netenyahoo
New Member
Now with a new chief and hopefully some other changes in management Disneyland can be the gem it should be. I love that park and look forward to the great improvements it will be getting in the near future.
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Cynthia Harris Leaving Disneyland Resort
- Thread starter mkt
- Start date
thedisneyfan
Member
I leaving because of my family....yeah right I can still see the boot marks!
By all accounts she is a very nice person, who cared for her employees and the park...But. For her first three years as president of DL she worked directly under Paul Pressler, and Paul was a bad guy, a clothes merchant with no understanding of the magic, (and now the he is at the Gap, they are doing very badly as well). Cynthia was unable to shake off the fact that she worked closely with Pressler, and has been unable to fix all of the things that need fixing. She also orginally came from the clothing and retailing side of the business, it looks like the new guy may understand more about the magic and what it takes to get it back.
That's not 100% accurate. I mean, for the most part it is, except for the "by all accounts she is a very nice person..." part. I'm speaking from personal experience because I used to work for Cynthia when she was with the Disney Stores. I was in the Training Department and our team worked very closely with Cynthia. I'm sorry, but it irks me when people say she was a "nice person". She wasn't at all. For some reason, she was very good at coming across that way though. I can remember that in meetings she would always give you a hug and would seem to have a very warm, sincere smile. But she's the classic back stabber and she would generally make her direct reports be the "bad guys" for her decisions so she could continue coming across as nice. Paul Pressler gets the blame he deserves too, no question about it. But don't kid yourself. Cynthia Harriss was not simply a subordinate of Paul's whose reputation was hurt by her association with him. She did plenty on her own to earn a much worse reputation. When I knew her, I found her to be a strong leader (not a GOOD leader, but a strong one). She was not a follower. Tom Heyman was her boss at the Disney Stores and they had considerably different philosophies. But the direction the stores took under her reign were a clear indication of who was really in charge. So bottom line, she's considerably more responsible for DL's troubles. If Pressler were more responsible, then WDW would be having the same troubles. In reality, she gets considerably more credit than she deserved and people are way more forgiving than they should be. Don't forget, there are people who have lost their lives because of decisions she made. She's probably leaveing Disney so she doesn't have to face the consequences of those decisions.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
That's really not fair of you to say that. WDW (and Disney as a company) experienced the biggest, fastest period of growth in company history. Eisner became CEO in 1984. Give him a couple of years to settle in, and starting in the late 80's, growth has really never slowed down but has been full-speed ahead.
Disney CEO's of after Roy Disney (and before Eisner) almost brought the company into bancrupcy. NO construction or rehabs were down at all at the Magic Kingdom. The company sunk all its money into EPCOT Center, which about ruined the company. During this time period, the studios were producing one disaster after another. The animation department was in shambles, taking five years to make only one film that turned out too dark and gloomy.
Eisner's era turned that around with Hollywood and Touchstone Pictures. Eisner put Roy Disney, Jr. in charge of the Animation Studio, turning out such hits as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King.
At the parks, Eisner approved projects the previous regime rejected, such as Splash Mountain and The Great Movie Ride. There was a time that no famous movie star would be caught dead working for Disney, now they are proud to have Disney contracts.
Before Eisner, corporate raiders were ready to buy "peices" of Disney and sell it off limb for limb. Eisner put a stop to this, and made the company strong again, and into the conglomerate it is today, making moves such as buying out ABC, which would have been unthinkable before Eisner got in there because the company's accounting books were so weak!
MKCustodial
Well-Known Member
Well, as far as I understand after a couple of years wandering around these boards, yes, when Eisner came in, the company got back on its feet. BUT when a couple of his subbordinates and/or associates left, things started going down the drain again, to the point we are today when many hate him. So I don't think he was the one saving the company, but it was rather a group effort and he got the credit for being CEO.
I'm sure Rob, Lee and many others can spell out names and what everyone actually did.
I'm sure Rob, Lee and many others can spell out names and what everyone actually did.
Lokheed
Well-Known Member
December 24th, 1998 - Luan Phi Dawson becomes the first park guest ever to die at Disneyland through absolutely no fault of their own. Although there had been about a half-dozen other guest fatalities since Disneyland opened, in all of those cases the guest had wilfully disregarded safety instrucions. In the case of Mr. Dawson, he was simply standing in line waiting to board the Columbia when a poorly trained cast member tried to tie down the boat while it was still moving. The tiedown cleat was torn from the dock and sent flying into the crowd where it struck Mr. Dawson on the head. He was declared brain dead two days later. Cynthia Harriss had damatically reduced training in an effort to save money. In the past, a cast member with that little training and experience would never have been placed in charge of that attraction.
