Our Disney-driven life...

Okay, it's not really Disney-driven, not anymore.  There was a time when we loved everything about Disney.  We loved going to their parks.  We loved staying at their hotels.  We loved California and we loved Florida.  We especially loved Epcot, with its World Showcase and its Soarin' ride.  We loved the films.  We liked their restaurants and their shops. 

It's not that we soured on it, exactly.  It's more that we just drifted away.  There are so many things to see in the world, and limiting ourselves to a vacation every year to Florida seems to be less-than-optimal for our family at this point.  So we've used our points (yes, we're DVC members) to go to San Francisco, to Hawaii, and maybe this summer we'll use more points to stay at one of the Disneyland Paris hotels when we visit there. 

We'll likely visit the parks there, at least for one day.  But we're planning a European vacation, not a Disney vacation and if staying at the Disney hotels makes it more affordable, then that is how we'll use our points. 

We still love Disney visits, for the most part.  It's just that there's too much Earth to experience to limit ourselves.  (Besides, it's not like they're free...visiting theme parks for us costs nearly a grand for that week.) 

So we haven't been "Doing Disney" ourselves lately.  Sometimes soon we'll go back and get the scoop on the MyMagic stuff and the new Fantasyland and any other additions, and then I'll be back reporting on that sort of thing.  In the meantime, I'll try to continue to drop tidbits here in the blog about Disney, as well as other endeavors (especially my publishing endeavors). 

*****

If you want to read a book about one family's strategies when vacationing for a week at Disney World, feel free to check out my title , Doing Disney: How To Spend A Week At Disney's Florida Resort   It's available on Amazon for $2.99.  I tried to write it for families who get to spend a week in the World every year or two and want to maximize their time in the parks and in the area.  It doesn't try to be comprehensive, but I think you might find a few helpful tidbits within its electronic pages...

Thanks!

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Disney Guidebook coming out...

Yes, I've written a Disney guidebook, which will be released as soon as I finalize the cover.  It will be an e-book, available on Amazon for Kindle, and later hopefully for Nook and through the iBookstore and other outlets.  I'm also hoping to publish a paper version of it, but I think the e-book will be the best way to experience it.

What qualifies me to write a guidebook, you might ask?  Well, we've visited Walt Disney World seven times since our kids were born, each time for 7 or 8 days.  And each time we learned something.  We got our patterns down.  We found places that we return to for dining.  We stayed at resort properties that we really liked, and at least one that we weren't crazy about. 

We visit the resort like a lot of other people in our boat.  We aren't all annual pass holders.  We don't all live close enough to go every week or month, like some folks who write Disney books do.  We get down there every year or every couple of years, spend a week there, and try to make the most of our stay.  When we run into people going to Disney for the first or second time, we seem to usually have some good ideas for them, information that they are happy to have. 

Our experiences are not the be-all-end-all of Disney experiences.  They're OUR experiences.  I thought it would be interesting to put together a "guidebook" from that perspective, not trying to give every last bit of information about every little thing on Disney property.  I didn't do a ton of outside research to write this book.  I mostly relied on my family's experiences and how we've done things over the course of our seven visits.   I talk about how we structure our park visits, how we buy our tickets, how we get the most out of our money when visiting Walt Disney World.  Take all of our advice, some of it, or just a little, but I think if you have young kids and are going to visit Disney every couple of years for a week at a time, you'll find something useful in the book.

Disney's MyMagic+ has come along and perhaps will change a bunch of stuff about how we have to structure our vacations, but for the most part, our observations stand on their own. 

I'll have the cover here and on my Scott Dyson page and on my Scott Dyson Facebook page, and pricing information before it is released.  I hope some of you will download a sample and take a look!  Thanks for reading!

*****

Midwest Attractions: St. Louis

You know it, you've seen it, the home of the Cardinals, Blues and Rams...the city on the Mississippi, Gateway to the West, all that stuff. 

We took a quick jaunt to visit the city of St. Louis a weekend or so ago, and while there we visited the famous Arch, taking the ride up to the top.  We also visited two caves about an hour west of the city, Meramec Caverns and Onandaga Cave.  We went to a really unique "museum", called the City Museum, which was more of an indoor/outdoor/rooftop urban playground, and we saw the Basilica Cathedral, which is a gorgeous example of Byzantine architecture right here in the Midwestern United States. 

Oh, and we got to see a "Naked Bike Ride".  Which could have been funny, but ended up being more annoying than anything since it made finding parking near the restaurant we were determined to dine at almost impossible.  (Plus, in my view, the folks who were riding naked probably shouldn't have been...)

Last, we stayed at the Union Station Hotel, a Doubletree by Hilton hotel, where a shopping mall and a grand hotel are built into the old railroad station.  Pretty cool all by itself, with a very nice room.

I enjoyed the caves the most, followed by the City Museum.  My kids liked the slides, passageways, catwalks and man-made caves at the City Museum the best. 

I may (or may not, depending on my mood) post in more detail about some of the individual attractions.  It should be noted that there is more to do than just what we did. 

*****

Thunder Mountain and Walt Disney

We recently returned from a vacation in Sedona, Arizona.  While there, we took a backcountry jeep tour which brought us into gulches and to Native American (Sinagua) ruins nestled in the cliffs behind Sedona. 

