Club 33 Woes

[smooch]

Is it really so hard to believe that they'd bend the hair color rule at star tours? They have a character at Galaxy's Edge with blue hair:
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Technically the new rule on tattoos is "Tattoos must be no larger than the Cast Member’s hand when fully extended with the fingers held together." But I saw a lot of tattoos larger than that. Clearly they were only loosely enforcing these guidelines.

Haha I considered making a comment about how a purple hair CM at Star Tours seems like it would be part of a costume of their Star Wars IP Disney has created. And I have not been in the parks since reopening and have not seen specific tattoos that are or aren't covered. I don't really think personally I think a tattoo can't be larger than your hand and be showing as long as it's appropriate. Sure they are loosely following that guideline but that might just be something not as easy to clearly know if it is within guidelines or not. Should higher ups have to go up to anyone with a tattoo and measure it? It's a lot easier to glance at someone and know if their hair is dyed and tell them that isn't within the guidelines than it is to go ensure every person's tattoo is smaller than their specific hand because each person has a different sized hand. If someone has smaller hands can they only have small tattoos? Can people with big hands have big tattoos? It is something that varies from person to person, hair color is either natural or not.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Disney didn't lower their standards. What you think should be a standard just isn't anymore. Their standards for diversity and inclusion are the best in the business.

Diversity ± Visible Tattoos.

I'm ALL for being completely accepting of everyone. If you're trans, non-binary or anything else - wear the costume that you feel most comfortable in. This does not mean you should be allowed to have a giant Megadeath tattoo while working on Main Street USA.

They lumped the much-needed gender/diversity update in with the only-needed-because-they-can't-hire-enough-people-at-what-they-pay tattoo thing because it was a good PR move.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Anyone else not have any tattoos whatsoever?

They’re gross (usually) and are a sign of a failure in critical thinking.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Club 33 still has a long wait list, any members they lose will be quickly replaced, I’m friends with a couple members and they are already making plans for get togethers as soon as it opens. Completely anecdotal but if they are any indication they’ll do booming business when they reopen.

 

[Sailor310]

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You forgot cherubs.

Yes......and pirate cherubs.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I guess I really didn't understand how many people here were that scared of tattoos and/or assumed they were automatically a sign of intellectual inferiority or moral degeneracy, as if the world has never changed since the 1950's.

Who really cares? How much does it honestly affect you as long as the CM is pleasant and competent at their job? It's not as if Disney dropped every single feature of their dress code and you're going to start seeing people whose entire body is one covered in tattoos.

Disney also could have likely chosen to pay its CMs more instead of relaxing their dress code, but heaven forbid one of the richest companies on Earth have to give their employees more money, so.....

At any rate, a happier employee is a better employee. Better employees, better guest experience. Again, if this is such a problem, they probably could have just paid their employees more instead, but oh no, we can't have that. So tattoos it is!

 

[Mouse Trap]

Really? I don't think you are joking there. Are you joking? The two members I spoke with didn't mention that. They either don't know about it, or it's so trivial and meaningless that they don't care.

Their sizable investment into Club 33 for the past decade wasn't for a photo op. Everything they've been paying for is off limits to them currently (the dining room, Salon Nouveau, 1901) , and/or unknown if it will ever return in the future and be worth the same value (Fastpasses, VIP Tours, valet parking, etc).

With the exception of perhaps a trust fund baby or two or those drunkards from Arizona who got kicked out a couple years ago for being losers, Club 33 members are not stupid people. They are largely business owners and successful professionals who know the value of hard work and have brains to back it up. Club 33 just isn't penciling out for many of them now, and the lack of forthright communication from Disney over the last year was insulting and aggravating for them. So they are saying... buh-bye.

Oh I’m not joking. Members are currently limited to a photo op and souvenirs right now. To confirm I took a quick look on social media and some photos have popped up.

Again, no clue if billing has resumed, but I would hope not if this is what Club 33 has been reduced to for the time being.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Wonder how this compares to, say, season tickets or suite holders for the Lakers, Dodgers or LA NFL teams.

 

[cmwade77]

I guess I really didn't understand how many people here were that scared of tattoos and/or assumed they were automatically a sign of intellectual inferiority or moral degeneracy, as if the world has never changed since the 1950's.

Who really cares? How much does it honestly affect you as long as the CM is pleasant and competent at their job? It's not as if Disney dropped every single feature of their dress code and you're going to start seeing people whose entire body is one covered in tattoos.

Disney also could have likely chosen to pay its CMs more instead of relaxing their dress code, but heaven forbid one of the richest companies on Earth have to give their employees more money, so.....

At any rate, a happier employee is a better employee. Better employees, better guest experience. Again, if this is such a problem, they probably could have just paid their employees more instead, but oh no, we can't have that. So tattoos it is!

Given the number of CMs, paying more adds up fast and might make the parks unprofitable, especially under current circumstances. So, it may simply not be an option at all.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Given the number of CMs, paying more adds up fast and might make the parks unprofitable, especially under current circumstances. So, it may simply not be an option at all.

Again, they're one of the richest companies in the world. If they can't give their front-line CMs more money than that's pretty sad and embarrassing.

