Here’s some promotional footage from Disney showing all of the previous Idol winners and finalists who came down for the opening of The American Idol Experience last weekend at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I’m still a little skeptical of just how this one’s going to do in the long term because it’s hard for me to imagine there being enough buzz about this show when it’s not on TV to garner six or eight shows worth of contestants each day – I know I’ve pretty much gotten tired of watching the show already, but I suppose only time will tell…
A little momento from our quizzical time spent exploring The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and I’m also happy to see that this one showed up a lot faster than last year’s message from the future…
Great break from the ordinary, and I think I even managed to stay at least reasonably within my calories to boot! Here are a few of the highlights…
photo courtesy Orlando Vista Hotel
A Night at the Pineapple Inn…
So unfortunately due to Disney’s insane prices during the peak season, we ended up staying off-site for this trip, which had its pros and cons. Our choice – the Orlando Vista Hotel – but of course, you may know it better as the hotel with the giant pineapple out front…Ultimately I guess we’d probably go back if we didn’t have any other off-site options, but at the same time, we certainly missed the perks of being right in the middle of the action, despite only being a couple of blocks away from Downtown Disney anyways. The pros – the price was right and the room size was decent, so we ended up with the equivalent of a moderate resort at Disney for about $85 … similar rooms on-property were over $200 because it fell both within peak season and just outside any passholder discounts. Even the value resorts were well over $100 / night, which I simply refuse to pay for that class of room, and at least the Orlando Vista had a hot tub, which the values do not. Albeit, it was very crowded when we partook in its bubbly warmth Friday evening, but it was still better than no hot tub.
As for the negatives, well … only a couple of things. First of all, it was really noisy between the drag racing competition outside and the AC inside! Apparently some folks opted to have a drag racing competition out on the road that runs in front of the hotel, which carried great into our room. And I’d say that true, the hotel really has no control over that kind of stuff, but for what it’s worth, at least on-property the guest rooms are so far away from any roads that you really don’t experience the same issue. On the other hand, they’ve got complete and total control over the air conditioner, which was so loud that I actually just got up and turned the thing off at one point in the night – luckily it being February, it was still cool enough without the thing. And then come morning, let’s just say that the bathroom experience certainly left something to be desired with the sub-adequate pressure in the shower that made the drip coffee maker in the lobby look inviting … call me spoiled, but at least in Disney’s hotels the showers have some ummph! to them!
Then again, if it hadn’t been for their preposterous prices, that’s where we would’ve loved to stay in the first place…
Ever Get Hit in the Face By a Bird?! I Have!
So we’re moseying along the walkway that connects Adventureland to Main Street USA – coming up on The Crystal Palace – when out of nowhere, a freaking duck flies by and smacks yours truly right in the side of the face! I really wish we’d have somehow gotten pictures of it to make it more believable, but it all just happened so fast our friends in front of my wife and I didn’t even know what hit me…literally! Basically the dive-bomber came in from behind us, but didn’t judge his distances quite right or something because he ran smack dab into me, then sort of bounced off of Sara’s shoulder before landing on a grassy patch on the other side of the fence and wabbling into the river. True story!Memories of Randy…
I noticed this when we were walking past the Tea Cups and it really caught me off guard – for those who might not be familiar with the name, Randy Pausch was an incredibly motivating man who got everyone’s attention in the fall of 2007 after he gave a presentation at Carnegie Mellon called The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the year before. The man lead an amazing life – he was a computer science professor at CMU, he put in some time working with – of all folks – Disney Imagineering, and he eventually came to found the Alice project, a type of software designed to help teach students computer programming. If you’re looking for a good bout of inspiration (and tears), his now famous lecture is still available on YouTube, and last year Disney also published a book of his stories that’s a great read as well.
New Feature Brainstorming – Where in the World???
And lastly, I don’t want to make too big of a deal about it here just yet, but in the course of my brainstorming for new columns and whatnot for this site that naturally seems to happen when I’m in Orlando, I think I came up with a new feature idea that I might try to play around with this fall. It centers around the concept of a guessing game for the various details that you might find around Walt Disney World – I’m not entirely sure on how to pull off exactly what I’m picturing just yet, but for now let’s just say that it should definitely add a fun bit of interactivity to the site!In the meantime, see if you can identify where these can be found around the World:
…and to all a good night!
Best of intentions, worst of results…as always.
“It’s a big blue world…”
