Passholder Lounge Alert!!!!!! Everyone In Here!

[Geordi]

Babe: They said it _HAD_ to close? Was there any emphasis on the "had"? I would wonder about WDW's motives on this one... A few people getting some extra cola couldn't be the reason, the profits on syrup/seltzer mixing fountains (like ANYWHERE you get a drink in a cup rather than a bottle) are insane, over 98% pure profit. With an establishment WDW's size, I'm sure they have an even higher profit margin, maybe 99.xx% pure profit. The cost of a 5 gallon box (yea it's a bag-in-a-box) of syrup is like $20 or so, but I'm sure WDW pays a LOT less. That one 5 gallon box is good for over 100 GALLONS of cola, maybe more. (I heard the info from a Coke guy when I worked at McDonalds about 8 years ago, memory fuzzy)

Anyway, a soda fountain like that is _cheap_ to operate, so there has to be another reason.

--Jim

 

[Geordi]

Ghost: Lance's post said he asked at the Garden Grille desk, not upstairs at the lounge. The GG Desk people would not know the proper info, b/c the people who are supposed to get in to the lounge would have gotten the knowledge from the Mickey Monitor, mailed to passholders (annual or seasonal)

I have the Seasonal pass. Can't afford the annual.

--Jim

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hey Geordi, The word HAD might have some significance here. I heard a while ago and I dont recall fom where, that this was originally the Nestle Corporate Lounge and that this was only a temporary thing. That if Nestle ever wanted it back....they would close the passholder lounge Maybe that is it?? Let's keep digging though!! Belle

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hey Geordi and all of the rest here, I got bad news for everyone I just got postcard from Disney Passholder section. There was a line about BOTH Passholder lounges being closed as of September 30th, 2002. I guess we have been foiled!!! Oh well as WDWBabe said, we did try!!! Belle

 

[jrashadb]

Hey, I'll be in Epcot this Sunday. I'll try to get some answers too. I really love the passholder lounges. Closing them just doesn;t seem to make any sense to me. But, the pne theoy about Nestlee wanting their corporate lounge back sounds like it might have a lot of merit.
Wouldn't it be cool if Epcot forced all teh corporate sponsors to give up their lounge for a certain period of time very year, so the location of the lounge would change throughout the year? That way, we could see all the lounges. I would love that.

 

[aim]

Originally posted by wannabeBelle
Hey Geordi, The word HAD might have some significance here. I heard a while ago and I dont recall fom where, that this was originally the Nestle Corporate Lounge and that this was only a temporary thing. That if Nestle ever wanted it back....they would close the passholder lounge Maybe that is it?? Let's keep digging though!! Belle

Yes, the lounge there was the Nestle Corporate Lounge. The lady working there the first time we visited told us that. (wasn't A Bug's Life sponsored by Nestle? If so, that explains the posters!) I was really sad to hear the guy say that the lounge was going to close. And he made sure I realized that it had to. And that it had already been kept open longer than it should've been. My only guess is that Nestle wants it back! But, let's hope they're wrong, and they will end up keeping it open!

 

[Lance]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Passholder Lounge Alert!!!!!! Everyone In Here!

Originally posted by GrinningGhost



How inconsistant of them - my wife has a the same $189 pass as you. We've been to the lounge at least 4 or 5 times, and they always check her pass each time.

Perhaps it was somebody new at the desk that day. By reading what she said, I guess she didn't know for sure whether to let you in or not.

:veryconfu

Thanks for responding, yeah I think every CM looks down at us seasonal's cause we didn't excavate the extra $100 to get the AP.

When I went back, I asked a different CM at the Garden Grille booth, she directed me to the elevator, told me the secret......

Another question, is it true I don't get free parking, cause I went to the AK one day and the CM, told me Florida Seasonal's don't get free parking........I'm hoping it was just another CM being an AHOLE to me, so is it true, no free parking???

 

[Geordi]

Sorry, no free parking on the Seasonal... unless you are heading to the Contemporary for "breakfast" that just-so-happens to be near the monorail...




Man I'm a cheap . :lol:

--Jim

 

[Lance]

Originally posted by Geordi
Sorry, no free parking on the Seasonal... unless you are heading to the Contemporary for "breakfast" that just-so-happens to be near the monorail...




Man I'm a cheap . :lol:

--Jim

I don't think so, not as bad as me, I'm not cheap, I'm just not gonna pay $6 every time I go, THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!

