Weekend Update – AVATAR Land, Polynesian Village, Cool Linkage, Etc.
Now it’s time for another Weekend Update. We know these updates are sporadic and inconsistent, but that’s what keeps them interesting…right? Like Nicolas Cage perched on a dark hill spider monkey style, you never know when one will pounce on you! 😉 It seems like the big thing this weekend was the AVATAR Land concept art and additional details being released. You’ve probably seen it by now, so we won’t regurgitate those details.
With this news, I noticed something “interesting” on social media. Allow me a brief rant. I’m a bit of a night owl on the weekends (when we’re at home, I generally stay up until about 4 a.m. editing photos and working on blog posts for the upcoming week–I can get things done efficiently because no one else is up to distract me), so I was awake for the AVATAR Land concept art release early on Saturday morning. On social media, I noticed that just as many people were commenting on the timing of the release as they were the substance of the release. This weekend was the Japan D23 Expo, and the concept art was released there during the Parks presentation, which occurred at a normal hour in Japan on Saturday. Due to time zones, that meant the art was released during the night here in the United States. Many people seemed irritated that this art was released in the “middle of the night” and in Japan, rather than at a press conference in the US.
I saw phrases like “goes against PR 101” and the like thrown around (I never realized I followed so many PR experts on Twitter!), and the general attitude seemed to be one viewing America as the center of the universe. (I could go on a long rant about this worldview, but I’ll spare you that.) To me, it’s no big deal that some concept art was released first in Japan (and that’s exactly what it was–concept art, not a new attraction announcement). It’s not as if the art won’t be disseminated just the same, as the “news” will be copied and pasted on 13,893 Disney fan blogs in the US regardless of when it’s released, so I see it as no harm, no foul. Beyond that, Japanese tourists are a lucrative market for the US parks (they are far more likely to visit Aulani, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World than Americans are to visit the parks in Asia), and getting them excited about something coming to the US parks is a savvy move if this was done by design. Especially when Disney fans in the US are just as likely to find out about it either way, and Japanese fans are probably less likely to find out about it if it’s not announced to them directly. I don’t recall reading any complaints from Americans that Shanghai Disneyland details were first announced in the US instead of China where that park will be located (of course, double standards are fine when they benefit Americans). I understand the frustration that it wasn’t unveiled at the US D23 Expo a couple months ago; my guess as to why it was not is because it had not received a final greenlight or board approval for funding in time and had to instead settle for a cryptic/odd office setup. The concept art seems to match blueprints that leaked nearly a year ago, so I don’t know what other reason there would for releasing the art now as opposed to then. At the end of the day, it’s just a release of a few pieces of concept art and vague details…does it really matter where and when it was released? Anyway, sorry about the rant, but one of the hazards in reading this blog is that you’re occasionally subjected to my personal opinions.
In a much more cool little tidbit of news, we’ve learned that Disney’s Polynesian Resort is in the process of returning to its original name of the Polynesian Village Resort. Hopefully this is a sign of bigger changes (than just adding Disney Vacation Club) to come at the Poly, and not just cashing in on “retro-mania.”
Upcoming Posts
The benefit of being home for the weekend is that I have the chance to get posts ready over the weekend rather than scrambling to write them at night when I get home from work. We have some good stuff (I think) coming this week…let me tease the slate:
Monday – A minute by minute post of my photos from a recent night of shooting fireworks with an explanation of my thinking in getting the shots. (The photo at the top of the post is from that article.)
Tuesday – Tokyo Disney Resort trip report, starting with sunrise in Tokyo Disneyland. (I know I’ve been promising this for a while, but I actually have the photos edited and everything ready to go this time. If you haven’t read it yet, click here to read our current installments of the Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Report!)
Wednesday – Wild Card Wednesday! Disneyland Hotel Review, Kona Cafe Breakfast Review, or Harbor Galley Review. This is your call–vote in the comments. Majority wins, even if that’s only one voter!
Thursday – “Is The Walt Disney Studios Park a Disney Theme Park?”
Friday – Sony QX100 Review for “Photo Friday.” Sarah has had this groundbreaking new phone system for a couple of weeks now, and is really impressed. I think the Sony QX100 “lens” is bit gimmicky, but great for people primarily interested in sharing photos on social media. We’ll share both of our perspectives in that review. (If you want a lens that is actually revolutionary, check out our Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Review.)
Cool Linkage
We harp on getting out and seeing other Disney parks besides your “home” one a lot on this site, but we feel that way about travel in general. A lot of our nosy (;)) readers ask how we travel so much. It’s because travel is our #1 priority in life right now, and we make every sacrifice necessary (I can’t remember the last time we went out to dinner when home) to enable us to travel. This article titled “Travel While You’re Young,” completely captures our philosophy, and we highly recommend it to any other young people without kids.
Speaking of traveling, you might remember that we launched a companion site to this one earlier this year called TravelCaffeine. I’ve had a tough time keeping up on that blog, but I’m now planning regular updates. Last week we had a popular post detailing our “Trespassing” in Acadia National Park. Add this site to your bookmarks if you want travel inspiration and ideas!
