Disney firefighters are distraught, choked up by 'disturbing' move from Ron DeSantis to strip them of free park passes
stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to 
fortune.com
Firefighters confronted DeSantis' governing board on Wednesday. “The removal of this benefit takes away, for some, their entire reason for working here."
Make no mistake this is a case of ‘the guy we voted for to Fuck with the people we don’t like is going after us instead’. Needle dick Ron laid waste to the state of Florida so he could play politics and the people of Florida got exactly what they wanted.
Well now the state is worse than it’s ever been and ol meatball is getting absolutely clowned on in the national spotlight. Eat shit dickhead, you thought you were the natural next choice but that’s all over.
Orange County, where Disney World is located, went for the D candidate 53-46. Don't blame them for the malignant human tumor their state foisted on them.
But Disney themselves donated plenty to R candidates for years. The state and its inhabitants are finding out what that gets you.
I’ve spent far more time in the sunshine state than i ever would wish on anyone, Im not saying everyone in the state is brainwashed but there are plenty of people who cheer on as their state is imploding.
We have to acknowledge that Republicans have lots to offer if you're a mega corp.
bribescampaign donations, they can instead be forced to comply with subtle threats to leak details of their varioushomosexual escapades to the media.But you see, Disney made the mistake of going woke. How dare they cast non-white or any gay characters in anything. Next they'll tell us women should be able to vote. It's a slippery slope.
If they think the implosion will "own the libs", they are for it.
Blame the 46, yes. That is still atrociously high.
True, but I bet you that the 53 isn't able to do much about that 46. At least nothing that fits in the bounds of a civil democracy.
Wait, Disney world is also in a county called Orange? That's pretty funny, I never knew that
Yeah, Orlando is Orange county. Florida was the largest producer in the U.S. California is recently passing them up due to issues. Between the two it something like 95% of all the citrus grown in the U.S.
That said, if you want a sweeter, juicier orange, get an orange from Florida. If you want a longer shelf life orange, go with California.
Lol it’s come out the fire department endorsed desantis. Just thought you would like to know.
Ooh, then that's on them now.
We don’t know who this person voted for. They could be totally against Desantis and never voted for him like millions of other people did as well. I certainly didn’t vote for the premiere of my province who is corrupt and screwing us all over constantly.
I know a guy in the Reedy Creek fire department. He is a hard core Republican. When Desantis took over the board he didn’t think it would be a bad thing.
I like the guy and have known him for years so it’s sad to see it go this way but you get the government you votes for.
It seems like a fair number of these firefighters voted for the Leopards Eating Faces Party, and are now getting their faces eaten.
You get the government you voted for?
For so many people in this country that isn't the case.
I live in a deep red state. I sure as fuck did not vote that way.
The country has gotten so bad that I'm not looking into moving States any more. I'm looking at other countries.
I have been practicing my pronunciation of "Cahnahdah," trying to get it like Robin from 8 bit show & tell. Except I'm divorced with a kid and new partner who has a kid. I'd have to convince 10 other people to go with me so everyone can still see their kids.
You got any good skills? Like nunchuck fighting skills, bow hunting skills... Canada only likes immigrants if they've got good skills.
Well Napoleon, my great great grandmother was from Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, it's too remote for me to get the benefit of Canadian citizenship. But I'm willing to try - mainly for my daughter's future. The US is fucked and I don't see it getting better. And I won't bring American bullshit with me. Maybe I need to meet a cute 40-something Canadian to smooth the waay.
This reminds me of the old women that were living off of their permanent alimony payments in Florida suddenly having that yanked by Republicans and who are VERY angry at DeSADIST as well.
Firefighters in Florida are about 90% conservatives. Even if this specific firefighter is not a conservative, his complaint is shared by his conservative coworkers. The conservatives are bitching and moaning about the results of their conservatism.
That’s fair and if that’s the case it’s leopards ate my face material.
I'm not sure about that figure. Cops? Sure. But don't know about firefighters. They always seemed way cooler and are actual heroes.
Source: trust me bro
[Citation required]
You must be Ontarian! Hi neighbour.
It’s come out the fire department endorsed desantis, thought you would like to know.
My wife’s grandparents lived literally down the road from a theme park (not in Florida) and during the summers especially both vehicle and foot traffic on their street could be nuts. The theme park would give out a number of free passes to all the residents that lived within a certain distance as a way to apologize for having to put up with all the traffic. My wife and I used those free passes a couple times before her grandparents passed.
DeSantis and his cronies are major a**holes for taking a perk like this away from the very people who risk their own lives to keep others safe.
Will they have to purchase tickets in the future if there is a fire in the Disney Resort? /s
They're spending 6.4 million taxpayer dollars on suing and countersuing Disney between this year and the next. While taking away a popular , family friendly benefit costing 2;5 million per year.
DeSantis is a legit Disney villain. They could make an animated film featuring him as a comically stupid bad guy.
