A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

[the.dreamfinder]

@Disneyhead'71 Any idea when SNW USF breaks ground?

 

[Disney Analyst]

Has this video been discussed in here yet? A test at DCA for talking trio:



It's funny, as they tested talking Mickey and Disneyland and yet he never actually came on over, so will this only be at MK eventually?

 

[Mike S]

So I just found out today that an annual pass to Universal Orlando Resort renews automatically and you have to actually go into the site to choose not to renew. It wasn't until now that I noticed the payments for a pass I didn't want. Luckily it's only made two payments so far. Tomorrow morning whatever Passholder hotline they have will be getting an earful.

This is bull.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Has this video been discussed in here yet? A test at DCA for talking trio:



It's funny, as they tested talking Mickey and Disneyland and yet he never actually came on over, so will this only be at MK eventually?

A talking Guy Selga... magical!

 

[FigmentForver96]

So I just found out today that an annual pass to Universal Orlando Resort renews automatically and you have to actually go into the site to choose not to renew. It wasn't until now that I noticed the payments for a pass I didn't want. Luckily it's only made two payments so far. Tomorrow morning whatever Passholder hotline they have will be getting an earful.

This is bull.

You're kidding!? That's absolutely ridiculous!

 

[Mike S]

You're kidding!? That's absolutely ridiculous!

Apparently that's what happens with the monthly payments.

Not with Disney though.

I'm hoping to get a full refund.

 

[FigmentForver96]

Apparently that's what happens with the monthly payments.

Not with Disney though.

I'm hoping to get a full refund.

I'm sure if you make a big deal. Obviously don't be rude but that's stupid they do that.

 

[cheezbat]

Since its kind of the "cool kid" thing around here to say you aren't a Star Wars fan, I think a lot of folks look past this factor of the MF ride.

It sounds *perfect*. People are going to have tears in their eyes just seeing the exterior of the Falcon in person. Even if it's just a "personal size" Star Tours, they are going to be fufilling the dreams of several generations of many adults, as well as children, who aren't going to care if it's showing off some new technical marvel.

Meh...I'm not a Star Wars fan. It's okay, but I've never been into it like so many people are.

Give me a full scale USS Enterprise to command...then Youd see me crying tears of joy!

 

[nevol]

There is a VERY TRUE point to this narrative though. (Also the coddling started long before millennials.)

Children are not being allowed to experience disappointment. Children are not being allowed to experience fear. Children are padded to the gills in order to avoid being hurt (and likewise laws are being passed to protect idiot-humans from themselves and their horrible decisions), parents are showing up at colleges demanding to know why their child didn't get an A and are calling potential employers to ask why their child didn't get the job.

The world in general is raising a bunch of coddled, spoiled, temper tantrum-throwing people who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. If it is mildly unpleasant, parents feel the need to protect their child from it and all that is doing is setting those children up for failure. (I think it's safe to say that we're seeing a surge of these kinds of people in the parks as well.)

Oh, and previous generations taking a look at subsequent generations is how society deems what needs to change, so there's that, too.

I agree. I'm 27 and I had an ordinary childhood. People complained that kids were being coddled when I was a kid, not long ago, and it just didn't seem to fit what I was seeing. Kids grew up fast where I lived. But I can imagine that in wealthier communities or in private schools a very different story. I have a cousin 15 years younger than me and she is extremely sheltered by her helicopter parents and her schedule is like boot camp. When I was 1 year older than she is today, I was sent on a cruise with my cousins by the same family. We saw raunchy pg-13 and R-rated movies. I can't tell if it is an only-child situation (second marriage, first child my aunt is raising from birth), a gender situation (female), or a generational situation that I am observing that is driving this completely different approach to parenting, but it couldn't be more obvious that it is happening. The same type of over-censorization of content and over-intervention with children's conflicts in an effort to level out emotional reactions rather than letting time+experience create the necessary skin/apathy we all developed (and they surely will too) is driving bad theme park design at Disney. (side note, she's 12 or so and her friends all told her how awesome Tower of Terror was. She has a bb8 iphone case and is the generation Chappie is trying to capture with the guardians project, likely, but she told me she was mad that they got rid of TOT. This was coming from her, her peers. Word on the street about that was not good, given this middle schooler's anecdotal evidence. I interpret this as that ride being a rite of passage, and as she was finally at the age and level of courage to tackle it, poof, it's gone.)

