Wow That Was Bad

I did a post a while back called “The Hit or Miss Ride.” It was about how having the right skipper either made the Jungle Cruise one of the best or one of the worst rides.

On my 2008 vacation we had an amazing skipper. She was awesome. On our last vacation we had a bad skipper. He wasn’t interactive, we couldn’t hear him, he didn’t do anything fun. He was just going through the motions. It was so bland that I can’t think of one thing that was good about it.

I’ve posted the video on YouTube so you can see what ride is like. Click here to see it.

I don’t have anything against this guy. He just really needs to take some notes from the other skippers. He could vastly improve. I hope he’s new. At least then I would understand. I guess he could be having a bad day too.

Review: The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace is one of the most popular dining locations in the Magic Kingdom. It’s an all you can eat buffet with characters with from the Winnie the Pooh series. Kids love this dining experience, but is it worth the cost?

Food: The food at the Crystal Palace is decent. They have a nice mix of foods. The carved meats and the desserts are what stand out. Everything else is just average. There are a couple of buffet style restaurants in Disney World that are better.

Atmosphere: The Crystal Palace is a beautiful well lit restaurant with lots of windows and has a Victorian style to its decorations. The seating areas are the downfall of the atmosphere. They designed them to cram as many people into as small a space as possible. I didn’t get the same feeling from Tusker House which seemed a little more open. At times getting from my table to the buffet and back was an adventure and somewhat difficult. Because they cram so many people in so small a space it can get really loud inside. Keep that in mind if your kids are volume sensitive. It’s no where near as loud as Kouzzina but it’s still loud.

Entertainment: If you like Pooh and his friends you’ll like the entertainment here. I’m not a big fan of Pooh. The only one I really wanted to see was Eyeore. The ones that were out and about when I was there were: Winnie the Pooh, Eyeore, Tigger, and Piglet. Every so often they do a little show where all the kids follow the characters around while music plays. It can’t be easy to be a character here. Each character needs a handler because things are so cramped they can’t get around without them.

Service: The service is decent. At a buffet you don’t expect much and they lived up to that. However there is one big failure where service is concerned. My wife and I had an ADR. When you have an ADR you know you are not going to get seated right away but you know after a few minutes you’ll get seated. It took the Crystal Palace thirty minutes to seat us. Thirty minutes to seat a party of two. That’s insane.

Cost: The Crystal Palace is very expensive for a buffet, even a character buffet. You will take a serious blow to your wallet while eating here. We went here during lunch which made the cost even more of a shock.

Overall I won’t be going back to the Crystal Palace. It’s too expensive, too crowded, the food doesn’t match the cost and the overall interaction with the characters was better at the Garden Grill.

Eat to the Beat

Every now and then I hear about someone doing something and I think to myself “wow I thought they were dead.” Thankfully in most cases it’s just their careers that are dead.

I was recently listening to the “Inside the Magic” podcast and I heard the lineup for “Eat to the Beat” which takes place during the Food and Wine festival at Epcot. I have to admit I had a good laugh as some of the names were read off.

Taylor Dane – I thought she died of an OD, my bad.

Air Supply – The best thing to come out of Melbourne Australia in 1974…hey I’m trying to be positive.

Sister Hazel – The best band named after a nun…I think (Not the nun part. There might be a better band named after a nun.)

Billy Ocean – The best artist to take his last name from a Soccer team which was named after a movie.

Boys 2 Men – Wow. The mighty have fallen.

Hanson – See boys you knew, as grown ups! Yeah I’m sure that works…

Rick Springfield – Instead of hearing teenage girls scream you can see the middle aged women scream.

38 Special – I’ll have to start working on my mullet

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Nice to know they survived their 2.9 seconds of fame. Remember when everyone pretended to like swing?

Kool and the Gang – Over 70 million albums sold…what happened to the money?

Sugar Ray – The heart throb you remember now looks like the mummy.

Taylor Hicks – Wow that career tanked fast didn’t it?

Night Ranger – AAARRRRGGG!!! I have “Sister Christian” stuck in my head now.

There are others but I just don’t feel like listing them. I guess there are a few ways to look at things. These people either – love to perform, are desperate, or are in denial. I’ll take the happy road and say they all love to perform.

Review: TouringPlans.com’s “Lines” In Action

Before I went on vacation I did a review of touringplans’s app “Lines.” The review was based on Lines as a planning tool. How does Lines hold up in action?

