AVATAR-Land: Worthy of Extinction

She'll look terrible in Mickey ears.

When I first saw the news about Disney partnering with James Cameron to bring an AVATAR-land to Animal Kingdom, my original thought was, wait, is it April Fools Day? And then, when I realized this was shockingly real, I got very, very angry.

First, as someone who cares deeply about wildlife conservation, I am incredibly disappointed that Disney would distract guests from the ANIMAL Kingdom with this complete waste of space, money, and WDI's opportunity to create their own things. Of course, who needs integrity and conservation when you could have James Cameron on board? The mighty James Cameron, whose movies are so saccharine and cliched that even Britney Spears mocks them. The James Cameron who routinely sacrifices story and plot for cheesy special effects, and not in the fun Michael Bay way. The James Cameron who made AVATAR, the most expensive movie of our time. THAT James Cameron.

Second, and I know that Animal Kingdom contains non-wildlife things (yetis and dinosaurs, mostly), but wouldn't AVATAR-Land be better off as a moviemaking thing in Disney's Hollywood Studios? You know, that park that's still stuck in the late 90s? And I'm just going to say it: AVATAR is a terrible movie. Let's be real: it's a self-indulgent embarrassment to science fiction. (Case in point: early in the film Sigourney Weaver's character lights a cigarette. In a closed oxygenated environment. In space. And doesn't blow up.)

I'm sad, because I want Animal Kingdom to be a place where kids can discover and fall in love with animals, so that one day they will fight to protect them. I want them to have positive experiences and learn things and come away with an understanding that protecting our environment is important. What I don't want is for Animal Kingdom to become a place where the animals are an afterthought, while fancy attractions and 3D nonsense are the real stars of the show. Because then, it's no better than SeaWorld.

This may seem like an extreme position, because obviously there are no details as to what this means for Animal Kingdom or what AVATAR-Land will include, but for me - this is an unacceptable, incongruous excuse for a "partnership." I'm disappointed - disappointed that Disney would sell out so openly, disappointed that Disney would try to pass off a crappy movie about colonization as somehow appropriate for Animal Kingdom, disappointed that Disney will one day weave AVATAR characters into their merchandise while simultaneously asking guests to donate to their conservation fund. This is corporate hypocrisy at its finest, and unfortunately the animals are the victims. James Cameron might be King of the World, but now he's King of the Jungle too. And it's time to start poaching.

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F is for Family. And Food.

Welcome to those of you joining me from The Magical Mouse Pad and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 4th stop on our Magical Blogorail. 

In my family, our Disney traditions revolve around the F word.

Food.

Maybe this is one of those things that naturally happens as people get older, but over time, my sister, mother and I have evolved from being people who would eat whatever the hotel cafeteria was serving, to total Disney food snobs. Or to put this another way: five years ago we considered Le Cellier to be a fancy meal; these days we're barely interested in eating there for lunch.

And this food snobbery all started with what's become our family tradition: pick one new restaurant to try on each trip. We started expanding our horizons past the confines of the parks, and discovered a whole new world of culinary delights just waiting to be explored at the resorts. Our first adventure was at Jiko, where we were blown away by the infamous steak with mac and cheese. Then we went after The California Grill, and after that, there was no turning back. And since it's impossible to keep up that standard of dining for the entire length of a vacation without going broke (at least, it is for us), we've made it a tradition to have one nice meal each trip, at a place we've never been to. And we always have our last meal of the trip at The California Grill. Just because.

Of course, this means sacrificing some other things during the trip. We stay in DVC resorts (which have kitchens) so we have breakfast in our room, rather than in the parks. And we'll snack our way through the day instead of having an overpriced meal at one of the in-park restaurants (the World Showcase is perfect for this). For us, dining is an experience, and by having one or two nice meals on the books, it gives us something to look forward to when we're eating our third pretzel of the day. So far, it's worked out pretty well - on our last trip, we soaked in the view at Narcoossee's, and on our next trip, we're hoping to test out Artist Point (if you have other suggestions, please add them in the comments - I'd love to hear them).

There is plenty of Disney magic to be found all around the parks, but some of my favorite moments at WDW have taken place at a quieter pace, over a nice glass of wine in an elegant restaurant, surrounded by good conversation and even better company. Often times, in a place like WDW, you spend so much time running from place to place and trying to make this parade and that FastPass time that you don't really get to connect with the people you're with. Now that we've made it a point to have these nice meals together, I've found that it actually brings us together as a family even more than usual. And on top of that, we get to eat some really, really good food. 

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is Manda's Disney Blog.


Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Mommy Mouseketeer
2nd Stop ~ Unknown Magic Within Walt Disney World
3rd Stop ~ The Magical Mouse Pad
4th Stop ~ The Disney Chick
Final Stop ~ Manda’s Disney Blog

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And Now I Am Three

Today is the third anniversary of the day I started The Disney Chick. Does this mean I'm old? I'm pretty sure this makes me old.

