Mouse Expedition is the best!

[Mary Jo]

I see it more as someone conducting a business for profit using someone else's (Disney's) private property. To me, it's the same concept of someone selling roasted chestnuts. Disney doesn't sell them, however, without a license, I doubt they'll want this business happening on their premises.

Does stuff like this happen? Of course it does, but like it was said earlier, that doesn't make it right. It's not something that I'm going to get upset about, however, if it is an issue that Disney would prefer not be promoted on this site, we would respect their wishes.

[Argento]

Originally Posted by Mel522

Disney can't prove it. I know a lot about Disneyland, and I point things out to my family and basically tour them around the park. There are lots of people who know a lot, or think they know a lot, that leads their party around like a tour guide. Disney has no way of knowing who is paying for an outside touring service and who simply has a know it all in their group.

Sure they can, all they have to do is hire the guy and when he shows up, ban him on the spot. They would be well within their rights to demand a refund as well.

[lilpooh108]

I'm glad someone posted this on the thread and AHEM "recommended" his services. Yea, right. Advertisement is more like it.

Disney obviously reads the DIS threads. I'm glad this is getting "publicity" so that Disney can shut his website down and ban him from this practice.

Sure its not a problem now because it's what, one guy saving a space with a tarp for a family of 6. What if he hires 30 employees and all you see are blue tarps up & down main street How pissed off would you be if you can't get a spot to sit because a row of blue tarps are taking up the spots?

I'm an AP holder, I live 20 minutes away, and yes this would bother me to see it even though I never bother waiting for the parades/fireworks.

People should play fair, and once this guy's "enterprise" gets big enough he will get shut down.

He's running an unauthorized business on Disney's property. A ticket to a theme park (or a sporting event) grants you legal license to enter private property. There are terms & conditions on his license to enter the park. I'm pretty sure selling his spot in line or on Main Street violates that license.

[julieheyer]

Very interesting! It's appealing, particularly for F! The price for the dessert and seat for F! is outrageous, IMHO. Paying someone $50, instead of Disney over $200 for the dessert option (4 of us), seems like a dream come true. Especially since dd(9) and dh are gluten free - so the dessert box wouldn't work well for us.

I'm sure eventually Disney will find out about it and shut it down. And, truthfully, b/c it's something Disney could do themselves (picture CM FP runners!), and kinda' already does w. thefront of the line passes, and reserved seats for WOC and F!, they are completely within their rights to do so.

Great idea though. Wish I had a member in my party who didn't care about seeing or doing anything in the parks and was willing to hold places for the shows and parades for me!! :D For now, we'll waiting (im)patiently for our favorite shows, and hope people around us are polite and undestand that if you're there early you deserve the better view.

[MommyLove]

Originally Posted by lizabu

I think this guy is pretty smart. There is nothing wrong with holding a spot for someone. Whether the person is your family member holding the spot or someone you pay what difference does it make?

I agree with this. And I have two nights reserved with him for our December trip so we can have him reserve spots for us at F! and WoC. I'm super thankful there's someone who does this for such a reasonable price, and from other threads here, it sounds like he and his girlfriend are super nice and helpful. I'm really looking forward to our trip and haven't told DH or the kids yet about how we won't have to wait for hours to get primo spots for these two shows. With a 4 year old and a baby, this is the only way we will be able to get awesome seats (without doing some crazy and unnecessary expensive dining thing). I'm excited!

[KiwiMouse]

MommyLove, I'm glad you're super thankful but as was noted earlier ...

Originally Posted by lilpooh108

Sure its not a problem now because it's what, one guy saving a space with a tarp for a family of 6. What if he hires 30 employees and all you see are blue tarps up & down main street ... He's running an unauthorized business on Disney's property.

You see, where will it end? How many of these guys might eventually be in business, cutting each other (and regular folks) out? I don't see how Disney will allow this to continue.

