So.... That Latest Dining Video...

TomorrowlandKD

Nowwwww approaching...
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
DB7. Yikes.

I don't think I've ever seen the comments that bad before!

I watched the video AFTER reading the comments. I must say, I really don't think Pete was terrible to the stormtrooper. He leaned in and quietly let him know they were doing a Vlog. He didn't yell or push anyone aside. The eye rolls during Steve's final review I think were for the screaming child in the background, with Pete worrying that the voices were going to get drowned out. The world is so sensitive these days, it's so easy to pile on someone from behind your computer screen.

Keep in mind people, without Pete, there is no DIS.

Love you Pete!
 
Pete seems fairly lighthearted with his comments in the beginning, then nicely tells him they’re doing a video, and the guy just keeps badgering them.

If anything this just proves Pete’s point... learn to take a hint.

People gotta relax.
 
The Trooper interaction made it to the Cringe Subreddit (with an anti-Pete framing). So while it's not friendly press it's gonna effect the views of the video since an outside audience is coming around to gawk. I think Pete handled it okay but his snark delivery definitely comes across different to people who don't watch him often. Hard position to be in tho. You can leave it in and hope for a magical interaction or one of the others could have stepped out of frame for a bit and headed him off.
 


The eye rolls during Steve's final review I think were for the screaming child in the background, with Pete worrying that the voices were going to get drowned out.

Was it? Didn't notice that - does come off in the video like he is making faces at what Steve is saying (which was distracting from what I think was a pretty solid point)

While I do think Pete could have played along a bit more with the Storm Trooper the comments do seem a bit overblown for what happened

Also agree with @Twitterpaited that I thought Deni handled it really well
 


Okay - was the Storm Trooper a tad long on his roleplaying? Yes, but it wasn't excessive. And was Pete a tad overdone on his verbal reaction? Yes, but again - not excessive, IMHO. I agree the eyerolls were at the crying child, and so what? I'll be brave enough to say out loud I've thought, and done, something just like that. I am a childless way-over mil·len·nial :)

Where I DO think he totally blew it, in my mind, was his mocking Steve - there was absolutely no cause for that, and no excuse for doing it - especially not on camera - that's not any way to treat a subordinate in public (I know from experience!). Hopefully, at the very least, Pete will check himself, and apologize privately to Steve, because I truly believe Pete is a better, and more empathic human than that, and did not mean any overt or intentional harm, he simply thought he was being funny, in the moment.

And yes - huge kudos to Deni for jumping right in the peacekeeping role!! She's my total spirit animal in this case! :)
 
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I think the Stormtrooper was also keying on Deni - she was playing along while Pete grumped. Deni was excited when the Stormtrooper came over and she was interacting. Pete acted like they were shooting a movie with film. How dare a crying child interrupt his vlog!

The framing of the initial piece was really bad - why not just move the camera a bit to the left and crop out the blue shirt guy. Move it so Fiasco was in the shot.
 
Let me start by saying that I love the Dis Unplugged, Disney Dining Show, etc. Everyone brings different opinions and perspectives to the table and I really appreciate that.

With that said, Pete’s behavior toward the end of the vlog made me very uncomfortable. From the attitude with the stormtrooper, to his reaction to the crying child, to bizarrely mocking Steve while he was talking ... that was just not fun to watch.

I thought the stormtrooper interruption was neat - it could have added some fun to the vlog, but instead Pete’s reaction just made him seem like a jaded frequent visitor. And the very clear annoyance over the crying child - I wouldn’t even have noticed the crying child if not for Pete’s facial expressions about it. And I have no idea why he was mocking Steve at the end.

Many in the Disney vlogger community come off as entitled. I do not usually get this vibe from anyone at the Dis, but Pete’s behavior toward the end of this video was really not a good look.

Everyone has their off days, and I get that. But I’m honestly surprised they still posted this.
 
Everyone has their off days, and I get that. But I’m honestly surprised they still posted this.

The fact that they would still post it is exactly why everyone is crapping all over him for it. It's beyond entitled to review/edit this and think it was fine. He gets upset with cast members in the park attempting to interact with him in what disney intends to be one of the most immersive experiences in the parks, what a joke. His recordings are breaking that experience for others more than a roaming storm trooper is impacting his. And if he gets upset over a crying child maybe he needs to take his *** up to Sandusky to cedar point where their core demographic is not focused on families with young children. Disney ought to start charging his ilk a fee to generate their revenue generating content on property.
 
