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News Jill Estorino Named President of Disneyland Resort

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I don’t think anyone believes that’s what you are hoping for. You are rooting for failure so you have something to post about in your usual smug, baby-boomer way 🤣

If she's bad at her job, you can darn well bet I'm going to post about it.
Reference: See everything I ever said online about those young whipper snappers Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss online from 1998-2003.

If she's good at her job (hopefully great!), you can darn well bet I'm going to post about it.
Reference: See everything I ever said online about those young whipper snappers Matt Ouimet from 2003-2006 and George Kalogridis from 2009-2012.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
As for the rest of your post, its pretty clear some are trying to push some narrative for whatever reason.

It's not a narrative, it's simply noting what has actually just happened.

Jill Estorino was most recently in charge of the 4 overseas theme park resorts Disney owns/operates. Here's the most recent explanation from Disney on what that President Disney Parks International job is responsible for:

"...oversee the operations, expansion, and development of Disney’s international parks — including Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort in partnership with Oriental Land Company, and our newest park coming to Abu Dhabi in partnership with Miral."

That's 6 Parks, 18 Hotels, 3 malls, and 66,000 CM's, plus four people with President in their title and several dozen Vice Presidents reporting to her. And planning work on the 5th overseas Resort in latter development.

And here is how Disney just described Jill Estorino's new role as Disneyland Resort President:

"As a strong business and marketing strategist, she focuses on brand stewardship, exceptional guest experiences, and a deeply connected cast culture. Estorino will guide the resort through its next phase of growth while continuing to foster the culture and community that has defined Disneyland."

That's 2 Parks, 3 Hotels, 1 mall, and 36,000 CM's. Plus a half dozen people with Vice President in their title reporting to her.

It's a notable change in scale, scope and responsibility for Ms. Estorino's career. You might even say, and just go with this to humor me, it's worthy of discussion. 🤔
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
No one has said that.
Among your nearly 50 posts to this thread you have repeatedly described how you think she's not suited to the position and will fail and not last long.

Could be, but we've watched this movie before.... Exciting news of new TDA President Du Jour!

It's Cynthia Harriss! ☠️
It's Ed Grier! 😴
It's Rebecca Campbell! 🤳
Huh, because we've also watched this movie which YOU described [my bold]:
Thomas Mazloum clearly was on a short list for the Parks Chairman role when he was made Disneyland President, as Iger was already known to be near retirement when Mr. Mazloum was moved to Anaheim. He needed actual Park experience ASAP before he could be moved up. There was a strategy and plan there.

Josh came from being the VP of Animal Kingdom to be the President of Disneyland Resort, a promotion. But as you say,
he moved up very fast. He was clearly a favorite of Iger and the Board.
Speaking of.... did WDW get a new President with this? Who are they? Seems like Disneyland is Where The Action Is! now for moving executives up the chain, which is a total 180 from how things worked in the 1990's thru 2010's.
Ken Potrock and Thomas Mazloum both got promotions from their Disneyland gigs by Josh D'Amaro. Thomas Mazloum is now Parks Chairman, and Josh is now Company CEO.
Which is it, a revolving door of failure or the stepping stone to greatness? Pick a lane.

In her most previous role as Disney Parks International President, she oversaw four different site Presidents who were in charge of their own Resortwide operations. Now, suddenly, she's in charge of her own 2-park Resort, and she's doing the job her underlings had. That's worth noting.
Perhaps you will post a complete hierarchy of positions in the parks division (e.g., is Filippatos now above Vahle...6 parks to 4? Does the head of DLP go above DLR...both have 2 parks yet DLP has more hotel rooms?).
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Among your nearly 50 posts to this thread you have repeatedly described how you think she's not suited to the position and will fail and not last long.

Is it 50? I could do this for another 100 or so.

Don't worry, according to my profile here, I've got 28,557 posts on this site so far. Plus tens of thousands of them archived on a half dozen other Disney fansites from the 1990's to the 2010's, that all mostly bit the dust. (LaughingPlace, Mouse info, etc.)

Which is it, a revolving door of failure or the stepping stone to greatness? Pick a lane.

As we've seen since 1995, it truly depends on the person in that President role. It can be fabulous, or it can be deadly.

I can't pick that lane for those folks, they have to pick their own lane. But after a year or two in the job, and the fan limelight, it's usually pretty easy to condense their tenure down into a sentence or two.

