Spirited Spring Break News, Observations & Thoughts ...

[marni1971]

How are they going to be able to justify it 2 years from now when Virtual Reality devices go mainstream?

20 year now and it is still around the corner.

Although VR - inn any guise - won't replicate nor replace a physical motion through a building.

 

[marni1971]

People keep saying Spaceship earth, but it's just not true. Yes, you can walk around the entrance and exit, but the entirety of the space that the ride takes up is how far the leg supports extend. You can't walk around all of those unless you are cast.

Space Mountain and ToT in Paris spring to mind. Fully immersive E Tickets with show buildings.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Can your home VR system swing you around like a Kuka arm or in a dark-ride vehicle like Spidey and Transformers?

The only attractions that could come close to being approximated in home theaters would be 3D or Imax films with single screens like Soarin', Simpsons, Despicable Me. Even then, you're not going to experience the synced-up motion at home.

What if you have a D-Box?

 

[PREMiERdrum]

What if you have a D-Box?

D-Box? I know a few D-Bags...

 

[FigmentJedi]

D-Box? I know a few D-Bags...

D-Box: It's a motion simulator base some movie theaters have that have also become available for the home theater market, basically turning your chair into The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbara.. There are various movies on Blu-Ray programmed to be compatable with it and that Back to the Future Blu-Ray with the ride on it even works with the system.

 

[Cousin Huet]

I agree, there is no way to reproduce the vomit inducing motion of the Kuka arm at home......especially since the picture on my TV is so clear and handles the motion on the screen better. Seriously, I have been in an F16 and felt fine......after Forbidden Journey and Mission Space......"I need to take a seat for a few minutes" lol. Can't wait to see the new Diagon Alley area though but enough already with the overuse of screens.

 

[JimboJones123]

So... Social Media Moms. TNA bnew friend Fadra who is at the conference at Disneyland this weekend (and was linked to earlier in the thread) apparently gets lots of free stuff from other companies so she can "review" them and put up review videos on her mommy blog from suburban Baltimore.

Here's one where Chevrolet gave her use of a new Impala for the weekend and sent her and the family to Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania "compliments of Chevy". That's a weekend worth at least a couple thousand bucks. And all she has to do is review the car and "influence" other moms to go visit their friendly Chevrolet dealer to see if there might be a new Impala in their life.

WARNING FOR CAR BUFFS OR ANYONE WITH A 'Y' CHROMOSOME: Fadra does her full review of this car after a weekend of driving, but never once mentions the words "engine", "transmission", "horsepower", "torque" or "brakes" and never utters anything about "displacement", "drivetrain", "warranty" or any numbers or stats describing anything. She loves to push the buttons though, but never thought to look under the hood.



She does seem like a nice woman and a very good mother, but...

After seven months on YouTube and endless links from her blog, this review video she did for Chevrolet has 59 views. Fifty Nine. That's a five followed immediately by a nine. It's not just Disney doing this, it's apparently something all big American companies are doing. It makes me not want to buy stock in GM or Disney if this is how they are spending their marketing dollars and our nation's resources. 59 views. Scary stuff!

It is easier to blame a Bush or an Obama for your 401k being stagnant than the horrible decisions the Forbes 500 make. Remember HP getting in the tablet business, then getting immediately out, then announcing they were shutting down everything PC?

Corporate America is a mess.

Disney is right there in the middle of it. Cut what works, CMs being the best and most passionate employees, and spend on what doesn't, FP+.

 

[turbosnatch]

"Flex Fuel" is a bigger scam than MM+. smh

Umm I guess you have never been in a 1000hp car running flex fuel?

 

[JimboJones123]

I figure, if anybody wants to spoil the opening scene from Xmen Days of Future Past, go for it!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movies/10...ast-exclusive-opening-battle.jhtml#id=1726025

This is the movie I am looking most forward to this year. GotG is a very close second.

 

[truecoat]

I agree, there is no way to reproduce the vomit inducing motion of the Kuka arm at home......especially since the picture on my TV is so clear and handles the motion on the screen better. Seriously, I have been in an F16 and felt fine......after Forbidden Journey and Mission Space......"I need to take a seat for a few minutes" lol. Can't wait to see the new Diagon Alley area though but enough already with the overuse of screens.

Ahh, but what about screens mounted to kuka arms? I'm interested in seeing how that works.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

A nice little comic, written by someone on the inside, about focus groups.

http://giancarlovolpe.tumblr.com/post/82641459722/a-little-behind-the-scenes-look-of-the-early

 

[wdisney9000]

Umm I guess you have never been in a 1000hp car running flex fuel?

I have not. Are you referring to Switzer performance? Ive seen their stuff. Pretty sweet conversion, for $80k. I was mostly joking about flex fuel for my Yukon. It drinks gas, but no more than a jeep or big pick up truck

 

[PhotoDave219]

Hey, I like Gary. Good guy, works hard. Always been good to me. Seems like he was brought in to clean up a mess someone else made and looks like he's doing a decent job of it. I'm not gonna criticize him for that.

I'll criticize those higher up the food chain who make the decisions of who to invite/credential....

 

[Astro Blaster]

Lou's brigade never pays for anything, yet TWDC's position on him is that he is not a paid employee of the company. I love how corps use public relations hacks and lawyers to spin reality so far upside down that truth really doesn't matter at all.

