A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

Mike S

Well-Known Member
I usually don't post in the Spirited threads but I wanted to join the discussion about WDW NT. Look, I realize that many of his posts are clickbait, but i'm gonna be honest. I read the site. I read quite a few Disney sites as a matter of fact. WDWMAGIC is by far my favorite, but I have never understood the hate for the other site(s). I'm not necessarily defending the other site, but it does offer some valuable information once in a while. Although he can be somewhat childish, I do think Tom Corless means well, and he seems like a nice guy. I don't respect when he blocks WDWMAGIC members on his Twitter though. That is ridiculous. Just my 2 cents.
They steal info from here and pass it off as theirs.

They also incorrectly blew up news that Joe Rhode left WDI when he didn't. They didn't even acknowledge they were wrong after that.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Just to be clear, yet again, I stand by what was posted yesterday.

There is no good excuse for people conducting themselves in the way in which many did. This wasn't about one person, no matter how large his ego and how delusional he is about being a Disney reporter or journalist or what have you. His behavior over the years is totally indefensible and the idea that Disney toyed with giving him credibility shows how low their standards have fallen (basically, you can have done anything, say anything, act anyway and so long as you tow the company line and influence people then Dr. Blondie and Co say you're in!)

I know this is where I am supposed to say how great it is that WDW is reopening tomorrow and things will be back to 'normal' but for many Floridians normal is a very long way away. For some, normal will never return.

No, that doesn't mean people should stop visiting WDW or having fun. WDW is the largest economic generator for the state (why their wage inequality is so important because they set the standards for what companies in FL can get away with ... I can say that ... right? Not too political. I didn't mention Trump. Didn't hurt any snowflake rightwinger's feelings.) And fun and a return to normalcy is needed for people. The thing is, for many, this was a whole lot more than a 48-hour inconvenience at a resort.
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RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
I usually don't post in the Spirited threads but I wanted to join the discussion about WDW NT. Look, I realize that many of his posts are clickbait, but i'm gonna be honest. I read the site. I read quite a few Disney sites as a matter of fact. WDWMAGIC is by far my favorite, but I have never understood the hate for the other site(s). I'm not necessarily defending the other site, but it does offer some valuable information once in a while. Although he can be somewhat childish, I do think Tom Corless means well, and he seems like a nice guy. I don't respect when he blocks WDWMAGIC members on his Twitter though. That is ridiculous. Just my 2 cents.
Tom proved to have good sources leading up to the D23 Expo, but he extrapolates. He gets part of the story confirmed and guesses at the rest of the story without differentiating between what is confirmed and what isn't. That's not a journalist.

Beyond that, Clickbait Corless is an appropriate name. I think/hope that the recent public shaming of that in the last year has led him to be a bit better with his headlines. He also doesn't take criticism well. When he gets something wrong (which he has on many occasions) he won't stand by it or engage those that interact with them. It's a childlike approach that reinforces the fact that he's not a journalist.

He was also heavily involved in Theme Park Connection which did some really scummy things.

The approach that I take with him is that if he has news or info I will absolutely properly source it. But if he posts something incorrect he needs to be called out for it. I do the same thing with the well respected people here like Martin or Spirit (although admittedly I'm usually disagreeing with opinions with them).
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Points for the Dune reference. Lol!

Dune is one of my favorite series of books. As to the movies David Lynch's version mangles the story but captured the feel. The miniseries was true to story but the feel was all wrong.

Anyhow I liked them both for different reasons.

As to Dune references. Wall St is almost frightening in its resemblance to CHOAM...
 

bclane

Well-Known Member
Dune is one of my favorite series of books. As to the movies David Lynch's version mangles the story but captured the feel. The miniseries was true to story but the feel was all wrong.

Anyhow I liked them both for different reasons.

As to Dune references. Wall St is almost frightening in its resemblance to CHOAM...
Agreed. The original books were amazing and I read them all several times when I was a teenager. However trying to turn 10s of thousands of years of dense sci-fi history into a single movie was a stupid idea and then to mix up all that history and change it as much as they did was a crime. The mini series was better but yah, wrong feel. Denis Villeneuve Is apparently taking a shot at putting the series on film and I think he has at least a shot of doing it right for once. We'll see. I'm hopeful. I still think Universal should by the theme park rides and finally give me the chance to consume some spice and ride on the back of a giant worm. Cheeewhooooo!!!
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
View attachment 228800 View attachment 228801 View attachment 228802 I found a Disney park that wasn't affected by the hurricane. Ratatouille was cute but Crush's Coaster is much better. We got the wrong ride from WDSP. Hyperspace Mountain is a sad attempt at a partial overlay that in no way fits the steampunk exterior. The stop at the end banged my head pretty bad. Headed to Thunder after lunch.
I think I have precisely the opposite opinion on all of these issues!

I really like Crush's Coaster, but the capacity is horrible which means the wait is almost always longer than I'm willing to endure. At WDW you'd have to build three of them side-by-side for it to work!

Ratatouille will fit perfectly into the France Pavilion. I was just there a few weeks ago watching Impressions de France and thinking about what a nice feel the pavilion will have with those two attractions which both have a kind of gentleness to them which suits the country.

As for Hyperspace Mountain, I absolutely loved it when I was there in June! It does indeed clash with the theming of the exterior of the ride, but the on-ride experience was fantastic for me and I think they did a great job in using screens, music, and lighting to maximum effect. I was expecting a lame overlay but was very pleasantly surprised. The ride itself is always rough, but then my most recent comparison is WDW's Space Mountain recently which was both rough and totally underwhelming.

Enjoy DLRP!
 

FigmentJedi

Well-Known Member
Dune is one of my favorite series of books. As to the movies David Lynch's version mangles the story but captured the feel. The miniseries was true to story but the feel was all wrong.

Anyhow I liked them both for different reasons.

As to Dune references. Wall St is almost frightening in its resemblance to CHOAM...
Yeah, a miniseries where a single matte painting with a big sandbox in front of it represents a vast desert was a terrible first impression for me of that franchise when I watched the mini a few months back.
 
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AEfx

Well-Known Member
...but I have never understood the hate for the other site(s).

It's because just about everything noteworthy either appears here first, or if somehow it is sourced somewhere else, is analyzed, debunked, and/or clarified here and then regurgitated by the rest of the Disney-sphere. And it's rarely credited.

I too used to visit other Disney sites, but eventually learned this truth and now I simply don't because there really is no need.

The "hate" comes from watching all of these people, at one time or another, completely rip off content of this site and then profiting on it one way or another, be that directly with videos which they then monetize, to curry "press" access at Disney, or otherwise.

That said, the vitriol spewed over them is a bit laughable sometimes - I simply don't pay any attention to these people, and in order to continually criticize them, I'd have to pay attention to them in the first place. They aren't worth my time. So I'm surprised some here spend so much time following them and reading them in order to come up with new things to criticize.

This is the only serious WDW site there is - which is why you will even find places like Saturday Night Live and Real Time with Bill Maher having segments that were clearly lifted from here by their respective writing staffs. The only other site in the same league is MiceChat/Al Lutz, which is the Disneyland counterpart.
 

Mike S

Well-Known Member
This is the only serious WDW site there is - which is why you will even find places like Saturday Night Live and Real Time with Bill Maher having segments that were clearly lifted from here by their respective writing staffs. The only other site in the same league is MiceChat/Al Lutz, which is the Disneyland counterpart.
Examples? That's pretty cool.
 

rreading

Well-Known Member
Since I'm likely now going to be out of power for quite a while, I've decided to make my final post till then to reiterate what I said in the Irma thread earlier in the week. The same thing happened to me when I worked at Universal during Charley. What was supposed to be a partial shift so we could prep my unit for the storm ended up being a full shift because morons actually showed up to have fun for the day and expected to be fed our full menu. When we finally closed and got the unit secured, I was making a quick exit through the park yet there was a family literally running to get on Spiderman before the park closed.

