A Spirited Perfect Ten

[TalkingHead]

I've been putting bits and pieces together regarding the proposed Frontierland project for MK and ... color me incredibly NOT impressed. If I've learned anything while watching this park change so radically over the last 15-plus years is that it is morphing into something that I don't like very much, something that's pretty antithetical to what the whole idea of the park was to begin with. I really couldn't care less how busy the place is. Whenever I drive by Walmart the parking lot is plenty full there as well.

Yeah, but you know what's never full? The restrooms on Tom Sawyer's Island. How tragic if we lost those along with the (RIP) Fantasyland Quail Tiles. (Yes, I have a quail tile tattoo on my shoulder, and, no, I'm not embarrassed by that.)

 

[PhotoDave219]

Oh?

They had one of those in Orlando. Guy had his harness fail (or was improperly restrained) and Fell to his death in front of his wife and kids. Was last November or december I think.

 

[PhotoDave219]

It could be ugly press for Mickey if people didn't have so much pixie dust in their eyes. But let's be honest. They'll blame the victim before they ever point the finger at Disney for creating an unsafe environment.

That pathway isn't even remotely what could be described as "wooded"... I remember leaving AMC in the past around those hours and I always used to see security everywhere. Guess things changed.

 

[Journey_On]

Oh?

That looks like so much fun. It reminds me of Orlando Tree Trek, one of my favorite things to do in central Florida - except the one in this video has water elements, which adds more of a challenge.

They had one of those in Orlando. Guy had his harness fail (or was improperly restrained) and Fell to his death in front of his wife and kids. Was last November or december I think.

Yes - very sad situation. It was the Sky Trail ropes course at Artegon Marketplace last December.

 

[OneDNP]

It is interesting that Brits tend to like having a big house with a pool and many bedrooms to themselves for $800 a week, whereas Americans tend to prefer to splurge on a Deluxe Resort for $300-400 a night.

Deluxe Resorts just don't seem to appeal to many Brits and come across as poor value for money, likewise villas just don't seem to appeal to Americans. So there's definitely a big cultural difference, not just in terms of vacation length.

Americans are used to lots of space and don't mind being cozy for a week, whereas Brits are used to smaller space and enjoy spreading out for 2-4 weeks?

 

[invader]

Oh?

Adventure Mountain is long gone.

 

[Nmoody1]

An interesting read from this morning's LA Times on Anaheim's new non-Disney tourist offerings:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-anaheim-tourism-20150725-story.html

Also saw there was a 4.2 quake out in the Inland Empire, hope it didn't wake any of my friends up this morning.

I still think Anaheim got ripped off on that deal of no tax for 30 years vs 1bn investment at the resort.... where did 800m get Shanghai?! DCA's expansion was what, 2 billion?! 1bn doesn't sound so much... I guess it will pay for a few more balloon sellers and the temporary star wars launch pad. ... wasn't One Man's Dream temporary? And the Hat? And probably even the Castle Float at MK!?!?

 

[Bairstow]

Adventure Mountain is long gone.

But because it cost so much money to staff the thing, not for ADA reasons.
I think FireChaser is an upgrade anyway.
Ropes Courses Inc is opening new Sky Trails in the US practically every month.

http://www.ropescoursesinc.com/news/

That looks like so much fun. It reminds me of Orlando Tree Trek, one of my favorite things to do in central Florida - except the one in this video has water elements, which adds more of a challenge.

It was very cool. One of the neat things about Adventure Mountain is that once you were up there you often had multiple choices and could change pathways at cubicle-like switching stations. In this way, you could adjust the difficulty of the course as you went, which also gave the attraction a lot of re-ridability. Another challenge was to avoid grabbing your tether rope and to avoid falling by using only the static handholds, which could get tricky depending on how good your sense of balance was and which pathway(s) you selected.

One downside of the system was how loud it was. Each harness was connected to a little sled inside the track, which clanged around rather loudly as guests made their way through the course. It made the entire area a bit of a cacophony. Presumably an installation with a bit more money to it could better deaden the sound by applying a rubberized coating to the track or otherwise baffling the noise it produces.

Still, Sky Trail is a very unique and exciting theme park attraction style that has a ton of untapped potential.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Weekend Reading/Viewing
Our friend, @WDWFigment , has a write up of his experiences using Uber, as opposed to Mears or a rental car, on one of his recent trips to O-Town.
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/uber-disney-world-rental-car/

An American who lived abroad in Switzerland for ten years compares American and Swiss working conditions. If anyone needed a bucket of cold water to make them realize how poor the American "middle class" has it, here you go. I bring this up primarily because Disney World, UNI and the others are adversely effected by the state of the middle class. Paraphrasing from the article, the average American worker works 219 more hours a year than the average Swiss worker for an average salary of $55,708 compared to $91,574 of the later. There's only so much growth you can get out of international tourists as the domestic tourist numbers shrink/stay the same despite a growing population. If I say more, there might be a lynch mob after me.
http://www.vox.com/2015/7/21/8974435/switzerland-work-life-balance

Switching subjects...

Google ATAP's Spotlight Stories app arrived on the iOS App Store the other day. The spotlight stories are short films where the phone become the window with which you see the world of the film. Glen Keane's short film "duet" was created for this medium and it is stunning. To think the artist who animated the "Wild Things" test footage combining hand drawn characters with 3D computer generated backgrounds thirty years ago with John Lasseter still pushes the medium forward is very inspiring. There are shorts by Justin Lin ("Fast 6", "Star Trek Beyond") and Jan Pinkava ("Geri's Game") as well. A fun way to spend an afternoon, even if you get a headache like I did!
Google Spotlight Stories by Google, Inc.
https://appsto.re/us/BGvg6.i

 

[Cesar R M]

Have you seen Animal House?

