CRT Scandal from Years Back

[MisunderstoodLilo]

I saw reference to this in a post by Wedway2002 in the Strategies forum.

I remember all too well how difficult it used to be to get ressies for CRT ...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1730504&page=4
...but I didn't want to go off topic in that thread.

I've heard references of this before...something about it shutting down a community...but I don't know all the details. It was before I became active in any message board community.

Would someone be able to share the details with me? Thank you! It's appreciated!

 

[Connears]

I remember it very well. It lead to the fact that you must leave CC# for the breakfast because there was a group of people who would call for others who wanted reservations and it caused an uproar for the other people who were trying to call on their own. A real mess if I recall. I had a young son who had no interest in Cinderella, so it never affected me.

Connears

 

[moosebug]

I think it had something to do with Howie's angels?

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Ah, I remember it well.
2) A group of people took it upon themselves to "dispense" CRT ressies.
3) A bunch of folks would start calling early in the AM.
4) Obviously, this bounced out many regular folks.
5) To get one of these ressies, you had to go to their website.
6) A real mess!
7) DIRECTLY DUE TO THIS, you had to give a credit card.
8) Then, these guys took your credit card number and called for you.
9) It has been greatly reduced, thank goodness.
10) Imagine, a group of people trying to be the elite dispensers of ressies!
11) Shame!

 

[RMulieri]

Yes it was Howies angels....used to lurk on those boards,never took advantage of that particualr service though

 

[disnut8]

That was a mess. Basically, while this whole thing was going on, the only way you could ever hope to get a seating at the castle for breakfast was to go through this "group".

In their defense, I think (and I could be mistaken) the original thing got started because someone really needed a breakfast at the castle and someone offered to call for someone else. And then it took off from there.

Disney isn't stupid. Once this thing hit the roof, all the tight procedures you see for certain reservations were instituted.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

OK, I'm wearing my fire proof suit, because I'm sure the flames will come. I was part of this group for about a year or so. There was much misinformation about how things worked going around, even here on the DISboards. People requested help ahead of time, and calls were made only for those people. If more than one person got through, any duplicate ressie was canceled immediately. There was never a bunch of people calling to get "phantom" ressies to dispense out to an elite group. And rarely would there be more than 3 or 4 people available to call on any given morning. I know many people in "real life" who have a land line, 2 cell phones, and their friends doing the same to help get them CRT ressies. What we did was no different.

The website was about helping others, not excluding others. But it really got ridiculous when death threats were being made to Howie and those who helped. There were also other forums, much as we have here on the DIS. It was my favorite Disney website and I was very sad when it had to go to a subscribers only format due to the threats.

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and you can curse me for being part of Howie's angels if you really want. However, if you take time to read any of the my posts on the DISboards since I've joined, you'll find that I've always been as helpful as possible and have never flamed another poster.

 

[RMulieri]

OK, I'm wearing my fire proof suit, because I'm sure the flames will come. I was part of this group for about a year or so. There was much misinformation about how things worked going around, even here on the DISboards. People requested help ahead of time, and calls were made only for those people. If more than one person got through, any duplicate ressie was canceled immediately. There was never a bunch of people calling to get "phantom" ressies to dispense out to an elite group. And rarely would there be more than 3 or 4 people available to call on any given morning. I know many people in "real life" who have a land line, 2 cell phones, and their friends doing the same to help get them CRT ressies. What we did was no different.

The website was about helping others, not excluding others. But it really got ridiculous when death threats were being made to Howie and those who helped. There were also other forums, much as we have here on the DIS. It was my favorite Disney website and I was very sad when it had to go to a subscribers only format due to the threats.

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and you can curse me for being part of Howie's angels if you really want. However, if you take time to read any of the my posts on the DISboards since I've joined, you'll find that I've always been as helpful as possible and have never flamed another poster.

I miss it too no flames here.I never used Howie though, because I was able to get them myself.

 

[bairdbeth]

No flames from me. I was one of Howie's Angels. As said the whole thing got misconstrued. I helped 1 person and 1 person helped me. I was very grateful. None of my family gets my Disney obsession. The Angels there did. I miss the community boards as the were very informative.

 

[BadgerBruce]

Although I never used "Howie's Angels", I also was a member of that forum until they went the subscription route. I recall it as a group of friendly, helpful Disney fans like ourselves- so no flames here!

 

[MisunderstoodLilo]

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to this.

Thank you to all who posted, whether directly involved or not, for the explaination...I never knew what exactly went down.