Mouse Magic HD Blogs

Link: http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/July/allornothingday.htm

Today is All or Nothing Day. How will your day go? Will you have it all....or nothing. (Sounds to me, a little like "Deal, or no Deal?"

How would one describe All or Nothing Day. It is certainly as day of extremes. If you're a gambler, it's a day to go for broke. A little drastic day, perhaps. There's definitely no grey area in how you spend this day

We hope you have it all on All or Nothing Day, and every day.

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This one came to me VERY quickly, but let's go about this a little more closely.

An honorable mention could be The Magic Kingdom's Mad Tea Party; as there is always a reason to celebrate: a Birthday, or an UN-Birthday. This would be a case of All. A celebration of Nothing can be found in Epcot's Ellen's Energy Adventure, when Bill Nye (The Science Guy) shows Ellen the time before the Big Bang, when there was…well…Nothing!

Since there are no Shades of Gray, I guess Shades of Green resort is out as well. Sorry, Veterans!

Back to my initial thought…when I think of All or Nothing…I think of none other than Epcot's Mission:Space. You choose the Orange (intense) mission, or the Green (gentle) mission. I for one see this as a "you can ride this ride as intended, or watch it on TV" kind of choice. For me, It's ALL SYSTEMS GO on the Orange Mission!

I know there are those who are prone to claustrophobia or motion sickness, who would not get to ride, so it's nice that thee is the TV version they can "ride". But, I'm a Black or White kind of guy!

So, today I salute you, Mission:Space, for being my epitome of All or Nothing Day!

Coming soon to a theatre near you..... Toy Story 3! As it is only 39 days away, lets take a look at the newest PIXAR creation.

The plot, courtesy of my friends at Wikipedia:

Andy (John Morris), now 17 years old, is just days away from heading off to college, and his toys, including Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), are worried about their uncertain future.

Andy plans to keep Woody and put the others in the attic, but his mother accidentally throws them away. Opening the trash bag they're in, the toys think that Andy is throwing them away on purpose. Jessie (Joan Cusack) thinks the toys should take charge of their own destiny, and convinces them to stow away in a box of other toys headed for donation to Sunnyside Daycare. Woody, trying to save the toys from being thrown away, realizes they're in the donation box. He tries to rescue them, but before he can leave, Andy's mom puts him in the box and closes the back door.

When the toys arrive at Sunnyside they meet many new faces, such as Lotso (Ned Beatty), a pink strawberry-scented teddy bear who is the leader of the Sunnyside toys, and a smooth-talking Ken (Michael Keaton) doll, who falls head over heels for Molly's Barbie doll (Jodi Benson).

The toys are keen on starting a new life at the daycare, except for Woody, who unsuccessfully tries to convince them that Andy hasn't abandoned them. Woody tries to escape, but ends up being taken home by a little girl named Bonnie, who takes him to meet her own toys including Trixie the Triceratops (Kristen Schaal), the rag doll Dolly (Bonnie Hunt), a Totoro doll, and the thespian hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton). Mr. Pricklepants tells Woody the horrors of Sunnyside Daycare.

Before long, the other toys discover through Mrs. Potato Head's (Estelle Harris) missing eye that Andy is actively searching for them after noticing they're missing, and realize how much he still cares for them. To make matters worse, they also learn that some of their new friends aren't as friendly as they thought. When Woody returns to the toys they then come up with a plan to return to Andy's family, but Buzz is damaged during an escape attempt. The toys try to reset Buzz, only to make him revert to a delusional Spanish version of his old self, much to the other toys' discomfort and Jessie's amazement.

The toys now must all work together to get Woody home before Andy leaves for college.

I don't know about you, but I can't wait. Here's the trailer:

Like that? Here's the other one.

See you at the theatre June 18th, 2010.

Link: http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/February/cardreadingday.htm

Card Reading Day is a fun day. It's a day to read cards..... no more, no less.

Beyond a doubt, the stationery and Ecard companies love this day. It encourages you to send cards. They like that.

As we did our research, we thought we'd find some history that suggest it is a day for Tarot card readings. It very well could be. But, we found no written evidence to support our theory.

What we can tell you, is that its very popular to send and receive cards today. In order to read a card, someone has to send one. So, get the ball rolling and send out some cards today. Chances are, you will get a few back.

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Well! Honestly, my first instinct for this day is the card readers that let you in to each park…those wonderful biometric scanners, then I thought of the security line, and the people who simply refuse to learn that they have to open EVERY zippered section of their bag… *shudder*

Then, bizarrely, my thoughts turned towards the Backstage Magic tour I took, and the way cast members had to scan in their uniform / costumes using their ID badges…but that's too obscure.

