Carousel of Progress C.S.I.: The Missing Person Case

Reported Crime:  Missing Person
Location: Magic Kingdom's Carousel of Progress
First Officer on Scene: Tom Morrow

This is a Case I was given by Capt. Capos, that I thought right off, Open and Shut.  There is no way the Disney Imagineers and storytellers could make a mistake in leaving no reference to identify a character in an attraction, but I was oh, so, wrong.  The crime was a missing person, a child no less.  From this point forward we are referring to the victim here as Jane Doe.  According to Officer Morrow, "She was there in one scene and gone in the next.  And for the rest of the show for that matter."  I told Tom to slow down and start from the top.

He glanced down at his pad and began.  "It appears our Jane Doe was seen in the very first scene of the Hit Disney show Carousel of Progress."  He went on, "I'm sure you've seen the show, it's been going on for over 50 years.  It has those four scenes that follow a family through time."  He looked up from his notes, "Here's where it gets odd.  They start out in the first scene with a family of 5 and an older family member.  You know, each scene it's the family and like a grandmother or grandfather or even an uncle.  This time it was the Grandmother, The Father, Mother, Little Girl (our Jane Doe), the Son, James, and the older Daughter, Patricia.  And then as soon as the 5 hours of wash was done...BAM... the little girl is gone.  They never see her again.  She never makes it out of the 1900's"

Morrow continues, "We have a picture of her from a witnesses phone and as you can see all looks normal.  No stress in the house, all seems calm.  There might be an issue with son viewing risqué material over in the parlor, but otherwise, normal."

I asked Officer Morrow why the other children had names yet this little girl has none?  He just laughed, "I've been asking all the witnesses the same question, but no one knows.  All of the members of this show have a name, all except that little girl.  Those futuristic looking cast members that direct people to sit down and stand up have name tags, and even that bum Uncle of theirs, Orville, has a name.  S%*T, even the dog, Rover has a name."  I told Morrow to calm down and watch his language on the job.  He had nothing else so I released him from the scene.  I took a couple more pictures and headed to the lab.

Some things to note, our Jane Doe looks to be dressed properly for 1900 and as they had not developed life-like Animatronics at that time, she has to be a real girl.  After checking many sources including Disney Wiki, Wikipedia, WikiLeaks, (side note, WikiLeaks auto-corrected to the way it looks here.  Can you say it is here to stay?) and a lot of Disney attraction information sites.  The father, mother, son and older daughter appear in all scenes as themselves and not as other families as it was thought early on in the investigation.  So now we are at a great big Nothing and it looks like we have an open case that needs more research.  Could it just be an oversight on the Imagineers side and the girl was just put in there to turn the washer crank?  I hope not.  It seems so cruel.

Do you have any ideas?  Leave any tips below in the comments!  We'll talk reward after I see the tip...

The Gray Tray Lottery at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

One of the things I really like about WDW is the way they can take the simplest thing and make it great.  This past October we discovered how they can make a mistake magical by doing a thing that we did not have a clue to.  Totally random.
We were eating at Cosmic Rays Starlight Café, this is the place with Sonny Eclipse and his great show.  I ordered my food, don't forget to go on either side of the register, and went up to the counter to wait for it.  Today it was this crazy new creation, pulled-pork on a cheeseburger.  Yeah, that was on the menu and it was great.
So as I'm waiting I can see the tray getting loaded up and then brought over to me.  And at this point it's just a normal everyday tray in my eyes.  I'd have to say I did not even notice it other than to register that I was not carrying the food and drink in my hands.  As I was turning, the Cast Member was holding out a Mickey straw.  You know the type, the plastic straw in the shape of a Mickey head.  Like when you add 70 cents to your drink price at most counter services, you get it.

Well, as it turns out, I had won the Gray Tray Lottery.  Out of the hundreds of brown or blue trays it seems that there is only 1 gray tray.  The customer that gets that tray also gets the lottery prize of one Mickey straw.  Very cool!  It's a small thing but on a hot, long day, it's nice to get that kind of surprise.  I'm thinking probably one of 3 things happened to start this fun play with guests. 

• Just a mistake in the delivery of new trays when they unpacked them. One the wrong color.
• Or, a guest just walked one over from another restaurant.  Maybe from the Lunching pad? 
• Or, the marketing machine is a lot bigger and smarter than we think and this was a directive from upper mgmt. that was determined for $0.00, you have a chance to make a guest smile.

Whichever way it is

May you someday, get the Gray Tray.

WDW Interactive Queue Entertainment; What's next?

