Disney World PF Gathering and Tips for Disney Mania!

[jtbell]

OK, Zz, are you going to London for the premiere of the rediscovered film featuring Mickey's predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?

Disney 'holy grail' film 'Sleigh Bells' rediscovered (CNN.com)

 

[ZapperZ]

OK, Zz, are you going to London for the premiere of the rediscovered film featuring Mickey's predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?

Disney 'holy grail' film 'Sleigh Bells' rediscovered (CNN.com)

Probably not. :)

I read about this news this morning. Not really surprising considering that there's still a lot of missing early Walt's work that have yet to be found. Most of those are thought to be permanently lost.

Besides, I find Oswald stuff to be more of a curiosity than anything. I don't find the character to be that endearing.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Just got back from WDW this past Sunday. The Star Wars madness has taken over with the looming opening of the new Star Wars movie.

Disney's Hollywood Studios (DHS) is practically a Star Wars theme park already. In case you haven't heard, this theme park will be remodeled to add two new "themed land": Star Wars Land, and Toy Story Land. But these won't be completed till probably 2017 or later. In the mean time, they have already closed down several places, and about to close down even more after the first of the year. So DHS is lacking in attraction.

To counter that, Disney has introduced a lot of temporary Star Wars attractions at this park. If you are not familiar with this place, there is already a Star Wars area here that surrounds the Star Tours attraction, and this theme park already hosts the annual Star Wars Weekend, which is extremely popular. What they have done now, in conjunction with the upcoming movie, is to push it even more. There are now FOUR different parts of DHS that focuses on Star Wars theme. There is the Star Tours attraction and area, there is an old theater which has become almost like a Jedi training camp for kids, an area that was once part of the Backlot tour that has become a huge Star Wars merchandise store, and the former Disney Animation area that has been renamed as Star Wars Launch Bay, which was opened about a week when I got there.

The Star Tours attraction has already incorporated scenes, characters, and other stuff from the new movie. I was on this at least 4 times, and saw several variations based on the new movie. The Launch Bay area is actually quite interesting. It has a short movie on new Star Wars movie (I didn't see that), an area that is like a museum displaying stuff from the movie, and then a meet-and-greet area. I got pictures with Chewbacca and the Dark Lord himself, Darth Vader. It actually is a fun place, but I have a feeling that this is simply a temporary location until the Star Wars land is completed. Otherwise, all this Star Wars stuff a fragmented all over DHS.

Here are a few pictures that I took:

There were a lot of Storm troopers patrolling the Launch Bay area. We had to watch out what we say or they think we were with the Rebels.

This is the entrance to the Launch Bay attraction:

We skipped the movie and went straight to the display area.

We also saw the a couple of Jawas trying to make a deal.

We had lots and lots of photos with Chewy and Darth Vader. The best part is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was in character at this meet-and-greet, from the cast members that direct you to the photo area, to even the photographers. So when we were about to meet with Darth Vader, there was an ominous, foreboding atmosphere with all the cast members that were there. It was so cool!

DHS is definitely in transition, and will not have much to offer for the next couple of years during the construction period. But this Star Wars addition, even the temporary ones, should bring in the crowds, especially if the movie is a monster hit, which everyone is predicting it to be.

Zz.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

I had a chance to go to Disney Land (non-US) but I refused because it was expensive. The images you post clarify my doubt that Disney World was visited mostly by kids.

 

[ZapperZ]

I had a chance to go to Disney Land (non-US) but I refused because it was expensive. The images you post clarify my doubt that Disney World was visited mostly by kids.

Not sure how you got that. I looked at my photos, and the adults in those photos outnumbered the kids.

There were 6 of us who left from the Chicago-area on this trip, and we met up with 3 more friends who live down there. None of us were under the age of 50.

Zz.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

[...]None of us were under the age of 50.

Zz.

Oh my I think I like Disney Land more now.

 

[ZapperZ]

Oh my I think I like Disney Land more now.

Just to be sure, I was at Walt Disney World in Florida. This is the Disney resort with the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom theme parks.

DisneyLAND is in Anaheim, CA, and consists of Disneyland theme park and Disney's California Adventure.

Zz.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Just to be sure, I was at Walt Disney World in Florida. This is the Disney resort with the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom theme parks.

DisneyLAND is in Anaheim, CA, and consists of Disneyland theme park and Disney's California Adventure.

Zz.

Which one do you think is better for me then ?

 

[rbelli1]

They are on opposite ends of the country so location is an important aspect. DW is the bigger park and has more amusement park type stuff. If you want the full Disney experience then that is where you want to go. Also you are right near the gulf which is great for its beaches.

DL on the other hand is near Hollywood and fairly close to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. More bang for you're buck if you have a long way to go to get there and want to do non Disney things too.

BoB

 

[jtbell]

DL on the other hand is [...] fairly close to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

By that standard, DW is fairly close to Miami, the Everglades and Key West. And Cuba, after regularly scheduled commercial airline service from the US starts sometime next year.

 

[rbelli1]

True. I guess you would have to look around and see what points of interest you were most interested in in the areas if the choice of Disney park was not the most important.

