Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[flynnibus]

Interesting, EZ-PASS hasn't gotten those upgrades here in the Northeast.

EZPass and Sunpass are actually incompatible systems technology wise - it's not just lack of reciprocity. The option of a sticker for Sunpass instead of the battery powered transponder is one of the most visible differences in what they offer customers. It's been a long slow road to getting interoperability by having overlapping technology, and the agreements between the agencies. Slow slow progress.. but there was some last winter
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/20...ement-20121219_1_e-zpass-transponders-sunpass

 

[wogwog]

For the new Guest...this just might work...but I doubt it. Why?

The price of most of the merch immediately causes a "lets do that later"...also the fact that a vast majority of the merch now is no different than you will find in any local Toys R Us for half the price.

For a regular / repeat Guest, I don't see this working at all because Disney just doesn't change out it's merch fast enough to maintain any sort of interest.

The first year I went, I spent nearly 2k on various merch and goodies (most of it buying souvaniers for everyone in the family I could think of plus close friends). The second year, around 3k (I got some Disney Art...that raised the price quickly, and I had two "first timers" with me).

Last year I spent less than 1k, and that includes nearly 1/4 of it being Universal merch, and this year, well...almost nothing really, comparatively. If you exclude the overpriced photo package at the Dolphin Swim (which was around $350), I spent less than $700 total.

For 20 days in DCL / WDW...that's...WAY TO LOW! (at least that's what I'd be thinking if I were Disney Management)...

Got you beat. Last visit, only a day, we bought two Dole Whips. The only item unique to MK worth buying. Went to lunch at Cracker Barrel in nearby Winter Garden for a late lunch and returned to MK for the evening entertainment. Please don't tell Disney or I will be labeled a low value slug and blocked frm visiting by my MyMagic minus.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Everyone who takes part in this thread chooses to do so. Nobody is forced to take part. If a poster doesn't like the subject, content or mood of a thread, they can easily step out. If someone keeps going back and forth, as the poster you mention did, then it would seem that he or she is happy to be engaged in that discussion. I don't see that as bullying.

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ.

Everybody who partakes in this thread and in this forum does so in the expectation that they can do so without being subjected to nastiness and insult. This is not 4Chan, this is a moderated environment. A family friendly Disney forum.

Furthermore, that a poster continues to post is not a sign of his/her being fine with being subjected to intimidation, ridicule and insult. It merely shows a resolve not to be intimidated into silence.

Pixie for his part never once insulted anybody in kind. The guy is a hero, a beacon of manners.
This forum failed Pixiedustmaker. A perfectly well-behaved, well respected member of this forum has been openly bullied away.

 

[truecoat]

Skimmed through 20+ pages tonight. I now feel like Andy Dufresne making it out of Shawshank.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Not at all.
A: "The sky is green."
B: "No, actually it's blue."
A: "Uh-uh...green."
B: "I've seen it. It's blue."
A: "We'll, I think it will be green. That's the plan."
B: "Ugh. Never mind."

No intimidation. It's just trying to help.

But the sky isn't blue at all.

The sky is every colour of the rainbow. Owing to human physiology and atmospheric conditions, sunlight penetrating the atmosphere appears blue. But the sky itself is many colours. It also appears as many colours to the human eye too. The effect is best observed at dusk, when the sky appears red, orange, purple.

As for green...if a little pixie says that the sky is green, don't intimidate him into silence, but listen closely to him - for green is the colour the sky assumes before a thunderstorm, possibly a tornado. Run!


See? One would've bullied a person into either conformity, or silence, or else expulsion. When dissenting opinion is what teaches us that the sky isn't blue, that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth, that humans are evolved from apes. Progress is not achieved by angry mobs beating simple truths that every expert knows to be correct into dissenting people's heads.

The aim of a forum is not for everybody to come out a drone with one single opinion. That's totalitarianism. The object of free debate is to let many opinions thrive, to let every voice and idea be expressed in safety.

I do not fear intrusive surveillance technology. No, the thing I fear is mob mentality and majorities trying to silence minority opinion ("...but, he's wrong"). Are Catholics wrong? Presbyterians? Jews? Surely they can't all be correct. Must the incorrect ones be silenced and ostracised?

In a bitter irony, I do not fear the NextGen technology. I fear the people in this thread, who silenced another poster because 'he was wrong', and because his questioning authorities is akin to 'stirring the pot, being a troublemaker'. And they don't even see anything wrong with that. That mentality, and not any intrusive tech, is the enemy of the open society.


Lastly, I am talking to you, but not about you. The culprits ought to take you as the example of how to be of different opinion in a respectful manner.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ.

Everybody who partakes in this thread and in this forum does so in the expectation that they can do so without being subjected to nastiness and insult. This is not 4Chan, this is a moderated environment. A family friendly Disney forum.

Furthermore, that a poster continues to post is not a sign of his/her being fine with being subjected to intimidation, ridicule and insult. It merely shows a resolve not to be intimidated into silence.

