Disney World.

lots of waffling on this one.

crap: fleecing the consumer with ever-increasing ticket & merch prices, getting rid of traditional animation, forced export of american junk culture, hardball land grabs & all sorts of other shady political manipulations in ca & fl, turning shopping into entertainment with the advent of downtown disney/pleasure island, the peter pan guy & his obsessive cutesy ilk, etc

not crap: space mountain, haunted mansion, pirates of the caribbean, the indiana jones ride, having an uncle who worked there for 60 years & designed some of their coolest shit, the smell of the canada section in epcot, going there as an adult & being able to appreciate all of the visual/mechanical effects work, having stock in the company thanks to a benevolent grandparent that should have kept some of that money, selling that stock in order to cover my condo down payment...

i'm a reluctant fan. not crap, wf42.

crap because they closed mr toads wild ride.

haha!

I'm in Anaheim CA right now. about a block away.

I hate it here.



but the Discovery Science Center rules.


Crap, waffle factor of kids love it.

kerble wrote:haha!

I'm in Anaheim CA right now. about a block away.

That is funny!

Because your mom's there, too!

kerble wrote:I'm in Anaheim CA right now. about a block away.
I hate it here.

anaheim is indeed the suck - had to attend NAMM there 3 years in a row. avoid the "cajun" restaurant in the downtown disney area unless you are a deer in dire need of a salt lick.

hench wrote:

kerble wrote:I'm in Anaheim CA right now. about a block away.
I hate it here.

anaheim is indeed the suck - had to attend NAMM there 3 years in a row. avoid the "cajun" restaurant in the downtown disney area unless you are a deer in dire need of a salt lick.

Ah yes, the obligatory "time spent in a crap ass city you'd never visit otherwise, but have to attend a trade show" scenario.

I've spent time in Anaheim for manufacturer training/education, and while I appreciated the royal treatment the manufacturer provided, Anaheim is a crap place to visit. The time spent at Downtown Disney was the worst.

I was in Vegas for Infocomm last June. I'm going back there next month for the NSCA show. I don't like Vegas, and I'm just thankful I don't have to pay for a damn thing on the whole trip.

The previous Infocomm I was at was in Orlando. Same shit. Worse than Vegas though, as the restaurants are crap, the city is total crap, and it's more "tourist trap" atmosphere on par with the Dells. The highlight of my time there was a drive out to Winter Park to have dinner at Don Pepe's....the best Cuban food I've ever had!

I wish these stupid trade shows would go to a "normal" city for once, as I might actually enjoy a week in a place like San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, NY, Minneapolis, or even Kansas City; where you could explore "normal" city life and culture, instead of some manufactured, phony, wallet sucking tourist trap. Just as long as it wasn't fucking Las Vegas, Orlando, or Anaheim.

geiginni wrote:I wish these stupid trade shows would go to a "normal" city for once, as I might actually enjoy a week in a place like San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, NY, Minneapolis, or even Kansas City; where you could explore "normal" city life and culture, instead of some manufactured, phony, wallet sucking tourist trap. Just as long as it wasn't fucking Las Vegas, Orlando, or Anaheim.

Ah! The curse of the "tier one" cities!

If you want to go to other cities, you need to stop going to really big shows. There are only like seven cities (six now that New Orleans is in the crapper) in the US that can handle (convention-space and hotel-room wise) something as big as InfoComm or NSCA or CES.

Chicago is one of them. So is NYC. But both of them have labor and transportation issues that make them less attractive than the sunbelt hellholes you mentioned.

Conventions = CRAP

I'd tell the marginally amusing story of being taken into custody by Disney security as a teenager, but it's at best marginally amusing. Two things I will pass along from my stay in their custody -- they have a hidden control center under that place that is very much like something Dr. No would have constructed, and if youve been to Disney World, they have video of you.

Kinda like Las Vegas.

Disney also has (or had, I dont know if these things expire) a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a nuclear power plant on the huge chunk of FL they own. I dont know if theyve acted on it (I doubt even they could hide it, but really, no one knows what goes on behind the curtain), but they could.

Walt Disney World = CRAP with mouse ears

endofanera wrote:
I'd tell the marginally amusing story of being taken into custody by Disney security as a teenager, but it's at best marginally amusing.

Come on, just tell us the story already! Having never been to Disneyland, I'm dying to know what's in store for me if I ever do make it out there. Besides, it's the weekend, and nobody's posting.

Thx.

Mazec wrote:

endofanera wrote:
I'd tell the marginally amusing story of being taken into custody by Disney security as a teenager, but it's at best marginally amusing.

Come on, just tell us the story already! Having never been to Disneyland, I'm dying to know what's in store for me if I ever do make it out there. Besides, it's the weekend, and nobody's posting.

Thx.

Honestly, I dont remember much in the way of details as it's been a while. And we were really drunk.

As I recall, we managed to slip into one of the hidden gates that parades and the like magically emerge from at WDW. We were wandering around back there, and managed to get down into one of the hallways where they run the megaplex. Passed some employees. Walked past an office with some video displays.

The rest is startlingly like that Simpsons where Bart and Homer get arrested at Scratchyland (or whatever it was called). Some Disney Security (Their badges had mouse ears! This is my strongest memory of the experience!) came up to us and asked us what we were doing there. We tried the old "we were looking for a bathroom and got lost" gambit, but they werent buying it, probably because we were two drunk, high teenagers.

We got escorted to an office, where we waited for a while. Then the big boss Mouse House security guy came in. He didnt really interrogate us or anything. Just told us we could be arrested for trespassing, but settled for taking our names and kicking us out of the park. Being from FL, this wasnt all that distressing.

See? Told you it was at best "marginally amusing."