I've been about 15 times since I got it on Aug 31, never once have I parked in any of the Parks Lots.

And I'm not gonna tell you where I park, cause all the UPPER CLASS/DVC folk in here will toast me, but I imagine you can guess where I do park... plus I get a lot of exercise, running and walking to and from the parks to where I park, so it's not that bad, if I ever get lazy again, I might give in to get the free parking with an AP...

 

[Sean23]

Originally posted by Lance


I don't think so, not as bad as me, I'm not cheap, I'm just not gonna pay $6 every time I go, THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!

I've been about 15 times since I got it on Aug 31, never once have I parked in any of the Parks Lots.

The parking is $7 now. I would get a seasonel if it included free parking but I go all the time and would lose a lot of money if I had to pay $7 everytime I went.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hey guys I spoke to WDW today on other stuff, but I checked on the passholders lounges. Word is they are closing both the lounges in AK and EPCOT. I find that kinda odd as they just opened the lounge in AK in May. Can anyone confirm this?? Belle

 

[Geordi]

Looks like I'm going to Orlando on Monday, hopefully I will have time to stop into Epcot after I am finished with my mission.

Will let everyone know.

--Jim

 

[Bagheera]

According to an online article in the Orlando Sentinel, they're both closing Monday.

D*mn, and I was looking forward to checking them out, now that we're getting APs! Lousy timing there....

 

[ACE]

I don't know about anyone else but I got a phone call from WDW last night about my email on this subject.

They gave me the old, thanks for your interest and we're always interested in what our guest think, but... they're still closing the lounges. Like we didn't know that already.

Anyway just thought I'ld let you know that WDW is "concerned" about us.:lol:

:wave: ACE

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hey all I got the same phone call as ACellis did. I think we lost this one everyone. not that I was particularly into the lounge in AK but the one in EPCOT was pretty awesome. Belle

 

[ACE]

Originally posted by wannabeBelle
Hey all I got the same phone call as ACellis did. I think we lost this one everyone. not that I was particularly into the lounge in AK but the one in EPCOT was pretty awesome. Belle

Just call me ACE.

:wave: ACE

 

[wannabeBelle]

No Problem!! Will do Ace!!! Belle

 

[Geordi]

By chance, was the person you spke with named Lynn? B/C I had a nice long chat with her today on the phone, and she was very nice, informative where she could be... And re-confirmed the closings.

Bummer.

One other thing she confirmed closed: River Country. Closed permanently as of Sept 2001, due to lack of traffic or some such nonsense. Methinks the "lack of" was lack of excess revenue. They only charged a portion of the excess that is charged at TL and BB, it was a fair rate for a water park.

Considering the cost of food / drinks in BB and TL, the entry should be $20 per person, not $30+.

But we need to remember, Eisner needs to be able to justify his excessive salary while the rank-and-file get less than a living wage. I wouldn't gripe about the prices if the CMs were getting a fair rate for the effort they put out.

Assuming that Eisner gets $250mil / year (I think it's higher, can anyone confirm?) and the rank-and-file are getting about $7.25/hr... That means for a 40hr week, 50 weeks per year, they are making $14,500 each year.

Eisner is making 17,241 times that amount, in the same period, for nowhere near the amount of effort. This needs to stop, somehow.

It was bad in the 80's when the CEO was making 40 times what the rank-and-file's average was... Now the average is 400 times the rank-and-file's salary, and then there is Eisner. Do we see a problem here?

--Jim

 

[Geordi]

Closing Confirmed.

It would seem that Nestle' is the reason the lounge closed, they wanted their space back. Totally understandable, it was theirs to begin with.

UPDATE!!! The ever-so-helpful CMs at Gest Relations in Epcot said that WDW IS LOOKING for another location!!!! THIS IS NOT GONE FOREVER!

We will just have to keep an eye out. I suggested Odyssey to the CM, but she said that Odyssey has it's own uses. (Yea, as a rentable convention center. Like WDW doesn't have enough of those!)

Beyond that, we will just have to wait. On an unrelated note, I was there at 7:30-8:30 last night, and walked right on to Test Track. Only waited 5 minutes for the video!

If you want to go, go on a weeknight!

--Jim

 

[BigAL]

?

What I can't understand is a coupe of weeks ago I got a post card for the Food and Wine Festival. On this card it reminded you to visit the lounge during the festival. I guess someone is not communicating this to the right people. I would be interested to here what their response on that is.