My Pin Obsession

Yeah, yeah... I'm still alive.

So today, I wanted to talk a little about my Disney Pin collection, my love of my pins, and exactly the lengths my obsession has taken me.

I started collecting pins on a trip I took to WDW in college back in December of 2000. There were a lot of memorable things that happened on that particular trip (my first visit to AK being probably the most memorable), but probably the thing that's had the greatest impact on my day-to-day life is that I discovered Disney Pins.

I know that Pins have been a thing to collect for people for a long time. Olympic pins are always very popular, especially, but it seems that around late 1999 Disney started creating waves and waves of collectible lapel pins, and the popularity of them shot through the roof from the start.

Truly it is one of the great ways to inexpensively (hahaha) commemorate a trip. You liked that new ride? Get a pin! You loved staying at that hotel? Get a pin! You were there on Halloween? Get a pin! It's a lot of fun, and potentially something that can last a long, long time without a huge monetary investment like snowglobes or something. Of course, that doesn't take into consideration the epic volume of pins a crazy person like me will purchase, but in theory, it's not too pricey.

So... I think on that first trip I bought between 10 and 15 pins, and they were all ranging between 4 and 8 dollars. There were very few Limited Edition pins in those days, at least in the parks, and they certainly weren't to the point of having monetary tiers. I remember looking at them over and over after my trip and just thinking about how cool it was, how ornate they were, and how much I wanted more.

Disney Pins are how I found my way to eBay.

I'm pretty sure I registered within a week of my return, and boy oh boy has eBay been a blessing and a curse when it comes to my spending and pin collecting. Over the past almost 15 years, I've had to place limits on my eBay purchases. The 'Buy it Now" option was crippling to my wallet for a while. The explosion of Limited Edition pins, Disney Auction Pins, Special Event Pins... eBay has been the life blood of my collection, and has arguably driven me into the poorhouse. I have over 500 eBay transactions, and I'd bet that easily 450 of them have been pin-related.

I've given myself limitations on eBay by focusing on smaller segments of pins.
1) Captain Hook pins
2) Expedition Everest pins
3) Completing L.E. Sets I started during a park trip.

There have been occasional hiccups to this, largely as a result of well-intentioned gifts that happen to trigger my OCD. My dad sent me a couple of Star Wars Mystery Pins, and I found myself compelled to complete the set on eBay.

As I've gotten older, planned my own Disney vacations, and made more money, my trips to WDW have largely centered around figuring out ways to collect as much money as possible beforehand JUST to purchase pins. I'm sort of embarrassed to say it, but I've come home with more than 70 pins at least 4 times.

Much like on eBay, I have to create rules for myself, so that I don't just randomly buy ALL of the pins..
1) I will buy pins for attractions ONLY if I've experienced that attraction on that trip... So... For the longest time I'd not ridden Mission Space, so I wouldn't allow myself to purchase any Mission Space pins. I try to even limit myself to rides I've ridden for the first time on any given trip.
2) I'm only allowed to buy 1 "PARK" pin for each park, so for example I can't by 4 different AK Tree of Life pins on a trip.
3) I can only buy resort pins for resorts in which I've stayed. Same with restaurants.
4) I've allowed myself to only purchase the "Classic Mickey Country" pins for the countries in Epcot in which I've had a meal. (I've got all of them except Norway).
5) I can only get LE Event pins if the Event occurred during my stay.

I'm sure there are others i'm not thinking of....

The one thing I really don't enjoy is the trading aspect. I love trading for Cast Member pins in the parks, but I've found the Pin Trader Community to be populated with unpleasant, unfriendly, way-too-serious weirdos who are constantly trying to screw you over. It's not that much fun. I'm pretty glad Disney forced the Pin Sharks out of the Downtown Disney area. Those people kinda bummed me out, even though I've found some exceptional pins in their binders in the past.

I even randomly was staying at Disneyland during a pin trading event, and after walking around for half an hour, I wanted nothing more than to leave.

Basically, what I'm trying to say with all of this, is that I love collecting pins, and over 15 years I've amassed a fairly substantial collection. About 2 years ago I started wanting to find a way to display my pins. I was always bummed that they basically stayed hidden away in bags and binders in a closet. I've spent way too much time and money to not be able to look at them in a cool way. I spent a lot of time during the Summer of 2012 looking at all kinds of weird "Display case" type things, and found that so many of them are extremely expensive, or not exactly what I wanted.

Most people would either settle, or give up... Me? I decided to learn woodworking, and build my own.

A friend of mine is a professional woodworker, and I asked him if I could essentially apprentice him for a Summer during my free time and work toward building my very own Disney Pin Display Case. Thankfully, he agreed, and we got started.

We ended up spending about 6 months together working on various small projects, learning techniques, and eventually designing and building a gigantic, two-tiered display case. I was lucky to have him, because it was very hard. He had a knee surgery during the time, and for a large majority of the building of it, he was directing me while I did the actual work.

I don't know how many people can say that their Disney Pin collection has helped them learn an actual skill, but I know that I am one of them. I've continued my woodworking hobby, but I've still never done anything quite as substantial.

Here are the photos of the crown jewel of my Disney Pin Collection. Made with Ash (The body) and Ambrosia Maple (the front of the drawers). Built entirely from scratch. We bought the raw lumber, milled it down, planed, jointed, and assembled.

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 9 - Douchey Nudist Chickens

This week Annie and Dan break down the 1950 Disney classic animated film Cinderella. They talk about how Cinderella's life didn't seem so bad, the Von Trapp Family, the stigma assigned to naming a kid Lucifer, and the heirarchy of the fictional Cinderella kingdom of animals. Also Gay Panic, WWII, and maybe the animators being a little lazy.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

We're also available for FREE subscription on iTunes by searching "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Look for the same graphic as above.

If you have any feedback, or topic suggestions, please feel free to e-mail us at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com

Happy Listenin!

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 8 - Magical Mystery Cow

In this episode Annie and Dan plow through a whole bunch of Disney news items, they raise several questions to which they do not know the answers, and they ponder the existence of the many mechanical cows across Disney World.

During the second half they play an epic game of Disney World "Would You Rather" where Annie gives Dan several scenarios he tortures himself over. Let's just say that both The Kardashians and Dramamine are mentioned, and not in relation to each other.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

We're also available for FREE subscription on iTunes by searching "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Look for the same graphic as above.

If you have any feedback, or topic suggestions, please feel free to e-mail us at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com

Happy Listenin!

