WDW Radio Show Disney Podcast #61 - April 6, 2008 The WDW Radio Show Disney Podcast Discuss WDW Radio Show Disney Podcast #61 - April 6, 2008 in the The WDW Radio Show forums; Lou's "job" is to get information out there and that is what he did. I'm sure he goes over the questions with the CM but he has no idea on ...

[lorilovestigger]

Lou's "job" is to get information out there and that is what he did. I'm sure he goes over the questions with the CM but he has no idea on what he is going to say or do.

I can't believe how you guys are jumping on Lou for getting information out there. Whether it's information on DVC or information on the AK celebration. It's still information for those who want to know. Big deal if it sounded like a "commerical". I've listened to the show for years (Mousetunes and now WDWRAdio) and this has got to be the first time anyone has ever said anything like this to him.

I listen to other podcasts and honestly they are boring or the host drives me crazy because they are annoying. Some I like and some I don't but WDWRadio is still one of the best around and just because Lou does something like this once doesn't mean you need to bash him for it.

[masonicmouse]

I am jumping on Lou for putting disinformation out there. I feel that Lou is becoming a mouthpiece for
Disney PR I don't think it is intentional but I think it is happening. Will I stop listening to the show? I doubt it, but I downloaded the show on Sunday morning it is now Wednesday morning and I still have not finished the show. If I were not stocking up on podcasts to listen to for the drive down to FLA this weekend I would not have gotten around to this show for a couple of more days. The show has gone from the top of my list to the bottom half. Lou has done better and can do better.


Jeff

[mritty]

Lori, I've been listening to WDWRadio since the beginning, and listened to Mousetunes from the beginning of that too. This isn't about who's a bigger "fan" of Lou, so let's not go there, okay? I am "jumping" on Lou like this for the first time because this is the first time I've heard a segment that was so blatantly misleading and shilling for Disney. "Who cares if it sounds like a commercial?", you ask? I do. I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one. If you don't, kudos to you. If you like hearing anything and everything about Disney, whether it's accurate or not, that's fine. I have no problem with that. I started this post by saying that *I* didn't like it. I am entitled to feel that way.

I am not "bashing" Lou in any way. I am bashing this one particular segment. There is a huge difference.

Lou ends every show by saying he wants the show to be interactive, that he wants listeners to provide him with feedback. That's what I'm doing. You seem to be asserting that no one should ever post any negative opinions of the show. That's not "feedback", that's blind praise. I don't think that's helpful to anyone - Lou or his listeners.

You are welcome to your opinion that you liked the show. I did not. That does not make either of us "wrong", it makes us two people with differing opinions.

[Lou Mongello]

Thank you to everyone who listened to the show this week, and for your honest comments. Yes, I do want the show to be interactive, and with that comes criticism, constructive or otherwise, when and where necessary. I take very seriously the feelings of my listeners, so I honestly appreciate the feedback. I want the show to be the best it can be, and sometimes you have to take in these types of comments. And while being labeled a "shill" or "mouthpiece" for Disney is honestly somewhat hurtful and in my mind an overstatement of simply my desire to bring to the listeners someone from Disney directly, I will take that criticism and hopefully be able to change your opinions in the future.

To that end, I want you all to know that in no way, shape or form was this meant to be a "shill" piece for the DVC. I get dozens and dozens of emails from people asking me about the DVC. I am NOT a DVC member (as you can tell), so I didn't feel qualified to answer of address the multitude and variety of questions I had received. So my thought was - who better to answer these questions than someone from the DVC itself? Does that make me a mouthpiece for Disney? I hope not, as that was not my intent.

I contacted them, and not the other way around. The intent on my part was to do just what I did - ask the questions that I had, as well as some of the questions that people had posed to me. Please keep in mind that I only asked the questions, and did not give the answers, so I never knew what the replies were going to be. Instead, these were questions that I had and was curious as to the replies. In my attempt to balance questions and answers in a "reasonable" amount of time, certainly not everything could have been covered.

Did I forget to ask about the dues? Absolutely. It was an honest mistake on my part (remember - I'm not a member, not have I ever owned a timeshare, so I was coming in completely unfamiliar with the entire process to a certain degree). And although that is something that Michael left out of his answer, I take full responsibility for not thinking about it during our discussion, and for that I apologize.