On our way out, our guide pointed out several of the red rock bluffs by name, including one called Thunder Mountain.  He then proceeded to mention that Walt Disney actually had a house in Sedona at one time for a few years, and could see Thunder Mountain from his kitchen/dining area.  He said that Sedona's Thunder Mountain didn't really look like the rockwork done on Big Thunder Mountain, but that perhaps it inspired the ride.

I wasn't sure of the timeline, and didn't want to call him out on that.  First, I've never read anywhere that Walt Disney spent significant time in Sedona, though it wouldn't surprise me if he did, considering how beautiful it is there.  Second, I believe Marc Davis did most of the concept art for that ride (I suppose it's possible that Davis spent time in Sedona).  Third, I am thinking that Big Thunder Mountain wasn't conceptualized until well after Walt's death.

Anyone who has any comments or information on this tour guide info, please leave a comment.  Did Walt ever live in Sedona?  Did he have anything to do with the planning of Big Thunder Mountain?  Does Sedona, or any part of Arizona, have anything to do with Walt's inspiration for anything in Disneyland?

*****

Disney Guide Books

I was reading over some of the handful of Disney guidebooks that I own.  Admittedly I don't own too many - I'm more interested in the art and mechanics behind the development of Disney theme parks (and theme parks in general) than I am in the comprehensive guides to visiting the parks. 

That said, most of the guidebooks I own or have looked at seem to be all things to everyone.  They try to be so comprehensive - they try to present every single detail that is out there about the parks, resorts, and experiences that are available at a Disney resort.  They almost seem like they'd be most useful to someone who visits often, like, say, an annual passholder who doesn't live too far from the parks.

Most of us probably don't vacation like that, however.  We don't have unlimited time to do everything.  We have 7-10 days (probably more like 7-8 days) to cram in as much as we can do.  Once a year if we're "lucky".  Every other year seems more common, in talking to others who vacation to Florida to visit Disney. 

So a template for a shorter, every-other-year visit would seem to be useful.  I would assume that most visitors want to immerse themselves in Disney as much as they can.  After all, Disney makes it far more cost-effective to spend your entire stay on Disney property.  As you probably know, a single day costs around 90 bucks to just get into a park.  A five day ticket brings the average cost down to something around 55 bucks a day.  Make it seven days for 10 dollars more a day, bringing the average cost down to about 41 bucks a day.  Seven days for a family of four is going to be something around $1150.00.  (A bit less if you have kids under 10, which a lot of Disney visitors do, obviously...but still...) 

So you're spending upwards of a grand for just your park admissions.  Want to add the park hopper option?  It adds almost 60 bucks per ticket and allows you to visit more than one park per day.  Is that something that you would use more than once or twice on your trip?  I know we generally don't.  To me, that park hopper option is nice to have, because there might well be a day we're visiting somewhere other than Epcot but we want to dine at Epcot.  Or maybe you want to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at two parks, one in the morning and one at night. 

We no longer purchase the park hopper option because we feel it is too much money (almost 240 dollars) for the once or twice we might actually use it.  Of course, you have to decide this for yourself, but that's my perspective. 

And that's the sort of perspective that I would like to get out of a guidebook.  Something that might give me a template for a one week visit.  Well, maybe not now - we've been down there something like seven times over the past 8 years, plus a couple of visits to California, and we have our routine down. 

Heck, I think maybe I'll write it! 

*****

Celebrating Creativity

We spent our New Year's Eve weekend in the big city, looking forward to some good meals, some entertainment and even some shopping.  And all of that was accomplished.  From the minute we got there, however, for some reason I started viewing everything through a "creative" lens, from restaurants to shows to shops to art and merchandise. 

And there was a lot of creativity being exhibited.  How many different ways?  Well, let me try to enumerate:

• Menu selections at several restaurants
• The restaurants themselves
• Art Galleries
• Unusual shops
• A performance at a theater
• A film
• A street musician

We had lunch/brunch at a restaurant called Perennial Virant one day, which featured a small menu of unusual takes on breakfast items.  Unusual herbs and cheeses filled their egg creations and their sausages.  They try to be very organic, and it shows.  The food was quite good; the atmosphere across from Lincoln Park in Chicago was also quite nice.  

We also had meals at several other restaurants, including the New Orleans-inspired Heaven on Seven, chef Jimmy Bannos' main restaurant.  The decor takes you right to the Big Easy, and the food, consisting of Jimmy's takes on New Orleans classic dishes like etoufee, jambalaya, po-boys and barbecued shrimp, keeps you there.  Though I didn't imbibe, they also feature a selection of New Orleans beers like Abita and Dixie, and of course, their own version of the Hurricane.

One restaurant that really interested me was Foodlife at the Water Tower Place.  It is a "Lettuce Entertain You" restaurant which is really a whole bunch of lunch counters.  They give you a swipe card as you enter and you go around to the various stations, selecting the items you want.  I picked Chinese at the Big Bowl station.  Next to it was a stir-fry station.  There was an American "comfort food" station, a Mexican taco station, a salad station, a pizza station, a pasta station...you get the idea.  You have previously been seated at a table, and after you're done, you present your swipe cards to the cashier on your way out, and he/she scans them and gives you your bill. It struck me as a very creative and enjoyable way to provide you with your meal.

