News Walt Disney Imagineering Leaving California, Moving To Florida... EDIT: Never Mind!

[mickEblu]

Disney's precooked frozen churros from Tio Pepe are absolutely over hyped. People act like Disneyland makes them fresh or something.

They are frozen churros available at grocery stores that are put in a toaster oven all day to keep warm.

It's the same thing as if Disney started selling hot pockets in the parks.

I had the worst churro at DL the other day. Cold n Stale. My sister popped up with 4 for the group and they were the worst I’ve ever had. Of course, she never returns anything… EVER. I realized I rarely eat sweets in the park. It’s just one savory item after another. I have a very simple sweet tooth that is pretty much satisfied with some dark chocolate. I will say the fluffernutter churros at DCA were pretty good. So are the regular churros when they are hot and not stale. But yeah, there is nothing special about them, other than the fact that you are eating it at Disneyland.

 

[choco choco]

Disney's precooked frozen churros from Tio Pepe are absolutely over hyped. People act like Disneyland makes them fresh or something.

They are frozen churros available at grocery stores that are put in a toaster oven all day to keep warm.

It's the same thing as if Disney started selling hot pockets in the parks.

I had one the other day and remember thinking “Didn't these use to be thicker? They seem to have become rather skinny these days, and as a result the chewiness inside of them feels diminished, leaving too much of the crunchy shell. Also the sugar to carb ratio is now off, since there’s not enough bread part to soak up the ample sugar surface area.”

 

[CaptinEO]

I had one the other day and remember thinking “Didn't these use to be thicker? They seem to have become rather skinny these days, and as a result the chewiness inside of them feels diminished, leaving too much of the crunchy shell. Also the sugar to carb ratio is now off, since there’s not enough bread part to soak up the ample sugar surface area.”

It's possible Tio Pepe who makes the Churros made cuts due to pandemic / inflation woes.

 

[truecoat]

It's possible Tio Pepe who makes the Churros made cuts due to pandemic / inflation woes.

It's all about maximizing profits. Corporations are realizing they can raise prices at will and people will still buy. They'll blame whoever is the current president and keep buying.

 

[DCBaker]

Adding this here if you don't watch the WDW section -

Disney will delay its move to a new campus in Lake Nona until 2026 amid the company's battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

Disney has delayed plans to relocate a significant amount of its creative team from California to Florida for at least 3 years.

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[DLR92]

Should have stayed in California...

 

[Californian Elitist]

I would have to quit my job. I wouldn’t make the move.

I bet the ones who really didn’t want to make the move, but did it anyway, are not happy.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler told the Orlando Sentinel today that the expected opening date for the Lake Nona campus was pushed to 2026 to "give people more time" and accommodate the construction timeline for the new offices.

Perhaps they should have considered "giving people more time" when they were told in 2021 that they had 90 days to agree to move to Florida in 2022 or leave their job/career/pension and go find work elsewhere.

Just a thought.

 

[DrAlice]

Wow. Just wow. What an HR mess.

Even if they decide to cancel the move, they are going to lose so many talented people. You can't mess with people's livelihoods and expect people to stay and put up with it.

I guess we should look forward to Universal improving as they get an influx of former Disney creatives.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I guess we should look forward to Universal improving as they get an influx of former Disney creatives.

It pains me to say this as a Disney fanboy but I think Universal Creative is ahead of Imagineering at the moment, putting out a better product anyway. Whether that’s because Universal let’s them build what they actually design or they are better designers could be debated.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I guess we should look forward to Universal improving as they get an influx of former Disney creatives.

That would generally still involve moving to Orlando.

Whether that’s because Universal let’s them build what they actually design or they are better designers could be debated.

They don’t. All sorts of stuff doesn’t get built or is cut for budget or is pushed by executives. They build Fast & Furious Supercharged.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I would have to quit my job. I wouldn’t make the move.

I bet the ones who really didn’t want to make the move, but did it anyway, are not happy.

It’s funny how a lot of places are love it or hate it, I wouldn’t transfer to LA but I’d transfer to Orlando in a heartbeat. Pros and cons to both but unless you’re rich LA would be hard to survive (or you’d have to live in a bad neighborhood) whereas you can survive in Orlando as a middle class person.

I’d rather deal with crazy heat while in a nice house in a nice neighborhood than live near the beach with beautiful weather but be unable to afford to do anything. Same reason I chose Vegas over CA.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It’s funny how a lot of places are love it or hate it, I wouldn’t transfer to LA but I’d transfer to Orlando in a heartbeat. Pros and cons to both but unless you’re rich LA would be hard to survive (or you’d have to live in a bad neighborhood) whereas you can survive in Orlando as a middle class person.

I’d rather deal with crazy heat while in a nice house in a nice neighborhood than live near the beach with beautiful weather but be unable to afford to do anything. Same reason I chose Vegas over CA.

You could live near the beach and commute to parts of the Orlando area and still have a shorter commute than a good chunk of people in Southern California. Just living in Orlando itself might be closer and/or faster to Cocoa Beach than some people who live in the Los Angeles area.

