Mousetacular: More Disney December 2011 Fan Meets

Shortly after my posts about All Ears December to Remember and WDW Today Reunion, I received a note from the folks at Mousetacular to let me know about their December 2011 Disney fan meets. Mousetacular’s offerings are a bit on the higher end than the other meets I’ve mentioned, as all involve meals and sometimes souvenirs.

I’m glad there’s plenty of room in the cottage industry of Disney fan businesses to support a variety of events. While I’ve still got my eye on that ticket to the All Ears Toy Story Mania event, I’m glad to know that Mousetacular has a similar event planned the next day. The Mousetacular price is a bit higher, and it’s not entirely clear to me how much that’s a matter of business model (e.g. sponsorships, profit margins), or of different plans for catering and/or other aspects of the events, which I know can significantly affect costs.

And of course, all this makes me nostalgic for MouseFest, when I could just go to one web site and find out about all the meets that various groups were having. Mind you, I seem to recall that there couldn’t be a fee associated with any meets held under the MouseFest umbrella, so the meets were a little different. But there was a certain convenience and unity to having a central organizing focus for all the meets, and I miss that.

At any rate . . . I’ll be there in December, at some variety of events. Just 162 days to go!

All Ears December to Remember Fan Meets 2011

Okay, I booked flights for my next Disney trip just knowing about Reunion . . . but now I’ve discovered that AllEars.net also has a great line-up of meets this December 8-11, 2011.

But I probably shouldn’t have even said anything . . . because some of these events have very limited capacity and I don’t want y’all buying up the tickets before I have a chance! Tickets go on sale sometime in July.

I’m really glad to see both fan meets will be in town, in part because they’re operating with different business models. For Reunion, there are significant benefits to booking through the event sponsor, as you get tickets to a special reception, and you can buy tickets for hard-ticket events before the general public. But if like me, you’re using frequent flier miles and staying in your own time share, this means that booking through any travel agent isn’t really an option. So, I’m glad there’s another option now with AllEars, where I can just obsessively check my email and other electronic feeds to see when tickets go on sale, and hope I get in early enough.

Checking now . . . and now . . . and now . . .

Anti-gay Banners Flown Over Gay Days at Disney World

From WESH.com:

The Florida Family Association is boycotting [Gay Days at Walt Disney World, June 4-5]. The group is spending $7,000 to fly banners for two days near Disney warning unsuspecting families, “They’re about to be thrust into a crowd of thousands reveling in gay pride.”

Hmm. Is there someone we could convince to fly banners warning us when crowd levels are higher than anticipated, or Space Mountain is down, or Kilimanjaro Safaris is closing early, or other such factors? Clearly any of these interfere with park touring far more than a bunch of people hanging out in red shirts, especially since (rumor has it) the late-night partying keeps crowd levels fairly low at rope drop.

But on a more serious note: If you haven’t been to Gay Days and wonder what they’re really like, try listening to a few people who have. (I haven’t been yet myself, and receiving happy photos from a friend over the weekend strengthened my resolve to get there one of these years!)

WDW Today Reunion 2011

Watch out world! The frequent-flier gods have smiled upon me, so I’ve just booked my flights for WDW Today Reunion 2011, December 8-11, 2011, at Walt Disney World. I had a fantastic time when I attended the WDW Today Reunion and other fan meets in December of 2009, and I’m looking forward to meeting up with both familiar faces and new friends this year.

There are only a few meets on the schedule so far, but it’s still more than 200 days away so I’ll bet more will be added. I’m definitely looking forward to filling up a Starspeeder, and giving Babycakes another chance. Plus, one of the great things about these fan meets is that people tend to be super-friendly, so if you’re traveling solo it’s easy to meet up with like-minded Disney geeks and hit the rides together, grab a meal, or just plain geek out over the difference between the Haunted Mansion variations worldwide.

Booking packages through MouseFan Travel brings certain perks (I particularly envy the VIP event and priority standing for event ticket purchases), but isn’t required for Reunion attendance. Reunion registration is free, not required, and online now.

WDW Today on Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse at Walt Disney World

WDW Today took Disney World planning tips to a whole new level with Episode 837 – Mmmm… brainsss! in which they discuss best strategies for defending the parks against zombie hordes.

I would like to please request follow-up episodes on surviving an onslaught of sparkly vampires, or city-crushing monsters. Kthxbai.

Current Contract Offer for WDW Union Cast Members

News broke late last week that Disney had reached a tentative agreement with the unions. And at first blush, it doesn’t look so bad, right? According to WKMG:

The latest agreement gives more then 20,000 Disney workers guaranteed annual pay raises for 3 years. They’ve been offered $650 bonuses with an additional $100 to workers who make $8.50 per hour or less. Disney agreed to continue to pay more than 70 percent of the cost of comprehensive health care coverage.

But, as that same news source reports, it’s only the “majority” of the unions who are in support of the contract. And the members still need to vote to ratify it, on February 25. The Local 362 blog is running pictures and stories of members who plan to vote No.

