Some Rants and Other Business...

Hey there! I've needed to get a post done for a little while now, but during the one weekend I have time to, I don't really want to. But I know I need to keep posting here to keep up interest, so here goes.

The new header for the blog was created by my sister at The Shady Glade, and a big "thank you" goes out to her for doing that. Also, I have updated the pictures in my Picasa Albums. The Personal Photos section now contains most of the ones I took on my somewhat-recent trip in mid-January. My sister asked not to be in the album, so I had to take many of them out, including my getting Blackmailed into Pixie Hollow and other characters (though some of it was my own want). As well, the Refurb folder has been completely changed and I added some photos to the Disney Theme Park Photos area, so make sure you check all of those out.

In trying to make myself blog more, I've been thinking about having a short daily post or something along the lines of that. Now, one of the items I got for Christmas is a WDW Trivia Page-a-Day calendar, with trivia on the weekdays and activities on the weekends. I want to get a feel for how everyone would like something like this, so please leave a comment or email me at DisneyRikua@gmail.com to let me know how you feel about this idea. Of course, I also have ideas for longer weekly or monthly posts, but if you have any ideas, please let me know about those too.

Now for my rants: I wanted to get together a Trip Report from my last trip, but it fell apart at the last minute, and I have forgotten much of what I was planning to talk about. However, I did want to offer my opinion on some sore subjects. DISCLAIMER: This is only my opinion, and you can agree or disagree with me as you see fit. If you see things a different way, just leave a comment to let others know how you feel about things.

Our first topic of the day is DCA. I like all of the construction that they are planning, and the Blue Sky Cellar is really nice to see what's coming up. However, when I went in there and I saw that model of the new Paradise Pier, I was told most of it was not going to happen yet, if at all. Now, the Suits need to realize that these changes are GOOD, and that stopping the flow of cash into them is BAD. We all know the economy is bad, but they really can spare the cash. DCA is starting to lose money because people are saving their vacation until things are finished. That's when all the cash will start flowing back into their pockets. They need to focus on long-term profit, not just "How much money can we doing another useless yearly promotion."

Which brings us to our next topic: the Celebration Promotion. I agree that occasional promotions are fine, but for 5 years in a row? It's great the 50th got 2 years, it deserved that, but then moving right into YOAMD(Year of a Million Dreams) for another 2 years and then This new Celebration? Its a bit much. I think the Celebration promotion is better than YOAMD was, but can we just have regular Disneyland for a bit? Is that too much to ask? Why don't we save something for the 55th, just like in the early years of Disneyland. Course the competition wasn't as bad back then...

And our last topic will be...the new "it's a small world": I didn't get a chance to see it during Christmas, though there was plenty of photo documentation. To me, it didn't look like much had changed yet, and that the refurb before the holiday was just to deepen the flume and get the new boats. However, when it came time for it to reopen with the changes, nobody seemed to want to publish any pictorials, or videos, or anything beyond just rants at how wrong it was. I have formed some opinions of my own, but I still can't find much in the way of pictures, so they are a little short. I feel the characters in the ride were great additions. I'm sorry if you feel different, but I think they look great (even though the Stitch and Abu figures look unfinished). Though I don't mind the addition of the America scene, I don't like the scene itself. Instead of showing us multiple things going on in differing areas of the country/region, the America scene is very flat and has little going on in it. When I heard they were adding an America scene, I thought they would more just transplant the scene from Paris to here. But instead, they shortened it down to two flat scenes on either side of the river. If they want this to achieve acceptance, add more stuff to the area. Other than that, I don't know anything about the updated music or lighting, so I can't form any opinions on that.

To a bit of random things today: The Tron 2 trailer I released in an earlier post will be shown again at this year's Comic Con with filming starting soon. Also, the name is simply Tron 2, not the TR2N at stated earlier. Also, I finally got my hands on a copy of The Disney Mountains: Imagineering At Its Peak, which I enjoy immensely. It does contain a lot more concept art, but it's okay considering that the book covers around ten attractions rather than the one attraction per previous book.

Well, that's all for right now. Please let me know about what you think about possible future posts or anything else. As always, you can leave a comment or email me at DisneyRikua@gmail.com. Hope to see you just around the riverbend!