Kevin Yee's Latest "Universal Tries, Disney Lies"

[hrcollectibles]

Last Tour To Endor was a Disney event for Celebration. Disney never stated it was an event for the final ride. His articles kill me. I will say this for him he is a perfect columnist for Miceage one of the most negative Disney sites on the web.

Exactly .... It was a chance for Those attending the Star Wars Celebration here in Orlando to enjoy the Original Version of the ride before it closes.... I lump Kevin Yee, Jim Hill and Al Lutz in the same category ... Anything they post I take with a lot of salt

 

[thelookingglass]

Was this supposed to prove something? We never make it to Endor, we never even make it close to Endor.

I'm saying that the tour is attempting to go TO Endor, it doesn't specify that you're actually going to make it there.

Also, you blow right past the Forest Moon of Endor on Star Tours after the first jump to lightspeed, which is what they are referring to when they simply say "Endor", not Endor, the planet that the moon is orbiting.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Endor

 

[Maerj]

That "Star Wars Dream Park" art was pretty awesome.

It completely baffles me why Disney and Lucas have not collaborated on either a large LucasLand or an entire theme park. The amount of money to be made on such an effort would be astonishing. Sadly, I think that ship has sailed.

As a fan, I must say I'd kill to go to THAT park! Or at least pay a hefty admission price.

 

[ryno1982]

Since everyone else has posted their opinion of Yee, I will too. I understand that he tries to approach everything objectively, and that usually means not relying on internet rumors etc. But half the time, whatever speculation he makes is just plain wrong or was answered months ago. As a reader it makes it frustrating because it's not enlightening at all. It just sounds dumb.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Wasn't this whole thing like a "grand opening" in reverse? Sometimes things can be soft open for months (EE actually opened in Jan. '06 but I believe the grand opening was in the spring) before they are officially "open". Does anyone who goes to a grand opening complain because the ride was soft open the day before? Do people who go to a red carpet movie premiere feel cheated because the film was screened to a test audience a week before? A grand opening gets people's attention that something big is going on... I just take this as a "grand closing" regardless of what they called it.

 

[thelookingglass]

When a ride has a "grand opening", they don't charge people a separate ticket to come and ride it, nor do they mislead anyone into saying they will be the first riders.

The only reason it doesn't seem misleading to any of you is because we follow WDW news and happenings. I highly doubt the average person who attended the event does, and I'm sure most of them thought they were going to be the last riders.

 

[_Scar]

When a ride has a "grand opening", they don't charge people a separate ticket to come and ride it, nor do they mislead anyone into saying they will be the first riders.

The only reason it doesn't seem misleading to any of you is because we follow WDW news and happenings. I highly doubt the average person who attended the event does, and I'm sure most of them thought they were going to be the last riders.

It's just a name!! It was basically a huge Star Wars fan gathering , and if you bought the tickets not knowing this then you've got bigger problems. I mean, are people actually losing sleep over this?

No, in fact anyone who isn't a WDW or SW probably never knew the event existed. If it was meant for the general public to know then they would have advertised it on main stream.

Last Tour TO Endor, not Last Tour OF Endor.

:brick:

 

[DisneyParksFan1]

Lutz will never have the guts to participate in a discussion though. He wants to spew his drivel without having to defend anything.



Right, but we never make it to Endor either.



You're right. Yee isn't as bad as most of the others.
I just thought it was a weird thing to get upset about.

Agreed.

 

[misterID]

I think Kevin states his opinion without a slanted agenda, just a perspective that some Disney fans don't appreciate because its not 100% positive. If it were nothing but sunshine it wouldn't be real and wouldn't mean anything. I've just never understood the thinking some poeple have that you should ignore all faults and observe only the positive. Disney doesn't work with that line of thinking. And when you constantly complain about the negative reporting you're not taking into consideration is that that is how problems get solved. He wrote the article the way he saw it. I didn't read anything that struck me as deliberately misleading people.

And I don't understand the miceage hate. If anyone hasn't noticed, Al has been absolutely glowing over Disney right now, especially DL/DCA.

Any problems with the articles are problems you can find with literally any article about any subject. It doesn't mean they're out to slag Disney...

 

[Uncle Lupe]

The title was not his fault, I'd prefer, Kevin Yee Strikes Back!

It just shows that he paid $75 for a experience that didn't live up to the hype. Some parts good some bad. I could not attend one of these events but thanks to him and YouTube I feel like I was there. Thx

 

[mp2bill]

The tag line for the party was "Be the first to be the last..."

Nowhere did it say, "be the last people ever to ride!".

I agree. I read the "article," and it had me very confused. It could be that it's 4AM...but nevertheless, the "Disney Lies" tagline seems out of place. WDW threw a party to say goodbye to this version of Star Tours. To parrot what Tigger1988 wrote, they never said that the last person to ride it at the Last Tour to Endor would be the last person to ever ride it.

 

[DisneyNut2007]

You're right. Yee isn't as bad as most of the others.

I just thought it was a weird thing to get upset about.

