Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres

[WDW1974]

The Epcot of today is living soely on nostalgia and food and beverage receipts. It needs more than one pavilion makeover every 5 years.

The reality is that EPCOT is actually living on two festivals a year, which drive extensive traffic into food and beverage and retail locations. As others have noted here, EPCOT has often been a ghost town this summer. They'll just cut the AC another 2-3 degrees ...

 

[flynnibus]

I think it goes by tracking cookies.... I have Adblock at home, so I dont see any ads at all, but at work it kinda pulls something off each page. Its almost always either Uni or Disney ads. Once or twice, Sea World.

Not positive, but I think that's how it works. ?

Google ads work off keywords on the pages.. plus your past search history.. plus other targeting factors. Search for something on google.. and you'll get ads for that for days to come

 

[WDW1974]

Except Lone Ranger IS a tonally deaf, messy Pirates knock off and Pacific Rim is nothing like Transformers.

And yes, I've seen both.

I completely disagree about Ranger. And PR may be nothing like TRansformers, but I would hope that you could understand why someone who has never seen any of them would find the trailers to be similar in look and feel and ...yeah, tone.

If someone hasn't seen Pirates, any of them, I sincerely doubt they'd make a connection at all.

 

[WDW1974]

Oh, and on the subject of bottled water, I am VERY proud to report that except to have in case of a hurricane, I have never purchased bottled water in my life. EVER.

Even when working in mainland China, where you want to avoid the water, I had bottles because my employers/clients provided it daily.

 

[Cody5242]

The reality is that EPCOT is actually living on two festivals a year, which drive extensive traffic into food and beverage and retail locations. As others have noted here, EPCOT has often been a ghost town this summer. They'll just cut the AC another 2-3 degrees ...

As a AP I only go to Epcot during the festivals. There's absolutely nothing to do over the summer and walking around WS is brutal during the summer

 

[The Empress Lilly]

A friend of mine from up north sent me this link. So many things I would like to say in so many different directions.

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/avatar

Not sure if there are plans for it to stop elsewhere but...

Losing some patience with The Company JC?

This should've been put up in DHS! A temporary exhibition until Avatar Land opens, just to generate interest in the movie, and its world and mythology.

 

[WDW1974]

You mean the one-third of us who have passports. The rest think they've seen the world - at Epcot.

Yes, if the number is even that high. ... Of course, our government doesn't really want us to travel anyway. We might realize that things are better in other places ... And that our media isn't being the watchdog for democracy that it is supposed to be.

 

[WDW1974]

You are correct. Too many people are missing the many valid points she brings up. In fact, I think people are reading it too literally. I think she intentionally used hyperbole to get people's attention. It also shows why MM+ is a bad idea.

Epcot is not for families. Heck, Epcot isn't for much of anyone anymore. It's a wreck, and I think more people need to be outspoken about it because it has gotten a pass for way too long. No more feelings and blinders and nostalgia. Cold. Hard. Truth.

Parks blog has been pushing Candlelight and Food and Wine packages all week. That is what Epcot is all about.

I don't know what her intentions were, whether to talk truly about her trip, drive traffic to her blog, get people from Disney to give her a trip etc. But she came across very poorly. Using obscenity and terms she did generally discredit the writer because if you have to use those terms than you are very weak at getting your points across. I would have read more, but it all (strangely?) disappeared when we started talking about it.

I disagree with your point about Epcot not being for families or anyone now ...that I think is hyperbole. There is plenty there, but it is now a very odd mix and much isn't compelling. I'd still rather be there than MK and it isn't about nostalgia for me. I know that EPCOT Center died in the late 90s and isn't coming back. I just enjoy the atmosphere, the eating and drinking, the live entertainment (what's left) and a handful of attractions.

But what it needs most is a new vision because this half-assed stuck in two centuries model mixed with festivals isn't going to cut it when folks start cutting days off of WDW stays.

 

[WDW1974]

TDL will reboot its jungle cruise attraction lasting from January 6,2014 to a fall 2014 debut. It will cost a little over U.S.$16 mil and enhancements include new lighting effects, other special show effects, and a specially written musical soundtrack will be composed for this attraction. There will be a night cruise as well. The OLC announced this today.
http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201307/3562/

I didn't know this was coming, but TDR has pledged to spend $2 billion in its two parks from now through 2020. A much better use of money than NGE ...in my not at all humble opinion.

BTW, what I could have used when on TDL's Jungle Cruise (that's funny if I don't fix the auto correct this is what comes up when I type TDL's -- GOD's -- ain't that a hoot?) was a translator. But the ride itself looked great. It also was my longest wait in Tokyo -- 35 minutes.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

But what it needs most is a new vision because this half-assed stuck in two centuries model mixed with festivals isn't going to cut it when folks start cutting days off of WDW stays.

I fear the model that's been decided upon is 'permanent festival'. WS is being turned unto a permanent world's food fair. One day we shan't be able find a spot near the water anymore from where to watch tthe fireworks without a surcharge.

Hey, who needs rides when you can feed them drunk instead.

