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Thread: Firefighter ticket discount for Disneyland

  1. #51
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    Here's a thread in the Lounge to discuss the latest wildfires.

    Adrienne
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  3. #52

    Okay, at the risk of stirring up yet MORE disagreement, let me share with you part of what bothers me about the promotion....

    Yes, promotion. My husband is in law enforcement, but I work in PR/marketing. Disney got huge press for the first Wildfire Heroes promotion in 2003 in trade papers, general papers and in reports back to stockholders. They are doing so again now. Now, before I get slammed by those of you who tell me you haven't read it in USA Today, the Chicago Trib or the The Picayune, I am talking about PR and philanthropy trade journals, web sites and blogs. It will probably also be part of their annual report (as it was in 2003), mentioned as a "community benefit." "Community benefits" also translate to tax savings for large corporations, considered a donation.

    None of those things are wrong....BUT

    The Wildfire Heroes promotion is not what Disney presents it to be (nor was it in 2003, when it was offered to any public safety personnel member from California, Nevada or Arizona, regardless of their involvement in the activation.) Any police officer, firefighter, EMT, corrections officer, bailiff, lifeguard or any of several other job catagories who live in the listed Southern California zip codes can use the discount without any proof of involvement in fighting the Southern California fires. The Wildfire Heroes salute is nothing more than Southern California public safety personnel discount, timed to coincide with a large natural disaster, therefore piggybacking the public relations effort. It is truly no different than the public safety discount offered annually by Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios and SeaWorld. They all offer limited date Southern California public safety discounts each year. Those, however, were not serendipitously timed to occur with a highly publicized natural disaster.

    So, Disney has a great PR campaign - take a common discount, call it something else, get a lot of buzz about it. Professionally I think it's a brilliant move, and it will read well in the annual report. Personally I think it's a bit unethical to use a natural disaster that displaced thousands of people to make yourself look better - no magic there. I think if there were acting from a more honest and ethical position they would just call it what it is - a public safety discount - and not pull the whole "wildfire" thing in. As it is it's a bit like calling it the "Disney's Wildfire Victims" promotion, and opening it to anyone who lives in San Diego County.

    Okay, fire away.....no pun intended.


  4. #53

    Firefighter discounts?

    My DH is a firefighter and a colleague told him of a "Hero Rewards" program where you can get discounted tickets. Does anyoone know about these? We are going for 4 days starting 1/1/08 and I haven't bought my park hoppers yet.

    TIA!
    Chandra


  5. #54
    www.disneyland.com/hero has all of the details.

  6. #55
    It was a good day! Malcon10t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chandrar View Post
    My DH is a firefighter and a colleague told him of a "Hero Rewards" program where you can get discounted tickets. Does anyoone know about these? We are going for 4 days starting 1/1/08 and I haven't bought my park hoppers yet.

    TIA!
    Chandra
    The program is open to all fire fighters who fought the So Cal fires (if you live in Socal, you get it automatically, if you came from elsewhere, they want documentation you were sent to SoCal.) The days you are going are peak days (expect heavy crowds) and are blacked out to the promotion.
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  7. #56

    Are you sure they want documentation? The email from Disney posted on the first page of this thread says:

    ...extend our promotional offer to emergency personnel living outside the specified zip codes who have directly assisted with
    the fire relief efforts. To ensure a person qualifies for this
    promotion, we require that they provide official emergency worker identification at our Main Gate box offices and mention that they have contacted our office seeking clarification on our eligibility requirements.
    That doesn't say anything about documentation and it doesn't define "directly assisted". I am sure what they mean by directly assisted is that you worked the fire in Southern California, but since they don't define it, I would define it however you like. For example, I think a reasonable person could say that working overtime so a colleague was freed up to be sent to the fire means you directly assisted.

