Signs!

Walt Disney World is full of awesome signs. The one above here is kind of goofy but, that's really the idea.

But, seriously, there are so many wonderful signs in Disney; ones that fit the associated theming just perfectly. Check out this one from the Flame Tree Barbecue:

Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm having trouble finding a lot of pictures of Disney signs on my flickr stream so, it's time to go. The main point of this post is to say that, for this trip, I'm going to make a conscious effort to photograph a lot of the cool signs in Disney World.

Now, where to start..,?

(39 days to Disney!)

The Beauty of Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

Let me start out by saying that when I use the term "beauty" to describe Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe, I'm not really talking about aesthetics. That's not to say it's not a nice looking quick service restaurant, because I honestly think it is. No, when I talk about "the beauty" of Cosmic Ray's, I am talking about its idealism.

I'm not going wax philosophical or anything like that but, I like what Cosmic Ray's and the "lounge lizard", Sonny Eclipse, represent. To me, this restaurant stands for something that I hope is not dying off in Walt Disney World: original theming and attractions. I'm sure that this quick service restaurant's theming--and Sonny Eclipse himself--owe a great deal to sci-fi movies and books (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, perhaps?) but still, this restaurant is not based directly on a Disney movie, or any movie for that matter.

Now, there's nothing wrong with basing attractions and restaurants on existing IP's (intellectual properties). One great example is the Be Our Guest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. That restaurant is absolutely beautiful and I was really blown away by the attention to detail that was in every nook and cranny.

But looking at one of my earlier posts which focused on The Tower of Terror, I am reminded of how good and authentic an attraction can feel without being based on a movie. The Imagineers have an awesome history of creating unique experiences that don't need to emulate a movie and I'd really love to see this continue. However, given the fact that Disney is already working on an Avatar land in the Animal Kingdom and Star Wars land and Toy Story land at Hollywood Studios, I'm afraid the trend of original-themed restaurants or rides at Walt Disney World might be a thing of the past.

I can't really blame Disney if they go completely for movie-based rides and attractions. After all, they spend literally billions of dollars on the Star Wars franchise so it really won't be a surprise if they mine the Star Wars universe for an endless amount of attractions. Disney's Hollywood Studios may end up turning completely into a Star Wars/Pixar theme park and I'm sure each and every one of those attractions would contain the same level of detail that I have grown to love at Disney. 

But here's the thing: when an attraction is based on an existing IP, people go into it with certain expectations. They know what a character's voice should sound like. They know how the music should sound. They know what the setting should look like. A well done, completely original attraction does not open with any of those pre-conceived expectations so, if it's good (like The Tower of Terror) it stands on its own. It doesn't need the muscle of Star Wars, Pixar, or Marvel to back it up.

But business is business and, in order to stay relevant, I just can't see Disney investing a lot of time and effort into restaurants and attractions that don't already have a huge audience.

Hang in there Sonny Eclipse! Don't ever let the Mos Eisley Cantina Band take your place!!

What are your favorite original Walt Disney World attractions/restaurants?

Also... 40 days to Disney!!

Don't Knock The "Standard View" Rooms

Let me start off this post by saying... 48 days to Disney! Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to say, "49 days... we battled that beast". That's a very sloppy paraphrase of a very funny song:

Now that that's out of my system, I wanted to briefly address some of the room types I'm familiar with at Disney. Granted, we've only stayed at Pop Century, All Star Movies, and Port Orleans Riverside so, I don't pretend to be an expert but I wanted to defend the "standard room view" (or whatever it's called). These "standard" rooms are in contrast to the slightly more expensive "preferred" or "pool room view" rooms.

Our rooms this year are "standard pool view" rooms. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not exactly sure where our rooms are but, I'm really not worried about it. We have yet to stay in a room that was in a bad area.

The best example of this is our 2009 trip to Walt Disney World when we stayed at the All Star Movies Resort. That year our room was undoubtedly a standard view. I say "undoubtedly" because from our balcony area, you could look to the right and see the main lobby area of the hotel. We had an especially good view of the Disney's Magical Express buses unloading and loading people.

