Wikkler
Well-Known Member
Seasons One thru Three of Portlandia are available on Netflix now. And don't miss Season Four of Portlandia on the IFC network, premiering January, 2014 for more instruction on how to be hipster!
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Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV
- Thread starter WDW1974
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Longhairbear
Well-Known Member
Ditto for our next door neighbors here in Palm Springs. Their twins never had cribs, they slept on floor pads, and now graduated to beds that they crawl into on their own at 2 years old. They're daily morning walk around the neighborhood is without strollers. They won't get to Disneyland until they will be able to remember the trip too.Roughly 1995 by my watch. And it's sickening.
The good news is that I have some young family members who are raising toddlers now; they are super "hipster" and live in hip neighborhoods in Portland. They go to Disneyland once a year (ostensibly to come visit Uncle TP2000, but I know it's mainly cause I live 7 miles east of Disneyland and I have a pool), and they NEVER bring or rent strollers. The infants are held in backpack things, the toddlers and kindergartners walk all over the parks. The toddlers are occasionally carried for short periods of time by their very fit and fun young parents. When I bring up the subject of strollers and how I marvel that they are raising their children without them, they flatly respond that strollers are for people who don't know how to raise their children correctly and they would be mortified to have their hipster friends see them in public pushing their kids in a stroller.
So, at least there's hope, blossoming forth from the Great Pacific Northwest, just like Starbucks and Nordstrom did. Seasons One thru Three of Portlandia are available on Netflix now. And don't miss Season Four of Portlandia on the IFC network, premiering January, 2014 for more instruction on how to be hipster!
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
I can think of several more causes for the stroller proliferation:
- No more in-park lockers. After 9-11 the lockers underneath the train station were closed. People now use strollers as mobile lockers to store their stuff.
- WDW is less intuitive and spontaneous. A WDW vacation now requires meticulous military-style preparation. This has had an effect on the psychological mindset, the idea that you need to tackle a Disney park as if you go on safari, requiring careful planning and preparation. People bring ponchos, band-aid, diapers, milk bottles, dietary needs supplies, extra shoes, extra clothes.
- Everybody nowadays brings a camera and a phone, which has further increased the need of easily transportable storage space.
- Plain car culture. Americans by default think of mobility in terms of mechanised transport, of moving a vehicle to where you want to go, parking it there, and taking only very short trips on foot.
- Exploding prices for food and drink. It is very worthwhile to drive a cart with supplies into the park. Just a few bottles of drinks, some snacks and a quick lunch means a family saves $100 a day.
- Kiddiefication of WDW. More young kids, so more strollers.
- You get more milage out of kids of you transport them. They can go eight or ten hours, instead of four or six. This has become ever more valuable as a WDW trip has transformed from a 'relaxing resort vacation with a fun theme park nearby', to a 'so-much-to-do and must-get-my-money's-worth' holiday.
- And simply copycat behaviour. Everybody has a stroller because everybody's got a stroller.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
But Americans ARE grotesquely overweight. This is because their food is veritable posion. Which is the result of Big Food, which lies to the American consumer, who is unprotected from those lies and deceit because BF has bought science, and through its lobby, Washington. Big Food gets away with it because Americans think of freedom in terms of freedom from government intervention, instead of freedom as collective defense against lies, deceit and poisoning.
I don't think there is any moral failure or personal weakness involved in obesity levels. Americans simply go out and buy the food that is available to them at a reasonable price, the way the much more slender Europeans and Japanse (and Americans until very recently) do too. It's just that one is served poison, and the others...well, less poison.
Cigarettes would be the reverse example indeed! America has defeated Big Tobacco. Europe is several years behind. Europeans smoke because they are lied to by Big Tobacco, which still wields an influence over European governments it no longer enjoys in Washington. So in turn Americans have every reason to berate DLP for its lacklustre smoking policy. And to endlessly mention the ill-disciplined European DLP guest, who cuts lines while puffing on a in front of children.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
I will not get politically engaged here...I will not get politically engaged here...
I keep telling myself that.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Oh come on, let us 'ave it!
I truly think the strollers are very much caused by the high prices you pay for a WDW vacation. If every minute comes at a premium, you take every precaution necessary that you can maximise your time and eliminate all risk factors. Your kid getting tired is one of those risk factors.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Nope sorry...couldn't help myself...
Plenty of fat Europeans walking around.
If it is we'd be dead.
Pretty much every American knows that bad food is bad for them. They are under no disillusion that McDonalds on a regular basis is a healthy diet.
Again, just silly. Ask any American how they feel about fast food. Oh...you can't.
I have seen no evidence that Europeans are any more or less slender. That's supposition.