Year Three didn't include any Disney trips (except the Vero Beach one I just came back from), but I rarely had a hard time finding things to write about. Tinkerbell went on tour. I made my favorite Disney dessert ever (one I plan on replicating this Thanksgiving). A giant Disney Store opened in Times Square. I wrote about my favorite WDW activity. I confessed to abusing the mug system. I became part of a blogorail.

It wasn't all pixie dust and sparkles. Disney's new marketing campaign made me stabby. Revisionist history made me sad. I rallied the Disneysphere against Duffy the Disney Bear. I wrinkled my nose at the new Disney At Home scents. I verbally ran over Lightening McQueen. La Cava de Tequila broke my heart.

And you can always count on those Princesses to do something silly.

It's amazing to me that three years have already gone by, and yet, I can't remember what I where I vented all my Disney geekery before this blog and Twitter came along. Maybe I just drove my family and friends more crazy than usual. But none of it would be possible without the support, encouragement, and friendship of you readers, tweeters, and Disney fans. Thanks for a fun year!

xo,
The Disney Chick

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Two Hotels, Five Rooms

My family and I recently returned from a long weekend at Disney's Vero Beach Resort, which was a lovely (if too short) break from our daily, hectic lives. More importantly, it proved that nothing - not even Hurricane Irene - could keep me from my Disney magic.

The hotel staff, on the other hand, was a different story.

Things started off typically enough - we strolled up to the desk and were handed our room keys. When we actually got to our assigned room, it was located next to The Green Cabin Room. As in, the lounge. With the live music. And the drunk people.

So, for the first time ever, we complained. We walked back down to the desk, explained that we weren't happy with the room, particularly since we booked the reservation months in advance and had requested a quiet room with an ocean view. The Cast Member looked at us as if we were crazy - who wouldn't want to try to fall asleep to the sounds of Jimmy Buffett karaoke? - but then handed us a new set of keys and sent us off to Room #2.

Now, I've never worked in the hospitality industry, but it would seem to me that if a guest complained about something, you would want to try to fix it. And if you work for a company that prides itself on making sure its guests have a magical time, maybe you would even go above and beyond to make sure things got straightened out. So imagine my surprise when we arrived at our second room only to discover that the ocean view we requested was 70% obstructed by the roof of the below room and a giant palm tree. And that our balcony was located directly over the designated smoking area. Charming.

So we call the front desk, this time with more agitation in our voices as we explain that this room is also unacceptable and ask that we please be moved to the quiet, ocean view room we came all the way to Florida to have. After about 15 minutes of waiting for the front desk to call back (which I'm sure was time the hotel staff spent referring to my family in non-magical terms), they said someone would be up with our room keys. After another 10 minutes, a timid, "Earning Her Ears" Cast Member appeared to escort us to our new room. Sure, send the rookie. The poor girl was visibly nervous and got lost three times trying to find our new room. Apparently my family is a scary bunch, although we didn't raise our voices, yell, or threaten anything ("Give us what we paid for or I will write bad things about you on the Internet!") during this entire ordeal.

As it turns out, third time's the charm and Room #3 was perfect, and we had a great time. But that's not the end of the story.

Because we had early flights out of Orlando, we opted to spend our last night in our DVC home base of Saratoga Springs, which meant we also spent an afternoon at Downtown Disney and had (another) amazing meal at The California Grill. We check in, are assigned a room in the Paddock section, and begin driving toward our home away from home.

Then we see the construction crews surrounding the building.

They wouldn't.

Outside our door.

They would.

Outside our window.

Are. You. Kidding. Me. I get that we're only staying one night, but out of the hundreds of available hotel rooms at Saratoga Springs (because y'all know they're never at capacity), this is the one they put us in? Heck, this is the room they would put any paying guest in?

Our room kindly had a note to explain the situation:

Please pardon our appearance as we are currently refurbishing the exterior of your building for your future enjoyment. During your visit, you may see some of the enhancement work in progress [...] we suggest that you bring all personal articles in from the balcony during these hours, as there may be workers painting on or near the balcony at different times during the day. For additional privacy, we recommend that you draw your curtains.

In other words: don't bother enjoying the room because there will be constant noise and strange men lurking around your windows.

So, once again we call the front desk, and more or less say "Seriously? Seriously?" and then waited for 20 minutes while the Cast Members hemmed and hawed and said "oh hmm, let's see what we can do." Finally, the Room Assignment Manager asked, "Well, what do you want?" Oh, I don't know, maybe to stay somewhere that's not in the middle of a construction zone? Thankfully, we were reassigned to another room with a lovely view of Downtown Disney and quieter surroundings. And there we stayed, happily.

In all honesty, we are not the type of people who complain about imperfections. And in all the years we've been vacationing at WDW, we've never had this problem before. But two different Disney hotels in two different cities with the same nonchalance for the guests who are paying good money to stay there? Not magical, guys. Not magical at all.

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