They're not making the amount of money they were making pre-pandemic, of course, but to my understanding they were still profitable, as a company, in general even so.

I have seen nothing to convince me it's any lack of ability on their part to increase salaries and compensation. People on this forum who know have long claimed that the company has the resources to pay better and they simply choose not to.

 

[Stevek]

Haha I considered making a comment about how a purple hair CM at Star Tours seems like it would be part of a costume of their Star Wars IP Disney has created. And I have not been in the parks since reopening and have not seen specific tattoos that are or aren't covered. I don't really think personally I think a tattoo can't be larger than your hand and be showing as long as it's appropriate. Sure they are loosely following that guideline but that might just be something not as easy to clearly know if it is within guidelines or not. Should higher ups have to go up to anyone with a tattoo and measure it? It's a lot easier to glance at someone and know if their hair is dyed and tell them that isn't within the guidelines than it is to go ensure every person's tattoo is smaller than their specific hand because each person has a different sized hand. If someone has smaller hands can they only have small tattoos? Can people with big hands have big tattoos? It is something that varies from person to person, hair color is either natural or not.

At my work, we could wear shorts but they had to be within a certain number of inches from the top of the knee...no short shorts. Our office manager would walk around with a ruler and measure. I don't expect Disney to do this, at some point folks just have to follow the guidelines and if for some reason you see someone that is pushing it too often, then check.

 

[cmwade77]

Again, they're one of the richest companies in the world. If they can't give their front-line CMs more money than that's pretty sad and embarrassing.

They're not making the amount of money they were making pre-pandemic, of course, but to my understanding they were still profitable, as a company, in general even so.

I have seen nothing to convince me it's any lack of ability on their part to increase salaries and compensation. People on this forum who know have long claimed that the company has the resources to pay better and they simply choose not to.

If you stop to do the math, you will find that this simply isn't true, they can't afford to increase all CMs pay without increasing prices. Also keep in mind every division like Disneyland, Disney World, cruise line, etc. Are essentially their own company and have to operate on the money they generate. It isn't like it all gets put into one gigantic pool of money to draw from.

 

[networkpro]

Anyone else not have any tattoos whatsoever?

I qualify, I even retired from the Army.

 

[Tamandua]

Amazing how some people think that a successful company can just spend as much as they want. Let's say you have 30,000 cast members working an average on 20 hours a week. Increase their wages $1 and it costs $600,000 a week extra. Los Angeles County recently tried to force grocery stores to pay their employees an extra $5 an hour "hero pay" and a bunch of stores just closed down because it was enough to put them out of business. "Just pay more" or "Just pay for it" is never a good argument.

 

[Tamandua]

That’s a pretty weak analogy. You ignore the economy of scale that a company of Disney’s success is blessed with. Disney has billions of dollars of cash in its bank account. Whatever grocery store you’re referring too likely did not. It’s moot to compare a publicly traded multi-billion-dollar conglomerate to a small business.

How does this ignore economy of scale? Obviously the bigger your company/business, the more employees you have. The more employees you have, the more you have to pay when you raise wages. DLR had around 30,000 cast members when they shut down. You can see how raises on that scale would have a huge impact on the bottom line, even for Disney. Having "billions of dollars of cash in its bank account" (Disney is actually at about net $40 billion in debt from the most recent numbers I've seen, so the very opposite of what you claim) doesn't matter. If you run at a deficit, you'll be broke sooner or later.

 

[PiratesMansion]

If you stop to do the math, you will find that this simply isn't true, they can't afford to increase all CMs pay without increasing prices. Also keep in mind every division like Disneyland, Disney World, cruise line, etc. Are essentially their own company and have to operate on the money they generate. It isn't like it all gets put into one gigantic pool of money to draw from.

Have you done the math? I won't believe it unless I see the receipts.

They have the highest prices they've ever had. More ways of generating revenue than they've ever had. Sure, right now they're not where they'd like to be, welcome to 2021, but Disney will rebound much easier than many other businesses. And wages have stagnated in this country for decades. That is a fact.

If they REALLY are having trouble finding the money, which I doubt, Chapek certainly doesn't need a reported $14.2 million salary, and he's undoubtedly not the only executive making that much money. They can certainly find it there if they REALLY can't find it anywhere else.

But again, one of the richest companies in the world can't afford to pay their employees more? To me it doesn't hold up to any scrutiny. Not to mention the implications for your average American worker while companies rake in billions and billions and give as little of it back as possible to the employees who helped make those profits possible.

It's just amazing to me how spending money on products is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT ALWAYS and spending money on workers always prompts a weeping, scandalized "help us, we're poor!" reaction.

 

[Tamandua]

Do they still teach economics in school?

 

[networkpro]

That’s a pretty weak analogy. You ignore the economy of scale that a company of Disney’s success is blessed with. Disney has billions of dollars of cash in its bank account. Whatever grocery store you’re referring too likely did not. It’s moot to compare a publicly traded multi-billion-dollar conglomerate to a small business.

I wouldn't call Kroger a small business. They shut down stores in cities that made the demand. Exited that market entirely.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Kroger is no small business. I mostly buy all my household products from them!

 

[Bullseye1967]

I qualify, I even retired from the Army.

Ditto and did my time in the Army also