lebeau

You're not the only one. If I eat there, it will be out of curiosity. There is very litte chance I will make a habit of it. But there is a demand for a sitdown restaurant. The menu sounds great. And the theme has a lot of local flavor. Even if it's not for you and me, the idea is a a winner if well-executed.

I think we need some more Planet Snoopy rides as well and also possibly a "snoopyfied" wild mouse coaster We need those Snoopy "tea cups". I still miss the witch's cauldrons.

I am not a baseball fan and I never eat in the parks. So this really isn't for me. But I think it's a great idea. I'm sure many will enjoy it.

Kings Island With Kids - End of the School Year Edition

We were actually behind someone at the 1:00 show on Sat who discussed the review with Ed. He was exceptionally gracious to everyone who waited to meet him. I was the guy at the 1:00 saturday show who's wife pet the bunny and he said, "I can tell you're an animal lover... 'cause you brought him" Small world. We were towards the back of the room. Gotta say, that line cracked me up. It's old school stand-up. But he pulled it off well.

We were actually behind someone at the 1:00 show on Sat who discussed the review with Ed. He was exceptionally gracious to everyone who waited to meet him.

I tried to register my passes this weekend but apparently they were having some kind of systems issue and I was unable to do so.

We saw the show this weekend. What a great addition! Loved it. I just wish they packed the house. I think as word spreads, this show may become hard to get into.

Good to hear. As rainy as it was, we skipped Mother's Day. My sister and her kids went and were miserable. So it sounds like we might try the family gathering at Father's Day.

As we get closer to Mother's Day, I wanted to bump this. My extended family is thinking about going for Mother's Day. Has anyone been on the discounted Mother's Day? If so, was it busy? Thanks!

We're going to miss out on Test Track. Although the girls won't mind. Kara's too little and Josie wouldn't ride it even though she's big enough. Hopefully they are done with the LM and BatB parts of Fantasyland by then. That would be great, but if it isn't meant to be we'll catch them next time. We are looking forward to a Nemo suite at Art of Animation. That's going to be a blast!

Thanks! We certainly will! Just finished putting together my touring plan for the week. Now, I just need to wait for November to roll around! Until then, I'm using KI as a training ground to get Kara ready.

We were there less than two hours and met a fair number of goals. My youngert has been talking about getting her picture taken with Sally since last season. The first thing we saw when we entered Planet Snoopy on opening day was... Sally. Mission Accomplished. Last season, she wouldn't ride much of anything for me. So one of my goals is to get her riding rides before or Disney World trip in the fall. And another mission accomplished. Good day. Cold, but good.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. It's been fun watching Josie grow up at the park. Can't wait to see Kara learn the ropes this season! It's the perfect day for it as long as you bundle up and don't mind the potential for being cut short by rain. Very short lines everywhere we went. And the crew was in great spirits. Have fun!

This year, I'm just going to keep them all in one thread. Here's our short, sweet Opening Day visit: http://lebeauleblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/kings-island-opening-day-2012/ Hope everyone stayed warm and dry and had as much fun as we did!

Not really. the FLE pre-dates Potter. It finally got approved as a way to increase the dwindling capacity at MK. After a few days of closing the park, someone realized they were leaving money on the table. The FLE is (the most cost effective) way to make sure that doesn't happen any more. Disney has plans for wach park which were designed to combat Potter. They were referred to as Potter Swatters. But they never got the green light. Disney decided they didn't need to compete. At present, they still don't plan to go head to head with Potter. If it ever actually gets built, Avland will probably be the closest thing to Disney attempting to compete with Potter. But that will only be if Cameron is able to convince them to do so. Last I heard, Disney wanted to cheap out on that too.

It's possible I was misinformed. I found it hard to believe.

I think I read somewhere that Kings Island is usually pretty slow on the Bring a Friend Days (Mother's Day and Father's Day). Is that true? Thinking about getting the family together for one or both, but I don't want to if the place will be mobbed.