Perhaps you will post a complete hierarchy of positions in the parks division (e.g., is Filippatos now above Vahle...6 parks to 4? Does the head of DLP go above DLR...both have 2 parks yet DLP has more hotel rooms?).

I think it's pretty easy to see they've split the two US resorts into their own orbits, and kept the 4 overseas parks in their own orbit. They've had several versions of this hierarchy in the last 20 years, and it will likely change again. And again.

Just before Covid shut it all down, they had Michael Colglazier in charge the Asian parks, and Catherine Powell in charge of the US parks and Disneyland Paris. With site Presidents below them at each property. Both Colglazier and Powell were let go, and left Disney.

There was a particularly notorious era in the 2000's when Disneyland's President and many senior Anaheim execs effectively reported up to various Floridians out at WDW. That was a mess.

Now, we've got the two US parks spun apart (which seems smart, and I remember lobbying for that here in the 2010's) with their own site President, and all of the overseas properties lumped together with their own site Presidents reporting up to a Disney Parks International President.
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
I can't pick that lane for those folks, they have to pick their own lane. But after a year or two in the job, and the fan limelight, it's usually pretty easy to condense their tenure down into a sentence or two.
Well you seem quite prepared to write her unflattering career obituary now based on the quotes below. Clearly you are not giving her a year or two on the job first.

I'll bet 2 Churros she doesn't last longer than 18 months. And I'll bet 5 Churros she's not there two years from now.
Let's not pretend Ms. Estorino, with her pitch-perfect corporate executive vocabulary and slickness and who has never worked at Disneyland before, is going to stand up to a boss who says "Estorino, start delegating on this plan to turn Main Street USA into Mickey Avenue for Fiscal '28".
Sadly, unless she completely flips the script on everyone as a surprise grand finale' for her long Disney career, I don't think she's going to be the next Matt Ouimet, who famously used to sit on a bench inside City Hall quietly listening to complaints on a Saturday night.
I'd love to be proven wrong though, for the good of the park. Fingers crossed I'm wrong!
I can't imagine Ms. Estorino is going to buck that trend laid out by her two current bosses, both of which were her Anaheim predecessors. There's nothing in her career record we know of so far that leads anyone to believe she pushes boundaries or goes against the grain.
She may not be long for this world, if I know basic corporate strategy.
Either way, her new Anaheim gig appears to be a demotion in scale and scope and responsibility. Certainly on paper, if not also in prestige.
I mention it because I just don't see Ms. Estorino throwing herself into her work in Anaheim, much less sticking around for years and leaving a legacy of any kind on the Anaheim property. I'll be surprised if she's still here by St. Patrick's Day 2028.
But from the basic data and resume' she has publicly available, I don't expect her to be in Anaheim terribly long. But the Walt Disney Company thanks her for her service!
I think the clock is running against her on that. If she was 48, or even 55, I could consider that. But at her age at 62 or 63? Nope. Not when they have a 55 year old man now running the entire Company.
I can't imagine Ms. Estorino, as a self-described Marketing Thought Leader with 35+ years of sales and marketing experience is suddenly going to be interested in theme park rides, hamburger production lines, hotel housekeepers, parking booth attendants, security guards and custodians, and the various maintenance trades that make it all run.
And then take that sudden interest in daily blue collar operations and use that as a springboard to later-in-life career greatness? At age 66? Seems like a very wild stretch. When she could just retire normally, with wealth, and go play tennis.
She'll be gone before her 3 year contract is up, also known as her 65th birthday when her full pension is available. Or a year or two before her 65th, when the Company credits her that last few pension years.
I'm trying to remember the last Disneyland President they appointed that was over 60 years old, and I'm drawing a blank. They've always been people in their late 40's to late 50's, and the older ones skewed heavily to Park experience. George Kalogridis was in his late 50's and had worked his way up from WDW busboy when he arrived in Anaheim in '09.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Well you seem quite prepared to write her unflattering career obituary now based on the quotes below. Clearly you are not giving her a year or two on the job first.

To be fair, I'm giving this totally unknown person a full year. Maybe two. I already bet Churros on it. That means I'm serious.

We've seen this all before. And it happens at many big companies, not just Disney or Disneyland specifically.

For the good of the park, I'm hoping she is a standout leader who has been waiting her entire career in Marketing to get down into the trenches and really run a theme park property day-to-day extraordinarily well and make it shine! 😍

For the good of the discussion here, and for some laughs, I'm also hoping that if she stinks at running a theme park, she at least offers up some fabulous HR approved pablum as a Thought Leader. 🤣
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
We've seen this all before.
Actually, we haven't seen Jill Estorino run the Disneyland Resort yet. She's a different human than other humans, so she starts with a blank slate and we get to see what she does.
For the good of the park, I'm hoping she is a standout leader who has just been waiting her entire career in Marketing to get down into the trenches and really run a theme park property day-to-day extraordinarily well and make it shine!
Excellent, I love the positivity.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Actually, we haven't seen Jill Estorino run the Disneyland Resort yet. She's a different human than other humans, so she starts with a blank slate and we get to see what she does.

Exactly. So ahead of that, and because she is entirely unknown and never been mentioned at any time in the past 20 years on this entire website, we are discussing that.

You tried to accuse me of "sexism" because I used female pronouns and forbidden words like "lady" to describe her in a sentence, and that was unfortunate for you. Otherwise, we are discussing the facts and data behind her own career and most recent roles for the Company. Because no one knows her, so we'll have to go with only that for now.

Hard facts and data, with natural human thoughts and ideas about them discussed. And you seem willing to admit they are indeed hard facts and data, so that's been helpful.

Excellent, I love the positivity.

She's a Thought Leader. So I am expecting great things!

Don't screw this up, Estorino! But if you do screw it up, at least make it funny for us. 🤣
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
You tried to accuse me of "sexism" because I used female pronouns and forbidden words like "lady" to describe her in a sentence, and that was unfortunate for you.
Nah, I accused you off sexism because you were fixated on her being a woman, you lumped her in with other women she has nothing to do with to discuss her prospects of success, and though you admitted you knew nothing about her, you judged her and determined she'd be a failure based on her headshot
Just by going off her head shot
I've got no read on Ms. Estorino other than her pre-approved corporate bio and that head shot.

But if you want to have the benefit of the doubt, don't make creepy comments about women like this.
TP2000.png
 

Chi84

Premium Member
Nah, I accused you off sexism because you were fixated on her being a woman, you lumped her in with other women she has nothing to do with to discuss her prospects of success, and though you admitted you knew nothing about her, you judged her and determined she'd be a failure based on her headshot



But if you want to have the benefit of the doubt, don't make creepy comments about women like this.
View attachment 912315
Hopefully you’re dealing with an outlier here.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Nah, I accused you off sexism because you were fixated on her being a woman, you lumped her in with other women she has nothing to do with to discuss her prospects of success, and though you admitted you knew nothing about her, you judged her and determined she'd be a failure based on her headshot.

It's notable you didn't include any comments I made about Jill Estorino because they are so innocuous, such brief passing mentions using forbidden words like "she", "woman", or "lady", because that would seem to even pass muster from the Faculty Lounge Language Police, much less an actual moderator here.

The full quote from me that referenced her her head shot is this...

I can't imagine she's going to want to get out there and pretend to be friends, much less feign actual interest in their job duties, with the working class CM's she now leads. Or even their Dockers-clad managers. Just by going off her head shot and pre-scrubbed bio that obviously downplays her lifelong job in Marketing and pretends she knows anything about Operations or Hospitality.

I took one look at her, and I knew immediately that I knew this woman's type. I know her type because I get grouped up to play Doubles (badly, I'm afraid) with this exact type of 60something woman every summer at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. Those women are always kind and friendly with me, solely because I look the part and my Swedish surname instantly brands me with my parents who were club members when she was a child, but they can be very quick to be dismissive of the staff or those in service industries. If not outright rude to them.

This type of person I know is not a woman who knows anyone who uses their hands and back to get their job done; machinists, housekeepers, burger flippers, ride operators, custodians, parking booth attendants, plumbers, gardeners, the kid who steam cleans out the grease from all the popcorn carts at Midnight, etc., etc. that make up most of the 36,000 CM's at Disneyland.

I saw that head shot and thought.... "Ah, yes. I know her." 🤣

Believe me, I'd love it if Jill Estorino turned out to be a secret Disneyland nerd that we never knew of before 😍, and she obsessed over all the little park details Walt and his hand picked leadership team obsessed over circa 1955-1990. But just judging by her decades-long resume', a few carefully scripted public statements to trade magazines, and a head shot of a perfectly lovely looking upper-middle class white person, you'll have to pardon me for welcoming the latest TDA President Du Jour with a healthy dose of skepticism.

