Tri-Circle-D

Lol. I love how they’re afraid to say what a Fastpass for a good ride will cost. Greedy b*stards. 
TCD

I cannot believe that they’re going to serve rotisserie chicken and not fried chicken. And ribs and shrimp are add ons?  Sad. 
TCD

I cannot believe that they’re going to serve rotisserie chicken and not fried chicken. And ribs and shrimp are add ons?  Sad. 
TCD

I cannot believe that they’re going to serve rotisserie chicken and not fried chicken. And ribs and shrimp are add ons?  Sad. 
TCD

You were visiting the Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu.  I think they were too lazy to figure out how to explain how you arrived on another planet at the edge of another galaxy simply by walking down a path. 
My daughters disagree with me that they are intentionally bypassing the elaborate pre-show scenes on Rise of the Resistance to increase capacity.  But whatever the reason, it’s bad show to rush guests into a giant room full of stormtroopers with no explanation of where you are or how you got there.  It ruins the ride. The fact that this is still frequently happening is just more evidence of how greedy and lazy Disney management has become. 
TCD

This is not great news for anyone. 
Note this key sentence: “Those students whose programs ended early or were suspended last year due to COVID-19 are being asked to reapply.”
There are at least 20 former castmembers who worked in management positions for the DCP (about 80% of the management crew) who were canned by Disney who have not been rehired- or even been contacted with the prospect of being rehired.  I know one of them personally.  They also have not rehired 100+ other CM’s who worked screening and training the applicants.
What they do have is a few thousand college kids who made the DCP cut but got sent home early or told not to come last year.  They were already interviewed and screened for employment and hired.  Those are the only kids who might be allowed to come back. Disney wants a few hundred of them to come and bust their humps all summer because they can pay them less than the regular castmembers that they are choosing not to rehire. Those kids won’t get some of the perks that DCP kids used to get like special events and parties because everyone in that department got fired too.
Great news for shareholders.  Not even close to good news for anyone else.
TCD
 

This is a belated Happy Armed Forces Day to Dave and Ray and all of the other Fiend vets. 
Thank you for your service.
TCD

This is not great news for anyone. 
Note this key sentence: “Those students whose programs ended early or were suspended last year due to COVID-19 are being asked to reapply.”
There are at least 20 former castmembers who worked in management positions for the DCP (about 80% of the management crew) who were canned by Disney who have not been rehired- or even been contacted with the prospect of being rehired.  I know one of them personally.  They also have not rehired 100+ other CM’s who worked screening and training the applicants.
What they do have is a few thousand college kids who made the DCP cut but got sent home early or told not to come last year.  They were already interviewed and screened for employment and hired.  Those are the only kids who might be allowed to come back. Disney wants a few hundred of them to come and bust their humps all summer because they can pay them less than the regular castmembers that they are choosing not to rehire. Those kids won’t get some of the perks that DCP kids used to get like special events and parties because everyone in that department got fired too.
Great news for shareholders.  Not even close to good news for anyone else.
TCD
 

We were told a few weeks ago by a cast member that they are working on a family style approach to Trails End instead of a buffet.  It will be interesting to see how they pull it off.  I will really miss the way P&Js is set up now though.

Say what you want.  Blame it on COVID.  Blame it on greedy executives.  Blame it on politicians.  But I'm here to settle the argument.  Blame for the decline of Disney can be placed with one group, and one group only. 
The bakers.  My proof?
Circa 2010

 
Circa 2015

 
Circa 2019

 
Circa 2021

 
I rest my case. 

The corruption and malfeasance has been from the Governor’s office and Legislature more than it has been from local governments. So we now have horrible roads, schools, and our environment is a disaster. But at least we don’t have a State income tax, and you can go wherever you want without a mask. Paradise.
TCD

All of the above plus unmitigated government corruption and malfeasance. It is absolutely shocking to see the amount of unchecked development that has been allowed along the I-4 corridor with no improvement in infrastructure or provision for the astronomical traffic that logically flows from the unchecked development.
But if you have enough cash and know the right crooked politicians, you can build a toll road going to nowhere on or near land that you own and then build all kinds of residential units that will dump out onto the overcrowded interstates. 
TCD

More poor treatment of castmembers and reneging on retirement benefits. Park entry is part of the compensation and retirement packages that castmembers were promised. Except when Disney reneges so they can sell tickets to day guests.  Pure greed.
TCD

