A Spirited Perfect Ten

[WDW1974]

On the subject of Ratatouille at the Walt Disney Studios, the exterior area is gorgeous and finally provide a nice area to the Studios. The shop is pretty and the restaurant looked good, but on the expensive side:

Bistrot Chez Remy copies the famed "Entrecote de Paris" restaurant where they only sell set menus. For 30 euros (which includes tax and service, like everywhere in France), you get an appetizer (a salad) and one of those 3 choices:

- Rib Steak with Ratatouille and Fries
- Roasted Cod with Ratatouille and Crushed Potatoes
- Vegetable, Tofu and White Bean vegetarian casserole.

For 40 euros, you also add a dessert and one non alcoholic drink.

They also offer a more expensive 60 euros formula where they replace the set menu with more gourmet food. I did not try it, as it was popular and I did not see the value. I had better food coming later that week!

The ride itself is very popular. We're talking Toy Story Mania fast pass popularity where on weekends, within an hour, fast pass are sold out. They also offer an efficent single riders line, which I used and the full single riders queue took 35 minutes. Stand-By was over 2 hours at that point.

The indoor waiting line is pretty, with a cool projection of Gusteau on the rooftops of Paris. The loading is very efficient, as they have a double load and load 3 6 person rats on each side. The trackless rats are the best part of the ride, as they smoothly navigate the ride and add a lot to it.

The ride itself? Meh to be honest. There is zero integration between the screens and scenery. At least Gringotts for all its faults was perfect in that aspect. Effects wise, the heat effect when you go under the oven was missing, making the scene a miss. Rest of the ride had a lot of pacing and I don't think the 3-D added that much to the ride.

All in all, it is not a solid E-ticket, but finally the park has a good high capacity family dark ride.

Really? Our mutual friend has sounded more positive about the Rat ride. ... As for dining, four courses for 40 euros isn't that bad by DLP standards. I'd say that it better be damn good for that price still ...

 

[NearTheEars]

Don't know if this is too late for you. But everything there my party (myself, 'Angie', and my 'granddaughter') had there was amazing. We did the tableside guac, which seems to be priced a bit on the high end, but really is something so great and filling that I'd advise splitting an entree if you're getting that with a table size of four or under. I may well go in the future and just get that and those drinks ... favorite would be the blood orange margarita.

My entree was a chicken chimichanga that, very likely, was the best I've had in the 21st century. Just phenomenal. Sadly, I left about a third as the guac and chips are very filling and very yummy and I intended to have it as a leftover in our villa, but just never did and it got tossed (I wish I had it now!)

I can't recall what the others had. I am so focused on my own food all the time, as one might expect from a Spirit who needs to drop some pounds. I think there may have been an enchilada for one and tacos for another, but really that is just a guess.

But I can't say enough good things about the place. Great food, ambiance, service and live music.

I'm a huge chimichanga fan. Guess we'll have to go over and try it out.

 

[WDW1974]

For whatever reason, I've enjoyed Gringotts the more times I've been on it. The integration of screens and set has become more evident to me as I've absorbed more of the experience. I'm not sure what AAs would have worked in the ride -- AA of Voldemort? Of Bellatrix? I think it would look weird to have a character represented by a mix of screen and robotic figures.

I know Universal crowds were the subject of discussion awhile back. Felt today like they had a good holiday turnout. 45-60 min wait for Dragon Challenge. 60 min for FJ, Despicable Me, Gringotts, Spidey, etc.

Biggest surprise for me was the 60 min wait for Hogwarts Express Hogsmeade Station. This was late in the day -- I'm guessing people line up to go to Studios since it's opened later.

Holiday weekend after the crazy Christmas/New Years holiday period ... it's when lots of Floridans, who have stayed home or traveled far for the holidays, come back to the parks. In other words, it would only surprise me if the parks weren't busy the past three days. ... Things will largely be empty again this week and for the next 2-3 before things start the slow build to Spring Break madness.

Cowfish was good. Not sure we'll go back. Service was good at lunch. Burgers were good, too. I'll never get used to seeing soda on a menu for $3.19. Water's fine, thanks.

Really? Why? I toured the place with a friend and it looked great and all the food (the burgers, not the sushi!) did too. I will probably try it on my next visit. As to $3.19 for a soda ... you sound like my Spirited mother. Be glad you are in the USA and not Europe where it's 4-5 Euros for a bottle and the concept of free refills does not (with a couple of exceptions) exist.

 

[NearTheEars]

Rrrrrrrrrrrghhhh ... time for a Spirited note from Davy Jones.

A note on the upcoming Pirates rehab. A kind member on the Black Pearl got Captain Jack's approval to send along some comments.

Basically, as anyone who has ridden in the last 10 years knows, the attraction is a disaster. WDI has had numerous plans to go in fix what's wrong and add a few things along the way dating back to the late 90s.
Instead, the ride has just become a bigger disaster with the 2006 Jack Sparrow add coupled with the new boats coupled with FP+ making it truly on the verge.

Apparently, the work should take 8-9 months to do it all right. Phil 'The Counts Are Too High' Holmes has told them to do it four months or not do it, but it appears that folks above him are going to step in for a six month closure.

As to how much can/will be done, well, we'll all just have to wait and see ... HoP and Mansion (interior, not crazr queue) show they can do things right, but ... other things ... you know the rest.

I'm a big history guy, and while taking in A show at HoP over the weekend I found myself thinking about how awesome the experience is. The whole show is just very well put together and maintained.

Maybe I'm just a softy for the patriotic stuff. The American Adventure is pretty awe inspiring too, even if I cringe at the end every time now since old American hero Lance was outed as a phony.

 

[asianway]

BTW, one quickee on the Us vs Them fandom debate started in that blog post by Foxxy.

I've often felt that the battle is akin to the one on global warming (or climate change if you let Frank Luntz mold the debate).

If WE win and get Disney to live up to its Legacy, its history, its standards, its PR, then WE all win. The quality goes up and the vast majority of everyone (Us, Them, Casual visitors etc) all benefit from a higher caliber experience and more bang for all our bucks. That likely also makes shareholders who are in for the long haul benefit too.

But if THEY win, we all suffer. We all pay the price for less, for lower quality, for a worse/Walmarted product. And, at some point, it's like global warming and it's too late to do anything ... and all those profits that went to companies, who didn't have to live up to stringent environmental laws, while the planet was getting destroyed won't matter much when we're all under water.

Your thoughts?

Simple economics dictates more is preferred to less.

Except amongst addicted WDW fans

 

[WDW1974]

And to think, during my first trip to WDW back in the 70's I stayed at a Motel 6 and we all had a great time.

My first trips were at a place with a vaguely western theme called the Stagecoach Inn in Kissimmee ... on 192 just west of downtown. For years there was a huge pasture with cows in it across the street, by the mid-late 80s there was the first Super Walmart in the area on it. When last I drove by, maybe a decade ago, it was still standing and was something else.

BTW, those first trips were amazing despite having to drive a good 30 minutes from the TTC every day.

Spirited Faux Top One Percenter Secret: Some days we'd come back to the motel room after stopping and picking up a bucket of chicken at KFC and some Dr. Pepper at Publix (it wasn't sold up in Boston where I was born and lived originally) and chowed down on the beds of a motel room.

I do suppose the Presidential Suite at the Poly would have been more befitting me, but I lived just fine without it!

 

[tirian]

I can tell you that I have tried (or friends have) to book me CM rates at WDW for at least 5-6 different trips in the past three years or so. None with success. And, usually, when they looked they could find no CM rates at all, even if they played around with the dates and resort levels. And I don't travel at the busiest times, so clearly Disney would rather have a resort filled to 60% capacity, instead of taking and adding 25% more guests at 50 or 60% off rack rate (where they still make a HUGE profit!)

Just a shell game ...

I remember discussing this with you a few months ago. In addition to underpaying its front-line CMs and lower-level managers, Disney has drastically cut its Cast discounts—something that cost the Company nothing and made $$$ where it otherwise wouldn't have had any. Disney would rather let rooms sit empty than offer them to CMs at reasonable rates.

Iger promised Wall Street the parks would have fewer discounts. It looks like the company cut CM discounts so he wouldn't be a liar. CMs have lost most resort availability and DDP offers. Maingate passes are constantly subject to needless blackout dates. Dining reservations without a DDP require specialized times and reservation booking windows. FP+ has made some attractions (Pan, Mine Train, etc) impossible to ride on moderately busy days.

With the benefits stripped away, why work for them?

 

[Nemo14]

My first trips were at a place with a vaguely western theme called the Stagecoach Inn in Kissimmee ... on 192 just west of downtown. For years there was a huge pasture with cows in it across the street, by the mid-late 80s there was the first Super Walmart in the area on it. When last I drove by, maybe a decade ago, it was still standing and was something else.

BTW, those first trips were amazing despite having to drive a good 30 minutes from the TTC every day.

Spirited Faux Top One Percenter Secret: Some days we'd come back to the motel room after stopping and picking up a bucket of chicken at KFC and some Dr. Pepper at Publix (it wasn't sold up in Boston where I was born and lived originally) and chowed down on the beds of a motel room.

I do suppose the Presidential Suite at the Poly would have been more befitting me, but I lived just fine without it!

 

[WDW1974]

"Lifestylers" seems like a fairly amorphous term, but assuming that we're going with a broader definition that includes not just bloggers like me, but anyone who spends "a lot" of time at the various Disney parks & resorts (I assume the term requires something more than just an online fixation, lest most people here would be lifestylers, and given the negative connotation, I assume you all don't want that), I'd say 1984.

This is when the first annual pass was available, and thus when it first became realistic for those obsessed with Disney (and people were no doubt obsessed long before this) to visit on a regular, repeated basis in large numbers. It's only proliferated since, but if you want a single moment in time, that would be my pick.

I've met/overheard plenty of hardcore Disney fans--many of whom seem totally oblivious to the fact that there's a fan community online--who seem to visit nearly daily, so I think tying the term to the birth of the internet is arbitrarily limiting.

I don't think Lifestyler has to be negative, although when I started using the term I absolutely meant it that way.

I've since come to like and respect a few select members of that group, including yourself. I believe you are honest about your views and you always state if you are getting something for free because you have a blog. I don't always agree with you (like that crazy notion that folks shouldn't have rental cars in Central FL, now if you had said that because no one knows how to drive and it's so dangerous then I might have agreed ...)

Oh, and the first AP was sold in 1982 at WDW. I know because my family got them when EPCOT Center debuted (I had a junior pass if that gives you some idea how ancient I am!) I believe they did start in Anaheim in 1984, but back then there was simply one AP (like how it began in FL and it was good 365 days a year and it included parking!) ... I think the Anaheim version of Lifestylers could be argued to have began in the late 90s when DL started the tiered APs and had a $99 basic job for locals only.

I don't think it was the Internet that started it. ... It was what came after ... and digital photography absolutely played a huge factor as did FB and Twitter and Instagram etc. and those are largely all post iPhone debut (2007).

 

[WDW1974]

I was married in March of 1981. We honeymooned at WDW. The Contemporary Resort was 65.00 per night.

I stayed there for the first time later that year. It was $80 a night (and, yes, we thought that was plenty pricey in those days ... but not akin to $600 for standard room today!)

Spirited Weather Fact: It snowed for the first and only time in Miami 38 years ago today. No, I wasn't here to witness it.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Cheesesteak is a good topic.

Jim's Steaks. Fourth & South streets. Philadelphia.

 

[WDW1974]

Essential vs casual. Ponder that and reconsider my last post. Forum posts may seem like a lot to you, yet none of it is essential in my day, nor does it change much else outside of it. Most of my forum time is while I'm multitasking or other gaps in my life. It's easily replaced or interchangeable with something else... That is not the same for your example and why things are not the same.

It has little to do with TIME and again has to do with importance and revolving life around it.

My hobby time may be spent as 2hrs online one day... Or I t maybe spent as playing pinball for 10hrs yesterday. Yesterday I shifted my schedule and what I did with my family for the day to make that happen. I don't do that to make time to be on the forum. See the difference?

The Disney company is a hobby of mine... But my life does not revolve around it and except for computer time and time reading books... Has little influence on my life.