I'm sorry, but Yee is just as awful as Lutz. Liking those two should be against the law, IMO.

Like Lutz, Yee always gets upset about the most ridiculous things.

It's one thing to constructively criticize something, but to constantly sling one mindless insult after another (something that Lutz, Yee and all their cronies constantly do without thinking) is something else. Their writing styles only serve to hurt their credibility even further.

 

[Duckberg]

Build IT

That "Star Wars Dream Park" art was pretty awesome.

It completely baffles me why Disney and Lucas have not collaborated on either a large LucasLand or an entire theme park. The amount of money to be made on such an effort would be astonishing. Sadly, I think that ship has sailed.

THEY will COME! Duckberg :sohappy:

 

[PirateFrank]

The one downside to this is.... the material doesn't belong to Disney. Its leased from Emperor Lucas with hefty royalty contracts. Harry Potter is the same way. Most of Disney's parks are made up of material that belongs to those wonderful artists, imagineers, and story-tellers from over the years. The exception is, of course Hollywood studios.
But my thinking is Disney would rather continue in its tradition of using attractions that are based on its own copyrighted material that the Mouse controls.

All Universal does is borrow from other movie series and has very little it can call its own, or put a stamp on it to guarantee it will stand the test of time. That is where Univ is weak, even with Potter.

Very well stated and I do think that this is Uni's biggest weakness. Any smart IP owner would license his property only with certain parameters in place....including clauses that would call for a voiding of the contract, like if the lessee does or doesn't perform certain actions specified in the contract. Those voidable actions are likely exceptional in nature, but the fact that they are voidable, is a liability in and of itself. Hard for Disney to sue pirates of the caribbean for breach of contract....but they can sue universal and take back spiderman for breach.

In addition, the lessee is dependent on the IP holder to maintain it in such a way that it's useable for the lessee. If the spiderman franchise releases a crappy movie and kids across the country start hating spiderman or more possible, the franchise goes in a direction counter to universal's 'imagineering' of spiderman....universal finds itself in a situation where it's attraction (of which it invested money in) is undesirable or outdated.

I'd rather build a business around my own property (which I control) than depend on someone elses property to perform.


Now if only Disney would exploit it's own property to full potential....but that's another conversation alltogether.

 

[joel_maxwell]

I do not, of course, object to never making it to the charming tribal village. The article was titled "Universal's Virtual Queue" when I submitted it; the editing process must have resulted in the headline. I made an effort to explain in the article that I viewed the event as worth the money so long as it was just this once.

Your editor's knew that if they changed that title, you and their site would get double the traffic. It worked. You have your very own discussion about the article on a different site.

While I don't know Kevin's arrangements, it wouldn't surprise me if this is true. I write a column for an business periodical (published online and in old fashion hard copy), and while I have control of all the words in every column, the editors write the headline and do not even have to run it past me. I am free to cease writing columns (and therefore cease getting paid for writing said columns), but that's my only leverage on the headline writers.

I dont know the arrangement either, but this isnt the WSJ or the NYT. Im not belittling Miceage as a site, but I bet Kevin isnt complaining that they changed the title. Like I said above, Miceage has gotten double the traffic probably and Kevin might sell an extra book or two. They both win.

Regardless if I like his articles or not, I will agree with some and say that it takes a lot to come in person and listen to more criticism than praise.

I can just see the press release now....

After all of the controversy caused by Walt Disney World's Star Wars themed special event "The Last Tour to Endor" not actually being the final day of the Star Tours attraction operation Disney has changed the name of some of their after hours special events.

Mickey's not so Scary Halloween Party will now be called "Mickey's come to Magic Kingdom in a costume and get free candy party" and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party will be retitled "Mickey's eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate in the fake snow party" Due to the fact that the majority of these events do not actually occur on the actual holidays they are meant to represent the Walt Disney Company decided to rework the titles to avoid any confusion.

Brilliant. Ill be looking for Disney to issue me new MCTMKIACAGFCP tickets since mine clearly need to be reprinted. :lol:

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Kevin Yee has devoted one more column to Star Tours. It is one of his finest columns to date, truly excellent:

http://miceage.micechat.com/kevinyee/ky091410a.htm


It is a personal account of Disney fandom, of emotional involvement, and a great tribute to Star Tours.

I also feel a little more sane now about my own little obsessive loves for aspects of the Disney parks.

 

[thelookingglass]

^excellent column.

Is Star Tours really the first ride to use the "things go terribly wrong" premise?

 

[Dragonrider1227]

I agree Star Wars would make a fantastic answer to Potter. You know what else could work? Isn't Disney working on a Yellow Submarine remake? I don't know about the rest of you but I know I'D drop everything to go to a Pepperland themed land. Or anything Beatles themed for that matter and I know PLENTY of paying guests that would agree with me

 

[Krack]

^excellent column.

Is Star Tours really the first ride to use the "things go terribly wrong" premise?

You know ... it probably is, now that I think about it. Mr. Toad is a little "things are not going well" (you do wind up in hell), but it is pretty much that way from the start - there's no story that takes a turn.