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 6 - Busting out a Heimlich

Hey Everybody-

Annie and Danny recap the rest of Dan's Disneyland trip, his thoughts on eating food out of cones and how customer service and OSHA don't mix. Annie goes into depth about how all of the princesses look great, except for Aurora. Dan's

Then they spend the rest of the episode ranking and discussing the many Walt Disney World resort hotels from Best to Not as Best.
Also notable: Annie is far more prepared than Dan for their main topic, Dan gets a little drunk, and Annie thinks his rankings are bad.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

We're also available for FREE subscription on iTunes by searching "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Look for the same graphic as above.

If you have any feedback, or topic suggestions, please feel free to e-mail us at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com

Happy Listenin!

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 1 - Stud Lightbeam

Hey Everybody!

Annie from B Ticket Blog and I decided to do a podcast, and in a shockingly uncharacteristic move for (at least) me, we actually did it.

We will be on iTunes in the next few days, but until then, check out the pod! We talk a little about ourselves, what started us down the path of our Disney love, and we talked a little about some other Disney stuff, too.

There's even an assignment for the readers!!

Check us out here!

Please, please, PLEASE give us your feedback. We will talk about anything and everything Disney, AND we're hoping to do a Reader Mail segment, so send your Reader Mail Topics to AnnieDannyFPPC@gmail.com

Escape from Tomorrow

A movie called ‘Escape from Tomorrow’ has recently come to my attention. That’s not unusual in and of itself, as I probably see more new movies than just about anyone. The unusual thing about this particular movie is that I hadn’t heard of it, and the majority of it was filmed at Disney World.

“What!?!” – That was my reaction when I first heard about it.

The movie premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival to little pre-showing fanfare, and by all accounts isn’t that great of a movie as a whole.  Though it’s being lauded for having an interesting visual style, the “horror” and script are being written off as average. There’s a lot of speculation that it wouldn’t have been accepted to such a major festival without the Ninja-Disney cache.

It was shot, in secret, on small hand-held cameras and other subtle or “touristy” video cameras. They did this, because Disney has never authorized any outside productions to film in their parks. They’ve always been extremely protective over their branding and their images. Because of this, the movie is very unlikely to ever see wide release, since the movie not only takes place there, but depends on the location as part of the story, and Disney is pretty unlikely to allow this movie they had no hand in creating using their images. As of now, the only known showing planned for it is next week in Ebertfest. And then that’s it. Maybe it’s gone forever. Maybe you’ll be able to scrounge up a bootleg somewhere.

Thinking about this movie, and my desire to see it, and my overall love of Disney and Disney Parks has raised several questions for me. I’m going to take some time to toss them around.

First… What’s the issue?

Well, I guess it depends on who you ask, but the main issue would seem to be that Disney doesn’t want people using their images (characters, park rides, names, etc..) without their permission. Now, when last I heard, Disney hadn’t released any official “Cease and desist” statement. They simply said they were aware of the movie, and that was it. The idealist in me would like to think that Disney would let it go, and not stop it, but I can’t see that happening. So basically there’s this movie that won’t be purchased by a distributor because there’s a good chance Disney will just sue the daylights out of them if they ever try to release it. If the movie was undeniably good, maybe someone would take the risk, but not for this.

Second… If it’s not that good, who cares?

That’s a good point. I think there’s an obvious niche audience that just loves to see Disney images, and is sort of titillated by this sort of illicit depiction of “It’s a Small World” and “Space Mountain” in this unsanctioned way. There’s something kinda fun in the notion that you’re breaking the rules. Even the most staunch of Disney fans will likely admit to having had fantasies of hiding on The People Mover until after close and wandering the park all night. None of us wants to do damage, but all of us wants an unforgettable, unique Disney experience. This movie represents that unique experience, and there’s value in that to a Disney Fan. Someone got past the security. Someone figured out ways to perform whole scenes of dialogue amidst the unknowing crowd and on rides. It’s fascinating just to think about it.  Basically, there’s a small audience of big Disney fans who just wanna see it out of curiosity. That’s who cares, and I don’t think that’s enough.

Let’s say it was great? Shouldn’t it be released?

The thing that I’m reminded of most of all in regards to this situation is the Metallica vs. Napster case. For anyone who’s forgotten, Metallica sued Napster (at the time the world’s largest file sharing program) because their songs were being shared from user to user without Metallica’s consent. They insisted over and over it wasn’t about the millions of dollars they weren’t making through legitimate sales of their songs (that’s probably not true totally, since I’d definitely care about the money for sure), but rather that they believed that Metallica alone should have control over how their music (their “intellectual property”) should be made available.

Essentially, if Disney puts up a fight, or refuses to give consent to the filmmakers to use their images, Disney will be arguing the same thing. If Space Mountain appears in some movie, Disney wants to have the ONLY say in how. If Mickey Mouse is a major plot point in a story, you can bet Disney’s name is the only one on it.

The argument made by the other side is emotional and complicated and certainly worth considering.

“Disney is the most powerful entertainment company on Earth. It’s not going to hurt them”
“Disney has enough money. They should just let it go.”
“Shouldn’t they be encouraging young film makers?”
“What about all the fans who want to see the Disney stuff?”
“What happens to all the money the people spent making the movie?”

These are basically all valid, emotion-based questions, with boring, unemotional answers that all make sense to me, but the answer that resonates the most with me is this:

Maybe the money doesn’t matter to them, because them crazy rich, and maybe they’d like to encourage young filmmakers, and maybe this film wouldn’t hurt their image, and obviously they love the fans, but ultimately it’s not about THIS movie or THESE filmmakers. It’s about setting the precedent. There’s no way Disney is going to open the door to film makers not under their umbrella. Maybe this one movie doesn’t harm them, but what about all of the subsequent movies made in the same way? Does Disney have to give them all a pass? Even if it’s a case-by-case thing, I can’t see them wanting to encourage the practice at all.

And lemme talk about this “Doesn’t Disney have enough money?” argument for just a second, because it’s the same one leveled by Napster against Metallica, and it’s just as stupid now.

Disney doesn’t have enough money. Maybe to you they do, but they don’t. Their entire purpose is to make money… (Some would argue that their purpose is to entertain, to which I’d say… “that’s cute”…)  and the only way they make money is off of their own intellectual property (or the legal purchase of George Lucas’ intellectual property, as it were). If someone else is making money off of it, then it’s more difficult for them to. Even if the actual amount of money is small, I have a very difficult time saying they shouldn’t be able to make that money.

I guess, after talking through this with you, my position is pretty clear. The scenario is much less muddy to me than it was before I started writing.

Yes, it’s kinda cool that this dude made this movie and got creative to use a place nobody’s ever used before.

Yes, I wanna see it.