There were two gorgeous galleries in the Bloomingdale's Building on Michigan Avenue.  One featured a lot of glass sculpture priced way above my rank, but the pieces were beautiful.  A second featured paintings by several artists, including Dr. Seuss, and also featured some original Renoirs, Rembrandts, Chagalls, and Picassos.  Obviously also this was way out of my price range.  But it celebrated creativity throughout the centuries, and put current creative efforts in proximity to those of the famous and masters. 

A store at Water Tower Place is called Churrascuro, and it features the works of many local artists and artisans.  I remarked to my wife that some of the works seemed so simple (yet attractive and fun), that anyone could have done them.  (She replied that THAT was why THEY were artists and we aren't.)  Creative use of old broken watches, costume jewelry, and other common items comprised the pieces available for purchase, and some of them were actually in my price range!

Another store in Water Tower Place is a candy store on the 7th floor.  In there they have a "Candy Museum" with memorabilia from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, some dresses made of candy, furniture and other items associated with candy, and artworks dealing with candy.  Oh, and you can buy lots of candy there...including old "vintage" candies like Charleston Chews and Oh Henry! bars. 

Walking on Michigan Avenue, we came across a lot of street musicians, of varying interest.  But one in particular, a clarinet player doing jazz and accompanying his recorded background music, was really excellent, and we had to give him a tip.  I hope he was doing really well because he deserved it. 

We went to see Blue Man Group at their Chicago location at the Briar Street Theater.  Now THERE is an exercise in creativity.  From the percussion performances to the skits and sketches to the multimedia to the audience participation, it is a fun, funny, engaging performance that keeps your eyes glued to the stage and the Blue Men, who, as the name indicates, are totally painted in blue greasepaint (as if there was anyone by now who doesn't know who they are and what they look like). 

Last, we saw a showing of Cirque du Soleil:  Worlds Away, a film that brings a couple of characters from a regular circus (one a spectator, one a performer) through several of the worlds of Cirque Du Soleil.  Very fun and interesting film.  It's a visual feast, and very creative in its storytelling and execution.  The performers are often amazing with their almost-not-human abilities and body control.  Who thinks of this stuff?  Quite ingenious.  And incredibly creative.

So there it is - a three day celebration of creativity in the big city. 

*****

Compare and Contrast

It's been interesting, having gone to three distinct amusement/theme parks in the span of about 2 weeks, to note the differing approaches these parks take to satisfying their guests.  At the end of May, we went to Michigan's Adventure, an amusement park with classic thrill rides.  In early June, we went to both Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando, two sets of parks that depend on theming to entertain the customers. 

Michigan's Adventure has moderate thrill rides and almost no theming.  Their marquee ride, Shivering Timbers, is a huge wooden rollercoaster that sort of fits in with the way the park sort of just appears in the middle of the forest.  They have another ride, a whitewater raft experience called Grand Rapids, which of course is the name of a city in Michigan (President Gerald Ford was from there).  Their one and only indoor, sit-down restaurant is called Coaster's.  It's sort of themed like a 50's diner.

Then you go to Disney, and you get story and theming around every corner.  I don't have to talk too much about it on this blog; anyone reading probably knows as much or more about what Disney has to offer than I do.  There are thrills to be found here:  Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Mission: Space, Rock'n'Roller Coaster, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - all are moderate (at least) thrill rides.  But all depend on theming to make them more than just a rollercoaster with inversions, than a drop-ride, than a log flume, than a dark coaster - to make them memorable and repeatable. 

Going over to Universal Studios, we find a few more thrill rides like Hollywood Rip-Rocket, Revenge of the Mummy, and even The Simpsons Ride.  Again, their rides depend on theming to make them memorable.  Each delivers a fairly unique experience.  Their theming uses a certain edginess, a certain hip-ness, that you don't find at Disney, and that a place like Michigan's Adventure doesn't even try to use. The jokes are different - often aimed at adults and older teens.  There's a blog post in there, somewhere, comparing the "feel" of the Universal Studios Resort parks and the Disney parks.  But I don't know if I'm ready to write it. 

I for one don't connect to either Michigan's Adventure, or Universal Studios in the same way I do to Disney.  I did feel that connection over at Islands of Adventure, but that was a year and a half ago, and I think much of it was due to the current-ness of the Harry Potter movies and the timeless feel of Dr. Seuss and some of the other properties they used there. 

Our next trip will likely feature more visits to Universal and maybe even none to a Disney park.  If it happens that way, it will be because of Disney's all-or-nothing pricing policy, where it doesn't make sense to buy a two or three day ticket instead of a 6 or 7 day pass.  Orlando and central Florida have more to offer than Disney, but we have discovered very little of it.  So I'll see if those parks seem to foster more of a connection in the future. 

*****

The Poly is still my favorite...

We just concluded a stay at Disney's Polynesian Resort. And it recemented its status as my favorite Disney resort. Now admittedly, we haven't stayed at too many different resorts. But we've walked around a few, and the look of the Polynesian, the amenities, the monorail, the restaurants, the pool...well, I haven't seen anything else that makes me want to stay there more than I want to stay at the Polynesian.

 Since we're DVC members, we probably won't stay there again for a while. We did so this time because we had a whole bunch of points that were going to expire on June 1, so we banked them forward and blew them on an exchange so we could stay at a hotel instead of at a DVC Villa resort (usually Animal Kingdom Lodge for us).