Pixie for his part with near superhuman, very endearing (outward) calmness never once insulted anybody in kind. The guy is a hero, a beacon of manners.
This forum failed Pixiedustmaker. A perfectly well-behaved, well respected member of this forum has been openly bullied away.

Wait, Pixiedustmaker was well respected here? By who? When you post something as a FACT, then are told your are wrong, and STILL insist you are right, even after being presented with overwhelming evidence you are wrong... That is either being a troll (which is a bad word round these parts now), an idiot, or looking to constantly start an argument... A hero? Really? What are you sniffing tonight? A hero? That has to be a joke...

I won't miss his nonsense, that is for sure...

 

[truecoat]

In theory I don't disagree with you that infrastructure needs to be invested in, clearly ......

Sue, your new pic is.....disturbing.

 

[englanddg]

Got you beat. Last visit, only a day, we bought two Dole Whips. The only item unique to MK worth buying. Went to lunch at Cracker Barrel in nearby Winter Garden for a late lunch and returned to MK for the evening entertainment. Please don't tell Disney or I will be labeled a low value slug and blocked frm visiting by my MyMagic minus.

I went to Disneyland in Feb, and I spent a bit more than that...but not much! Then again, I did have to leave early.

What really shocked me (and shouldn't have) was how similar the merch at Disneyland was to Disneyworld. I had absolutely no interest in much of it, as I could get it far cheaper next year from a discount online retailer (and by then, I'd lost interest in the purchase anyhow!)

 

[flynnibus]

I do NOT know ... It is answers that I seek. I do know that Disney isn't being open and honest. I'd like to think there was no relationship at all. But I know better.

So why not go back to your roots.. dust off the Rolodex.. and shop around someone bigger than O-Town reporters who may be interested in doing some hard charging inquiry to Disney. I mean, come on, with WikiLeaks, Snowden, PRISM, companies having gag orders from disclosing what the government is demanding of them... the time is now if ever if someone were to get their bosses approval to spend time and resources inquiring how the 'American Dream' company of TWDC would be playing nefarious games with the intelligence community.

Except no one, not one person that I have read here!, is saying that except ignorant folks who are misstating others views.

And I really would wish that bulls--- would stop.

No way man.. you started this with your 'throw it against the wall and see what sticks' name association game. You threw chum in the water, let the sharks go into a frenzy and now say 'I didn't bring them here'. Talk about 'plausible deniability'... Like my earlier question, you've thrown it out there they are a supplier, they are watching, they might be a consumer, everything in the whole spectrum. Maybe that's not your intent, but your delivery is leading the faithful to take it as gospel and run a muck extrapolating their own scenarios... but believe they are rooted in solid insider info due to your initial seeds.

Watching this has been like like someone took a bunch of talk radio hosts.. and forced them to play the old children's game of 'the telephone game'. We've gone the gambit of the government having 'curiosity' to people inferring the CIA is funding the NGE project and that's why TWDC can afford to drop the money on it...

 

[flynnibus]

Good point. Only a few have realized the dining plan for what it is. However, the dining plan wasnt advertised as a huge game changer like MM+ has been

Can you point me to where Disney has 'advertised [this] as a huge game changer' with regards to MM+? Or any advertising at all with regards to NextGen? Where are the TV spots? The integrated marketing machine on The Disney Channel?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Wait, Pixiedustmaker was well respected here? By who? When you post something as a FACT, then are told your are wrong, and STILL insist you are right, even after being presented with overwhelming evidence you are wrong... That is either being a troll (which is a bad word round these parts now), an idiot, or looking to constantly start an argument... A hero? Really? What are you sniffing tonight? A hero? That has to be a joke...

I won't miss his nonsense, that is for sure...

I find this very distressing. Surely in real life you do not walk up to a stranger in a McDonald's and tell him in his face that he is a troll, an idiot?

Why do you feel entitled to say such beastly things about your fellow man? Somebody you don't even know?

Please, think about what you are doing. You are talking about an actual human being here, an actual person. Somebody who never did you any harm.

 

[flynnibus]

Ives paid nearly $30 in tolls from Pittsburgh to NYC/ Teaneck before. I don't travel that way often enough to bother with PA ez-pass

But the turnpike uses EZpass

 

[flynnibus]

Pixie for his part with near superhuman, very endearing (outward) calmness never once insulted anybody in kind. The guy is a hero, a beacon of manners.
This forum failed Pixiedustmaker. A perfectly well-behaved, well respected member of this forum has been openly bullied away.

Please take this elsewhere... I'm amazed the mods haven't jumped in already.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I find this very distressing. Surely in real life you do not walk up to a stranger in a McDonald's and tell him in his face that he is a troll, an idiot?

Why do you feel entitled to say such beastly things about your fellow man? Somebody you don't even know?

Please, think about what you are doing. You are talking about an actual human being here, an actual person. Somebody who never did you any harm.