I want you all to understand that having someone from the Company on was simply who I felt could best answer the questions I had, without sounding like they were one of my partners, advertisers, etc. I received absolutely nothing in consideration or return for the interview, nor was that my intent. I simply wanted to give you, the listener, the best information from the most reliable source.

I sincerely apologize for my failure to address the issue of dues, and I will be sure to pass this information along to the Company in furtherance of the interview.

I hope that all of you understand my intent with the piece, and reconsider your opinions of me and the show. I am very unhappy to hear that people feel this way, and will ensure to the best of my ability that I tailor future segments to not appear as you may have felt this one did. Please understand that my goal is to always bring you the best possible show, with guests, information and segments that I believe will inform, educate and entertain you as much as possible. I'm truly sorry that some of you were disappointed in me and this segment, and hope that this single oversight on my part does not detract form your enjoyment of the show in the past, and certainly not in the future.

My sincerest apologies once again.

Thank you

Lou

[DaveH]

Lou I just started listening to your pod cast. I an a very happy DVC owner. This is not towards you but Mr Collier. He is QA and should know better than to put out half truths. DVC is a TIME Share. There is Maintenance fess. You are prepaying for rooms. We have done no parks trips. He implied you can get rooms on short notice. During DVC busy times that is false. Some resorts are hard to get almost anytime because they are small. If you want the major holidays you best get your home resort than try the others at 7 months. Early Dec books early. That is us empty nesters. My guide made sure we understood this when we bought in 2001. We own at VWL and SSR. We love it and it saves us money on rooms. I wanted to yell at my IPOD and reach out and slap him. We are not in 7 month window for early Dec and folks are complaining about room through CRO but not on points. I would suggest for anyone to go and take the tour. There is no pressure put on you. I have heard of a couple of times someone did and members went nuts on DVC. Sorry about my first post is long and a rant, but he made me mad.

[mritty]

Lou, I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to reply to this thread. As I stated elsewhere, my criticisms were not directed at you, but at the segment. I do not believe for an instant that you would ever intentionally attempt to deceive any of your listeners. I did not mean to imply that I considered you a "shill", only that the segment itself sounded like a commercial. I hope the difference between the two is apparent.

Originally Posted by Lou Mongello

I'm truly sorry that some of you were disappointed in me and this segment, and hope that this single oversight on my part does not detract form your enjoyment of the show in the past, and certainly not in the future.

Rest assured, it does not detract at all. One segment I dislike cannot in any way outweigh the thousands I've sincerely enjoyed over the past few years.

[masonicmouse]

Lou thank you for the quick reply to our posts on the last show. I want to say that I do not think that you are doing anything intentionally. Lest face it if people are nice to you, you will be nice to them and the Disney PR Machine is great at being nice. Disney makes statements with straight faces like we lowered the price of the meal plan to help our guest yet they cut more then the $5.00 price cut out of it. When ever reading or reporting a Disney press release one must not look at it through rose colored glasses and point out the incongruities. Please do not become one of the Podcasts that makes one wonder why they go to some place they seem to hate that would be worse then your currant face value reporting on Disney.

So in closing Lou that you and you family for giving of your time to fill our time with Pixie Dust.


Mongello

Jeff

[DaveH]

Lou I have only listened to a few of your pod casts. I did not think you were being a mouthpiece for Disney. Whenever I hear a Disney CM on anything I get a bit cynical on them. You asked questions anyone would ask them. The QA makes sure you understand the things I vented about earlier. He was the worst I ever hear a DVC CM leave things out. Kiosks tell more than he did.

[Tikikrissy]

MRITTY - you had some GREAT points! That's how I was feeling and you expressed it quite well.

I think, too, a problem is the past few shows have been these "pre-recorded" cast member interviews. It does seem a bit "white-washed," but that is cast memeber's jobs. I miss the podcasts where Lou does his segments like "DSI" and just talking about the little magical things about WDW that us geeks love. I also wish there were more "wayback machines."

I think we all love Lou and just want more of HIM in the podcasts and maybe less of these "commercials?"