As I've mentioned in previous posts, YouTube is your friend.  I was watching a recent video that showed the new Interactive Queue Entertainment updates that were made to the Peter Pan attraction at WDW.

 

 

The things they come up with are great and always an improvement on the past.  The shadows are sooooo sharp and you can't really tell the difference of the animation and the guest.  Tinkerbelle in the bedroom is very cool as is the clap, Pixie Dust room.  I can't wait to try those things out.

 

The Disney Imagineers have been busy with these great side projects that has been going on for a decade or more.  There had to be someone, somewhere in Disney Mgmt. who asked, "How can we improve the Guest's experience in the parks?"  Or better yet, "How to make the guy that just spent a lot of $$$ forget that he is on a long line?"  Either way, the ideas they've come up with have been really good.

 

To explain further, I'm not talking about pre-show movies like they have in Muppets or Monster Inc., but the activities or entertainment to help you enjoy your Stand-By Line experience.  And, as far as I've determined, there are three main type of these Interactive Queue Experiences(IQE).  The first is the large animatronic kind of distraction.  Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Potato Head are two great examples.  As well as Stitch. 

 

 

The second type of IQE's are the physical kinds of activities like the games and the touch-me or better yet, waving activities.  The new things on Peter Pan are a great example of this.  I think the Soarin' Queue might have been the first kind and wow have they come a long way since.  The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train has some great ones.

 

 

 

The third kind of IQE is the general overall look of the attraction kind of queue.  Almost every ride queue at a Disney park has a great overall look.  There is so much detail packed into a regular line area that for 30 years nothing was really needed to be done to improve the line standing situation.  Think of walking through Pirates or Splash Mountain or even the Jungle Cruise's queue.  Those queue's with no electronic help at all are pretty awesome.  Take a look below at us walking through the Splash Mountain line once we go inside.  You totally believe that your moving from our world and going underground and getting ready to enter the world of Briar Fox and all his friends and enemies. 

  

 

Same with Pirates.  That fort is one of the most realistic areas on property.  Another thing to note is the music.  Every attraction queue has it's own music.  On second thought, every pathway and restaurant has their own theme music, that's how immersive Disney Imagineers make it.  In my opinion, audio is just as important as visuals in almost every form of entertainment.

The Magic Kingdom in particular is being taken over by these Queue upgrades.  There are now IQE's on Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarfs, Little Mermaid and Dumbo.

The question now, is what's next?  Of the remaining attractions that have extensive lines in the Magic Kingdom, there are 3 really good candidates.  My thinking is that these 3 attractions, Pirates, Splash Mountain, and the Jungle Cruise are the next to get an IQE.  All 3 of them are kind of already set up for it in that they have inside controlled areas. 

 

 

 Pirates could be as easy as including some animatronic characters on the Queue.  How about a pirate in a cell?  It would react to people passing by and talk.   Or perhaps windows out to the harbor from the fort as we walk through it showing the approaching pirates.  If the guys playing chess where not on the Fastpass line I'd say animate them.  Seems like a waste if people are speeding by it on fastpass.

 

 

The Jungle Cruise has a lot of great things to look at and read while your on line.  But on crowded days when they open up that back area of the line, it can get boring.  The extra line is so long, there's a water fountain at the other end of it before your turn and come back.  Maybe a bank of two way radios where you can listen into conversations between "imagineered" skippers?  Or some of the Under the Sea crab like technology in a form suitable for the Jungle Cruise.  I could also see holographic maps of the Jungle and a electronic version of the deceased remote control boats.  Same kind of screens and controls like Space Mountain, but a jungle course where you can drive boats.  Or imagine the car driving game from Post-show at Test Track but mounted on the wall.

 

 

 Splash Mountain is another attraction that has a substantial line that sometimes backs up.  With two distinct areas in this queue, there are a lot of things that can be added to take the guest's mind off the wait.  The outdoor section as you go around the switch backs could have some interactive activities but they must somehow match the really nice landscaping they have back there.  As much as I don't want people to just look down out there, a similar game like the iPad like gem game as they have on the Seven dwarfs queue would work well.  Maybe something like catch the Briar Fox.  Another idea would be to use the trees involving the birds of the story to get people to look around. As you go inside and down into the tunnel to where the logs are docked, the entire left wall can be utilized in an number of different ways.  Touch screens and various other 3D holographic games themed to Splash.  It'll be fun.

 

So what do you think?  What is the next attraction to get one of these Interactive Queue Entertainment makeovers?  I only discussed the Magic Kingdom in this post and plan on talking about others down the road.   Thanks to WDWNews Today and Ricky at Inside the Magic for some of the YouTube help.

