Now You Can Have A Beer In WDW's Magic Kingdom

The Dining Room at Be Our Guest in WDW

The soon-to-be opened lavish Be Our Guest restaurant within the confines of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Fantasyland expansion is set to open pretty soon. The restaurant will be a counter service operation by day but at night for dinner it transforms into a lovely sit-down table service dinner setting. Don't bother to try and get a reservation for the rest of this year, the place is booked up.

But with the dinner table service menu a door has been ever so slightly cracked open. For the first time ever, a domestic Disney signature park (which is Disneyland in CA and Magic Kingdom in FLA) will offer the sale of beer or wine to the general public. Disneyland does serve alcohol in its exclusive Club 33 but that restaurant is restricted to members and invited guests. No alcoholic beverages have been sold in either Disneyland or Magic Kingdom up until now.

Now this little announcement is not earth shattering. Be Our Guest (kind of a dumb name for a restaurant if you ask me) will only offer beer and wine during its dinner service and alcoholic beverages will still not be available in other MK park locations and Disneyland still remains alcohol free to the public but you have to admit, the door has been opened even if it is just a tiny bit.

It would be one of my predictions that alcohol sales will be commonplace with Disneyland and Magic Kingdom within 10 years or so. Disney tends to look less on past traditions these days and more towards the future in ways to generate the revenue shareholders demand. The profits made on alcoholic beverages, espcecially at Disney prices, is enormous. One of the primary purposes of the ElecTRONica and Mad T street parities in DCA is to serve high priced adult beverages. It's a revenue stream that I believe Disney will not turn its back. Instead, though it might be slow and subtle, the presences of alcohol in Disney parks will continue to grow. Just too much money to be made,

Walt Disney World vs. The Home Office

Walt Disney World in Florida is near the top of the list of most sought after tourist destinations in the world and with good reason - deluxe accommodations, fine dining experiences, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a sports complex, golf, and many other activities. Grand and spacious, you could spend weeks there and still not take it all in. Fans of Walt Disney World sometimes have an air of smugness about them simply because in their world - size matters. One thing that WDW has in spades is size.

And fans of WDW have a tendency to get defensive when you bring up the Disneyland Resort compared their park. After all, compared to WDW, Disneyland is down right puny. But the last few years, WDW fans have had to take it on the chin a bit and they don't like it.

I think it started with the lush World of Color and the plans for Disney California Adventure expansion. WDW was expanding too - expanding Fantasyland - but DCA got Cars Land (and Buena Vista Street). How come DCA gets the good stuff, never mind the fact it flat out needed something to bring it to life after years on life support? And the hot topic (or hot button topic depending on who you ask) is the bringing in of the Marvel brand into the theme park realm - something that can be done in Disneyland but cannot be done in WDW due to contractual agreements with Universal that are in place.

But there's other things too. D23 - Disney's exclusive "fan club" primarily caters to the Southern California contingent. Expo number 3 is slated for next year in Anaheim and grand plans to bring the show to Orlando seem more like wishful thinking.

There's a reason why Disney pays so much attention to its little park in Anaheim. Despite it size, WDW is not "the home office". Disney corporate offices are in Burbank along with its film and TV enterprises (excluding Northern California's Pixar and Connecticut's ESPN). Disneyland sits in their backyard (or about 30 miles away or so). When Disneyland has a major project, company execs like Bob Iger, Tom Staggs, and John Lasseter tend to be around front and center. True, Meg Crofton runs both U.S. Disney Resorts along with Disneyland Paris and she is headquartered in Orlando but compared to Bob and Tom and John, Meg is a minion. Disney has the bulk of its resources in Southern California both people and things so its easy for them to trot out celebrities and movie memorabilia without much logistical effort.