[Spyne]

Great job this week Lou! Your conversation with Michael Collier was interesting and has helped me learned more about the Disney Vacation Club. I don't know if I would ever participate in it, but it's still interesting none the less. Your conversation with the Zoological Manager at Disney's Animal Kingdom was also interesting. I knew the cast members worked hard to take good care of the animals, only this helped me learn about it more. Again, great show Lou! Keep up the great work!

[MywantthePoPo]

Tikikrissy- I could not have written that better myself. It is exactly what I was thinking.

Lou we love ya, but bring back more of the old content.
Thanks for doing what you do!

[harra]

I must've gotten a great guide when I got the DVC sales pitch because in the first 15-30 minutes all those issues that mritty is claiming were vague and/or misleading about the segment were very clearly stated with no additional questioning on my part.

A majority of the the time we spent with our guide was him explaining how to get a good calculation of the value of each point so I could go back to the room and run my own numbers to determine how much the points I'd "spend" for a 10 day vacation would compare to paying rack rate at a luxury resort for the same time period.

Some sales people are better than other and I think the higher up the food chain these sales people get, the more of their edge they lose. I'm guessing this guy isn't an in-the-trenches DVC guide (since his title is Quality Assurance Manager). So, I'm going to cut him some slack for being vague.

My experience is that all of the higher ups tends to sprinkle everything with pixie dust to make it sound more magical and spectacular than it really is (granted it is magical and spectacular but not to the grandiose levels they sometimes like to make it seem). You see this all the time on the Travel Channel propaganda pieces (which we have on our DVR and watch almost weekly)

[pigletfan]

My friend is a DVC member and she loves it! I have stayed with her at the Beach Club villas and the room was amazing! 2 bedrooms with tons of space! I really did wish that I could live there and I know I would be perfectly happy, haha! I am a Florida resident so I would not be interested in becoming a member as we do get cheaper rates for Disney resorts most of the time. And lots of times, I am just there for the day. I bet the new rooms at AKL are really cool, and I would love to see them.

[BWDave]

My better judgment tells me to leave this alone, but after reading Lou’s response, I had to chime in.

I’m a long time DVC member who knows more about DVC than I need. Over the years, I’ve become one of the many overly obsessive, passionate Disney fans, thanks to on-line content and podcasts like Lou’s. I’ll admit, when I listened to Lou’s interview with the Disney rep, it was “more sizzle” than “steak”. The DVC QA guy was just reciting the company’s talking points. Overall though, I brushed it off because I, like others have said, know more than he does. With that in mind, when Lou interviewed the woman from YOMD, I actually found that entertaining (even though she is a Disney employee who also sounded like the world was perfect). She didn’t expose any “warts” but actually did pass along stories that were new to me and interesting. In others words, the Disney rep’s are not going to address uncomfortable issues (go back and listen how the VP of EPCOT danced around the question why Disney was ignoring EPCOT’s 25^th anniversary). I’m guessing they understand the power of this new media and Lou should be impressed they’re using his outlet. I believe these folks still have value simply because of who they work for.

My point of this post was to not only acknowledge the original post but to recognize the sincerity and honest response from Lou. As I said, I had to write after I read it. There’s no question that a lot of hard work goes into each production and satisfying the needs of the Disney internet community continues to be the primary objective of WDW Radio (in my opinion).

Just my thoughts, I’m done, take care,
Dave in Paramus

[disney_barbie]

Regarding the email (at the end of the show) about the International Gateway into Epcot from the yacht, beach and boardwalk resorts....
I am fairly sure there are no buses from these hotels to Epcot, guests have the option of walking into the park via International Gateway (I agree with you Lou, it is fun walking thru world showcase pre-opening time!) or there are boats which take you from the landings by the resorts to international gateway.
I remember staying at the Beach Club a few years ago, waiting for a bus to MK - and another guest asking a bus-driver when the next bus to Epcot was... the bus-driver replied "i'm sorry sir, there's no buses from here.. you can walk though.." - but the guest replied "walk?!! i dont wanna walk!" :P lol.

Great podcast Lou - interesting debate sparked by the dvc segment this week. My family have been dvc members for over 6 years and we are very very happy with it

Barbie x