Meanwhile, he passed a bill to strip schools of funding by giving new vouchers to parents for their kids 'education', including homeschool. The money can be spent on a number of things outside school... one if which is Florida theme park admission!
Wait, how does this work? I've got 3 kids in a semi private school. I say that because it's technically a public school, but it's through a lottery system and admission is hard to get. One of the best schools in the northeast Florida. Am I eligible for that voucher as well?
I don't think so. It's if you're not in a publicly funded school. It's meant to offset the cost of whatever you are doing to educate your kid if it's not a public school. But knowing desantis, the goal is more likely to refund public schools.
Weirdly, I think it's like 10 or 12k, and you are eligible if you homeschool through flvs, but then you have to pay for flvs. But it's only around 4k a year. Kind of makes sense, because you're supposed to have access as a flvs student to all the extracurriculars and clubs and things at any local public school, but in practice the schools almost uniformly refuse. So you can use the balance to pay for classes and clubs and educational materials.
Your kids' school is a "public charter school," not a "semi private school."
The purpose of those vouchers is to undermine schools like the one your kids are attending.
Great opportunity for Disney to offer free park passes to the Firefighters.
My thoughts too. It's a slam dunk for PR for a tiny price.
“Oh my god quick come help there’s a fire at DisneyWorld!”
“Jeeeeez sure wish I could, but…”
Don't make DeSantis smile more than he already is
It looks like this is a $1,400 per year perk. That's really expensive if you're considering buying it out of pocket, but not a huge amount in terms of salary. This should never be a make it or break it kind of benefit. Negotiate to make an extra $1,400 next year and buy it out of your own pocket.
Edit: just adding that I am incredibly anti-DeSantis, but this is a nothing burger.
No I don't think their perk is $1400. If it is a Cast Member Silver Pass, they can get three people plus themselves in to any park every day of the year for free. If you have family come over it's more than $100 per person per day. These tickets always include a Park Hopper option, adding another $40-50 in cost. If you use this perk 20 times per year for 3+1 people (which is definitely within reason), that would be more than $8000 and up to $12000 if you include the Park Hopper option. Maybe you could get that cheaper with season passes, but those are tied to an individual. $1400 is way, way off .
Considering this quote from the article; 'Firefighter Aaron Clark, whose father was also a district firefighter, choked up as he recounted how growing up his dad took him to the parks using the passes and how he now does the same thing with his three daughters.' I think you're spot on. They also mention discounts in the park which was a part of a cast member badge. When I worked in the parks I could have sworn they also had the blue ID (as opposed to green for 3rd party vendor), but that was a while ago.
They also bought 400 passes for all of the RCID employees, so they probably got a significant discount. Also considering Disney pays 86% of the taxes that fund RCID, it might have been cheaper to give away the passes and keep the tax money. Even at $10k a person (an absurdly high estimate), $4 million is a drop in the Disney bucket.
I googled it before posting my comment. It can't be that off.
Yep, that's the danger of Googling something without a proper background. There is a season pass that the general public can buy, but it is quite different from the Cast Member version. https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/cm-silver-pass-question.906317/ versus https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/benefits-of-becoming-a-passholder/
"I did a whole 2 minutes of research, I can't possibly be wrong"
In addition to the other person who replied to you, I also wanted to point out that the firefighters did not say they were only firefighters for that Disney pass perk, just that it was the main reason they worked in that specific location. If they didn't get that perk, I'm sure some of them have other stations closer to their home or would prefer to move somewhere less crowded or with better traffic on their daily commute. The Disney to I Drive area of Orlando is traffic/tourist hell. I sure as hell wouldn't want to work there without some special benefits.
It’s clear that you don’t understand Disney Adults. Even if it were just a $1,400 per year perk, the people that work there solely because of the perk that allows them to go to Disney properties whenever they want will have just lost their incentive. It’s entirely likely that some of these people have willingly turned down positions at fire departments or in the industries that require their experience for the explicit reason that they enjoy the access to disney their job provides. Without that, there would be little incentive to stay even if they could get a $1400 bonus.
Dipshit DeSantis doing dipshit things again.
Honestly, I kind of agree with this. The state was paying for these passes, not Disney. Thats an inscestuous relationship between the state and private enterprise. It should never have been that way in the firstplace.
The offset of 1400 in wage increases seems a bit low to compensate, but if its enough to buy a season pass then no harm no foul.
Disney can supply the free passes if they want to; let them foot the bill
That's the price of 1 annual pass. So if you have a spouse and 3 kids, that leaves you a fair bit in the hole.
I thought the ole meatball wanted to call a truce?
He's willing to call a truce against Disney directly. He can still attack them in more plausibly-deniable ways.
It’s callled blowing you was too soon. There was a path that he was on. Took a bad turn and fucked his future in politics. You
hatelove to see it.Haven't heard that one before
“Blowing your wad”?