Disneyland used to be about reassurance. The reassurance cames from survival. Most disneyland rides were scary, simulating or eluding to near death experiences, danger, etc. It is through surviving space flight, a crumbling tomb, and coming out of a haunted house alive that we are given license to laugh, not just at Disneyland, but at the concepts it eludes to outside the berm. People today seem lost on that key element of the special sauce, and think that everything has to be the pleasant note at the end of experience. But without the rest, there is no pleasant note; there is only boredom. Gone is Alien Encounter, gone soon will be the bride auction, and what is next? Could Haunted Mansion or Indy be built or designed from scratch today? Sadly, I completely doubt it. Look at the tonal and gag differences between haunted mansion and mystic manor. Are any AA's hanging themselves in Mystic manor? Do the AA's look photorealistic/life-like or CGI/cartoonlike? Radiator Springs Racers is aspiration design in the sense that it appeals to the collective memory of road trips, but overall, I think it is really quite boring. If Indy were designed today, what would it be? A trackless vehicle ride system around a temple in which no curse is set off? I am exaggerating a bit, but am I? Telling superficial narratives with IP characters for the sake of it, or not telling any story at all with IP characters, will never hold a candle to genre-defining aspirational design that speaks to our collective memories, our culture, our instincts, our mortality. Without the bare bones of the magic kingdom that in very complex and overlooked ways represents to an oddly appealing degree of accuracy, evidenced by its popularity, our 20th century American, even global, cultural identity, what you have left is Universal studios or a fancy six flags. I don't care how expensive the parks/lands/attractions are. DCA and DHS have some of the best buildouts WDI has ever done, but it will never matter so long as their parkwide stories are meaningless. Did the magic kingdom need a contemporary coastal buildout for a little mermaid attraction smack dab in the middle of a european village, the origin story of the rest of the fairy tales that inhabit fantasyland? Nope.

Long story short, and I'm totally going off track, I think the company is confused. They are abandoning certain types of content and storytelling techniques that are actually vital to the Disney "magic." Among those are survival and stories about us, about challenging content, that speak to our collective memories and popular imagination. This censoring of Disney Parks is driven by the type of baby-ing, coddling that is popular among loud, obnoxious helicopter parents. Disney is bending to them because of a frightening degree of confusion about what is important in the kingdoms and what isn't. In place of all of the good stuff, Disney has turned to the stuff that we all think disney parks or "Disney" is about, and that isn't storytelling, but bubbly animated characters, the overall effect/impression of the experiences, and the target demographics. Families/children must equal sterile, safe storytelling that isn't scary. Characters--IP everything. Happy, safe, reassuring becomes boring in the absence of threats, conflict, fear. Here, I am marrying two distinct issues relating to Disney parks today; (1) IP-mania, and (2) safe, boring, baby-ing, low-aiming stories, themes, experiences.

If you think I'm being dramatic, look no further than Shanghai Disneyland. What is that place even about? What does it stand for? is mickey ave? Tomorrowland represents... Pirates and Tron aside, it's barely nicer than Warner Brothers Movie World in Madrid (a six flags operated park that is at the higher end of the theme park spectrum among amusement park operators, at least before the Chinese/Dubai boom). Content is getting more complex, information more accessible than ever before, and rather than moving in the same direction as this, Disney is moving in the direction of a toy company afraid of being sued, and a segment of the population of helicopter parents that they think is bigger or more reactionary than it really is. The losers in this situation are both Disney and its brand identity, as its name stays static but the product it labels changes subtly over time and in a more negative than positive direction, and its guests, who have watched as a mediocre theme park competitor who can't keep a practical set/effect functioning to save their lives and have resorted to 3d trailers and redundant gags like air blasts and spritzes of water in every single attraction, has grown into a real competitor. Sure, Uni has improved some, but it is really the late nineties until at least 2012 slump and aftershocks like guardians and toy story land, among all the resort-wide changes that have given Disney's guests the wandering eye.

 

[nevol]

The more I hear about SW:GE, the less excited I get. I once thought at the very least we would get two of the top attractions in the world. That sure is looking more like one great attraction and one average one unless you're a SW crazed fan and like everything Disney does with the IP.

Not really a star tours guy, but seeing the aerial footage of WDS in particular, the space/land management in this new land couldn't be less efficient, with about 10 acres dedicated to everything but rides. If one of the rides is less than stellar, and the project is less than perfect, I have no issue with taking the 35 year old star tours and shoving it into some negative space somewhere to eat up more guests.

