Mouse Tales author and MousePlanet staff writer David Koenig starts out this week’s mailbag with letters in response to his article “Year of a Million Yawns.” Oleg writes:
Nice info today, David. I am half surprised they plan to destroy the leftover 50th merchandise. At first I thought they would funnel the leftovers to the Disney outlets (more out-of-state than Anaheim). I changed my mind, though, when I remembered that lately only the most cheesy merchandise has been hitting their shelves. I can only assume it’s an attempt to maintain brand value. Now I wonder how much of the Million Yawns stuff will make it there—or will Rasulo demand cast members buy the leftovers.
Hopefully Disney is learning what sells (quality, heartfelt, fair-priced merchandise such as several of the commemorative books and especially the six-CD set of Disneyland music) and what doesn’t (cheap, mass-produced trinkets).
A Disneyland cast member writes:
I had the class yesterday morning and honestly I wasn’t impressed. They woke me up and gave me 2+ hours of overtime to attend a class that could have been summed up with the banner “Just keep doing your job!”
They will be randomly handing out free things to people ranging from churros to traveling to various destinations. I like some of the “grand prizes,” if you will. I think the whole tour of Walt’s apartment is a great thought. The Parade Grand Marshal of every park is another nice one. They also have a Disney Vacation to some far-off destination. There’s a night in Mickey’s penthouse suite (currently being re-themed) or if you are in Florida then it would be a one-night stay in the actual Castle Suite.
I love the new buttons (Just Married, Happy Anniversary, newly designed Honorary Citizen, Happy Birthday and 1st Visit), but I hope they will continue to give us stickers, because they are a simple way of spreading the magic to little ones. The downside to the whole program is that you don’t know if you are getting a churro or a tour until they tell you.
David continues with the next two letters in response to his most recent column, “Rapid Response.” Doug Higley writes:
…”though hopefully no one will be tempted to test that acceleration time on the compact Rivers of America.”
Ha ha. Yeah right. After hours that thing will be making some hellacious laps…maybe you can get a personal demo? Now that’s an E-ticket! 65mph on ROA? YES!
I am so happy you don’t work for the Disneyland Fire Department.
Duane K. writes:
With all the many waterways throughout Walt Disney World, will the Florida property be getting a fleet of these emergency vehicles?
I haven’t heard anything, but I have to imagine they would be much more valuable at Walt Disney World than at Disneyland. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where Disneyland’s Fire Department got the idea in the first place.
Alan Cranford writes:
I hadn’t heard of the parking structure toll booth robberies until I read your MousePlanet post. In fact, I knew little about the crimes committed in Disneyland until the publication of your Mouse Tales series. Yes, some crimes made the news—and faded. Other than that, it was mere rumor to me. What I can find out is that Disneyland is a very safe place—but not perfectly safe. The area around Disneyland began as rural and untamed, developed into a bit of an eyesore, and in recent years has been cleaned up quite a bit. It never was Downtown L.A., though!
What were the dates of those robberies?
The most recent robberies were on successive Tuesdays, September 19 and September 26. There certainly have been car break-ins and other crimes over the years, but confrontations are very rare.
Cast Place editor Shoshana Lewin answers letters about the Disneyland college program and how to contact Disney about CMs. Stephanie writes:
I’m not sure if you’re the right person to be asking about it but I had a few questions about the program now at Disneyland like the one in Florida. I sent an e-mail to the Disney help but that was a few weeks ago now. I was just wondering number one if there is housing like at Walt Disney World.
I live in Northern California and that is probably the #1 thing I’m concerned about. I would love to do the program but it’s very hard to find out information about it! There seem to be no specifics on the Web site like there is for Walt Disney World. It’s making me go crazy. Thanks!
You’ve come to the right place. The program at Disneyland is a revamped version of one that they ran years ago (it was on hiatus for a number of years in between). Years ago they did put participants up at Oakwood and took the money out of what they made.
That has since changed. Now, unlike at Walt Disney World, you are on your own for housing, but the good news is that there are a lot of people who are also looking for housing/roommates—and there are plenty of places in the surrounding area (not necessarily Anaheim, but Costa Mesa, Fullerton and Irvine).