We got a nice room, close to the main building. We took advantage of the pool on two days, spending the morning in the water. We ate at 'Ohana and at Kona Cafe, and also at Capt. Cook's for quick breakfasts on several days. We used the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom and to return from Epcot on our last night there.

All in all, it was a good stay. Beds were comfy, accommodations were roomy, and the Poly was everything we remembered it to be. I almost hope it never becomes a DVC resort, because maybe in a couple years we'll do the same thing and stay there again. It just might be worth the extra points to do so...

*****

Michigan's Adventure 2012

We made our annual pilgrimage to Muskegon, Michigan, and as usual, the trip included a visit to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park. 

The park is owned by Cedar Fair, and it was a great weekend to go.  Everyone else must be picnicking or out on their boats, because there were short to no lines.  They have 7 coasters, including Thunder Hawk, which they describe as a two seat version of one of Cedar Point's popular coasters (can't think of the Cedar Point coaster's name), and Shivering Timbers, one of the largest straight line wooden coasters in the country.  (I think they say it's the third largest in the US.) 

It was opening weekend there, and so the park is nice and clean and everything is running.  Sometimes it seemed like there were more employees around the place than guests, but then when you look at the parking lot, you realize that there must be a LOT of people in the wet parts of the park - the water park (included in the admission price) and the Adventure Falls/Grand Rapids section.  Their Grand Rapids raft ride (one of the few that my kids didn't go on) was the only one I saw with a substantial line. 

It's an interesting attraction in that it seems to literally be in the middle of nowhere.  You're driving north of Muskegon on a tree-lined divided highway (US 31) and finally you see a sign for Russell Road and Michigan's Adventure, and so you get off the highway (which seemed already like you were in the middle of a deep woods), and drive a little distance through forested lands, seeing a few ramshackle houses along the road, and then on your right, you see the long wooden trestles of Shivering Timbers and the entrance to the parking lot - also seemingly in the middle of a deep woods.  It comes out of nowhere...almost literally.  I tried to post a satellite view of the location from Google Maps but can't figure out how to do so, so, if you are interested, go here:  https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=michigan's+adventure&ie=UTF-8

I know it gets busier later in the summer, because we've been there in mid-August and the lines for rides are substantial.  This is not a Disney type of park; there aren't any shows and very little cohesive theming.  It's focused on the rides and on the water park.  Still, it's a fun park to visit, and we will likely continue to visit it in the future...

*****

Disney's Magical Express passes arrive!

It came! It came!

Checked the mail today and there they were - our DME passes and luggage tags and everything.

The excitement is building up for our first Disney visit in a little over 18 months.

We're going to stay at the Polynesian (our favorite resort of those we've experienced) and we've got a handful of dining reservations at Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and at Emeril's over at Universal.

One thing that's struck me as I look at our options for this trip is the cost of park tickets. It only costs a couple dollars per ticket to add on extra days after 5 days. It's almost becoming an all-or-nothing thing - we'll either visit Disney parks every days, or we'll visit no parks at all and spend our time at Universal and Sea World and maybe another place or three. And maybe enjoy our resort a little more than we usually do. For this trip we have all those reservations in the parks for dinner and lunch, but I could see skipping all of them and just hanging out and enjoying the pools.

Meanwhile, our excitement continues to grow...

*****

About those DVC Waterpark Resorts...

Well,first, there aren't any. I mean, they all have pools and some water features, but none of them are designed as a resort hotel whose focus IS on the water park.

I suggested, a couple of times, that DVC should build an indoor waterpark resort in the Midwest. Perhaps in the Wisconsin Dells, where there is more than just one game in town. I said it would give midwesterners a way to use their points besides flying to a Florida, California or Hawaii location. Without flying at all, actually.

But as I thought about it, I thought - who would buy ownership in this park? It doesn't have the home resort luster of Hawaii, of the Atlantic Ocean, or of WDW or Disneyland Resorts. Why own points at the Disney Dells Resort and Waterpark?

I can't come up with a good reason. I stated last summer that perhaps we, as DVC owners, might be interested in buying some points there, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that we probably would not be inclined to add on points there. We would probably prefer to buy a few extra points at our home resort at WDW.

We would use it, certainly. Perhaps that would be good enough for Disney. But I'm not sure how this timeshare thing works. The fact that ownership in that particular resort might be a hard sell, even though I suspect the resort would be full much of the year, might mean that it could not be a DVC property.

That's okay though. As long as, like the Disney Collection now, we could use points to stay there, we probably would still use it on occasion. And if there was one there, we might be more inclined to buy those extra points. We actually had trouble using our points this year. Part of that was because we were saving up to go to Hawaii, and then couldn't get in, but part was because a Disney vacation every year is getting to be something we don't really want to do anymore.

But the kids LOVE those waterparks in the Dells (and elsewhere). So maybe this just becomes the test case for those Location-Based Entertainment venues that Kevin Yee wrote about a couple years ago over on MiceAge.

I think it would be an easy sell to vacationers, if not to DVC owners via the timeshare route.

(And since everything Disney does these days seems to be related to constructing DVC villas, maybe they wouldn't even consider it. But I wish they would.)