I personally think there IS a significant difference between one member of your party committing their time to reserve a spot, and paying off an independent contractor to do it for you.

[MommyLove]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouse

MommyLove, I'm glad you're super thankful but as was noted earlier ...

Ya, I saw that. And if it becomes a problem, I'm sure Disney will do something about it. But until then, I stand by my opinion that I see no difference between my DH holding the spot and Brian holding the spot.

Further, on the argument about the possibility of it becoming a big problem, I have generally found in life that's it's better to not sweat something that may or may not happen. Life is too short for that.

[Mary09]

I would wager a lot of money that we'll never see a field of disposable tarps laid out by professional sitters. This is a niche business if there's ever been one.

[Mel522]

Originally Posted by Argento

Sure they can, all they have to do is hire the guy and when he shows up, ban him on the spot. They would be well within their rights to demand a refund as well.

I see what you're saying, but I was referring to the practice as a whole. I don't think this guy is only one doing something like this, or will be doing this. While Disney can stop this one guy by your method, they can't really stop this practice as a whole. Not to mention with Disney's current ticketing methods, they really can't enforce a ban on him. He could simply buy park hoppers, charge a little more, and still make a profit. When Disney checkes ID for hoppers, they're not inputting the name into a database to see if the person is banned, they just see if the ID and name on the hopper (if there even is one) matches.

Spending time, energy, and money to track down these people really isn't cost effective. They don't bother to do anything about people renting tickets, I really doubt they'll do anything about this guy.

[KiwiMouseGirl]

I'm sure eventually Disney will find out about it and shut it down. And, truthfully, b/c it's something Disney could do themselves (picture CM FP runners!), and kinda' already does w. thefront of the line passes, and reserved seats for WOC and F!, they are completely within their rights to do so.

Disney does actually offer a service exactly like the one being mentioned in this thread. it however comes along with a big Disney price tag. It is called the "VIP tour package"

"Our dedicated VIP Tour Services team is available to customize and guide your Disneyland Resort vacation so you can spend your time playing, not planning."

[TigerlilyAJ]

Originally Posted by lilpooh108

Sure its not a problem now because it's what, one guy saving a space with a tarp for a family of 6. What if he hires 30 employees and all you see are blue tarps up & down main street How pissed off would you be if you can't get a spot to sit because a row of blue tarps are taking up the spots?

I'm an AP holder, I live 20 minutes away, and yes this would bother me to see it even though I never bother waiting for the parades/fireworks.

People should play fair, and once this guy's "enterprise" gets big enough he will get shut down.

He's running an unauthorized business on Disney's property. A ticket to a theme park (or a sporting event) grants you legal license to enter private property. There are terms & conditions on his license to enter the park. I'm pretty sure selling his spot in line or on Main Street violates that license.

People pay money at DLR in many ways to save their time and to get better viewing spots. There's the VIP services already mentioned. There's the F! dessert seating or eating at a pricey place in DCA to get WOC passes to the special dining area. There's staying onsite so you can go in an hour earlier than others who have the same AP or PH ticket you do. And as for the line of tarps argument, well, that already is the case--the only difference is that it's people who are paying with their personal time to get good spots WAY ahead of a show like WOC or the fireworks instead of paying someone else to get the spot. Do you get mad if you arrive 15 minutes before a show and other people have taken all the good spots? No, they made a choice how to invest their time. Are you mad that you can't line up at 4pm to get F! dessert seating for free by being one of the first people there? No, the people who get F! seating made a choice in how to invest their money (as did you by choosing to not buy those tickets). Same for the dining-pass area for WOC. I don't want to eat at the restaurants that offer the passes, so I will not have the option of seating anywhere in that designated section for that show. Should I be upset that a nice viewing spot I would like won't be available to me, no matter how early I wish to wait for it?
As a legal matter, there certainly could be a point that it is not a *Disney* business, unlike, say, the VIP service or F! seating, and what one's admission to the park allows, but the other issues you mention are all things that exist already and are options Disney itself offers, so the park does not have a conceptual or ethical objection to the idea. People with the cash, and a willingness to part with it, can purchase services to enhance and expedite their park experience.
And, as others have mentioned, people have different needs and groups made up of different ages and mobility, so these services might be more important to giving some people a more relaxing and more efficient park experience--not to mention evening out the playing field. For example, people with older kids (or no kids at all in their party) will be able to really run ahead of me and my three kids ages 7 and under at DCA rope drop to get to RSR and/or get in line for FPs, not to mention that on M, W, F, and Sun onsite guests will get into DCA an hour earlier. (And there are threads devoted to how much running and hustling there is to get to do those things each morning, so I'm not making up a crazy idea of what merely *could* happen.) The idea that I could pay someone more mobile, someone stroller-free, who does not care about getting on the ride himself, to get those FPs for us is pretty appealing. And I don't see how paying for a runner is any more "unfair" than people who send a party member as runner for FPs or people who spend thousands more to stay at an onsite hotel to get in early and get in the FP line before I'm even allowed to enter the park.