 

[nevol]

Just to clarify for those that are following along at home and may be concerned by Spirit's thoughts - nothing has changed with SWL. Alcatraz is still the "everything including the kitchen sink" headliner and Big Bird is just a simulator in the vein of Hogwarts Express for the SW fan. Nothing has been value-engineered out of either.

At the end of the day, the Falcon is an elaborate simulator attraction. It will ride very much like what we already have in Star Tours; but, the whole ride experience is more than just the trip around the RV's carousels being shaken. For a Star Wars fan, the entire experience is going be like a Potter fan going through King's Cross and rounding Platform 9 3/4 and seeing the bright red train spewing out steam. For a Star Wars fan, walking up into the ship and sitting down in the "mostly" authentic cockpit and pulling back on the hyperspace levers will be an experience that isn't measured by how many degrees of yaw/roll/pitch the motion base can exert. There is a reason why guests to the sets of the Force Awakens and Last Jedi shed tears when visiting the Falcon sets. Expect a plussed version of Star Tours in very pretty wrapper and that is Big Bird. Tempered expectations are crucial with this one as if you go into it hoping for something more than it can deliver in terms of what the ride in motion can provide. There is only so much you can do with a spaceship cockpit in terms of an RV. Maybe if Disney had access to the RoboCoaster arm, they could gyrate it around a bit more aggressively; but, ultimately, a flight simulator has to rely on projections to fly guests around an environment. From a technical perspective, I'm excited by how seamless the whole package should be. It's really interesting how the fight for an authentic Falcon experience versus the need for capacity in an attraction led to the multiple carousels and docking bays.

In regards to the "fun" going on in Anaheim, I did get to talk to several of my friends when I was there at the end of last month. Both friends from the Resorts and a couple of owners of Harbor Blvd hotels. I had a lunch planned to bring a couple from both sides together; but, the Disney folks couldn't make it. That's a shame because communication is at the heart of the current blockage. While I don't want to over simply things; but, if Disney were to listen to the objections of the business leaders on Harbor and come up with a compromise for access that allows guests that want to head West to the parks from not having to go East... then the current difficulties with the City would be minimized. Until there is a break through, I expect both sides to continue not to talk and that will get nowhere.

Another item on the agenda for my DLR trip was to find any evidence of any cross training that Orlando had been doing with their Anaheim counterparts to relearn the Disney way... and unfortunately, nobody has any indication of this happening. The closest I heard of it was one manager that read it here and opined that maybe it got cancelled due to the operational struggles this summer in Orlando. Of all the things that @WDW1974 said earlier this year - Chappie's "Go Back to Disney Parks School" mandate for Orlando was the most promising. Hopefully, that's still in the cards.

Things are looking up for Parks for the most part. I've been to WDW 3 times this year and DLR once. WDW seems more "alive" than it has been recently due to the construction, Smurf Village, and the inclusion of the fantastic Happily Ever After. My only concern is if the great 50th Bailout Funds are as successful as they should be... if the resort falls back asleep once the funds have depleted. DLR is still doing nicely. Disneyland feels whole again as the river has awoken from it's slumber and looks a feels spectacular. Having the original(ish) World of Color back at CA makes a day there end on a good note (as opposed for we waiting for Celebrate to finish so I could watch the only good part of it - the post show). Other than some operational issues regarding crowd control, it was good to see the most recent high water marks for the resort for the 60th are still holding firm. While I think paying for MaxPass is crazy... there is no denying that using it was a breeze (it's included in my Premier pass) and you could completely abuse its power. I would get a Mansion reservation, get in line and scan my card and reserve another in the stretching room that would be available just as soon as I got off. Add in the occasional Indy or Splash pass added in with a Pirates ride here or there and you could ride to your hearts desire on that side of the park. It's amazing to see how fast the bar code readers are. I would say they are even faster than the Magic Band's RFID. I'm glad Parks didn't waste a billion dollars developing a dedicated system based on that.

ahhhh SUBSTANCE. Thank you.

 

[jackmosby]

Gone is Alien Encounter, gone soon will be the bride auction, and what is next?

What is the scare factor of the bride auction ? They are simply removing it because it was kinda insensitive and sexist, as @WDWFigment explain it better here. And I'll even add that DLP's POTC is actually more scary after the refurbishment that lead to this removal.

Look at the tonal and gag differences between haunted mansion and mystic manor. Are any AA's hanging themselves in Mystic manor? Do the AA's look photorealistic/life-like or CGI/cartoonlike?