Here I was desperately trying to get home to my pregnant wife yet here was a family desperately trying to indulge themselves as if their entertainment was the most important thing. To this day, I think of that family (and everyone that came into the park that day) with the utmost contempt.

Really? Now I don't know the circumstance of Charley, but we were there for the Matthew hurricane last October (from Texas, and with my 11 and 7yo and my parents).

I had been watching the NOAA tracker for the hurricane, and it looked like Matthew was going to be a bunch of bluster but not much substance; we were taking our family vacation and intended to enjoy what was available. MK was open until 4-5PM - even running the FOF parade - and pretty vacant, despite the weather being mildly gusty though pretty rainy. My parents went back to the room early, but as the parks were going to be closed the next day and we were going to be cloistered in the hotel for the next 36h, we were going to ride the rides and enjoy the dearth of crowds. I agree that were I individually keeping someone from safely arriving home, I would have felt bad; but that wasn't my decision nor my responsibility so I bore no guilt. They offered the boat back to the GF, so we took that ride as well. I would have understood had it been closed but - again - not my decision, and it was nice to appreciate they boat captain's skill in the wind.

As it happened, the Disney magic was in full force over that stay, and we loved that trip. We were very appreciative of the multiple CMs who made our stay enjoyable (and told them so) and on arriving home wrote to corporate with names of many of the CMs who had been so great.

I suspect that your experience was colored by your desire to get home and your worry about your family, and is certainly understandable. Those who were visible at the resort showed no concern about needing to get home, and the impression presented was that they were going to be well attended to by Disney. And after a certain time ~6PM?, Disney was on lockdown, so those CMs weren't allowed to leave - out of concern of their safety. I've been on working in the hospitals during hurricanes and understand how this kind of thing goes: it's all about perspective, and doing what is needed in the situation.
 
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TiggerDad

Well-Known Member
I think I have precisely the opposite opinion on all of these issues!

I really like Crush's Coaster, but the capacity is horrible which means the wait is almost always longer than I'm willing to endure. At WDW you'd have to build three of them side-by-side for it to work!

Ratatouille will fit perfectly into the France Pavilion. I was just there a few weeks ago watching Impressions de France and thinking about what a nice feel the pavilion will have with those two attractions which both have a kind of gentleness to them which suits the country.

As for Hyperspace Mountain, I absolutely loved it when I was there in June! It does indeed clash with the theming of the exterior of the ride, but the on-ride experience was fantastic for me and I think they did a great job in using screens, music, and lighting to maximum effect. I was expecting a lame overlay but was very pleasantly surprised. The ride itself is always rough, but then my most recent comparison is WDW's Space Mountain recently which was both rough and totally underwhelming.

Enjoy DLRP!
Fair points. Line for Crush was much worse. If that is caused by capacity it wouldn't work well in Florida. I do agree Rat is a better fit for Epcot thematically too. Just didn't like the ride as much. My kids loved Hyperspace and rode 4 times. Don't think the wait got above 20 min. It really slammed my head back at the end both times I rode, which colored my perception.
Thunder was amazing, down most of the day and 50-90 minutes when up so we only managed it once. But worth the wait. The ride goes under the river to an island where the mountain is, then after several lifts returns back under for unload. Pirates was also down much of the day. The dragon under the castle was very cool. My biggest complaint was crowd control or lack thereof. The Illuminations evening show looked great, at least what little I could see of it. Everyone was sitting, then stood up just as it began, so now no kids could see, so they either tried to push to the front or got parents to put them on shoulders, thus blocking everyone else's view. I saw no cast members helping clear the crowd after.
All in all, well worth the trip to Paris, and you should go if you possibly can.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Beyond that, Clickbait Corless is an appropriate name. I think/hope that the recent public shaming of that in the last year has led him to be a bit better with his headlines. He also doesn't take criticism well. When he gets something wrong (which he has on many occasions) he won't stand by it or engage those that interact with them. It's a childlike approach that reinforces the fact that he's not a journalist.