If you missed our post on Disneyland Secrets last week, check that out. Our Unique Family Photo Ideas at Walt Disney World article was also pretty popular. Other than that, it was just dining reviews on the blog last week. Now, on with posts from other blogs…
A new blog called “Disneyland Paris Treasures” launched. The first post is well-written and detailed…this is being added to our bookmarks!
Gorillas Don’t Blog featured a couple beautiful photographs from the Disneyland Skyway shot in 1960(!!!). I’ve never been a big Skyway fan, but the thought of taking photos from it makes me salivate. Just think of all the unique angles!
WDWMagic shared news of a Main Street USA bypass to be added to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. If this is half as nice as the Arcades in Disneyland Paris, we will be stoked. Those are so awesome–every Main Street should have them!
We have mixed feelings on skipping Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival this year, but this article from Disney Food Blog on the Parisian Breakfast makes us wish we did attend. (There are other reasons it would have been nice to attend, but we’re growing a bit tired of the “drunken frat party” atmosphere to Epcot on fall weekends.)
Our friend Yoshi shares some photos of the Japan D23 Expo venue!
Leading up to their Photo Magic 2013 event, Disney Photography Blog had a couple of cool posts offering differing perspectives on photography. I really liked this one with thoughts on photographing the (very challenging) Boo To You Parade!
The Hong Kong Disneyland Gazette posts an interesting look at a “Halloween Challenge” at HKDL. Everything we’ve read makes it sound like that park does Halloween best!
Inside the Magic shares a look at Halloween on the Disney Cruise Line. Looks nice!
Finally, we recognize that a lot of you have your own Disney blogs where you share your thoughts, etc. We love the sense of community among Disney fans (we’re not so big on some of the in-fighting, but that’s an understandable byproduct of the passion), and we’re not an isolationist blog that views other sites as “competitors.” I love reading other Disney blogs, but I don’t get a chance to read every Disney blog every week. To help me out, if you’ve written or read an especially good blog post recently, please share a link to it in the comments of this article. Hopefully this will help me find great new blogs to read and feature in future “Cool Linkage” sections, and also send a bit of traffic your way!
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That’s it for this update! To follow our adventures, find us on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Flickr!
Your Thoughts…
Have any comments about this update? Thoughts on the AVATAR Land? Vote for our Wild Card Wednesday blog post? Have any of your own blog posts to share? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
I would love to see a Disneyland Hotel review!! My husband and I are planning our 1-year anniversary trip to DLR and DLH is where I think we want to stay, but I’d love your opinion of it!
Kona Cafe Review – I’ll be having breakfast there in a few weeks and wouldn’t mind reading someone else’s opinion on it.
I vote for Disneyland Hotel! 🙂
Regarding the Avatar announcement: people really do find the strangest things to complain about. It is eternally fascinating to me. Do random Twitter users really think they know more about PR than DISNEY?
Yeah, the crack about “‘drunken frat party’ atmosphere [of] EPCOT on fall weekends” gets under my skin because it’s usually a thinly-veiled swipe at locals, intimating we’re all drunken lowlifes. I don’t think you’re given to such generalizing. However, I’ve been to EPCOT the past three weekends, consistent with what I’ve been doing for years now, and I never manage to see these harrowing instances of out-of-control behavior. I was never into the Greek scene at U of I, but I did live across the street from two obnoxious frats. Can’t say as I’ve seen anything at EPCOT even in the same coordinate system as that brand of idiocy. Care to elaborate?
The reference to a drunken frat party wasn’t in terms of intensity, it was in terms of all the drunk UCF students (or at least kids wearing UCF clothes) we’ve seen there in the last couple of years. That should address your concern about the comment being a swipe at locals.
Is it just me or has the frequency of new posts on your blog increased quite a bit the past few months? I’m loving it.
Anyhow, I vote for a Disneyland Hotel review for Wildcard Wednesday!
The frequency has increased relative to earlier this year, but not compared to last year. Things slowed down a bit at the beginning of this year because I was putting most of my free time into planning the Tokyo trip. Once that was over, I had a lot of additional free time…hence more posts!
I also was a fan of your rant. It didn’t occur to me to be upset with the way the announcement took place.
I’m a big Kona fan. However, I vote for the Disneyland Hotel review. Having only ever been to WDW, I’d rather daydream about somewhere new.
Also, I’m looking very forward to your linked article about traveling. My husband and I just got married in May and want to really make the most of our child-less years.