  8. #57
    It was a good day! Malcon10t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
    Are you sure they want documentation? The email from Disney posted on the first page of this thread says:

    That doesn't say anything about documentation and it doesn't define "directly assisted". I am sure what they mean by directly assisted is that you worked the fire in Southern California, but since they don't define it, I would define it however you like. For example, I think a reasonable person could say that working overtime so a colleague was freed up to be sent to the fire means you directly assisted.
    I should have clarified. A local fire fighter called and was told to bring a letter from the department showing they were deployed south for the fires. They stated they were told "only those deployed will be considered."
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  9. #58

    I am thinking they haven't clarified this too well internally and you'll get a different answer depending on who you ask. Were I a firefighter and were I considering going to DL during this window (neither applies to me), I would email and see what response I got back. If it were the same as the one posted on the first page here, I would print that out and bring it with me to the front gate along with my ID.

    Then if they asked for a letter I would show the email. If they said they needed a letter from your department I would point out that the email doesn't say that. I seriously doubt they would push the letter issue if you have an email from Disney telling you exactly what to do and not mentioning a letter. If they ask if you were deployed to the fire and you weren't, I would answer, "I helped out with the fires, yes." They would take that as, "yes you were deployed", but you would have given an honest answer.

    I am actually a stickler for honesty in my life and I usually consider technically honest, but not really honest statements like this to be a lie, but in this case I do not. Moral relativism I guess.


  10. #59

    Dcs

    I had my question about DCS answered on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, I called Disney Guest Services to see if LA Disaster Communication Services (LA DCS) volunteers were able to take advantage of the offer. The woman on the phone said as long they participated in the firefighting and recovery effort yes, just need id. So Thursday morning my parents, brother (Karl) visiting from Tacoma, WA and I went to Disneyland. Mom, Dad, and I are APers. After showing his DCS id Dad was able to purchase a ticket for my brother with no problem. The ticket does have my brother's name on it as Guest and my dad's name on it as Hero.

    Carolyn

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  11. #60

    We were there last weekend and I saw many sweatshirts, shirts, hats on people walking around that had the names/cities of places outside of SoCal, there was a large contigent of Petaluma fire department personnel.

    It seemed to us like they were being allowed to receive the tickets, which is so awesome. If it wasn 't for the firefighters throughout the state it could have been so much worse here in San Diego!!!!

    Disneyland IS the Happiest place on Earth!

  12. #61
    Quote Originally Posted by mgg1234 View Post
    Okay, at the risk of stirring up yet MORE disagreement, let me share with you part of what bothers me about the promotion... Okay, fire away.....no pun intended.
    YES!!!!

    The victims deserve it more than the people that were doing what they get paid to do. If they want to offer a public safety discount...great make it a generic public safet discount, leave out the hero part and run it all year. Not just when there is a tragedy and there are hundred if not thousands of victims.
    Last edited by stan4d_steph; 12-16-2007 at 07:27 AM. Reason: please keep quote and response to about equal length

  13. #62
    It was a good day! Malcon10t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rds912 View Post
    YES!!!!

    The victims deserve it more than the people that were doing what they get paid to do.
    Um, the "victims" we saw were staying at the GCH on their insurance's dime in October.

    I'm sorry you feel the way you do about fire fighters. I don't remember seeing where fire fighters get paid to be away from their families was a positive thing. I think Disney providing those a way to connect with the family as a positive.
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  14. #63

    My husband is a military contractor and is away from us ~ 2-3 weeks a month, often in Europe, Japan or Korea. Since he's not actually in the military or even a government employee we get no government or military discounts or rates on anything. That's fine, he's just doing the job he's paid to do. And we do get treated pretty well when we show up with him at a Marriott. :-)


  15. #64
    It was a good day! Malcon10t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by VickiC View Post
    My husband is a military contractor and is away from us ~ 2-3 weeks a month, often in Europe, Japan or Korea. Since he's not actually in the military or even a government employee we get no government or military discounts or rates on anything. That's fine, he's just doing the job he's paid to do. And we do get treated pretty well when we show up with him at a Marriott. :-)
    Did he know when he took the job he would be away for extended lengths of time? The fire fighters from our area don't normally stay away for weeks. But they did volunteer to go to LA and San Diego to help with the wild fires, and were there for 2-3 weeks. They did not get paid overtime during their time there. That was classified "voluntary". And actually, more than just Marriott will extend discounts to Military Contractors. Disneyland Resort hotels usually offer a decent discount to them.
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  16. #65

    Marrito doesn't extend us a discount. Their military/goverment pricing policy has changed in the last year so that a CAC card no longer gets you a discount, you have to be an actual military member. They treat us so well because he stays at Marriot properties ~100 nights a year. American Airlines treats us pretty well too, he'll hit 100K miles this week for 2007.