Hmm let me look deep inside myself.. Um, nope... I don't feel bad in the least... Notice, I never called Pixie any of those things... And never once did I attack him for his lack of accepting his faults of not being right about certain things... But, he did become EXTREMELY annoying... Sometimes you have to suck it up and admit you are wrong... He never did... He continued trying to say he was 100% and no one else knew what they were talking about DESPITE being shown evidence he was wrong... So, he was either a troll (not calling him that), and idiot (I don't know him personally), or was only here to stir up problems and cause arguments (which basically is a troll right?)... If he cared about conversation, he would have engaged in thoughtful convo and debate, instead of trying to prove he was a know it all and every one else were morons... Like I said, I won't miss him...

 

[TalkingHead]

But the sky isn't blue at all.

The sky is every colour of the rainbow. Owing to human physiology and atmospheric conditions, sunlight penetrating the atmosphere appears blue. But the sky itself is many colours. It also appears as many colours to the human eye too. The effect is best observed at dusk, when the sky appears red, orange, purple.

As for green...if a little pixie says that the sky is green, don't intimidate him into silence, but listen closely to him - for green is the colour the sky assumes before a thunderstorm, possibly a tornado. Run!

 

[ThemeParkJunkee]

I went to Disneyland in Feb, and I spent a bit more than that...but not much! Then again, I did have to leave early.

What really shocked me (and shouldn't have) was how similar the merch at Disneyland was to Disneyworld. I had absolutely no interest in much of it, as I could get it far cheaper next year from a discount online retailer (and by then, I'd lost interest in the purchase anyhow!)

My last trip to WDW I purchased two T-shirts for my niece and nephew and since I was also spending 4 days at US/IOA, spent the rest of my $1000 merch budget there. I was buying Christmas gifts. WDW offerings were overpriced Chinese crap and the kids I was buying for were Harry Potter fans.

At DL/CA last August (to see Carsland), I spent $0 on merchandise and ate at a couple of QS locations.

I am an occasional visitor and don't go back until there is something new or I am bringing a first-timer. Since FLE is just "yawn" to me, I am not going back until the mine train is done. I am, again, spending time at UO/IOA but this time it will be six days there. So...I am a low value guest even though I only go sporadically. I give them plenty of time to build something new and if they don't, I don't go. They can't even come up with new and original merchandise offerings in 3-4 years.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

@PeterAlt, Don't forget that Saudi Arabia also had a temporary pavilion as part of the 2000 celebration's Millennium Village.
http://www.saudiembassy.net/files/PDF/Publications/Magazine/2000-Winter/Epcot.htm

 

[englanddg]

Hmm let me look deep inside myself.. Um, nope... I don't feel bad in the least... Notice, I never called Pixie any of those things... And never once did I attack him for his lack of accepting his faults of not being right about certain things... But, he did become EXTREMELY annoying... Sometimes you have to suck it up and admit you are wrong... He never did... He continued trying to say he was 100% and no one else knew what they were talking about DESPITE being shown evidence he was wrong... So, he was either a troll (not calling him that), and idiot (I don't know him personally), or was only here to stir up problems and cause arguments (which basically is a troll right?)... If he cared about conversation, he would have engaged in thoughtful convo and debate, instead of trying to prove he was a know it all and every one else were morons... Like I said, I won't miss him...

I will.

I miss anyone who quits who isn't repulsively insulting. If it goes on unchecked (and I'm not referring to Pixiedustmaster, I had no idea he quit), it just means the forum dies a slow death. Overaggressive users or overaggressive mods can cause this...it's a balance.

That being said, your point about being able to admit when you are wrong (and also being able to understand that context isn't always best conveyed in text) is a must for anyone willing to have an honest discussion on any internet forum.

And, a thick skin doesn't hurt!

Heck, spend a day on many other sites (not Disney), and you'll find that most of the posters there are perfectly wonderful people who use insults to gauge your intentions...and, if you refuse to take offense, you'll find they have interesting things to say.

 

[SirOinksALot]

Hmm let me look deep inside myself.. Um, nope... I don't feel bad in the least... Notice, I never called Pixie any of those things... And never once did I attack him for his lack of accepting his faults of not being right about certain things... But, he did become EXTREMELY annoying... Sometimes you have to suck it up and admit you are wrong... He never did... He continued trying to say he was 100% and no one else knew what they were talking about DESPITE being shown evidence he was wrong... So, he was either a troll (not calling him that), and idiot (I don't know him personally), or was only here to stir up problems and cause arguments (which basically is a troll right?)... If he cared about conversation, he would have engaged in thoughtful convo and debate, instead of trying to prove he was a know it all and every one else were morons... Like I said, I won't miss him...

His liked post ratio was the same as yours. Probably says a lot.

 

[englanddg]

His liked post ratio was the same as yours. Probably says a lot...

That's silly facebook style thinking. Most forums don't have "like" buttons. And, the opinion or statement that is most popular is not always the best statement.

I don't think you should judge a user based on their "stats"...stats are fun, but contribute nothing really.

The post count merely lets you know how active the user is overall (note yours) and the like count is partially a function of which threads they frequent and which users follow them, not a reflection on their total contribution to the forum.