*****

Midwest Atttractions - Great Wolf Lodge

We spent a couple days at the Traverse City, Michigan version of the Great Wolf Lodge over our spring break. Why Traverse City, you might ask? (Or maybe you won't ask, but I'll tell you anyway.) Because of the Old Mission and Leelanau Peninsulas and their wineries, and because of the restaurants in Traverse City, and because Saugatauk was on the way home and a convenient spot for a couple nights' additional stay. That's why we drove 6 some hours to that waterpark instead of going to the closer Wisconsin Dells park, or one of the Illinois indoor waterparks like Grand Bear Lodge near Utica, IL, or Key Lime Cove Resort and Waterpark in Gurnee, IL.

Why Great Wolf Lodge? Because they do a wonderful job with their facilities, in my estimation. It is what it is - a facility for kids to enjoy pools and water features, and just nominally for adults. The Dells in Wisconsin are a huge tourist trap, really gauged to families with children from toddlers to teenagers. The Lodge is the same, but they don't necessarily allow anyone but hotel guests in their park (unlike so many other water parks in the Dells), and they have fun activities for the kids besides the pools. My kids love MagiQuest and most of the Great Wolf Lodges have this available. Nice sized rooms (even if the beds leave something to be desired), and on-site dining and shopping facilities.

What does this have to do with Disney? I posted last summer that I thought that Disney should open a DVC resort in the Dells; they could do it really right, and it would be a hit with the many midwestern DVC members who might not want to fly to Florida, or Hawaii or California, to take advantage of their time share points. I think such a place would be jammed to capacity year around.

Disney could do these types of themed resorts as good or better than anyone, I think. They already do. While Great Wolf Lodge does a good job, it isn't up to Disney standards, as low as they may have become over the years.

Anyone from Disney listening? This might be a real opportunity for expansion, and for making even more money, which is, after all, your real motivator!

*****

Disney Vacation: How Long?

A while back I read a post discussing the number of parks, or perhaps the call for a fifth gate, at WDW. It may have been at FutureProbe, or somewhere else. (But I think it was at FutureProbe.) The point was that Disney expanded with the idea of getting visitors to extend their stays from one week to maybe 10 days or two weeks, spending money at the resorts, at the parks, at Disney stores and at Disney restaurants.

If it had worked it would have put a lot of extra money in the Disney coffers. But it didn't. People didn't extend their stays. They just spent less days at a particular park in favor of another park.

But I wonder.

Does this "length of stay" statistic (which I've personally never seen but which I believe is out there somewhere) tell the whole story? I mean, the truth of it is that Americans don't vacation that way. Ten days is probably the longest we go for. Two weeks, maybe, if it's somewhere extraordinary. Perhaps Hawaii or Europe, or an African safari or whatever. But not for a domestic vacation. Probably not to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean either. Ten days is probably the max. More likely most are going to be 7 or 8 nights.

I don't know what the average is for weeks of paid vacation in the United States. I'd guess it's probably around 2 weeks. Maybe 3 weeks. Not too many of us get 5 or 6 weeks off paid each year. So, figure one of those weeks gets spent at Disney for your average Disney-phile. The question becomes then, where are they going to spend the other week? Maybe a resort on a lake. Maybe at a relative's home in Phoenix, or in the Ozarks Mountains in Missouri.

Any way to get them to spend their second week at Disney?

Well, maybe not, if there isn't much "new" to see. You've already gone on Space Mountain, Pirates, Test Track, Everest, Rock'n'Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Haunted Mansion, it's a small world, and Splash Mountain. Multiple times. You even got on Soarin' twice and Toy Story Mania once. So what's to go back for? If it's thrill rides you like, you can go a lot closer to home and not have to pay for lodging and air fare or travel expenses.

Maybe you suggest that people should come back just to "experience the magic". Sit in the parks, take in the ambiance. To this I say, wishful thinking. When you've only got a week or two weeks, many families will choose to do as much as they can during that time frame. Sit on a bench? Fight crowds again? There's no "magic" in the mosh pits that are also known as Disney's park concourses.

To me, the way to make people spend more of their yearly allotment of vacation time at a Disney park would be to make it a better experience. Don't keep raising fees in order to raise revenue. Don't make that steak dinner at Le Cellier two dollars more and/or give the diner less food for the price. Don't give me less services at a hotel but charge me more. Don't give me a less comfortable experience at a park, whether it be more crowds or longer wait times, and charge me more for it. Those are not the ways to win the hearts of potential Disney-philes.

Give me more for my money. Give me a dinner that rivals the best restaurants in the country. Give me more and better attractions. Make my stay at your resorts even more comfortable, more enjoyable. That's how you are going to get me to spend even more time at Disney in a given year.

To me, worrying about whether a guest stays at a resort for 7 or 8 nights, or ten or twelve nights per stay is worrying about the wrong question. The right question is "how can we get our customers to spend even more time on our property in the course of a year?" There is plenty to do in Orlando. Right now, we don't even have to patronize Disney parks or restaurants even if we stay on Disney property. Give us a reason to stay on property. Give us new experiences and enhanced old experiences.

*****

Low Season?