The most useful part of lines is the user submitted wait times. They tend to be more accurate than the applications estimated times. The estimated times are close to reality if everything falls in line. However, the estimates don’t factor in weather or other unexpected events. One day in the Animal Kingdom it rained and the crowds were non-existent. Lines wasn’t even close on that day. A few other days it was insanely cold which also redirected a good chunk of the crowds. Again Lines was off. On the other days it was much closer. Lines also lets you see what’s going on at the other parks which is great if the park you are in is crazy busy.

One fun aspect of Lines is the badges. You get badges for submitting rides a set number of times or for other tasks. I’m not going to list all of the badges because I want people to find them on their own. I few caught me off guard. A couple I will mention are submitting a wait time during extra magic hours (both morning and night) and submitting during the first hour a park is open and the last hour a park is open. I ended up with 20 badges by the end of my vacation. You also get ranked depending on how many times you have submitted. I ended up being an “Unofficial Chief Collector.”

There is also a chat feature in Lines. This is actually useful. You can get real time answers on your questions. I’m sure it wasn’t designed for that but it works. Post a question and you’ll get an answer in no time.

Overall Lines is a great app. Everyone should use it…actually no that would be bad. If everyone used it the wait times in Disney would be all out of whack. Maybe a few people should use it.

Review: The Color Companion to the Unofficial Guide

A few months ago I did a review of “The Complete Guide to Disney World.” At the time I recommended teaming it up with the Unofficial Guide to have everything you could possibly want in a guide book - the Unofficial Guide for planning and the Complete Guide to get you pumped up. I even got my overall opinion read on “Inside the Magic” episode 259 in the listener feedback section.

I have to retract that recommendation.

The Color Companion to the Unofficial Guide is here. It’s bigger, has more photos, more information and is funnier than the Complete Guide. This is basically the guide you’d get if the Unofficial Guide and the Complete Guide had a kid.

I’d state the good but that would take a while and it would sound like my Complete Guide review. There isn’t much bad about this guide either. There are only two areas where the Complete Guide beat the Color Companion. The first is the paper quality. The paper quality of Complete Guide is slightly better than the Color Companion but the Color Companions paper is better than the Unofficial Guide.

The second are the Complete Guide beats the Color Companion is in the quality of the photos. Don’t get me wrong, the Color Companion has amazing photos but the photos in the Complete Guide are nearly flawless.

Those are the only two areas I could find. The Color Companion is better in every other way.

If you are in the market for a guide book here is my recommendation:

If you can only buy one – The Unofficial Guide

If you can buy two – Unofficial Guide + the Color Companion

If you can buy three – Unofficial Guide + the Color Companion + Complete Guide

I’d recommend all three because you will get two different viewpoints if you have all three. Using Amazon you can get all three for less than $50. In other words for less than $50 you’ll have enough info to answer almost any Disney World vacation question.

Another View of the Hoop Dee Doo Review

On my 2008 trip to Disney World I did the Hoop Dee Doo for the first time in ten years and I loved it. On my 2010 trip I did it again but this time from a different seat and a much different show time.

Last time I did the 9:30pm show. There were a couple of problems with that. The first was the transportation doesn’t run that late so they have to make special arrangements to get you back to your resort. The second problem was the parents who kept their kids up that late with predictable results.

This time I did the 4:30 show. Most of the kids were ok but most of them really needed a nap. The crowd really doesn’t change much. It’s about the same at both times. The kids are a little fresher so you have a choice. Spend time with kids or spend time with kids who are half dead. The show itself doesn’t change a whole lot either. It was still good.

The food was as good as I remembered it. The ribs and chicken are great. The corn bread is some of the best anywhere. The beans are top notch. Even the salad is good. This time instead of beer I did Merlot. It was an ok Merlot. It was cheap but not so cheap that I got a headache from it. My wife did the sangria and enjoyed it.

Last time I sat off to the side and got a good view of most of the action. This time I was in the middle and could see everything. Both times I bought category two. That category seems to be the most bang for the buck. One key to getting a good seat no matter what category you are in seems to be showing up as soon as they start checking people in. They almost always change your table when they check you in.

Pioneer Hall hasn’t changed at all. It’s still a classic. It’s a nice inviting building that is perfectly decorated. You have to love it.

Is the Hoop Dee Doo worth doing again? Yes. I’ll do it every time I got to Disney World. It’s the best dinner show in Disney World. In fact I can’t think of a dinner show that beats it anywhere but then again I haven’t done a lot of them.

Photo of the Week - The Brown Derby

Disney doesn't use neon signs very. The Hollywood Brown Derby is an exception. DHS isn't open as late as some of the other parks but when you are there after dark it has some amazing sites. Most people are too distracted by the Tower of Terror or the hat and they miss this sign.