    He was transferred into the military group about two months after he took this job. He accepted the transfer, but after being out of work for a year we would have taken just about anything, if you know what I mean. He enjoys the job, but it is hard on the 5 and 8 year olds.


  17. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcon10t View Post
    I should have clarified. A local fire fighter called and was told to bring a letter from the department showing they were deployed south for the fires. They stated they were told "only those deployed will be considered."
    I'm a fireman for a large municipal fire department in the L.A. area. I did not directly assist with the suppression of any of the wildfires and I was able to take advantage of this promotional offer merely by showing my firefighter ID card to the very nice CM in the ticket booth. I was able to get a 3-day parkhopper for free and my GF got her 3-day parkhopper for $56.

  18. #67

    "They did not get paid overtime during their time there. That was classified "voluntary"." OK I have to disagree with this one. Where are these firefighters from? If they were gone for 2-3 weeks and they said they did not get any overtime I think someone is stretching the truth a little.


  19. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by rds912 View Post
    "They did not get paid overtime during their time there. That was classified "voluntary"." OK I have to disagree with this one. Where are these firefighters from? If they were gone for 2-3 weeks and they said they did not get any overtime I think someone is stretching the truth a little.
    They were from several areas of Northern CA. They requested "volunteers" as the areas up here aren't going to pay overtime for them to go work elsewhere. (Should it come out of our cities budget for them to go 8 hours south to fight their fire?) The way it worked around here (3 districts I know of) was the fighters volunteered for duty, the district voluntarily loaned equipment and paid salaries to the fighters while they went south. Other fighters took their days off to cover the ones that went south. The state is supposedly going to reimburse the various agencies for the equipment usage. They were paid their usual salaries. They aren't gripping about it. They were just doing what fire fighters do.

    BTW - We saw the Petaluma fire fighters coming back at Halloween. It was so awesome to see all these guys (I think there were about 20 trucks from various agencies) at a truckstop on their way back home. People were cheering them there.
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  20. #69
    Quote Originally Posted by Malcon10t View Post
    They were from several areas of Northern CA. They requested "volunteers" as the areas up here aren't going to pay overtime for them to go work elsewhere. (Should it come out of our cities budget for them to go 8 hours south to fight their fire?) The way it worked around here (3 districts I know of) was the fighters volunteered for duty, the district voluntarily loaned equipment and paid salaries to the fighters while they went south. Other fighters took their days off to cover the ones that went south. The state is supposedly going to reimburse the various agencies for the equipment usage. They were paid their usual salaries. They aren't gripping about it. They were just doing what fire fighters do.

    BTW - We saw the Petaluma fire fighters coming back at Halloween. It was so awesome to see all these guys (I think there were about 20 trucks from various agencies) at a truckstop on their way back home. People were cheering them there.

    I think you should check with your sources as I dont think it works that way, believe me they get paid to be down there, and if they are working during their day off it is at time and a half. Just because you volunteer does not mean you are not going to get paid. We have an all voluteer military, but I'm quite sure that they all get a pay check (not a very good one though).

