The Jake Sully Character Meet Will be at 3pm

By now I am sure you've heard that James Cameron and Disney Parks are joining together to build an Avatar themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  Right now it is hard to find a Disney Parks fan who does not have an opinion on this partnership and you probably don't want to hear mine... But since you came to the blog you'll get it anyways! :-p

On the surface this is an interesting partnership between a cutting edge movie franchise and its creator Cameron and a company that prides itself on being cutting edge entertainer.  Cameron has shown an uncanny ability of developing projects with staying power and I think in the long term Avatar and its sequels will become part of our pop culture history in a manner similar, though not as drastic, as other major Sci Fi franchises.

Disney has proven its ability to make sure pop culture history is in many ways maintained via its Parks and make a lot of money doing it.  When was the last time you ever watched a Twilight Zone episode?  How long had it been since you last saw Jedi, Empire or New Hope when you first rode Star Tours?  And how many kids had never even seen an Indian Jones movie before the rode the ride at Disneyland?  Many of these franchises have been kept in our conscious by Disney Parks after they've long since ended or had significant breaks between movies.

So this deal seems to make sense.  Cameron seems to be an artist very aware of his place in history.  Disney will give him the opportunity to take his vision of the world of Pandora to a whole new level who could not imagine otherwise and cement his status for some time to come.  George Lucas himself is famous for saying he would do a deal for Star Wars attractions/concepts with no one except Disney due to their ability to bring the imagined into reality (paraphrasing here)-- Cameron is following that lead.

Now on a nuts-and-bolts level, I think this will be an interesting endeavour.  Frankly, no one except Imagineering could pull this one off.  But I am still a bit skeptical.  This seems like it might be Disney's response to Harry Potter at Universal as well as an effort to boost their weakest gate at Animal Kingdom.  If done well this could be amazing-- if done poorly (looking at you Disney California Adventure pre-rehab) this could be a flop that costs Disney a lot of money.

One thing we know for sure-- will probably be at least a year before we see firm details and don't plan on heading to Pandora until sometime in 2016.  Good lord my son will be driving by then-- hopefully I survive driver training so I can come to the opening.

Oh and Tom Staggs took some time to provide non-answers to a number of questions over on the Disney Parks Blog-- check them out.

So who wants to stand in line for a Jake Sully picture?!

Disney's Aulani Resort-- Mortgage Brokers Rejoice!

The LA Times has an article up today on Aulani and the food options available on resort.

As I read it I think I went into cardiac arrest folks!

Want a refillable resort mug? How about $32.99 a person.

Dinner for three at the signature restaurant? $200 tab... That does not include the tip.

But no worries-- you can grab the buffet at $43 a person or a nice Angus Burger by the pool at $21.

All of this on top of resort rooms that begin at $399 a night.  And lets not mention the several thousands of dollars in airfare you will drop just to get your family out to Hawaii from back east. (It is actually cheaper to fly to Europe most of the year than Hawaii from the east coast).

Aulani is certainly not a resort built for the budget conscious Disney traveler.  I suppose if you a trekking all the way to Hawaii you want to go all out on your vacation and Disney is banking on that-- but good lord that is a pricey vacation!

I guess if you're lucky enough to have equity in your home right now you can take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for the trip to Aulani.  I think mortgage brokers might be the ones really excited about this new resort.

Want to See DVC Grand Floridian?

As always DVC News has the latest info-- this time its the first (assumed) artist rendering of the DVC wing at the Grand Floridian.

The normal GF architecture is clear and the size of the balconies clearly fit the size of DVC Villas.  The portion pushing out into Bay Lake matches submitted permitting plans.

Have to say I like the look of this resort.  A few months ago I was in the 'meh' column, now I think I might be leaning into the favorable side.  Maybe we'll swing a few points as long as we avoid BLT prices (though I doubt we will).

Taking your kids out of school for Disney trips, part 2

So this is a picture of my family and wonderful friends (really more like family) at Walt Disney World during "Reunion 2010" which was the first trip we pulled our kids out of school for. Yes, I said it. A school administrator (me) and a teacher (my wife) had their kids miss school for a WDW trip! Before we decided this there were a couple of issues we had to explore:

1. Time of the year- The boys were in 3rd and 6th grade when we went in December and had already established relationships with their teachers who knew their work ethic, etc.
2. Prior absences- We were fortunate that neither of the boys had been out sick so this was their first absence.

We also made sure to let the teachers and front office know early that they would be gone in case there were any issues that we weren't aware of.

We felt very comfortable taking them out. Plus, there are so many wonderful experiences at WDW that are not during the normal holiday or summer breaks such as "Reunion."

I know as a school administrator that many of my student's parents have specific times of the year that they are assigned vacation and that it doesn't always fall into a school calendar. With early communication and planning, schools can work together to make family experiences memorable. We only have our children at home for so many years. As my boys get older, the day draws closer that they will be going off to college. Sometimes we have to prioritize and balance family time in our busy lives and as long as it's not abused, that may include missing school now and then. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!

Take care my friends!

Charles
@yensid1970

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad