News The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

[OogieBoogie]

The following is from dlrptoday.com, a website about Disneyland Paris.

Paris operations chief named Disneyland president

Tuesday, 13th October 2009 00:21 GMT

previous president Ed Grier stepped down last week, right on schedule at 3 years into the job.
For newly-promoted Kalogridis, this also ends a three-year reign. George became Chief Operating Officer (COO, or French title, ) for Euro Disney SCA, operating group of Disneyland Paris, back in 2006 after Karl Holz was promoted to Chief Executive Officer.

Twilight Zone Tower of TerrorWalt Disney Studios Park has been disappointingly slow and half-hearted. And of course, during his entire run as COO, George Kalogridis would never have seen the front of Disney Studio 1Chicken Little and Cars opening should UPDATE (01:46 GMT)Q&A with George Kalogridis

Q. What have you learned from other resorts and your previous stint here that you can bring to the new job?Q. What lessons did you learn from the similarities of Disneyland and Disneyland Paris?Q. How do you see your role with guests?
A.

[JerrodDRagon]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Whats the Bad?

[Mr. Bungle]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

France?

[OogieBoogie]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

When I said 'bad' I was refering to the paragraph saying:

"Meanwhile, characters have taken over some of the magic of the original park, proper entertainment has been shunned in favour of street dance-alongs, attractions have been forced into reduced operating hours, hotel pools have stayed closed until 3pm, the official website has remained incredibly poor, and progress, generally, at Walt Disney Studios Park has been disappointingly slow and half-hearted. And of course, during his entire run as COO, George Kalogridis would never have seen the front of Disney Studio 1 — it being flanked first by Chicken Little and Cars advertisements, then later a “refurbishment” covering for the past 14 months".

[mac81962]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Give this guy a break. He just started the job and already some of you are looking for the "bad" in him. Geez, is the glass always half empty for some of you guys?

[Coheteboy]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Give this guy a break. He just started the job and already some of you are looking for the "bad" in him. Geez, is the glass always half empty for some of you guys?

I don't think people have said anything that would lead to the "half empty" camp yet. People are just making simple observations from the news and press.

[engine5972]

[WesternRiverExplorer]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Everyone has a history, baggage they carry with them. Past decisions affect future ones.

Personally, it concerns me that he feels Paris and DLR are "the most similar". Really? The things he cites as his reasoning are anecdotal at best. By the same line of thinking, I could say that DLR and Tokyo are very similar (two parks, hotels, entertainment center, urban area). But they're not. It's dangerous to me to oversimplify the unique attributes of each resort.

[Mr. Bungle]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

I can understand where he's coming from, my impression of the parks is that those two are more similar than the others, but every park is still a different beast. That was the one sentence that raised a tiny red flag.

[OogieBoogie]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Could this mean that he's going to either:

a) Create a cardboard cutout of himself and have a cast member move it to a different location each day.

b) He's going to have a face character made of himself and have them stand at the gates to great everyone

c) He's going to actually go out and mingle.

Here's hopeing it's C.

[Coheteboy]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Sometimes when people say things in interviews, it's not exactly what they really mean. It's just thoughts that may seem like a good thing to say but often... it doesn't come out the way we want.

I'm sure the raised flags are only in our minds. He was just trying to reassure us that he's capable and properly trained for the job... maybe more trained that many presidents we've had in the past. :::cough PRESSLER cough:::

[mycroft16]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

I really hope he does put them on notice. They need to get out in the parks more often. Even if for just an hour a day. No spreadsheet or report can beat talking to the leads on attractions or lands nor watching how guests react/interact with things.

[FantasmicFanatic]

Re: The good and the bad about George Kalogridis

Could this mean that he's going to either:

a) Create a cardboard cutout of himself and have a cast member move it to a different location each day.

b) He's going to have a face character made of himself and have them stand at the gates to great everyone

c) He's going to actually go out and mingle.

Here's hopeing it's C.

OOOOO, can't it be all of the above?!?