Review: The Garden Grill

There are a number of character dining locations throughout Disney World. Most don’t really stand out. The castle isn’t worth it, it’s expensive, and it’s crowded. I’ll cover Chef Mickey’s and the Crystal Palace later. I just can’t get up the nerve to do Norway so don’t hold your breath there.

The Garden Grill is different in many ways. The Garden Grill has a lot going for it. It’s build on a giant wheel that slowly rotates and provides an ever changing view. Its location, theme, food, and entertainment put it a notch above other restaurants.

Food: The food is very good. You should know that you do not order food. The Garden Grill is an all you can eat family style restaurant. The first round is bread and salad. The salad is comprised of greens and vegetables that are grown in the Land Pavilion’s own green house. The second course is a trio of meats and sides. Flank steak with mashed potatoes, turkey with stuffing, and fish with some side I can’t remember. The fish is interesting because they farm some of them in the land. All three are very good. Dessert is amazing too. It’s a great berry cobbler. It’s nice, warm, and tasty.

Atmosphere: You don’t get much better than the Garden Grill’s atmosphere. As the restaurant spins you get to see out into the land pavilion, into the rain forest, desert, and farm house scene that are part of the Living With the Land ride. My personal favorite is the farm house scene. You will be amazed by the level of detail Disney put into all of its scenes. The farm house has a window that can only bee seen from the restaurant. The average theme park would put a fake window there considering you can’t really see it from the ride. Not Disney. The window opens up into a decorated room.

Service: The service was very good. We always had enough food and drinks. They also checked in often. Even the manager checked in to make sure everything was good. This was the only restaurant on our trip where a manager did a spot check with us.

Entertainment: Being a character dining location you get some private time with a number of characters. Chip and Dale are the headliners. My wife got confused because she couldn’t tell the difference between Chip and Dale. She thought the same character came twice. Other than Chip and Dale, Mickey and Pluto were on the prowl. Mickey never made it to use while we were there but Pluto did and he was very good. He hammed it up and was the most interactive of all the characters.

The price isn’t crazy when you consider it’s in a theme park, it’s all you can eat, the food, location, and entertainment are all good. This is one of the better restaurants in Disney World. Only a couple of restaurants in Epcot are better than the Garden Grill.

What Not to Wear in the Parks

This is not a post about wearing sensible shoes or basic tips. This is a post about the extreme. The extremely poor choices some people make with no regards to the people around them.

As you know Disney World is a family friendly environment. Most people take that seriously in while in the parks. In fact you don’t even hear profanity very often in the parks.

I do have to stress the word “most” in the previous paragraph because there are some people who have the intelligence of a snail and they prove it often.

Case Number One: I’ll Pass

My wife and I were walking through Frontier Land towards Splash Mountain when something caught my eye. A rather seedy looking individual was pushing a stroller in the same direction we were heading. The guy was wearing a tee shirt that had pot leafs and a lit joint on the back. It said in big letters: “Roll It, Lick It, Blaze It.” One: that is an awful thing to wear in the Magic Kingdom. Two: you should not have kids. Three: I think you burned too many of your brain cells.

I would share a picture of this but he bent over just as I was taking the picture. I couldn’t really stop and wait for him to stand up. It’s hard to look inconspicuous standing behind someone with a camera while everyone else is moving.

Case Number Two: The Outfit That Launched 1000 Lunches

I know some people like spandex. I know many over weight people wear it because it fits (term used loosely). If it’s the proper thickness I can ignore it.

Imagine sitting down and eating a turkey leg and when you look up you see a slightly over weight woman walking with her kids. The woman is wearing black, SEE THROUGH, tights. Tights that are so transparent that they could almost pass as stockings instead of tights. That’s a bad visual isn’t? Now add a colored thong to the mix and you know what I saw when I had a mouthful of turkey.

Case Number Three: Brain Rot

I have a theory. The theory is this – People who use a multitude of four letter words slowly rot their brains. That brain rot can affect your actions and reasoning ability over time. I believe the individual my wife and I spotted in Disney Hollywood Studios proves my theory. He was wearing a tee shirt that said “I’d Rather Be F*****g.” Is that so? Well maybe you should leave the parks and take care of that. Oh, and once you leave how about you never come back? I think that would be nice.

A chronic case of Brain Rot is the only explanation. I can’t even begin to understand the thinking that goes behind wearing something like that. Does one wake up and think “I’m going to Disney today. What should I wear? I KNOW! My grossly offensive tee shirt that refers to my love of coitus is a perfect fit!