It's not because the AA are not hanging themselves or because they are cartoonlike that Mystic Manor is not scary. It features danger (cannon firing at the guests, a statue that wants to behead the main protagonist...) and I can see easily Mystic Manor scaring little children, in a good way. And the same goes for Ratatouille, who definitely scares children.

Did the magic kingdom need a contemporary coastal buildout for a little mermaid attraction smack dab in the middle of a european village, the origin story of the rest of the fairy tales that inhabit fantasyland? Nope.

I don't get it. Are you saying that the building for Voyage of the Little Mermaid in the MK is a contemporary coastal buildout ?

 

[nevol]

When is Universal's exclusivity on the KUKA arm set to expire? It seems like they've had it forever.

Am I the only person who hates Forbidden Journey? The land is great obviously but that's where the whole wizarding world project shines.

I've been on Forbidden Journey dozens of times and I've never liked it, never thought about it after the fact, the way I replay and desire to experience again HM, Indy, SM, Soarin, Pirates. Jurassic Park and Transformers are both, in my opinion, better attractions at USH than forbidden journey.

The sets are terrible. It is just an oversized haunted house with unrealistic halloween decor-looking animated figures, and they shove you right up against the walls 90% of the time to hide the rest of the ride system from you, while exposing their terrible production design quality in the process. The womping willow is one example, where you can see the top of the tree and the ceiling and the lack of success in the creation of this scene didn't lead the team to throw it out altogether, as it should have. The motion is terrible. The animation is terrible. the kuka arm does NOTHING to deliver the sensation of flight (it is a terrible simulator for screen-based ride sequences, and performs better I think with practical sets). The think just jerks around in ways that match up with messy, unrealistic motion paths on the screens. You can see the edges of the domes, the images curve in the dome and it doesn't produce a 3d effect in doing so. "Theyre flying!" is one of the first lines in the ride, and there is such excitement in the voice. I should feel elated that I'm flying. Instead, I am 3 seconds away from a migraine from the crappy green wormhole and being jerked around in a practical set a fraction as interesting as the queue. They literally took the biggest human aspiration: flying-and made it terribly boring, the least memorable part of the ride, a transition rather than a focus, the act of flipping pages in a book. The practical effects and screens are so blatantly unrelated that you never get to suspend disbelief for one or the other. You can see the other ride vehicles, which is the best part, except you aren't supposed to. I would rather sit on an omnimover through the queue than ever ride KUKA forbidden journey ever again.

Clearly not a fan of the ride or the ride system, but I think the ride system would really shine in a ride in which it was diegetic. The flying bench excuse doesn't cut it because once on board there is no emotional relationship with or awareness of the vehicle. It should be more visible, INCLUDING the track. The entire ride vehicle structure should be emphasized, which would allow for ginormous, kinetic show rooms like the temple in Indy in which several vehicles are observed along different parts of the scene, becoming part of the show beyond the show and effects immediately related to your vehicle. One example I thought up the other night was for this ride system in a wonka-like candy factory, with the ride system and vehicle being part of a massive industrial assembly line. Perhaps the "benches" are dispensing ingredients like sugar on different scenes/ candies, pushing us toward a variety of scenes that give us a variety of room scale, set decor, and play with light vs dark as well. It would also insinuate that the riders are sweet, which is kind of charming. Or we are a stamp, pressing the [wonka] logo into different candies, which would make an aggressive stamping motion that lunges riders right up into the show scene's envelope and back out again a repetitive, funny, 100% diegetic head-chopper-type gag along the way. Or, less, oddly, we are on an elaborate tour, with an elaborate transportation system, with no more ambitious or risky exposition. But in this case, the thrill of seeing these technologically sublime tracked robots flying around a beautifully-decorated room would be encouraged and leveraged, rather than suppressed the way it is in Forbidden Journey, where the scale of the show building and the scale of the vehicles are both irrelevant.

 

[nevol]

I don't get it. Are you saying that the building for Voyage of the Little Mermaid in the MK is a contemporary coastal buildout ?

