Originally Posted By DlandDug >>16 months, Doug?<< Ack. I mixed up two different dates and years. It seemed that it was too long for Cynthia to have held on, but I was too busy concentrating on the Pressler timeline. (P.S. Even unmarried women have families. You know... mom, dad. Married siblings and their kids...)
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance But how many of them quit their jobs so they can spend 24/7 with their extended families?
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Yup, I did. And the second one. I'm always skeptical of things that I read like that though.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby >>Here's the timeline for Mr. Pressler's career at Disney: 1987-90: Disney Product Licensing 1990-92: Consumer Products, Disney Stores 1992-94: President, Disneyland 1994-September, 2002: Disney Parks and Resorts (In 2001 the Angels and Ducks sports teams were added to his duties.) Dug - I think some of the dates are off. Wasn't he president of DL when the Light Magic fiasco occurred? That was 1997, but your timeline says he was no longer president after 1994. Wikipedia says he became DL prez in 1994, where you say his tenure ended in 1994. Also, I distinctly remember when Cynthia Harriss succeeded him as DL prez - that was in the late 90s if not 2000. If someone did succeed him as DL prez in 1994, who was it?
Originally Posted By schnebs <<What about the events like the "gumball rally". Are those approved?>> IIRC, if the event's big enough, the group organizing the event has to get DLR's approval - I'm not sure if any money has to change hands. There are many smaller but similar events that just happen without Disney's knowledge or approval, and Disney turns a blind mouse's eye to them as long as they're not a disruption to regular park-goers. <<And what if I've have one of those bus tours when I drive you from a hotel from LA to DL. And you don't have a tour inside the park, but you do charge more than the ticket price because of the bus ride. ie $25 more than admission price. If JH charged $25 to give a tour, but you get in the park yourself, what's the diff?>> That's the reasoning Jim used when he set up the tours. You couldn't pay for Jim's tours on Disney property - you had to pay for the tour in advance and you had to buy your own way into the Park. He figured as long as no money changed hands at the Park and everyone had paid admission, there wouldn't be an issue. When the incident that DlandDug mentioned occurred, Disney decided that they didn't care where & when the money changed hands - Jim was giving an unauthorized paid tour and telling folks what they didn't want them to hear, and so Disney put the kibosh on them. You could definitely make an argument that money was Disney's main issue. David Koenig did a couple of unofficial tours after Jim's, in conjunction with book signings he did at Compass Books; David didn't charge for the tours or make buying his book a condition for coming along, and Disney let his tours go on - although Disney security tailed David's groups and asked people on the tour if David charged them. Would Disney care if you charged for and conducted an unofficial tour if you stuck to the Company line on your stories? Your guess is as good as mine, and I'm not going to risk losing my AP to find out.
Originally Posted By schnebs <<I sense that many DLR fans have a sense of ownership when it comes to the parks, especially DL Park. That always struck me as a bit obsessive. No offense to Jim Hill, but why would someone unaffiliated with DL feel compelled to start offering tours of the place? I can geek out with the best of them when it comes to DL, but there's definitely a limit to my interest.>> I've brought several non-Disney dweeb friends of mine to the Park for unofficial tours. (For free, Disney, for FREE - please don't ban me!) I don't do it out of obsession or any sense of ownership or entitlement - I do it because it's fun to be able to share a good story, and the Park has tons of good stories. Some of them are even true.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I've brought several non-Disney dweeb friends of mine to the Park for unofficial tours." OK, that's different though because they are your friends and you did it for free.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros <<What about the events like the "gumball rally". Are those approved?>> I'm not sure specifically about MiceAge's Gumball Rally events, but I did a Mouse Adventure (scavenger hunt in the park) a few years ago, and Disney certainly was aware of it. The event started in a ballroom at the PPH early in the morning, so I would assume they knew the group was headed to the park after the ballroom portion concluded. They had a few stations set up in the seating areas at restaurants in the park (taking over several tables at Rancho del Zocalo), the groups wandering the park were pretty obvious (clipboards and all), and nobody seemed to have an issue with it. I don't know what sort of approval they went through, but I assume they did something since we weren't even remotely sneaky about what was going on.
Originally Posted By phruby I take it that Al Lutz didn't write the current miceage update. It doesn't sound like his style of writing.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Doug>>"(P.S. Even unmarried women have families. You know... mom, dad. Married siblings and their kids...)" As an unmarried man with no children, I can agree with that. But also an unmarried man with no children who has been in the corporate world for many years, I also know that I can't use that excuse for a sudden and immediate resignation without setting off all sorts of career alarm bells. It's just not an excuse us unmarried, childless folks are allowed to use and expect people to believe us. Especially when you pick up a new corporate job for your old boss in 90 days in a different city where you've never lived before. Cynthia's "spend more time with family" line was a lie. It's been my experience that at the executive ranks even the wording on your resignation letter is pre-fabricated and part of your departure agreement to keep your executive contract intact. (Read: You get extra money for going quietly and exactly how the company wants to see you gone.) This was exactly what happened with Cynthia in '03. The evidence is everywhere on her departure and how Disney announced it.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I take it that Al Lutz didn't write the current miceage update. It doesn't sound like his style of writing.<< Agreed. It seems like someone else wrote it in their own words, and did a pretty decent job with it (much better than when they were trying to write in Al's style for the April Fools Day article). For the most part, I thought they did a pretty good job of portraying the information in an accurate way, though there were definitely a couple of opinions sneaking in at various points.
Originally Posted By inlandemporer Of all the people in the world with a writing style to imitate, why would anyone choose Al Lutz?
Originally Posted By DBitz2 I listened to MiceChat Podcast 7 a few days ago, and at the end of it they talked about what is going on with Al. MiceChat's Dustysage revealed that Al has been dealing with Parkinson's for the last several years, which I have known for quite awhile, but kept quite about until it was made public. Dusty went on to say that right after MiceAge/MiceChat's recent 10th anniversary celebration, Al had a sudden worsening of his health, which may have been brought on by pushing himself too hard with work for the site. He is physically unable to carry on his work with the site for the time being, although my understanding is that he still gives input and approval while others help with the actual physical duties. They hope that in time, he'll be well enough to resume his writing again. My thoughts and prayers are with Al that he gets better. Here's the link to the podcast - <a href="http://micechat.com/27419-micechat-podcast-summer-2013/" target="_blank">http://micechat.com/27419-mice...er-2013/</a>
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 Parkinson's is a horrible disease! I hope that they are able to stabilize Al's health enough for him to be able to return to work if that is what he wants to do.
Originally Posted By DBitz2 >>That's terrible. I hope he recovers. How old is Al?<< Hans, I don't know for sure how old Al is. I've always assumed he was around my age (50's), but I don't really know. Another friend who knows Al also thinks he's in his 50's.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Thanks. I sort of figured he was middle aged, but wasn't sure. I really do hope he gets better.
