Disappointed

[Jangles]

I think they are adults who are aware of how threads ebb and flow.
If a poster finds the discussion is done for them, they can step away.

In an indirect way you have emphasised my point. This isn’t about you or me, it is about vulnerable gentlemen who were sexually abused. It isn’t a discussion for them, it’s a fact; their lives. We can step away, they can’t.

Irrespective of the position in the US, some of the events took place in the U.K. and could still give rise to a criminal prosecution, even without the victims’ cooperation. What if ‘we’ are damaging the prospects of a successful prosecution? What if PW is reading these posts and uses posters’ comments to his advantage?

Does allowing this thread to rollercoaster on fulfil the essence of @WebmasterCorey ‘s statement? At the end of the day, that is for him to decide, but when making that decision, I hope that he considers and prioritises the best interests of the victims, as well as the future of the Dis and the ‘noise of the rabble’ (and I am including myself in that description).

 

[soniam]

But is the purpose of the thread to support the victims, or something else? Put yourself in the victims’ shoes and imagine how they feel when they read all this infighting, bickering and questioning.

I understand. However, they had to go through the gauntlet on the site on which they originally posted. I think their skin is thick enough now. I also don’t think they are even reading this board. They all seem intelligent enough to not bother.

 

[NYDisGuy]

In an indirect way you have emphasised my point. This isn’t about you or me, it is about vulnerable gentlemen who were sexually abused. It isn’t a discussion for them, it’s a fact; their lives. We can step away, they can’t.

All you have to do is take a look at the other site to see that intimate details continue to spill out as they are still actively answering questions. Discussion is therapeutic, just like for posters here who are having issues processing the fact that someone who we all supported for years could end up being a monster.

 

[khertz]

Thought we were told this whole time that the agents don’t work on commission.

We have never been told that. How else do you think TAs get paid? What we have been told is that we as the guest taking the vacation do not pay for the TA.

 

[Jangles]

All you have to do is take a look at the other site

I am being quoted on it. Oh dear. Maybe the answer is just for everyone to consider the feelings of the victims, before posting here…… and now I sound patronising even to me.

PS. I don’t think that we have Kool Aid in the U.K., so I had to look up what my critic was trying to express.

 

[john7994]

I am being quoted on it. Oh dear. Maybe the answer is just for everyone to consider the feelings of the victims, before posting here…… and now I sound patronising even to me.

I think your heart and intent may be in the right place, but then restricting the thread falls into that sticky place of heavy-handed moderation concern voiced by some.

 

[dachsie]

But is the purpose of the thread to support the victims, or something else? Put yourself in the victims’ shoes and imagine how they feel when they read all this infighting, bickering and questioning.

If you look at the title of the thread you can determine the purpose. Supporting the victims is definitely part of it but have a place to discuss and frankly, mourn is the reason the thread was established.

ETA: And was allowed to continue.

 

[Princesca]

Nothing, dreams is just the middle-man. You should be able to call the cruise line directly to make final payment.

I also canceled a Disney trip I had booked through dreams, coincidentally the same day as all of this came out (before I knew). The email response I got back was not super nice. The agent got my name wrong, and to quote:

—-
Hi Katie,

I have cancelled this reservation for you.

Please note for the future travel agents work on commission - so when a guest books, we help plan their trip and answer questions. The commission comes to the company about a month after the guest travels and we get a portion of that commission.

Have a great day
—-
Thought we were told this whole time that the agents don’t work on commission.

Jeez. I mean... when you're a TA, it comes with the territory. That's how the vast majority of travel agencies pay. The only exception I've heard of is maybe if you're a call center rep with Citi Travel or something like that where you are more of a concierge than a travel agent.

This would be a travel agent I probably wouldn't use again. People generally are sad to cancel vacations, then to have a whopping dose of guilt trip served up? No thanks.

I've had to cancel on my TA before, and I will say on that trip I was very low maintenance and he had pretty much only done the initial booking, but I cancelled due to a new COVID wave and he was so kind about it, and took the time to say how sorry he was and how he sympathized with our disappointment.

 

[meremac]

Thought we were told this whole time that the agents don’t work on commission.

