Originally Posted By Darkbeer Here is another one of Marcie's classic "I was left out of the loop" comments... This from July of 2001 http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=1324 >> know I should probably get a life and quit kicking poor Marcie (columnist at Mouseinfo) when she is down, but I just can’t help myself. Her comments on Mouseinfo message boards, which heavily criticize Al and Mouseplanet by name, are just too tempting to resist. While waiting patiently for Part IV of what I have dubbed internally as “The Pressler Fable,†I was reading some of Marcie’s earlier columns. In a 5/15/2001 column she made some statements that caused me to rub my eyes. Basically the thrust of this and an earlier column was that DCA was not having attendance problems and was meeting all of the internally generated attendance projections (after they had been adjusted subsequent to the park opening). Management was very satisfied with how things were working, she claimed. She noted that “bottom feeders†(her words) on the information food chain were making untrue and spurious statements about the level of DCA crowds and what management was expecting. She lamented that even the “mainstream media†was buying into this myth of lower than expected crowds. In the column, Marcie wanted to show her knowledge and insight born of an insider’s place with the Disney company for 20 years. She was not stating opinion (like the “liars†(again her words on the MI message board) at other Internet sites), only facts, facts, and more facts. She said that if the attendance at DCA were causing “paranoia and panic†within the Disney corporation we would see five things happening. The first one was: “There would be an immediate discount in place within two to three months after the park opened. There are none planned at this time like the Southern California Resident Salute anytime soon.†Despite the fact that she has one of the most poorly constructed sentences I have ever read, she basically states that if Disney management implemented ticket discounts at DCA soon after the park opening it would be a sign of problems with the attendance. She also states, with her insider knowledge, that none are planned. Regarding discounts at newly opened theme parks, she made this comment about Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Florida: “To counter the attendance problem, Universal began offering Florida resident discounts within months after opening – a move that no amusement park company ever wants to engage with a new theme park. However, Universal panicked because their attendance was nowhere near the business plan’s projections for the opening year. “ Did you get that? Universal “panicked†because their attendance was nowhere near the business plan projections. Marcie claims throughout both her first two columns that DCA is near projections and things are fine. No panicking at the Disney headquarters, no sir. But, the June 20th offer (approximately 4 months after the park opened) of FREE tickets for children and a 23% DISCOUNT on tickets for adults at DCA seem to follow the same pattern that she uses to indicate IofA was having attendance problems. Remember that this is a move that according to Marcie “no amusement park company every wants to engage with a new theme park.†What does that say about Disney and DCA (and Marcie’s credibility). Ok, Marcie clearly made this assertion prior to the announced DCA ticket discount. I admire her going out on a limb and it has to be embarrassing to have an announcement less than one month later that basically throws your entire column out the window. Especially for someone who regularly derides the information provided by this website and others as “rumor†and “lies.†Marcie claims to have the “inside†information, but apparently she was not invited to the meeting in which ticket discounts were discussed. Her other “five things that would be occurring if there are problems with attendance†included: 1. Adding new “e ticket†attractions quickly (Marcie says Millionaire and the DEP don’t count) 2. Layoffs and budget cuts (Marcie says the current budget cuts and layoffs are unrelated) 3. Management would be “panicking.†(Marcie assures us that they are not) Someone who presents ideas, either on the Internet, in person, or wherever, is generally judged by their personal credibility. How do columns like this help Marcie’s credibility? To wrap up (and if you read this entire post, you really need to get a life) everybody has an opinion, and I think Marcie should be a little more careful about accusing other websites of disseminating false information. <<
Originally Posted By disneywatcher ^ Yikes. She's been more of a shill, more of a sychophant, than even I recall---I thought maybe my recollection of some of her comments about DCA in past years actually exaggerated the spin she gave to things. People like her remind me of the flip side of those TV executives who in 1965 had the following response to the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas": >>>>> It was criticized as being too religious—--Linus quotes straight from the King James Bible. It was criticized for featuring contemporary jazz, an offbeat choice for a cartoon. It was criticized for not having a laugh track. It was criticized for using the voices of real children (except for Snoopy, who was voiced by animator Melendez). <<<<< In other words, when it came to DCA, too many executives at the DisCo (i.e, Eisner, Braverman, Pressler, etc) probably said or thought, this (bad) concept is great! This (lousy) design is fantastic! This (mediocre) plan is wonderful! These (lackluster) results or (negative) surveys really aren't a bad sign at all---carry on and full speed ahead, everyone!!
Originally Posted By Pinocchio85 >I'm also reminded of a similar situation Marcie got herself into regarding the Submarines. Lutz was the first to bring up the concept of reopening the Subs as a Finding Nemo ride, and he was talking about it back in '03. Marcie did her usual thing where she rips apart Lutz, and said there was no way they were going to reopen the Subs with Finding Nemo. Fast forward a year or so, and the Finding Nemo story was going full blast. Marcie finally stated that Nemo would be coming to the Subs, and when people tried to call her on it regarding her previous statements about Lutz's Subs info, she came up with this whole thing about how she was technically correct because at the time Lutz spilled the beans it was not a "serious proposal".< Nope. It was long before the Nemo idea came around. Al said that Cynthia wanted to bring back the Subs in their ORIGINAL form. Marcie said it wasn't true and the rumor slowly died. When Al said the Subs were coming back with a Nemo theme, Marcie confirmed it was true. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. She admitted she was wrong and Al was right. End of story. She's not trying to "spin" it in her favor. She outright admitted she was wrong.
