Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "I don't see how it's wrong for people to post their opinions about a columnist" I thought we were supposed to attack the idea, not the person. I guess those ideals don't apply to people who use a *certain* tone when writing about Disneyland? "especially if recent history has shown that said columnist has a bias." In a past blog post he had an issue with a promotion Disneyland was running. I personally believe he overreacted but I thought the promotion rules were kind of silly anyway. But does the next blog post he writes about Disneyland have to be positive in order to prove to you that he doesn't have a bias? What's wrong with having a bias? It's a blog, not news. "Disney is simply doing a marketing thing, the same as they've done since the 50's, to dress up a summer with no real big new E ticket attractions, and make it look like something fun and new." And that's what he has a problem with. There hasn't been a real big new E Ticket attraction since 1995. You'd think they'd be beyond dressing up something old to look new by now and attempt to build something new at Disneyland. Tomorrowland is the perfect opportunity to start anew on something. What's the holdup?
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Getting into the park for free if your birthday falls on a Saturday and you have a blocked AP isn't much of a free gift when you can simply go on Sunday or wait until the end of Summer. Instead of giving gift cards inside the park only, it would probably be more guest-friendly to let annual passholders of any type to choose a free entry to the park on a blockout date or the gift card. Obviously this would not apply to premium passholders since they have no blockout dates. And I don't understand the point of McDonald being selfish about the promotion. Disney did not start this promotion out of the kindness of their hearts. They did so because a recession was looming and they decided that they would make more money with the promotion than without. The point is attracting people to the parks.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones By the way, not everyone understands these rules, even people who criticized Brady McDonald. Here's an excerpt from a comment where a guy criticized McDonald and his wife for not reading the rules close enough. But look at what he says. "This is very simple. If you already have purchased admission for your birthday, then there are alternative gifts. If you don’t have admission, then admission is what you get. If your tickets black out on your birthday, then you don’t have birthday admission. How can anyone complain about getting a free day at Disney, especially someone who likes it well enough to buy seasonal passes? (That free day can be used anytime until your next b-day, so it can be held until after the seasonal pass expires)" The free day can be used anytime until your next birthday? Not in any promotion Disneyland is currently running. People are giving each other bad info about this promotion and your only solution is to say, "Tough, read the fine print."? The reality is that people are showing up to Disneyland without the full picture, and the rules should be as logical as possible so that you don't even have to read the fine print. Get in free on your birthday. If you already have admission (like an annual pass that offers 315, 215 or 170 days a year), then you get a gift card, or, a free blockout day admission and the remaining balance on the gift card. Now that's guest-friendly.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>In a past blog post he had an issue with a promotion Disneyland was running. I personally believe he overreacted but I thought the promotion rules were kind of silly anyway. But does the next blog post he writes about Disneyland have to be positive in order to prove to you that he doesn't have a bias?<< No, but the previous incident -- as reported in his own words -- painted a picture of him (and his wife) that wasn't flattering. Sorry, but once someone does that, it's going to alter one's perception of whatever they have to say after that point -- right or wrong. For the record, I'd probably agree that Disney has way, way, way, way, overused nostalgia for perhaps a decade at least. Some of it has been really well done nostalgia, and some of it perfectly appropriate (it makes sense to look back at signifigant milestones such as the 50th anniversary and such). There have been lots of retreads and holdovers and plain old leftovers. I get that.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>What's wrong with having a bias?<< Nothing. So, why do you have a problem with people having a bias towards Brady McDonald blog posts? Gotcha!
Originally Posted By danyoung >I thought we were supposed to attack the idea, not the person.< I think that's the way we're supposed to treat each other, here, as members of an online forum. Someone from the outside is just fresh meat. The information in McDonald's article could have been presented without the snarky attitude. He has every right to write that way, of course. But I have every right to disagree with him.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "I thought we were supposed to attack the idea, not the person. I guess those ideals don't apply to people who use a *certain* tone when writing about Disneyland?" I do think it's fair to judge someone based on their previous writings. He has credibility issues that are all his own. He sure doesn't help himself by opining on something he hasn't experienced. Not that I'm excited by Nightastic (although I do welcome a fireworks show that doesn't shut down half the park). But this writer's credibility is fair game.
Originally Posted By SleepingBeauty82 <<I thought we were supposed to attack the idea, not the person.>> Does that ever happen when someone says something people don't agree with?
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "Nothing. So, why do you have a problem with people having a bias towards Brady McDonald blog posts?" Nothing, but I just find it funny that when Disneyland is criticized it turns into a mob of people making personal attacks. Here's what someone said about this guy's opinions on a summer promotion. "And its very hard for me not to call you worse words. ... I will not be reading anything from the LA Times anymore." That's gotta be mental illness at work. How can what Brady McDonald says affect someone so much that they have to fight back the urge to call them worse names?
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "I just think he contradicts himself because he's complaining that there's nothing new but then complains about the mess they're making constructing something new." He did not complain about the mess they're making at DCA. He stated as a matter of fact that DCA is like a giant construction site. The construction walls are a fact of life of the DCA makeover, but you can't deny that they detract from the experience. It's a growing pain so to speak. It would seem to me, that in Brady McDonald's view, better offerings at Disneyland for this summer would have done a better job of softening the impact that construction is bringing to DCA.