Yes, in a perfect world where nobody has any monetary or creative stake in such things, it’d be available for all the world to see…

But in the end, I was on Metallica’s side against Napster, even though I used Napster. I’m on Disney’s (presumptive) side in this. I care more about the Disney brand than I do about this movie. I am protective of their brand. I like that Disney is also. There was a time in the late 20s and 30s where Disney didn’t license their merchandise and it was bootlegged and replicated all over the place. Disney lost countless millions during that time when all of these other companies put out junk with Mickey and Donald on the side and passed it off as Disney. They have the right to protect their creative property. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue they have the responsibility to do so.

If they let THIS go, couldn’t there be an argument made that if I scrounged up enough money, I could buy a chunk of land in Iowa, and build my own Disney World? How is it different?

I applaud the director for his moxie. I hope to see the movie some day, but I won’t pay to see it.

A friend will be going to Ebertfest next week and will be seeing the movie. If they blog about it, I’ll be sure to point you all in that direction. I’m certain fascinated by the whole thing. But to me, the fascination is where it stops.

Going to the Promised Land: Part Two

Night at Splash Mountain

Let me tell you a little insider secret.

Turns out, Disneyland, far more than WDW is often crowded with local teens with too much time on their hands. Nothing keeps the hoards of emo, skinny-jeaned children at bay like pending rain. It was amazing.

My visit to Disneyland started a tad unceremoniously, I suppose. Especially considering how much I'd built up the momentous occasion in my head. I was talking on the phone with the Tofu Muchacha and the cab driver dumped me in this weird side drop-off area. As I walked the same direction as a couple of other folks, and suddenly there I was. At the main gates of Disneyland. There were no trumpets, there was no fanfare, but there it was. Walt's very own creation.

Maybe it's that it was dark and rainy, when I'm usually accustomed to entering the parks at opening, in the bright of day, and with all the accompanying music and celebrations.

Turns out, it didn't matter, because I was confronted with one of the iconic images in all of Disneydom.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

I was aware that the Disneyland castle was smaller than its Floridian counterpart, though the extent to that it was smaller was not something I was prepared for. It is small in comparison, but that didn't stop me from standing there, in front of the Walt and Mickey “Partners” statue, and just staring at it. There was the castle I'd seen a million on TV and in pictures, and with Walt riding a trolley in front of it. It was an exceptional sight.

 

This is where I had a choice to make. What do I hit first? I knew I wanted to start with something I couldn't experience in Florida, and as far as I was concerned, there were two main choices:

The Matterhorn, the classic bobsled coaster, was the most obvious. It's been there since 1959, and is the first of the many “mountains” of the Disney Universe. Expedition Everest is basically The Matterhorn's younger, slicker, scarier sister. Not only that, but The Matterhorn is the most visible physical feature of Disneyland from outside the park. It's an excellent choice for my very first ride at Disneyland. The downside to choosing The Matterhorn first was that I felt that one of the great features of The Matterhorn is that from her heights, seeing the rest of the park is possible, and I wanted to do that during the day.

The other major attraction I had in mind was one that is significantly newer. That was Indiana Jones Adventure. No Spring chicken, by any means, it's been around since 1995, but unlike some of the other major attractions, it's not particularly well-known outside of the theme park fan circles. The biggest reason I was intrigued by the ride is that it is regularly rated as the “best” ride at Disneyland by various theme park websites that aren't affiliated with Disney.

So it was toward Adventureland, and Indy, I went...

This is where I mention that the “Single Rider” option is maybe the greatest theme park invention ever. Far better than a fast pass. It's awesome. The TM and I even do it to avoid longer waits when we're together. Sure, if you wanna get one of those ride pictures, you may wanna sit next to your companions, or if you have kids, but for the most part you're riding a ride, you're not having a deep conversation. Seriously... consider Single Rider.

Wait...

What I mean is DON'T do Single Rider. Ever. It's horrible. (yeah... that's the ticket).

Seriously, though, Single Rider is awesome, and I used it several times. The first was on Indy. I walked all the way up to where they were showing the pre-show screening, and I waited maybe a total of 15 minutes. That includes the very long walk through the queue.

So the ride itself is excellent. For those of you who've been to WDW and ridden 'Dinosaur' at Animal Kingdom, the mechanics are very similar. The ride cars are basically the same technology, where the car feels like it's going on bumpy roads and dipping into ditches and holes and cutting corners. I actually liked it a lot better than 'Dinosaur' in just about every respect. The ride felt smoother, while still being exciting. The theme is incredibly well conceived and carried out. The ride FEELS long, too, which is awesome. You know how you sometimes you wait for an hour for a ride, and it's over so quickly that no matter how exciting, it just feels like you wasted time? I felt the opposite about Indy. I would have gladly waited an hour to ride. (Incidentally, I know it's blasphemy, but I feel that way about Peter Pan's Flight. Even though Peter Pan is among my favorite movies of all time, and that ride is a classic, it's too short to wait more than 15 minutes.)

After riding it, I came to this realization that being an Imagineer is maybe not the unreachable star I've always believed. Not to say that I have a chance of being one, or even that I've got the compulsion to try, but maybe for the first time I noticed patterns. Rides being different versions of other rides. Technology from one thing being used with a new overlay on another thing. It becomes a little more accessible once you start to see the nuts and bolts a little more clearly.

But I digress...

Once I rolled out of Indy, I was exhilarated, and ready for more. I'd entered the park only 2 hours before closing, and I'd thought I'd only have the chance to ride one or two things in that time. The crowds were so light, my whole structure changed. I walked toward New Orleans Square.

New Orleans Square is a little bizarre, because I'm not sure it totally makes sense that it's there... you know... theme-wise. Not that it isn't cool, but I just don't totally get why Walt chose New Orleans. All of the other “Lands” are a bit more universal. Frontier. Fantasy. Tomorrow. And... New Orleans. I just feels oddly specific.

Anyway, there are basically a bunch of shops and restaurants in New Orleans Square, Club 33 is there (I'll talk about that more in a minute), and most importantly two of the great rides in all of the Disney Universe.... Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion.

I realize that both of those rides appear in just about every Disney around the world, so I wasn't sticking strictly to my plan of those rides only unique to Disneyland, but I'd also heard so many times how much better the Pirates at Disneyland was than its WDW brother. I was skeptical. Pirates is probably my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom, and I had a hard time imagining a “Pirates” iteration much better, or even much different.

Friends... I don't want to alarm anyone here, but all of us who are used to the WDW Pirates have been conned. Bamboozled. Scammed. Gypped. You get me?

It's been over a week since my first (and 2^nd) rides of Pirates, and I still can't get over how much better the Disneyland version is. It's a significant disparity.

The most obvious difference is that the DL version has got to be a solid 5 minutes longer. This alone would be enough to make me choose the DL Pirates, because how awesome is 5 extra minutes of Pirates? Exactly.