That's a really unprofessional response from your TA, but it is true that Travel Agents work solely on commission. When you book a trip with a TA, your TA (assuming they're a good one) devotes a lot of time to helping you plan your trip. And if your TA doesn't charge any booking/planning fees, their only compensation comes in the form of commission paid out by Disney after your travel is complete. If you cancel, your TA gets nothing. All of that being said, TA's know that cancellations come with the territory, and a client should never be made to feel guilty for cancelling. Most of the time, my clients who have to cancel are already really sad about it...why in the world would I ever try to make them feel worse?? That response was out of line.

 

[DisneyMama20]

So I think I’m pretty well caught up on everything, here and “there”. And I just….idk.

I always wanted to be a travel agent. I dreamed of working for this company. I loved the shows and the people, and, at times, also Pete! Even though I could see he could be a jerk (and that seemed to get worse).

I will say that I wondered at times where the money was coming from. I guess I partially assumed he was making good money, and also getting really good deals being who he was? I’m not sure. And I would cringe when he would be hateful to the others, but they continued on so I assumed I was being more sensitive than they? But the fact they would just disappear…my mom and I would often discuss that. And how strange.

Only other thing I wonder about all this is: Dustin and Sean finally had the courage to come out with their stories. They’re sick and heartbreaking. And I fully support them. But now all these others coming forward with “oh, not surprised!” “I knew about this and didn’t say anything!” “So and so told me X, Y, Z and I kept it to myself!” Like what the heck guys?! If you know or even suspect someone is drugging someone else, and you tell no one?! Someone could have been killed! That to me is insane. If they truly knew or are just saying it to capitalize on the current attention this is getting.

 

[Tonyz]

Nothing, dreams is just the middle-man. You should be able to call the cruise line directly to make final payment.

I also canceled a Disney trip I had booked through dreams, coincidentally the same day as all of this came out (before I knew). The email response I got back was not super nice. The agent got my name wrong, and to quote:

—-
Hi Katie,

I have cancelled this reservation for you.

Please note for the future travel agents work on commission - so when a guest books, we help plan their trip and answer questions. The commission comes to the company about a month after the guest travels and we get a portion of that commission.

Have a great day
—-
Thought we were told this whole time that the agents don’t work on commission.

Wow, what a rude and entitled response.

But I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. Clearly this attitude starts at the top and runs downhill.

 

[john7994]

Wow, what a rude and entitled response.

But I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. Clearly this attitude starts at the top and runs downhill.

Or, this TA clumsily reacted to a litany of cancellations for something not in their control and they are worried about their livelihood going forward, Or, or, or …

 

[pinkxray]

Nothing, dreams is just the middle-man. You should be able to call the cruise line directly to make final payment.

I also canceled a Disney trip I had booked through dreams, coincidentally the same day as all of this came out (before I knew). The email response I got back was not super nice. The agent got my name wrong, and to quote:

—-
Hi Katie,

I have cancelled this reservation for you.

Please note for the future travel agents work on commission - so when a guest books, we help plan their trip and answer questions. The commission comes to the company about a month after the guest travels and we get a portion of that commission.

Have a great day
—-
Thought we were told this whole time that the agents don’t work on commission.

Wow, that’s rude. I recently cancelled a cruise for June 2024. The agent was very polite and said it was cancelled and hoped we could work together in the future. It was right after all of this came out. I didn’t specifically cancel due to this but I was on the fence anyway on if I should bump in back to 2025 in order to save more for excursions(Alaska, so not cheap).

I haven’t booked for 2025 yet and will wait to see how all this plays out. I found her helpful and easy to work with and would like to give her the business since she did put the time and energy to the original booking, but need to see how current leadership goes first.

 

[take36]

Every time we think well I guess that’s as bad as it gets, it gets worst as more comes out.


Less the 48 hours Charles story added further details to Dustin’s situation with a bombshell that I feel is the biggest revelation since Dustin first post and 24 hours ago, Tyler blasted what seemed like everyone.

I thought after Dustin posted and Fiasco supported him that we can just wait for Pete and Dreams to release a statement and they can go about it personally/lawyer up and we can wind down the thread and feelings. Nope, it got worst, a lot worst.

Closing this thread will just make the other forum stronger and better as it becomes the only outlet. Here we share a love for the cast, show, community in varying degrees, and Disney! over there there it’s a war zone, yes there is truth there but sometimes you need the truth with some care.

