Negative Press for Disneyland

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Saw this in our local (online version) paper today: https://www.sfgate.com/travel-colum...ouge-16616134.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight A lot to unpack in there, but I'm not used to seeing negative press for the parks. Seems to be an uptick lately.

 

[GBRforWDW]

I got to the point of him talking fast passes and ride of the Resistance and realized he did absolutely zero homework going into the trip. It makes no sense. He obviously hasn't been in more than a year and a half, maybe look and see if anything changed before you buy your ticket, especially considering Disneyland just experienced a year plus closure due to an unprecedented virus.

I don't know if he acknowledged this himself, but he's too whiney for my liking. Also, the ads on that site are atrocious... Constantly popping back up after I close them. He wants to complain about Capitalism, complain about the capitalism on the website you write for.

Haha, ok, I'm done with my critiquing rant.

 

[Malcon10t]

Seems like people diid no planning, and I'm not even sure they went to Disneyland, could they be just making this up? So the app said they couldn't make a Rise reservation because they weren't on site? Yet I have made one from 350 miles away? They attempted to make a second stab at it at 1pm, when it goes off at noon? (WDW is 1pm.). What "3-D" ride did they go on? Buzz?? Star Tours? So much of this sounds fabricated.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Lol, it'd be funny if they downloaded the Disney world app instead of Disneyland. I lost instant in that hot circle of garbage

 

[Iceman93]

The author made some good points, but he lost me by continually looking for non-existent racism as the explanation for changes in the parks.

 

[bsmcneil]

I got to the point of him talking fast passes and ride of the Resistance and realized he did absolutely zero homework going into the trip. It makes no sense. He obviously hasn't been in more than a year and a half, maybe look and see if anything changed before you buy your ticket, especially considering Disneyland just experienced a year plus closure due to an unprecedented virus.

I don't know if he acknowledged this himself, but he's too whiney for my liking. Also, the ads on that site are atrocious... Constantly popping back up after I close them. He wants to complain about Capitalism, complain about the capitalism on the website you write for.

Haha, ok, I'm done with my critiquing rant.

TBF, you do realize that the ads would be not as obnoxious if capitalism wasn't a thing. Like ... yeah, I think the point is let's complain about a thing that makes our lives worse.

 

[bsmcneil]

I read the article expecting the worst and ... it's not, really. I imagine this is how a bunch of people experience DL and, to some extent, WDW. Most people I know don't expect that they need to do months of planning for a theme park. My kids are confused about why I bring up things like trying to decide where we might want to eat. And while I'm not going to argue with internet strangers about whether racism exists, the only thing I didn't quite comprehend (even if my experience/perspective is different) was saying there were no Black people at all - and then there were some. Like, I get it - but not the style of writing I'd expect from a paper (I mean, truthfully, this was way more like a blog, right?). But to make connections about the racial experience in America and how it's reflected at these significant cultural landmarks? I mean - there's some good academic studies of identity and representation through these parks (someone I know - ok, ok, it's me - has worked up a book pitch to mostly university presses about this very issue).

 

[gelatoni fan]

Some inaccurate info but even Cast Members often don't know certain things and give wrong information. I'm sure this is how a lot of people would remember their experience of the parks and Disneyland has definitely gotten too complex.

I hadn't paid much attention to the racial makeup of the guests at the park before but thinking back, I would agree that there are fewer Black people in the parks than pre-pandemic. There's also fewer people who speak other languages (Spanish, Japanese, etc) but I attribute that mostly to the lack of international travel.

I think the general attitude of Disney has gotten very customer unfriendly. Instead of trying to make things easier on people like this author, Disney blames customers for not liking the overly complicated system they designed. That said, the author's focus on every little detail that could potentially be argued to be tangentially related to racism distracted a bit. The inaccurate information also makes me not trust the author's account of what happened. I'm not saying he fabricated the whole story but at a minimum, he didn't accurately document his experience.

 

[birdmom]

he lost me at "black folk" I am so sick of people making everything a race issue!

 

[DLgal]

This guy went to Disney World and wrote about Disneyland. Terrible what passes as journalism these days.