 

[WDW1974]

Someone put an awesome post like 4 years ago about that horrible dark place you go to when you first realize EPCOT is no longer what it was. We should tshirts made up

And all the retro merchandise in the world isn't going to change a thing ...

 

[WDW1974]

While it may be a safe bet to assume no... Any word on Tony consulting on this at all?

Tony has been spotted with the group working on this. I sincerely hope he can consult and have a role as it's what he wanted most in FL the past decade.

Perhaps, it was offered to him as part of the 'you leave nicely and we'll ...

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

If someone hasn't seen Pirates, any of them, I sincerely doubt they'd make a connection at all.

That neither addresses nor counters his point. You could hardly expect someone to make a connection to something they've never experienced... That's a rather odd thing to expect.

You can make the same argument for Avatar. Avatar stole a lot of its elements and tone from other movies and stories like Fern Gully or Pocahontas (and probably others I can't remember or don't even know about). But just because someone hasn't seen those movies, doesn't mean the connections aren't there. As many people have complained, the movie feels like a blander version of the stories it ripped off.

Lone Ranger did indeed feel like a Pirates knock off during many parts of it. One of the villains (Butch Cavendish) is very reminiscent of Captain Barbossa (especially in looks), though infinitely more bland and predictable in his villainy (Barbossa you could actually almost sympathize with as well as hate him even in the first Pirates, and he got even more interesting as the movies went on, awesome actor playing him too). Tonto just acts like a more quiet and calm Jack Sparrow throughout, but often does things directly out of Jack Sparrow's repertoire of stunts and silliness (never bought Depp's performance in this one even though i'm a big Jack Sparrow fan and generally a huge fan of Depp in other roles). It honestly just felt like Jack Sparrow dressed up as an Indian and was making fun of the situation he was in most of the time. And the Lone Ranger himself played second fiddle to Tonto throughout, feeling very much like a retread of Will Turner (including copying a lot of his goofball moments).

That's not why I disliked the movie myself. I can forgive movies being derivative as long as they do something good with the material they're taking from. But that wasn't the case throughout most of the movie. I felt Lone Ranger had a lot of bland and pointless filler that just dragged the movie throughout its too-long runtime (along with often uninteresting dialog). It could get very boring in parts. Certainly had some highlights, particularly the action scene at the end with the train, loved that. I don't think it deserves the beating it's getting on many sites. Particularly since there are many far worse movies that have gotten better reviews and box office sales. But I wouldn't call it a good movie by any means.

 

[yoyoflamingo]

Tony has been spotted with the group working on this. I sincerely hope he can consult and have a role as it's what he wanted most in FL the past decade.

Perhaps, it was offered to him as part of the 'you leave nicely and we'll ...

Considering he publicly stated "Imagination just doesn't work anymore," seems like a way to make all parties get what they want.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Oh god I do hope Tony Baxter gets in on Imagination 4.0, and let off the leash somewhat to get it done right!

The problem is not knowing how much power he has in such projects anymore. The company heads actually seem to hate him. For all we know this could be a project to spite him or something...

 

[aladdin2007]

Tony has been spotted with the group working on this. I sincerely hope he can consult and have a role as it's what he wanted most in FL the past decade.

Perhaps, it was offered to him as part of the 'you leave nicely and we'll ...

Would be great to see his touch on it if hes involved, at least he wouldnt let it go the way of P&F, hopefully his clout on the project would be high enough, but whatever comes of it would be nice to have his imagination involved again.

 

[WDW1974]

Kudos to anyone who can shoehorn in a pic of Honey Boo Boo et al into one of Spirit's threads.

you are evil ... So evil ... I would use my Dr. Evil smiley, but he is elsewhere right now.

 

[WDW1974]

Apocalyptic, heh?.... Must have something to do with the Disney Channel. Something involving a lot of screens. Something even cheaper to run.

TSMM clone, but with Hannah Montana and/or Jonas Brothers tie-ins? What can match the aspirational yet accessible spirit of the original Epcot Center like that?

When Walt was watching his daughters on the carousel at Griffith Park, do they think he was thinking of an enterprise that progressively caters more and more to sheltered 4 year olds and people who like an 'international theme' to get hammered, to escalate the price of said operation, and then harvest their tracking data and sell to the highest bidder?...

No. Pish posh. Walt wasn't just a dreamer. He was a visionary.

Watching his girls go round and round, Walt thought ''One day ... One day, I'll create a company that is the timeshare king of the Central Florida swamps. And when I'm dead and gone they'll forget that I drank and smoked and sweared to excess to create this perfect vision of me that will sell timeshares for a long, long time.''

 

[WDW1974]

She yanked them down, yes.

So many jokes spring to mind ...

 

[yoyoflamingo]

No. Pish posh. Walt wasn't just a dreamer. He was a visionary.

Watching his girls go round and round, Walt thought ''One day ... One day, I'll create a company that is the timeshare king of the Central Florida swamps. And when I'm dead and gone they'll forget that I drank and smoked and sweared to excess to create this perfect vision of me that will sell timeshares for a long, long time.''

"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney