moinab

I was wondering about the motivation behind this, as well, Gregg. In fact, I was just discussing this with my husband at lunch, today. My initial reaction was, "they should have been doing this all along." Even though I have a FL resident pass, I still felt like I should have been able to get into the park for free, for the day, with my finisher's medal, after completing the Princess 1/2 Marathon. But then, I wondered, "why now?" It's not like they need to attract more people to the marathon - they already sell out all of their races. I'm guessing a lot of the people who run the marathon don't actually have park passes, and this is a way to entice them into staying an extra night in the resorts (rather than mass exodus, after the race,) and then spending more money in the parks and restaurants - "if we keep them here, they will spend!" I'm tempted by the Goofy Challenge, but the $310 registration fee, plus added travel costs, is just too much. For a total of $205 in registration fees, I can run in the Tri-2B-Tuff Challenge (Jax Marine Corps 1/2, Outback Distance Classic 1/2, and Jacksonville Bank Marathon,) plus the 26.2 with Donna, which are all local for me. I'm also wondering if this will cause them to jack up the registration fee even higher, for 2012.

Considering that all we have to go off of is what the boy told his mom, and some bruises that appeared later, who knows what really happened. It would be nice if someone who was there would come forward, but then they would be subjected to questioning as to why they didn't intervene. We may never know the full story on this one. I will say that it can be very difficult to get a autistic child, even a high-functioning one, to give you accurate details of an event. Christian tends to under-report things, rather than exaggerating. And he probably would still go on the ride, even after being harassed.

I totally missed the fact that it was a water park. (Guess I need more sleep!) This is such a hot button topic, for me, that I think my mind takes off before I get all the details. I see your point, now, and totally agree with you about supervision at water parks (and beaches.)

I'm struggling with this. Christian will be 10 in August. We are starting to give him more responsibility, allowing him to go check the mail (2 blocks away,) by himself, etc. Depending on the situation, it's possible that we would consider allowing him to wait in line by himself. Hard to say, though, without actually being there. Worrying about exactly this kind of situation keeps us both up, at night. Bullying is a really big issue for Asperger/high functioning autism kids. That's why Todd is so active in the school, and why we're going to be going back to homeschooling, before he hits middle school.

Just like nobody freaking cares what the name of the Magic Kingdom carousel is. Is somebody getting paid to make these earth-shattering decisions?

I can't even begin to imagine what they are thinking with this. I don't think my kids even know (or care) what the name of the carrousel is, now, even though they ride it almost every time we go. ETA - if it's the "boy angle" they are after, (which is the only thing that remotely makes sense,) then this is even more of an epic fail.

I think Kurt, Finn, and Burt's reactions are all understandable and believable. Kurt and Finn are confused teens. I had a few hopeless crushes, in my day, that led me to some cringe-worthy behavior. Nothing quite as over-the-top as Kurt, but that's his character. I agree that he needed to be knocked down a few pegs, and I think that is why he had tears in his eyes, and why he tried to stop his dad. He knew he screwed up, and pushed Finn over the edge. I can relate to Finn, too, because my mom and step-father got married my freshman year in high-school, and I didn't take it very well. We lived across the street from each other, my whole life, and he was the chair of the social studies department in my high school. Maybe not as bad as having to share a room with someone who has an inappropriate crush on me, but awkward, nonetheless. And people around me threw around racial/homophobic slurs all the time. I didn't think anything of it, until I left my white, Catholic hometown for college, and discovered a world that was a whole lot more multicultural than the one I grew up in. And I just love Burt. LOVE him. Great character, great actor. Love that he's a little dense (yes, he should have known this would be disaster,) but struggles to do right by his kid. I thought that was an amazing scene that hit the exact right notes for each of the characters. I'm pretty far removed from pop culture - I don't think I've ever actually heard a Lady Gaga song before, but I thought the Bad Romance performance was great fun. This is one of my favorite episodes.

Excellent!!!! We had to drop out of IntimdaTour , but we're planning on being at Dollywood while they are there, after we spend a few days in Atlanta.

It's funny that you made that connection. I always think of the Mills Brothers singing that song. It's been covered by pretty much everyone on the planet, I think! I didn't like the Brian Ryan storyline at all. I didn't think I'd like the Rachel/Shelby story, but I actually got chills when they started singing!

I can't wait for August!!!!!!!! So excited to go to Dollywood and check this out! Scott and Shannon -any chance you would make it out there, again, when the IntimidaTour rolls through?

^Erik and Smisty are actually "little people," with mad skilz in forced perspective photography.

There is no logical explanation. It just depends on how your brain is wired, and how it handles the information received by your inner ear and optic nerve. I can ride any kind of spinny ride all day long, but any type of motion simulator makes me horribly nauseous and headachey. Sometimes I get seasick, but sometimes I don't. Swinging ships are ok, though. I can't read in a moving vehicle, and, just this morning, I got nauseous from using my laptop while it was perched on pillow.

Several years ago, we saw a woman pull a spatula out of a stroller and start whacking her kid with it in Magic Kingdom, right by the teacups. I hadn't thought of that in years, and then Todd just mentioned it, an hour ago, before I read this. Weird.

All this makes me want to laugh/vomit/cry. I wish I could say that the whole Twilight thing doesn't faze me. However, even though I've never read and/or seen it, it just irritates the crap out of me! I want to bitch slap my 30 and 40-something year old friends who are gaga over it. Maureen "and while we're on it, so sick of people spelling my name 'Morine O'Donald'" O'Donnell

That was my first thought, too, Elissa. The lines for Mickey are already huge. I could see this working in the character dining setting - "special dinner with talking Mickey" sort of thing.

I didn't know chinchillas could live that long! The kids ask us for a pet all the time, but we rent, so I don't want anything that will destroy the house, and I didn't really want to get anything that will die within 5 years. I may have to look into a chinchilla, now!

You never know what someone is going to have a snit about. It was a fun surprise for us, since we were one of the first ones in line, before the characters came out.

I liked the music in the Madonna episode. I just didn't care for the script. Seemed a little too outrageous, even by Glee standards.

Very happy about the ride update, but very disappointed that the Up character meet and greet at Studios is being replaced by the TS3 characters, next month. The Up characters have been very popular. We just encountered them last weekend, and it was one of our favorite character experiences. *spoiler alert* We were joking around that it was too bad they didn't have "Kevin" there. We didn't realize until we got home and looked at the photos that Kevin pops up in the background, from both sides! The queue is behind the meet area, so you don't see the characters while you are waiting.

We've never seen HISTA. Seems we haven't missed much. I have zero interest in EO, so I guess I'm just meh all around, here.

LOVE Kurt and his father!!!!! And Finn and his mom! I've loved these relationships, all along, so this episode was a real treat, for me. I liked the Mercedes storyline, too. Didn't much care for the Madonna episode. I think they're pushing the Sue character too far into cartoon villain territory. Still love the show, though!

How is Wild Adventures for toddlers? One of my coworkers is thinking about going, but is concerned that there won't be enough for her 2 year old son to ride on (she has a 6 year old, also.)

Wow. Just wow. In 6 years, we've never seen Fantasmic at Studios because it's too much hassle, with young children. There's no way I would ever bother with this show!

One of my friends from work was talking about trying the Carnival cruise out of Jacksonville, in October. I spent about an hour, last night, convincing her to drive to Port Canaveral, for MUCH better options. We've never been on a Carnival cruise, but I was trying to convince her to look at RCCL. I'll have to direct her to this thread!

Great report, as always! My dad was a Marine in the Korean War (or "conflict." ) He would have loved that museum!