Yes, I am saying that it doesn't belong near a European castle courtyard. It doesn't fit the geography, place-time, color palette, anything. I don't want to see it in Adventureland, but I'm kind of at a loss on where it would better make sense in Orlando. Maybe I wouldn't mind if it was visible from across a body of water, on a lagoon, because that is what the architecture of the building eludes to, and instead, it's land locked by a ton of other stimuli that make far more sense together. It could totally pass in Paris' Fantasyland, hypothetically, because its land fades with Adventureland rather than frontierland/liberty square on one end, and they've already created a seamless fade with Pan and Pirates next to one another. (Incidentally, a Little Mermaid attraction was planned for Paris, on the eastern/discoveryland border of Fantasyland at DLP back in the day, adjacent to a beast attraction. This criticism I've raised and tried to defend/explain has raised in me a curiosity to go back to that collector's map featuring those future attractions to check out how that was planned at the time.) I think Frozen and BATB, the choices in the newer New Fantasylands (in Tokyo and HK) speak to Disney's own awareness on this issue that the ride wasn't what it needed to be and that both a beast village culminating in a dark ride and a Norwegian village housing frozen (despite its more contemporary timeline) make more sense environmentally in fantasyland.

Update: DLP fun map from the early 90s that featured "future attractions" that were never built, including an IJA, BATB dark ride, and Little Mermaid dark ride (which you can find a 3d visualization/ride-through of on Youtube) accounted for mermaid's location, behind the videopolis, but not for its environment, shrouding it in rich foliage rather than any architecture, whereas beast's village is clearly surrounding that show building.

 

[jackmosby]

Yes, I am saying that it doesn't belong near a European castle courtyard. It doesn't fit the geography, place-time, color palette, anything. I don't want to see it in Adventureland, but I'm kind of at a loss on where it would better make sense in Orlando. I think Frozen and BATB, the choices in the newer New Fantasylands (in Tokyo and HK) speak to Disney's own awareness on this issue that the ride wasn't what it needed to be and that both a beast village culminating in a dark ride and a Norwegian village housing frozen (despite its more contemporary timeline) make more sense environmentally in fantasyland.

Eric's castle from the Little Mermaid is inspired by the Castle of Chillon, in Veytaux, Switzerland. And the Little Mermaid is a Danish tale. Seems European enough for me.

 

[nevol]

Eric's castle from the Little Mermaid is inspired by the Castle of Chillon, in Veytaux, Switzerland. And the Little Mermaid is a Danish tale. Seems European enough for me.

But the execution is meditteranean or Iberian at best, Caribbean most obviously. Nothing about that castle or the landscape has been translated into the facade in New Fantasyland. The real castle is pale in its color, and surrounded by northern foliage and snowy mountain peaks. It looks roman-gothic, of the spanish inquisition era with its small windows meant to keep the evil of the outside world out and its interior pure, though I haven't done the deep dive yet. It makes sense in Europe, but the Disney adaptation visually doesn't unless it's on the edge of a Spain or Portugal Pavilion on the world showcase. It has bright red spanish tile roofing, the stone and the landscape is way too warm, and the building is surrounded with palm trees. Rather than evergreens and a sheer cliff of swiss alps framing the castle, it looks like its sinking into a coastal cliff on the california coast, like matador beach. Rather than any forced perspective, it looks completely true to scale; some collapsed/eroded sandy soil on a beach next to a powerful body of water. Except, oh wait, why is this beach being eroded by a midway at the magic kingdom? Circling back to why I think the building should be prominently displayed on a lagoon, with the entrance on the side and controlled viewing from a primary walkway of the show building's front facade allowed from only a hundred or more feet away.

 

[jackmosby]

Even if it's in Spain or Portugal, it's still in Europe, i don't really have an issue with it. I mean, I can understand why it bothers you, but it's far from being my main concern with the Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom (Tea Cups in front of Tomorrowland Speedway, for instance)

 

[nevol]

Even if it's in Spain or Portugal, it's still in Europe, i don't really have an issue with it. I mean, I can understand why it bothers you, but it's far from being my main concern with the Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom (Tea Cups in front of Tomorrowland Speedway, for instance)

Sorry, I keep editing the posts as I go along. By the time you reply I've always likely added to or edited the ones you are replying to. Stylistically/climatically/geographically it would make more sense blended into another land on the edge of fantasyland, rather than interrupting a bunch of other north atlantic environments, and again, with its facade on a body of water rather than jutting off of a beach into a midway. The sequencing irks me. It all irks me, several irks, which I've dribbled out. Tomorrowland speedway should never be visible, lol. I think we can agree that it isn't the best thing to walk past from one immersive land to another. I think that raises a good point though. Not that the exact location is available anymore, but if the sub lagoon was still in operation, then eric's castle would work wonderfully. And even if the circus and eric's castle were swapped, that would do wonders, emphasizing the relationships between the castle courtyard/fair/circus, and further emphasizing the remoteness of eric's castle, its climatic differences, its lack of relationship to the medieval castle courtyard.