The simple test again... How many things would you have to remove from your life to not have Disney in it for two weeks?[/QUOTE]

I think the part I bolded would be what I feel most pertinent. I can tell you that I desperately wanted an escape recently from some awful family circumstances, but the reality was I couldn't find it in message posts and the inanity didn't cheer me up like it can when I just am down a bit.

I didn't need any wake-up call that Disney wasn't that important to me, but if I did, then the last two months of the year 2014 would have provided them.

Life shouldn't really revolve around Disney unless you work for the company. I'd argue that even then it should only be part of one's life.

I have mentioned many times how many sad individuals live in O-Town who have saddled their horses of self-worth to Disney and UNI's theme parks. You see that extrapolated into the Twitverse and in Lifestyler circles.[/QUOTE]

 

[WDW1974]

The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed

The same holds true here... Posting in discussion forums is just involvement... A lifestyle is commitment.

THIS!!!

I have been asked countless times to write blogs and contribute columns to practically any/every Disney site you could think of. I have turned every one down, even when I like the people who run them.

I don't want that COMMITMENT. I don't want another job that doesn't pay me and just takes loads of my time. Now, if someone wants to pay me, then we can talk.

I can leave here tomorrow and come back in a week, a month, a year or never. I'm just enjoying taking part in a discussion over a subject I am very interested in. And when I want or need to pull back, as I will be doing as we get into the year, I will.

 

[bhg469]

I don't know why it is but when someone says guac, i associate it with a slimy gross unappetizing image. Guacamole, however, sounds delicious... very strange thing I discovered about myself tonight.

 

[WDW1974]

Wow. @flynnibus and @WDWFigment good discussion (well until the childish comment).

These boards are strangely addictive in ways that the universal ones aren't.

Yes. It is.

The scary thing is I largely agree with what BOTH of them are saying. I don't know what that really says or means.

And I didn't know there were Uni boards. Orlando United is more UNI-centric, but they still have (or had as I haven't looked at the site in about 6-7 months now because I don't have time for this one!) plenty of WDW discussion. BTW, I joined that site and liked the people ... just not enough time and I've got a life (sometimes!)

 

[WDW1974]

Wait? Post counts don't matter? What about likes?

I was going to like this, but then I saw how close you are to me in likes and ... I'm sorry, I just can't.

 

[englanddg]

I was going to like this, but then I saw how close you are to me in likes and ... I'm sorry, I just can't.

Your Post to Like ratio is far better though!

 

[WDW1974]

The ten thousand lookie loos floating by your door made me laugh out loud!

Im here at AKL now and 3 days into our trip we had a big envelope slipped under our door. It was from DVC with a big cartoon picture of the GFV (framable quality), and a letter with it offering us a $100 disney gift card if we took the tour of the GFV. I have 2 small children so I did not have the time to do this. Is this the norm for taking the tour?

For Disney, that's a fortune. Most O-Town timeshare pitches will, for a minimum, give you two one day tickets to Disney or UNI.

 

[flynnibus]

Touche.

Yet, no one, and I'll speak for @ParentsOf4 here would expect Eisner levels of expansion or even spending now.

That's lost in the message It's just difficult to get a true one to one as the whole company was very different before the media acquisition charge. One could even argue that Iger the conqueror has a better batting average than Eisner in that category... going for the big, but sure-hits (Pixar, Lucas, Marvel, etc).

But it is very fair to look at how Iger hasn't nurtured the product very much or very well. All he has done is manipulate numbers through raising prices on everything year after year.

This I largely agree with. When we look at the parks post-expansion... they are no where as near as aggressive even within their own footprint as they were under Eisner. I do feel like the business is being managed like a financial portfolio.. where one moves and shifts things purely to move the bottom line vs actually investing to build something of substance. I interpret a greater disconnect between leadership and the front-line product than we've ever had.

Even if the financials screamed they were dumping money into the parks... I'd still be distraught over their approach and lack of human touch. It really does feel like the art of show has left the building. The little bits of good decisions we seem to see here and there... seem lost in a sea of bad blood.

 

[Cody5294]

@WDW1974 Avatar is late 2017 now?! It just started vertical construction and it's going to take them 2 1/2 to complete it? I guess they are putting one piece of steel down and calling it a day at that rate