Check a place like Craigslist.com to see what some options are regarding price and location. Also, Disneyland cast members often post listings in the CM newsletter and on bulletin boards around the resort looking for roommates (when they answer you back ask them about that). You also might want to post on MousePad and see if other people are looking for roommates, as I know we have many posters who have expressed an interest in the new program.
Kimberly writes:
I enjoy reading the cast member stories. As frequent visitors to the parks and resort, my family members have been touched by many CMs. Do you know of an e-mail address for Disneyland City Hall so we may let them know electronically of our “magical” experiences?
I just spoke to someone at Disneyland Guest Relations at (714) 781-7290. You are in luck—there is a way to do it electronically… go to www.disneyland.com and click on “Contact Us” at the bottom of the page. Then in the subject line of the message, just type what it is for and it will get to City Hall. And if you’d like to share your story with us, too—we’d love to hear it.
Staff writer Lisa Perkis answers the next group of questions, sent in response to her review of the new Platinum Edition DVD of The Little Mermaid.
Joey writes:
The DVD is a tribute to [Howard] Ashman, which is deserved. But why does the DVD and yourself seem to gloss over the fact that Ashman died of AIDS? It’s not something to be ashamed of. If he had a stroke or cancer, it would be mentioned, but why is AIDS still so taboo in today’s time?
I live in Manhattan in a circle of friends who are all HIV positive, and we all found it odd that the DVD discusses Divine, but cannot even whisper the word AIDS, which is as much a part of the this man’s history as anything else.
You are right; the DVD set does not talk about how or why Howard Ashman died. However, it also does not talk about the death or the circumstances behind Frank Wells’ untimely death—and he was tremendously important to the renaissance of the company at that time as well. I can’t speculate as to why they left these facts out, but if I had to guess I would say they wanted to focus more on the positive things they did, and not dwell on the tragedy of two huge influences to the Disney Company. Come to think of it, I can’t recall any Disney DVD getting into the fact that Walt died at 65 specifically of lung cancer, either. I guess the reasons why don’t matter as much as the fact that they all died too soon.
I didn’t really think about all of this when I was writing the review—for the most part I just stuck with the material I viewed on the disc, as you observed. I did not intend to offend anyone by omission.
Elizabeth writes:
I just had to tell you that after we finished watching The Little Mermaid the day it was re-released on DVD, my husband, 16 year old son, and I watched “The Little Match Girl.” Oh my goodness! We all gathered around to see this short. We just loved the way it looked. At the end, well, as much as we loved it, we were all so bummed out after that. We kept looking at each other wondering if it really ended the way it did. My husband was the brave one to say out loud, “Did she die?” I replied, “I believe so.” He said, “Geeze, that’s sad!” My son kept saying, “I liked it a lot. But that was one of the saddest things I’ve ever watched.” I had to remind them about Bambi.
Anyhow, all 3 of us agreed that “The Little Match Girl” is one of Disney’s best animations in a long time. There was just such a wonderful feel to what we were looking at. I’m glad Disney added this to the DVD. It would have been a shame to keep this one locked away.
Thanks for the feedback. I had it even worse than you did—I had read and loved “The Little Match Girl” when I was little, so I knew what was going to happen. I started tearing up right at the beginning! I had not heard anything about the ending of the film and did not know if Disney had sweetened the ending as they had for The Little Mermaid. I was happy and sad at the same time that they left it as it had been written. It’s a beautiful little film.
Finally, Susan Edgington writes to Lisa with a tip for Disney and American Girl doll fans (read Lisa’s article about American Girl from June 2006):
Hi Lisa, I wrote to you before about your article on American Girl Place in L.A. Well, I thought I’d pass on a bit of info I discovered in case your daughters were interested. I have found that some of the Disney Tails hats and shirts made for dogs fit the American Girl dolls. So if you wanted a pink Disney Minnie princess hat for your doll, you can get the one for dogs and it works!
How cute! We will keep an eye out for them the next time we visit the park. Thanks for the tip.
