That's a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing!

I'm surprisingly for it. I know that's not the popular mindset, but the laziness of guests to grab Fastpasses and go, coming back hours after the window closes... well, it just completely screws with capacity. Period. The ratio of fast passes given out in any 5 minute period of time directly corresponds to the ride's capacity. The idea being that at any given time, the Fastpass queue will be nice and short, and the standby queue won't be adversely affected by the use of the system.

Guests have simply over-abused the system and have become lazier and lazier. It's a detriment to park operations. Ride usage suffers and rides per day/per guest can suffer, leading to guest dissatisfaction and a lower perception of value vs. price of admission.

So now that Disney World is going to start enforcing the rule (along with an additional 20 minutes leeway, 5 before and 15 after the window), people are bound to complain. But as with anything else, they'll get used to it and it will quickly become the norm to work within those times.

Fastpass is a valuable tool for guests, enabling them to experience more attractions on busy days. But just as the park needs to ensure the system works, the guests should play by the rules as well and realize that there are reasons for a return time window on those tickets. It shouldn't be treated as a blanket re-admission pass after "X" time.

I cry a little every time I visit Epcot and I can't have good indian food. However, I will note that Sanaa (Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village) has some sublime curries and does an open faced tandoori chicken sandwich that will dang near kill you from how delicious it is. Sanaa is truly Disney's best kept secret. Each and every one of you should eat there every single time you go to Disney World (I went there 3 times on my last trip, no lie).

Two things... first thing, Morocco opened in 1984 and Norway opened in 1987. So it wasn't only Norway. So there's that.

As for the why. Well... it comes down to two things. Politics and money. You need to have a politically stable country with a good tourism base (or potential to grow) and you need an interested party involved (whether it be the state itself or a corporation like Mitsukoshi that owns/runs Japan) with enough money to make it happen. So basically, you're not going to see Zimbabwe or Pakistan getting a land any time soon.

There have been pitches over the years to build new lands. An African area, Israel, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Russia, an expanded Japan, have all been pitched at one time or another. But things like political strife and money have doomed most (especially Russia). So it really is a matter of finding the right combo of will and money to get another country built. Because while it is a gross over-simplification and marginalization of the individual countries, I do think Epcot is a great opportunity to educate as well.

There are a few countries I think could do well from representation in Epcot.

Russia - Now recovered from its early 1990s slump. There are questions about the political stability in the long term, but for now, they've got a ton of money from their oil fields that could be used to build a pavilion.

India - A strong focus for the company. Disney just announced two weeks ago that they were acquiring controlling interest in UTV in that country, further establishing a foothold in a growing country.

Australia/New Zealand - Obviously not the same country and are actually quite different. But maybe a partnership would work well.

Brazil - They've shown interest with the coming Olympics in Rio and a growing economy, to really showcase the nation. Given the huge number of Brazilian tourists visiting WDW every year, I'm not sure it'd play well... but it could be fun. At the very least it would cause great gnashing of teeth among the subtle racist Disney World fanbase who seem to have an irrational hatred of Brazilians. So I think it should be done for the lulz.

South Africa - Out of the dark days of apartheid and growing into a regional power (and making some amazing wine to boot, I might add). It would be a good representation of the African continent in my opinion.

No, they'd do what everybody else does and tweak it just enough to be unique from your idea and skirt the trademark laws.

Yeah, I definitely agree. I think the best part of all of this is that the entire company is now (more-or-less) under the same grooming standards (however, the creatives are allowed more leeway, just look at Joe Rhode). And that's the important thing to keep in mind and is probably a great example for those who poo-poo these new standards as some sort of moral shortfall.

Joe Rhode is dang near worshipped by the Disney theme park fans. Yet, he is probably the furthest thing from "Disney Look"... and it really makes me wonder why they have such a huge double standard. Praise the hippy Imagineer for his eccentricities, yet scorn a theme park employee with a well groomed appearance. Why? Because it's not what Walt said.

Remember, in the early 1900s it was high fashion for men to wear very full beards (I call them crazy wizard beards). But by the 50s and 60s, the only people sporting beards were the beaniks and hippies. This is why Walt had the no facial hair standard. It was simply the proper fashion of good grooming at the time. But at this point in time, it's the fashion to have a nicely groomed short beard (sadly no more wizard beards anymore). So the change makes sense despite the irrational ramblings of those opposed to any change.

I honestly feel that people should take a slight bit more pride in the way they present themselves, etc. And this isn't just about texting language making its way into e-mails and such. I see it all the time even in resumes and other more formal methods of communication. It's actually quite interesting to see kids lacking even basic professional communications skills. But given the more absentee nature of some parents, paired with an education system that isn't functioning as it should... I'm not all that surprised.