So Europeans are stupid enough to smoke, and think it's "good for them" based on 50 year old or older propaganda, but Americans are just as stupid to eat cheap and available food? That, for the record, Europeans also eat?
Meh...just meh...refine your point and come back tomorrow.
Plenty of fat Europeans walking around.
If it is we'd be dead.
Pretty much every American knows that bad food is bad for them. They are under no disillusion that McDonalds on a regular basis is a healthy diet.
Again, just silly. Ask any American how they feel about fast food. Oh...you can't.
I have seen no evidence that Europeans are any more or less slender. That's supposition.
So Europeans are stupid enough to smoke, and think it's "good for them" based on 50 year old or older propaganda, but Americans are just as stupid to eat cheap and available food? That, for the record, Europeans also eat?
Meh...just meh...refine your point and come back tomorrow.
Wikkler
Well-Known Member
Quick, close the thread before it goes up in flames!
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Do you know if the lockers have been removed at the MK park only? On many trips through the years, I've used the lockers over at Epcot to store my carry-on bag on the last day of my vacation, before I left for the airport. They're convenient; hope they don't remove those . . .
englanddg
One Little Spark...
WHO is fun, but also has a very limited dataset.
I won't grant them validity for policy with that in mind.
But, outside of general conversation (which this is)...and if you note, the UK, is on the same level as the US! Obese!
But the UK does not equal Europe! ;-) And France is even two levels down from the US colour.
An interesting question would be the distribution of obesity among the age groups. Just from observation I get the impression that there are more overweight younger people in the US than in Europe (not just kids, but even people in their 30s). I often get the impression that in Europe a lot of overweight people don't become heavier until their 40s or 50s. That might be one of the reasons for the different perception.
An interesting question would be the distribution of obesity among the age groups. Just from observation I get the impression that there are more overweight younger people in the US than in Europe (not just kids, but even people in their 30s). I often get the impression that in Europe a lot of overweight people don't become heavier until their 40s or 50s. That might be one of the reasons for the different perception.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
It does a lot more damage then. I counter that it really doesn't matter much. Both are examples of plenty.
Radok Block
Well-Known Member
Strollers don't have anything on slings. You can carry a kid up to age 4 in those things if you need to, and they wad up in your bag when not in use. They distribute the weight nicely and you can go hands free. If I had a little one going to WDW, that's what I'd take. The stroller looks ike a nightmare to maneuver through the throngs, and then you have to constantly park the stupid thing. No thanks.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
What I object to is the first sentence "But Americans ARE grotesquely overweight". Some are but not all. I am overweight but hardly grotesquely and am probably in better physical condition than a lot of those thin Europeans or even Americans that everyone so happily admires. Yes, we do eat a lot of junk food and that isn't good, but as you said, it is readily available and cheap so we tend to gravitate towards that lifestyle, just like 20 years ago it was tough to find someone in this country without a cigarette in their hand. We were deceived as well. The free ride for the fast food industry is also changing. Health information is now mandatory that it be listed and many of the old menu's are highlighting healthier food. That will also change given time.
One of the reasons that you see more obese people out and about is, contrary to popular belief, that they are not lazy. They are out and about and not so consumed with self doubt that they are ashamed to go out in public. They are not bad evil people and if you have ever had a weight problem you would understand that it isn't as easily defined as saying well they eat to much or they eat junk food. We do have it easy over here. We tend to not flex any muscle unless it is absolutely necessary. That is getting to be a bigger problem as witnessed by the almost criminal use of strollers so that our young ones will never have to exercise any body part other then their iPod thumb. We all have a ways to go, and many things are currently a part of our culture, but, our culture is always in a state of flux. Has been since it's beginnings.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
Isn't there supposed to be a ride inside the Shanghai castle? That would explain the size.
Soarin' Over Pgh
Well-Known Member
Folks, take a gander in case it gets taken down.
Have that save image as option handy folks!!
.....is it bad that the I rest thing I thought of was WWOHP2.0 instead of Shanghai DL?
I think it's been way too long since we've had leaked concepts round here.
Edit to add... I rather like it. It's pompous and enormous and a touch arrogant. It'll fit in nicely there. Has Iger written allllllllll over it.
bhg469
Well-Known Member
Well it has a meet and greet so I'm surprised there aren't plans for 2 of them. No spinner ride though so I guess not.
flyerjab
Well-Known Member
Thank you for trying to turn this crazy thread back to a more Disney-centric discussion. I can't handle anymore of this "you are fatter than us" discussion. Maybe Spirit needs to start a new thread. I thought he had hinted about that several thousand posts ago?
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