Joseph Guiteau is voting No

I couldn’t find details of the actual contract anywhere online, so I dropped a note to Local 362 (one of the dissenting unions), and received the following information in response:

All Full-Time employees on the day of the vote receive an additional $100 if vote passes

Bonus Summary

If vote passes:

You receive $750 if you make less than $8.50 per hour (non-tipped) and were working before 10/2/10

You receive $650 if you make more than $8.51 per hour (non-tipped) and were working before 10/2/10

You receive $100 if you were hired since 10/2/10

Wage increases

Workers hired before 12/12/1998 – “Topped-out”

4/3/2011                4/1/2012                3/31/2013

2% wage increase        2.25% wage increase     2.5% wage increase

Workers hired after 12/12/1998 – “In-range”

4/3/2011                4/1/2012                3/31/2013

3% wage increase        3% wage increase        3% wage increase

Minimum wage increase of $0.25 for “in-Range”
wage scale

This reflects additional money from the Company on the Bonus amounts. The wage increases are the same as previously proposed.

Unfortunately nothing changed on the cost of health care. The increases will result in workers making less at the end of the contract. The family plan is slated to go up 96 cents per hour over the life of the contract (If you get 40 hours – which many employees don’t).

A  [sic] Attractions, Custodial or Merchandise employee working at Disney at least 13 years is slated to receive 88 cents per hour in wage increase during the contract. If they have a family and that cost increases 96 cents in the same time period, they would be making 8 cents less per hour.

Not surprisingly, a Disney spokesperson talking with WKMG sees things differently:

“The fact is that the overwhelming majority of cast members will end up with more money at the end of the contract,” said Andrea Finger, a Disney spokesperson.

I’d need a whole lot more information to crunch the numbers and figure out if she’s right (how many have 13 years seniority? how many have families?). But I do know that following a year of record stock prices and a huge raise for Iger, I’d like to see Disney Cast Members paid a little better too.

Celebrating Lisa's birthday with Cast Member Jack

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: A big part of the appeal of a Disney vacation is the outstanding Guest Services that the Cast Members bring. Almost every time I’ve traveled to a Disney Park, I’ve met at least one Cast Member who’s gone above and beyond the call of duty to fix a problem, or help me celebrate a special occasion. It’s just good business sense to pay Cast Members well enough to allow them to make a career of it, and not just make Disney a stopping-off-point on their way to better-paying jobs elsewhere.

Anita Bryant and the Orange Bird

Orange Bird Vinylmation at D Street, WDW Downtown Disney

The Orange Bird’s been popping up lately in a lot of Walt Disney World merchandise, including the cute little Vinylmation above.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at the Orange Bird without thinking of Anita Bryant, with whom the little cute was originally associated. When I was at Walt Disney World last month, all the Orange Bird stuff was really bugging me. As a Northern California child in the 1970s, I remember boycotting orange juice to protest her stand against lesbian and gay rights. From glbtq.com:

The first glbtq boycott to receive considerable media attention took place in 1977 when Anita Bryant, a pop singer and former Miss Oklahoma then employed as a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission, founded an organization called Save Our Children, which was dedicated not to the welfare of children but to the repeal of a Dade County, Florida ordinance that protected gay men and lesbians from discrimination in employment and housing.

(I love this sign I found on flickr — seems like old times!)

The boycott seems to have had some impact, freeing the Orange Bird from its homophobic associations. From WidenYourWorld:

From that point forward Bryant was irrevocably linked to the controversy and the Florida Citrus Commission opted not to continue their relationship with the singer.  The Orange Bird, having never expressed so much as one sunny thought about gay rights, emerged from this turbulence untarnished but without a vocal proponent of his stature.

I still can’t help but think of Anita Bryant when I see the Orange Bird; somehow I never heard that they’d broken up. But I must admit, he’s cute. And he did dump her, after all. So what the heck, I’ll go ahead and enjoy all that sunny Orange Bird merch that’s been showing up lately.

Hall of Inaccurate Presidents

First my son mentioned it. Then Your Souvenir Guide ran it. So I knew it had to be good. And it is.

I voted for Leo Smoot, myself. I think everyone in the metropolitan Boston area had to, really. Isn’t he related to Oliver Smoot?

Your Souvenir Guide on Mickey Mouse and Epcot Corporate Overlords

I learned something today: Geoff Carter owns more Vinylmations than I do. Who woulda thunk it?

If you’re not reading My Souvenir Guide, it’s time to add it to your blogreader right now. Geoff doesn’t post all that frequently, but when he does, it’s the most incisive Disney fan-boy commentary out there. And while I link to almost everything he writes, you really should go subscribe to his RSS feed just in case I’m out sick someday.

Two cases in point: He recently posted about Mickey Mouse’s image problem, and Epcot’s corporate overlords (did I say overlords? I meant protectors).

First, about Mickey:

Modern-day Mickey Mouse shouldn’t be trapped in his own mythology, fighting the same, safe malevolence he’s been vanquishing these past fifty years or so; he should be fighting to keep Peg Leg Pete from foreclosing on his home, sluicing buckets of water out of his waterfront shack, pounding the pavement looking for work. That’s the kind of scrapper we need right now — a Mouse with real problems and the wit and savvy to beat them back.

