The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[Phil12]

wait...
there is benihanas on disney property?

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/26/3003...ey-Lake-Buena-Vista/Benihana-Lake-Buena-Vista

 

[doctornick]

However, buzz means people are interested and are paying attention to it. Especially when it and Captain America 3 come out on the same day.

They aren't going to come out on the same day. One of them will blink, which most likely will be Warner just because they need a hit to launch their franchise more than Marvel needs Cap America 3 to do well. Maybe it will be Marvel though, who knows, but two similar movies aren't opening up the same weekend and cannibalizing each other. The studios aren't stupid.

 

[PhotoDave219]

great, always wanted to try em out

I didnt realize there were two.

 

[Phil12]

I didnt realize there were two.

It's at the Hilton on Hotel Plaza Blvd.

 

[PhotoDave219]

It's at the Hilton on Hotel Plaza Blvd.

Thats a pain to get to.

 

[WDW1974]

[Start off on a tangent here, but I promise to come back around to the quoted material...]

I went to Pointe Orlando this evening for a friend's birthday.* Busiest I've ever seen it in 15 years. In the 100+ times I've visited, never before have I had to park on the garage roof. When I walked in at 7:45 and left again at 11:00, every restaurant/bar ranged from "busy" to "packed." And this is without their new signature tenant/anchor, Blue Martini, even open yet!

I have to think a lot of this is at the expense of Downtown Disney. The parking nightmare and maze of construction walls is well-documented, and things have gotten even worse with Buena Vista being down to 2 lanes. It's easier to get to Pointe if you want dinner at a nice themed restaurant and maybe a movie or some live music (especially if you go Universal Blvd.). And I also suspect there's an element that the nightlife is more fun--Pointe bars don't have to cater to the stroller brigade as well as the conventioneers, they can go all out.

My point is WDW does not exist in a vacuum. If Flamingo Crossing fails, it's because west 192 was a better option for potential tenants. If you take 4 years to build Disney Springs (after leaving the area abandoned for 5), you give other competition time to spring up and develop a reputation and a following. And if you go a decade between E-tickets while the distinguished competition builds one a year, sooner or later guests are going to quit coming. The problem is, when you move slow like that, you're right, by the time corporate recognizes the problem it's already too late.


* - Saw a 70s-themed drag show at Funky Monkey, apparently an every Saturday night thing. Lots of fun if you're in Orlando looking for distinctly non-Disney entertainment (although one of the divas claims to be good friends with one of the Fab 5).

I certainly don't blame locals from staying clear of TSFKaDD. Or even CityWalk to an extent.

Why not go somewhere that isn't so damn difficult to get in and out of? And those locations (most assuredly DD) do not cater to locals. At least at City Walk you can get some damn fine Happy Hour specials and prices at the restaurants are amazingly not 45% over real world.

And the whole tourist thing does wear on you as a Floridian after a while. I appreciate tourists and their dollars, even if I never see tangible betterments (is that a word?) added to our society ... our communities from those dollars spent. But some days you just want to tell them all to go the eff home.

But your point responding to my point was a good point and quite on-point about the danger in constantly putting off refreshing your options for tourists and locals alike.

 

[stlphil]

The restaurant may be in Morocco ... but the food is really ... not.

And Marrakesh is one of the least popular, which is a shame because it is beautiful and the food is quite good and not as insanely priced as other EPCOT eateries. I think it scares many of WDW's bread and butter American guests who eat like spoiled eight-year-olds.

Thank goodness for Americans unadventurous palates. Thank goodness for Marrakesh! Good food, great atmosphere, reasonable prices, and you don't have to make reservations a ridiculous amount of time in advance, which I refuse to do just on principle.
Just like most everything else at WDW, it's not as good as it used to be and the menu isn't as varied, but despite this it's still pretty darn good and I'm really glad it's there.

 

[WDW1974]

Additional Spirited Sunday Musings:

OK, so Manhattan has a fascinating premise, but it held my attention like a girl would when a fanboi is talking to an Imagineer.

Let me get this straight, Card Walker's best friend (who isn't dead) Michael Crawford does one of those kickstarter campaigns and gets folks to pony up $16,000 so he can print all of his columns basically? ... Geez, I am wondering what I could get for a Mental Health and the Disney Fan Community project. Six figures would seal a deal.