I was thinking about the possibility of going back to Disney, probably sometime after the new Fantasyland opens in the Magic Kingdom, and the major negative of a Disney visit are the crowds. Elbowing your way through a crowded concourse in the heat is not that much fun, and waiting in line for as much as an hour or 75 minutes to get on a ride is not the highest, best use of my limited vacation hours in my opinion. If I was someone who had an annual pass and lived close, I might not mind the waits as much; I wouldn't mind experiencing the queues at, say, Toy Story Mania, or Big Thunder Mountain or the Jungle Cruise, or Everest or Mission:Space or Test Track. All good queues, by all accounts. But not the way I want to spend my handful of vacationing hours.

Is there a "low season' anymore at Disney World? I've been to the park at the end of September, a couple times in the middle of October, once over Thanksgiving (last year), once in the middle of January around MLK Day, and once in early June. There were two days I remember light crowds: Thanksgiving Day, and the day after Hurricane Jean struck in 2004 (I think it was). Every other time we've been there, it's been uncomfortably crowded at all the parks.

It was similarly crowded at Universal's Islands of Adventure last November, and it is always very crowded at Six Flags Great America during their limited summer months. The only park I've been to where it really wasn't crowded at all was Michigan's Adventure, on opening weekend of the last two years (Memorial Day weekend). (Later in the summer, when we visited Michigan's Adventure once in the middle of August, it was extremely crowded.) I will suggest that Disney's California Adventure over Easter Break was not as crowded as Disneyland or as any Magic Kingdom park, though it wasn't exactly what I'd call "empty" either, on our two visits to it.

Crowds are not fun. If I want to play in a mosh pit, I'll go to a punk rock concert! I want a modicum of personal space. I want to see a clear path ahead of me not jammed by people from the left of the concourse to the right, all wanting to get to the same somewheres. For me, it's the major negative about a Disney experience. I would hope they can figure out a way to make it less of a negative at some point...

*****

If I were in charge of Disney...

I'm sure I could find tons of stuff to do. As long as I didn't have to pay attention to the bottom line too much.

But one thing I think I would do if I had any say in the doings of Disney would be to open a DVC resort in the Wisconsin Dells.

The Dells, if you don't know, is billed as the "Waterpark Capital of the World". There is a lot to do there, even if some of it is fairly "cheesy" type stuff. You can take a boat ride on the Wisconsin River and explore the natural dells, which the town takes its name from. You can take a "duck" ride, which is an amphibious craft from WWII that drives on roads and takes a trip down the river, and through Lake Delton also. You can go to see Rick Wilcox's magic show, or Tommy Bartlett's Water Show. You can go to Mt Olympus Water- and Theme Park, or a couple of other water/theme parks. You can visit haunted houses, an upside down White House ('Top Secret'), drive go-karts, play mini-golf, or just hang out at your hotel and play at its water parks. Plus there are some cheesier attractions like Ripley's Believe-it-or-Not, a 4D motion theater, laser tag and Wizard Quest (might not be as cheesy as some of the others).

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. Our room had a simulated 'cabin' in it with bunk beds and a single bed. We also had a queen sized bed with a pull out sleeper. The Lodge has a couple of restaurants, a big arcade, a very nice animatronic display in the lobby where they do "story time" every night, and of course, the water parks, both incoor and outdoor. Then there is the attached three story Magiquest building, where kids can play for their entire visit, for one admission at the beginning of the stay.

As I was sitting there watching my kids enjoy the water parks at our hotel, I couldn't help but think that it would be a great place for DVC to expand to. Right now, we have a slew of DVC resorts in Florida, one in South Carolina, one in California, and one opening very soon (maybe it's open!) in Hawaii. For a midwestern Disney fan, they all have something in common: a plane trip. Oh, I know that lots of Chicagoans drive to Florida routinely, but for many of us, when you have a week off, you want to get there quickly. With Disney, the journey is not part of the attraction. The destination is.

If Disney were to open a DVC resort in that area, I believe we would patronize it quite a bit. We might even buy some points there. It's the type of place we could spend a long weekend at, or even on occasion stay for longer. (Though that might be the limiting factor - I don't think the Dells get a lot of full-week visitors.) The Great Wolf Lodge sells its own time-shares, as do a couple other big resorts (like the Wilderness Lodge). Why couldn't Disney get into the act in this family friendly tourist destination?

If I were Disney, I'd buy one of the existing resorts (there's a Polynesian Village and Water Park, for example), close it for a year, remodel the heck out of it, and turn it into a Disney resort! The Polynesian, for example, could maybe be modeled on Disney's Polynesian Resort at WDW, but with a huge water park, part of which is alreayd there. Then I'd start selling DVC memberships. A lot of midwesterners who don't see a point to buying DVC might change their minds if there was something considerably closer to home besides the WDW, DL and three other DVC resort destinations.

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What does Market Research Say about WDW?

I'm asking. I really don't know. Over the years there have been plenty of blog entries discussing the status of WDW. We all know what's there: Four theme parks, two mini-golf courses, a couple of regular golf courses, two good water parks, their Wide World of Sports, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and a retail center called Downtown Disney. Oh, yeah. And a WHOLE bunch of resort hotels of varying quality (Deluxe to Value Resorts).

I don't know what the occupancy numbers show, but from what I recall, it's pretty high for all the resorts. There are always plenty of people who want to visit the parks or the water parks. Their resorts probably can't house them all. Plenty of them stay nearby in hotels just off the Disney acreage.