I made the mistake of attempting to listen to one of his podcasts, but had to stop because of how much of an ego stroke it was for him. He's accepting the moniker "Clickbait Corless" as a badge of honor that his dumb haters use to show how cool he is because he's always right anyway and people who use the insult are the real losers.

I was only 'meh' about him until I listened to the podcast. Now, there's great dislike.
 

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I don't have much time here. Spent much of the day cleaning up from Irma (yeah, we really had a disaster in FL, even if you're reading this while gorging on cheap candy at the MK now!) and have more mosquito bites than most fanbois have worthless pieces of Disney crap.

I saw @lentesta had started a thread and I posted the following there and will put it here in case people aren't reading both:

>>>
lentesta said:
Word on the street is that layoffs in the thousands will be announced for Parks & Resorts in the next few weeks.


That's because the word is accurate. I touched upon Disney's disaster of a summer (overall, not just WDW ... although its summer was quite 'disappointing' according to someone who would know) in my thread this week.

Disney/Iger need to show they are being proactive ahead of the next earnings release and the start of the 2018 fiscal year.

P&R has had issues, mostly domestic as SDL (as I witnessed first hand) is doing great business for a new resort and DLP has shown improved numbers with the 25th Anniversary.

But WDW has just been abysmal. All the upcharges and prices increases and cost cutting mixed in with the desperation discounting has failed to yield the results, Iger, Chappie and Co. had demanded.

And, despite the BS you'll read on Micechat (you almost wonder if their column is being written from inside Cynthia's old office!), DLR has not been able to make up for that. Their Summer of Heros promotion was an utter disaster and despite what Chappie will crow, turning ToT into a GotG monstrosity hasn't moved the needle much, just like Pandora in the swamps.

You add this all together and ... you get lots of cuts to low and mid level management under the guise of cutting fat and duplication and all sorts of corporate buzzwords.

I was actually thinking about you the other day, Len (no, not in the way I think about @derekburgan but ...) as I was thinking about your recent experience at the All Star Music. A friend is planning an October visit and during what should be a week where rooms are scarce (except for a few moderates and the always available SS and OKW) and ALL the values except AoA are available and many at discounts. This is for a week in mid-October. What has become a peak season for WDW. It sure as hell isn't shaping up to be that.

And I wonder how many people working this week during Irma are going to be told they no longer have jobs headed into the holidays not because Disney is a failing business, not because Disney is doing poorly, but simply because the profits are never enough for Wall Street and Iger only cares what they think.>>>
 

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In other Disney news, no further proof is needed that Disney/Lucasfilm has no direction whatsoever for the future of the SW universe and the films and tales they will tell than by hiring JJ Abrams to helm and direct the Episode IX.

They have no clue. And this was a desperation hire and is being viewed that way by people in Burbank.

But ... people are loving the Spidey Homecoming Dance film in China and ... oh, yeah, that is still a Sony Pics joint.
 

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

Very, very sad news. Even though he was very old, he was vibrant and part of the fan community until the end. And he contributed so, so much. I have been privileged to meet many great ones, some that are no longer with us, but I never met him personally ... I think he was at a few events I was at, though.

Like any great, though, he will live on in the work he left behind.
 

IanDLBZF

Well-Known Member
Very, very sad news. Even though he was very old, he was vibrant and part of the fan community until the end. And he contributed so, so much. I have been privileged to meet many great ones, some that are no longer with us, but I never met him personally ... I think he was at a few events I was at, though.

Like any great, though, he will live on in the work he left behind.
Very sad to hear this, especially since it happened on the day after Irma blew through FL.
 

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