Of course you're wondering what they did with that extra 5 minutes, and the answer is that they stuffed it chock-full of scenes that don't occur in the Florida version. The middle section of the ride is essentially the same. From when you drop down the 2^nd slope and find yourself outside of the Fort where Barbossa is attacking, all the way through the scene where the dog is holding the keys. On either side of it, though, you have so much more meat. There's this great scene at the beginning where you have this abandoned saloon where skeleton pirates are totally partying, and on the other side, you havee the skeleton of the Pirate King in his bed. This reminded me a lot of the scene in the 4^th Pirates Movie (which you'll recall I rated as the worst movie of 2011). It actually made me like the movie slightly more. At the end of the ride there's this GREAT scene where these pirates are precariously hanging out in this room with all these explosives, while the room is “burning down”. It might actually be my favorite scene of all.

The last major change is that the ride starts very much like the boat ride does in Mexico at Epcot, where riders float through this bayou scene, but there's a nice restaurant with diners on the other side. It sounds weird, but the atmosphere in there is spectacular.

I just... I loved it so much, and additional scenes, the “Bayou” overlay, and the additional time just pushes it so far past the Florida version, that you start feeling like you got robbed if you've only been to the one in WDW.

As I excited the ride, I ended up on this street in New Orleans Square right by The Blue Bayou, which is the expensive restaurant you go past on the boats. Immediately next door to that is Club 33.

The Entrance to Club 33

I can't really talk in detail about Club 33, because I don't know that much about it. It's a special, very exclusive club, at Disneyland that has been around for years. Has a long waiting list, and a high entry fee. You can't get in unless you're a member. And I gotta get in there. I must. (Read more about it here)

So anyway, giddy from my time on Pirates, and with just over an hour still to go, I walked over to check out The Haunted Mansion, only to find that they were having technical difficulties, and it was closed for the night.

I took this as my cue to head over to Splash Mountain, which I discovered was... Closed for the night.

So, after much walking and much wandering into corners and alleys and dead-ends... OH, by the way... People who say that The Magic Kingdom is the same layout as DL are just plain wrong. I could find my way through Magic Kingdom in the dead of night with just the sounds and smells to guide me. In Disneyland, I kept finding myself turning the wrong way and ending up at a service entrance or restrooms.

Eventually I found my way to Fantasyland, and sort of accidentally in front of another Disneyland-only attraction that I'd not even realized was still there... Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

I didn't ride Mr. Toad on my first visit to WDW, and he was gone by my second. All he left behind was the seething rage leveled by just about everyone that this “Classic” was being replaced. This was the first of two giant kerfuffles I can recall about rides at WDW, the other being the far more successful fit everyone had about Figment and Journey into Imagination, though some would argue the “New” version is so bad they may as well have left it gone.

Anyway, I figured I may as well see what all the fuss was over, and yeah.. it was pretty fun, and definitely dark for a Disney attraction (that whole bit about going to Hell is totally true), but all in all I was hoping for more. It's a really good dark-ride, and certainly better than the Winnie the Pooh ride that replaced it, but I mean... I guess it's only a classic due to its age.

After riding, I started making my way toward the exit. I was really tired, the park was closing in 15 minutes, and I knew that the next day would be a long and exhausting one. Still... I couldn't resist stopping in to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, which is (as far as I can tell) no different than Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. Still, it's a super fun ride and even though I'm patently awful at shooting those dumb targets, it's silly and loud and very enjoyable. They did have this awesome, and HUGE Buzz animatronic figure that, I guess, runs on the same technology as the Mr. Potato Head at Toy Story Mania. He was heckling the crowd, and his face was actually animated.

Once I was done with Buzz, I headed toward the exit, stopping in a couple shops on the way.

All in all, it was an amazing start to my weekend. Incredibly memorable, and exciting. I got to walk the roads Walt walked, and see Sleeping Beauty's castle. I rode the excellent Indiana Jones, and I forever changed my view of Pirates of the Caribbean.

A great start.

Stay tuned for Part 3, covering the highlights of my first full day at Disneyland.

Disney 30 Day Challenge - Favorite Castle

For my third day of my challenge, the TM selected “Favorite Castle” for me to write about...

I guess I've never really thought about it much, and it's certainly vague...

Do they mean my favorite Disney Parks Castle, which is pretty limiting. There's Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland (which I've just seen in person for the first time), and there's Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. You can also find Sleeping Beauty's castle in Paris and Hong Kong, and Cinderella's in Tokyo.

I suppose I could expand the park castles to include the new ones featured in the Fantasyland expansion, but they are hardly official.

I think they MUST mean just in general, from the Disney Universe “Favorite Castle”, because otherwise, you're either a fan of tradition (Sleeping Beauty) or scale (Cinderella).

So let's think about the candidates... Obviously the ones we've already discussed exist in the movies as well..

Other possible castle choices are
Prince Adam's(The Beast) castle in Beauty and the Beast
Prince Eric's castle in The Little Mermaid
The Sultan's Palace in Aladdin
Rapunzel's parents' castle in Tangled
Castle from The Sword in the Stone
Castle from Snow White
and...
I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of, but really... how many of them played major roles in the stories?

So, I guess my criteria is two-fold...

1) Which of the castles played a major part, or was even a major setting in the movie it's set in?
The clear answer and front runner to this is The Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast. That castle was amazing! It was vast, and had crazy rooms and dungeons, and a huge amount of the action takes place there, AND! It was enchanted.

2) Which is the most architecturally interesting? 

For me, it's a toss-up. First, we have Eric's castle from The Little Mermaid:

 

Eric's castle is a pretty darn different. It doesn't rely on the height and the impressive spires and towers of many of the other castles. It's still got the size you look for in a castle, but it's a castle built on a cliff by the ocean, and I feel like it's one of the few castles I always wanted to explore when I watched as a kid. It just seems cool. By the way.. does anyone know where The Little Mermaid takes place? Eric has an American accent. There are British accents elsewhere. Sebastian the crab has a Crab accent. Ursula sounds like a drag queen..

The other candidate is The Sultan's Palace in Aladdin:

 

I admit that I'm a sucker for this style of architecture. In fact, if I had all the money in the world, I'd probably build a mansion with a lot of Middle-Eastern accent to it. I love tile, I love the minarets, I love the fountains. It just seems awesome. I love how so much of it is open air. I love the amazingly high ceilings. It's pretty tough to beat...

So... The winner for me, provides the best combination of story and style, and... for that, I have to go with:

 

The Beast's Castle. It's got that sort of cool, woodland feel to it. I love how it just seems totally endless. Like there are whole sections of the castle where people (or Candelabras) forgot they existed at all. The towers are impossibly tall, and the spans connecting them are really cool.  When you factor in the huge role it plays in the story... It's gotta be the Beast.

