Author banned from parks?

[angiehashemi]

I know this isn't music related, but I also know that members here have their finger on the pulse of all things disney. A friend of mine told me that she heard there was an author of a disney related guide (she wasn't sure if it was a written or an audio type of guide) was banned from the disney parks (not sure which or all). I know there are always rumors about disney, so my first thought was that it wasn't true. Has anyone heard of such info? From what she said, I thought it was something recent. Any ideas where this may have come from? Just curious!

 

[X-S Tech]

If memory serves, a year or two ago, Jim Hill of jimhillmedia.com was organizing and charging for a walking tour of Disneyland led by himself. So people who payed him would congregate in one spot and then he would proceed to lead them around telling stories about the park. I don't know if he was actually able to give any complete tours before Disney was alerted to this and he was asked to leave. I don't know if he was actually banned, but if you search his site, you may find his version of the story.

 

[Gurgitoy2]

Yes, it was Jim Hill. The thing is, his meeting spot was right in front of Disney's own tour guide booth. I mean, yeah, an unofficial "unauthorized" tour might be fun and all, but right in the way of the official one? That's where the trouble started too, because two ladies actually got in on Jim Hill's tour, but thought it was the official one, so when he was telling off-color stories, and not breaking for lunch (like the official tour does), these women got upset and complained. Then security got wind of it, and asked him to leave. He's not banned from the parks, but just asked to stop giving the tours, and leave for the day.

 

[X-S Tech]

And as for authors, I almost want to say David Koenig, of Mousetales, an Realityland fame, ran into similar trouble, but I don't know for sure.

 

[X-S Tech]

I realized something while reading Realityland. His articles on Mouseplanet show that he does have a real love for the parks. He's a fan, albeit one of the watchdogs in the community. None of that comes through in his books. His books read like something from a tabloid. They may all be factual stories but the overall tone is "Let's expose Disney! I'll show you every dirty little secret and spoil the magic for you!". This combined with his inaccuracy on little details that make you wonder if he's ever even set foot on the attractions he's describing, give me a totally different impression of him than I get from his online articles.

 

[Gurgitoy2]

"And as for authors, I almost want to say David Koenig, of Mousetales, an Realityland fame, ran into similar trouble, but I don't know for sure."

Yes, but it was because of what happened to Jim Hill. Apparently, David Koenig had a book signing coming up, and was going to give a tour with the purchase of his book, but had to cancel due to Jim getting busted.

 

[angiehashemi]

This is probably what my friend heard about because I thought it was something that was very recent. I just spoke with her on Thursday and from the way she talked, it had happened not long before then. Thanks for the insight. I had heard about Jim Hill before, but had not heard this info about David Koenig.

 

[schnebs]

Not too long after the incident with Jim, David was to give a tour of Park to coincide with the release of 50th Anniversary edition of "Mouse Tales". IIRC, David did a book signing, then invited the folks at the signing to come along for a discussion of his book in the Park; nobody at the signing was required to have purchased the book, nor was anyone charged for the tour. Disney Security kept an eye on the group, but once they confirmed that David was neither selling copies of his book on property nor taking people on a paid tour, they pretty much let him do his thing.

During Mousefest the last couple of years, David's done similar tours of the MK and Epcot. The Epcot tour, which I attended this year, was a lot of fun, but David had to be careful not to spend a lot of time talking about or promoting his new book "Realityland" to keep from offending the Disney folks.