Good to see you here, Dave. I bought my camper when my oldest daughter was 8, and the twins were 4, and those first 10 years were the best. Like you, we made many last minute weekend trips, and never had a problem getting a site or feeling ripped off.  I didn’t like what came next, but I accepted it, and we just camped less, but still enjoyed it when we did. 
What finally did it for me is seeing how opportunistic and greedy Disney has been during the pandemic.  The park pass system blocks out passholders so they can sell those spaces to day guests at a higher price. Even though park attendance is about back to normal, there are long lines everywhere because they are understaffed and not operating attractions at their capacity.  They are too greedy to even have the trams running in the parking lots. They should have used this time to complete the construction projects that were already in the budget, but even that would hurt the current balance sheet too much, so the MK will have no new attractions, and the Magic Kingdom train isn’t even going to be running for the 50th anniversary.
So congratulations to Disney. They win. Their stockholders are happy. Their executives are very happy. They sure made a bundle by picking the pockets of castmembers, DVC members, and passholders. Not to mention the millions of “loans” they got from us taxpayers that they will never pay back.  They won big.
TCD
 
 

I'd love to attend but I'd have to drive a whopping 45 minutes just to see some Fort Fiend knuckleheads. For those who remember me, I retired from Disney and now live north of Atlanta. I will show up at Stone Mt. to annoy as many of you as I can. It'll be just like old times at the Fort. And you thought you had gotten rid of me. I expect some apple pie. 
 

I’m glad to read that your girls have landed on their feet. I would have expected nothing less.  I wish them the best in their post-Mouse lives.   
Anna is 13 years old.  Yes, we’ve combined Anna’s trademark Russian attitude with teenage angst.  Life in the DIT household is pretty active.  While most of our friends are now empty nesters, we’re still firmly in Disney princess territory, which is really annoying for me being the anti-Disney guy I long have been.  Like the country song said...I was anti-Disney before anti-Disney was cool.   Lol.  
So all of these changes at Disney haven’t impacted us...we weren’t returning to WDW anyways. But I’m sorry for those of you affected, in particular those who were or still are employed there.  This COVID stuff has derailed many careers, but none more upsetting than our young adults who are just beginning their lives and then everything went sideways.  My older girls are dealing with their own setbacks.  But at the end of the day they are learning skills of resilience that our generation never really had to.  This will serve them well eventually.   If you’ve ever read the book The Fourth Turning, this was actually all predicted by demographers who study generational change.  The current 20 somethings have a lot in common with the Greatest Generation, who survived the Depression and won the War.  This group of young folks will do great things, IMO.  
Anyways, sorry for the hijack.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Yes Disney sucks.  No I’m not on Facebook or any social media.  Yes I miss the old days on FF.  But I will always cherish the memories of the interactions on here and my family’s 10 years of camping at the Fort.
Onward and upward.    

Andrew,
great to hear from you. When you of all people are parting ways with Disney, everyone needs to realize there is a problem..lol. Like we spoke years ago, Disney has changed so much. For years it was just an attraction that a family could vacation at. Disney was not battling for world domination back then like they are now. It seems the majority changed when they bought MARVEL. Everything was looked at to make more money. They didn’t just want to make more money, they wanted to become a powerhouse and make a HUGE amount of money. With acquisitions like ABC,ESPN and eventually Lucasfilms, the attraction disappeared and the big business began.  An average family, with an average income slowly could not afford that magical trip. The Disney experience that cast members believed in began to diminish and the hidden gem of fort wilderness where you could stay for under $100 a night and get all the perks of staying on Disney property was soon realized and corrupted. Then Covid hit which disrupted their entire business model and changed the way they treat their guest.  Such a shame. But as I posted, we had 10 good years of awesome memories at the fort. As for this site, there has been many memorable post and especially trip reports from you, the master. Hard to believe the twins are 25. Time flies. Everything moves on and moves twice as fast. I’ll never regret having our kids enjoy the 10 years of Fort camping. 

Is there a full day exciment at typhone lagone?

Typical Tampa Bay Times. WDW has not been selling new APs since July. 
TCD

What a dumb article. Why should Disney push forward with spending millions of dollars on new attractions when the pandemic remains uncontrolled and there are no signs that travel will be returning to normal levels for a long time?  I hate what is happening as much as the next guy, but Disney is shrewdly doing what it needs to do to weather the storm. 
TCD

Not sure how long this will stay up.. Not for the little ones.
WEAR A MASK parody to BE OUR GUEST