 

[DrAlice]

I’d rather deal with crazy heat while in a nice house in a nice neighborhood than live near the beach with beautiful weather but be unable to afford to do anything. Same reason I chose Vegas over CA.

Yep. (Not to Vegas, but my area of California.)

 

[Californian Elitist]

It’s funny how a lot of places are love it or hate it, I wouldn’t transfer to LA but I’d transfer to Orlando in a heartbeat. Pros and cons to both but unless you’re rich LA would be hard to survive (or you’d have to live in a bad neighborhood) whereas you can survive in Orlando as a middle class person.

I’d rather deal with crazy heat while in a nice house in a nice neighborhood than live near the beach with beautiful weather but be unable to afford to do anything. Same reason I chose Vegas over CA.

It’s not just the weather that I’m not fond of in Florida.

I dislike the beach lol. Not all homes in California are 1 mil+. None of my family members are rich. We’re middle class and surviving. The idea that California only is only great and reasonable for the super wealthy is tired, old, overblown, and nonsense. I’m a third generation Californian and Angeleno. I’ve never felt like I’m suffering here due to the high costs. I can afford to do many things.

I’m a spoiled Southern Californian, specifically a spoiled Angeleno. I have access to beaches, mountains, desserts, and more here. If I wanted a snowy winter, I can make a 2-3 hour drive from sunny Los Angeles and find that. I can go skiing, hiking, and surfing in the same week, probably even the same day, without leaving California. I have access to the tallest trees in the world here, as well as the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. If I wanted to visit the hottest place on earth (I don’t), I don’t have to leave my home state. I live amongst diverse groups of people here and have access to so many things. And as an Angeleno, I live in quite literally the only region/area of the US with a Mediterranean climate, and there aren’t many other places in the world with a Mediterranean climate. I’m good. I’m chillin’. I could go on.

I’d rather live in a nice apartment, condo, house, whatever else, paying a bunch of money for rent in California, than live anywhere else in this country. Gas is nearly $7 a gallon? Fine by me! $2500 for rent for an apartment? Lovely! I’ll pay it if it means I get to live here. The only way I’m leaving is if I get the opportunity to move to a different country that I find suitable. I do plan to retire in a different country if I can’t make the move before retirement. Other than that, California forever, and goodbye (if you understand this reference, yay lol).

 

[DrAlice]

Just a reminder: Not all of California is LA or SF. Not all of California is beaches, movie stars, traffic, and high rents. The vast majority of California's land mass is covered with agriculture, trees, and small towns. (Sorry, but those of us not in the major cities often get annoyed with the CA stereotype.)

Anyway, closer to on topic..... People who enjoy living in LA are going to enjoy different things than Orlando has to offer. It's not surprising that the vast majority of Disney employees don't want to move.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Everyone is free to live where they want. It’s nice to have so many choices in the U.S. If someone wants to live in Oklahoma, they should make it happen. Same for Hawaii, the Dakotas, Florida, California, Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and the other 41 states to choose from. The choices are aplenty here. There are so many states, cities, towns, etc. to choose from to fit one’s needs. People should live where they want to live.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Didn’t mean to cause such a firestorm with the where to live comments. I just find it fascinating how different people like different things. Small town vs big city, 4 seasons vs 1 season, house with a yard vs condos… it’s a big country with options for everyone.

LA and Orlando may be very different cities but In regards to this thread it’s interesting to compare them from the perspective of an employee facing the decision to move or not move.

The million dollar question for me is how many Imagineers are in LA because they dreamed of living in LA and how many are in LA because they dreamed of being an Imagineer? The majority of the first group likely quit and find a new job in LA, the second group likely move to Orlando because the where doesn’t matter as much as the job.

 

[Parteecia]

I’d rather deal with crazy heat while in a nice house in a nice neighborhood than live near the beach with beautiful weather but be unable to afford to do anything. Same reason I chose Vegas over CA.

It's why I bought in inland SoCal. Easy enough drive to DL, L.A. etc. from a nice suburb, plus lower taxes. I calculated that the difference in house prices between where I live vs. closer to the coast would cover my AC bills for at least a thousand years.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

It's why I bought in inland SoCal. Easy enough drive to DL, L.A. etc. from a nice suburb, plus lower taxes. I calculated that the difference in house prices between where I live vs. closer to the coast would cover my AC bills for at least a thousand years.

One of my best friends bought in San Rafael a little over a decade ago for the same reason, he works in finance in San Francisco (and makes a good living) but he’s married with a couple kids and they wanted a bigger house with a yard to raise their kids in, moving just 20 miles outside the city allowed them to buy a 2500 sq ft home in the hills, they never could have afforded the equivalent in the city. It added a commute, and a shocking amount in GG bridge tolls, but their neighborhood in the hills is beautiful.

It turned into a great investment too because his “reasonable” (under a $ million) home from 10-15 years ago is probably worth $2 million now.