 

Disney + Star Wars = Best Day Ever

Apparently it takes a 4 billion dollar deal to get me blogging. That’s okay, though, because if the news of Disney buying Lucasfilms can’t do it, I may as well close up shop.

So yeah…

Disney inked a deal to buy Lucasfilms for 4.5 BILLION dollars. That purchase includes Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound. Lucasfilms, in case you don’t know, is the studio that has the creative rights to Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

As you can imagine, as a Disney fan, I believe this is the awesomest thing in the history of awesome things. Both film franchises feature original trilogies that are easily among the 5 best trilogies in film history. Not only are they awesome, but they’re also insanely profitable. In fact, maybe 4.5 billion dollars isn’t enough money to pay George Lucas.

So yeah, Disney can’t lose.

But what do I say to all of the obsessive Star Wars fans who are afraid that Disney will ruin the legacy of The Force?

Well…

First, let me defend my beloved Disney against all of this “Disneyfied” nonsense. I’ve seen around the internet this idea that suddenly Disney is going to somehow over-commercialize or over-cutesy the Star Wars creative property.

Um… Have these people seen the Star Wars legos, and video games, and toys and toys and toys? George Lucas was the all time greatest ever at wringing out every tidbit of cash out of literally ever corner of his kingdom. My long-time buddy, The Scary Pinecone used to collect the Star Wars figures, and there were tons of figures of characters I had no recollection of from movies I’ve seen dozens of times.

George Lucas created Ewoks. George Lucas created Jar Jar Binks (for Pete’s sake!) He forced poor little innocent Jake Lloyd to shriek “Yippee!”. Do they really want to get into this “Disney=Cutified” thing?

Anyway, here are my points in favor of the deal:

1) As many others have pointed out… There’s absolutely no risk from either side of the deal. Disney will make boatloads of cash no matter what, and they’ll also have the extremely valuable studios of ILM and Skywalker Sound. Lucasfilms risks nothing in terms of quality, because let’s face it… The last good movie to come out of Lucasfilms was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. The last good Star Wars movie was in 1983. I was 3 years old. I will be 33 in February. The recent Star Wars movies have been worse than mediocre, and my preference is to just forget that Indy 4 never happened at all. Disney can’t make it worse. There’s only one direction to go, and that’s up.

2) George Lucas conceptualized Star Wars as a 9 Part Story, and only 6 parts have been created. He’s openly said that he’d never make Episodes 7 to 9, and that’s a shame, because if they use the Timothy Zahn “Heir to the Empire” trilogy as a basis, the fans are truly missing out. Those stories are awesome, and they introduce some spectacular characters, aliens, and worlds. It could be awesome, and Lucas doesn’t have the creative juice to do it. Even if he did, let’s just be honest and admit that the biggest problems with the recent films is that he had too much control. Disney is arguably the only studio to have the bandwidth, talent, and funds to do it right. I’m excited. I say give the reins to J.J. Abrahms or Rian Johnson or Joss Whedon and sit back and enjoy the ride.

3) Disney, with their enormous scope, can offer the Star Wars fans an opportunity to love their stories for years to come in dozens of different medias. I’ve already heard talk of Star Wars themed attractions at the parks. New movies. New cartoons. It’s a way to keep the stories alive and bring them to even more audiences. I mean… who wouldn’t love to go to Disney World at ride the hot new roller coaster “The Millenium Falcon and the Kessel Run”? (That’s my idea, Disney… HIRE ME!)

4) Nobody’s really talking much about the Indy movies, and maybe that’s because Harrison Ford is old, Shia LeBouf is… unsuitable to take over the franchise, and you can’t really do “Indy” without “Indy”. That’s fair, but a buddy of mine asked me about Disney’s track record with Sci-Fi, and I have to admit, it’s not that great. Action/Adventure, however… I’d venture to say that the best Action/Adventure movie of the past 10 years is the first Pirates flick. The Avengers is pretty good too… I’d be interested to see what Disney does with a property like Indiana Jones… Can they go in a different direction without Harrison Ford in the spotlight?

5) Speaking of “The Avengers”, I think that perhaps this is the best example of why a Disneyfied Lucasfilm is going to be awesome…

Disney bought Marvel a couple of years ago, and every comic book fan boy freaked the hell out. “Oh no! The Hulk will have Mickey Ears! They’ll be “baby” versions of Iron Man and Captain America.”

That hasn’t happened. Disney’s done a great job of keeping true to the Marvel stories and characters. I realize that there’s only been a small samples size to this point, but The Avengers was stupendous. They did it right. They hired respected “Geek Insiders” like Joss Whedon to write and direct. They made sure the effects were tight. They treated their stars right, so we know they’ll be back. It was masterfully done, and nobody can complain. Maybe someone doesn’t love the plot, but all-in-all, it was an enormous success. Also they made 1.5 Billion dollars.

Look… There are no guarantees, but Disney is the one company out there that combines the technical prowess, the creative talent, and the ridiculously deep pockets to do it right.

Let me put it this way…

If we knew that Lucas wasn’t going to be available to make another Star Wars movie, but we knew there would still BE a Star Wars movie… what studio do you want taking over?

Disney is it.

Rumors and Whatnot

Ooof. It’s been a while.

I wanna take a little while to talk about some of the rumors swirling around the development of different stuff at Disney World.

The main new rumor is surrounding the new “Avatar” themed area at Animal Kingdom. The newest information says that the entire project has stalled out, because James Cameron is difficult to work with, and is obsessing over “Avatar 4”. This is especially weird due to the lack of an “Avatar 2” or ‘Avatar 3” yet. Different sources are saying that Cameron’s tendency toward perfectionism is threatening to drive Imagineers to insanity, and at the same time they’re talking about how even if the new land does get off the ground, the cost to achieve Cameron’s vision will simply be too high when the interest level isn’t really even coming close to that of the main competitor for this type of attraction, Universals “Wizarding World of Harry Potter”.

So… the question is… is it worth it to pursue? Initially, I thought the Avatar themed area was a great idea. It provided a sort of built-in full immersion vision straight from a true creative innovator in James Cameron (if not also a total egomaniacal nut). It had the potential, assuming they expanded the “known Avatar universe” to include creatures and beasts from the 2^nd and 3^rd films, to really be a beautiful, unique addition to Animal Kingdom.

The more I thought about it, though, the less interested I became. Avatar just seems so… fleeting. It seems so much just a thing of the moment, and not an enduring classic in much of any sense. I also started to have real issues with using a largely non-Disney creative property to devote so much time and money. If Disney wanted to add a new area to Animal Kingdom based on a movie, or movies… what about Finding Nemo (even though The Seas in Epcot already sort of does that), or Tarzan, or The Jungle Book. Seems like The Jungle Book would be a fantastic option. It’s iconic and memorable and wholly Disney (at least the animated version. ). I feel like they could even create some really cool attractions around it. I am imagining a wild mouse type roller coaster ride using the King Louie sequence. It just seems really fun in my head.

