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N-E-S-T-L-E-S; Time to go with all the rest
Speaking of sponsorships, we'd told you about
the shaky ground the once vast Nestle'
sponsorship was on at Disneyland. Since we last
updated you on that, the sponsorship deal has
begun to formally disintegrate and Nestle' brand
logos are now disappearing from all over Disneyland
property. The Disneyland Kennel Club is no
longer sponsored by Friskies, which was a brand
owned by Nestle'.
Guess where the sponsor's logo was.
Just a few weeks ago the
French Market Restaurant in New Orleans Square
lost its decades old sponsorship by Stouffers,
which is also a brand name owned by corporate
giant Nestle'. For you younger readers, Stouffers was a brand that had
various sponsorships in Disneyland dating back
to the early 1960's, predating their
corporate takeover by Nestle' in 1973.
The Tiki Room was going to be sponsored by
Stouffers
when it was originally planned to be a restaurant.
But with
Nestle' on the way out, Stouffers goes too, and
Disneyland loses a sponsor of 45 years.
Ironically, it was their takeover of Stouffers
in 1973 that first got Nestle' a corporate
presence inside Disney parks.
Thus far, the Disneyland place-names Carnation
Cafe and Carnation Plaza Gardens are still safe.
Even though Carnation Ice Cream, yet another
Nestle' owned brand, is now off the menu, the
Disney lawyers have come to a tentative
agreement with Nestle' that the names have
historical significance that outweighs their
association with a specific ice cream once
served there.
Mickey, Can You Hear Me?
If any of these changes bother you enough to go
fill out a comment card at Disneyland's guest
relations office in City Hall, you need not
bother. In late July all Guest Relations offices
in Disneyland and DCA stopped allowing any
visitor to fill out a comment card or leave any
comment in writing. Whether it's a compliment
about a great Jungle Cruise skipper, or a
complaint about cold gumbo in New Orleans
Square, you can no longer write anything down at
Disneyland Guest Relations. Believe it or not,
this new decree comes from Disney's legal
department who was getting tired of being threatened with lawsuits from angry park visitors
upset about something they had put on a
complaint form at City Hall.
Lawsuits, mainly coming out of the Florida
parks, had begun to pester the Burbank legal
team from issues ranging from the placement of
popcorn wagons, to the installation of major E
Ticket attractions like Soarin'. When a visitor
filled out a comment form and wrote things like
"You shouldn't have so many popcorn wagons
cluttering the walkways around parade time", and
then returned on a future visit and found the
walkways near the parade route moving smoothly
they would rush home and tell their lawyer that
Disney took my operational suggestion but didn't
pay me. The lawyer would smell blood in the
water and fire up a lawsuit claiming Disney
changed their procedures based on their clients
suggestion and owed their client consultant
fees.
A similar suit was attempted by someone who
had enjoyed riding Soarin' Over California at
DCA in 2001, and then filled out a comment card
at Epcot's Guest Relations desk in 2002
suggesting that Disney bring the popular ride to
Florida. Once Soarin' was added to The Land
pavilion at Epcot in '05, the visitor was
convinced it was his written suggestion that put
the idea in management's head to add Soarin' to
the park, and he demanded he be compensated for the
idea.
So, to avoid any ability to formally
accept written suggestions, comments, or
criticism of park policy or operation, the
lawyers have removed the ability to leave any
written comment at Guest Relations. Instead, the
Guest Relations hosts and hostesses that staff
that busy desk will only take verbal comments,
whether good or bad. The Guest Relations office
then compiles a list of the comments and phones
the manager or department mentioned in the
comment. The comments are given verbally over
the phone, and the list of comments are then
shredded in the back office throughout the day.
Nothing is allowed to be emailed or sent in
inter-office mail to anyone, as the
communication all needs to stay entirely
verbal. The ability for City Hall Cast Members
to even jot down notes or names of Cast Members
was even a problem for Disney's legal
department, but it was deemed acceptable only
when the shredders were installed and Guest
Relations management agreed to monitor the
process.
If a visitor absolutely insists on writing a
letter, the Guest Relations CM's can give the
park visitor the snail mail address for Disney's
corporate legal office, and that's when the real
fun begins. Assuming the park visitor actually
takes the time to write a letter the old
fashioned way and send it to Burbank, the letter
is opened by hand and scanned by a small
batallion of office drones in cubicles, and
when the letter contains a phrase or sentence
that mentions a visit to a Disney park, it is
folded closed. Once closed, the visitors
letter is attached to a form letter that
politely informs the reader that this
correspondence has been formally rejected by
Disney for liability reasons and has been
returned to the sender without further
acknowledgement of the company.
The form letter and the visitor's original letter
are then stuffed into a larger envelope, and the
packet is returned to the sender via regular
mail. The whole thing should prove to be pretty
frustrating for anyone complaining about cold
gumbo or swarms of vending carts, but at least
the lawyers can breathe easier.
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