Originally Posted By AaronInCal Wow, some people have a LOT of time on their hands to go back years to look for ways to prove a point....
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt ^^I was thinking the same thing. Chances are both Al and Marcie are wrong.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer I find it interesting to note that MouseInfo.com can't even get the name of the new Monsters, Inc. attraction correct... "Monsters, Inc: Mikey & Sulley to the Rescue Soft Opened Today" And this is the same board that gave Al Lutz a lot of grief over not spelling Flik's Fun Fair correct.... The same people who love to attack Al complain when the shoe is on the other foot..... Why is that?
Originally Posted By Pinocchio85 >I find it interesting to note that MouseInfo.com can't even get the name of the new Monsters, Inc. attraction correct... "Monsters, Inc: Mikey & Sulley to the Rescue Soft Opened Today" And this is the same board that gave Al Lutz a lot of grief over not spelling Flik's Fun Fair correct.... The same people who love to attack Al complain when the shoe is on the other foot..... Why is that?< Why are you spending so much time for attacking them? You say they're wrong for attacking Al, but all you're doing is attacking them. >Chances are both Al and Marcie are wrong.< You're exactly right. Marcie said she was wrong. So I don't see what the big deal is.
Originally Posted By woody "Marcie said she was wrong. So I don't see what the big deal is." The BIG deal was she claimed to have superior knowledge since she works for Disney. I certainly think her information is very good, but that's all she should claim. Making a big deal that Al is wrong makes her wrongness an even bigger deal.
Originally Posted By socalkdg So lets see Darkbeer. You just spent hours proving that a Disney employee might be giving us info that was false or biased. Imagine that.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "The same people who love to attack Al complain when the shoe is on the other foot....." Yeah. Sort of like the people who complain about spinners at DCA when there are an abundance of them at DL. It's irritating, isn't it?
Originally Posted By 9oldmen >>"The same people who love to attack Al complain when the shoe is on the other foot....." Yeah. Sort of like the people who complain about spinners at DCA when there are an abundance of them at DL. It's irritating, isn't it?<< I count four(4) spinners in each park. And since DCA has a lower ride count, that means it has a higher percentage of spinners. So which park really has the "abundance" of them?
Originally Posted By 9oldmen Oh, and if you count "Francis'" in FFF, DCA technically has five(5) spinners. I'm being nice and not calling the "Sun Wheel" a spinner, but even so, it's pretty clear which park has the "abundance".
Originally Posted By gadzuux I've mentioned it before in the "who scooped who" debate about nemo and the subs - but "fab" (michelle) hinted broadly at it (and I think it might have been here on LP) before 'atlantis' was released. At the time there was speculation about an atlantis overlay on the subs (that was before anybody knew what a stinker the movie was) but fab was saying that they were considering nemo for the sub lagoon, and that was more than a year prior to the movie opening for 'finding nemo' and very few people had even heard of it. Credit where due.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Regarding moving Golden Dreams to the hub (cap) area, that's interesting. One thing that occurs to me is that that's an attraction that could be placed entirely underground. They could put the theater underneath the hub plaza and a replica of the current theater entrance where the hub cap currently is. This would allow them to have that attraction take up almost no extra space in the park, and give them quite a bit of room where it currently is.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<Wow, some people have a LOT of time on their hands to go back years to look for ways to prove a point...>> From my POV, it seems rather juvenile to debate who said what first, who was right, etc. But I guess that's just because I don't think it's important or interesting to me; I'd rather focus on discussing the park, not the talking heads.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Darkbeer, thank you for the golden oldies. I had forgotten just how crazed Marcie had been in her pursuit to try and discredit Lutz and convince everyone that DCA was succesful. I love the discussions about the backstage gossip. And I honestly thank Darkbeer for continuing to provide the fodder for those conversations. I'm also thankful we've got people like Al Lutz to give us the latest scoop, and Marcie to try and rewrite the history Lutz is dishing out. The average WDW fan out East is not nearly as well connected as we all are, and they really don't have a Lutz or a Marcie to dish the latest dirt. If it weren't for stuff like that we'd be like all of the East Coasters who sit around the boards at wdwmagic.com endlessly talking about the soda fountain rules regarding Refillable Mugs at WDW Moderate Resorts. I prefer the snappier, behind the scenes gossip we get here in California to the more mundane tourist blather they have to live with back in Florida.
Originally Posted By iluvdisneyland "I've mentioned it before in the "who scooped who" debate about nemo and the subs - but "fab" (michelle) hinted broadly at it (and I think it might have been here on LP) before 'atlantis' was released. At the time there was speculation about an atlantis overlay on the subs (that was before anybody knew what a stinker the movie was) but fab was saying that they were considering nemo for the sub lagoon, and that was more than a year prior to the movie opening for 'finding nemo' and very few people had even heard of it. Credit where due" Oh geez, Gadzuux! Now THAT was a long time ago, but I believe you are right. With Marcie vs. Al thing... just remember, with Disney everything is "subject to change at any time without notice."
Originally Posted By dennis-in-ct << The average WDW fan out East is not nearly as well connected as we all are >> As an East Coaster, I agree. Well said and very accurate statement.
Originally Posted By woody "With Marcie vs. Al thing" I think its Marcie against Al. Al made no attempt to defend himself. Do you realize, Marcie is attacked by Darkbeer here and she refuses to respond. Aren't we all a little bit on our "high horse" as she would say?