At first, you might think, "Yuck. Who wants to see that?!" But Joy and I really thought it was cool seeing so many people coming in, starting their vacations; kids skipping along, completely consumed with the excitement of starting a vacation in Walt Disney World.

Here's what our view looked like:

See? That's a pretty cool view, I think. Parking lot and all. We really didn't care.

Plus, looking directly down to the little tree/mulch area below our door, we were greeted with the following:

And then, on another day, it was changed to this:

I really thought this was pretty cool. Maybe some guest did this, maybe a cast member--I don't know. But you know what? It put a smile on our faces. As usual, it's the little touches like this that make a "standard room" become "preferred".

Keep up the good work Disney. We'll see you soon...

What Emotions Does This Image Conjure?

The picture above was taken in the bus queuing area at the Magic Kingdom. Obviously, this was taken during the day and, unbelievably, there's almost no one in this shot! 

But back to the title of this post: what kinds of emotions does this image trigger in you? If you've never been to Walt Disney World then the answer is probably nothing. If you have been to "the World", you're either thinking, "Aww! I can't wait! Remember when... [insert special memory here]". But, you may see this waiting area and think, "Ugh. My feet and legs hurt just looking at this." 

For me, I see potential. Potential of a new day at The Magic Kingdom with my family, having awesome new experiences and making memories that will last a lifetime. But, I also see the potential of standing in that line at 11:30pm behind hundreds of other people that just want to get on the bus, get back to Pop Century, and fall onto their bed immediately after trudging back to their room. I also see the promise of a quick bus ride back to the resort, only to be dismayed by a family of 20+ people accompanying their family member that happens to be on a "jazzy". (No offense to those that need to use jazzies. My wife and I had a couple experiences of disappointment at the hands of large families mostly filling the bus before anyone else can get on. Is this complaining? I hope not. I don't mean to be complaining.)

But, no matter what the reality ends up being, waiting in line at Disney is still better than "no line, no waiting" anywhere else in the world.

We'll find out what's in store for us in this waiting area in 52 days!

Unless we drive to the park...

The Hollywood Tower Hotel (also: 55 Days to Disney)

The Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I have a special place in my heart for this attraction and it doesn't really have too much to do with the actual elevator "thrill-ride" element of this attraction.

I love The Tower of Terror for one main reason: theming.

When I step into the area surrounding The Tower of Terror, the first thing I notice right away is the music. It echoes in and around the attraction and it has an eery, yet beautiful, echo-ey quality to it. It really sounds as if someone left a radio playing in an old abandoned hotel lobby. The lyrics to the song themselves fit the mood perfectly. "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn is, for me, the quintessential soundtrack for the attraction. The mood of the song is almost forlorn, yet hopeful, and the notes are held out just long enough to fit the ethereal mood that permeates the entire "hotel".

But, it's not just the music. It's also the hotel itself. The lobby, of course, is the centerpiece of the attraction. Cobwebs are on everything and it really looks like everyone sort of just suddenly abandoned the hotel for good. But, then there's the queue line which comes complete with an old, decorative fountain that has fallen into disrepair after 60+ years of neglect.

Disney really knows how to do theming for their attractions. It's that attention to detail that always amazes me. But at The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, they really just nail it.

Can't wait to see this amazing attraction in about 55 days. 

Until then, "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..."

The Hollywood Tower Hotel (a.k.a. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror):

That awesome area music that I really do just absolutely love:

56 Days to Disney (missed 57--been busy), and Tortuga Tavern?!

Time kind of got away from me last night so, I skipped the "56 Days to Disney!" post. So, here we are. It's Friday night and, tonight, Caleb was able to get the Wii U version of The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker; Joy and Molly watched some old Fred Astaire movie (which, surprisingly, had a lot of inappropriate scenes); and I was able to finish working on my schoolwork. Sophie and Lily hung out and played in various places.

Instead of just saying, "X-number of days to Disney", I decided to write about something Disney-related: The Tortuga Tavern (formerly El Pirata y El Perico) at the Magic Kingdom.