I second that emotion. Please baby please, can we see what Mickey does when unemployment benefits run out even after 99 weeks with extensions? Or when his roof is failing from the ice dams, and he can’t afford to call a contractor?

Now, on to Epcot, where Geoff exhorts corporations to invest in Epcot for brand enhancement . . . which after all is what much of EPCOT was built on in the first place (and yes, my change in caps was entirely intentional). I particularly enjoy his explanation of why the Norway pavilion needs Scandinavian Airlines to get involved:

This shrinking lutefisk behind me is EPCOT’s Norway pavilion. Now, I think I’ve learned a few things about the Norwegians — I live in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, home to the largest Syttende Mai parade in the United States. If I want a helmet with horns on it, I can walk to the end of the block and get one. And this EPCOT attraction, whose ostensible purpose is to promote tourism to your homeland, doesn’t even fill me with the desire to visit my own neighborhood. The queue leading to the pavilion’s centerpiece attraction Maelstrom is a simple blue wall cheaply bedecked with tiny flags; the attraction itself has precisely one interesting scene and a bunch of terrible ones. I know that yours are a people not naturally predisposed to showing off, but c’mon. Norway has left 1979; your amazing techno scene proves it. The chorus of Röyksopp’s “The Girl and The Robot” is sick.

A relatively small outlay of sponsor cash — $10 million, maybe $20 million — could make EPCOT Norway into one hell of a tourism office. It could pay for an update of the dated and borderline frightening movie that plays at the end of the boat ride; it could pay for badly-needed scenery and technical improvements to the ride itself; and it could enable Disney to do something, anything, with that boring queue. In exchange, Disney will slap your name on every flat surface and probably give you some shop space if you want it.

Not sure I want to give up the Spirit of Norway movie, though . . . after having avoided it per Disney Digerati Rules, I’m now inexplicably fond of it. It reminds me somehow of the Isabella Rossellini insect sex films, like something has gone terribly wrong and I want to know why.

Also, let’s have some freakin’ lutefisk in the pavilion, okay? If we can suffer through Beverly, we can have ourselves a little gelatinous lye-infused fish, can’t we?

Geoff has also just coined the wonderful term, “themepunks.” Want to hear it used in a sentence?

It’s trendy for us themepunks to wring our kissably-soft hands and wonder how EPCOT came to this pass. The short answer is this: Disney can’t deal with EPCOT right now because there’s no clear-cut way for them to make more money from it by dumping Pixar characters into it.

And finally, back to those Vinylmations. I own two. And Geoff? Twenty. Geoff, how bout posting a picture of your collection?

At Disney Restaurants, Is Theme More Important Than Food?

Image from Studios Central

When you’re sitting down to a meal at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, are you more concerned about the quality of the food, or the themeing of the restaurant? There’s quite an interesting discussion going on about that over at Studios Central, in comments responding to Matt’s recent review of the Sci Fi Dine In at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

See how happy we are? October 2006: Surprise trip to WDW, and went straight to the Sci Fi.

I’m of two minds, myself. Perhaps it all depends on my mood, and the circumstances. The food at the Sci Fi is kinda lousy, but when I’ve brought WDW first-timers there, they’ve all raved about the place. Clearly it’s not the burgers and fries — those are literally the same burgers and fries you’re getting at every other table-service joint (maybe every quick-service, too). It’s the cheesy B-movie trailers, the hostess on roller skates, the silly cars you sit in. It all makes you forget that  it’s too dark to read the menu, and too loud to talk to anybody. And it was even better before they told the Cast Members to stop shouting out at the films, Rocky Horror-style.

When my brother-in-law and his wife came to Walt Disney World last summer, there were two in-park restaurants I insisted they try: The Sci Fi, and Le Cellier. The Canadian steakhouse didn’t suit their tastes, but they left the drive-in theater smiling.

On the other hand, I’ve been to the Sci Fi so many times now that I’ve grown weary of the movie loop, and if I’m gonna plunk down my hard earned Disney Dollars on a sit-down meal, I want it to be worth the price. I’m happier at Le Cellier than the Sci Fi. I’ve also been enjoying the 50s Prime Time lately . . . but the themeing there is also excellent, so it’s hard to tell what’s affecting my choice.

Sometimes it's all about the grab for power

And of course, sometimes all I really want is a power outlet, and I’ll eat whatever greasy fish-and-chips they might happen to have on hand if I can get a spot by the balcony at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe, so I can power up that damn phone to keep the Lines app alive for the rest of the day.

These days, I’d rather drop into the Sci Fi for a milkshake or dessert than actually have a full meal there. But dining reservations and wait times being what they are, I rarely want to invest that much time in a snack. I’d still bring first-timers there for sure, though.

I think what bothers me about the argument is that I don’t know why it’s so hard to do both. Why should we have to choose? Certainly some restaurants do both very well: The 50’s Prime Time, the California Grill, Le Cellier all among them. I agree with Studios Central commenter Newkrew35 when he says, “I think Disney rests on the fact that the Sci-Fi is a draw for the theme and not the food. Too bad we can’t have it both.”