I never understood the relationship between Lou and Disney. Since I love WDW I listen to Lou's podacst, but he occasionally devotes significant time to non-WDW parts of Disney, such as the movie club. He also has a lot of inside news so I always wondered about the parameters of his actual agreement with the company.

He's obviously more than a typical WDW fan but if he's not a paid employee of the company, what is he?

 

[Lord_Vader]

I don't think it's that as much as it is people just getting in way over the head with debt... Keeping up with the Jones' and the general entitlement mentality that is running rampant in our country. Screw debt, the government will save us!

As for people's actions in public or how they present themselves, I see two sides to that. On one half of the coin, you have Eddie Griswold. On the other half, you have the people who prefer to just stay comfy in shorts and a t-shirt. For the most part, middle class doesn't dress to impress like they used to. Kinda like looking back to when flying was an occasion. The whole Generation X thing and rise of the tech sector youngsters taught people they didn't need to wear a suite. Many put focus on function over form. I've never felt that I need to impress someone with my presence. Much of it is just frivolous spending on faux status symbols. For me, I prefer to stay comfy in my t-shirt and cargo shorts, but then again we don't book reservations in the finer dining establishments. The ones that we do are for the kids (or wife). The food isn't worth it for the most part, but we're kinda spoiled with good food in Charleston

I am with you 100%.

Most in my generation (I will be 44 this year) in my current social circles, do not dress to impress unless it is warranted by their specific employment needs. My office standard has gone from suit/tie then business casual to jeans/polo casual. I coach a couple baseball teams and my older team parents will show up to games/practices in cargo shorts and t-shirts with no problem, these are SB owners/operators, local franchise owners, and more in upper middle class families. At the office I have had CEOs meet with me in khakis and a polo for a formal meetings, why should anyone believe guests at WDW should be held to a higher standard?

I don't pay enough attention to the way others are dressed unless they really stand out because I generally don't care enough about them. My teenage son pays attention and points out the outliers (people of WalMart types,) he cares about how others percieve him in a manner I no longer do because I am comfortable with my current standing and see no point trying to impress other guests at WDW. And to boot, I simply refuse to spend two or three hours getting ready for a dinner at a buffett experience in WDW because it is in a Deluxe resort, even if I was staying there. We dress appropriately, not walking around in torn up, worn out or inappropriate clothing that should not be worn in public but I will not bring a suit and tie just to eat while on vacation, we simply avoid those restaurants as a result.

 

[Lord_Vader]

#CancelColbert was successful, he will not be on comedy central after 2014... If the Seminole Tribe is ok with it, I'm ok with it. Does still look crap though.

Yeah, #CancelColbert was so successful he was promoted to hosting on CBS.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Here's hoping Maker takes Relativity's bid,
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/relativity-makes-last-minute-offer-695874

 

[WDW1974]

Disney keeps iterating the technology... we went from the crystal ball in the HM on the table decades ago... to the micro luminre in Belle's cottage. The implementation in RSR is extremely impressive.. blending physical and projection quite smoothly. The video Disney posted looked very impressive. Quite nice looking AA figures combined with the projection faces that looked very seemless and effective.

It depends on what tech you are speaking of. While Lumiere is an effective and kewl use of technology, the AAs (and other than Ursula, I really have a hard time calling things that many fanbois could make in their garages actual AAs) in The Little Mermaid are a huge step backward. They are fake, plastic and don't do much at all.

Now, RSRs absolutely works perfectly, but one could also argue that giant cartoon cars work very well for having projections added to physical bodies.

For 'withholding judgement' - your earlier post was pretty judgemental

Oh well, you know me ... old habits!!!

 

[Stevek]

I never understood the relationship between Lou and Disney. Since I love WDW I listen to Lou's podacst, but he occasionally devotes significant time to non-WDW parts of Disney, such as the movie club. He also has a lot of inside news so I always wondered about the parameters of his actual agreement with the company.

He's obviously more than a typical WDW fan but if he's not a paid employee of the company, what is he?

I don't know either. Disney has allowed him to broadcast live from it's parks and resorts, release audio tours of each of the MK lands and he does personal tours (at a cost I'm assuming) of the parks for guests. I guess by granting him this type of access along with the free dining, cruises, trips to Aulani, etc. that he's not a paid employee per se but gets his payola for all of the promotion he provides. At the end of the day, he and to a lesser extent Brigante (who I believe pays for his own AP but gets some of Lou's perks), are reaping the benefits of acting as spokesholes for Disney. As with the mommy bloggers, who can blame them for taking what Disney is willing to give them. I know I'd take what they give but I also know that I'd go insane if I spent as much time as they do covering the parks.

Brigante seems to have realized what he can get and expanded his scope to cover all theme parks in Orlando. Now he gets the perks from Disney, Universal and Sea World.

 

[WDW1974]

Could you tell us more about Leanne J.? Does she report Zenia or someone else? Is she responsible for the creation of Disney's current approach to SM or is she just executing a script from SM consultants?

She is responsible for the Celebration Place Social Media Cabal. Her job was allegedly on the line last year, but she apparently weathered the storm quite well. I believe she worked at one of the local TV stations before coming to Disney.

I would have to check the 'leadership' chart, but I believe she reports to Craig Dezern (who before selling his soul was actually a very good reporter who covered Disney for the Orlando Sentinel).

Zenia doesn't bother with people on Leanne's level. She is Burbank/corporate all the way. If Zenia is dealing with something that should be on Leanne's radar, then heads will roll.