Disappointed

[Fidget12]

Pete Werner no longer has any clout or money but he has definitely acquired several criminal allegations with witnesses. I'm positive Disney is well aware of what has happened by now.

The only way they will know is if everyone with a Dreams booked vacation calls Disney directly and tells them what happened and they don’t want to give another dime to this serial abuser.

 

[Jennasis]

I'm guessing The DIS will have it's press credentials revoked by Disney.

 

[PainInIL]

Can't Disney disassociate with DUL Travel entirely as a certified Disney Vacation agency? I am torn, but the more I think about it I hope that doesn't happen until there is some sort of validation, if possible, of what was and wasn't know by John. Knee jerk reactions are often times the wrong reactions and a lot of innocent people could lose their livelihood because of it. I just empathize with those folks and try to put myself in their shoes.

I wouldn't be posting to Instagram and Twitter about how great of a time I was having on my vacation.

No issue with going on the trip, but why post anything? Not everything has to be about promoting your travel agency.

And quite frankly this type of behavior makes me think the mindset of always promoting the business above all else truly enabled Pete. He knew John would never dare do anytjing to the face of the company that brought in all the clients.

 

[Jennasis]

The only way they will know is if everyone with a Dreams booked vacation calls Disney directly and tells them what happened and they don’t want to give another dime to this serial abuser.

TWDC reads these boards and other social media sites every day. I am positive they are aware of the situation.

 

[Strikan]

I think it is a really bad look to try to restrict conversation about this in the Facebook group. I posted about it and the thread was locked very quickly. Seems they are trying to hide this and that is not how you deal with this kind of issue if you want to do the right thing.

 

[WishingTree]

I thought John was one of the good guys and I hope he is, I hope he’s working feverishly behind the scenes to make this right for his employees and the victims, I hope he’s only being silent because it’s the only way to protect those who’ve been hurt and I hope that his instagram postings were just an honest PR mistake. I hope, but I don’t know if I have much hope left as I would never leave my employees dangling in the wind as they made statements of acknowledgment but I didn’t. Im not sure what to say, what’s come out is beyond disgusting, beyond horrible, this is predatory criminality and like it or not it happened under his watch. I know what I would do, but I hope his public absence is for a greater purpose, taking heat to help those affected. I hope.

 

[anna samantha]

.

Just read the update on the other site. My god….I really don’t know what to say

@Dustin…as much as this last piece of the puzzle hurts, it can certainly fill in the answers to some long standing questions for you. I can’t really be happy about that. I know you can’t be. All of this is not okay. Not one bit of it is fine. Please keep reaching out to others and take every moment that you need to seek out therapy, scream at the sky, or cry in the shower. Its a lot. Way too much and you did nothing, not a damn thing, to deserve any of it

@themando…please know that the same feelings extend to you. You may never know, or get confirmation, that something else was done to you like Dustin has discovered. But your situation is just as unacceptable. Where you started has no bearing on where you have ended up, and nothing justifies you being violated and abused. Every word that was said to you was the trash that you were accused of being. You came forward and initiated all of this being brought into the light. God bless you. If you are trash, I don’t need treasure in my life. All of it is not okay…and you didn’t do a damn thing to deserve any of this either. If you need someone to scream at the sky with you, I am here

I can only offer these words, and I know they are just that….words from someone outside the fishbowl. But please know that we are standing by you, and I do believe that there is strength in numbers. All of my love is being sent your way.

I agree 100% and I’d like to also acknowledge Charles for having been forced to carry the burden of that horrific admission and for being courageous enough to now bring it forth. My heart goes out to him.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Just when I think it can’t worse. Sheesh. Now I’m wondering if Corey and John are victims of Pete’s manipulations too. There is the possibility that they were abused in some manner and/or blackmailed in to being financially tied to him all of these years. While I agree that the California posts are in ooor taste, they almost seem like a sigh of relief from John and Kevin.

 

[Cfabar1]

Does Disney have grounds to cancel the DL event? I can't imagine they are comfortable with hosting this company amidst a huge scandal?

On the other hand, I'm sure they are concerned if they cancel that the DIS could turn around and sue them for breach of contract.

A delicate situation all around it seems like...

 

[ainswokp]

I’m not sure if we’ll get a response here but I would be very interested to know if John reached out to Dustin at all.

 

[o0quirkygirl0o]

I am absolutely sick for those who have been hurt by Pete. I thought I was as upset as I could possibly be but the revelations from today sink even lower. I am so sorry for (and angry about) the suffering of everyone in Pete's orbit. It is despicable. My heart is with you.

I don't know if there can be any coming back from this. It is so dark.

 

[davark]

i hear you OP. this was all a lot to take in. I've been a Pete guy, a DIS supporter, since my first trip to WDW in 2012. I never went as a kid, I've only known Disney as an adult so I immediately took to the DIS because it's always kinda had an adult vibe to it.

Dustin was the man back in those days. He was great at this. Pete was great too and always was. So to hear about what was really going on at the time, and then to hear from Sean Faulk and his experience, completely changes the emotions towards what was once my favorite podcast.

Really doesn't help that Pete's had so many preachy, "here's how it should be" moments over the years. They were entertaining to listen to even when I didn't agree with him. But who on earth is he to judge anybody when he had this mess going on behind the scenes.

We saw Pete on The Wish maiden. I told him how much I missed Dustin and he told us, me too I worked on him for months. It’s true.

 

[Jamie77]

What other site are we talking about with more info on all this. I’m way behind for the day trying to catch up but this doesn’t sound good.

You might want to clear your schedule because you're going to be reading for a while. How much PTO do you have left?

 

[anna samantha]

Charles Boda here:

Pete confessed to me the truth of what he did to you after almost two years of villainizing you as the one who "broke his heart." Here is how that played out:

As most DIS fans know, I have a felony. What they don't realize is that the "domestic partner" everyone thinks I stabbed was actually an abusive roomate who drugged my drinks and sexually assaulted me. We were never in a relationship, and although I suspected he was obsessed with me, I wasn't entirely aware of the assaults until he showed me pictures of them. I vomitted. The next time he put his hands on me I defended myself. My abuser even tried to visit me in jail to get me to move back into the apartment we shared. Instead, I became homeless but my abuser continued to stalk me for months.

Cut to a few years later. I was living in Pete's spare bedroom and working for the DIS. Pete was my sponsor in an addiction recovery program. He was sitting in his office with me and explained his true behavior to you in some detail. No one else on staff knew, and they likely believed his fictional account of how you "broke his heart."

I told Pete what he did to you was essentially what my abuser did to me. Pete replied that he decided to be my sponsor (after initially thinking I was hot and then finding out I was straight) because helping me would be making amends for what he did to you. This was an emotionally damaging revelation (I was his penance for abusing someone else) and I felt like a fool for letting another abuser get close to me. I did not give him the judgement-free response he thought he was owed. After 3 days of checking my bathroom for hidden cameras (he admitted he had used them before), I moved out of the house but could not afford to quit the DIS.

I continued working and tried not to focus on what I knew about him. I didn't want to be homeless again after so much work turning my life around. I was scared and confused. Eventually, on a trip to DL, I lwt Pete know I was upset that he was involved in fat-shaming Kevin and John at a work dinner without them present. Pete does not accept any criticism from anyone, so he immediately cut me off from certain jobs responsibilities. I spoke with my girlfriend about his behavior when I got home and she helped me confrot what I'd been trying to block out the entire time. Pete is a narcissistic sexual predator who controls eveyone he knows, friends, family, employees, by getting them on his payroll somehow and using his money to exert power over them. Things that were treated normal by Pete ("take close-up pictures of that hot singer at at Tiana's Place, I'm gonna ask the Maitre D' if I can get a private meeting. They know who I am here.) that we'd just avoid and get back to our real work suddenly couldn't be avoided.

Once I faced that reality, I couldn't pretend anymore. I couldn't even look Pete in the face without revulsion. I refused to be controlled, left the DIS, and went freelance.

I internally debated coming out openly about what I had learned, but telling my story meant telling yours. I didn't think it was right to bring you into a public discussion. The internet can be very cruel and victimshaming.

Please forgive my lack of communication, but I have a lot of PTSD about what happened to me by my abuser and then Pete's confession after years of lying to me to gain my trust.

While working for the DIS I loved my job and my coworkers. Few people enabled Pete, most folks were just controlled or extorted by him. There are a lot of victims to go around.

I don't know if this reply will see the light of day. Life has been much more healthy and happy since I left the DIS. I don't want to open up Pandora's box of internet cruelty. Even if I have, I guess it's important to remember what was at the bottom of that mythical box after all the negative forces were set loose on the world: Hope.

I hope you're well. I hope you forgive my silence. I hope someone, somehow, learns from this.

TLDR: I knew, Pete confessed to me, I'm sorry

I love your user name.

 

[Fidget12]

I am absolutely sick for those who have been hurt by Pete. I thought I was as upset as I could possibly be but the revelations from today sink even lower. I am so sorry for (and angry about) the suffering of everyone in Pete's orbit. It is despicable. My heart is with you.

I don't know if there can be any coming back from this. It is so dark.

I don’t know how they can even ACT like they are having fun out there.

Any decent human would be sick to their stomach.

Disney won’t cancel the event. Maybe an attendee with a little bit of character or morals who doesn’t worship Pete can be sure to let Disney know what is going on behind the scenes at that place.

 

[Jamie77]

Pete Werner no longer has any clout or money but he has definitely acquired several criminal allegations with witnesses. I'm positive Disney is well aware of what has happened by now.

This man is about to lose his dog and his whistle.

 

[take36]

I don’t know how they can even ACT like they are having fun out there.

Any decent human would be sick to their stomach.

Disney won’t cancel the event. Maybe an attendee with a little bit of character or morals who doesn’t worship Pete can be sure to let Disney know what is going on behind the scenes at that place.

Probably relishing it, last Dis event for a long long long time and probably won’t be able to show their faces in a park either out of embarrassment or straight up being banned.

 

[ainswokp]

The FB moderation is a good example of how they are trying to keep this quiet, but it’s reaching critical mass.

 

[disneysteve]

And to add to this, a large portion of the DIS audience doesn't even know the podcast exists. They don't have the slightest idea who Pete or John or Craig is. Even in the DIS Unplugged FB group, something will occasionally come up about one of the team and somebody will reply with "Who is that?" or "I didn't know they did a podcast. What's in called?" I guarantee if you go into some of the forums on this site, you will find plenty of people who have never seen a single episode of any of the shows. That's not their connection to the content.

And with impeccable timing, someone mentioned the current situation in the DISBoards on Facebook group today and someone replied with "Who is Pete?" and someone else asked "Where is the forum?"

Most people have NO CLUE who the podcasters are, even if they actively participate in the forums and the Facebook groups and use Dreams for their travel arrangements. It's a much, much smaller audience than we tend to think.

 

[anna samantha]

I don’t know how they can even ACT like they are having fun out there.

Any decent human would be sick to their stomach.

Disney won’t cancel the event. Maybe an attendee with a little bit of character or morals who doesn’t worship Pete can be sure to let Disney know what is going on behind the scenes at that place.

I don’t think they have a choice. These revelations are coming in real time whilst they are trying to fulfill their obligations. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for them. Things were pretty bad when they left but who expected them to suddenly get so much worse? I’m sure they ARE sick to their stomachs.