Throwing in My badge…

Well firstly, I am sorry to announce that I am leaving The Walt Disney Company on Tuesday January 4th, after 1 year 3 months and 2 days service with them.

I am kind of sorry to go, but it is for the best, and it will be a relief for me in the end.

It’s had its ups and downs, probably more downs than ups to be honest and I want to leave whilst I’m still on good terms with them, as sad as that may sound.

The Company isn’t what it used to be. It has changed, and I don’t like who they are becoming and what they are doing. There are more personal reasons too as to my leaving, but like I say, they’re personal.

So bye bye 20% - 30% discount and £7.50 DVD’s! Bye bye to Company paid meals to 5 star hotels and nice incentives for hitting targets! Bye bye to free entry tickets to the Parks and Resorts!

I’m concentrating more on my studies and putting more hours into my other job (which is for another American company!), Wal*Mart (or ASDA as it is known by here in the UK)

Well aside from that, I promised I’d give you an update so regardless of me leaving, here it is… all the latest gossip!...

Parks and Resorts News

What else has been happening with me first? Well, I was planning a trip to Disneyland Resort Paris this Christmas, but like life goes it hasn’t happened as yet, but my best friend and I are off to Walt Disney World Resort in March (I’m counting the days I’m so excited!), so expect a big trip report when I come back! (I’ll try not to make it as critical as my California one I wrote earlier this year!) We will probably be taking our trip out to Paris in the early summer now instead.

On the subject of Disneyland Resort Paris, a few things have been going on over there lately, some of which you may not have heard about.

I think everyone is aware that they are in the final stages of their massive debt restructuring now and the WDC have resumed their massive royalty payments, hitting Euro Disney really hard. They want to add loads of new attractions but they are struggling with attendance and of course they have so much debt they can’t afford it, but at the same time if they built these new things then maybe it’d bring it back up to scratch! So as you can see, it’s just one big vicious circle!

Cast here at Disney Store UK are doubtful of poor Disneyland Paris’s future and some reckon it may close.

My friend and I are agreed that the day bulldozers are sent in we will lie down in front of the park entrance and make a protest!!

If you want join my self and my friend on this mad campaign let me know!

In other news, Eurostar, the French international train operator has made announcements about changes to services and plans for new services. These include scrapping its current London Waterloo International service and moving it to Saint Pancreas! Nobody has any idea why, and it really is a pointless waste of money!

Everybody knows that you ‘can get from London to Paris in less than 3 hours!’ from London Waterloo. For a start everybody knows where London Waterloo is!

St. Pancreas on the other hand!? I think this will surely kill the already ailing business and it won’t do much good for Disneyland Resort Paris if the routes are changed. Hardly anybody bothers as it is at the minute; what will happen when they have to go from a station most people haven’t even heard of?!

Eurostar currently offers passengers journeys to and from London, Ashford, Paris, Holland and Belgium, amongst a few others.

Some guy from the mafia was arrested there recently too. Maybe he didn’t realise that the police would catch up with him because “it’s a small world after all!”…

As of 2nd January new tickets for WDW are going to be available to the US and UK. These apparently allow more affordability and flexibility. But the day entry price is once again rocketing up.

There is no news as yet on price changes for Disneyland Resort Paris.

Tickets are available online or from all Disney Stores here in the UK.

The Disney Store, Christmas and The Incredibles

Our flagship Store in Oxford Street, London has gone all out this Christmas and has special décor installed for the festive season and a new Incredibles theme has also appeared on its shop front (including a life size statue of Mr. Incredible in the window), with Elastigirl stretched across the front holding up the Store’s name badge, which for the festive season has been changed to Disney Christmas Store! (Or similar) Oxford Street Store also has a real life Father Christmas (Santa) sitting in the window waving to shoppers as they brave the cold London winter days.

Other Stores have also been sprinkled with some festive magic this year and have had new Incredibles shop facings put in too. The famously traditional ‘film strip’ that graces Disney Stores world wide has been replaced in some stores with an Incredibles style orange, red and yellow film strip.

Another surprise to my friend and me this year as Regent Street (just off Oxford Street, home of the world famous Hamley’s Toy Store) has some fantastic Christmas decorations and lights… wait for it… again in the Incredibles theme!

All the way down from the Oxford Street entrance to the Piccadilly Circus exit are massive light facades stretched across the street of all your favourite Incredibles characters!

There is Mr. Incredible (two of him in fact!), Dash, Violet, Frozone, Syndrome and Elastigirl! (There is two of her too!)

They are really magnificent lights and they are far better that Oxford Street’s poor attempt at a Harry Potter theme this year! (If anybody has actually as yet seen what those light things do in Oxford Street let me know! They really are pointlessly poor!)

At our cast Christmas meeting we had a Mr. Incredible too… but I won’t embarrass the Cast involved with the photos I have of that event!!

Everything Else Disney Store…

Just to clear one matter up too, Walt Disney Company has NOT sold The Disney Store, UK Ltd! Our American counterparts seem to think that we have bee sold to Children’s Place along with the US and Canada Stores. We have not. So there!

It’s just that it’s causing problems for Cast on trips out to the Resorts because we are being told we can’t have discount due to the fact we aren’t part of the Company anymore! But thankfully Children’s Place are nicer than WDC and are allowing WDC Cast to have 30% discount in their Stores despite them being independent to WDC now!

The Incredibles have been massive here and our Stores have been flooded with masses of Incredibles products, and I have to say, they aren’t bad prices either some of it! Check out www.disneystore.co.uk for more info.

Outside our Bluewater Store earlier in the autumn at the UK release of Princess Diaries 2 we had photographers outside the store. There was like a throne and a backdrop with ‘Princess Diaries 2’ on it and little girls (or boys if they wanted!) could sit on the throne and wear a crown and hold a staff whilst having their photograph taken. Also at the Bluewater mall in June we had a very special visit from Winnie the Pooh and friends! Unfortunately I forgot this event and was blissfully unaware that I had missed it until about a month later! I was so annoyed because Cast had the opportunity to spend an hour working with the characters greeting Guests! And I forgot and so didn’t go in work that day!! D’OH!!

Aside from that nobody apparently had a camera either that day so we are all as stupid as each other!

And Finally…

Lastly some exciting news of up coming UK DVD releases in spring 2005 (usually March), we have:

Bambi, the 2 disc collector’s edition, 1st time ever on Disney DVD, The Incredibles and Aladdin Return of Jafar and King of Thieves special editions (although if you bought the trilogy edition this autumn you will already have these).

So, there we have it!

If you have any questions of whatever, just drop me a line. I might only have two weeks left at the Disney Store, but I’m as big a fan as ever and will continue to keep you all up to date as and when the gossip comes in!

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Have a Fantasmic time!

Dan slightly shaken but not stirred, and a bit to the left.