Oh, and there's no way that book gets written now without bringing in the UNI fan community as it has shown itself to have plenty of insanity as well!

Just for those folks who live in normal states and think summer has another 4-5 weeks, as far as the O-Town theme parks, the summer basically ends in two weeks ... if not sooner. The heat, rain and wretched humidity should be around until at least mid to late October or early November.

Yep, I'll believe that water park is coming to Fort Lauderdale to the place where Mickey Mantle once spent his springs and Billy and the Boss tangled just as soon as I am riding one of them slides. Not one minute until then.

Sometimes when your help isn't wanted, it's better to just step back and wait to help pick up the inevitable pieces.

I don't know why but I seem to get lots of dirty looks wearing my EPCOT Germany cap around SoFla these days.

I haven't checked the Twitter feeds of anyone based at Celebration Place since summer started ... do I dare?

 

[Cosmic Commando]

What is it with Disney fans and the whole Marvel BRAND (one that 90% of them had zero interest in before Disney bought the company very late in 2009)?

If you want a Disney Marvel attraction, then go to Hong Kong. They have one opening in two years.

I'm sure there are some crazies that just decided to like Marvel because Disney owns it, but they really are growing their fanbase with this latest run of movies. It's not just the lifestylers showing up if your movie gets a $200M opening weekend. I think the biggest thing, though, is that it just wouldn't have made much sense to bring up Spidey on a Disney message board before Disney bought it. I'd suspect Marvel fandom is pretty rampant among men roughly 25-35, because there were very popular cartoons for Spider-Man and the X-Men on Saturday mornings growing up. Now you see people always bring it up, but I think it's mostly because they just liked it before, and now it's "appropriate" to discuss here. If Disney bought LEGO, you'd all of a sudden see it brought up more here.

 

[WDW1974]

I know there are a few of you who'd find this article from the NYT interesting so I'll share it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/07/2...ady-dwindling-competition.html?_r=0&referrer=

Many of the points were brought up by a few posters here when we discussed the potential Fox-TW merger. After reading the article it was also brought to my attention that Fox and WB are one and two in revenue for studios. Is this because they follow a more Eisner-esque approach with more low budget movies, sprinkled with a few blockbusters? This opposed to WDS approach of a handful of tent pole movies a year.

An interesting read and anyone who wants to see more consolidation in media (or any business) in this country today is ... well ... nuts. Just my honest opinion. When choice shrinks, we all suffer the consequences.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I'm sure there are some crazies that just decided to like Marvel because Disney owns it, but they really are growing their fanbase with this latest run of movies..

I agree. I don't care who owns Marvel. They could be owned by the federal govt, but if they kept putting out great movies I'd still go see them.

 

[WDW1974]

Well… I just left the screening of guardians of the Galaxy…

It was very good. It was very enjoyable popcorn movie, lots of action, decent character development. A little dark in spots… A little bit of language for you parents out there… it's a long film, runs to an a half hours not including previews.

It's solid, it's not going to pull a ventures type money but it should pull pretty decent especially with the overseas markets.

Knowing absolutely nothing about this comic book franchise, it was not a problem. They explains everything as you went.

I'd pay money to see it again. I give it a solid be. It wasn't as good as the avengers or the most recent captain America film but it's by far the best film I've seen come out this summer.

This is the first Marvel film I have ever wanted to see. Like really see. It just looks like dumb fun.

I enjoyed Avengers for what it was (the first movie I ever saw in Germany!) ... Cap 2 really didn't do it for me (and I did like the first one a lot). Excessively violent and dumb. But I have said those things already.

I will be seeing Guardians in the next week or so.

 

[WDW1974]

FWIW, there's an excellent trip report here:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/dont-touch-my-mustache-and-other-japanese-phrases.887040/

I went to that link (and I generally don't read trip reports). Rachel's pics were interesting as were her experiences with Japanese toilets. I can honestly say that I love them and never have I felt so clean in so many places. ... I did laugh at her not getting the squat toilets. They are not used simply for one bodily function and are quite common in China (they even have one or two in every restroom at HKDL, which did surprise me since they are more of a mainland deal).

