A Touch of Disney begins March 18, 2021

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I still find it crazy how many people donate money to bloggers just for shoutout or for a picture of something. I heard a blogger thanking people for $100, $50 just for turning their camera over towards the Ferris wheel or for telling them how something tasted.
These people are giving online adult entertainers a run for their money. LOL

That's terrifying to think about. Do they really do that? And people pay them?

A few days ago I joked about them with a reference to rentboys (or call girls, or whatever your preference or vocabulary calls it), but I had no idea how accurate it was. :oops:

I'm not saying all of them are like that, but there's just a smarminess to that whole scene that is inherently... distasteful.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna guess - sitting at home furloughed and wondering how to pay the rent.

It's been a craptacular year for a lot of employees. And again, just me, I'm cutting them slack while they figure out how to function in a whole new way under random and constantly changing rules with 1/10th or whatever of their former staff.

No, I know. My heart goes out to the furloughed middle management ranks who have mortgages and bills and kids falling hopelessly behind as they don't learn a thing on their worthless Zoom school.

But when I poke fun at "TDA", I generally mean the senior executives. Who are mostly just lower-middle executives in the pecking order of the entire Walt Disney Company. (I mean, heck, those theme park execs still have to wear plastic nametags at work like a parking lot attendant or a snack bar employee! How degrading! Or so the thinking goes in Burbank's more stylish ranks)

Those executives and their senior managers were for the most part not furloughed. They stayed on the job, overseeing an abandoned and empty theme park and hotel complex for the past 13 months.

And then, after a year, they finally tried to do a little food festival experience, and they pretty much failed at it. But Knott's and Sea World pulled the same type thing off just fine, and never had normally compliant and flattering bloggers upset at them.

That's got to tell you something. And it makes me even more concerned about Disneyland's relaunch on April 30th. :oops:

I get the complaints on the macro level, but I'm looking at the micro level and I know they're all just dancing as fast as they can to keep up as best they can with what they've got to work with.

I am right there with you commiserating with the front-line management, and certainly the front-line CM's, at events like this.

My criticism and snark is directed entirely at the executive levels in TDA who were never furloughed and were disconnected enough from their core product that they thought they could pull off a downsized food festival experience and had the gall, or perhaps just naivete', to charge people $75 for $25 worth of food.

With free frustration and un-organization thrown in for that $75 price. :rolleyes:
 
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MarvelCharacterNerd

Well-Known Member
No, I know. My heart goes out to the furloughed middle management ranks who have mortgages and bills and kids falling hopelessly behind as they don't learn a thing on their worthless Zoom school.

But when I poke fun at "TDA", I generally mean the senior executives. Who are mostly just lower-middle executives in the pecking order of the entire Walt Disney Company. (I mean, heck, those theme park execs still have to wear plastic nametags at work like a parking lot attendant or a snack bar employee! How degrading! Or so the thinking goes in Burbank's more stylish ranks)

Those executives and their senior managers were for the most part not furloughed. They stayed on the job, overseeing an abandoned and empty theme park and hotel complex for the past 13 months.

And then, after a year, they finally tried to do a little food festival experience, and they pretty much failed at it. But Knott's and Sea World pulled the same type thing off just fine, and never had normally compliant and flattering bloggers upset at them.

That's got to tell you something. And it makes me even more concerned about Disneyland's relaunch on April 30th. :oops:



I am right there with you commiserating with the front-line management, and certainly the front-line CM's, at events like this.

My criticism and snark is directed entirely at the executive levels in TDA who were never furloughed and were disconnected enough from their core product that they thought they could pull off a downsized food festival experience and had the gall, or perhaps just naivete', to charge people $75 for $25 worth of food.

With free frustration and un-organization thrown in for that $75 price. :rolleyes:
Honestly, I fully anticipate the park reopening to be a massive clus... I mean... a not ideal situation. ;) It is what it is and it too shall pass.

But frankly, the primary people I care about are the CM's - from the frustrated cashiers still trying to smile as the 'Legacy AP' is irritated they're not applying their discount correctly to the Dockers-clad, stick-carrying leads trying to handle the complaints after the AP has demanded to see someone above the cashier. Because I appreciate them so much for the magic they've made for me and for everyone for so many years and I will grant them a surplus of magic and kindness and sympathy they have earned from me in return. These are the people dealing with a totally unprecedented situation while working for a global bureaucracy just slightly less complicated than the US government. lol

It's easy to be disdainful of those higher-up, especially when they may seem out of touch with the reality of the parks we know and love. But I'd rather spend my time worried about people who deserve my concern and appreciation for what they do than focused on people who may not. And again, it's easy to assume they are up in their glass towers looking down upon the poor huddled masses. But I'm going to take a wild guess that some of them, probably a lot of them, are human beings trying to deal with a pandemic just as much as the rest of us, even if they have more resources than I will ever see or experience in my life. EVERYONE ultimately has a P&L to make work - whatever your level is - whether that's figuring out how to keep food on the table or justifying reopening a food festival at a park that has been closed for a year.

So while your cynicism, snark and frustration may be well aimed - I will continue to balance it with my best attempts at patience, compassion and understanding at what everyone everywhere is going through these days. Even in TDA. :)
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Honestly, I fully anticipate the park reopening to be a massive clus... I mean... a not ideal situation. ;) It is what it is and it too shall pass.

But frankly, the primary people I care about are the CM's - from the frustrated cashiers still trying to smile as the 'Legacy AP' is irritated they're not applying their discount correctly to the Dockers-clad, stick-carrying leads trying to handle the complaints after the AP has demanded to see someone above the cashier. Because I appreciate them so much for the magic they've made for me and for everyone for so many years and I will grant them a surplus of magic and kindness and sympathy they have earned from me in return. These are the people dealing with a totally unprecedented situation while working for a global bureaucracy just slightly less complicated than the US government. lol

It's easy to be disdainful of those higher-up, especially when they may seem out of touch with the reality of the parks we know and love. But I'd rather spend my time worried about people who deserve my concern and appreciation for what they do than focused on people who may not. And again, it's easy to assume they are up in their glass towers looking down upon the poor huddled masses. But I'm going to take a wild guess that some of them, probably a lot of them, are human beings trying to deal with a pandemic just as much as the rest of us, even if they have more resources than I will ever see or experience in my life. EVERYONE ultimately has a P&L to make work - whatever your level is - whether that's figuring out how to keep food on the table or justifying reopening a food festival at a park that has been closed for a year.

So while your cynicism, snark and frustration may be well aimed - I will continue to balance it with my best attempts at patience, compassion and understanding at what everyone everywhere is going through these days. Even in TDA. :)

You are right. Everyone is just trying to make it work and fix this giant mess of the last year.

I just get frustrated when a company with basically unlimited resources like Disneyland does stuff that bombs right out of the gate like A Touch of Disney. I really will be praying for the CM's on April 30th though! My gut tells me they'll need it.

You and I could have a good Vegas stage act together; with my snark and your graciousness, we'd be like Sonny and Cher.

I get to be the Cher. :cool:
 
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CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
Honestly, I fully anticipate the park reopening to be a massive clus... I mean... a not ideal situation. ;) It is what it is and it too shall pass.

But frankly, the primary people I care about are the CM's - from the frustrated cashiers still trying to smile as the 'Legacy AP' is irritated they're not applying their discount correctly to the Dockers-clad, stick-carrying leads trying to handle the complaints after the AP has demanded to see someone above the cashier. Because I appreciate them so much for the magic they've made for me and for everyone for so many years and I will grant them a surplus of magic and kindness and sympathy they have earned from me in return. These are the people dealing with a totally unprecedented situation while working for a global bureaucracy just slightly less complicated than the US government. lol

It's easy to be disdainful of those higher-up, especially when they may seem out of touch with the reality of the parks we know and love. But I'd rather spend my time worried about people who deserve my concern and appreciation for what they do than focused on people who may not. And again, it's easy to assume they are up in their glass towers looking down upon the poor huddled masses. But I'm going to take a wild guess that some of them, probably a lot of them, are human beings trying to deal with a pandemic just as much as the rest of us, even if they have more resources than I will ever see or experience in my life. EVERYONE ultimately has a P&L to make work - whatever your level is - whether that's figuring out how to keep food on the table or justifying reopening a food festival at a park that has been closed for a year.

So while your cynicism, snark and frustration may be well aimed - I will continue to balance it with my best attempts at patience, compassion and understanding at what everyone everywhere is going through these days. Even in TDA. :)
Having worked at a themepark before. It's the people in management that are screwing over the workers. The reason CMs are stressed and overworked is because the executives cut staff or poorly plan events.

Now CMs at Touch of Disney for example have to deal with guests that waited 75 minutes to park and 1 to 2 hours for food items, all with a mobile app that doesn't work.

Meanwhile, they aren't even the ones who made these decisions and are stuck in this predicament. TDA fully has the knowledge, money, and resources to properly staff and plan for an event like this, but someone decided to slash the budget so they look good when it comes time for their next performance appraisal/promotion.

If people don't point out these flaws and complain to the company or publicly/ online, the company will continue this practice as it saves them money on their budget.
 

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