Spirited News and Observations and Opinions ...

[dhall]

• Has anyone at Disney actually mentioned being able to find lost kids with the MagicBands?

You buried an interesting question in there -- thought I'd highlight it a bit. I don't believe that anyone from Disney has mentioned anything along these lines, but it has been speculated upon by many.

 

[rael ramone]

We're not supposed to be silly anymore, we're just encouraged to behave ourselves, spend plenty of money on merchandise and willing participate in the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging (thanks Mr. Gabriel!) Shame, really.

...i see no sign of free will, so I'll guess i'll have to pay....

 

[rael ramone]

In answering this I'm going to try to not get into politics (just where it could affect the Mouse):

First off, I don't suspect that Markey is going to embrace the program, for the simple reason that he asked important questions, and Iger didn't answer them. Markey may not pursue (due to campaining), or his efforts to pursue in the House might get shot down by the majority party. But for him to publicly embrace it gives the appearance that he was bought. Something that his challengers (or a PAC) would certainly bring up.

As far as the election, it looks like Brown is going to run. That means this race will get national attention (only senate race in the country), and it won't be a layup. Lots of PAC money spent on both sides. And all this attention will bring up, yes, Markey/COPPA vs. Disney. Money will be spent to see that it is.

As far as bracelets go, logic suggests that (at least for the business convention guests) there will have lanyards for them. They have no problem wearing them at Coronado (once when I was there it was a 85/15 convention/family mix). And IIRC, I've even seen people at F&W wearing lanyards (and they definitely weren't CM's). There is a *very large* convention complex up I-4 that is convieniently located to other attractions.

update: brown isn't running.... whether this is good (may keep markey campaign out of the national news) or bad (may give markey more time to drag Iger up to the Hill) or doesn't make a difference either way remains to be seen.

 

[Californian Elitist]

What a loss and what a shame.

I'm all for Baxter going to work for Universal Hollywood. He'd make a great asset to the team and I bet he'd actually be appreciated there.

 

[Lee]

This is my thinking behind the part-time advisor role Tony supposedly now holds. Being offered a specific number of consulting hours in exchange for a non-compete would make sense.

Likely the case. I don't think they want him running around as a free agent.

(BTW...nice avatar. Silver Dollar Lane, eh?)

 

[ParentsOf4]

update: brown isn't running.... whether this is good (may keep markey campaign out of the national news) or bad (may give markey more time to drag Iger up to the Hill) or doesn't make a difference either way remains to be seen.

With Scott Brown out of the race, that pretty much assures the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat will go to a Democrat. Right now it's just Rep. Markey and Rep. Lynch.

As a staunch Liberal, Markey has received nearly all Democratic endorsements so far. Lynch would have been positioning himself as a moderate in a better position to defeat Brown. With Brown out of the race, Markey's chances of winning the seat just got a lot better.

Pretty soon, Disney may have to be dealing with Senator Markey, not Rep. Markey. With the Democrats controlling the Senate, Disney better start kissing and making up with Markey.

P.S. To me, it also suggests not to expect anything dramatic until after the special election in June. If Markey's unhappy with Iger's letter, he'll be in a much better position to deal with it once he's in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/tim-burton-frankenweenie-_n_2600700.html
Interesting bit here about killed projects, something Tony Baxter and co. know too well.

Speaking of the fickle nature of moviemaking, someone has started a Kickstarter campaign for a documentary about "Superman Lives." Have you head about that?
Somebody told me about that. It might be more interesting than the movie, that's for sure.

That movie has become this fascinating lost film. Do you regret not being able to make it?
I've had a couple of projects that I was working on for quite a long time -- a year or more -- that were canceled. I have to say, it's quite painful and it's quite emotionally scaring. I don't think you ever quite get over it. At the same time, you don't really regret it. You kind of go, "Well, I guess there's a reason this didn't get made." I don't really go back and say, "Oh, I wish I made that movie." It was definitely painful. It takes a while to get over those things, for sure. It remains with you at some level. You try to keep a more optimistic reason. Like there's some unknown force of the universe out there.

 

[Goofyernmost]

And people get angry when it's suggested that the NextGen tech will be used by pedophiles...

It's just that one thing doesn't have anything to do with the other does it? This guy wasn't molesting kids in the park, they found child on his computer. Just because he owns a computer doesn't mean that he can work his way into a system that even on the surface seems pretty complex. We get angry because it is a false, unworkable scenario designed only to "scare" people into thinking that it is essentially evil. Not all of us were born yesterday, nor are we as naive as people seem to think.

 

[Virtual Toad]

...i see no sign of free will, so I'll guess i'll have to pay....

+1 Rael! Well done.

 

[Goofyernmost]

As a CM at WDW I am very interested in this answer as well. I have time to wait for it too. My working at WDW is for very personal reasons, and where the company is going (while at times is fun re:SW/Marvel) is very nerve racking. I guess I'm looking for that glimmer of hope that Tony was holding out for. Is it out there?

'74 at some point in his career, perhaps even somewhere in this thread, stated that things were going to get worse before they get better. I'd say there is hope, just difficult to see it right now.

 

[Rasvar]

There was no official launch when Nick Franklin was trotted out for the public. While Disney has an internal schedule for this boondoggle, nothing is really set in stone. And Nick wasn't originally supposed to be in O-Town for that media (what do you call it? briefing? circus? fashion show?) 'event'.