You know… I just thought of this, but what about a world dedicated to “Brave”? I know it wasn’t AS popular or AS well received as some of the other Pixar movies, but the visuals of it were stunning, and it has a shitload of bears…. Maybe that’s not enough to build a whole “land” around, but whatever. My point is there are options.

Anyway… the other big rumor is sort of connected to the Avatar thing, so I wanted to address this too…

The supposition is that if Avatar isn’t happening, that Disney will have to do some other big thing in order to grab crowds and interest. There’s a lot of talk around the grapevine that Disney will close off “Lights, Motors, Action” in Hollywood Studios and build in a carbon copy of “Cars Land” that they just completed in Disney’s California Adventure.

This… doesn’t interest me.

It’s not that I’m against “Cars” as a movie… Well… I sort of am, but I’m not against the Cars Land in Disneyland. I think it’s one of those things that makes sense financially, because Cars is so damned popular, and Disney is ALWAYS looking for ways to market to pre-adolescent boys.

I just think that porting it, wholly, over to Disney World would be just straight-up lazy. It’s not a thing that’ll garner big interest from anyone really. It was when it opened in Cali, but I believe that aside from Magic Kingdom, Disney should be working hard to make Disney World and Disneyland two divergent experiences. Doesn’t that even make more sense money-wise? If DL and WDW aren’t interchangeable, people will want to experience both places individually, instead of seeing them as an either/or kind of experience.

As of now, there’s no official word from Disney that would lead us to believe anything other than Avatar being on schedule, but keep an eye on Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom. If it doesn’t close in January, that’s a surefire sign that Avatar isn’t happening , at least as planned.

Next time? I talk about Disney and how they can take advantage of the Marvel Universe.

Fixer-Uppers

Obviously, I love Disney, and I love Walt Disney World. It’s my favorite place on Earth.

That is well documented.

I may even go so far as to say that 9 of every 10 choices is the right one, and that they are, for the most part, always going to get the benefit of the doubt from me.

That said, I firmly believe that nothing, and nobody is above a critical eye. There’s no such thing as being perfect all the time, and even my favorite places could use some adjustments on occasion.

So… Today, since I’m feeling a little grumpy, I’m gonna talk about the #1 attraction/ride/whatever from each of the 4 main Walt Disney World parks that I believe needs to be either completely re-thought, or junked altogether to make room for something better.

The Magic Kingdom
There was once a time where I would have said The Swiss Family Tree House needs most to go… In fact, I believe I did,once upon a time. My feelings have changed. Maybe it’s just that I’ve gotten older and wiser, but while I don’t know that I’ll ever like it all that much, I do see why it’s a good thing. It’s one of the few places in the parks where the visitors are asked to use their imaginations some. Also… as a total sucker for nostalgia, how can I possibly criticize an attraction that exists purely due to nostalgia.

No no… the only logical option is Stitch’s Great Escape.

I know I’ve already ripped it up and down, but really it is terrible. It takes up a huge parcel of land in Tomorrowland. It’s not entertaining. People don’t like it. It’s an embarrassingly bad quick-fix for the more interesting ExtraTerrorestrial: Alien Encounter. It’s just… so frustrating. They have this golden location and they have all kinds of great material to source for an attraction in Tomorrowland (What about Wall-E?). I mean, heck… Keep it as a Lilo and Stitch thing, but just make it better for Pete’s sake. Poor Pete.

Epcot
It’s difficult to really straight-up criticize anything in Epcot. For the most part, I think it’s the most well considered, and strongly imagined park. Some of the most interesting rides are there (Soarin’, Spaceship Earth). Some of the more innovative (Test Track, especially now). Even some of the more nostalgic pieces (Journey into Imagination).

Of course, like I said, there’s always room to get better, and I think there are a couple of candidates that are ripe for an update, revamp, or total replacement.

I could go with Mission: Space. Many people really enjoy this ride. I, personally, don’t get all the fuss. The thing is, though, it’s kind of…sort of… potentially… dangerous. It’s at least a little unpleasant sometimes. Or even most of the time. That ride will straight-up mess you up if you have even the slightest inclination toward motion sickness. Seems so silly to have one of the Weenie rides also be so unsettling.

Still… there’s one culprit bigger than the rest…

Honey I Shrunk the Audience / Captain EO

Shhhhhh. Just hear me out. I like them too, but they’re SO old, and so outdated. Honey I Shrunk the Kids was a great, fun movie for me when I was 10, but the kids nowadays aren’t so up on their Wayne Zalinski references. They just don’t know those movies that well..

Try to explain Captain EO and the totally bizarre thing going on in that movie to a 10 year old who doesn’t know who Michael Jackson is. Go ahead. I’ll give you time...

…

…

They just looked at you like you’re insane, right?

I understand that Disney brought it back out of the Vault when MJ died, but it’s time to put it back for good. It’s so freakin’ strange.

And there are just soooooo many movies that could work as inspiration for a new 4D movie. How about one of the Marvel Characters that Disney owns now? I honestly don’t know the kinds of costs we’re talking about to make these movies. Maybe using modern stars in these characters is impossible, because the stars won’t do it. So… maybe do an animated one. I’d love an UP attraction. UP is sort of all about adventure and imagination anyway, so… use it. They have the full physical infrastructure of the building there. They have the mechanics to make the seats do stuff and have water spray and all that. Just give it a new coat of paint already.

Hollywood Studios

Probably of all the parks, this one was the hardest for me, because I honestly feel like I’m killing one of my pets. I better just yank the band-aid and get it over with…

The Great Movie Ride.

Oh man… this is tough.

Alright, so… The Great Movie Ride was at one time my favorite ride. Not just at (MGM) Studios. Not just at Walt Disney World. Anywhere. The actors were good. The scenes were clean. The animatronics were awesome. The movies were… not all that familiar, but I knew about them ENOUGH to pick up the cues and whatnot. That was 19 years ago, and they have barely updated it at all in the entire time since.

I hate to say it, but:
1) MGM’s been out of the picture for several years now, so there’s no reason to be beholden to MGM movies. Not that Singin’ in the Rain isn’t a great flick, in fact.. they all are great (kinda the point), but if you’re not answering to MGM, you have every chance to update the scenes to all kinds of Disney movies too. Think about a scene with Pirates of the Caribbean (from a different perspective than the actual ride). Think Avengers!
2) The Great Movie Ride is in the plumbest, cherriest (why are all the “bests” kinds of fruit?) spot in the whole place. It’s got a huge building. Why even constrain yourselves to updating the pre-existing ride. Maybe make it a ride-through dark ride for Disney Animation History. You could ride through scenes of Snow White, Fantasia (even maybe keep the Fantasia room as it is), Dumbo, Peter Pan… you get the picture. Make it sort of a combo of Great Movie Ride and Spaceship Earth… or maybe more specifically… A Spaceship Earth with Disney Movies as the theme as opposed to “Communication”. Where better to have 20 animatronic Walts doing different things throughout?