Cedar Pointer did a great job of responding. But let me elaborate just a bit on the idea of "hating on Disney". In general, I find that people who look at Disney with a critical eye do so out of love. They love the place, so they are upset when they see management letting it slide. Even in its current state, yes, Disney World is amazing. But it's less amazing than it used to be. And if that downward trend is allowed to continue indefinitely, it will eventually feel like an expensive rip-off. (Some will argue we are already there.) Getting back on topic a bit, Disney World does a lot of things right. But they don't like to spend money these days. And when they are cutting costs on things like routine maintenance, it's hard for me to believe they would spend a lot of money on Marvel properties in Orlando. A monorail wrap is pretty inexpensive. If Universal made a stink, they could tear the wrap off. No big deal. But building attractions or even meet and greets is another story. Disney would have to spend some money on that either to buy out the contract or in court. Plus, there would be bad press associated with the court option. As others have pointed out, this is possible. But it is highly unlikely.

I sense sarcasm. The place isn't falling apart. But it's not being maintained up to Disney standards. In fact, it's not even up to industry standards in some cases. Splash Mountain has been in this state for days at a time. Sometimes the AA's have been down for a week or so. But Disney won't close it down for proper repairs while Big Thunder is under refurb. I won't even bring up Disco Yeti. Ooops, I just did. ...or the horrible state of Journey Into Imagination, or the infamous angler fish in The Living Seas, or the current state of Wonders of Life, or Luxo Jr. at DHS, or MuppetVision in general... Or the closed Ellen's Completely Out of Date Universe of Energy, the dozens of effects turns off in Dinosaur, the broken Blackbeard fog screen in Pirates of the Caribbean, the decades old music video that is Captain Eo, Paradise Island which has been shuttered for years with no replacement. The list goes on and on. And I'm not talking about chipped paint and burned out lightbulbs here. Power Rangers were once owned by Disney. Disney sold them I forget when. They are no longer in the parks. Long story short, the yeti doesn't work. If you rode EE when the yeti was in A-mode, it was a very impressive effect. But he's been broken for years now. He has a few different modes. Sometimes he has some rudimentary motion. Most times, they just throw a strobe light on him to simulate movement. This is what is referred to as "disco yeti". Of late, they have frequently covered the yeti with a black sheet. Every now and then, there are rumors he has been removed for repairs. But nothing has come of it. It does take a lot to maintain 4 parks and a sprawling resort. But Disney World has been this size for a long time now. They should be prepared for this. But since they have slashed their maintenance budget (and outsourced a frightening amount of routine maintenance) things keep piling up. Now they say they can't close 2 e-tickets at the same time. But it never should have gotten to that point. Test Track is scheduled to go down for refurb in a couple of weeks. But there are rumors that it won't due to delays in Big Thunder Mountain which was in far worse shape than Disney realized. (Which says something when you consider the fact they replaced a falling rock with a black sheet for months!) I'll be interested to see what happens with the TT refurb. From what I understand, GM is very excited about it. So, I suspect it will move forward as planned. But Disney is being very quiet on the subject which makes you wonder.

TDO is not The Walt Disney Company. Orlando's resort has long been seen by the industry as a somewhat "knuckle headed," slow to change, sterile breeding ground for corporate pride and cost-cutting. It's The Walt Disney Company that owns Marvel, and the Walt Disney Company that would make that sort of legal decision. Like Terpy said, they'll do what they want and incur the related costs. If Disney greenlights a massive KUKA Robo-arm Avengers ride for Disney's Hollywood Studios, they'll do so because they believe the revenue generated by it will overcome the cost incurred. And like I said to Terpy, you're technically right that anything is possible. But it would take a seismic shift at Disney for them to take the kind of actions you're talking about regarding either the Marvel characters at Disney or the KUKA arm. Legally, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. TDO doesn't want to spend. They want to cut costs to make the spreadsheets look good and collect fat bonus checks. From what I understand, there will be a changing of the guard sooner rather than later. Meg Crofton will be stepping down due to health issues. Will the new boss be any different than the old boss? I don't know. I have been told some people are optimistic that sweeping changes may be made. TWDC has forced TDO to invest in their parks on a couple of occassions. They forced the Fantasyland expansion on them. They pushed Star Tours 2 on them as well. You can say these things are possible. But then it's also possible they will open a 5th gate themed to the Looney Tunes. Realistically, it's not going to happen.