And then there is one thing that fans of Disneyland can always hang their hat on - Disneyland is the only Disney park Walt Disney himself ever stepped foot in. You can see Walt's presence every time you walk by the Main St. firehouse and see the light on in his upstairs apartment. You can go on the rides that Walt personally oversaw the construction. There are pictures of Walt in the Tiki Room, in the Golden Horseshoe, walking through Sleeping Beauty's Castle, having coffee in the Cafe Orleans, riding the Mark Twain or his beloved steam trains. Walt Disney also conceived Disney World and EPCOT but the most visibility you see with his involvement with those endeavors is pictures or TV clips of him standing around maps.

Yes, Disneyland is Walt's park. The corporate types that run the place now basically use Walt as a marketing tool but the fans of Disneyland know better. 

The fans of WDW in Florida have the crown jewel of resort destinations. The fans of Disneyland have a man of very large dreams and imagination. Its been that way for almost 60 years now.

Expedition Everest, A Broken Yeti, and Be Careful What You Wish For.

My wife's new boss came back from a trip to Walt Disney World with his family a week or so ago. He had a great time and he singled out Expedition Everest, the massively themed coaster in WDW Animal Kingdom as a ride he went on multiple times because its just simply great.

Fast forward about a week where MiceChat's behind the scenes feature blog The 626 (link here) gives the story of Expedition Everest's fearsome Yeti animatronic which suffered structural failure shortly after the ride opened and hasn't been fixed since. As The 626 points out, WDI probably overshot themselves by creating such a massive animtronic (the ride and mountain had to be built around it) that the stand-alone supporting structure did not have the ability to sustain support for the multi-ton creature that physically moved out over the the track. Instead of motion, imagineers now flash strobe lights at the fixed non-moving creature which gives a bit of an illusion of motion that just isn't there. WDW regulars ask why can't Disney fix the thing now years later from when the problem was first discovered. The scores of people who visit WDW occasionally could care less. The ride is a true thrill just the way it is.

There's a lesson here for us Disneyland people. Park fans in forums are constantly railing about the various parts of both Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain which do not work at all or extremely slow to get fixed. They continue to shake a fist at the tarp covered Alice in Wonderland ride with its tacky railing that Cal-OSHA insisted was necessary for worker safety or safety of passengers in case of evacuation. That little event occurred over a year ago now and Ugly Alice still hasn't been fixed.

Here's the rub. Of course everyone wants a ride to be exactly as brilliant imagineers designed it to be fully functional in every detail. But over time, things tend to break down (even me). Now some things can be fixed up relatively quickly. Other things take a very long time and require budget considerations because fixing these things doesn't come cheap. So what would you prefer? A running ride performing at 80 or 90% of how it was designed or shut the ride down for months of refurbishment. Its easy for those who live within short driving distance to Disneyland to choose the refurbishment. They've been on these attractions so many times that they can easily wait out months of repair. For those who plan Disneyland trips for next year or even two years from now, having an attraction like Indiana Jones or Splash Mountain down for refurbishment can be extremely disappointing, maybe even a trip deal breaker. Disney is in a tough position here but ultimately they like to keep their major attractions running especially, during peak periods, and only take them down for extended periods when its absolutely necessary (Indiana Jones Adventure is rumored to be coming up for an extended refurbishment). 

I'm good with this approach. Why would I really care if a few items stopped working as they should as long as I can get on the ride to begin with?  Half a ride is better than none as they say.

For west coasters who haven't experienced Expedition Everest, here is one of the better videos from MouseSteps. Yes, the coaster does roll backwards for a few heart pounding seconds. The strobe effect Yeti shows up at just before the 3 minute mark. Pretty weak.

Missing Out on Expedition Everest

I wrote a post to this blog last month called My Aborted Trip to Walt Disney World (link is here) that basically ends with my being good when surgery ended my 8 month journey planning a trip to Walt Disney World.  In 2012, other than its massive size and scale along with a true resort experience, WDW and Disneyland have more similarities than differences these days.  But you know what, I think the one thing I regret most about not making that trip, other than staying at the Grand Floridian and enjoying far more adventurous dining options, I miss not being able to go on Expedition Everest.  I think a ride on this thing was tops on my to-do lists for the parks even though I know Mrs. DisneylandTraveler would not go near it.