It's about laziness and allowing ourselves to slack off in our responsibilities. People need to take a little more pride in how they present themselves in all forms of communication.

*poot*

Haha! Well, California is sort of bizarre. Especially in Southern California. We can range from downright hot... 80-90 degrees for the high. All the way down to the 40s for a high. Most years the weather just can't seem to make up its mind. If nothing else it can make things an adventure. I love how mild it can stay by the coast.

I can leave for work... it'll be 45-50 degrees outside, get to the office and it's 28-35 degrees. And the distance between the two isn't like traveling from California to Colorado either! It's part of what makes this area fun/neat.

Hard to answer... I'd rather predict the outcome of the World Series or Tour de France at the moment, because those are a little easier to answer.

There's actually a lot being done... but most of it is general improvements and prepping for new sleds.

It's been a couple years now. They moved most of the food items from Blue Bayou to Cafe Orleans, which has kept me sufficiently distracted with delicious frites and gumbo crepes. It's kinda like a puppy that has a favorite toy. You wave the favorite toy as they're about to play with something new and BAM... distracted. I'm kinda like that with food. Put a chicken gumbo crepe and frites (fries) in front of me, I won't eat anything else.

Can you believe I haven't eaten at Blue Bayou since they changed the menu? Sadly it's a question I'm unable to answer at this time.

You'll have a much better chance of riding Transformers during a soft open around this time than anything in Cars Land. But keep in mind, soft opens are not officially scheduled and the times and dates can (and do) sometimes change. No guarantees of ride availability during this period.

No.

So here's the thing. When Potterland opened in Islands of Adventure, it showed exactly what happens when you build something based around a very popular brand. People show up. All of them. At the same time. And they all want to ride super blast-o 5000 ride experience adventure. The gridlock in Potterland over that first year was pretty epic and caused a lot of capacity problems. I fault two things for this...

1. The popularity of the Harry Potter franchise.
2. Universal Creative's (and JK Rowling's production team) lack of foresight into how many folks might want to visit a Potterland.

I've always felt the entire land was under-built. There's no room in the stores, there's one restaurant, there's one main location for Butterbeer.

It's one thing to stay faithful to the stuff you see in the films. (And we have to give them the consideration that they also had a confined space to work with.) But I do think they should have done pretty much anything to not build such tiny shops.

This brings us to Cars Land. Also being built with a nod towards being faithful to the film. Not entirely an awful idea. Also, DCA benefits from the fact that they were able to build the land on a previously unused area. There are two food locations (Cozy Cone and Flo's V8 Cafe). Flo's in particular is huge. Cozy Cone is grab and go. That's also not taking into account Filmore's Taste-In. The shops are the Radiator Springs Curios, Sarge's Surplus Hut and Ramone's House of Body Art. And we all know about the rides.

Also, the land benefits from a few access points that will be a big help when it comes to traffic flow. But all this considered still leaves one issue... when the people show up. All of them. At the same time. There will be traffic issues and capacity issues. This is unavoidable, period. And yeah, there are plans being put into place to address this. And yes... there will likely be a little shakeout period where they have to tweak plans a little to adjust for what they planned for on paper and what actually ends up being reality.

But once everyone rushes the park and gets their rides in... things should ease up and end up being a little easier to deal with in the long run.

I personally prefer Steakhouse 55 and Napa Rose to Club 33. The Club is very good, but I've always felt from the culinary side of things, it's a slight bit over-rated. And don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way saying it's bad. The place is actually great if you take it by itself. But with something like Napa Rose just a stones throw away... hard to say it's the best food in the resort.

Time will tell... and by that I mean wait until Shanghai. That's my prediction for another Disney Dreams style show. I'm not sure the other resorts' layouts really lend themselves well to this idea. But I could be wrong. I just don't personally see a show like this working well in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Anaheim or Orlando. Paris has a fairly unique layout in front of the castle that allows for the big fan screens and fountains, etc.

Pigeon. And I'd go find the people I'm not a fan of... and I'd poop on their cars.

I have. Several times (not to brag), and to be honest... I like the atmosphere, but I do feel there are generally nicer places to eat around the Disneyland Resort. But for the history and ambiance, it can't be beat.

Stories... oh god do I have stories! Here's my favorite. So we get into the Club and they seated us. And this dude comes over and asks us what we'd like for dinner!!!! AHHHHHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Actually, that wasn't very funny was it? Sorry, truth is sometimes a lot less interesting than fiction.

Y'know... I'm just gonna have to see... wait a sec. Uhhhh, well. I dunno. Well... um... hmmmm...