Animal Kingdom
The simplest answer would be to trash the entire “Dino-Rama” concept, and start from scratch, but that’s not the game here, and I can’t choose between Primeval Whirl and Triceratop Spin as to which is dumber. So, I’m going off the grid a little, and picking a ride that gets very little attention, which is a shame, because it has so much potential…

Kali River Rapids.

This is literally the only ride that I encourage people to skip when they come to Disney. It’s not that it’s bad. It’s not. It’s… well.. it’s two things.

1) It’s far too short a ride to justify more than a 10 minute wait. It’s barely over a minute if you don’t count the hill. That’s not long enough for a white-water rapids type ride. There’s just not much excitement.

2) On Splash Mountain “getting wet” basically means that you’ll get a little wet, and likely just enough to cool down in the Florida heat. On Kali River Rapids “getting wet” means that you’ll be walking around with wet underpants for the foreseeable future. It means you definitely need to put your wallet in a Ziploc bag. It means that you’ll hear your own feet squishing in your socks for the remainder of the day. You get absolutely, positively drenched.

There’s about a 25% chance you avoid the total drenching, but if I’m being honest, there’s never been a single day in my life I wanted to walk around a theme park with a shirt so wet that I have to wring it out.

It’s just not worth it, in my opinion.

Again.. it’s not a bad ride. It’s just a ride that doesn’t seem like a ride at all. It seems almost entirely like it’s simply dumping 2 buckets of water on you and sending you on your way.

The worst part is that there’s a message on the ride (about deforestation and conservation) that you BARELY get to glimpse as you rush by on your way to the dunk tank. Disney spent a huge amount of time and money planning out this story line and creating a really pretty beautiful looking scene, and the ride almost totally passes it up in about 30 seconds.

I don’t know what you do to fix this ride, but in a park with limited usable space, it just seems like a waste.

So… that’s my list. Like I said… I love this place. I love what it stands for. I love the way it affects people. The only way it can keep it going forever is to Keep Moving Forward.

What stuff would you update? Anyone who LOVES Kali River Rapids?

Next Up – My review of an old Disney animated movie of my choosing.

Keep on Pushing

I have a hard time imagining that Disney has any problems getting people to come to their parks. At this point, I doubt there are many people who aren’t totally familiar with what Disney Parks have to offer, and that’s a testament to both their enduring presence over the past (almost) 60 years, and the well… awesomeness.

One of the things I most admire about Disney, though, is that they rarely rest on reputation alone. As the years have gone by, and as the economy has struggled, Disney has focused harder and harder on creating not just the “Destination” vacation, but the “Destination EVENT Vacation”. Because of that, Disney parks are consistently the most well attended theme parks in the world. Year in and year out.

There was a time when the Disney calendar was fairly sparse. You’d have the odd Marathon weekend, or Gay Days, or Star Wars weekend, but for the most part, Disney World was Disney World. Sure, the customer service was totally outstanding, and the parks were so clean you could eat off the trash cans, and the rides were the most technologically advanced and creative out there. For the most part, these are all still totally true.

Nowadays, though, there are competitors for the mighty family vacation dollar. Universal has Harry Potter, who is a damned force to be reckoned with, and Legoland keeps expanding, and never forget the Grand Canyon!!! (Ohhh…hahahaha… I almost made it all the way through…)

If you look at the Disney World calendar these days, and you’ll notice something… Over the next six months, Disney will celebrate:

Night of Joy (no idea what this is)
Mickey’s Not-so-scary Halloween Party
Twilight Zone Towner of Terror 10-Miler Weekend
Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
MouseAdventure World Explorers
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic
Festival of the Masters
Wine and Dine Half Marathon
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Old Spice Classic
Vacation Club Annual Meeting
Disney’s Princess Half Marathon
Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend
Expedition Everest Challenge

Disney isn’t just waiting for folks to come. In spite of their insane popularity and ticket-sale dominance, Disney is packing their calendar full of events to draw folks to the parks in droves. I didn’t even mention the huge draws like the ESPN Weekend, and the Star Wars event every May and the Flower and Garden Festival in May also. There really are dozens of events. Many of them geared toward folks who wouldn’t automatically go to the parks.

I think this is awesome, and today, I’d like to briefly recommend one of those events. In fact, my favorite of the events. Favorite enough that I go out of my way to visit during this time of year.

The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.

First off… The time of year. It takes place in October every year, during what is generally one of the slower periods in the parks because it’s October so everyone is in school, and it’s too hot for skiing and too cold for swimming, so people just don’t think “Vacation” during this time. That’s a plus, because even though Florida doesn’t have seasons, really, it’s often just a very lovely, mild temperature to deal with. Even a little cool at times.

Epcot is my favorite park, because they can at times try some different stuff. They’re not bound to the “Character” structure that Magic Kingdom is, or the Hollywood theme that Disney Studios has, or even the lack of space that Animal Kingdom deals with. Epcot is large, spacious, and can do whatever they want. The theme is loose.

The International Food and Wine Festival is basically a huge excuse to take advantage of the World Showcase structure (as well as the physical World Showcase) to bring the food and spirits of dozens of countries NOT represented at The World Showcase to the masses. It’s a perfect venue for extra entertainment. It’s got an ever-changing lineup of countries represented, so it never gets old. Each country serves several dishes from their native land, and there’s a nice mix between tried-and-true (France, for example, has a chocolate type thing) and perhaps more foreign (France also has escargot).

Another great thing about it is that if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, you can use your “Snack” credits for the different dishes. The last time the Tofu Muchacha and I were there on the Dining Plan, we made a conscious effort to save up our snack credits and we used them all in one afternoon. We ended up having a very good, very eclectic meal. The only thing not covered on the Dining Plan is the wine and spirits, of which there are plenty, and of which we sampled a few.

I’m not a wine drinker by any stretch of the word, but I’m told the selection is very interesting and pretty good.

I also like that the event brings a little bit of a livelier crowd to the parks than does the normal day to day. I’m not saying I love rowdy people. In fact, I hate crowds, but I can say that when you’ve spent most of the day or week wading through a sea of strollers and children and whatnot, the slightly more adult crowd is a welcome change. The lesser of evils, if you will.

Anyway, if you get a chance, I highly recommend checking out The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival or really any of the showcase festivals or evens they hold throughout the year. The Star Wars and ESPN Weekends are both hugely popular. The various organized running events grow in popularity each year. The Flower and Garden Festival is one of the most visually striking (especially if you like topiary).

It’s just so nice to see a company like Disney, a company that has it all, aiming even higher on a daily basis. It is, more than anything else, what gives me hope that Disney Parks will endure for another six decades.

Beefy Muchacho, Disney Navigator

I hold myself out to be a pretty experienced visitor to Walt Disney World. There are plenty of folks who’ve gone more times than I have, but from what I’ve come to believe through talking with them is that almost all people have a “route” they’ve been using for years, and they rarely stray. They may incorporate a new ride when one opens, but for the most part it’s “We start with Tomorrowland and…” or “I always go to Splash Mountain after…”

I’ve never really stuck to a single method. I’ve tried a dozen different routes; a dozen different ride itineraries. I’d like to think, even, that I’m a low-grade “expert”.

In conjunction with that, I’ve been working on creating trip itineraries for family and friends for about five years.

It is a dream of mine to monetize this skill to enough of a degree that it can be my job. I’d love to have a name plate that reads “Beefy Muchacho, Disney Trip Planner”.

It started small. My friend Bridget and her then boyfriend (now husband) Phil decided to go to Disney for 2 days in May of 2007. Bridget knew I loved Disney, and she’d either never been or hadn’t been in years (I don’t remember), so I basically drew a map of a couple of the parks on a napkin and drew arrows for my recommended “general” route. I also recommended which parks to hit when, and which rides to target. That was pretty much it.

A few months after that, a co-worker friend of mine planned to go for a couple of days, and he asked me for some tips, after hearing from Bridget that I’d helped her out. Again, my “plan” basically comprised of a map with arrows. This time, I typed up a 1 page kind of summary thing to accompany…

At this point, though, I was starting to want to do more with it. Take more time. Really spend time thinking about it from an academic perspective, rather than just my own experiences.

Over the next year or so, I did three more plans. These were all for first time visitors, and with different criteria. One was an adult couple with no kids, and without much of a budget per se. One for a young family with a 6 year old girl, and on a tight budget. One was for a mom and 10 year old daughter. All were going for full vacations where they’d have a chance to take on each park for at least one day.

My trip plans were getting more and more in depth. I started writing detailed analysis for each park; breaking down the exact route I recommended for maximum riding and minimum waiting. Keeping in mind things like “The 6-year old will probably care far more about Dumbo and meeting Goofy than the adult couple”. I wrote out reviews of restaurants and shows. I editorialized more and more. I had more fun with it. I even included things like “Fun Disney Facts and Trivia” that corresponded with where the people were on the plan.

I never accepted payment for these plans, even though it was always offered. I usually just ask for a pin or two in exchange. Asking for Captain Hook pins or Expedition Everest pins. Nowadays, I’m kind of on an Orange Bird kick.

I got a lot of kind words about these plans, and some people talked about how effective they were, and that was great. I was happy that I could help people find Disney less stressful and more awesome.

I even made sure to make note of certain things on each of my last few visits. Of course, I spent all that time thinking about it, and suddenly the “planning” well ran dry. Many of my friends are Disney veterans who either don’t need advice, or at least think they don’t. I didn’t see many others going for the first time. I didn’t really do a plan for quite a while, though I admit to thinking often about how better to home in on exactly the plan a group needs, and not just the plan I want to provide.

Then recently, I got a random e-mail from a friend who’d spent an evening sitting next to my Dad and Step-mom at a wedding. They mentioned that they were heading to Disney soon, and after some pimping from The Beefy Padre, they sent me an e-mail asking me for some tips.

They presented my biggest challenge yet, because they’re Disney Vets. She estimated they’d gone over five times, and she made a point of saying that they were very familiar with the basics, but wanted to know some more advanced tips to better enjoy their Disney experience.

I was pretty excited about putting this one together, because I could assume they knew the basics. I also had an opportunity to test out some new things I’d been thinking over. I was really able to challenge myself to come up with tips and tricks that would be interesting to a person who’d experienced “It’s Tough to be a Bug” a dozen times already. I got to be a little more esoteric. I got to take a few extra liberties.

My favorite tip? Visit Jungle Cruise after dark. I don’t know why, but it’s a whole different ride experience.

I got a few texts over the course of their trip, saying that they enjoyed their time, and thanking me. I can’t wait to really break it down with them and find out what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d like in a really good Disney plan.

Meanwhile, I seem to be experiencing a sort of Trip Plan Renaissance, too, as I have just recently written a basic plan (as basic as 5000 words can be) for a first time family who will be arriving at Disney on Saturday, and I have an Uncle/Niece tandem heading down in a month, and I’m working on one for them, too.

It’s shaping up to be an exciting Summer for my development as a Disney World expert.

So anyway… All of this is sort of preface to this thought that there’s gotta be a way to do more with it.

So far, the best website I’ve seen that does plans is http://www.touringplans.com . They charge about 15 dollars a year to subscribe to their insider information, and they have a computer program that takes a set amount of criteria (primarily historical crowd data and ride wait times.), combines it with your answers to some targeted questions (what is your walking speed? Would you rather wait less or walk less? What rides do you want to ride?) and it spits out an itinerary.

It’s pretty cool, and certainly on the right track, but I can’t help but feel that they’re just skimming the surface.

One of the great things about Disney and Disney World is that they are primarily concerned with customer experience. Customer experience is what sets Disney apart. That warm, fuzzy feeling that not only do they care about making money (as all companies do, and good for them!), but they care about creating fans for life.

The touring plans website is extremely helpful for FACTS. The compilation of historical data to come up with estimated crowd volumes for certain dates. Their itineraries are very interesting, and certainly sound to some degree, but they’re also fairly general.

My dream is to come up with a formula that is 10 times more detailed. I can think of a million questions that would help refine a perfect Disney trip plan… Aside from the basics (Dates, party demographics) other factors could be:

- Are you ride people, show people, or a mix?
- Do you have park hoppers?
- Are you staying on or off property?
- What is your walking speed?
- Would you rather wait less or walk less?
- On a 1-10 scale, how much interest do you have in: Parades? Shows? Meeting Characters? Taking photos?
- Are you on the Disney Dining Plan?
- Is anyone prone to motion sickness?
- Is anyone afraid of a particular type of ride? If so, what kind?
- Does anyone in the party require extra time getting on or off rides?
- How many times has your MOST EXPERIENCED Disney visitor been to Disney?

These are just off the top of my head!!!!

Can you imagine a Disney plan that takes all of these factors into consideration?

So I guess… All of this blogging today is a long way to ask you 2 questions:

Is there a demand for a real, personalized Disney trip planner?

If I make it a business, could I write off my own trips?