50 MAGICal Enhancements for the 50th ...

[IanDLBZF]

You'll get a better experience on virtually any foreign airline. But if you have to take an American, I'd go with Delta

And for foreign carriers?

 

[WDW1974]

Not left, just VERY little time to read/post. Barely can keep track of things these days.

Still, being tagged and then reading your post that was quoted in the post I was tagged in, which I agreed with strongly, got me back in to respond.

Your post was great. Truly. I think you nailed it.

But anyone who would take the EPCOT of today over the one of 1987 is still a dumb poopyhead.

 

[WDW1974]

And for foreign carriers?

ANA, JAL, KAL, Singapore are all very good choices. ... I liked Air China, but others (friends who are snobs) were less thrilled.
Honestly, I doubt you could go wrong with any major Asian carrier ... the only European carrier than I am less than thrilled with is British Airways and they're still better than domestic carriers.

 

[sshindel]

Your post was great. Truly. I think you nailed it.

But anyone who would take the EPCOT of today over the one of 1987 is still a dumb poopyhead.

I agree! Total poopyhead.

 

[WDW1974]

I was pricing it out last night, and a trip to Tokyo would be about 2-3k more expensive than WDW. Granted that was a similar time frame so that we could take some time and enjoy JP as well. Alas, we probably won't be going for a few years though; the children are still a bit young.

You have to be flexible when it comes to getting deals. Not simply to Asia. Hotel prices in O-Town are insane right now because it's the heart of Spring Break. But if you come in three weeks when Easter is done, watch them drop like a rock.

I often try and help friends with travel and they get frustrated because they have to fly on March 30th ... but I can save them $600 a ticket if they go two days later. If you are stuck with exact dates no matter what, then you'll always pay more regardless of where you are headed.

 

[KrzyKtty]

You have to be flexible when it comes to getting deals. Not simply to Asia. Hotel prices in O-Town are insane right now because it's the heart of Spring Break. But if you come in three weeks when Easter is done, watch them drop like a rock.

I often try and help friends with travel and they get frustrated because they have to fly on March 30th ... but I can save them $600 a ticket if they go two days later. If you are stuck with exact dates no matter what, then you'll always pay more regardless of where you are headed.

Oh I understand completely. I was just doing roundabout estimates. There will always be a cost difference between Orlando and overseas travel because of airfare. Orlando we can drive in under 7 hours, anywhere we fly needs 4 tickets. It's not something we're looking to do this year anyway.

 

[asianway]

Have we figured out whether Foxxy is a he or a she yet?

Oh, and whatever happened to Merfie? Is he gone from that world? I haven't thought about him in years now!

She

And I think Merf had a mouse muzzle thrown on him.

On the subject of airfares @WDWFigment did a good but slightly confusing until you actually do it hands on about the ita matrix site. Once you use it a few times you can find hidden fares if you're willing to deal with long layovers, multiple stops, etc. There's another site where you can copy the results and not even use a travel agent
https://bookwithmatrix.com/

 

[WDW1974]

I have to say that I love this post. There is something about "the way that things used to be" that always hits so close to home as they say. You and I are frighteningly close in age (and yes, I am one of those guilty of thinking that you are in your 60s ). And I have always been baffled by how visceral your verbal attacks are to the parks and their leadership. Over the years though I now see things a bit differently, and this post is one of the best you have written as to why you loved WDW at one time.

Thanks. Kind of you to say.

The one advantage that you and many other posters have over me is that Disney World was an integral part of your youth at a time when WDW was still so innocent. It was an oasis in the middle of Florida with no periscoping, no live streaming, no social network, no bloggers, no internet. No one carried a smart phone and strollers apparently were not a necessity in life. It was before the world became much smaller and the free market became "Walmarted" and homogenized to death.

Oh so true. I don't even want to think about how the major park openings and events of the 70s, 80s and even 90s (because while the Disney 'net existed, it was in no way the form it has today) would have been ruined with constant blather and photos and arguing.

When I was a young kid home from school for the summer in gold old Berks County, PA, my mom was of the stay-at-home variety. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we would get milk delivered to our house every morning by the milk man in glass bottles. We had this old metal milk box on our porch where he would come up and fill our order that my mom had written on paper the night before. Thursday's was a real treat as the Entenmann's Bakery Truck would pull up to the house and the driver would open the door in the back. My mom would take me in and there were shelves filled with as many baked goods as one could imagine. How very Norman Rockwellian it all was in hindsight! Compared to the world of today it is almost laughable how sterile or drab similar experiences have become. Kids played outside most of the day (before the Atari 2600 and Colecovision came along) and TV was about 12 channels (with a 13th that had more adult fare that was scrambled unless you paid for it ).

We had a milkman from a real dairy until we moved to FL when I was nine. Then we had the drive up Farm Store chain (imagine a 7-11 where you never get out of your vehicle). ... But, hey, you can now uber your McDonald's! Progress!

Having been a regular on the boards since the Avatar deal was first announced, I remember at first being baffled by some of the people on here, talking about how terrible the state of the parks had become in pretty much every conceivable way. I started my Disney experience in 2009, and I remember walking down MSUSA for the first time as a Mickey show was being performed on the castle stage. As the sun set the show ended with a burst of fireworks. It was - I hate to say it - a 'MAGICal' moment for me. I was totally hooked, being completely drawn in to what I perceived as brilliance in amusement park design and management (remember, at this time I thought of WDW as an amusement park comparable to places like Dorney and Hershey park back home). I still feel this way for the most part, mainly because my perspective of how a theme park can be great is significantly different than those that visited in the 70s and 80s. Some of this I directly attribute to a large PM discussion I shared with @George and @sshindel about why EPCOT was so incredible and is now so bereft of the spirit and soul that it once had. And I really understand now, and feel for those that hold these parks to another standard. It is one of innocence, a standard when things were done without the weight of "how will this impact long term share holder investment". Instead, it was when decisions were still being made to honor the man that started all of this and his vision of establishing a baseline level of acceptance and then always asking "how can we make this even better?"