Finally, I land on the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom…specifically, the Madame Leota crystal ball seance scene. Nothing evokes the feeling of a creepy tarot session that the floating head-in-a-ball can conjure!

So, on this Card Reading Day, I salute you, The Haunted Masion!

Recently Disney has started testing a queue less (aka no line) system for the E-Ticket Attraction Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This concept was first widely mentioned back in September when Jay Rasulo announced the Fantasyland expansion for Walt Disney World. A popular attraction, Dumbo, would be relocated, doubled in size and feature a queue less wait system.

So how can guests not wait in line and yet still keep order for attractions? The idea is simple. When you arrive at an attraction you get a ticket/boarding pass, etc. If you have ever flown Southwest you will know exactly what I am talking about. This pass will let you know what group you are a part of. While you wait for your group to be called there are various activities for you to do in the area. In the case of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster there is a DJ along with Rock Band/Band Hero/Guitar Hero (note I am not sure which games exactly) type games for guests to play.

This system of course has some huge draw to park guests, the obvious one is not having to stand in a line which theme parks are known for. Getting rid of the line will make people happier right? Well I am not so sure about that. You are still waiting the same amount of time to board the attraction, now you have options to entertain yourself and you don't have to be standing in front of the crying kid for the 30 minutes as you snake around in the line.

However, Disney has gone to great lengths to have an entire attraction follow a storyline and this includes the queue. Disney Imangineers have put a lot of details into designing the queue while continuing the story. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is a great example and now Disney has removed the first chapters of this story they are telling. Sure, guests will still walk through the lobby of G Force Records as they make their way to the recording studio but a lot of those little details will be lost.

I don't see Disney becoming completely queue less in the future. I can see certain attractions where this system makes sense, such as with Dumbo but I believe what makes Disney stand out above all other parks is the ability to tell a story from beginning, when you step into the queue, to the end, when you step into the gift shop.

Photos from Rock 'n' Roller Coaster available at StudiosCentral.com

Disney just recently released an official wait time application called Mobile Magic. It however is limited to the Verizon network, select models of phones on that network and comes with an access fee. Disney did release a non-platform based option that is free at http://m.disneyworld.com/ however the posted wait times (as well as fastpass return) are not listed with times but just descriptions such as "Moderate" wait making it difficult to decide if the wait times is worth it or not.

iPhone users are familiar with a plethora of wait time applications that range from free to a few dollars to purchase. The apps feature current wait times of attractions with some adding additional features such as GPS location, park maps, etc. These apps work by having users submit the wait times while in the parks. Some apps even go as far as storing previous data so when user submitted data is unavailable en estimated time can be shown.

As stated before all the iPhone apps currently rely on users submitting the wait time which of course can be problematic. What if no one is submitting times? What if someone is submitting incorrect times? Now there is an even better solution for wait times on the go. Enter Touring Plans' (ding!) "Lines". It is a web based application that you load in Safari on your iPhone (and now also supports Android or Palm Pre/Pixi) and away you go.

I did an initial browse of Touring Plans Lines and I am highly impressed. The interface is very easy to use, it recommends which parks to visit and which to avoid. It also has which parks have Extra Magic Hours that day as well as the normal operating hours of the parks. Looking to see what the crowds will be like in the parks that day? Well the webapp will tell you that as well using Touring Plans' infamous crowd calendar.

So what makes Lines such a great app over the number of its "clones" in the Apple App store? Touring Plans Research Staff have decades worth of data which is inputted into this web app. That is right, hard numbers and statistics that can be used to estimate actual (not posted) wait times. There is a feature for users to submit the posted wait time, however Lines does not rely on user submissions to post the wait times. (Please still submit wait times while in the parks, the staff would be very appreciative and it will further help their statistics. Even if the wait time is spot on submit the time so they know they are correct in their calculations.) In addition to the current wait times Lines will even take it a step further and let you view the estimated times for later in that day. What other wait time app can predict the future?

So how accurate is Touring Plans' Lines? Well I have not had the pleasure of personally testing the web app yet (research trip anyone?) however those who have, give it high reviews. I personally would be very confident with using the web app as a major tool in my touring the parks as the Touring Plans Research Team have worked a number of countless hours over many years to compile statistical data in order to provide high quality touring plans for families.

Touring Plans' Lines is currently free for registered users (basic membership is free and requires registration) for a limited time. I highly suggest you check out the web app even if you are not in the parks. Even after the service is paid based it will be well worth the $8.95/year (discounts available to those who own certain books, check out the site for more information on registration) to access this web app as well as a number of other features from Touring Plans. Visit http://m.touringplans.com on your phone to sign in and test the web app. Don't forget to add a bookmark to your home screen for quick and easy access with a cool icon.