DisneyFanJen's Off Kilter Comments

Wow, so Disfriends is goin bye bye. :(



I know I haven't spent a huge amount of time here, but really will miss it.



Sites come and go and you can usually feel when that's going to happen as a site slowly winds down and loses users, but this site feels as if it's going before it's time.



I've offered to help (as I'm sure countless others have) so you never know, someone may help revive the site. But if not, goodbye disfriends, we'll miss you, and thanks for the hard work Trent.

Yay our next Disney trip is planned!

Unfortunately I'm not getting out for the closure of PI but I'll be there in early December for Mousefest so that'll be fun.

But the greatest bit is that this time I get to go on my first cruise! :D

I'll be on the Disney Wonder from the 7th to the 11th of December on a 4 night cruise, it's going to be a blast!

Only 4 months 3 days to go...

Saw this entry in the writers block questions and had to reply to it:

To me, the definition of a hero is:

Someone who does what is right even when under pressure to do otherwise, whatever that pressure may be (social or emotional pressure, physical coersion, etc), even when detremental to their own well being or happiness.

I suppose it come down to sacrafice.

A firefighter running into a building to save someone at the risk of life is a hero, but a person who stays in the same dead end job that he hates because his family needs the income could also be considered a hero.

I'm pretty sure by now that if you even vaguely consider yourself a Walt Disney World fan that you've heard the news that Pleasure Island is being closed to make way for, well, based on the press releases more shops!

Well, I'm at a loss for words. I thought PI was doing great business and though I'm not a great fan of the dance clubs such as 8Trax, I was a fan of the Adventurer's Club and the Comedy Warehouse.

I'm so incensed about the loss of the Comedy warehouse that I'm tempted for the first time in my life to start a petition or something, anything to keep it open. But by the time it hits the press releases it's pretty much all over. :(

I one way I can understand the logic behind it, make the area more accessible to their core demographic and all that, but PI was one of the few places us adults (or in my case overgrown kids) can get away from the little darlings (or screaming brats as I like to call them *lol*) and let our hair down.

I'll truly miss PI, and will have to really consider if a premium Annual Pass is worth the money to me any more.

I'm going to try and scrape together enough money to get to Pleasure Island for their closing date (27th September) and if you're there on or before that time, get yourself over to the Comedy Warehouse and the Adventurers Club, now it really will be a once in a lifetime experience. :(

Well, I was heading over to post on my blog but my dog ate the post, no, no a bully beat me up and took it. Wait, it was destroyed in an earthquake!


Ok, Ok, you got me I have no excuses. (Well maybe one or two, but nothing good enough to stop me posting).

I will try to catch up on my Disney news (heven't even listened to a podcast in months) to upload some more videos to Youtube and to post some toughts here.

No promises mind, but I will try.

Sorry for the lack of postage, but would you believe it, I've caught chicken pox!

Arrrr! a pox be apon me!

So I've been hiding in bed trying to ignore the world and the itching...


Urgh!

Rumour has it that AK will be having a rededication ceremony on April 22nd.

Now I'm all for rededications, in fact I was right up there for Epcot's 25th, which was, as they say, most excellent. :)

But a rededication fo a 10 year anniversary? Me thinks that Disney spotted a cash cow after Epcot's rededication and decided to cash in...

Ok guys, bit busy over the next couple of days and I've no time to prattle on. :)

So, here's the Epcot's rededication ceremony for you.


Part 1


Part 2

Enjoy!

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous rehabs, or to take arms against a sea of imagineers, and by opposing end them?

To plagiarize or not to plagiarize... But I digress.

So I've seen a lot of "bad show" and "Horizons lite" sort of talk about the new SSE rehab, and thought I'd put in my two bits.

I finally got to ride the "new and improved" version of SSE in February and I actually liked it.

Liked it, but didn't love it.

The first half was great, the animatronics were faster, more fluid, and definitely had more expression (Michaelangelo was finally painting the ceiling rather than vaguely dabbing in it's direction). All this was good, but the new narration was 'ok'.

You must realise that the expression 'ok' is probably one of the most damming I can give. 'ok' is not bad, better than nothing, mediocre.