Country Bear Jamboree CSI

One of my favorite old time attractions at the Magic Kingdom is The Country Bear Jamboree.  This, to me, is the epitome of what Walt Disney had in mind for an attraction.  Something that both young and old can appreciate and cramming as much animatronics as possible into one show and making it work and appear seamless.

As I mentioned I really like this attraction and on this last trip there were a lot of changes since my last visit.  Nothing major, but for a Disney Nerd such as myself, enough to have me re-examining the entire show.  That usually is my go to answer when I get asked the question that I'm sure you get all the time, "How do you go back to the same parks and do the same rides all the time?"  They're always changing them up.  However, that will be a later post, we have a more serious question today, that needs an answer.

The crime scene was spotted as we were walking through Frontierland.  As you approach the Country Bear Jamboree (CBJ) building you notice the colorful sign announcing the attraction and as you let your eyes wander up you note a beautiful rack of antlers on the second floor balcony.  As your eyes pan back, you are affronted with what could only be described as terribly grizzly scene...to either side of the bone white antlers, splayed out and nailed to the outside of that building, where two full-sized, adult, brown bear skins.

Once you get over the horror of the barbearitty of this kind of display, you start asking the questions.  What is up with that?  Did those bears lose a fight?  Ex-band members?  What in the storyline of the attraction could account for that kind of taste in outdoor décor?

We interviewed the usual suspects, the CBJ cast members with no luck.  Most were un-committal but one did give us the brush off as in saying, "Don't dig too deep, you won't like what you find." Or it was just that he was busy parking baby strollers.  And as far as getting information from Melvin, Buff, and Max, well, they just kept repeating themselves no matter how many times we came back to talk to them.

So here is the mystery to solve.  Was there fowl play involved? (all chickens refused comment) Are those Bear skins a warning to a Pirate band of Bears out there somewhere?  Or was that something that bear fans of the Country Bears put into their wills for after they're dead?  Kinda like the whole sprinkling your ashes over WDW when super-fans die?  I'll continue my research, but what do you think?  Comment below and let me know.  I really want to hear your thoughts on this.

The Maz Endless Summer Vacation Part 1(WGTWDW Podcast #35)

Here is some more commentary and pics from Show # 35.  You can listen here or read.  Thanks again for stopping by.  Feel free to leave comments or questions

Show # 35

I want to start off by saying that we are really thankful we've been so lucky to travel as much this summer as we've done.  We've had slim years and it's great to take advantage of this time now.  Quinn will be starting college in a couple of years, so we decided to take advantage of the summer time to travel.
The Mazzilli Endless Summer officially started the weekend after the 4th of July.  Lesley's company has a great company picnic at Hershey Park that weekend.  We've been doing this for at least 10 years.  We go with friends from college and make it a reunion weekend also.  This year was the extra bonus for the Girls, One Direction was playing at Hershey stadium and they all had tickets.
We drove out on Friday and went to Hershey park that night.  That's our ride night.  We've conceded long ago that the rides on Saturday are not worth the lines about 1/2 hour after the park opens.  We usually pick two of the rides we could not get on the night before.  For me it's Fahrenheit and StormRunner. We spend most of Saturday at the water park part of Hershey.  A nice feature of the lunch is that you can go at 12:00 thru 6:00 as many times as you want.  Great deal!

  We had a great couple days at the parks.  The Girls all saw 1D and said the concert was great.  The guys stayed at the park and then did the required tour through the chocolate factory before heading back to the hotel and then to home on Sunday.  The plan is to get packed and then back on the road to Florida on Monday morning.  We re-packed the van and got everything ready and set out the next morning at 4:00 am.  One of the rules about driving down without my wife Lesley is that I cannot drive straight through.  We need to stop, which we did in Brunswick Ga.  The next morning we slept all the way to 7am to make up for the day before and got back on the road.

The plan for today was to stop in St. Augustine at the Disney Character outlet and then on to DTD.  We would then get in the room until 4:00pm.  The Outlet store was good but we made no big purchases this year.  We did get a new Antenna Topper,  Luigi's Tires. The key-chain remote for the car was not working so no beeps to guide us back to the car in the parking lots.   The antenna topper was key a couple times in finding the van. We always try to stop here or at the outlet store neat WDW each trip.  We usually find a really great deal.  They usually have the previous holidays stuff along with any movies that might have been big maybe a year earlier.