This may be Disney's most impressive ride attraction built over the last 10 years or so only to be outdone (probably) by the firing up of the new Radiator Springs Racers in about 2 months.  Yes, Expedition Everest is a manufactured roller coaster, and even though it does have the novelty of going backwards for a short segment Indiana Jones Adventure had that feature first, and yes, it is a variation of Disneyland's venerable Matterhorn, Expedition Everest looks spectacular and by all accounts provides thrills for its passenger.  There have been the oft mentioned complaints about the Yeti features inside the ride not working for years on end but all of that didn't matter to me, I really wanted to go EE to experience the attraction first hand.  I don't know if I will ever get the chance.  I'm good with not having made to WDW in 2010 but there is the lingering doubt on missing out with Expedition Everest.

Enjoy a ride on Expedition Everest courtesy of TheCoasterViews on YouTube.

The WDW Avengers Skinned Monorail...That's OK, Keep It.

As they did to promote the release of the movie TRON: Legacy, our friends over at Walt Disney World (well, the U.S. Disney parks are all run by same cast of characters) has taken one of their monorails and put a skin on it to promote the upcoming Disney/Marvel movie The Avengers.  Here is a YouTube video produced by Disney of the monorail zipping around the WDW resort.

Now no one is looking forward to The Avengers more than I am.  I just watched Iron Man 1 last night and it is my plan to watch all the Avengers predecessor movies over the next month just to refresh my memory and be current with the story by the time the new movie hits the screen on May 4th.  Just for the record - Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America the First Avenger are the prequels to the The Avengers.  So having an Avengers themed monorail scoot around Walt Disney World this spring is a nice tie-in.

So as much as I am an Marvel / Avengers fan, Walt Disney World can keep the monorail with the cool skin job.  For as cool as the skin job is, the Walt Disney World's monorails are a generation  behind the monorails that run at Disneyland.  The Disneyland monorails are Mark VII's while Disney World still operates the Mark VI version.  The SoCal trains just look better just they are and really don't need any theming or "skinning" to improve their looks.  So thumbs up from the Disneyland Traveler to The Avengers themed monorail, just keep it in Florida.  We like our monorails just as the are in Blue, and Red, and Orange.

A couple of quick looks at the Monorail Red around Disneyland. 

My Aborted Trip To Walt Disney World

Back in the spring of 2010, with some good fortune and an influx of cash, Mrs. DisneylandTraveler, the Boy, and me decided to take the plunge a book a trip to Walt Disney World.  Being that a trip to WDW requires a lot of planning, we decided to make the trip over the Christmas holidays some 8 months away from when we started to put this all together.

From reading WDW websites, I already had a lot of information but now it came down to making choices which is far different than planning.  Making a choice becomes a commitment and the one thing you don't want to do when making a trip to WDW, which is some 3000 miles from where we live, is make a wrong choice. A wrong choice is an expensive mistake.

It all starts off with where to stay.  Mrs. DLT and I can plan a weeks vacation to Disneyland at the drop of a hat.  WDW is a different beast with so many choices available beginning with your hotel.  I was good with one of the Port Orleans hotels but Mrs. DLT wanted to stay on the monorail line which limits the choices down to 3. The Contemporary? Too bland. The Polynesian? Too tropical especially at Christmas. So now we are down to the granddaddy of them all - the Grand Floridian.  A stay at the Grand Floridian over the Christmas holidays makes a stay at the Grand Californian seem like a Disney steal. When it came down to it, we were looking at over $900 a night. Going to sleep at  night I was breaking into cold sweats over the thought. It seems that when Mrs. DLT and I have to make a vote and the vote spits - she wins. Its easier that way. It took us a good two or three weeks to make a hotel decision.