A couple trips back, Joy and I discovered this quick service restaurant located in the Magic Kingdom, near the Pirates of the Caribbean. We were super excited to find out that this restaurant served our favorite sort of dish: Mexican food! Well, maybe not super authentic Mexican food but, Taco Bell style burritos--which is completely awesome! And they didn't just serve some mega-burritos; you would order your food--which was a tortilla shell with meat and/or beans--and then go to the fixin's bar (for lack of a better term) where you could load up on lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, etc. We truly enjoyed eating there.

Our only problem with the restaurant was the hours. This place keeps really weird hours. And I do mean weird: how about 11am -2:30pm (going off my memory here)? Try checking for the restaurant's hours on the Disney site and the hours are "varies". Definitely strange.

But, knowing they weren't open all day long, we arrived at The Magic Kingdom one day and, even though I was already full from breakfast, we ate at El Pirata y El Perico. I really shouldn't have done that because, as I stated, I was already full but, I couldn't bear the thought of passing up the opportunity to eat there since, by the time I would be hungry again, they'd be closed. I felt a little sick after that and that's probably as close as I've ever come to gluttony.

But, anyway, El Pirata y El Perico went from this:

To this:

When we saw this in 2012, we were really okay with the change. Tortuga is an island in the Caribbean so, it fits with the Adventureland/Pirates of the Caribbean vibe of that area but, I was shocked, and slightly dismayed, this year when I looked at the Tortuga Tavern menu and I saw that, instead of burritos and other Mexican fare, they now only serve barbecue. Barbecue?! Yes, barbecue. Reading the menu on the Walt Disney World website spells it all out.

I know that I can't really complain and say, "Hey, they didn't eat barbecue sandwiches in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies!" because, did they even eat bean and beef burritos in a tavern, with a fixin's bar? Not that I recall.

Anyway, suffice to say that the pressure to force feed myself the next time we're walking by the Tortuga Tavern won't really be an issue. I mean, I like barbecue but, it just doesn't have the same pull (get the pun there? Pulled pork? Not funny, I know.) that the burrito bar did.

Oh well. We'll still go to the Magic Kingdom and we'll still have a great time, even without a Taco Bell-style lunch.

I'm hungry now.

Are These Post Titles Getting Old?

I was, of course, originally going to title this post "58 Days to Disney!" But then I thought, maybe the sequential titles are getting old. I mean, they're a little old to me but, what else am I going to write? Posting a little bit everyday causes me to kind of run out of ideas--quickly--so, I'm going to pick another picture from my Flickr account and write a quick note about it.

But again: 58 days to Disney!

This picture was taken inside one of the Rubik's cube staircases at Pop Century. This particular picture was taken May 1st, 2010 but, on our last trip in 2014, Joy, the kids, and I were walking down these Rubik Cube stairs and, as were climbing down, I heard a loud slap against  the concrete steps. Joy and tripped and fallen! The slap sound was a combination of her hands and her leg hitting the stairs. Thankfully, she did not fall very far, but those stairs are just not very forgiving.

We'll all be sure to be a little more careful this year.

Tomorrow, another shot from Flickr and some more nonsensical comments. 

59 Days Until... WDW

Well, we're getting closer and closer to our trip so we're starting to buy stuff for the trip. Not much stuff though, yet. I mean, we're naturally going to need some snack food for the trip (there and back) but we're also going to need to buy shoes and a bunch of other non-exciting things. But these non-exciting things actually do help build the excitement.

When we started buying juice drinks, pop tarts, and other snack stuff for our last trip, we started stacking it up above our cabinets. Whether or not this was the best place for our trip supplies is irrelevant. It became a constant reminder of the fact that we had road trip coming. And not just any road trip. A road trip to Walt Disney World!

Well, that's it for tonight. Here's a shot of the kids posing outside our room(s) at Pop Century during our 2014 visit. The little puppy in the window is an example of the towel art (or whatever you call it) that the housekeepers make.

See ya!