 We got back on the road and our next stop was Downtown Disney.  We did the regular walk-around the Marketplace and then took a walk to the West Side, something we have not done in a long time. It is so sad to walk through Pleasure Island and think of what it was at one time.  I tried to explain to the kids how it was and how fun it was to celebrate New Years Eve every night.  We walked all the way down to the new bowling alley, Splittsville.  the place is incredible.  We had plans to meet the BOGP guys later that week. 

On the walk back to the Marketplace we stopped at the D Street store.  This is a great place with a lot of cool things to buy.  On top of that were the really cool decorations in there.  I am convinced they inherited a lot of stuff from the since closed Adventurers Club (AC).  And speaking of the AC we passed it twice and even though they've done their best to hide it, it is still there and very much missed.  Before leaving DTD we stopped at Earl of Sandwich.  This is still the best/cheapest sandwich on property, but alas, the restaurant has lost a little of it's sparkle.  On the ride up from Palm Beach towards the end of our trip, we saw that they have Earls on the Fla Turnpike.

Our next stop was to check-in to our hotel.  We stayed at the Ramada Gateway and got such a great deal.  We got a tower room with 2 queen beds, a kitchen area with fridge, microwave and sink separate from the bathroom.   The tower rooms are about 5 years old and look great still.  We were on the second floor.  These were inside hallway hotel rooms while the other half of the hotel was the outside two floor motel type rooms.  I've stayed in both types.  I only recommend the tower rooms.  We paid $63 total a night.  We had a really great stay.  Parked right outside from the elevators, very close each night. Hotel had two pools, a Barbecue themed restaurant and a Ice Cream Counter outside the pool table and Ping Pong covered courtyard.

They had a lot of Disney decorations around property.  This place is 5 minutes, from the parking lot at DHS, no exaggeration. It is the first set of buildings you hit after getting off of World Drive going west.  Plenty of fast-food places and other types of stores.  CVS has everything and the fast-food is a change from the park food.  I think we did KFC for one dinner. 

                                          Hope and I went to DHS that night.  With Quinn coming back to the parks after the cruise and Palm Beach, he would be outside his 14 day ticket window if he went with us that night.  So Hope got her time with Dad. 

Our main goal was the American Idol Finale show.  That's where all of the days winners compete for an over-all winner.  We were lucky to catch a great one.  There were 5 people in the show, but we decided it was between two, and they were sisters.  How about that.  After a great show that was a lot more of a party than the day time shows, it came down to the two sisters.  The younger one won.  I really hope she takes advantage of that super audition pass that gets her to the front of the line the next time American Idol the TV show comes around.  Getting to DHS late we kind of just bummed around.  Fastpass for Tower and we went to the last show of Indiana Jones for the day.  One of our new finds was the addition of the Walter crate and mirror to the pre-show of Muppets.  Very cool seeing stuff like that.  Now get rid of that 3D guy and put Walter on the stage.

We also spent some time in the Animation Courtyard.  Inside the area where you can line up for autographs there are a lot of computer station that let you play with color, audio and other aspects of animation.  Hope and I spent some time on the console that once you answer some questions, determines what Disney character you are most like.  For Hope it was Ariel.  We looked back in pictures and I was Tarzan. We spent some more time walking around and shopping, but that was it for the night.  The next morning we got up early and headed out to DHS again to get on the big rides we missed the night before...and we had Quinn with us.  Quick note on Tickets.  I had an AP card with RFID and the kids had paper tickets we had gotten from Undercover Tourist which were the old type.  We needed to go to two different lines to get in the park.  We took care of this at

Guest Services and got them the newer cards.  If your staying on property this can be done at your hotel.  Our main DHS goal of the day was the Extreme stunt show.  We feel that if you have at least one major goal, you don't tend to wander around as much.  The oddest thing of the day was the line we saw early on.  We did the dash to Toy Story Mania fastpass and then had time to ride it.  This was about 8:45.  

 Our next stop would then be Rock n Roller coaster before the crowd gets heavy.  There was a big line down Sunset that split at the two rides.  The park was not officially open and this was the  line waiting for 9:00.  We did a quick 180 and headed to the GMR. We had a nice relaxing day at DHS.  Went on everything we wanted to.  Ate at the ABC Commissary.  A big treat was a preview of, at the time, the new Lone Ranger movie.  It was at the Sounds Dangerous theater and was about 15 minutes of clips from the movie.  It played a big part in me wasting a couple hours to see it on the cruise.  Very fun and we also got a souvenir button/pin.  We stayed until closing and due to not going to Fantasmic, we were able to get on Muppets and Star Tours a couple of times.  Back to the hotel for a swim and late dinner.
The next day was our Magic Kingdom day.  The goal of today was two-fold.  First, we had BOG Rest. dinner ressies.  Second, the kids wanted to try the new pirate game in Adventureland.    We  

 started the day and met a very special person on the way down Main Street.  The M.S. Fire Chief.  Quinn had taken off with our tickets for fastpasses, but Hope took a picture with him.  This was our first time in the MK with the new fantasyland open.  So after we met up with Quinn, we rode Space Mtn. and ran over to Fantasyland.  It was great.  We went right over to the Little Mermaid ride and rode it twice.  The queue activity was awesome in it's simpleness fueled by high tech. 

