"Dances with Smurfs" Coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom

As most of you know by now, Disney announced that they are expanding Animal Kingdom and putting in a new Avatar themed land. When I first heard the announcement, I was pissed. Yet again, Disney is going outside the company to build an attraction. But once I cooled down and started analyzing the situation, I started to realize that I was not being fair.

To be honest, I have not seen Avatar. To me, it just seems way too weird and is probably too long to hold my interest, so I never took the time to sit down and watch it. For all I know, it may be the best movie ever. Also, I have not seen or heard anything about what this new "Avatarland" will be like. All I know is that they are spending $400 million on the project and that construction will begin in 2013. So, again, it may be the best thing ever.

Disney has needed to do something with Animal Kingdom for a very long time. It's attendence numbers have never been where they wanted them to be. I know every time I go to the park, I only hit Expedition: Everest, Dinosaur, and Festival of the Lion King, then I'm out. I'm usually gone before lunch. It has never been my favorite park, and I'd say there it's not at the top of any Disney fan's list. So this new project may just be what Animal Kingdom needs to get off the ground.

Besides, ever since Animal Kingdom opened back in 1998, Disney has been promising us "Beastly Kingdom" (For those who don't know, this was a themed land devoted to Mythical creatures and was supposed to be Disney World's thrill park). Maybe this is a realization of this plan? I do know that this is most definitely Disney's answer to Universal's "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" (Which I still haven't seen).

I still have mixed feelings over this move by Disney. I feel like that this is a huge risk that they are taking. But ultimately I'm going to hold off judgement until I see the completed project.

What are your thoughts?

What Brings Me Out of Hiding

Hello gang! It's been quite a long time since I posted on the blog. I really have no excuse for abandoning writing. Life has just gotten in the way of a lot of things. But I feel a writing bug coming and have been working on a few projects that will bring me back to the blogosphere.

Well... what brings me back? This new announcement from the runDisney Facebook page.

To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of this medal. It's kind of strange looking. And why is there a hole in Donald's head? But none the less, this is a new medal for my favorite half marathon of all.

I had honestly considered skipping the 2012 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. Right now, another trip to the World just isn't justifiable, especially during the first week in January. Hopefully then, I'll be starting a new job and the state inaugurations take place that week as well. So, I felt that it was best to just skip the whole thing and pick it up again at some later point in the year. But then runDisney had to go and pull a stunt like this. Why do they always pick the year that I'm not going to participate to change the medal? So now it looks like I have to find some way and some how to get to the World for this. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I have to!

"Magic, Memories, and You!"

I just found this video on Facebook and thought I'd share it with all of you. I had heard different things about "Magic, Memories, and You!" but I really didn't know what it was. Since I'm so behind in podcasts, I'm still getting news that's about three months old. So when I found this link, I had to check it out.

I am in tears right now. I'd say after World of Color (haven't seen it in person), this is probably the coolest thing I have seen Disney do. This is just what I needed to end this day.

Enjoy!

Topic Du Jour: Finisher's Medals

Since everyone else is hitting on this subject, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. We all know what this is about so I'm just going to jump right in...

First off, this post is not in anyway meant to single out anybody. It is simply my opinions on the issue. As they say, opinions are like [explicative] everyone has one.

It seems to me that the majority opinion here is that a Finisher's Medal is just that, a medal awarded to those who finished a race. I agree with that opinion. I understand all of the hard work that goes into preparing for one of these things. I understand the pain and anguish that one must put into a race. I understand that everyone has bad races and can't always finish. That's terrible and I feel sorry for those people, but they did not finish the race, so in my opinion, they don't deserve a medal. It's just like college... You don't pass your classes, then you don't get a diploma.

Last year at the 2010 Half, they were not giving out medals to anyone except finishers. I made a point to ask because my grandmother was swept. I wasn't upset then. She didn't finish, so she wasn't supposed to get one. I just felt that a 68 year old woman who is 30 pounds over weight, trained for over a year and a half, and completed 11 miles in the most grueling conditions I have ever seen deserved something... so I asked if I could get her one. The volunteer said that she couldn't have one because she didn't finish. I felt that was fair, so I thanked the volunteer and left it at that.

In October, I knew that non-finishers were getting medals, but I brushed that off as the race being the inaugural, and moved on. But then I found out about the same thing happening in January. I was pissed. Totally pissed. But not at anyone in particular. The blame is totally Disney's here. This is a huge screwup on their part. Either give out medals to everyone or just finishers, but pick a stance and stick to it! Disney needs some consistency with this. As much as I love running at Disney, they have been making some big screwups over the past few years and they really need to reexamine their policies.

Just my two cents.

More Disney and Politics

Well ok... this is more of a humor post than anything. I just found it and since it has a Pixar theme, I thought I'd share it. Why? ... You know why...

Congrats!!!

I just wanted to take a second to congratulate all of my Team Voice friends who finished this weekends races!!! You're all a huge inspiration for me! Especially my training buddies Amanda and Chris who did their first Goofy... I'm going to need both of you guys to bestow your goofiness upon me as I attempt it this year.

Congratulations to you all!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! To celebrate, here are some pictures from the Disney Parks Blog of all of the parks from around the world ringing in the New Year.

Tokyo Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

Disneyland Paris

Walt Disney World

Disneyland

I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy, and prosperous 2011. Let's all reach our goals this year!!!