Tom and Sarah – love your blog! I completely agree with you to travel as much as you can before kids. How we long for the days when we can book a quick weekend getaway with just a carryon, instead of the 2 suitcases (both for the kids, we still only get 1 carry on!) But we would encourage others to keep travelling even after you have kids, as it is easier for them to get used to it while they are young. We got married in our 20s, travelled the world over (being sure to fit in DL Paris and HKDL during our travels). We travelled extensively when pregnant both times. We still travel a lot with our 2 kids (both under age 3 – they have passports with a few stamps 🙂 They are now pros at the TSA line – basically, when you roll up to TSA with a huge stroller piled with baby stuff, they sometimes open another line for you cause it will take 30 minutes to go through security 🙂
It takes a bit of planning and a little craziness but it can be done! And like you guys, we do our best to save up for the trips. Since we eat out on vacation, we don’t as much at home, try to keep our expenses low, etc. When they are smaller, you don’t pay for airfare (under 2 yrs old) and can travel when everyone else is in school so it keeps the costs down as well. Thanks so much for the awesome posts, I like to live vicariously through you guys, reminds me of us! and helps me plan for future trips!
Kona Cafe review!! We’re going for our first time next month. I’m so excited!
Love your report, as always. Thanks!
Here’s a vote for Kona! We may be eating there in a couple of weeks!
Have you seen “Escape From Tomorrow” yet? You can check out my review at the below link-
http://lebeauleblog.com/2013/10/12/escape-from-tomorrow-no-matter-where-you-go-there-you-are/
Too late for us to enjoy the “Travel while your young without kids” advice, perhaps in a few years when the last of the Brady bunch gets launched into adulthood we could contribute to a “Doddering Old Farts See the world via EVC” blog?? We are looking forward to this with baited breath!! lol!
I absolutely agree with you on your “rant.” My vote is for Kona Cafe breakfast. And the answer to your Thursday post is “No.” 🙂
Hey Tom! Since you asked…I just published last week the 2014 Disney World Week Picker–one of the more (few?) useful posts I put it each year. It might be worth noting in one of your updates one of these days! As always, love your site. The Week Picker is here: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2013/10/07/the-2014-walt-disney-world-week-picker/
Disneyland Hotel review!
I agree completely about your comments on the timing of the release of the artwork.
HKDL is great, but really you’ve been spoiled with TDL. My top tip: make sure you get a window seat on the plane, as they often fly quite low over the resort (it’s very close to the airport) and you get an amazing view from above.
Oh, ANd to your question at hand, I’d say NONE, give us more TDR instead!
I think breakfast at Kona is slightly better than Denny’s. Harbor Galley I have never bought a thing from and they seem to always change offerings.
And the DLH? I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but unless you are getting a phenomenal cast type rate, I think staying there is insane for what they charge. But I amused to staying at local Marriott’s, Hyatts and Sheraton’s cor $45-70 a night with PL.com. The idea of spending $200-500 a night for Pixie Dust is just insane.
But if you stayed, I’d love to know what you paid and if you were working for Disney at the time of the trip.
One vote for Kona Cafe breakfast review please! keep up the great work!
Thank you for sharing that article on traveling! I’ve been traveling for most of my life and I love it. I’ve been to Europe several times, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, etc. But two years ago I jumped at the opportunity to go to Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey. It was them most enriching experience of my life. In a month I am going to Morocco (thanks to the World Showcase!) and Israel. I expect it to be just as wonderful.
I’ve been preaching the joys and rewards of travel for years and people look at me like I have a third eye. There seems to be stigma about travel, namely that anyone who travels outside of the USA must be excessively rich and that all countries outside the USA are deadly, third-world disasters. I find this ignorance sad and disappointing.
“Small paychecks and big memories” -That hit the nail on the head for me. I’m young and I don’t have an amazing career yet but I have big memories and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I vote for the Disneyland Hotel review.
I vote for Kona Cafe!
I am on the blog forum for http://www.wdwforgrownups.com.
Stop by and say hello sometime!
Thank you for all the work and time you put in on your site..
It is appreciated!
I enjoyed the “Travel While You are Young” article. We waited until ~10 years of marriage to have a child, which gave us time to travel a bit (although never to Africa or Asia). Those are special memories.
You don’t have to let having children slow you down that much, though. We’ve had our daughter travelling quite a bit since she was young and she does very well with it. You do have to work around school schedules and things cost more, however. About the only thing we’ve missed is that we used to take at least one ski trip per year, and we haven’t been able to do that for a while. Soon, I hope!
We don’t plan to stop traveling once we have kids (at least I don’t! ;)), but it will necessarily slow us down to some degree. We won’t be able to do marathon hours, drive long distances with minimal stops, sleep in the car, get up for the sunrise and stay up for the stars, etc. Not being able to do so much in a day also makes those weekend “0-days off work” trips that we enjoy less appealing.
Plus, there’s the added cost. We couldn’t do as much traveling by virtue of that.
Obviously, traveling with kids is possible and rewarding in its own ways (seeing the world vicariously through them, etc.), but for now, we’re both pretty happy with our ‘young and wild’ style!
Kona Cafe review 🙂 I’d rather punch myself in the face than fly more than 3 hours in a plane with my 3 kids under 6, so as a Michigander, branching out to Disneyland or other countries is not in my 6 year plan 🙂 But Kona Cafe is doable!