Closing an outlet for the victims past, present, and future puts their only outlet over there. Now Sean seems to have super thick skin as he was posting over there for almost a year and getting absolutely blasted and supported at the same time. Not everyone is ok sharing in a potentially hostile environment.

This is also a thread to express support to those not involved. I am sure the vast majority of DUT agents have little to no knowledge. Depending on how you feel and read the released statements (or lack there of) the main characters on the show need our support too (if they were not involved). They just found out their boss has all these allegations, big change in leadership, and now the fans they have tried to serve over the years have turned against them. We might disagree on who deserves our support but surely at least a few? Even Tyler who didn’t hold back acknowledged there are good apples in the company.

 

[Jobie]

But is the purpose of the thread to support the victims, or something else? Put yourself in the victims’ shoes and imagine how they feel when they read all this infighting, bickering and questioning.

I get what you are saying. People saying things against the victims shows lack of empathy and is odd behavior, IMO.

However, one of the things unique about this is how much this impacts a community that has been around for a long time. This is different than a CEO of a large corporation, where people just purchased their products. This is more similar to this type of situation happening at a church or another community focused organization. Even if in the end of the day we are actually just "consumers" of their shows or participants in their social media, we feel closer to them and to the other "consumers" due to the community nature of it. We didn't put trust into a product and then find out the creator is a terrible person, we put trust into people, who helped create a community we now belong to; we have now found out one of the founder members, the person who helped bring us all together in a place that allowed us to celebrate something that we love, was doing some absolutely terrible things behind closed doors with people he brought into the community.

Don't take what I said incorrectly; I am not declaring that us members of this community are victims, but it is still emotionally impactful and people need to be able to freely talk about it. Even if we disagree with opinions being shared, let people talk them out. For some, this has just been a place to get Disney information, but for many others it has been a place of friends, an escape from troubles outside of the "real world" and more. That will take time to go through.

My heart breaks for Sean and Dustin. I hope through getting this out in the open they can get more healing. Their stories are heart wrenching. You are right that them seeing the fighting here could cause additional pain for them. But, I do not think that should stop others from talking about this. I hope the support from this community telling them how brave they are for sharing their stories outweigh any of the negative comments or questioning this thread has introduced.

 

[LSUfan4444]

You are fully supported Craig. You are a great guy and a consummate professional. Anyone who says or thinks otherwise is both misinformed and an ***.

When are we going to stop with this king of stuff? It's absurd, rotten and destroys people and communication from the very core.

The very insinuation that people with differing opinions are either incorrect or ignorant is insulting.

Your truth is not THE truth.

 

[gmi3804]

The very insinuation that people with differing opinions are either incorrect or ignorant is insulting.

The thing is, sometimes people's opinions ARE incorrect, ignorant, and insulting.

 

[Jason_V]

When are we going to stop with this king of stuff? It's absurd, rotten and destroys people and communication from the very core.

The very insinuation that people with differing opinions are either incorrect or ignorant is insulting.

Your truth is not THE truth.

So if someone says "Pete is a great guy and SA isn't anything to worry about, blah blah blah," I'm not allowed to say that opinion is incorrect or ignorant? I'm just making sure I understand what you're saying here.

 

[DonMacGregor]

All my Amex card statements tied to the same social for personal and tax id number for business show up on the same respective portal when I log in. Now I understated the statements seemed to be mailed to Pete’s house but John (who we are told take cares of all the finances and mundane back office work) never logged in and saw a card never getting paid? They send in a paper check for every statement and never took advantage of bill pay?

But that's the point. I too have both personal and business AmEx cards (seven total, three for my company), but all of the current business accounts are under my company's EIN number, and don't appear on my personal portal. The bills don't have my name on them, just the company, and they go to the business address. Legally, the company and I are completely separate entities. DUT is a long-established company, and has had an EID for God-knows how long. There's no reason for that account to have Werner's own name and address, and for AmEx to come after him personally, rather than just the company, unless the card was applied for under his SSN. I mean, it's literally the primary reason for incorporating: to insulate one's self from the company's liabilities/debt. Also, it looks like the account was opened just last July, based on the Cardmember Agreement included in the exhibits to the suit.

 

[gmi3804]

So if someone says "Pete is a great guy and SA isn't anything to worry about, blah blah blah," I'm not allowed to say that opinion is incorrect or ignorant? I'm just making sure I understand what you're saying here.

I'd say, "You're biased, Mrs. Werner!"