Originally Posted By gadzuux Agreed - there were several weird responses to that blog piece. The sense was that these people take it as a personal insult if the park is criticized. Whether you like this particular writer or not, he does buttress his comments with specific examples. And it's not like what he's saying is so off-base - the park IS trying to put a sunny marketing spin on some skimpy offerings. And they aren't even bringing up 'celebrate - the street thing'. So the gripe comes down to the overall tone of the piece. Plus some people's remembered history of an earlier incident. Without really knowing all the backstory, I say cut the guy some slack.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones The Fantasmic! dragon continues to be displayed on Disneyland.com as of June 14th. I understand they don't have complete control over billboards and signage, but you'd think they'd take the dragon off the web site ASAP.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Here's another blog post by McDonald advertising the Tinkerbell float for Disneyland for free. No cynical tone here. <a href="http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/tink-electrical-para-4626/" target="_blank">http://travel.latimes.com/dail...ra-4626/</a> Of course, not a single person commented on the blog post. I guess some fans only bother to comment if they can flame someone.
Originally Posted By danyoung >He did not complain about the mess they're making at DCA. He stated as a matter of fact that DCA is like a giant construction site.< From the MacDonald blog - "With no new major attraction to promote this year, Disneyland has strung together a series of existing nighttime shows under the banner of Summer Nightastic — in the hope visitors will ignore the giant construction site next door that is Disney’s California Adventure." Sure, what he said was absolutely true. It was also a shot. To say it wasn't is to ignore subtext, and this guy's subtext is entirely anti-Disney in this post. And why would anybody comment on his Tinkerbell blog post? It was a report on what's going on with the parade, and there was nothing controversial about it. Do you really expect people to be as prolific with their praise as they are with their condemnation?
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "To say it wasn't is to ignore subtext, and this guy's subtext is entirely anti-Disney in this post." Why take criticism as anti-Disney? He is a fan of the park as everyone else here is.
Originally Posted By FiveBearRugs <<Kar2oonMan: This is written by the same stooge whose wife was "in tears" trying to scam the free birthday promotion a couple months ago.>> The dragon's not working????! ITS NOT FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRR!! MY UNBIRTHDAY'S RUIIIINED!
Originally Posted By danyoung >Why take criticism as anti-Disney? He is a fan of the park as everyone else here is.< That's a matter of opinion. Seems to me that he's reporting at gunpoint because that's his assignment. I don't see a lot of love in any of his writing.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Brady MacDonald attended the media preview held Thursday night, and "reported" what he saw in Friday's blog. The nature of a blog is to essentially offer personal comments. And the idea (I suppose) is that by posting a "blog" rather than a critical review of fact-laden story, there is more leeway to express one's opinion, without having to explain or justify it. "This is how I feel," is the editiorial position. That some fans are incensed at Brady's flippant tone is no surprise. This would not be expected from a critical review, in which an offering is judged on the basis of a set of criteria, however arbitrary. That some are annoyed that he editorialized is also understandable, as some would not expect to find this in a news account. But it's a blog, which is frankly neither fish nor fowl. We just have to deal with it. (Just as MacDonald has to deal with the reaction.) I do disagree strongly with some of MacDonald's conclusions. These are, in a certain sense, the same Summer offerings that have been seen at Disneyland for years, but they are being presented pretty much in that manner. There was no sense to me that Disneyland was claiming these are "all new" attractions. Taken in the order in which they are dismissed in MacDonald's Column: >>* The Tomorrowland Terrace stage, which first debuted in 1967, gets redubbed TLT Dance Club, with live bands and DJs.<< OK... >>* Tinker Bell’s Pixie Hollow, added in 2008, gets a LED lighting upgrade and sees a return of the area’s old pop-jet fountains.<< Pixie Hollow will now be open longer hours and feature more than just "a LED lighting upgrade." There are other, more specific effects that will make this area, very crowded during the daytime, available at nighttime. Anyone with youngsters will appreciate this. >>* The 17-year-old Fantasmic gets a new 40-foot-tall animated dragon and a pair of eels to accompany Ursula the Sea Witch and high-definition video projectors.<< Uh huh. And these are all worth promoting, particularly in light of the fact that the popular show is 17 years old. (P.S. The eels accompany the Ursula sequence, but not Ursula herself, who has been absent for many years. But I quibble...) >>* The circa-1972 Electrical Parade brings back three old floats (including Snow White and Pinocchio) and swaps in Tinker Bell for the traditional Blue Fairy lead float, which is sure to irk Disney purists.<< This comment is a little over the top, and purposely provocative. Also kind of wrong. The parade returns one full unit (Pinocchio), one missing float (the Dwarf's diamond mine, drops one unit (Dumbo), and replaces the lead float. In addition, new "pixie dust" lighting is added to all floats, and the soundtrack has been completely rerecorded with enhancements and a more lush sound. But hey, I'm only repeating what I've read in publicity and seen with my own eyes... >>* Continuing a half-century nighttime tradition, the “Magical” fireworks show (I wonder how long it took to come up with that name?) marks the most dramatic change from past seasons — with the addition of a flying “Dumbo” character and a magic theme featuring music and audio clips from “Pinocchio,” “Mary Poppins,” “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty.”<< Again, a little more snarky than necessary, but that's a blogger's prerogative. The new fireworks show is, indeed, a NEW fireworks show. It is not as big as Remember, but easily as big as Believe. The Dumbo addition is big news, as far as I'm concerned. Also news is the choice of Disneyland cast member truned Broadway star Eden Espinosa as lead singer. And for anyone who is wondering, folks around me were getting teary during some sequences, and oohing and aahing during others. Then again, maybe they're just suckers for cheap sentimentality...