I guess what really amazes me about this one is the fact that this guy made it through security. Why wouldn’t they stop him? The theme parks are not a public area so why not stop him? He could try to sue on the basis of free speech but he’d fail. I like to think security just didn’t see the tee shirt when he was walking into the park.

Sponge Bob Must Die!

Every now and then you capture something that words just can't do justice too. In NH we often have moments like this. We all go a little nuts after being trapped inside during the long winters. We blow off steam by throwing non-Disney cartoon characters onto bon fires. Of course we would never throw a Disney character onto a bon fire...unless they deserved it.

Beauty and the Beast Live

I’d never really thought about going to go see Beauty and the Beast Live in Disney’s Hollywood Studios but my wife and I were trying to kill some time while we were waiting for our fast passes to become valid. We walked in and took our seats with about five minutes to spare.

One of the best things about this show is it is really live. I know that sounds dumb and the name should have told me that. However, the actors actually sing. After seeing Voyage of the Little Mermaid I was surprised by that.

If you like Beauty and the Beast you will love this show. It has a number of the big songs from the movie. It has most of the characters from the movie too. The costumes are spot on. There are no real special effects. It’s much more a traditional stage show.

The length of the show was good. It came in around thirty minutes. So they didn’t have to really butcher the story like they did in the little mermaid.

I do have one complaint but it’s not really related to the show. Once you are a few minutes into the show, SHUT THE DOOR!!!!! DO NOT let late comers in. I can’t even tell you how many times I had to move, stand up, or lean to see what was going on because people showed up late. The worst case was someone who chose our row to sit in and we all had to stand up to let them in. This happened during the final scene. THE FINAL SCENE! Why?!? They saw about two minutes of the show.

Overall I will do this attraction again. It was worth doing. I will sit closer to the stage next time to avoid as many of the late comers as I can.

New Video Posted: Wishes

A video of Wishes has been posted to YouTube. The video was taken in March of 2010. Near the entrance to Tomorrow Land there are some paths that are often empty when the fireworks start. This video was taken from there. It lends a unique view. If you've seen Wishes before you might want to try this area. Other than a different view Tinker Bell soars right over your head.

You can see the video through these two links. The video is in two parts because of YouTube's ten minute time limit. The total run time is just over 11 minutes.

Part One
Part Two

New Video Posted: Gran Fiesta Tour

A video of the Gran Fiesta Tour inside the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot has been posted to YouTube. Some people call this attraction the Mexican "It's a Small World." That's not fair. This ride is much better than that painful form of torture.

The video can be seen here.

Photo of the Week: Illuminations from the Boardwalk

A lot of people have seen Illuminations. It's a great show. Have you ever seen it from the Boardwalk? It's a totally different show from the Boardwalk. It's amazing in it's own right.

Review: The Boardwalk Resort

The Boardwalk Resort is one of the Epcot Resorts near the Swan and Dolphin, Beach Club, and Yacht Club resorts.

The Boardwalk isn’t the most beautiful resort but it does have its charms. It’s like stepping back in time to the 1920s era boardwalk in New Jersey. The storefronts and other structures on the Boardwalk fit right into that theme. The only part of the area that seems to stick out like a sore thumb is the ESPN Zone. They try to make it fit with an old school arm pumping an old weight but it seems rather tacky.

At night everything is lit up with string or neon lights. Nighttime is also when the performers come out. There are magicians and jugglers and other performers. There is also a clown with a squeaky noise for a voice. I avoided him. The noise drove me nuts.

The lobby is spacious and well decorated with large chandeliers, comfy chairs, and antiques. The antiques are the only crank viewers that show a short clip for a penny or the vintage pre-arcade machines. You’ll also find a musical model carousal which goes off every so often. Another model is of a vintage rollercoaster which is lit up.

The rooms are ok. You’ll find much better rooms at the Contemporary. The rooms at the contemporary are larger, cleaner, and better designed. The biggest issue is the bathroom. The toilet and the tub are together while the sinks are outside the bathroom. It was just odd and cumbersome. If someone is stepping out of the bathroom the door will hit anyone washing their hands at the sink. The decorations are nice. The paintings are very nice if you like oils of Disney inspired scenes. The beds are comfy enough although we ended up with two double beds. For some reason I thought the higher end resorts had two queens. The balcony is nice but only two or three people can fit on it. The average cruise ship balcony is bigger.