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None of us know how many times they had tried to film that section. The ‘final’ version could have been the tenth attempt to film without interruptions or distractions. This would explain Pete’s reaction and his facial expression near the end, could just have been him saying, ‘lets wrap this up quickly before someone/thing else interrupts filming.’ It is irritating enough when someone deliberately walks into shot when one is very obviously attempting to take a photograph at WDW. Trying to film must be a nightmare.
 
I just watched the review. The information on the review was detailed and helpful. As someone that has only experienced DB7 in DL during opening weekend, I found the update review usefully thorough. Thank you!!

A few fun, extraneous details I noticed:
- Visual laff-trax provided by "Guy-in-blue-shirt". The reactions from the person to Pete's left were great, though I don't know if their inclusion in the frame was intentional.

- Where's the Spork?!? In the latter half the 20th century Wendy's had a commercial that started a phrase craze, "Where's the Beef?" I think we could revive this, but in the context of celebrating plant based proteins. Anyways, I kept looking for the sporks, and finally during Steve's dish I saw actual forks. So perhaps, the sporks aren't going make a return. (I had no clue people were stealing them to sell when I was at DB7.)

- I noticed that the interaction with the stormtrooper was less than 1 minute. I thought the trooper did great, they offered guests (the team) an experience and when a guest asked for them to go, they pivoted the interaction to leave. You can see my avatar with this post; that's me in the suit, and I have been in situations where I had to quickly pivot the interaction to something different. The trooper didn't linger, they both opened and closed the shared storytelling experience.

- Having watched podcast over the years, we know that Pete can sometimes be ascerbic and poke fun. I genuinely think it's not out of a mean-spirit, but perhaps a prankster spirit, with the thought that everyone laughs along. Of course a danger is when not everyone "gets" the joke. We can see Pete smile and almost wink in the middle of mugging for the camera. So I think it was a visual goofing on a colleague, like the "Lady Julip" monikers he gives. I would just say to anyone that pranks in this way, for this dining review, imagine you were the person talking, and someone out of sight made those faces, would you feel that the joke with made with you, or was made at you/ at your expense for a laugh? We're human; we're going to learn and grow through experiences. Sometimes it's by lessons we learn from watching others, and sometimes it's through introspection.


I'm really grateful for the informative content, pictures of the dishes, and candid review. Thank you for your time and continued service to the community, as well as committment to charitable work for Give Kids the World Village. Thank You!
 
I applaud the "Spetti" references! Even when challenged, the team members not only defended themselves, but made me appreciate their individualism even more.

Based on what I saw on the recent Coral Reef dining review, perhaps having Pete sit-out some of the dining reviews would help enlighten the team to be a little more "free" in their viewpoints.
 
Whoa 2.2 dislikes... 500 comments mostly blasting Pete and they are going way too far.

The stormtrooper bit I thought was actually super funny, I thought it made the blog better with a bit of unscripted humor. *shrugs Deni was adorable and made the moment.

Overall, this goes in line with why many people ask them to film part of the dining reviews in studio. If you film in the parks, you can't complain that babies or stormtroopers are roaming around on your set.

But do count me as another vote that Pete absolutely owes Steve an apology, I have no idea why he did that. I am kinda surprised in reflecting back and re-watching it, recognizing it as a misstep, Pete didn't ask Craig to crop that out before posting.
 
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I'm just...Pete's reaction to the Stromtrooper? What reaction? :rotfl: He was smiling! I went to watch hoping for this huge kerfuffle and was like, this was it? I think it's just his type of humor/sarcasm/personality. I'm cringing that people thought this was worthy of being cringe-worthy.
It was like he was winking at us because we know the backstory of all the discussions about how people are annoyed by the interactions going too far sometimes.

Note to self, don't let any of my "reactions" when I'm annoyed be caught on video - the world may collectively pass out.
 
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Pete does deserve some of the criticism his receiving, how he handled the interaction with the stormtrooper could have been played so differently, instead of being a fun moment it turn into something uncomfortable for everyone. Now for his actions when Steve was talking, totally unacceptable. If that was someone else doing this when he was speaking, they would be looking for a new job! Hopefully he apologized.
 

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