I've watched plan 9 from outer space because it was so bad as to be noteworthy and I would rate it above the SSE narration because it is memorable. The SSE narration is nice, simply that, nice, mediocre and forgettable.

Maybe another actor could have given it more gravitas, but I think it's just that they went for a more fluffy version of the narration that while perfectly acceptable, just doesn't move me.

Then it's into the planetarium section where we get to see the earth. Good news is nothing seems to have changed here. Good thing too, I think if they'd changed that they'd have had an outcry that made the reaction over Journey into Your Imagination look positively sedate.

As you exit the planetarium, you go through what I've dubbed "the infinite stars corridor" and I really like that effect. But after that, well then the controversy kicks in, because it's blank walls all the way and time to get all touchy feely with the screens.

Now getting past the fact that a 5 year old had obviously smeared something unmentionable on my screen (like Urgh!) the touch screen future thing wasn't half bad. A bit cutesy maybe but good fun.

The facial capture system adds a new dimension, in ad speak... "putting you into the action!"

But though it was fun, I do miss my neons on the exit and I can see you easily getting bored if the ride has to pause while your on that section. Maybe if they had longer footage they could run if the ride had to pause, so during a pause they showed you "your Future: The Directors Cut!"...

So all in all I liked it, but I didn't love it. The problem is that I could have loved it.

We know the imagineers are capable of some amazing things, but in this instance they seemed to have settled for 'ok'. Was this constraints from the sponsor? Budgetary issues? Maybe just the imagineers trying to balance the new with the old and not getting the mix right?

I honestly don't know. I do know however that though I'll ride SSE again I'll always have that niggling voice in the back of my head saying "But it could have been so much better".

Ok, this is probably the last post of the day (Don't you just love the flurry of activity on the first day then the ever decreasing posts as apathy sets in? :D )

Here's the first entry in my Youtube account. The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, STS-122

Have fun

When I was last in Orlando. (02-10-2008) I started listening to a new radio station called Sunny 105.9.

I liked it so much that when I got back to the UK I looked it up on the net.

So if you're missing your orlando fix, go to Sunny 105.9 Olrando and listen over the net. :)

* ...to the Haunted Blog! I am your host, your post host.

Kindly step all the way in please and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now.

Our tour begins here in the first post where you see the ramblings of some of our bloggers as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state.

Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis.

Is this post actually going anywhere? Or is it your imagination, hmm?

And consider this dismaying observation: This post has no meaning and no direction, which offers you this chilling challenge: to find anything useful!

Of course, there's always myspace. *scream!*

Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely; the real chills come later.

Now, as they say, look alive, and we'll continue our little rambling. And let's all stay together, please.

There are several prominent posts who have retired here from creepy old journals from all over the internet.

Actually, we have only 1 happy post here, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?

Wahahaha! *cough, cough, splutter*

I've got to stop doing that manic laugh.

Anywho, welcome to my amazingly empty Disneyesk blog. The plan is to comment on happenings with Disney, the Disney community and the odd segway into other related areas such as the "U" park or in fact, segways!

(I have a Segway, they are most cool.)

I'll also post any trip reports I put together for visits to any of the Disney parks, updates on upcoming trips, links to video and pictures I've taken that I decide I like... You know, all that narcissistic self serving stuff. :D

Then I'll add a dash of random embarrassing photos so you can have a laugh, which is always good. (It's good to laugh at yourself, I mean, why should you be the only one not getting the joke? :D )

I might drop some of my writing and poetry in here if I'm feeling generous (trust me, the *Vogons ain't got nothing on me!)

And lastly (I know, don't start a sentence with "and", but it's a blog not a dissertation), I'll probably throw a random post or two in there that has nothing to do with, well, anything really.

Because I love you that much. :D

So, Come in. Nice to meet you. Where are my manners, would you like a cup of Tea?

---

* For those who don't get this reference, why exactly are you reading a Disney related blog?

** For those who don't get the reference, please either listen to, read, or watch "The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" a Trilogy in four parts. (No, not the film, back away from the lousy film...)