Mouse Extra

There is a great article on the Orlando Sentinel’s website by Scott Powers that is really worth a read.  He covers the whole “expired FastPasses” market that has popped up on the internet, a question I hear asked a lot by Disney World guests.

On most days, eBay features more than two dozen separate FastPass auctions, some for dozens of tickets. Some claim to offer VIP FastPasses good anywhere, anytime. Requested bid prices start at less than a dollar but can run into the hundreds of dollars.

Besides the people selling their old tickets online, there are also reportedly counterfeiters selling fake FastPass tickets out there as well, making the problem a growing concern for guests.  Even though Disney seems to wash its hands somewhat at this, don’t gloss over the fact that they too bare some responsibility in this.  But I think they really are not all that concerned, despite what they say.

This is one of those things I just don’t get.  The one and only problem, the one thing that can stop all of this from happening, is if cast members actually check the dates on the tickets.  How hard can this be?  If Disney really and truly wanted to stop these tickets from being sold, they can make them worthless to begin with.  But everyone knows they don’t look at the tickets much and you can often get away with handing over an expired one.

“Throwing it out in the trash” is an old news expression for releasing information late on Friday afternoon when no one is paying attention and no one reads the Saturday papers.  It is almost always information you know people are not going to be happy about and you want to minimize the impact.  That is exactly what Disney did last week when it tossed the Pleasure Island closing story into the trash.  They knew there would be a backlash, but I think they may have been a little overly cautious.

You see, on the whole I think this is a very good idea.  Sure, I don’t want to see the Adventurer’s Club close either, and hopefully Disney will figure a way to rework it into its future plans.  But the concept is a good one and a needed one.  Jim Hill was correct earlier this week when he talked about how Pleasure Island stands like a big wall between the Marketplace and the West Side.  A more seamless experience would be a big plus.

I also can not tolerate the idea of paying to get into a bar.  Call me old-fashioned, but plugging down money for a “cover” is just not in my plans.  I think the incredibly inflated drink prices are enough payment from me.  For this reason I almost never go into the clubs at Pleasure Island anymore.  I want places where I can go at night, and have a drink with my friends without having to pay a fortune.  Is that so much to ask?

And I also think the survey information we have heard so much about is also correct.  We do need some more and some new places where everyone can go to eat.  Personally, I don’t like the current crop of restaurants at Downtown Disney and I haven’t made a point to eat there in a long time.  Some new places, with great themes and atmosphere, would bring the masses back to Pleasure Island.

Why can’t we have more places that during the day and evening hours are magnificently themed family restaurants, but by night become fun hangouts for the over 21’s?  Raglan Road is a terrific example.  During the day, anyone can come in and enjoy good food in an Irish pub.  But when the night falls, it turns into a raucous drink-fest.  The best of both worlds can be achieved, but the current Pleasure Island clubs are just not set up for that.  (However, the Adventurer’s Club could be with a little retooling.)

So let’s not all fall into deep depression or start to panic here.  Disney already replaced a Pleasure Island club, the Jazz club, with the extremely popular Raglan Road.  There is no reason to believe the rest of what is coming won’t be equally as positive.

Disney World is usually not able to do much building in secret.  When new attractions or even resorts go up, there can be thousands of watchful eyes with cameras documenting the progress of the project and splashing it all over the internet.  But thanks to a relatively remote location, Disney’s biggest current expansion, the project along the Western Beltway, has been able to proceed almost completely unnoticed by guests.  Only the occasional internet reporter ventures out there.

But make no mistake about it, even though we are all focused on the Contemporary Resort project for the Disney Vacation Club and the new Pixar Place, Flamingo Crossing, as it is known, will be Disney’s biggest expansion in years.  It is also Disney World’s most unusual expansion and the first of its kind at the Mouse.  When it opens Flamingo Crossing will be home to “value” level third party shopping and hotels.  As an example of what we will find, I am hearing now that Red Roof Inn will be one of the hotels.

To me, this news is good news.  Yes, I appreciate the incredibly themed hotels Disney World offers.   Nobody loves them more than I do, but I am not one who thinks allowing more affordable units like Red Roof Inn somehow takes away from that.  In fact, with economy going south and airfares going very north, cheap rooms can only be considered a net positive for those who will really start to struggle to afford a plane ticket.