I sense sarcasm. The place isn't falling apart. But it's not being maintained up to Disney standards. In fact, it's not even up to industry standards in some cases. Splash Mountain has been in this state for days at a time. Sometimes the AA's have been down for a week or so. But Disney won't close it down for proper repairs while Big Thunder is under refurb. I won't even bring up Disco Yeti. Ooops, I just did.

This is obviously true. But a lot of Disney/Marvel fans latch on to any small thing and it creates false hope of something that is not realistic. Worse still, they start buzzing internet rumors and spreading all kinds of misinformation. I remember when Disney started selling Marvel toys in their gift shops. Some people online took that as a sign that Marvel Super Hero Island would be rethemed to Transformers and Disney would be opening a 5th gate themed to Marvel. Totally ridiculous, but people will ignore reality in favor of seeing what they want to see.

A fair point. But I think it's implied that when people say "Disney can't" <fill in the blank> what they mean is that doing so would violate the terms of their agreement. And yes, there is wiggle room in any contract. But most would agree that if Disney put someone in a Spider-man costume for meet and greets, they would face a law suit from Universal. One they would almost certainly lose. Having read the contract and knowing people who are connected in Orlando and Annaheim, I am fairly confident in my sources when I say 1. Disney isn't seriously considering building any Marvel-themed attractions in Orlando and 2. Universal is very serious about keeping the rights to Marvel at their park. I could always be wrong. Maybe Disney is itching for a lawsuit. But that doesn't pass the common sense test. Disney is so reluctant to spend any money in Orlando that TDO was essentially forced by higher ups to approve the Fantasyland expansion. They are cutting maintenance to the point where Splash Mountain (the most popular attraction at their most popular park) was running for weeks at a time with all of the AAs in the final show scene broken. Given the reluctance to spend money to maintain their existing rides, I don't see them spending what it would cost to buy Universal out or fight them in court (which would come with loads of bad press - which Disney hates!) just to get the rights to spend more money to build new attractions. If they wanted to build new attractions, they don't need to spend money to acquire the Marvel rights to do so. There's a laundry list of projects that are ready to be built should they ever loosen the purse strings. Sure, all things are possible. Disney has even investigated selling parks and resorts (foreign investors toured WDW last year along with Disney's BoD). So, yeah, they could do something crazy and unexpected. But the smart money says Disney will let Universal keep the Marvel rights in Orlando for the foreseeable future.

http://www.deadline.com/2009/09/universal-vs-disney-over-marvel-characters/ That just does not sound to me like Universal has much say. I posted a link to the contract. Read it for yourself. Yes, Universal has some obligations. And there are some grey areas that could result in lawsuits if either side decided to pursue them. But Disney isn't interested in spending a lot of money to aquire the domestic theme park rights to Marvel either by purchasing them outright or taking legal action. If they wanted to invest money in WDW, there are any number of properties they already own without having to fight or pay Universal to do so. It's easier to deal with Lucas and build more Star Wars. It's easier to deal with Cameron (although that is apparenlty a relationship on the rocks as well. Avland may not happen.) It's easier to clone Carsland from DCA and not pay anybody. Marvel at WDW isn't impossible. But there are a lot of obstacles to overcome. And Disney has cheaper alternatives. For the time being, it's not worth it to them. Disagree all you want. But be prepared for a long wait.