As best as I can tell they are still trying to plow through with that internal schedule too. Not sure the executives understand this thing has not really been stress tested. When they open this thing, it will be far worse than the server crunch when they opened up New Fantasyland AP previews or the opening of BOG ADR's.

 

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

(BTW...nice avatar. Silver Dollar Lane, eh?)

Yup. CPHS tour in 2005. Truly amazing house.

 

[Rasvar]

Sadly, that is what it was. There's some information that I just can't put out, but ... how do I put this?

Tony isn't one to just give up. He has Disney in his blood (the same BS that will be trotted out for George's return to the swamps). From talking to him over the years, I've gotten the idea that he was going to stick around until there was no hope.

Even after he was 'blamed' for Euro Disney (I sure would love to be blamed for a masterpiece!), even after he was given no budget and had his Tomorrowland concept gutted for DL, even after he spent the next six years doing almost nothing but blue sky and being told his input wasn't wanted or needed on DCA ... I think he always had hope.

That always ed me off that they threw him under the bus on Euro Disney. From the day they announced it I said that cultural geography doomed it. I still contend it should never been in France. The Germans and Brits really had no interest in going there and the labor situation was about as non-Disney like as you could get. I still have not been to it but I want to see it. Just never had a chance to justify going there when in Europe. Too many other things for me to see. It was a fantastic park that would have been much better if it is in Germany. Very poor cultural geography understanding in that site selection.

 

[Rasvar]

That's too bad I may be part of the minority, but I always really enjoyed EMH. I can understand scaling them back a bit because 2 or 3 am seems quite late for a park to be open, but I always enjoyed being there until around midnight.

I may be in the minority but I always thought EMH were overkill in the summer. When it started, it was only done during the lighter seasons when the parks closed earlier. It made sense to have options for guests on property after all the parks closed by 9:00. Keeping the MK open until 3:00am on a regular basis in the summer always seemed crazy. 9:00 to midnight or 1:00am always seemed sufficient. If they got rid of it at peak park times, I wouldn't be upset. It is more needed in off-peak times. Those are the times I will miss it.

 

[ParentsOf4]

That always ed me off that they threw him under the bus on Euro Disney. From the day they announced it I said that cultural geography doomed it. I still contend it should never been in France.

EuroDisney was entirely Eisner's fault.

Eisner spent some time in Paris when he was younger and, I've been told, wanted to return triumphantly as Disney's CEO and the American who graciously "gave" the French their own Disneyland. Eisner also was the one who insisted on an authentic castle, at great expense.

Pretty much everyone who wasn't an Eisner yes-man wanted the warmer climate of Barcelona, which had a more business friendly government and was viewed by many Europeans as their own version of Florida.

That decision alone would have been enough to get a lot of CEOs fired but Eisner always blamed others for his mistakes.

 

[Rasvar]

You buried an interesting question in there -- thought I'd highlight it a bit. I don't believe that anyone from Disney has mentioned anything along these lines, but it has been speculated upon by many.

My understanding is that it is not currently a feature but is a possible addition with some significant coding. Likely could be done on a zone basis, not exact location. Not enough Wireless AP's to triangulate. I would still expect any triangulation ability to be used for generic geographic analytics in retail locations in future phases. I don't think there is any intent to have real-time tracking of every person in the park. That would be impractical and overkill.

 

[underemployedCricket]

In Mr Baxters Letter:

Disney Hallmark Values- Current culture and the structure of our company are vastly different from the time when I began my career.................... Regardless of the diversity of deliverables, hallmark values are key to all Disney entities, and everyone needs to be alert to where they reside, and how and why to fuse them to the DNA of a project.



How come I cant get that" Hallmark" motto out of my mind now-- "when you care enough to send the very best.....

Sadly the Disney Hallmark version is: We cared enough before-but how can we make them THINK we still care now.....

Will it be a quiet weekend??

 

[the.dreamfinder]

EuroDisney was entirely Eisner's fault.

Eisner spent some time in Paris when he was younger and, I've been told, wanted to return triumphantly as Disney's CEO and the American who graciously "gave" the French their own Disneyland. Eisner also was the one who insisted on an authentic castle, at great expense.

Pretty much everyone who wasn't an Eisner yes-man wanted the warmer climate of Barcelona, which had a more business friendly government and was viewed by many Europeans as their own version of Florida.

That decision alone would have been enough to get a lot of CEOs fired but Eisner always blamed others for his mistakes.

The issue was the number of hotels they built initially. When you compound the design, construction and operating costs of 7 hotels that gets very expensive. The irony there is that the folks at strategic planning always complained about the budget for the actual park when the issue clearly was over building hotels at the beginning of the resorts existence.

 

[Rasvar]

Note really sure what to say about Tony's letter. It is a great letter wasted on a narcissistic time. Most of the people it is aimed at will probably just ignore it or just read through it. It is a sad day for me. I agree with others here that WDI really needs to be destroyed to be fixed. Too much structural damage to fix it. But even then, not sure the company would let anyone with vision really rebuild it. Heck, I'm not even sure the parks are part of the company 40 years from now. Just not sold that there won't be someone who comes in to run the company and tries to sell them since they are so capital intensive. On this, I really hope I am so wrong but it is sad that I can see it as an option.

 

[Zac Skellington]

^^^I wouldn't put my money on Disney owning the parks in four years, let alone 40.