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Disney's current position regarding electric chargers
- Thread starter Larry Chanin
- Start date
I know a Club 33 member who wanted to take delivery at the park. He was refused because Disney has a promotional agreement with Honda. (Club 33 is a high end VIP club at Disneyland for those that don't know.)
I'm friends with Bob Gurr, the famous Disney Legend (real title, look it up) who invented the Disney Monorail, Autopia cars, and audio-animatronics. He is a big car buff and was very excited to be the first person to drive my Model S other than my wife and I. He is dismayed that Disney doesn't support this given how much importance Walt put on future transportation.
I've been lobbying Disney on this for a while, along with the other Tesla owner mentioned above. I actually got to meet Michael Colglazier, the President of the Disneyland Resort, at a recent Annual Passholder event, and I pressed him on the EV charging issue. I pointed out that I'd love to drop by the resort, which is one hour from home on my way back from Los Angeles and frequent family trips to Central California, to charge while spending money dining and enjoying the parks. He said that the main issue is the amount of infrastructure that would be required. Actually sounded like they are worried there will be so much demand that it will be problematic to manage. But I have it on good authority from another management contact there that they are working on a "plan," but I don't know what that plan is. Hopefully we'll find out soon. I specifically suggested what chargers they should use (I was pushing 70amp stations rather than the common 30amp ones--and Lloyd, I passed along your input on that) and was assured my input had been given to the "committee."
So the more pressure, the better!
I'm afraid I don't have much info on this either, but Mark requested help (via PM) and I was trying to support his efforts. On his own page, he posted the story of how he frequents DW enough to want charging there, and wrote Disney. He got a call back from Cust Service, who basically said they weren't sure there was demand, and it would be helpful if folks emailed to demonstrate. And so we are.
Ironically, there is some history of DL having charging in Anaheim during the EV1 days. It was a nightmare for us (GM funded and installed much of the CA/AZ infrastructure in that generation, which meant the EV Specialists were very involved in public charging installs) to deal w Disney and all of their hoops. But as you can imagine, the location was quite popular once we got it installed.
Ironically, there is some history of DL having charging in Anaheim during the EV1 days. It was a nightmare for us (GM funded and installed much of the CA/AZ infrastructure in that generation, which meant the EV Specialists were very involved in public charging installs) to deal w Disney and all of their hoops. But as you can imagine, the location was quite popular once we got it installed.
Jason,
That's excellent background information. Do you happen to know whether the "committee" is studying the problem for just Disneyland Resort or for other Disney resorts as well such as Disney World Resort?
Do you think you could get us access to a management contact that would be closer to the issue than working our way through guest communications?
I represent over 130 members in our Florida Tesla Motors Club. I was thinking if we could get some kind group communication, as Rodolfo suggests, directly to management it might be more effective than sending individual emails to through guest communications.
Thanks.
Larry
Chelsea,
Thanks for your support in this effort!
I have to admit for a fleeting moment of madness I thought perhaps we should offer to donate chargers to Disney. Then I returned to sanity. Here is Disney one of the biggest and most profitable corporations in the world, who makes a point of advertising their green credentials, and who needs to be proactive to assure they continue to attract guests to their resorts, needs financial help from a small non-profit EV club? Further we understand that they have no problem in justifying chargers for certain of their employees, we suspect executives, but can't justify it for their paying customers?
No, as much as I love them I guess we'll just have to stop our practice of staying at Disney resorts and stay at other competing locations that have the foresight to install chargers in pursuit of their own enlightened self-interest.
Larry
I assume it's Disneyland specific, but I don't really know.
That would be awesome. Unfortunately this isn't anything I could use publicly. The best thing is to use the kind of public feedback addresses like Chelsea posted or can be found on the "contact us" links on their websites. I do know from experience that Disney takes input on those channels pretty darn seriously.
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I tried that. Didn't help.
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The Hilton has an Avcon charger if you have an adapter. (Maybe that's what you were thinking of?) There are J1772s at the convention center. The Grand Californian valets will usually try to plug you into a 110volt assuming you're there long enough for that to help.
Infrastructure? Problem?
The amount of power the parks use is equal to a small state. Child's play for them.
Like I mentioned they already charge all their support vehicles so the have some power in parking lots (though not 70 amp nor in the tall parking structure where you can find the odd 110 live socket.)
Hotel swipe card is an interesting idea. Was just in a hotel where you had to room-card swipe to enter the underground parking garage I was billed later for that. If they wanted to charge a fee (let's hope not) perhaps they could sell Disney branded EV charge swipe cards at one of the zillion cash registers around.
I forgot to mention Downtown Disney too. Shopping and eating is all you can do there.
Cool history Chels! Any pictures?
The amount of power the parks use is equal to a small state. Child's play for them.
Like I mentioned they already charge all their support vehicles so the have some power in parking lots (though not 70 amp nor in the tall parking structure where you can find the odd 110 live socket.)
Hotel swipe card is an interesting idea. Was just in a hotel where you had to room-card swipe to enter the underground parking garage I was billed later for that. If they wanted to charge a fee (let's hope not) perhaps they could sell Disney branded EV charge swipe cards at one of the zillion cash registers around.
I forgot to mention Downtown Disney too. Shopping and eating is all you can do there.
Cool history Chels! Any pictures?
In the meantime I would suggest those that wish to stay at Disney go ahead and do so and when you are staying at their hotel attempt to use the concierge to charge your car and this can be a practical and current measure to get the hotel staff to see that it is an issue. For example I can imagine staying at the concierge level asking about way to go ahead and use a 110 volt extension cord.. I can imagine through hotel management this would get to the top pretty quickly.
from my Samsung galaxy s3
from my Samsung galaxy s3
I see your point, and it's an entirely reasonable approach. Personally, I prefer to vote with my dollars and tell Disney that on X and Y dates, they lost my business because someone else does support EV's and they don't. IMHO this does two good things: it pressures Disney, and it rewards others -- who are in a far less dominant market position -- for having made those investments proactively.
Both methods work as long as you get the input to the right people. xhawk101's method gets the message to the concierge level staff, which is very likely to get sent directly to the hotel manager.
If anyone ever gets a survey from Disneyland (usually because you were randomly asked for your email by one of the cast members with the tablets that usually stand just inside the enterance), that's a really good place to make the issue known.
A bit of (slightly off topic) Tesla/Disney goodness. Hopefully I'll get an updated version with my S soon:
If anyone ever gets a survey from Disneyland (usually because you were randomly asked for your email by one of the cast members with the tablets that usually stand just inside the enterance), that's a really good place to make the issue known.
A bit of (slightly off topic) Tesla/Disney goodness. Hopefully I'll get an updated version with my S soon:
dflye
S Sig Perf 414, VIN 814
dflye
S Sig Perf 414, VIN 814
Yes, not much different than the response I received a year ago. Check out the first posting.
Larry
At least at Disney in California, parking is not free. $15/day for a car or motorcycle. $20 for an SUV or motorhome. Have a fee for the EVSE's if they need to, but being the "green company" they proclaim to be, I would think that they would be first in line to provide for EV's.
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/plan/guest-services/parking/
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/plan/guest-services/parking/
dflye
S Sig Perf 414, VIN 814
Looks comparable to prices for parking at the various WDW theme parks ($14 car/MC); parking is free at their shopping mecca, Disney Downtown.
So in theory the access to EV chargers at the theme parks would be limited to those that paid the fee to get in (or got in free by staying at a resort on property)
Where it would get a bit more tricky is restricting access at the resorts; folks not staying at the resorts drop by to shop and dine (and some sightsee during the holiday season), although I doubt someone is going to try and sneak in just to charge their EV.
Have fun!
When you get a chance, please describe your charging experience on the Hotels in Florida with Charging Stations thread.
And please let Disney guest communications know that they lost your hotel business because of their charger policy.
Thanks.
Larry
Out of curiosity, were all of the letters received by those of you who got them signed w the same name (a la Citibank always using S. Larsen, etc.)? "John" is also who called Mark Rickey.
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PS- also asked The Electric Generation team to help spread the word on that fb page, etc.
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PS- also asked The Electric Generation team to help spread the word on that fb page, etc.
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