 

[bsmcneil]

Some inaccurate info but even Cast Members often don't know certain things and give wrong information. I'm sure this is how a lot of people would remember their experience of the parks and Disneyland has definitely gotten too complex.

I hadn't paid much attention to the racial makeup of the guests at the park before but thinking back, I would agree that there are fewer Black people in the parks than pre-pandemic. There's also fewer people who speak other languages (Spanish, Japanese, etc) but I attribute that mostly to the lack of international travel.

I think the general attitude of Disney has gotten very customer unfriendly. Instead of trying to make things easier on people like this author, Disney blames customers for not liking the overly complicated system they designed. That said, the author's focus on every little detail that could potentially be argued to be tangentially related to racism distracted a bit. The inaccurate information also makes me not trust the author's account of what happened. I'm not saying he fabricated the whole story but at a minimum, he didn't accurately document his experience.

Do you have an example of what he inaccurately documented?

 

[bsmcneil]

This guy went to Disney World and wrote about Disneyland. Terrible what passes as journalism these days.

I'm sorry what in the world makes you say that? You really think someone who lives in Southern California doesn't know if they're in California or Florida? What the actual ...

 

[DLgal]

I'm sorry what in the world makes you say that? You really think someone who lives in Southern California doesn't know if they're in California or Florida? What the actual ...

All the completely incorrect information about the reservation system for Rise of the Resistance, the fact that there are NO 3D rides in Disneyland, etc. Also the talk about how he needed the app for Fastpass, and that has never really been the case at Disneyland (like it was at WDW with FP+). There was a lot of incorrect information.

 

[bsmcneil]

he lost me at "black folk" I am so sick of people making everything a race issue!

Guess what - your experiences are about race, too. It's just that as a white person in America, you can assume yours are the default experience and gloss over it. It's not that some people make things a race issue - it's that some people actively acknowledge their experience. I'll refer you to a great quote from a recent show: "Stories about the effects of slavery make you uncomfortable? [...] Try living them!"

 

[bsmcneil]

All the completely incorrect information about the reservation system for Rise of the Resistance, the fact that there are NO 3D rides in Disneyland, etc. Also the talk about how he needed the app for Fastpass, and that has never really been the case at Disneyland (like it was at WDW with FP+). There was a lot of incorrect information.

See, this is what reeks of racism to me. You assume - because their experience is different than yours - that they were wrong. But all of that - as someone who's been to both parks, including recently, makes perfect sense for someone who hadn't been to DL in a very long time. The writer didn't say it was a fact they needed the app for FP; they were told they needed the app and they tried to make sense of why and assumed it was due to FP (which is an assumption I've seen people on this board make). They refer to a 3D ride re: star wars but there's no doubt in my mind that what they didn't mean 3D as in a thing with glasses. The way they described it was not dissimilar from how I've had family members and other people describe their experience on things like Soarin'. The article clearly isn't written by a Disneyland or Disney World expert - but most people aren't. To assume they misreported their experience because they described it differently than you ... wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Wow. Do you go into all the trip reports on this and tell people they clearly mixed up two states on opposite coasts because they refer to Sleeping Beauty's castle when they mean Cinderella's (or vice versa)? There's a current thread about icicle lights on castles which has this exact issue - and so I trust I'll see you there telling people they're just wrong and in the wrong state, right?

ETA: if the writer had talked about going to a park with a big golf ball and another with animals, then I could see people saying "Uh, he clearly was at Disney World and how is that journalism" (note, they're a columnist and not a journalist and maybe you could read a byline first). But they talked about California Adventure and Knott's Berry (two very famous Floridian parks). Wow.

ETA, again: Also, Matterhorn. CLEARLY they were in Orlando, although if we're going to be accurate, I'm trusting the people on this thread who talk about accuracy don't say Orlando because that's not where Disney World is ...

 

[birdmom]

and now I know how to use the ignore and report options on this site.....

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

All the completely incorrect information about the reservation system for Rise of the Resistance, the fact that there are NO 3D rides in Disneyland, etc. Also the talk about how he needed the app for Fastpass, and that has never really been the case at Disneyland (like it was at WDW with FP+). There was a lot of incorrect information.