Every so often in the cave part of the queue, you pass all manners of ways at looking at a small crab on a pile of something specific.  Through a porthole in the wall, through a picture frame, in a big glass jug and more.  The game was simple, the animated crab would come out with an item.  If it matched the items around him I think you did nothing.  If he carries in something that does not belong, you'd wave your hand in front of the water and he'd take it off the screen.  I've got some
 
video I'll post after this.  We again had a great day at the park with a Crowd Calendar number of 9.  We used the fastpasses and and did a lot of non-ride things as we counted down to dinner.  The kids and I did the new Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas.  This game is located in a little shack right past Pirates on the way to Frontierland.  You scan your RFID Band or card and begin the game.  There are five adventures and because the game keeps track of the ones you've done, you don't repeat them.  We were lucky enough to do all 5 maps and had a great time.  Perfect mix of Agent P at Epcot, the Sorcerer's game in MK and Pirates of course.  Good mix.  There were some very surprising effects, get ready to have a good time.rs
We were then ready for dinner and made our way over to the Be Our Guest rest.  We had such a good time here. 

I am looking above and seeing how much I am typing.  Listen to the show and I'll just post some more pictures here to cover the last two days of the Turf part of the trip.

 

 

Epcot and Animal kingdom to follow!

 

 

 





Magic Kingdom Rope Drop...Which Way Do We Go?

One of the questions we get asked a lot is which way to go in the Magic Kingdom once you get past Rope Drop.  Rope Drop is the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom.  Our first destination has changed over the years as the kids have gotten older.  Early on, when they were very young, our first stop had to be Fantasyland.  Dumbo, then Pooh and then Peter Pan and then whatever else we got on after that.
Once the kids got older and a little more adventurous, our first destination was Big Thunder and Splash in Frontierland.  We had a great secret way to get there in that once we got through Rope Drop, we would go upstairs to the train station and hop the first train to Frontierland and usually get there before the foot traffic did.  Then 2-3 rides on each and then onwards into the park. 
Now, the last couple of years we've been heading for Tomorrowland with the masses to get on Space Mountain a couple times and get a fastpass before it gets crowded.  On our last trip, our first day at the Magic Kingdom was an afternoon/evening because we got into Orlando in the PM.  We had a good night and really did a lot in Tomorrowland.  The next morning was to be a Rope Drop Magic Kingdom and this time when we got to the Hub, we took a left into Adventureland.  We've not done it beforfe and were shocked at how empty it was.  This was the end of August on a Touring Calendar rating of a 7.  Here are two videos that we took without really knowing I was going to use them in a post, so they're short.  What they show is a jammed Main Street and an empty Adventureland minutes apart.

 

So this can be an alternative strategy for you in the MK.  With the boy at 16, we will send him to Space Mountain for Fastpasses while we go through Adventureland and meet up with him at Pirates or Jungle Cruise.  The only downside is that we will need to be back in T-land for that fastpass time.  We'll deal. 

Where do you go at Rope Drop in the Magic Kingdom?  What do you think about the above alternative route?  Comment here or email at WGTWDW@gmail.com.

The "WGTWDW" Podcast Show # 15

Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom Cards

On this weeks show we spent some more time talking about our recent trip to WDW.  We discuss the really fun time we had playing the new game Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.  This is the new Kim Possible like game that is over in the Magic Kingdom.  We then talk about some of the time we spent at Innoventions, the exhibit/attraction area that is located right past Spaceship Earth at Epcot.  I then ask thekids a surprise question that they did not have time to prep for.  "What do you think of the new Tiki Room?"  We then close up with a new contest.  The end date for this one will be March 20th, at 11:59 pm, WDW time.  "What is the name of Huey, Lewie, and Dewey's mother?"  Email the answer to WGTWDW@Gmail.com.  We will pick randomly for all correct answers.  And sadly we give a tribute to Robert Sherman, one half of the Sherman Brothers duo, who passed away the other day.  All of our music on this show, including our opening was written by the Sherman Brothers.  The quote I used on the show was totally appropriate:
"The Song has Ended, but the Melody goes on"