  21. #70
    It was a good day! Malcon10t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rds912 View Post
    I think you should check with your sources as I dont think it works that way, believe me they get paid to be down there, and if they are working during their day off it is at time and a half. Just because you volunteer does not mean you are not going to get paid. We have an all voluteer military, but I'm quite sure that they all get a pay check (not a very good one though).
    I'm not going to continue to argue with you over this. I didn't need to check with the fire fighters, as my source with the Finanace Dept of our city. Yes, they got paid their normal salary for being there. I'm sorry you didn't feel it was worth their services. Oh, and we also have "Volunteer" fire departments in some areas up here. They ARE volunteers. They do get paid milage, but do not get paid. WOW, unique I guess. But it is common up here. And one volunteer department sent a truck and some volunteers. The nice part that I applauded? The private companies the crews worked for paid them their normal salary despite the fact they were gone 10 days. (An insurance company and a nationally known lumber company.) Should they demand their companies pay them overtime?
    Planning 3 trips at once...

  22. #71
    Quote Originally Posted by 9volt View Post
    I'm a fireman for a large municipal fire department in the L.A. area. I did not directly assist with the suppression of any of the wildfires and I was able to take advantage of this promotional offer merely by showing my firefighter ID card to the very nice CM in the ticket booth. I was able to get a 3-day parkhopper for free and my GF got her 3-day parkhopper for $56.
    And you didn't find that dishonest? The promotion was not for firemanin general. What you think it should be for is your own affair. You should write a letter. But to take a free ticket not intended for you to me is stealing and dihonest.
     

  23. #72
    Quote Originally Posted by princessy777 View Post
    And you didn't find that dishonest? The promotion was not for firemanin general. What you think it should be for is your own affair. You should write a letter. But to take a free ticket not intended for you to me is stealing and dihonest.
    Bad Karma. Don't worry Princess, what goes around comes around. Maybe some day he will be in need... and go without!
     

  24. #73

    Or... maybe your house will be burning down and he'll go inside and pull you and your family out. There is nothing magical about the Southern California Fires. Fire and Police personnel put their lives on the line for us every day. Yes, they get paid for it, as they should. I get paid for my job, too, but I don't have to risk my life doing it. I have no problem with giving them a break at Disneyland.

    Quote Originally Posted by CV12Pirate View Post
    Bad Karma. Don't worry Princess, what goes around comes around. Maybe some day he will be in need... and go without!

  25. #74
    Quote Originally Posted by DianeM View Post
    Or... maybe your house will be burning down and he'll go inside and pull you and your family out. There is nothing magical about the Southern California Fires. Fire and Police personnel put their lives on the line for us every day. Yes, they get paid for it, as they should. I get paid for my job, too, but I don't have to risk my life doing it. I have no problem with giving them a break at Disneyland.
    The point isn't even necasarily that all firemen don't deserve some sort of discount, but moreover that the promotion was not intended for this particular indiviual and to take something just because you feel you are entitled to it when it is not for you is wrong.

    When I was in school I qualified for no financial aid. My parents made too much money according to the standards. Many people told me to lie about my parents income on the forms but I could never bring myself to do it. I came from a home of hard working people, who paid taxes and I felt I deserved help just as much as others did. But I could never bring myself to lie because that would make me a bad person.
     

  26. #75

    According to the original press release, the offer is open to "Southern California firefighters, law enforcement and rescue personnel". They do not seem to limit it to people who worked on the recent fires. Apparently, they opened up the offer to firefighters from outside of the area who did work on this particular fire. Regardless, the firefighter in question did not say that he lied. He simply stated that he showed his ID and was given the pass. I am stating that I have no problem with firefighters who didn't work on the wildfires getting passes. Somebody has to stay locally to fight house fires and cut people out of crashed cars. I don't envy them either their regular work or the wildfire fighting, but I'm very glad they are doing their job and would not begrudge them a day or two at Disneyland as a reward.

    Quote Originally Posted by princessy777 View Post
    The point isn't even necasarily that all firemen don't deserve some sort of discount, but moreover that the promotion was not intended for this particular indiviual and to take something just because you feel you are entitled to it when it is not for you is wrong.

    When I was in school I qualified for no financial aid. My parents made too much money according to the standards. Many people told me to lie about my parents income on the forms but I could never bring myself to do it. I came from a home of hard working people, who paid taxes and I felt I deserved help just as much as others did. But I could never bring myself to lie because that would make me a bad person.

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