Anymore, it seems like there really isn't much of a "slow" season. The parks are always jammed with people. Today, July 25th at 2 pm EDT, Space Mountain has a 55 minute wait, according to my iPhone app. Splash Mountain has a 65 minute wait, and Pirates and Haunted Mansion have only a 30 minute wait. Peter Pan's flight has a 65 minute wait, and BTMR has a 45 minute wait.

Over at Epcot, Soarin' has a 65 minute wait and Test Track has a 45 minute wait. At DHS, Toy Story Mania! has a 75 minute wait, and Star Tours has a 55 minute wait. Rock'n'Roller Coaster has a 65 minute wait, and ToT has a 35 minute wait. At Animal Kingdom, Everest has a 65 minute wait, kali River Rapids has a 70 minute wait. For som reason, the Safari has only a 15 minute wait, but Dinosaur has a 40 minute wait. (So I suppose it's possible that these times aren't totally accurate...)

So could they support a fifth gate? More to the point, would it increase revenues? Well, they CERTAINLY could support a fifth gate with attendance. The question is where do the people come from? Would a fifth park simply remove people from the walkways of the other four parks? Or does it bring in more business and maybe keep people away from the other Orlando attractions?

On our last visit to WDW, we stayed on Disney property for 7 nights. Usually we'd buy a 7 day pass to Disney and spend all of our time at their parks. But last time we bought the five day pass and spent two days over at Universal. We've talked about perhaps visiting Universal again, along with maybe Busch Gardens and/or Sea World. My younger son expressed an interest in going to the Legoland that opened in the vicinity.

Why this apparent willingness to go elsewhere than Disney? Because of a couple things. They've been to Disney a handful of times in the last several years. Not as much as some, but a lot more than most of their friends and classmates. They have ridden everything. They have their favorites, but they've done them enough that they aren't crying to do them again.

The other thing that none of us like is the fact that we always have to fight crowds and stand in long lines to get anywhere, seemingly. The parks are just TOO crowded. Doesn't anyone else feel this way?

So to sum up: Nothing much new at Disney, and too crowded and too much time spent in long lines.

A fifth gate would perhaps help on both of these counts.

Writing only from my own experience, I can assure you (and Disney) that we're likely to visit MORE if there is a fifth gate. And if the crowds are lighter, we'll have a much better time and that will also likely lead to increased time spent at Disney when we're in Orlando. We're DVC members, and so we are sort of roped into staying at DVC properties at least once a year or so. But we don't have to stay on Disney property - there's plenty within a short drive of the area.

I know it's not in the cards; the possibility of Disney spending the money to build a fifth gate is virtually nil at this time, but I for one would be thrilled if they would apply that Disney Imagineering to another really fun attraction at WDW - another full sized theme park.

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Where I'd like to be in Disney World

I was just thinking (between patients) of where I might like to be at this moment, and as is often the case, I think of Disney World. So then I started thinking - if I were in Disney World right now, with a Park Hopper ticket so I could go wherever I want to go, where would I choose to be?

My wife mentioned last night that she wouldn't mind being in Epcot's World Showcase, sipping a Riesling purchased in Germany, just browsing the shops without time constraints. No fast passes or dinner reservations to get to. Kids can be with, but they can't be nagging. (Like that'll happen...)

Where would I pick? Would it be at the aforementioned Epcot? If so, where? World Showcase? Or FutureWorld? Would it be at a nice, cool, Animal Kingdom, like it was over Thanksgiving of last year? The Magic Kingdom, where I could get on Pirates, then move right over to Haunted Mansion, then Splash Mountain, then a leisurely ride on the PeopleMover, then back through the same ones again (with no waits, of course).

If I were there right now, I think I'd take being at the Polynesian, sitting by the pool, sipping an exotic drink, and just relaxing with a great view of the Seven Seas Lagoon and the Magic Kingdom. Not a park at all. Just a nice, relaxing location.

That sounds best to me.

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That's what lack of research gets ya...

We were fortunate enough to spend a week (kids' spring break) in San Francisco. Now too most people SF means Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiradelli Square, and of course, Alcatraz. But to ne as a Disney fan, it also meant a chance to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio.

I looked it up months ago to see where it was and recall them talking about needing timed tickets for admission, but I thought we'd just get them when we got into town. So, we went about our scheduled activities, with a city tour on Sunday and an Alcatraz tour on Monday, figuring that Tuesday would be the day we'd rent a car and do things in various parts of town, including visiting some neighborhoods and getting some pictures under the Golden Gate Bridge. And drive to the Museum.

You may already see the flaw in my planning. Tuesday, unfortunately, is the only day of the week the place is closed. I never checked with the concierge at our hotel or anyone about it; we simply located it on our maps, then noted its location on the city tour (by Tower Tours bus), and made for it immediately after lunch.

The next day we were leaving the city to see Muir Woods and drive up to Napa, and there simply would not be time to go there.

So I guess a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum, for me and my family, will have to wait till the next trip to San Francisco. Darn.

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Animal Kingdom Pictures

We have gone on Kilamanjaro Safaris every time we've visited Animal Kingdom and it is always a fun attraction. We seemed to see more animals than usual this visit, maybe because it wasn't too hot out.

The giraffes were extremely photogenic this time around. We saw lots of them from our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge, but we never get tired of them...

The ostriches sometimes don't seem like they have much interest in moving out of the way. This guy (girl?) was just laying around.

Those poachers didn't get these elephants!

