McDonald's rampage at Disneyland

[snopes]

Comment: Is it true that McDonald's is banned from the Disneyland Hotel
forever? I have a co-worker who says she worked for McDonald's in the
early 80s and they booked the entire hotel for a weeklong session of
training seminars. On the final day, a Saturday, many of the employees
partook of the free booze that McDonald's had offered and rampaged through
the hotel, breaking things and throwing chairs into the pool from the
guest rooms high above. Supposedly to this day McDonald's is no longer
welcome on Disney property (except to sell French Fries) and McDonald's
withholds alcohol from all company functions.

[Brad from Georgia]

I heard that Goofy required years of therapy after what Ronald did to him.

[The Goof]

Hey!

I thought you promised not to talk about that.

[Brad from Georgia]

Sorry, big guy. At least I will never reveal any of the gruesome details.

[talk2sparky]

I dunno about the OP, but there used to be 2 McDonald's on the Walt Disney World property. One was in Downtown Disney and was removed sometime in the last 8 years, and the one that's still there is a free-standing restaurant near the value resorts.

I know McD's and Disney don't do as much cross-promotion as they used to, but that's really been in the last few years.

I even did a Google search and the first thing that came up was the OP.

[Morning]

According to Yesterland, a website about the history of Disneyland/Disney World, a contract between Disney and McDonald's expired in 2007 and McDonald's was phased out completely in 2008.

Morning
visits Yesterland weekly.

[Richard W]

Why would they ban McDonald's "except to sell french fries"? Could they find nobody else willing to sell french fries? Was there some kind of unbreakable contract that referred to the supply of french fries but nothing else?

[mags]

I took "except to sell fries" to be a way of referring to sales in general. As opposed to the employees being welcome in party/convention situations.

[Auburn Red]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: On the final day, a Saturday, many of the employees
partook of the free booze...

Call me crazy, but I believe I found the source of the problem.

[E. Q. Taft]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Why would they ban McDonald's "except to sell french fries"? Could they find nobody else willing to sell french fries? Was there some kind of unbreakable contract that referred to the supply of french fries but nothing else?

What happened was, some time back (early 90's maybe? Possibly earlier) there was some fanfare that they were opening a stand in Disneyland that would be selling McDonald's French Fries. Of course, fries have always been available in the park (and were still available elsewhere) but they weren't McDonald's french fries...and a lot of people are very fond of their fries.

Disney purists were in quite an uproar about it, thinking that having McDonald's in the park was somehow scandalous (as though there haven't been corporate-sponsored vendors in the park since day one). As a frequent park-goer in those days, I'd have been perfectly happy if they'd put a full-service McDonald's in the park; compared to most of the 'fast' food they serve there, McDonald's is better and cheaper (even accounting for the fact that they'd probably have higher prices in the park than in their regular stores), and generally has faster service. But others weren't happy, and were even less happy when they did have a semi-real McDonald's in California Adventure.

Since then both have closed, I think. (And that would fit with Morning's information about the contract expiring.) But that would explain the fry reference.