Monthly Archives: October 2015

Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2015

Keith was with his family to say goodbye to Duffy at Epcot but they also took in that other October tradition, The Food and Wine Festival. Be sure to check out all of Keith’s social media accounts below!

Keith Lapinig
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Top Disneyland Rides After Dark

Erika is back for another great video leading into Halloween. This time she talks about what rides at Disneyland are best or even spookiest at night!

Erika Jenko
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Disneyland Planning: Halloween Season

Want to know how to have the perfect Autumn day at Disneyland? Erika brings you her trip planning guide to having a great morning at the park during Halloween time

Erika Jenko
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Modern Mouse Radio #92: Armchair Imagineers w/ Creepy Kingdom

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It’s our Halloween episode! This week is also the return of our signature series, Armchair Imagineers. Joining the show is James H. Carter II from Creepy Kingdom. The Halloween parties at both the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland continue to grow and we thought that eventually there should be another ticketed event at a Disney park to help with crowd control at the other parties. Since James is a recent transplant to the Disneyland area, we decided to settle on California Adventure for a brand new Halloween party. At this party we bring theming, activities, food, drink, and fun. See what we came up with on this week’s episode.

Also be sure to check out James at http://www.CreepyKingdom.com as well as shoot him a tweet to let him know how much you loved him on the show at !

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Josh Taylor
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Angie Taylor
| | | Keith Lapinig
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Erika Jenko
Email Josh:
modernmouseradio.com

Duffy’s Last Meet and Greet

If you weren’t aware, Duffy the Disney Bear has decided to depart the U.S. parks and head back to Japan and stay there. Earlier this summer, Duffy left Disney’s California Adventure. Now he is leaving Epcot. Keith and his family made sure to visit him one last time before he left!

Keith Lapinig
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Feature: The Cost of a Year at Disney

In 2005, you could purchase either a Disneyland or a Walt Disney World annual pass for around $350. That included entrance to the park every day of the year as well as free parking. Fast forward 10 years and Disney’s annual pass price has doubled at Walt Disney World to over $750 and Disneyland’s top tier annual pass is now over $1,000. What happened in that 10 years? The truth is we all embraced the Disney.

Disney parks have seen a serious increase in park attendance over the last 10 years. An extra $2-5 million visitors a year and that increase doesn’t look to be stopping. With park attendance going up, so is the need for more amenities like hotel rooms, bathrooms, restaurants, etc… The times “Disney experts” considered off season have changed to increasingly less days. What used to be months of dead time at the parks is now just a week or two between holidays.

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Disney is countering the increase in attendance by adding new spaces for guests to walk through, but these areas take time to develop. In the meantime, they have given us fastpasses to get onto attractions faster and adding in festive kiosks that coincide with whatever holiday is just around the corner….and these are some of the things annual passholders are looking forward to every year, but annual passholders aren’t who Disney appeals to. Numbers can easily tell you that. A guest purchasing an annual pass can visit most of the year. Even with the prices being over $1,000 for a Disneyland pass, if you went once a week all year long you would have paid $20 a day to be at that park and that includes parking. That’s extremely cheap considering a single day pass to a Disney park is around $100 and that doesn’t include parking. Clearly Disney would rather have a park full of single day ticket guests than one full of annual passholders. They do know that there is still a long list of people who would love to be annual passholders so they need to be able to balance guests on vacation with local guests who have their annual pass.

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In order to get the money they need to operate at the level they’d like to and make the additions they want, the prices have continued to increase. This year, however, Disney added more tiers to their pass system which includes more additions like getting all of pictures taken by photopass photographers. Annual passholders are paying the higher price but Disney is giving them more options and more ways to enjoy their pass. They are hoping that will keep passholders coming back while still earning the cash they need to build new area of the park, renovate older areas of the park, and create the one-of-a-kind experiences they are known for.

With all that being said, I’m not against Disney raising their prices, especially with the fact that they are giving discounts on so much food and merchandise as well as photos from anywhere inside the parks. I’m not against it because I know that purchasing a Disney annual pass means you will be using it and at the parks more often than not. I’m not against this price increase because I know that Disney will give you more joy and entertainment for your money than almost any other place on the planet. Like Erika said in her post (Click here to read it!) going out to see a play for one night can cost a few hundred dollars and that’s just for one night for a few hours. An annual pass to a Disney park brings you 365 days worth of enjoyment.

Josh Taylor
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Spooky Disneyland Tales

During Erika’s time as a cast member at Disneyland, she encountered some spooky things. She tells two different stories about her time at Disneyland.

Erika Jenko
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Modern Mouse Radio #91: Worst Places to Throw Up at a Disney Park

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Warning: This episode is full conversations about being sick. If hearing about being sick to your stomach offends you or makes you want to throw up, we suggest skipping out on this one!

