The downside to moving to Central Florida so late in the game (2004, in my
case) is that there was so much here before I set up digs. Sure, I try to
cover new stuff when it appears. And truth be told, there's too much going
on to cover it all! Manta has been in employee testing at SeaWorld, and I
can't even begin to imagine how many articles it will take to cover the
Wizarding World of Harry Potter when it opens next year. The Rip Ride Rockit
coaster has been delayed (whew… gives me more time!).
Back on the Disney front, little stuff trickles out all the time. I've
been trying and trying to make it on to Characters in Flight, the new
balloon at Pleasure Island, but this sucker is only open when the wind isn't
blowing, and let me tell you, the wind has blown every day for the past two
weeks. They must be wondering if they'll ever recoup their investment by
this point. I'll have to delay that one for a future update. Ditto the
Kidani Village expansion to DAK Lodge, with its new restaurant Sanaa. More
on that next time, hopefully. It opens officially on May 1.
|
|
All these updates means I have little time to dedicate to the stuff that
has been there at WDW for a while. I suppose that's to be expected. I mean,
how weird would it be if I suddenly did a trip report on the Haunted
Mansion? But at the same time, there are some things around here that manage
to fly under the radar and not receive a lot of press, but are nevertheless
interesting and worthwhile of discussion despite being several years old.
The sort of thing that isn't often covered in the "how to visit WDW" books,
but can still make a significant impact on your vacation. One such topic
that I've long wanted to tackle has been the child entertainment, in a genre
I've decided to call Child-Specific Activities (CSA).
Bring your child over here!
A little review: Disneyland (and by extension, Walt Disney World) grew
out of Walt Disney's desire to build a place "where parents and children
could have fun together," as he once said while remembering that the
Griffith Park carrousel was only fun for kids, not adults. I refer to this
as the Griffith Park Credo, and take it at face value. Walt wanted to build
a park where all the rides would be ideal for parents and children together
– no more separating of kids and adults like he had to endure at Griffith
Park. After all, there were no roller-coasters at Disneyland by the time
Walt died with one exception: the Matterhorn (which in Walt's day, did not
have a height requirement at all, so anyone could ride).
Over the years, I've taken some heat for the Griffith Park Credo. "Walt
wasn't saying that *all* rides should be accessible by the whole family,"
goes the usual complaint. "He was saying that his ideal theme park should
have some rides for kids, and some rides for adults." I'm still not convinced of
that. Would Walt have been happy if the kids' carrousel at Griffith was
followed up by Walt going on a coaster while the kids waited on a bench? I
really think he meant that everyone should ride the same rides together, as
a family.
That said, Walt didn't necessarily walk the talk. He pointedly put a
carrousel in Disneyland. If the carrousel concept was problematic to him all
those Sundays ago, why would he include one at Disneyland? A nuanced
interpretation seems to call for some laxity in the invoking of the Griffith
Park Credo. Perhaps Walt merely meant that "by and large" the ideal theme
park should have rides that adults and children could do together.
The logo implies a certain level of
activity by the child.
Clearly, the Disney parks of 2009 have come a long way from there. Quiet
and slow-moving rides (PeopleMover, Motorboat Lagoon, Nature's Wonderland,
Adventure Thru InnerSpace, World of Motion, Discovery River Boats) have
increasingly given way to attractions with height requirements, and the
family together experience is a bit fractured. One assumes that a
hypothetical reincarnated Walt would show up at his own theme parks, plant
himself on a bench, and bemoan the lack of a place "where parents and
children could have fun together."
Perhaps sensitive to just such critiques, and in the face of customer
complaints that the Disney parks are supposed to be about families, not
thrills, Walt Disney World management saw fits years ago to institute some
Child-Specific Activities in a few of their parks. There are no CSAs in the
Magic Kingdom (presumably, there is enough to do for young kids because of
all the dark rides), but Epcot and DAK both have CSAs. At Epcot, you've got
the highly visible KidCot tables for coloring and collecting, while at DAK
you've got the less well-known Kids' Discovery Club. The Studios park (DHS)
has no such CSA, but for my money, they need one. DHS has the least for kids
to do!
Guess which animal is making this sound!
KidCot is a pretty uniform experience: in every Future World pavilion and
in every World Showcase pavilion a staffed table is tucked away somewhere,
where kids can arrive and color an object. The object is then added to their
collection. In Future World, they collect paper "charms" on a necklace, and
if they get all the stations, they get a collectable poster of the Fab Five
at Epcot (not a huge deal, but it's nice!) In World Showcase, they collect
charms on a "paper mask on a stick" as they move from country to country.
The experience from table to table is pretty similar; either your child
wants to color the mask some more, or he doesn't. For a free perk, the
KidCot stuff is hard to find blame with, but at the same time, it's also
nothing to write home about.
Over at DAK, the Kids' Discovery Club is less visible and less "in your
face," but at the same time, arguably more interesting for kids. In contrast
to Epcot, here there is variation in what you see and do from place to
place. There are six stations set up throughout DAK:
Dinoland: match mockup dino jawbones to the right skull
Asia: identify siamang, frog, and tiger by the sounds of their cries
as recorded onto tapes
Africa: decide which unseen animal tramped through the path we're on
based on footprints and scat
Conservation Station: find the bugs hidden in a mockup of your
backyard
Discovery Island: examine tarantulas and bugs
Camp Minnie-Mickey: identify natural items (turtle shell, log,
antlers, pinecone) by feel alone
If you finish all six stations, and get a stamp in your "passport" for
each one, you get an activity book of the sort you see all the time at your
local Denny's. Still, it's a worthwhile quest if your child is the right
age. By the way, take special note of the Discovery Island stamp. It's the
hardest to get, because its location (behind the Tree of Life) closes once
the afternoon parade starts, and doesn't re-open.
