I will stop. Hope you all have a great weekend!

[WallyBoag]

Its good to see that I'm not the only who thinks that the authors at MiceAge have just gone completely nutzo. Someone should write a positive review of the day's event and e-mail it to him, just to see if he puts it up on his website.

[covnut]

Yeah right WallyBoag, he will just write his own review pretending to be someone else.

[getbak]

Here are my thoughts on the situation...

I'm assuming that most of these letters are written by "locals" - people who live within a couple hours drive of the parks, and they are likely AP's as well. I doubt that your average tourist family is rushing back to their hotel to send Al Lutz an email about their day's experiences.

These are people who chose this Saturday of all days to go to the Park, despite knowing exactly what was going on.

They can go to Disneyland anytime they want...they could have gone last weekend and not have seen a trace of the Pirates outside of their little piece(s of eight) of NOS, they can go next weekend and there will be nothing left of the screen or the bleachers (although, I think it would be fun if they kept them up for one night's performances of Fantasmic). Instead, they chose to visit on the one weekend that is being impacted by the premiere - I assume with the express purpose of finding every flaw and complaining about every bit of "bad show".


I don't think there's anything wrong with being an observant guest. If Al's eagle eyes (and camera) can bring attention to places that are being neglected so they can be dealt with so that I won't notice a deterioration of the park when I make my once-a-decade visit, I welcome his vigilance.

On the other hand, I can't imagine how people can possibly enjoy their lives if they spend their days at Disneyland only looking for the negatives. If this is how they act at "the Happiest Place on Earth", I wouldn't want to be their child who brings home a report card with an "A-" on it - the poor kid would probably get paraded down the street wearing a Dunce cap.


In my mind, there is a big difference between pointing out that the Tiki Room is in disrepair and attending the park on the day of a special event and complaining that the special event made things different.

I went to California Adventure during the "Festival Latina" thing last year - maybe I should have sent Al a letter complaining about all the "Mexican" things in what is supposed to be a "California" park. Come to think of it, aren't most of the Soap Operas taped in New York? What were all the soap stars doing in DCA a few weeks ago? I guess it's just more proof that the California theme is dead.



Anyway, I've lost my point...which is that these people went out of their way to visit the park on the day of the Premiere, and then are complaining that the Premiere was being held on that day (or possibly they're complaining that it was being held at all).

The only people who really have a reason to complain are the tourists who are on their once in a lifetime trip to Disneyland. Let's put ourselves into these people's shoes...

Let's say you're a working class family (mom, dad, 2 kids) from Idaho. You've been planning your trip for a year and the time has finally arrived. You fly to California and the first sight you see as the plane descends into LAX is the HOLLYWOOD sign poking above the clouds (that was my first sight on my trip last year - what an amazing start to a vacation).

After you find your way out of the airport, you barely survive the shuttle ride from the airport to your hotel on Harbor, check in and decide to walk over to Disneyland. As you enter the park, you're handed a special button promoting the PotC World Premiere tonight. It turns out that parts of the park are going to be closing early because the movie premiere is happening right on the Rivers of America.

At this point, do you run to City Hall and demand your money back? Probably not, you're probably excited and wondering if you'll be able to see any movie stars. You make your way to the west side of the park and go on a couple of rides. You notice the big bleachers and movie screen that are set up and marvel at the spledor of it all.

As the premiere approaches, you make your way to Main Street and wait to see the celebrities arriving. You recognize Johnny Depp and who you think is Natalie Portman. Your teenage daughter swoons over Orlando Bloom. After the celebrities make there way into Frontierland, you decided to go over and catch the electrical parade at DCA.

On your way out, you buy some postcards so you can tell everyone back home about your first day in "Hollywood". You hear that, by the end of the week, the bleachers will all be taken down, and there's a great show called Fantasmic that take place on the river. Now, you'd better get some sleep because tomorrow you're going to Universal Studios - I bet you'll see a lot of movie stars there.

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After all that, what I wanted to say is - if you picked any hotel in the Disneyland area and knocked on random doors and asked the people inside what they thought of Disney's handling of the PotC premiere on Saturday, I wonder how many would be happy and how many would be mad about it?

I'd bet that you'd get more people wondering why you're knocking on their hotel door than you'd get people who were really upset by it.

[WorldEpcot]

Hey worldepcot! make sure you read the comments about the article posted in this thread too (discussion of the article starts about half way down the first page)-- you'll find most of us agree with you 100%.

I read it, and I like how SOMEONE is positive about this whole thing...

[DLRFanatic]

I went to California Adventure during the "Festival Latina" thing last year - maybe I should have sent Al a letter complaining about all the "Mexican" things in what is supposed to be a "California" park.

Umm.....California used to BE part of Mexico! And there are plenty of Mexicans (including myself) who reside in California. I don't see how the "Festival Latina" didn't fit in to the California theme.