Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[flynnibus]

How many times has Disney lied in announcements? I think all of us have lost count its why most of us never trusts what Disney has to say about anything, It's not conspiracy thinking to posit that Disney will chase the most lucrative guest oriented business around especially since it has low CAPEX requirements and approval requires skill in the politcal arena. Both characteristics which Disney exhibits in spades.

So now you are suggesting the problem all along hasn't been that Disney has been hypocritical (which has been the complaint here in the thread for the last month) for licensing it's IP while being against gambling in FL...but instead is now being intentionally obtuse ("No one asked us how long the licenses were for.") because they really plan on getting in on the FL gaming industry??

The answers given seem fit for answering something that I'm surely is a matter of multiple, independent agreements that do not necessarily align. It is not necessary to dive into the individual deals/specifics when the point of contention is their participation period. They promise they are getting out of the space.. and hence the hypocritical debate fades away.

 

[flynnibus]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-exec-to-universal-20131028,0,1552276.story

Here is something to chew on. Not to change direction...forgive me if already posted.

Great.. so now a Disney soul sucker will be doing his damage at UNI. Iger Sidious is pleased... spreading the power of the dark side.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

The piece of land next to Cabana Bay is slated for an ultra high end smaller boutique style Loews resort.

Which will probably be cheaper than the Grand Floridian.

 

[Wikkler]

Christmas stuff is out in the stores at some resorts & it's not even Halloween yet.

At our local Big Lots, there is no Halloween stuff left. At all. It's all Christmas decorations now.

 

[ford91exploder]

That is why I am pushing for a "NO RE-ELECTION FOR ANYBODY" campaign. You get a 6 year term and that is it!! no re-election. no career politicians - NO FREAKIN' Camelot style legacies. you get elected for 6 years then you do what the founding fathers intended, and get your butt back out and work!! pension and health benefits for 6 years - ONLY. Maybe then our politicians will actually DO SOMETHING instead of working their re-election campaign from day TWO !!

And if they shut down the gopvernment again...it is time to elect some 'scabs'. they won't do their JOBS - somebody else WILL!!!

Wow @Pixie VaVoom say what you really feel, I happen to agree with you, Representatives / Senators should be like jury duty - you are called do your job and go home.

 

[ford91exploder]

So now you are suggesting the problem all along hasn't been that Disney has been hypocritical (which has been the complaint here in the thread for the last month) for licensing it's IP while being against gambling in FL...but instead is now being intentionally obtuse ("No one asked us how long the licenses were for.") because they really plan on getting in on the FL gaming industry??

The answers given seem fit for answering something that I'm surely is a matter of multiple, independent agreements that do not necessarily align. It is not necessary to dive into the individual deals/specifics when the point of contention is their participation period. They promise they are getting out of the space.. and hence the hypocritical debate fades away.

Disney is drawn to money like a mouse is drawn to cheese. It's what it is and if there is gaming money Disney is going to get it's share whether we like it or not. Self serving press releases notwithstanding as Disney will say whatever they think the audience at the time needs to hear.

 

[Darth Sidious]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-exec-to-universal-20131028,0,1552276.story

Here is something to chew on. Not to change direction...forgive me if already posted.

Good for him, if by chance he or someone he knows reads this... Welcome to my stomping ground. Enjoy 30 Rock!

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Great.. so now a Disney soul sucker will be doing his damage at UNI. Iger Sidious is pleased... spreading the power of the dark side.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Two piles of Pooh!

 

[Darth Sidious]

Now that's a fearless leader!

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

And Iger!

 

[Animaniac93-98]

When I see this picture, all I can think of is Iger saying to Christopher Robin:

"Your faith in your friends is yours!"

 

[SJFPKT]

Just got back from an 8 day trip to the World tonight. I will have to say that my magic band worked about 95% well. Couldn't use it for charging anything because, twice, it reset the charge limit to zero. I gave up after the second time. It didn't work at Whispering Canyon nor at Pinocchio Village Haus.

I have to say that overall the cast seemed in a HORRIBLE mood. They weren't friendly nor helpful, unless you went out of the way and made a suggestion for them to help. Don't get me wrong, there were a few shining stars, but overall they didn't seem happy to be at work. I don't know if it is the magic band fiasco or what. Did notice the lines to Guest Relations were out the door at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and DHS every time I walked by. Could have just been a coincidence but every time seemed a little odd.