See, this is what reeks of racism to me. You assume - because their experience is different than yours - that they were wrong. But all of that - as someone who's been to both parks, including recently, makes perfect sense for someone who hadn't been to DL in a very long time. The writer didn't say it was a fact they needed the app for FP; they were told they needed the app and they tried to make sense of why and assumed it was due to FP (which is an assumption I've seen people on this board make). They refer to a 3D ride re: star wars but there's no doubt in my mind that what they didn't mean 3D as in a thing with glasses. The way they described it was not dissimilar from how I've had family members and other people describe their experience on things like Soarin'. The article clearly isn't written by a Disneyland or Disney World expert - but most people aren't. To assume they misreported their experience because they described it differently than you ... wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Wow. Do you go into all the trip reports on this and tell people they clearly mixed up two states on opposite coasts because they refer to Sleeping Beauty's castle when they mean Cinderella's (or vice versa)? There's a current thread about icicle lights on castles which has this exact issue - and so I trust I'll see you there telling people they're just wrong and in the wrong state, right?

ETA: if the writer had talked about going to a park with a big golf ball and another with animals, then I could see people saying "Uh, he clearly was at Disney World and how is that journalism" (note, they're a columnist and not a journalist and maybe you could read a byline first). But they talked about California Adventure and Knott's Berry (two very famous Floridian parks). Wow.

ETA, again: Also, Matterhorn. CLEARLY they were in Orlando, although if we're going to be accurate, I'm trusting the people on this thread who talk about accuracy don't say Orlando because that's not where Disney World is ...

How did you find racism in that post? Did you quote the wrong one?

 

[bsmcneil]

How did you find racism in that post? Did you quote the wrong one?

Here are some ways that racism shows up in our culture:

We expect/assume perfection - examples that I felt showed up in the post to which i responded:

• more common is to point out either how the person or work is inadequate
• or even more common, to talk to others about the inadequacies of a person or their work without ever talking directly to them
• mistakes are seen as personal, i.e. they reflect badly on the person making them as opposed to being seen for what they are – mistakes
• little time, energy, or money put into reflection or identifying lessons learned that can improve practice, in other words little or no learning from mistakes
• tendency to identify what’s wrong; little ability to identify, name, and appreciate what’s right

Defensiveness shows up:

• because of either/or thinking (see below), criticism of those with power is viewed as threatening and inappropriate (or rude)
• people respond to new or challenging ideas with defensiveness, making it very difficult to raise these ideas
• white people spend energy defending against charges of racism instead of examining how racism might actually be happening

At no point in that post (or most of the posts in this thread) did someone focus on the person's experience - but there was a lot of jumping to "this person is wrong because they said it differently than I would've", "what kind of journalist are they", etc. Instead of being even remotely aware that people have different experiences and word things differently, there was a jump to (a) this person talked about race and there's no racism and (b) what they said was factually wrong (even when things were a matter of perspective).

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I was at DL weeks before when the author went and did not experience much of what he did. We got Rise/Web slinger passes at 7am at our offsite (Harbor Ave) hotel without issue. I don't remember a mobile order being over 15 minutes and we used them for every food item we purchased. Lines were longer than I liked but I remember them averaging 30-45 mins for everything except the most popular rides... certainly not an hour plus for the entire park.

I dunno, maybe things changed a lot in 2 weeks or he picked a busy day but I didn't come away from our visit with a bad outlook on the parks.

 

[bsmcneil]

I was at DL weeks before when the author went and did not experience much of what he did. We got Rise/Web slinger passes at 7am at our offsite (Harbor Ave) hotel without issue. I don't remember a mobile order being over 15 minutes. Lines were longer than I liked but I remember them averaging 30-45 mins... certainly not an hour plus for the entire park. I dunno, maybe things changed a lot in 2 weeks or he picked a busy day but I didn't come away from our visit with a bad outlook on the parks.

So, would you say that this person misreported facts?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-food-situation-is-not-good-at-the-disneyland-resort.3860139/
If not, why not? The writer didn't say, "Everyone's experience is awful." Most travel writers I've read (though I'm not sure that's his position at SFGate) write about their experience and it's rare that people jump on them and say, "You went to Disney World and not Disneyland."