Modern Mouse returns to old form with a new Worst 10 list, this week tackling something we’ve all felt or seen. Motion plus weather plus long days may equal in some stomach sickness and there are some good places to be when you feel sick and some completely awful places to be when feeling sick, especially when you are on the verge of throwing up everywhere! Angie and Josh bring you what they think are there worst 10 places to lose it at the Disney Parks!

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Josh Taylor
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Angie Taylor
| | | Keith Lapinig
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Erika Jenko
Email Josh:
modernmouseradio.com

Disney Now and Then: Annual Passes

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I have a lot of California friends who are currently pissed. And understandably so. As many of you know, an increase in Disneyland annual passes was recently announced. While this may seem like typical news that we get every single year, this time around, the increase poses a significant change for Disneyland Resort Premium Pass holders….because their pass type will no longer exist once their current pass expires. That’s right. If you had a Premium Pass, which got you no blackout dates, your pass no longer exists when it comes time to renewal, which means if you would like the Premium experience, you no longer have the option of paying $779, but now instead you would have to purchase the new equivalent which is called Signature Plus, and costs $1,049. Almost $300 more for the same product. The one good thing, is that the monthly payment plan option still exists for SoCal residents.

I’m not a finance person. But here’s what I do know: I used to be a Disney cast member, meaning that I got into all Disney parks for FREE. The normal stress of “Did we reach the maximum amount of fun for what we paid for this trip” did not exist for me. I could walk into Disneyland, have a cup of coffee and walk by “Peter Pan,” decide I don’t want to wait in a line and go right back home and it wouldn’t have mattered. I had coffee at Disneyland. Day well spent.

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I don’t work at Disneyland anymore. I don’t even live near Disneyland anymore. I live in New York. Getting to Disneyland requires a plane ride, time off work, planning, hotel stays, etc. I’ve been extremely lucky to have friends who still work at the parks who sign me in when they can. It’s extremely generous and nice and I always appreciate when friends are able to help me or my family out. As wonderful as the sign-in process is, it’s not something I can always rely on. I’ve been in the market for a Disneyland Pass, and while the price raise isn’t making me act like a 5-year-old by declaring “Well, fine! I’ll never go to Disneyland ever again! (which is what a lot of people are claiming), I still feel like it’s time to decide what kind of Disney experience I need now in comparison to then.

I need to go to Disneyland every single day. That is what would make me happy. It’s not a reality though, seeing as it takes a 3-hour plane ride for me to hug Mickey Mouse. When I do go to Disneyland, I need to focus more on the quality of the trip. If I were to purchase a Signature Plus Pass, I would have to go to Disneyland 10 times in 1 year to make the pass worth it. This is something that is simply not feasible living so far away. The plan then turns into one in which I would purchase a ticket every time I visit. So, you figure I’d be spending approximately $100 or more for 1 day in the park. It all comes down to the price of the daily rate. Are you getting enough worth in 1 day at Disneyland for what you paid? Some families think Disneyland is too expensive and absolutely not worth the price of admission even if you spent the entire day in the park. What I’m about to say might make a lot of people cranky: I think the cost of admission is worth every penny even after the price raise. Sure, the Signature Plus Pass is really expensive, but it’s not for everyone. It wouldn’t have enough value for everyone. It’s not a good use of money to everyone unless you’re the person who goes to Disneyland all the time and needs every single calendar day of the year available to them. If you need the Signature Plus pass, then chances are you live close to Disneyland, therefore qualifying you for a monthly payment option. If you’re a huge Disney-holic, those payment plans aren’t too bad.

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Here’s where I’m coming from: I work in a Broadway theatre full-time. My side gig is working for a Broadway sound company that sends me to different theaters a couple times a week where I get to see Broadway shows for free. The average price of a Broadway ticket is $75-$150. Broadway shows are also trying to shorten their running times, so many shows are picking up the new trend of a smooth 90 minutes with no intermission. Think about this. $150 for 90 minutes. If you buy a drink, the drink will be $15-$20. Candy is $5. Water is $5. You will probably go out to dinner. Dinner is another $30-$40 because you’re in the theatre district. And to be honest, the show could be terrible. Yes, terrible shows happen on Broadway. I’ve seen a LOT of Broadway shows. They’re a spectacle and they’re amazing and if you’re in New York, you have to see the show. But high cost of the ticket doesn’t guarantee you that you will have the best time of your life….even though this is the standard that Disneyland is held to. If you go to Coney Island and decide to check out Luna Park, you will spend approximately $5 per ride. Yes, it’s a fun experience if you want that quirky Instagram update that you actually went on the ‘scary’ ride, but other than that, it’s not a life changing experience.

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Let’s put it all into perspective. People are upset over the price increase of an annual pass because Disneyland is truly important to them. It’s something they budget for. It’s something that they need in their life. Now that I don’t work at Disneyland, I see the one-day park hopper pass as the best value for me. In one day, if I manage to see one show (and we all know that Disney shows are held to Broadway level quality, in fact, many argue that the Hyperion version of “Aladdin” is better than the Broadway version) and go on a couple rides and see the fireworks, then I have reached the value of the price of the ticket. The cost it takes for the fireworks display to be produced alone is worth it. The tons of performers that go into 1 parade performance is worth it. The care and time that goes into every single scenic element, flower, detail. It’s all worth it. The price of one ticket is the price to enter a different world for an entire day. In New York, you will spend $150 to see a Broadway show. $40 on dinner. $30 on a cab with a driver who will get lost. $20 to see a museum, etc etc etc. $100 for a day at Disneyland doesn’t seem too bad. And yes, the Signature Plus pass sounds high because of course you hear the number $1,000 and go, “say what now??” You have to break it down into the number of visits you can feasibly accomplish and what you accomplish while you’re there. The park is too crowded to not raise the prices. And they’re not lowering the quality of the park, sounds like they’re improving on it. Anyway, it’s a nice problem to have isn’t it? Having a Disneyland pass implies that you plan on going multiple times in 1 year. Sounds like a good year to me.

Erika Jenko
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Disney Film History: The Shaggy Dog

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When I wrote about Tonka, I said it was the end of an era at the Disney studio. Westerns had dominated the live action films of the 1950s for Disney, but as we were about to head into a new decade, a new type of live action film would become the norm at Disney. I’ll call it “gimmick comedy”. The first of these gimmick comedies was The Shaggy Dog.

Walt Disney had become a house hold thanks to television. Thanks to the Disneyland tv show and the Mickey Mouse Club, his success in television was profitable. As he looked to expand into more television, he came across the story “Der Hund von Florenz” by Felix Salten. Salten had already been a name at the studio as they had used one of his other stories, Bambi. “Der Hund von Florenz” or “The Hound of Florence” is about a young boy who wishes to be a dog. Walt found that the adventures the boy could go on as he transformed into a dog would make for a good television series.

A pilot for the new Shaggy Dog series was put into production. Charles Barton, who had directed Spin and Marty episodes of Disneyland, was made the director and many of the children from Mickey Mouse Club, Spin and Marty, and the Hardy Boys were cast into roles. Tommy Kirk, who had also been in Old Yeller, was cast as the transforming boy, Wilby, and Kevin “Moochie” Corcoran of Mickey Mouse Club fame was cast as the little brother. Television regulars Fred McMurray and Jean Hagen filled out the rest of the cast as the boys’ parents.

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This was the first Disney film to be shot completely in black and white. Walt had prided himself on new technologies and breaking barriers in the film industry. Since Snow White, he had made his films in color, but the Shaggy Dog was met with a few faults. In color, the transformation of Wilby from a boy to a dog looked fake. Shooting in black and white hid some of the visual effects. The film, since it was never meant for theaters, was also shot simply instead of using something like Cinemascope or Technirama 70. The tv pilot, which was shot at the low budget of $1 million (Sleeping Beauty cost $6 million.) was then decided that it might fit the big screen.

The mini-series was pushed together into one larger film and was advertised as a new type of film from Disney. The movie was released in March of 1959 and unlike Sleeping Beauty which made it’s theatrical debut two months earlier, became a rousing success. Critics and audiences alike loved the films comedy and style as it resembled a television sitcom but with better production values. The film grossed $9 million in it’s initial run and ushered in the new era of gimmick comedies. Walt was happy with his new film and pushed the studio more toward this style which dominates the 1960s and downplayed animation, which we will see much less of in the coming decade.

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The Shaggy Dog, despite it’s somewhat cheesy premise, went on to become a classic for the Disney company. The film from 1959 still holds up and still holds credibility for younger audiences who aren’t familiar with the vast amount of Disney live action films. The Shaggy Dog would also inspire a sequel, a made for television remake, and a theatrical remake. It would also be an inspiration for other “talking dog” films in the future like Homeward Bound or even the Air Bud series of films. If Davy Crockett defined the 1950s at the Disney studio, you can bet that the Shaggy Dog would build towards defining the 1960s. There will be greater comedy films to talk about in the coming decade but The Shaggy Dog broke open the door for all of those films to be made.

What are your thoughts on The Shaggy Dog? Have you seen it? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Leave a comment and keep the conversation going!

Josh Taylor
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Previous Film: Sleeping Beauty
Next Film: Darby O’Gill and the Little People

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