It's up to her to prove that wrong at this point.

But if you want to have the benefit of the doubt, don't make creepy comments about women like this.
View attachment 912315

What's telling is that post has not been removed by a moderator here for offensive or inappropriate language.

Because it's not offensive or inapropriate. It's historically accurate and true. Based in facts and real life. And it's not even a real CM, it's a hazy sketch for gosh sakes.

Have you read David Koenig's books, or any books by the great Disneyland founders like Jack Lindquist or Van France?

The job of "Casting" employees to work in the Disneyland Show was a serious one, and one that Walt quickly had codified into the management rule books and employee manuals as his park got its sea legs in 1957-1960.

Pretty, blonde girls under the age of 25 were always chosen to work at Storybook Land Canal Boats. It's a known fact. Tall Nordic types were chosen for the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail and the Matterhorn, even though that's in Switzerland and no where near the actual Nordic countries. Butch, handsome guys were chosen for the Canoes, but only from '71 onwards after they got rid of the actual Indians they used from '56 through '70. Pretty Polynesian and Southeast Asian girls were chosen to operate the Tiki Room. Men at the Submarines, nice young ladies at CircleVision. A pretty girl in a hoop skirt to hold the menu out in front of the Plaza Inn. The hottest It Girls were Tour Guides, and don't even dare ask them out. Male cut-ups only at the Jungle Cruise. Boy Next Door types at Nature's Wonderland. Only men drove the vehicles on Main Street, while young ladies worked the Mr. Lincoln show. Etc., etc.

It was a thing, I promise. And it still existed in 1985, which is the year I referenced for the Storybook Land post.

Things changed quickly in the late 90's and 2000's. To be fair and accurate, many of those changes were overdue or needed. But as someone who was there, 20th Century Disneyland and it's front line CM's were very, very different from today. Thus the reference in that post.

See if you can get a moderator to delete it if you find it offensive and forbidden from conversation here.

But good luck hiding and erasing well documented facts described with appropriate language! :)
 
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DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
It's notable you didn't include any comments I made about Jill Estorino
Why would you say this when clearly your quotes, which I included, were about Jill Estorino. Specifically about how you judged her based on the head shot photo. We both know this because you then immediately address that, saying:
I took one look at her, and I knew immediately that I knew this woman's type.

And saying that Disneyland no longer hires women that "fit into a uniform" is body shaming the thousands of women working there, in their uniforms. You could have made a comment about Disneyland's historical hiring practices without a misogynistic swipe about the women who work there today.
 
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TP2000

Well-Known Member
Why would you say this when clearly your quotes, which I included, were about Jill Estorino. Specifically about how you judged her based on the head shot photo. We both know this because you then immediately address that, saying:

Judging solely on that one corporate head shot, I know that woman's type. Their husband's are almost always of the same type too.

I could be totally wrong and pleasantly surprised, and she may turn out to be the type of Thought Leader who actually shows an interest in the blue collar park operation like this guy did...

Screenshot 2026-03-18 2.00.47 PM.png


But my gut, and 25+ years of Disneyland President Du Jours going through TDA's revolving door tell me otherwise. I'd love to be wrong here, for the good of the park. I already bet Churros on it though, so it's out there.

And saying that Disneyland no longer hires women that "fit into a uniform" is body shaming the thousands of women working there, in their uniforms. You could have made a comment about Disneyland's historical hiring practices without a misogynistic swipe about the women who work there today.

This isn't an HR Struggle Session, though you so want it to be. And I have no Mandatory Diversity Training that I have to do in order to be here chatting. I get to speak like a normal person, not an HR manager or a politician. It's fun to be free!

The WDI artist could have portrayed that Storybook Land CM's to look like anyone, as anyone can now work at Disneyland regardless of hair or tats or size or grooming. There is not much showmanship left for too many CM's.

It's notable, and quite humorous, that the WDI artist chose to paint the CM to look like the old standard for Storybook Land, not the new standard with no real standards. I wonder why? 🤔

Screenshot 2025-10-13 2.38.08 PM.png
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
Judging solely on that one corporate head shot, I know that woman's type.
Well, there are a lot of women, wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, nieces, and daughters of ours that aren't getting jobs -- aren't even getting job interviews -- because creeps are looking up their headshot on LinkedIn and deciding they're not their type.

Can't believe we had to endure 50 posts that turned out to be about your mean doubles tennis partner. If you had a bad choir teacher or unpleasant fencing coach, you may want to tip Disney HR off so we can avoid this happening again.