The location is great. You walk to DHS or Epcot. There are also boats that will take you to both. Most people think walking to DHS takes too long or it’s too far. It is faster than the boat. If the boat is arriving when you start walking you will easily beat the boat to DHS. The Boardwalk is the first stop going towards DHS. That means you have to stop at the Yacht and Beach Club followed by the Swan and Dolphin. When you consider the boats only move about twice as fast as a walk you’ll see why you can easily out walk it.

The walk to Epcot is rather short and is great when you realize you don’t have to wait at the monorail or bus stop to go back to your room after Illuminations.

In the end I don’t know if I’d stay at the Boardwalk again. If I was going to stay in that area I’d try one of the others next. Overall I’d stay at the Poly or Contemporary before the Boardwalk. However, if I was going to be doing a lot in Epcot it would be a decent choice.

Miracle Ear Must Have Boosted Their Sponsorship

I know Miracle Ear is not an “official” sponsor of Disney but I am now convinced that they are paying big bucks to get Disney to crank the volume. I swear Disney is much louder now that it was before.

La Nouba: This show is very loud, far too loud. Not only that they have signs that say they have equipment for the hard of hearing. If you can’t hear this show, check your pulse because you are most likely dead. They should have noise canceling headphones for the rest of us so we don’t go deaf.

The Circle of Life: Wow. That’s all I can say about this one is wow. It’s so loud it hurts. I guess because the movie is awful and preachy they thought it would add some excitement if they cranked the volume. It’s either that or the cast member in charge id deaf.

Journey Into Imagination: This ride is bad to begin with. It didn’t need to be louder but they made it much louder. I am glad my wife didn’t go on this ride with me. She had a headache so skipped it. This ride would have killed her.

Dinosaur: I’ve never noticed this being a really loud ride but my wife can’t stand parts of it because it hurts her ears. Our ride photo was identical because she’s shying away from the sonic boom that hits you when the dinosaur charges you.

Those are just the worst offenders. There are many more. I am not kidding when I say my wife and I are planning on bring ear plugs for our next trip.

Streetmosphere

Streetmosphere are the mini, random shows that the “Citizens of Hollywood” perform on a couple of the streets in Disney Hollywood Studios. It’s one of the best things about DHS.

On my last vacation I got to experience a few different Streetmosphere shows. The first was a Dorma Nesmond photo shoot. The premise was they trying to film a commercial but people kept walking through the shot. Of course they waited for someone to walk through the shot to start each time. When someone walked into the shot the director would throw his bullhorn at them. Dorma Nesmond is a very quirky actress who hinders things as well. The third part to the show was camera operator who wants to be famous.

The best part about this show is the interactivity. I was filming it so the director started calling me camera two and wanted to make sure I was ready to start filming. Dorma kept walking right up to my camera and doing funny things.

This was the best show I’ve seen in Disney World. I was glad I captured it. I’d share the video but my basset hound chewed the memory card. I lost all my footage of the Animal Kingdom and a vast majority of my DHS footage. Over an hour and a half of HD footage was destroyed forever. The only video from that card that survived is the Festival of the Lion King only because I converted that part it first. To put it lightly I was very upset.

The one Streetmosphere show I can share and will share shortly is the “Department of Public Works.” This was a good show. It consisted of the supervisor and his two idiot underlings. All they had to do was setup some work cones. It took them a long time to get them setup thanks to the idiots. Then they had clean up. The idiots asked why. The Supervisor said its break time. The idiots broke down in record time while the supervisors back was turned.

I’ll try to get this video posted before my dog finds a why to destroy that card too.

New Video: Test Track

A video of Test Track has been posted to YouTube. The video was originally in 1080p. It was captured in March of 2010. It seems like they have recently updated the lighting because everything seems brighter.

I was stuck in the front seat which isn't great if you are filming. You get a much better video in the back seat.

The video can be viewed here.

New Video: Big Thunder Mountain

A new video of Big Thunder Mountain has been posted. It was taken in March of 2010. The intro was filmed at Tom Sawyers Island near Fort Longhorn. The video was originally taken in 1080p. You might notice something missing from the film. The Goat chewing dynamite appears to be missing. I could be wrong. If I am please let me know but I didn't see it any of the times I went on the ride.

The video can be viewed here.

Boy Dies In Ft. Wilderness After Being Hit By A Bus

Disney's transportation woes continued Thursday when a ten year old boy was struck and killed by a bus at Disney's Ft. Wilderness Resort. It was reported that the boy died at the scene of the accident.

His name was not released at the time of this post.

The matter is currently under investigation and the details of the accident are unknown.

This is the second accident involving Disney buses in just over a week. The last accident send seven people to the hospital when a Disney bus crashed into a charter bus near Epcot.