September 5th, 2003 - Marcelo Torres is fatally injured when the bogey assembley on the rear wheels of the "locomotive" on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad catastrophically malfunctioned, causing the locamotive to separate from the tracks, collide with a tunnel roof, and then come down on the first passenger car of the train. I know two maintenance workers personally who have worked at Disneyland (although they were not working there at the time this accidend occurred), and they both firmly believe that there is no legitimate reason for this assembly to fail. The maintenace program at Disneyland has been cut dramatically in the past decade, once again at the direction of Cynthia Harriss. In the past, any problem with the bogey assembley would have been identified long before it had a chance to fail. Beyond that, that train was allowed to continue running a full thirty minutes after two cast members heard an unusual metal-on-metal rattling sound coming from the locomotive. In the past that train would have been taken out of service immediately. Instead, the train was going to be taken off "after the next run" -- which turned out to be too late for Marcelo Torres.
The blood of both of these guests is on Cynthia Harris' hands, as well as numerous other park guests who have been injured during her tenure. Space Mountain was allowed to deteriorate to the point where it had to be abruptly removed from service during the busy peak season, months before its planned rehab start date. Tomorrowland is a ghost town. Everywhere you look in the park you see peeling paint and other signs of serious neglect. What she has done to that park is a crime.
Ok, I have worked with/for those types as well, and it is tough. You want to believe them, after all they are being nice to you to your face, but they think only of their own self preservation and if that means screwing you, oh well. Inefectual politician. I hope we get our Disneyland back.
As far as the first thing the new guy does, you have to realize the extent of his power. He will not have the authority for large capital expenditures, that power will stay in Burbank. So don't look for him to bring a new E-ticket/3rd gate/west coast cruise line, it will not be his pervue. What he will have authority over is the P&L, and that means that he can increase the staffing levels of the maintenence crews, and ride staff, and he can set the hours the parks are open.
My guess is that he will fix the peeling paint, and there will be a lot more CM's and that in the near term they will be happier, because he will weed out the bad ones and bring in lots of new good ones.
MKCustodial
Well-Known Member
In the end, that's what we truly need at WDW as well. Not a kick-butt, 4 billion dollar E-ticket and a new gate and 4 new resorts. We need them to start taking care again of everything they already have, like they always did; we need to hire CMs who want to be there and who are Disney material. I remember when I was proud to say DIsney would repaint anything that needed painting over night, and that everything was as spotless every morning as it was on opening day, every flower was blooming and every lamp worked. There were no AA glitches visible to Guests, there were no gums and writing on walls. And there were no amusement park operators posing as CMs either.
Am I right, Rob?
Irrawaddy Erik
Well-Known Member
I'll agree with you on that one MK.
same here...
Roddy.. you're dead on. I have a feeling these changes WILL happen... but it may take a few years before they get it going in full swing. I'll ask my friends in IBEW and the Carpenters Union and ask them about membership growth... if membership has been growing higher than usual, it probably means WDW's been hiring in those departments.
imagineer boy
Well-Known Member
Oh, Christmas has come early for Disneyland. I can't wait to see what the new guy has in store for Disneyland. Cythia Harris is finally gone! I have been praying for this for a long time. Disneyland will finally get its magic back. Cynthia Harris's evil reign is finally over.:sohappy:
Abercrombie Kid
New Member
Although Cynthia has not been the most innoative of the history of the Disneyland excutive team, i feel that she did an awesome job carrying out the vaules of Disney. Whenever she was in the parks she had a smile on her face and a genuine optimistic and friendly personality. Under her supervision some truly popular and well done attractions have been created such as "Haunted Mansion Holiday", "Believe", and many more. Also she supervised the resort during a fairly hard time for disney there movie department was not creating hits that had Disney style and the company was hit with 9/11 and other money problems. Maybe more could have been done but the budget could not allow it. During her leadership Disney California Adventure debuted (cough*cough), which actually has a groundbreaking attraction ad many great backdrops as far as themeing (yes, even paradise pier is nice.) On a whole she really did try hard and had many sucesses she demonstrated a Disney personality and was an all around good person.
Kudos to Cynthia for her years at Disneyland
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Kudos to Cynthia for her years at Disneyland
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