This isn't an HR Struggle Session, though you so want it to be. And I have no Mandatory Diversity Training that I have to do in order to be here chatting.
You say whatever you want. I'll do likewise.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Judging solely on that one corporate head shot, I know that woman's type. Their husband's are almost always of the same type too.

I could be totally wrong and pleasantly surprised, and she may turn out to be the type of Thought Leader who actually shows an interest in the blue collar park operation like this guy did...

View attachment 912410

But my gut, and 25+ years of Disneyland President Du Jours going through TDA's revolving door tell me otherwise. I'd love to be wrong here, for the good of the park. I already bet Churros on it though, so it's out there.
You know what they say about judging a book by its cover....

This isn't an HR Struggle Session, though you so want it to be. And I have no Mandatory Diversity Training that I have to do in order to be here chatting. I get to speak like a normal person, not an HR manager or a politician. It's fun to be free!

The WDI artist could have portrayed that Storybook Land CM's to look like anyone, as anyone can now work at Disneyland regardless of hair or tats or size or grooming. There is not much showmanship left for too many CM's.

It's notable, and quite humorous, that the WDI artist chose to paint the CM to look like the old standard for Storybook Land, not the new standard with no real standards. I wonder why? 🤔

View attachment 912412
Or it was AI generated and that is what AI came up with and the artist just left it like that without realizing it was an outdated standard no longer used at Disneyland.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Well, there are a lot of women, wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, nieces, and daughters of ours that aren't getting jobs -- aren't even getting job interviews -- because creeps are looking up their headshot on LinkedIn and deciding they're not their type.

Can't believe we had to endure 50 posts that turned out to be about your mean doubles tennis partner. If you had a bad choir teacher or unpleasant fencing coach, you may want to tip Disney HR off so we can avoid this happening again.

It's up to Ms. Estorino to prove the TDA stereotype wrong at this point. But there's 25+ years of history there, so...

Don't worry though, I also said this below about how her first few weeks on the job will go. Believe me, I have my bingo card ready for this, AND I CAN NOT WAIT FOR IT! 🤣 😍 🤣

Per the usual PR machinations from Burbank and TDA, in the next few weeks we should see Ms. Estorino make her debut at Disneyland via an interview with the OC Register, with a TDA Photographer trailing her around the park taking sun-dappled pics of her laughing big huge laughs with hourly employees...

Seriously, one thing Disney does hilariously klutzy is package the latest TDA President Du Jour's arrival up in the smarmiest of PR and "Comms". They do it so painfully corporate and stilted. Some of the TDA Presidents of the past can cut through it, and some just get swallowed up by it and let it happen.

Likely because they know this is a relatively short gig for them, before they get the reprieve to move back to Burbank.

You say whatever you want. I'll do likewise.

Will you continue to attempt to police my speech and accuse me of Hate Think and the latest stylish list of ists and phobias? Even though all my posts use language that are perfectly normal ways of talking outside of an HR conference room or Faculty Lounge and have never been removed by a moderator?
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Or it was AI generated and that is what AI came up with and the artist just left it like that without realizing it was an outdated standard no longer used at Disneyland.

Is that what we're going with now? WDI is using AI to create public-facing artwork and it's too sloppy to stop using 1985 CM standards as examples of the 2020's Park experience? Wow. I'll need to remember that one, it's great! o_O
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Is that what we're going with now? WDI is using AI to create public-facing artwork and it's too sloppy to stop using 1985 CM standards as examples of the 2020's Park experience? Wow. I'll need to remember that one, it's great! o_O
Josh highlighted that AI is being leveraged within the company in many ways including by creators and artists just today during the shareholders meeting. So its not a far stretch to think that much of the recent WDI concept art is AI generated including this one and will be moving forward. I mean how many times has the concept art been criticized as being
"photoshopped" here on this site over the last 10 years. So yeah its not hard to believe.

So you don't need to remember it, it was said by the new CEO of the company.
 

Parteecia

Well-Known Member
When I toiled there back in the days of stereotyped casting, women's costumes went up to a size 14 or 16 max depending on the role. If you didn't fit you couldn't work.

ETA Not taking a side but he's not wrong about how it used to be. I've mentioned before that my blonde blue eyed friend went to Tomorrowland Attractions, my mousier blue eyed friend went to Main Street Merchandising, and brown me went to Casa de Fritos.
 
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