Jim Hill Media About This Page:

[LisaJ]

Check out this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/04/20....ap/index.html

Jim Hill was thrown out of Disneyland for providing unauthorized tours of the park. Have to say that I don't blame Disney on this one.

[ladyt]

OK, who does this guy think he is, really. Charging people $25 to give a tour of Disneyland and he doesn't even have permission to do it? I can't believe Disney has let it go on for this long. I totally believe in free speech and he can report on whatever he wants, but to go onto private property and charge people for a tour is really not the right thing to do.

[Shell_of_the_South]

This was on his site several weeks back, you can check www.jimhillmedia.com for more info. He has been doing this tour for years. It's not so much a tour of the park as his sharing his knowledge of "behind the scenes" info on the Disney company.

[lauren-roxy]

I think Disney was right on this.

[J603]

He got some nerve! and then to turn around and whine about it.

[Jolin]

wow what an blankety blank guy! Gee I'd just have read Koening's books (Mouse Tales, mouse under glass, etc) instead! he's a good rip off artist. it's good, since I've seen his take on disney isn't pleasant.
Sure, disney may have its dark side, all corporations does. but, to emphasize it on your trip of a lifetime, it's just not appropriate!

[GATechGal]

OK, I'll play Devil's Advocate here. First off, David Koenig got thrown out last Sunday for "running an unauthorized tour". Here's the Jim Hill article about that. Secondly, there are HUNDREDS of tour companies offering tours at the parks. Many of them are for foreign tourists. Some are for VIP's that want to experience more in Orlando than just Disney, but only want to deal with one company. Disney will not even acknowledge that there are other theme parks nearby. Now I realize that the above incidents happened in Calif., but I think Disney over-reacted. They should have taken him aside and dealt with this in a calm fashioned. So now if somebody takes thier visiting friends and family members to Disneyland and begin telling tales that they've read, are THEY going to be thrown out? And for Disney to claim that he's competing with their tours is laughable. Comparing it to t-shirt sales is silly. Think of how many non-authorized Disney t-shirts there are out there. This is just going to be more bad press for Disney. I think it was poorly handled.

[Jolin]

yes, GatechGal, koeing were stopped but according to JH, he weren't thrown out of the park, just asked to desist from talking about it. however, I noted that he didn't charge people for anything, while Jim hill charged $25. for that price I'd have taken along a copy of 'Mouse Tales' instead and enjoy WDW or DL and read the book later in the hotel room.

as for the principle of tours, I do AGREE that it IS incredibly unfair to them, if Disney wants to crack down on tours, crack down on those companies and start offering specialized tours for forgeiners or VIPs. that way it'd be fair to everybody involved.

[LisaJ]

While I can't speak for the "other tours", I certainly think Disney had the right to do what it did, even whether or not I agree with them.

It's equivalent to me, showing up at a multi-plex movie theatre in town, charging customers $8 in addition to what they have paid to get into the theatre, and then showing my own movie to them on one of the screens at the theatre.

[mamapajama]

I just have a question, what about something like Tour Guide Mike (don't get the wrong idea I subscribe to TGM too!). He charges way more than $25 for his VIP tours. Does he have a special arrangement with Disney? I'm just curious as to why they are cracking down on these 2 guys in particular, other than they may be saying less than squeaky-clean things about The WDW CO. Is that it? Or is it something else?

TIA

Elise

[GATechGal]

I like TGM as well. There's a thread on this going on over there as well. Seems that it was the CONTENT of his tour that offended Disney. Probably rightly so, but they still should have handled it differently. Tour guide companies like Mike's are evidently too involved in getting their guests from point A to B in a timely fashion, that they really don't have a lot of time for comentary.

[Joy J]

I totally agree with Mary Ann. Although I do understand Disney's stand on this issue, I think that they went about it in altogether the wrond fashion and have actually only succeeded in not only making themselves appear a little petty and penny-pinching but also given these men a lot of free publicity which will only serve to benefit those individuals in the long run. I have only ever taken WDW official behind the scenes tours and I have no intention of taking any other kind but for Disney to select one or two individuals to "punish" and not touch the dozens and dozens of others who are doing the same thing is a little odd.

Joy

[WillCAD]

I can't be sure, but I believe that Jim Hill got treated more harshly than others mostly because two imbeciles showed up to take an official tour and wound up taking his by mistake, then went to Guest Relations and demanded tier money back for the Disney tour that they missed through tier own stupidity.

That's not to say that Jim Hill was operating on all 6 cylinders that day, either. How dumb do you have to be to run a paid, unauthorized tour on private property and have your gathering point in the same place as the authorized tours? And to top it off, how did he not notice two extra people tagging along with him who hadn't paid his fee?

[poohsgirl]

<font color="purple">I agree with Disney on this one.
One thing is to take a group around, let's say of foreigners, who have difficulty with the language, and show them around the parks. It's something completely different, if you are specificly saying things that 1)Disney doesn't wish to have told 2)may or may not even be true and then in Hill's case charging for it on Disney's own turf!
Freedom of press is one thing, write about Disney all you want. Which these gentlemen have done. But don't expect Disney to turn the other cheek when you are rubbing "less than Disney trivia/facts" in their faces.
I tend to view it like this: you can't control the gossip queens in this world, but if they were in your home bad mouthing YOU, would you let them stay? </font>