Yeah, I was about to say you don't want to know what my thoughts about WDW in 2009 were, but if you do ... they are here forever! ... I was not feeling much MAGIC at all on any of my visits that year (one that the night the monorail tragedy happened a few hours after we had met the CM killed). I think my '09 highlights were dining at the new Saana, DVC Party at BLT pre-opening and no one in the parks in early December!

I am hoping that what we are seeing now will make things better. I believe that they will as the level of investment here is pretty impressive. WDW will never return to what it once was. That is like me hoping to find bottles of milk on our porch tomorrow morning when I wake up to go to work. It can, however, be much better than it has been of late. Here's hoping.

Totally agree!

And great post back at ya!

 

[Irie]

A lot of people were like you. I wasn't ... but there was definitely something with BW that caused nausea and the like.

My wife felt that it was due to BW being warmer than ST. I don't know if this was by design due to being inside the human body or if WoL was warmer overall.

 

[matt9112]

Japan in general is on my bucket list, both Tokyo and Kyoto. I need a pic at Nintendo HQ.

Yes I'm a nerd

Nintendo....relevant because they made games today possible....but pc master race FTW!!!!!!! My GPU cost more than an Xbox box sooon!!!

 

[KrzyKtty]

I have flown to Asia more for work than pleasure and therefore I don't get to choose. I've wound up on far too many ancient UAL 747s. ... My advice would be to avoid American carriers if at all possible. You'll get a better experience on virtually any foreign airline. But if you have to take an American, I'd go with Delta.

I'm a project analyst and do most of the travel booking for our engineers. Nothing hurts my budgeting heart more than when they start getting picky about Airlines and time slots. I understand their convenience matters, but when I have to bring a project in on budget that difference matters.

 

[WDW1974]

She

And I think Merf had a mouse muzzle thrown on him.

On the subject of airfares @WDWFigment did a good but slightly confusing until you actually do it hands on about the ita matrix site. Once you use it a few times you can find hidden fares if you're willing to deal with long layovers, multiple stops, etc. There's another site where you can copy the results and not even use a travel agent
https://bookwithmatrix.com/

Yeah, I get nothing but confused when attempting the 'Bricker Technique' (that sounds like a naughty position, likely involving Stella Lou plush!) ... and while I am an airline nut and love flying, when I am starting a vacation (or ending one) the last thing I want is three stops and 9-hour layovers and the like.

 

[WDW1974]

I'm a project analyst and do most of the travel booking for our engineers. Nothing hurts my budgeting heart more than when they start getting picky about Airlines and time slots. I understand their convenience matters, but when I have to bring a project in on budget that difference matters.

I know, obviously, nothing about the company you work for or the budgets, but am curious ... do you fly everyone in one class like economy or business or First or does it depend on the person's stature with the company and/or length of flight?

 

[Travel Junkie]

If you are flexible with your dates and poke around for a while, you can get a great deal. I live in LA so I am only looking from west coast but I saw LA to Tokyo RT for $400 a couple months back. It even went to Haneda which is the closer of the two Tokyo airports. airefarewatchdog is one of the many sites that email you alerts and following them and a couple others on twitter can save you big, again if you are flexible. You just have to be ready to jump when a really good fare hits because they don't last long.

If Matrix is too much for you, Google Flights is easy to use and allows you to play around quite a bit.

 

[WDW1974]

Becoming a Disney fan later in life, Body Wars was the first Disney ride for me. It doesn't hold any sentimental value for that and in fact I just realized today that it was the first. I'm one of the Disney fans @WDW1974 talks about. My first visit to WDW was in 2000 so I don't know what I missed but I'm aware of what came before.

OK, so pretty much WDW has mostly sucked for your fan time! Sorry!

(I so wish I had a time machine.)

 

[WDW1974]

Your last visit was when I was born. I just outed my age. Haha. And yes I do remember the parks from when I was a kid. Amazing what you can and cannot recall. I also have a not-so-fond memory of my parents having it out in Mel's Diner at Universal with me and my cousin fighting like brothers over a soda or something (that was the last family trip, FYI, but enough about me) ...

I recall meals I had at WDW in 1986 (the Coral Reef was phenomenal when it opened!) But I was right about you being early 30s. Had a feeling.

 

[KrzyKtty]

I know, obviously, nothing about the company you work for or the budgets, but am curious ... do you fly everyone in one class like economy or business or First or does it depend on the person's stature with the company and/or length of flight?

Government Contracts, so everyone's stuck with economy unless they have a pretty good excuse for otherwise. Government can be pretty stingy when it comes to travel.

 

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 I think you forgot to mention that there were trees everywhere!

Oh, sorry. WDW was a paradise hidden by a lush green canopy. Forget MAGIC, there were trees all around. Now ... roads, buses, parking lots, timeshares, malls, no-lifers who moved to Orlando thinking that being near theme parks would somehow fill the deep voids they have inside etc etc

 

[Irie]

I remember the long drive up World Drive. It felt like it took forever to get to the MK entrance plaza. The anticipation while listening to the am radio was pure magic

 

[disneyC97]

My dad would turn on the WDW radio station and we knew we were on property...it was amazing to me as a child...despite the plain toll booth!