After the movie, how about some activity?
The variety really sets apart the DAK Discovery Club. Unlike Epcot, where
every station offers essentially the same experience, at DAK kids discover
something new to do each time. This is in keeping with the mode of
"discovery" at this park in the first place (it's no accident that most of
the trails around the Tree of Life are unmarked, and winding).
So how do the CSAs jibe with the notion of a Griffith Park Credo?
Inconsistently, at best. Having things available only for children (or
perhaps, specifically for children) is exactly what Walt was trying to
combat with Disneyland. In one sense, the CSAs fly in the face of the Credo.
Certainly it's hard to argue otherwise in the theoretical.
In the world of the practical and actual, however, things are rarely so
cut and dried. I've been at a carrousel before, watching my young kids ride,
and had my heart simply melt at how cute they are. I spend the entire ride
trying to take ever-better digital pictures of them. It's a far cry from
sitting dejectedly on a bench, wishing they were done so I could move on to
something more interesting for me. Does that mean the Griffith Park Credo
has a few holes in it?
Say hello to my little friends.
Something similar happens when my six-year-old wants to do some KidCot
coloring, or wishes to jump into the Kids' Discovery Club stations at DAK. I
don't join in the activity with him, so in that sense it's alienating, but I
do enjoy watching him have a good time, and I have to admit, I especially
enjoy watching him learn something at the DAK stations (something wholly
missing at the KidCot stations).
I'm not sure where this leaves me. I still believe, by and large, in the
concept of a Griffith Park Credo. Most Disney theme park rides are better
designed when the whole family can ride together, and someone doesn't have
to wait outside for the others to come out. But activities that take place
on the sidewalk, where everyone is physically together at least, are not
necessarily evil even when aimed primarily at children to the exclusion of
adults. As parents, often we like to watch. And if we watch with them,
literally by their side, it's just as if we are doing it along with them.
DAK Picnic: Good, and Better News
Not too long ago, I reported on the new Picnic
in the Park at DAK, where you pay $25 for three people (up to $49
for six) to enjoy pre-made sandwiches, a few desserts, a few small drinks,
and split a large side item. The major problem, I realized, was not price
but service. In addition to the built-in two hour wait, we experienced a
25-minute delay when picking up our food.
Good news: I wandered by the Kusafiri pickup window at 1:50pm this Sunday
(one week later, to the minute, that I experienced my problems), and they
seem to have fixed things. The window now included a small sign that
indicated this was where to pick up the picnic lunches. And best of all,
there was no wait whatsoever. In fact, there were no people here at all. Had
we ordered a picnic lunch, I'm guessing the wait would have been minimal to
pick it up two hours later.
No line, no person selling from an outside
register, and no visible CM.
But there's even better news: in the MiceChat discussion forum after that
last column, one person reported that the sandwich selection (for the cheap
items, not the expensive option) was identical to what's offered in Beastly
Bazaar, the shop at the exit to It's Tough to be a Bug. Intrigued, I
resolved to visit the next week to see on my own.
Folks, it's true. You can get the identical sandwiches from the picnic
right here, but with zero wait. Forget 25 minutes to pick it up, and forget
the two hours to place your order. Just show up, snap up the pre-made
sandwich, and pay at the register. You'll be done in two minutes.
There aren't a lot of signs for this food
offering.
Best of all, the prices here are reasonable, too. The Ham/Salami Grinder
and the Turkey-Chipotle-Foccacia are $7, and the Tuna Pita or Chicken Wrap
are only $6. You've got more variety here for desserts: chocolate cake,
carrot cake, Mickey rice crispie treat, or fruit cups. And while you'll have
to purchase such desserts and drinks a la carte, you'll have much greater
variety. Instead of water for everyone, here you can get Coke, Diet Coke, or
Sprite instead if you so choose.
The Picnic, which is designed for parties of 3 or more, pointedly ignores
individuals and even couples. The Beastly Bazaar, meanwhile, offers a la
carte pricing that guarantees it will appeal to singles and couples much
more than the picnic. And did I mention you need no two-hour lead time or
half-hour of pickup time?
It may be pre-made, but it tastes
identical to the Picnic.
Granted, the Picnic does yield some cost savings. We paid $25 for $28
worth of food (if calculated a la carte) and got the $3 bag for free, too,
for at least a savings of $6. But on the other hand, with Disney parks these
days you can bring in your own food and drinks. On this more recent visit,
we brought in our own cold water bottles, and I had packed my own sandwich,
so we ended up spending only $6 for a tuna sandwich for my wife, rather than
$25 for a picnic for three. In real, practical, rubber-meets-the-road ways,
we saved money by going a la carte rather than the package picnic. I don't
know about your world, but in my world, the real dollar value of money spent
always trumps the supposed benefit of cost savings.
The net result is that we won't return to the Picnic after all. We have
everything we need, right here at the Beastly Bazaar, where the food was
just as fresh, delicious, and reasonably priced. And did I mention how
convenient it was to amble in whenever I wanted, with no warning, and get my
food in two shakes of a lamb's tail? We'll definitely be back at the Bazaar. |