I was just listing some interesting places near the smaller park. If the everglades sparks interest then that would be even more reason to go to DW rather than DL.

BoB

 

[nsaspook]

By that standard, DW is fairly close to Miami, the Everglades and Key West. And Cuba, after regularly scheduled commercial airline service from the US starts sometime next year.

I was in the Keys for a week after a week in DW. I would have loved to have taken a boat to Cuba from Key West.

 

[ZapperZ]

If you haven't seen Zootopia, drop everything and go see it. In my humble opinion, this is THE best movie that has come out of the Disney Animation unit since The Lion King. Just the scene with the sloth alone is worth the money! Oh my god, they stole the movie!

And the topic can't be any more perfect than what is happening right now socially here in the US and in many parts of the world. Not often one can say that about an animated movie.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Another movie plug. If you haven't done so, go see "Queen of Katwe", produced by Disney and ESPN film. It is an amazing, feel-good movie, and it is based on a true story! If you don't believe me, read the reviews so far. This is the movie you complained that Hollywood doesn't make.

It is too bad that Disney did not promote this movie even more.

But if this is the type of movie that Disney makes with all the money from Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, then I will gladly see "Finding Dory" again.

Zz.

 

[jtbell]

At a stamp show near Atlanta today, I saw a nice exhibit of early Mickey Mouse material.

 

[ZapperZ]

View attachment 112187 View attachment 112186

At a stamp show near Atlanta today, I saw a nice exhibit of early Mickey Mouse material.

I can't quite make out what they are. Are they stamps? First-day covers?

Zz.

 

[jtbell]

The thumbnails should expand to full size when you click on them. The first one is an advertising cover for (I guess) a toy store or department store in Chicago. Mickey is one of the passengers on a Lionel train. The second is an original sketch of Mickey as an airmail pilot for one of the early cartoons.

Unfortunately the clear plastic covers on the exhibit frames produce lots of reflections.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is no Mickey-Mouse research. The people at Disney Research has just developed a room where https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/disnet-develops-wireless-electricity various mobile electronics wirelessly.

You may actually read the open-access paper here.

Zz.

 

[nsaspook]

This is no Mickey-Mouse research. The people at Disney Research has just developed a room where https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/disnet-develops-wireless-electricity various mobile electronics wirelessly.

You may actually read the open-access paper here.

Zz.

I saw that a few days ago. No thanks at 40% to 95% efficiency (with maybe 50% being realistic for a typical sized room). Once you get above a few watts the losses will show up as an increased power bill and with metal walls the RF reception for your powered cell phone and WiFi devices might be a little poor unless you have a repeater system in each room. That pole carries a 140 A current at the max power level of 1900 W. That's not something I'd want little kids being around.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The people at Disney Research has just developed a room where https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/disnet-develops-wireless-electricity various mobile electronics wirelessly.

Do they call it "The Zappiest place on Earth"?

 

[AlexCaledin]

Cinderella(1950) without makeup, looks like young Mary Poppins:

 

[nsaspook]

Super cool!

 

[nsaspook]

"Gentlemen Sailors of the Caribbean"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneyland-remove-bride-auction-pirates-caribbean-ride-1018278

 

[ZapperZ]

If you have not seen Disney/Pixar latest masterpiece "Coco", be warned that you may encounter adults shedding tears during the movie. No Disney/Pixar movie has the same emotionally wrought moment since the opening sequence of "Up" and the ending of "Toy Story 3".

Highly recommended.

Zz.

 

[nsaspook]

 

[ZapperZ]

It isn't everyday that the topics of politics, physics, and Disney come together, but it certainly did in this one.

Here's a very obscure Disney trivia that you will get out of this: What currently-serving US Congressman designed and built the parade controller for Disney's Electrical Parade that debut at Disneyland?

Check out minute 5:50 in the video below for the answer.



BTW, he is currently the ONLY physicist left in the US congress.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

I finally extracted this info out of my phone. And since I'm a physicist, I had to analyze and chart it out (of course!). So during my last visit to WDW, this was how much I walked over the 9 full days that I was there:

Yeah, I walked a lot, but I also ate a lot, so they all wash out in the end. I also didn't walk as much as I used to, because we were not in any hurry or need to do anything much. Most of the time, we just sat on a nice bench and did people-watching as we stuffed our faces with snacks and drinks. It also helped that the Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival that was on while we were there also became Flower and Garden and Food Festival. There was no lacking of stuff to sample on.

Zz.

 

[Locrian]

Did you park hop? If you did, it might be fun to make it stacked bar charts, with different colors by park.

Ironically the last time I took my brother's family to MK he left disappointed with the number of steps he walked. I'm going to give credit for that to the combination of myself and Touring Plan's expert planning.

 

[nsaspook]

400+ days later.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The first one is an advertising cover for (I guess) a toy store or department store in Chicago.

And four years later...

Wieboldt's was a Chicago department store. It was famous for its multilingual staff: one could talk to the salespeople in the language of "the old country" whatever that was.