Category: Disneyland Resort

Don’t be fooled, a third theme park is NOT coming to Anaheim:

Everyone can calm down. There’s no third Disney theme park on the way to Anaheim.

The Orange County Metblog published a report today saying Disney officially announced it was building a water park patterned after the one in Japan.

The water park would have been built on the Fujishige farm property in Anaheim that Disney bought in the 1990s.

The idea of building a third park has been kicked around for years.

Suzi Brown, a Disneyland spokeswoman, confirmed this morning that the report was a hoax.

April Fool’s Day joke?

Around Disney is trying to get ahold of the blogger.

According the OC Register’s Around Disney blog:

Walt Disney Co. officials announced today that 1,900 salaried positions have been eliminated because of restructuring in part made necessary by the troubled economy.

Disney announced in mid-February that it had begun laying off employees after a round of voluntary buyouts, but the company did not release a figure on how many employees had lost their jobs until today.

Locally, some 200 people have been laid off at Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort and an additional 100 positions will not be filled there, Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. The positions were executive, management and administrative jobs behind the scenes.

Most of the positions eliminated came from elsewhere in the company, including 900 layoffs in Florida. And 500 open positions will not be filled there. About 200 positions, from layoffs and the elimination of open spots, came from other Disney sites.

About 200 layoffs came from other Disney sites.

In total, it marks an 11-percent reduction in workforce in the executive/administrative segment, Brown said.

“These decisions were not made lightly, but are essential to maintaining our leadership in family tourism and reflect today’s economic realities,” Brown said. “We continue to work through our reorganization and manage our business based on demand.”

Few hourly employees have been affected by the layoffs. Disneyland announced last week that it will close Yamabuki restaurant at its Paradise Pier Hotel on April 11, which employees 39 cast members. Disney said it will work to find other positions for those employees.

Disney officials have said they will continue to evaluate staffing. In a previous statement, Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said: “The long-term success of Parks and Resorts depends upon our ability to adapt and innovate.”

According to the OC Register’s Around Disney blog:

Several months ago, Disney announced that guests could buy a year-long pass to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure with monthly payments.

Because of some errors in selling the passes, however, Disney is backpedaling on the deal for some northern California pass holders — they’ll be able to use their passes through the dates printed on the pass, but the payments have been halted — effectively a discount.

Turns out, there’s a line in the contract that limits the payment plan deal to park-goers living within Southern California area codes.

Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the mistake was “human error” that caused park employees to sign up “a handful” of out-of-towners who weren’t eligible for the deal.

Disney sent Around Disney a copy of the letter they sent those passholders:

Thank you for your purchase of a Disneyland® Resort Annual Passport.

Unfortunately, per the terms of the Retail Installment Contract for the Annual Passport Monthly Payment Plan, the Monthly Payment option is only available to residents of Southern California within zip codes 90000 to 93599. You were inadvertently sold a pass under a program in which you are, regrettably, ineligible to participate. We sincerely apologize for any disappointment this may cause as it is never our intention to inconvenience our Guests in any manner.

We will stop billing and collecting all future scheduled payments on May 1, 2009 and your contract will be terminated at that time. For your enjoyment, however, the Annual Passport purchased by you under the Monthly Payment plan will continue to be valid for admission until the printed expiration date. When your current Annual Passport does expire, we would invite you to renew your Annual Passport, using a standard one-time payment. Again, we apologize for any disappointment this may cause.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Guest Communications at 714-781-4669. We do hope that your next visit to the Disneyland® Resort will be pleasant in every respect.