 

[ford91exploder]

Maybe up north. But down south most government employees are at-will and don't have the ability to unionize outside of the federal level. Trust me, if they don't want you - a reduction in force because of budgetary purposes is easy to justify. The days of working in the government and having 100% job security are long gone my friend.

As they should be

 

[ford91exploder]

Just to clarify for those that are following along at home and may be concerned by Spirit's thoughts - nothing has changed with SWL. Alcatraz is still the "everything including the kitchen sink" headliner and Big Bird is just a simulator in the vein of Hogwarts Express for the SW fan. Nothing has been value-engineered out of either.

At the end of the day, the Falcon is an elaborate simulator attraction. It will ride very much like what we already have in Star Tours; but, the whole ride experience is more than just the trip around the RV's carousels being shaken. For a Star Wars fan, the entire experience is going be like a Potter fan going through King's Cross and rounding Platform 9 3/4 and seeing the bright red train spewing out steam. For a Star Wars fan, walking up into the ship and sitting down in the "mostly" authentic cockpit and pulling back on the hyperspace levers will be an experience that isn't measured by how many degrees of yaw/roll/pitch the motion base can exert. There is a reason why guests to the sets of the Force Awakens and Last Jedi shed tears when visiting the Falcon sets. Expect a plussed version of Star Tours in very pretty wrapper and that is Big Bird. Tempered expectations are crucial with this one as if you go into it hoping for something more than it can deliver in terms of what the ride in motion can provide. There is only so much you can do with a spaceship cockpit in terms of an RV. Maybe if Disney had access to the RoboCoaster arm, they could gyrate it around a bit more aggressively; but, ultimately, a flight simulator has to rely on projections to fly guests around an environment. From a technical perspective, I'm excited by how seamless the whole package should be. It's really interesting how the fight for an authentic Falcon experience versus the need for capacity in an attraction led to the multiple carousels and docking bays.

In regards to the "fun" going on in Anaheim, I did get to talk to several of my friends when I was there at the end of last month. Both friends from the Resorts and a couple of owners of Harbor Blvd hotels. I had a lunch planned to bring a couple from both sides together; but, the Disney folks couldn't make it. That's a shame because communication is at the heart of the current blockage. While I don't want to over simply things; but, if Disney were to listen to the objections of the business leaders on Harbor and come up with a compromise for access that allows guests that want to head West to the parks from not having to go East... then the current difficulties with the City would be minimized. Until there is a break through, I expect both sides to continue not to talk and that will get nowhere.

Another item on the agenda for my DLR trip was to find any evidence of any cross training that Orlando had been doing with their Anaheim counterparts to relearn the Disney way... and unfortunately, nobody has any indication of this happening. The closest I heard of it was one manager that read it here and opined that maybe it got cancelled due to the operational struggles this summer in Orlando. Of all the things that @WDW1974 said earlier this year - Chappie's "Go Back to Disney Parks School" mandate for Orlando was the most promising. Hopefully, that's still in the cards.

Things are looking up for Parks for the most part. I've been to WDW 3 times this year and DLR once. WDW seems more "alive" than it has been recently due to the construction, Smurf Village, and the inclusion of the fantastic Happily Ever After. My only concern is if the great 50th Bailout Funds are as successful as they should be... if the resort falls back asleep once the funds have depleted. DLR is still doing nicely. Disneyland feels whole again as the river has awoken from it's slumber and looks a feels spectacular. Having the original(ish) World of Color back at CA makes a day there end on a good note (as opposed for we waiting for Celebrate to finish so I could watch the only good part of it - the post show). Other than some operational issues regarding crowd control, it was good to see the most recent high water marks for the resort for the 60th are still holding firm. While I think paying for MaxPass is crazy... there is no denying that using it was a breeze (it's included in my Premier pass) and you could completely abuse its power. I would get a Mansion reservation, get in line and scan my card and reserve another in the stretching room that would be available just as soon as I got off. Add in the occasional Indy or Splash pass added in with a Pirates ride here or there and you could ride to your hearts desire on that side of the park. It's amazing to see how fast the bar code readers are. I would say they are even faster than the Magic Band's RFID. I'm glad Parks didn't waste a billion dollars developing a dedicated system based on that.

WRT 'Value Engineering' it will be TDO that insists on 'value engineering' the rides and the land for the MCO version...