She seemed to get a lot out of only two days at the resort. I may drop in there at some point to add my two cents (like she should have seen the Country Bears, not wasted time with two Star Tours rides etc)

 

[WDW1974]

This is an attitude I have never understood. My daughter was very, very picky when she was a child (not so much at 19), but we refused to pander to her limited palate. She learned at early age that almost every culture has some variation of chicken and rice, so whether we were at a small Egyptian restaurant in Queens or just a Pho place in Cleveland, she could find something on the menu to eat. While we would have liked her order different stuff at times, at least she ate without (much) complaint, and now she's much more adventurous.
In fact, we all wish WDW had more interesting places to eat.

Edited to attempt to fix my quoting issues.

I have traveled to dozens of countries. I have eaten in all kinds of places. I am NOT an adventurous eater as anyone in my family will tell you, but I've never been anywhere that I can think of ... and not found something (be it soup or veggies or rice or noodles etc) to eat.

There's a reason why Americans have so much morbid obesity: you can't eat burgers and fries and mac n cheese and chicken tenders and pizza (plain or, maybe, pepperoni for the wild ones) as staples of one's diet.

And WDW absolutely caters to these people, which is why Walmarting menus has been so easy. Who cares that the Coral Reef doesn't have a lobster on its menu so long as there's a pork chop and a steak?

 

[WDW1974]

Because its wrong.

Because they reinforce the wrong ideals and could damage "The Brand"(tm).

Oh, I agree.

I was just stating that people should be aware of this. It has been out enough.

 

[WDW1974]

I'm still convinced that has far more to do with Marvel's increase in popularity in general and less to do with the very well timed Disney purchase. Not that I remotely doubt you that there are still some crazy Brand advocates that only like it now that it's within the Mouse's clutches, but I hope that's still a minority - not 90%...

If Marvel was producing garbage, you'd have the Disney fans still decrying it as a terrible purchase. Their tune has changed rightly because Marvel is doing consistently great stuff.

Funny how these days the only studio that seems to be struggling a bit with identity is Pixar.

I don't know. I do know that I find most Marvel films to be dreadfully overrated with a self-serving smugness about them. Part of that is the whole ''we'll make 43 films that are all somehow connected and then, if we haven't totally oversaturated the market, we'll start all over again'' deal ... I just don't find their films very entertaining with a few exceptions (I liked the first Iron Man and first Cap America ... and Avengers was OK, if you don't consider the ridiculous amount of 'deaths you don't see, but clearly are happening with no one in the film acknowledging this in any way during the film').

I don't believe there was this huge pent-up demand for 2-3 Marvel films a year by huge comics fans who were also Disney fans at all. I don't know how often I'd read Disney parks forums like this one and hear IOA/UNI get ripped over the Marvel IP they were showcasing. But Iger The Acquirer buys them and, suddenly, Marvel is as special as Mickey.

I also don't see Pixar struggling with its identity at all. It's put out a few films that weren't as amazing as the ones they put out from 1995-2010 and suddenly they're struggling?

 

[WDW1974]

It's hard to believe that Iron Man was only released in summer of 08'.

Marvel is continuing to grow a very large and dedicated fan base. . . May who never read a comic in their life. It's been an amazing run of surprisingly good movies so far, and until they stumble and start making poor, eye-rolling swill like the FF4 movies, I see no end in sight for how popular the franchise might become.

Disney's job right now should be to shut up and stay out of the way. Branding at the parks, not branding. . . Don't really care. Anything Disney might do to market the brand really only cheapens the studio's success.

Marvel is Disney now.

When the Mouse owns you, the Mouse controls you.

The idea that Disney lets these divisions do what they want? Well, they thought that from Bristol to Emeryville and it just doesn't work that way. You become part of the machine ... so long as you keep an ever-growing line of profits, they'll give you some pseudo independence but not too much.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

So what's everyone's opinion on the Pixar "Untitled Dia de los Muertos" movie now that this (below) is coming out. Will it end up like Newt?

 

[WDW1974]

How strange that you mentioned National Parks. DH and I were just discussing a possible trip to Yosemite for next year. There are so many national parks we want to visit, it's hard to narrow it down.

Have you ever been?

Yosemite is my favorite place on the planet. It is simply amazing and brings out a peace in me that very few places (and certainly not WDW!) do. Since I stopped living on the left coast part time, I don't get there nearly as much as I'd like. Just a wonderful, awe-inspiring place. GO!!!

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

Y U NO LIKE YUM YUM SAUCE?

Seriously. Benihanas is overpriced compared with Kobe's. If you're in the Orlando area I highly suggest it.