No more Lindsay at LMA

I don't visit Lights Motors Action often, so maybe this is old. They no longer say "So what's it like working with Lindsay Lohan" to Herbie; now they say only "leading ladies". I guess Disney wants to keep Lindsay at a distance!

Toy Story Midway Mania Tips and Tricks (Spoilers)

Here are my top tricks so far:

1. Barn Room (we shoot eggs): I shoot the goat in the top corner (2,000 pts?) and the fox on the henhouse (500). The fox, once shot, triggers a series of 1,000 point chickens. The rat near the house at the top is worth a lot of points, but he doesn't come around very often.

2. Balloon Room (we shoot darts): Aim for the corners. If you knock out the balloons on the cloud, you get a shower of 500-point balloons covering the screen. This is key: if your partner does the same thing on HIS cloud at the same time (more or less), then what you trigger is a shower of 2,000 point balloons, rainbow colored.

3. Green Army Men Plate Breaking Room (we shoot baseballs): There has got to be a trigger here somewhere for secondary targets that offer higher points. But I can't find it! So I'm stuck so far just shooting the 500 and 1000 point plates.

4. Alien Room (we shoot rings): This is key: put a ring around all the 100-point aliens in the rocketship in the middle. Do it before any of them pops back up, and you trigger the "hungry monster" who opens his mouth and lets you rapid fire in your rings for 500 pts, then 1,000 pts a shot. Get the monster to appear early to maximize your time with him; we find it effective to have me and my partner "split up" the spaceship to blanket it with rings very fast. Every so often, the monster keeps his mouth shut. Aim at 1,000 or 2,000 or the 5,000 point rocketships on the side during this quiet time, but come back to the monster when he's ready.

5. Western Room (we shoot suction-cup arrows): All the targets here splay open additional 500 and 1,000-point targets. Just keep shooting fast. Is there a hidden trick here?

6. Transition to next screen: keep shooting as your vehicle moves to the next screen. Some 2,000 point targets appear near the middle.7. Mine Cart Finale (we still shoot suction cup arrows): Kill the bat at the top as soon as you see it. It flips around to reveal a 5,000 point target. Then, the mine cars start saying 1,000 or 2,000 points. This is key: the very instant a giant target fills your screen, start rapid firing and don't stop until it's all over. As you hit the target, lights around the outside of the target illuminate in order. After you make it all the way around, the target starts being worth 1,000 points and your lights start over. I can make it almost to halfway around the 2,000 points. But you have to be very quick.

To REALLY get the high scores for the day or for the month, what you need is a partner who is willing to work with you to open up all the bonus targets, but then let you gather all those points.

More car rental perspectives

My recent article on rental car prices at OIA spurred this email:

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Great column again this week. We have not used the Magic Express bus yet and hope we never have to. Our last two trips to WDW in Sept. 2005 and Sept. 2006 (we could not make it in 2007 ) as well as all our previous trips we always rent a car. In fact a couple of times we have rented a car in DC and driven it down to Orlando (13 hour drive or so, not too bad).

Generally in Sept. we get great rental deals: $100-120 for something "nice" like National's Emerald Aisle. We make use of every discount we have to get those rates. I always tell anyone staying at WDW to rent a car. Even if it costs $150 it is worth it. Here are the benefits of using the rental car:

1. Faster trip into and out of the airport. With the Emerald Aisle or Alamo Quicksilver there is no line, just grab baggage, go to National's section of the parking garage, take car, checkout at gate, and drive to WDW. Same thing going back: I can drop the wife and child at the departure level with the bags, then drop the car off (it's fast) and meet them 10 minutes later. With the bus service you may waste as much as 1-2 hours getting to WDW and 3 hours leaving WDW and returning to the airport.

2. With the car you can not only leave WDW to visit SuperTarget to buy groceries, beer, soda, bottled water, sunglasses, etc. you can also visit one of the three Character Warehouse outlets to buy souvenirs. There are also a few off-site restaurants that are worthwhile. God help me but I like that Boston Lobster Feast place, and I really want to try the "catfish camp" style restaurant in St. Cloud.

3. I live in the Washington DC area and in comparison Orlando is a dream to drive in (except Int'l Drive). It is enjoyable to be on vacation somewhere where the traffic is light, and the drivers polite.

4. With the car you can bookend your stay at cheaper hotels. I did this on one trip: flew down Monday evening, stayed at Fairfield Marriott Village and that night bought all our groceries, etc. Next morning at 7:30am I drove to Coronado Springs, checked in, went back to my hotel, checked out, met my wife and 2-year-old son at the airport (they flew down on Tuesday) then we went to WDW and got our room and enjoyed the rest of the day (I think we had not bought admission for the first day so we did the Downtown Disney and AK Lodge instead of seeing a park). At the end of the trip we did the same thing: these park in the morning, checked out of Coronado Springs at noon, more theme parks in the afternoon, then checked into the Fairfield Inn ($55 night including free breakfast) that night.

5. At one time I calculated that each waking hour at WDW cost $20 for each family member (it might be $25 today!). So saving even 5 hours of our time is worth the $100 rental. We save a lot of time driving: from Coronado Springs it is almost always faster to drive to the theme parks. With the Magic Kingdom driving might be a wash but we tend to book meals at the Grand Floridian and park there instead of the big lot. We have the AAA parking pass each time which also helps to park near each park entrance.

6. Valet parking is also a huge time saver, especially at places with faraway lots like Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Grand Floridian, etc.

7. Rental car makes it much easier to have meals in places harder to get to like the Grand Floridian, Animal Kingdom Lodge or even the Beach Club. For the most part we only like sit-down meals in the theme parks at EPCOT only, although we always have breakfast at the Crystal Palace.

8. I really do like the Magical Express buses for other people, because they leave a lot more space for me to park at my hotel (Coronado Springs) and they also mean lots like the Beach Club are pretty empty so I can park there too (with permission).

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Strollers, take 5 - slow build up

Another reader mail of note:

A small note on alienating guests with high priced strollers. Most guests, even if they are frequent, experience some degree of "sticker shock" at a Disney park. Everything is so expensive. Most of us either expect it and plan for it or get over it. However, there are many people who don't get over it and will continue to use that as a negative factor throughout their vacation, especially if they have to rent the expensive stroller because they left their own at home. (I don't even want to think about the negatives of trying to "make do" without the stroller at WDW. That's got to just be hell.) When little Jimmy asks for that $20 light spinner, the answer will be "no, we've already spent enough!" That $10 bucket of popcorn will be "outrageous". They may forego snacks, souvenirs, experiences while in the park, meaning less money in Disney's pocket overall. If they have the choice, they may eat off property. When you raise prices without purpose, there is no value in what people are purchasing and this makes them resentful about every subsequent purchase they make. If one thing isn't worth it, nothing else will be "worth it" either. This sort of "nickel and diming" creates resentment among the very people you want to be happy. Happy people spend more money. Happy people open their wallets for a $30 per person character meal because "it's worth it". Grumpy people eat at McDonald's and keep thinking up new ways to make sure Disney doesn't get more of their money than they already have. Grumpy people think twice about where they travel to next vacation. Will exorbitant stroller rental fees impact whether people go to WDW the following year? Probably not, but the overwhelming feeling that "everything is just so expensive and not worth it" might. While Disney might be making a small, short term profit, the larger, long term effects mean a much greater financial loss.

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Is it any wonder I get emails from other folks who are fed up with the prices and the declines in quality? Here's a different reader who wrote me on the same day, talking about a different article:

I just read your article “Declining by Degrees: The Definition and Context” at Miceage.com. Thank you for putting my thoughts on paper and putting them in such order. I could not find anything wrong with your thesis. I am one of those fans who use to return to WDW every year and living in Atlanta sometimes we would make up an excuse to get down there 2 or 3 times in a year. Buying an annual pass was justifiable. No longer. We purchased our DVC membership 10 years ago and we have been to WDW 3 times since our purchase. Every time we go I complain about how the magic is gone. I found myself reading your article and shaking my head in agreement to all your points. I hope someone from Disney Management reads this and takes it to heart.