The dining plan is TOO MUCH FOOD. I walked away with two counter service and two table service credits left. I will never leave snack credit on the table now that I know you can use them for Starbucks!!!. I know a lot of y'all don't like them in the park but it is nice to finally get a decent cup of coffee at the world. The food, like others have said, seemed bland and boring. If I didn't have free dining, I wouldn't have paid for it. The exception is Hollywood and Vine, still my favorite on the property. I think they could cut the portions offered and go back to offering better quality. I mean really, it is just to much food. Maybe they should do something like offer a different menu or something with smaller portions. I don't know, it just is borderline gluttonous.

If I ran things, you would get a wheelchair or a umbrella stroller. That would be it. Don't get me wrong I have a 5 year old and on the last day, we had to bust out the umbrella stroller, 30 or so miles is a lot for a kid that age over the course of a week, so I gave in and gave him a break. That being said, wheel chair and umbrella strollers would solve about half of the traffic problem. A four-wheel drive jeep jogging stroller is not necessary.

Final comment for what I can remember off the top of my head before I crash from the drive is, don't get me wrong I love you big gals. For the most part, y'all are fun to be around and have great personalities but that being said there are limits to what you should wear. 5-00 pushing 200 lbs is not the size for yoga pants.

 

[mgf]

This probably makes things easier for Bob's lega

http://gawker.com/abc-apologizes-after-kid-on-kimmel-suggests-killing-eve-1453586268

A Jimmy Kimmel Live! skit in which a child suggests that the government should "kill everyone in China" in order to resolve its debt crisis has sparked outrage and forced ABC to censor the clip and issue an apology.

"Kids Table," which originally aired on October 16th, features a panel of children saying the darndest things about current events ranging from the government shutdown to how you spell Barack Obama.

At one point during the skit (1:53 in the clip below), Kimmel asks the kids how the US should "pay China back" the $1.3 trillion it owes.

"Kill everyone in China," responds a bowl-cut tyke named Braxton.

The childish comment went mostly ignored by the American public, but plenty of Chinese Americans were livid, including the nearly 60,000 who signed a White House petition calling on Obama to investigate Jimmy Kimmel's Kids Table for employing "the same rhetoric used in Nazi Germany against Jewish people."

After the controversy made its way to the People's Republic, some took to Weibo to call for a mass protest outside the San Francisco offices of ABC.

The threat was apparently enough to convince ABC to scrub the clip from YouTube and issue a formal apology.

"We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large...our objective is to entertain," said ABC executive VPs Lisa Berger and Tim McNeal in a letter to pan-Asian-American PAC the 80-20 Initiative.

In addition to the apology, ABC said it will remove the segment from all future broadcasts of the episode, and will scrub it from any existing copies currently available online.

 

[mgf]

Also, since there is a lot of talk here on Disney's media dealings, I found this interesting:

http://deadspin.com/espn-came-so-very-close-to-buying-half-of-the-nfl-netwo-1453347899

ESPN Came So Very Close To Buying Half Of The NFL Network
In today's New York Times, Jim Miller and Richard Sandomir report that ESPN apparently came very, very close to buying half the NFL Network for $2 billion four years ago. So close the NFL literally had the Champagne on ice when the deal fell through.

This all went down in 2009. The league wanted a big investor in its fledgling—and struggling—NFL Network, but more than anything, it wanted a partnership with ESPN to open up the possibility of airing college football on the network. At the time, NFL Network carried only eight regular-season NFL games, which apparently wasn't nearly enough live sports tonnage to convince cable operators, like Time Warner Cable, to automatically put it on the air. If the NFL Network could get some SEC or Big Ten games, it would help force the hand of cranky cable operators and there'd be big subscriber fees in return. After six rocky years, the NFL Network would finally become essential programming.

Most intriguingly, the NFL was ready to provide all sorts of incentives to ESPN if Bristol bought in, including actually putting Monday Night Football on more equal footing with the Sunday night games. The Times reports:

To help entice ESPN, the N.F.L. offered to reduce the price of "Monday Night Football." The new "Monday Night" contract, which starts next season, will have ESPN paying an average of $1.9 billion a season, plus $100 million annually for a wild-card playoff game. The executives involved in the talks said the N.F.L. offered to cut the fee to $1.5 billion a year, with the playoff game tossed in as a signing bonus.
Perhaps even more attractive to ESPN than paying less was the N.F.L.'s suggestion that its "Monday Night" schedule would be improved.
So far this year, 13.3 million people on average watch MNF; nearly 10 million more people watchSunday Night Football. A lot of this has to do with the better slate of games with which the NFL rewards NBC. So ESPN would get a better MNF slate, a cheaper deal for MNF games, and a free playoff game.