[Malcon10t]

Originally Posted by MommyLove

Ya, I saw that. And if it becomes a problem, I'm sure Disney will do something about it. But until then, I stand by my opinion that I see no difference between my DH holding the spot and Brian holding the spot.

I have seen security remove people doing exactly this back when Murphy first came out.

[PatMcDuck]

Originally Posted by lizabu

I think this guy is pretty smart. There is nothing wrong with holding a spot for someone. Whether the person is your family member holding the spot or someone you pay what difference does it make? The only thing that will suck is if this were to become so popular that he has dozens of employees staking out spots for dozens of families every show.

Holding places in line sucks though. I don't care if it's a family member or someone you paid if I'm in line behind some guy and 6 people come and join the guy in line ahead of me I'm not going to be a happy camper.

It could be that this "service" seems odd to me because I used to only go to WDW, where people do NOT put down blankets and tarps to watch the fireworks hours before the show. When I first saw this at DL, I was amazed. Amazed that people were allowed to block the front area of the castle for hours. I have never seen this at the MK. (I have seen people sit on the curbs and benches for the parades however, but this does not impede foot traffic in the area). Of course, at the MK, the fireworks show can be enjoyed from a larger area, you do not have to be right in front, and the Fantasmic show at the Studios has seating.

It still makes me uncomfortable that large tarps are put down to save spots for $$. I would think the next step would be people just doing this each day, and just selling the spots right then and there. Just blocking out many of the "good" spots, wearing a little aprons to hold their cash...... Not cast members, just AP holders with time on their hands making some extra cash. Would that be ok? It is the same thing. If I have RSR fast passes, I could walk around the California Adventure, selling them to late arriving guests for a quick buck like a scalper.

I assume this practice will go on, until it becomes out of control, with too many companies selling spots that it becomes obvious to other guests what is happening, and they begin to complain to Disney about it.

[lsulindy]

Originally Posted by PatMcDuck

It could be that this "service" seems odd to me because I used to only go to WDW, where people do NOT put down blankets and tarps to watch the fireworks hours before the show. When I first saw this at DL, I was amazed. Amazed that people were allowed to block the front area of the castle for hours. I have never seen this at the MK. (I have seen people sit on the curbs and benches for the parades however, but this does not impede foot traffic in the area).

I've only been to WDW. This whole thread I've been thinking, "blankets? what?"

Good to know I should bring a blanket. I had no idea!

[ArchOwl]

It is strange how different this thread went then the previous one where someone mentioned Mouse Expeditions: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2973950

Anyway, I used Brian on my last visit for the night show option and it probably wasn't necessary, but he was very nice and professional. He went above and beyond securing our FPs for WOC. We were able to see fireworks and WOC on the same night, which was nice. It is interesting to see how this thread went in such a different direction than the other.