And I leave you with a shot of Everest. One of Disney's best, in my opinion.

Other Parks: Islands of Adventure Day 2

On our second day we decided that, since the boys only got on two rides, we'd just return to Islands of Adventure again. This time we headed straight back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As was our habit on this trip, it was late morning by the time we got into the park, and it was crowded! They told us up front that they were bringing people in the other entrance to the land, closer to the Lost Continent.

So we went back there to queue up for entry into Potter World, and we were directed to a line where this day, unlike the previous day, we were given a timed ticket. We happily took our ticket, with the advice to return between 12:20 and 1:20 pm to get in. We went off to find somewhere to eat.

That "somewhere" ended up being in Seuss Landing. We went into Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous, a "counter service" restaurant with fried chicken, pasta, pizza and burgers on the menu.

Now, we were used to Disney counter service restaurants; there are crowds and lines, but you seem to keep moving. At this restaurant, we got in line and stood for a long period of time, waiting to get our food cafeteria-style. This system is SLOW! You finally get to the front, then wait for them to assemble your burger and fries from a pan of burgers, most with cheese and some without. I think two of us ordered cheeseburgers except for my older son who prefers hamburgers without cheese. My wife ordered some kind of chicken sandwich. They take a pre-made basket with a bun and the fixin's, plop a chicken breast or a burger (with or without cheese) on it, then dole out some fries, and hand it to you.

It doesn't sound that hard, but for whatever reason, they are very slow at this. The cash register attendant was basically sitting there doing nothing half the time because after checking out one family, it would be a while before the next came.

The food was fine, and the restaurant was very cute. Very Dr. Seuss. I love the theming and the attention to detail in this area. But based on my two impressions of dining in this park, I'd have to say they have a ways to go before they approach Disney's level of efficiency.

Then it was back to Harry Potter land. It was almost 1 pm by the time we got back there, and there was a huge throng of people waiting to get in. They had barricades set up and were letting people through at two small entrance points. A couple of Universal employees were trying to keep the mass from blocking an aisle on the side where people could exit, with not too much success. One was getting pretty testy with the crowd. When one of the guys in the crowd told her to lighten up or mellow out, she told him something to the effect of "You don't want to mess with me, sir. I'm not in the mood for to take it." (That isn't exactly what she said, but it's close. Not very friendly.)

The problem was that they were creating this bottleneck. And most of the people waiting had tickets that were for later. (We were within our time window and couldn't really get through.) Some didn't have tickets at all. One couple next to me looked at the ticket in my hand as we tried to force our way to the gate, and asked what it was. When I told them that you needed a timed ticket to get into the land, they were disgusted and began working their way out of the line.

We finally pushed our way to the front. Our progress sped up as we got within hearing range of the guy calling out for times of 1 pm or earlier, and we waved our ticket and finally people moved out of the way enough that we could get in. Crazy.

Of course, once you're "in", you're not out of the crowds - you're just in a different mass of humanity. We headed to the queue for the Forbidden Journey ride, which showed 100 minutes, I think. There again, confusion abounded. It seems that there is a line for those with bags that need to be checked into lockers before tey go in, and if you don't have bags, they shunt you to the left and you bypass the locker line. We did the latter, but when we got in line, some cast member told us that we were in the single rider queue, and we'd need to go back and get in the regular queue. So we did, and then we were told that we were now in the queue for the castle tour (no ride), and where we were before was the correct queue. Annoyed, I told that employee about the other guy telling us to go there. Seemed like no one knew what was going on.

The line was almost two hours, but it does keep moving and it is interesting. So it didn't seem as bad. When we got out, my wife had some butterbeers, and we downed them and left the Wizarding World.

The boys proceeded to ride the Pteranodon Flyers and then we headed into Marvel Super Hero Island, where we all rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Had I ridden this before I rode the Forbidden Journey, I would have said that this was the coolest ride I'd ever been on. AS it is, it's just a hair below Forbidden Journey. We rode it twice; the waits were in the 30-45 minute range, and the queue is so cool that it goes by fast. The merging of 3D video effects with some sort of enhanced motion vehicle was incredibly effective.

We rode Doctor Doom's Fearfall after this; I rode it once and the boys went back a couple more times because it was a short (10 minute or so) wait. I'm not that much a fan of these sorts of rides; I didn't like Maliboomer in DCA, and Tower Of Terror is good but not one of my favorites. But my two sons loved it. Then they went on the Storm Force Accelatron, a Teacup-like ride that I had no desire to experience.

For some reason I thought that The Cat In The Hat attraction was a show, and didn't find out till later that it was a ride. I would have liked to do it but, too late now. The waits for it and The High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride were always pretty high.

We left the park and ate at Emeril's for the high point of our Orlando dining experiences. I absolutely love Emeril's restaurants; they are unmatched for taste and service, in my book. This was no exception for us. I wonder if you can get to it without having to pay the all-day parking fees, or if there is a validation or something you can do. I see they do it at the theaters for parking. Because if you can, it will probably be on our eating agenda every time we go to Orlando from here on out. And if we make it to Vegas anytime soon, his restaurants there will be on our itinerary also.

The positives of Day 2 far outweighed the negatives. I'd like to go back and experience the Studios park, but that's not in the near future for us Chicagoans.



Bye, Harry, Ron and Hermione...

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