After my last trip, I have been in Walt Disney World for well over 30 days during the famous Year of a Million Dreams sweepsta…err…celebration.  And I am here to tell you that after all that time spent in the midst of this great “one of a kind” promotion I feel exactly the same way about it I did when I first heard of the plans.  I think it stinks, plain and simple.

I must first admit that I have never won anything in all that time.  Not a thing.  No silly mouse ears, no dream fast passes, just big fat nothing.  I guess you can say that my dreams have not come true.  But what is worse, because I really never expected to win anything, is that I have never even seen someone else win either?  What I have observed is scores of people all looking longingly at the now obvious “dream squads” as they walk by wondering what they need to do to have their dreams come true.  I can see the hopeful guests loitering in the area of the dream squad hoping that if they stay close perhaps they will be there when “the dream comes true”.  But, I have never seen success.

As I have said many times before, this is not a promotion or a celebration.  This is a sweepstakes, nothing more and nothing less.  And like nearly all sweepstakes, the goal is to get you to participate not to make sure you win.  Disney has done a brilliant job promoting these sweepstakes.  But they know darn well that the vast majority of those who participate by paying for a ticket to the park will go home empty handed.  No dreams will come true for them.  For a company who takes the word “dreams” so seriously, they have really cheapened it tremendously.

I can only hope that this nonsense will soon come to an end.  The promotional decorations are getting old and you can barely even find the dream squads anymore, though I guess that is an improvement from being teased by them passing you by and you getting nothing.  It is time for a celebration or a promotion that everyone who pays their hard earned money to afford the ridiculously high ticket prices can participate in and benefit from.

It is time for me to vent a bit.  There was only one thing in my recent 10 day trip to Walt Disney World that truly made me mad.  It happened last Monday when we all planned on going to the Animal Kingdom for “rope drop”.

The night before, I saw in my hotel that the Animal Kingdom was going to have an early Extra Magic Hour the next day.  So in response, we decided to go to that park and take advantage of the extra time to get on the “e-tickets” that tend to get crowded very quickly over there.  So I got my entire family out of bed before 7am, and they were not all thrilled about that to say the least, and headed over to the park.

We got there a few minutes after 8am, and as we walked towards the gate and through the bag check I noticed a significant line at the turnstile.  It seemed strange to me to even have a line, but what was even stranger was that as we got closer I noticed it wasn’t moving at all.  What could be happening?  There was a good crowd of people so we clearly weren’t the only ones coming for Extra Magic Hours.

Soon I realized the park was not yet open.  What was going on here?  It was only maybe five minutes after 8am.  All these people could not be here this early unless they also knew about the Extra Magic Hours.  I looked around for a cast member and noticed a man swamped with people and questions.  I made my way over and eavesdropped on his conversation with other guests.

He was apologizing and telling his angry customers that management had no idea it was supposed to be and Extra Magic Hour this morning.   Their schedules didn’t say this, and he didn’t know what to tell us.  All he could say was that management knew now of the problem and expectations.  SO I assumed they were scrambling to open as soon as possible.

But the hour crept by and crowds grew larger and larger.  At about 8:40 we were let threw the turnstiles only to wait the remaining twenty minutes in front of the Tree of Life.  Instead of an Extra Magic Hour of small lines and low crowds, we faced a completely packed park filled with ornery guests.  Disney did nothing to rectify the situation or even offer and apology of some sorts.  Only that one poor cast member swamped with angry resort guests ever offered a simple “sorry”.

What could they have done?  Perhaps nothing, but why did this happen?  How could such a terrible mistake be made?  Has this ever happened to you?

Thanks to all of our readers for being patient over the last two weeks.  The entire staff was on an extended stay at Walt Disney World and we only just got back late last night.  It was ludicrously hot, terrifically fun and it absolutely stinks to be home.  When the folks at the Boardwalk say “welcome home” I tend to take it a bit too seriously…

But the good news is that we have loads of new photos, stories, and reviews to send your way so check back often during the coming days as we try and cram it all in.  We hit some new restaurants to review and even some new attractions.

Later today I promise to have a full report from this weekend’s Toy Story Mania passholder and DVC member preview.  I have loads of photos from inside the new Pixar Studios area at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to download off my camera so give me some time to get that done and check back with us later.