Next up, reservations. I knew there were some restaurants that were "must-do's" on my list of things to do. To get a reservation at some of them (Le Cellier for example) you had to make a reservation 180 days in advance. Not 179 days - 180 exactly. And we wanted a Fantasmic dining package and we wanted to see the fireworks from one of the boats and we wanted to see the Candlelight Processional with a dining package and on and on... It got to be overwhelming. It got to be STRESSFULl. The fun was gone. This was work, hard work.

Mrs. DLT finally figured out we needed help and began the process of contacting travel agents. I highly, highly, recommend this to anyone who is a newbie at planning a trip to WDW. Travel agents in general aren't required so much anymore in the days of the internet. People are under the assumption that using a travel agent is expensive. It probably is - for Disney. Disney pays the travel agent fees based on the booking not the traveler. What you do find out however is travel agents like to feel people out to see how serious they are about booking a trip. They do not want to invest a lot of time on someone is kinda, sorta, thinking about making a trip. Mrs. DLT went through a couple of travel agents before she found one she was comfortable working with. We had an awful lot of questions and the agent we finally went with answered all our questions patiently before we committed to anything.

With the travel agent at work, we got all our reservations made as the Christmas season dates opened up. We had quite an agenda, one that would make any WDW Traveler jump for much anticipated joy. But as they say.... the best laid plans......

As a precursor to our WDW, Mrs. DLT and I went down to Disneyland in late September 2010 for a nice week's stay. Had a great trip as I recall (they usually are). But something happened immediately after we returned home. I had a blockage. Tried for weeks to treat with antibiotics and other medications but to no avail. It wouldn't clear and I was staring at surgery. 

On December 22, 2010 the very same day were to land in FLA for our WDW trip of a lifetime, I was on a operating table and a little South African urologist was working over my prostate. For various reasons, a trip to WDW is now off the table for Mrs. DLT and me. That trip we planned in 2010 was actually our third attempt to plan a trip to WDW in the years we have been married. Something has come up each time to derail our plans. 

Any you know what? I'm now good with not making a trip to WDW. The more you study about the place the more you realize that it has more in common with Disneyland than differences. Inside the parks, many of the rides and attractions are much the same just spread out over 4 parks instead of 2. True - WDW is much, much, bigger than the Disneyland Resort and has much more to offer in terms of places to stay and excellent dining but I'm just fine with Disneyland.

And by saving about $15000, bad prostate and all, I was able to sleep much better at night.

Avatarland - A Visionary Plan Or A Half-Baked Idea

A Disney Parks Blog Image

OK, a show of hands out there - who saw this coming?  Announced today by Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and Disney Parks Chairman Tom Staggs, Disney is entering into a licensing agreement with James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox to bring Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar as a fully conceptualized "land" in Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom park.  This announcement stunned the Disney community and now some 12 hours later, discussion forums are still buzzing with most of the die-hard Disney fans finding it hard to explain this move.  Of course there are the usual Disney apologists ("please Disney, don't take away my press credentials") backing the company as something big that needed to be done for AK.  These would also be the same people that if this were suggested by some forum poster they would turn around crucify him or her for being some kind of lunatic.

No, Disney had to do something big in Florida after getting kicked in the behind all summer by that snot nosed Harry Potter character over at Universal.  "Tom, what can we do to beat down that punk Harry Potter?"  "How about Avatar, boss?  That movie was huge at the box office and they have more of them in the pipeline."  "Excellent idea, get that pain in the rear egomaniac Cameron on the phone and let's see what we can do."

Real Disney fans who do not go the apologist route are a bit smarter than the smartest guys in the room give them credit for.  Avatar has nothing to do with Disney, it's history or it's legacy.  Avatar isn't even an established franchise as Star Wars and Indiana Jones were when Disney brought them aboard.  This is a chance at a money grab, to capitalize and market on what they are expecting to be huge opportunities.

The complaint line formed hours ago.  Maybe Disney will listen.  I can only be happy that this half-baked idea is going down in Florida. I phoned my wife this afternoon and told her that they were building an Avatarland in Animal Kingdom.  Her response?  "Avatar! The movie? That isn't Disney. How bizarre".  That pretty much sums it up.