Afraid not, should I?

 

[Bairstow]

Afraid not, should I?

Sure.
It's a classic American comedy, and a good window into what Americans think their colleges are like, even if it's 40 years old and set nearly 50 years ago.

 

[Cesar R M]

I will wait for DVD just to watch Peter Dinkledge.... and make a drinking game of it.

Other than that, I believe its getting a 0.0.....

I hope you have your insurance up to date.. because if the movie is as bad I think it is, and as full of cliches I imagine it will be..
you're going to die by alcohol poisoning in less than 15 minutes in the movie.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Afraid not, should I?

Oh my dear God.

What are you doing right now?

 

[Cesar R M]

No chance. You cannot look into people's minds to predict if and when they will commit a crime. That's just one of those risks that are part of life and that we have to deal with.

not yet.. *cues minority report with Tom Cruise*

 

[Cesar R M]

It wouldn't need to be all concrete, but Magic Kingdom needs more space, and guests are apparently always demanding more shopping and dining options, so I could see it making a lot of sense to expand Frontierland by replacing Tom Sawyer Island and putting a new dining and shopping district in it's place, with a couple of small rides or a coaster too.

If they drain the Rivers of America to make a concrete walkway to the island and eliminate the need for boats, that would give a huge boost to capacity. As it is, TSI is a huge plot of land that's barely inhabited even when the rest of the park is jam packed.

Woody's New Frontierland might be something like this, perhaps?

and loose another water area with trees?

 

[Cesar R M]

I think that's an overselling it a bit. Most Marvel fans are perfectly fine with the X-Men films because Fox (at least of late) has done a good job with them. The FF films have been pretty bad and this new one looks particularly awful and not loyal to the source material, so the sense I see among fans is that they hope the movie fails so the rights will eventually get back to Marvel where they will treat the characters "properly". I think Fox's Daredevil/Electra versus what Marvel Studios has done with Netflix helps to bolster this view.

Most people just want to have good movies and accurate depictions of the characters. And Marvel Studios has shown, to date, to be good at that so people trust them. Fox has been much more hit or miss.

a good job? on some yes.. on others they've done terrible.

most of the wolverine centric movies have been outright AWFUL.
I mean.. facepalm worthy.

 

[Cesar R M]

It could be ugly press for Mickey if people didn't have so much pixie dust in their eyes. But let's be honest. They'll blame the victim before they ever point the finger at Disney for creating an unsafe environment.

isnt this normal nowadays? police for example.. blaming the murdered people instead of actually investigating their officers.

Oh my dear God.

What are you doing right now?

really that good? I will see if I can find it

 

[wogwog]

isnt this normal nowadays? police for example.. blaming the murdered people instead of actually investigating their officers.


really that good? I will see if I can find it

Be sure to stay through the end on screen comments. Keep in mind many of our current business and political leaders in the USA went to university during the era depicted. I see it as a bit of a documentary as well as comedy. Some work in Burbank and Washington D.C..

 

[WDWFigment]

Agreed. It always is overshadowed by JTTCOE or Pooh's Hunny Hunt whenever anyone talks about Tokyo. Another that is up there for being under-appreciated is 20k Leagues.

Did you ever have a chance to ride the original Sindbad?



Sorry @WDWFigment - I'm with the Spirit on this one. Time for StormRider to take a hike.

Sadly, I didn't ride when the original Sindbad was there. I've seen it on YouTube, and far prefer the current version. I have friends who argue that it's "less sophisticated", but I don't get a vibe of sophistication from the videos I've seen. To me, it feels empty and devoid of emotion. By contrast, the new version really resonates with me, and that's largely thanks to its tone, the song, and Chandu. Then again, maybe I'm a simpleton.

As for StormRider, perhaps I should clarify: I do not think it's a good attraction. In so many places, it makes absolutely no sense (When testing the dangerous fuse, why does the CM stand right it front of it? How do emerge unscathed one second after slamming directly into the water? etc...). For me, it's a guilty pleasure. It's just absurd fun, with some cool in-cabin effects. It feels like an attraction you'd only find in Japan...and in this case, that is not praise.

I still do not agree with the decision to plug Finding Nemo into Port Discovery. It's an atrocious fit and I don't think there's any way to reasonably explain it away. (Unlike Toy Story Mania, which I think works pretty well as the Coney Island part of American Waterfront.)

Weekend Reading/Viewing
Our friend, @WDWFigment , has a write up of his experiences using Uber, as opposed to Mears or a rental car, on one of his recent trips to O-Town.
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/uber-disney-world-rental-car/
....

Thanks for the shout-out! Uber is such an excellent alternative to the Mearsopoly at Walt Disney World that I fear soon Mears will lobby Disney hard enough to shut Uber out. I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon, because as it currently stands, I have no reason to rent a car or mess with a taxi again.

 

[Captain Neo]

They were talking about it the week the film came out, so, no.

As much as I enjoyed JW, I hope the next one is just a bit better.

Universal really dropped the ball by not green lighting a Jurassic Park expansion or new e-ticket for IOA. Instead Harry Potter enroached into JP territory on the right side and destroyed the theming and ate up an expansion pad and now King Kong (based on a flop from 2005 that everyone forgot about) is getting a video screen ride that eats up a huge chunk of Jurassic Parks left side. Talk about having 0 faith/confidence in a brand.