And then it all came apart. There were two reasons cited by the Times: 1.) ESPN didn't want to give up its best college football games, and 2.) the network "did not want to get involved in the contentious efforts to help the NFL Network gain additional distribution."

It's an interesting tidbit on its own, but it also provides a little more context for ESPN's bizarre League of Denial drop-out. ESPN doesn't just write up a check to the NFL every year and send it off; ESPN is a living, breathing, wheeling-and-dealing business partner to the NFL, and apparently sometimes it has quite a bit of leverage itself. They were so very close to consummating the partnership, too. Per the Times: "Talks got so promising that cases of Champagne were ordered and stashed away at N.F.L. headquarters in Manhattan for the anticipated celebration of an agreement."

 

[JenniferS]

5-00 pushing 200 lbs is not the size for yoga pants.

Don't forget the fully tatted sleeves. I suspect a large number of these gals are going to be sorry 20 years from now.
You can always drop the extra pounds; and yoga pants, thankfully, are a scary fad (no different than the 80's Flashdance look); but tatts are forever. Unless you've got lots of $$ a high tolerance for pain.

PS - Thanks for the update. I've been home for almost 4 weeks and am still in the early stages of withdrawal.

 

[SJFPKT]

Oh and I talked to one of the cast members at IASW asking if they had done some work recently. We haven't been since Christmas last year and the first few rooms seemed like they had gotten a fresh coat of paint on the walls and the ceiling, which looked deplorable last time, looked to be in better shape. They said they weren't aware of any work, but did mention that they were supposed to be going down for a refurb sometime soon Don't know if anyone has heard about this or if it is even true since it came from a cast member, but just thought I would pass it on.

I am sure I will have more later, but that is it for tonight.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Don't forget the fully tatted sleeves. I suspect a large number of these gals are going to be sorry 20 years from now.
You can always drop the extra pounds; and yoga pants, thankfully, are a scary fad (no different than the 80's Flashdance look); but tatts are forever. Unless you've got lots of $$ a high tolerance for pain.

PS - Thanks for the udate. I've been home for almost 4 weeks and am still in the early stages of withdrawal.

For something as permanent as a tattoo, people exhibit no taste or put any serious thought into them. I have seen some disgusting tattoos on trips to WDW and my local amusement parks (Dorney Park, Great Adventure, Hershey Park). I'm going to speak very carefully and try to tiptoe without cracking any eggs, but I think our society should put more thought into how they appear. I am for free expression of ones own body, but a woman who wears say a prominent nose ring ought to consider how that makes her look(... cow ...).

 

[Clever Name]

We all know that it's far too expensive to extend the monorail. However, the monorail would be expanded if it ran to several new on property casinos.

 

[wogwog]

I have to say that overall the cast seemed in a HORRIBLE mood. They weren't friendly nor helpful, unless you went out of the way and made a suggestion for them to help. Don't get me wrong, there were a few shining stars, but overall they didn't seem happy to be at work. I don't know if it is the magic band fiasco or what. Did notice the lines to Guest Relations were out the door at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and DHS every time I walked by. Could have just been a coincidence but every time seemed a little odd.

They are in a HORRIBLE mood. It was not your imagination. They can only take so much nonsence from Disney. You think all the new fancy junk that is confusing guests and not working well looks any better from the view point of the cast? Disney like any large corporation, for good reason, has intricate policy and procedure change methods in place for safety. Some attractions have multiple policy and procedure changes every week now sometimes several in a week and often in one day. They come back after their days off and have to go through training before they can perform their duties. Constantly changing the way they are expected to do their job. GR has added gangs of new folks to try to make things better for guests. WDW has had to add hundreds of other folks to work at the new FP + kiosks. Plus station GR people all over the place to try to restore normalcy to a guests vacation. The tecnology works about as well as if the government designed it.

I am local and most of my neighbors work at Disney and relate their experiences to me.