Autocorrect. Yes, you got what I meant to say. I'm not fixing it because I want to preserve context for the replies. But the shame and laughter are both felt for that mistake.
No shame at all!
I usually use strikeout to fix typos in those instances.
Yeah, wut?
When deep down you know you should have waited until the second date
Just wondering, but why was Florida providing this in the first place?
Was this provided by the board that Florida took over from Disney, or were they just always providing it?
This is a standard perk for Disney employees. Reddy Creek providing it to the fire firefighters was basically an acknowledgement that the fire fighters were Disney employees. Disney was explicitly in charge of Reddy Creek so that made some sense. Desantis ripped Reddy Creek away from Disney to win political points, and is now hurting the firefighters, apparently just for fun, in his continued vendetta.
I'm sure Disney could just keep giving them those passes for free if they felt like it
This. Surprised this is so far down. I'd expect it also, this fool is giving Disney a chance to be the good guys again at no actual cost to them. It's handing Disney a no-brainer PR win.
Good PR is worth more when there is bad news first. If Disney does this sight unseen it's worth less than giving out passes next week after this story gets around.
Totally, and I'm all for the mouse on this one if I didn't make that clear.
That would be a massive win for DeSantis, since it shows that Disney does buckle when push comes to shove.
Florida wasn't, the district was. The district was formerly managed by Disney. Now it's not.
Hopefully Disney will pick up the tab for these firefighters. Do something good and shit on desantis in the process. Win win
The firefighters that allied with DeSantis against Disney? That would be pretty generous.
The enemy of my enemy, as they say
"Come on in and spend $15 on a soda" isn't exactly picking up the tab...
Sure, but $8000 to $12000, like the comment or above described, is exactly picking up the tab.
Ahhh....that explains a lot.....
it's a common benefit provided by a lot of employers in the area. i've been to Disney for free more than i have been paying, yet i never rated this benefit. rather, someone that did would get me in instead.
BREAKING NEWS: Scientific study determines leopards do in fact eat human faces, more at 11
I'm assuming you interviewed these firefighters on who they voted for governor? Or gasp are you jumping to conclusions on the internet?
The fire department supported dissolving RCD and welcomed the DeSantis puppets. So no, not jumping to conclusions at all.
https://wdwnt.com/2023/01/rcid-firefighters-support-state-takeover-of-reedy-creek-improvement-district/
Aww they were worried about losing their park access and healthcare but supported him anyways?
They fucked around. Now they're finding out.
Sounds like things weren't great with Disney, but choosing DeSantis isn't going to work out any better for them
well, if free parking passes were the main reason for being a firefighter, well, jeeze, i dunno what to say about that, except they shouldn't be. either disney covers the parking fees for when they're on duty, if that's even an issue, or these guys gotta get another gig
It’s free “Park Passes” Not “Free Park” Passes. These were free passes given to employees to be a me to enter the park with their families for free.
Eh, might not be that black and white.
Who’s to say that these firefighters chose the Disney district over a neighbor because of the better benefits? Maybe they have young kids who they want to be able to enjoy the parks on a regular basis without spending so much. Maybe this benefit is worth an extra 30 minute commute each day. Lots of reasons to chose one job over another.
Let’s not just shit on everybody who loses a nice thing. I doubt these people are fighting fires solely for the paycheck.
Disney will just give them the passes directly because that's an easy PR win that Ron is teeing up.
Except they're basically enacting rules against accepting gifts like this, saying it's unethical. Like a bribe.
Ahh, their fuckery knows no bounds. My mom asked me what I thought of DeSantis today. I'm like...do you have an hour?
Then make that perk part of their pay and not free passes. Then it would benefit all of the firefighters, not just the ones who want to take their kids to Disney.
I think that’s a valid argument, but it’s more expensive for Disney.
Let’s say you run a company and offer all of your 50 employees free park passes valued at $1500 for the public. Just giving them the passes costs you little. There’s some administrative overhead and the costs of park usage, but those are mostly spread across your million or so visitors paying for park access.
You can alternatively give the 50 employees the value of the passes. That’s $75k. Could be the price of another firefighter or two part timers. Maybe three interns. It’s a cost that could maybe be applied elsewhere.
Or the executives split a bonus. Who knows.
Bro, you must have been really tired when you read this article.
For this headline/article, and US english in general, park passes do not refer to parking. The passes referred to would also not be used while they're on duty.
Not being a firefighter per se, but choosing to work as one for Disney.
yeah, i'm not gonna lose sleep over these guys losing their freaking parking passes. desantis is hurting so many others so much worse on the regular, i'm gonna save my emoting for the fascism, thanks
“These people aren’t being effected enough for me to care.”
Cool story bro. You aren’t involved enough for me to care about your opinion. ❤️
"Entry to the park" pass
We gatekeeping fascism now, leggo
Idk if you were being sarcastic or not but either way thanks for the laugh, that was funny.