Marathon Weekend 2020

You know what's not 150 days away, though? You guessed it, Sundays are for Disney. For this week's SAFD, what is your favorite Disney movie?

This is hard. I do love Lion King but I also love other movies from that Disney Renaissance. Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid are also incredible films. Mary Poppins is also on top of my list.

For the restaurant competition, my suggestion would be to have two completely separate competitions for table service and counter service restaurants. That would keep the competition a little more balanced and fairer to the smaller favorites. More importantly, @rteetz could then campaign openly for Tiffins without worrying about hurting Satuli’s chances!
Agreed! I love both but both are different experiences.
 
SAFD: what a difficult question!! I'm going to go with animated only, to make it a little easier, but even then I can't decide....

"Disney" - (original) Beauty & the Beast
"Disney/Pixar" - Toy Story

Honorable Mentions: Alice in Wonderland & Finding Nemo

Can we all agree that Mary Poppins is a league of its own?
 




SAFD: Can't really definitively answer this one. There are too many to mention. Wreck-It Ralph is probably the closest thing I have to an answer. I really love that movie; but there are so many that fall into the same category. I was thinking about which movie I'd watch if all of them were available (hello, Disney+) and it would depend on so many different factors. I guess Wreck-It Ralph might (might) be the one that I'd consider most often.

My favorite movie of all-time (and the one I've seen the most, surely) has a pretty pronounced standing in Disney parks but, strictly speaking, isn't a Disney movie: Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Definitive, easy answer least favorite: The Last Jedi. Reason: Rian Johnson ("What if all of the plot and character development of the previous 7 films were red herrings? Brilliant, Rian, you're a genius!")

Restaurant Bracket Suggestions:
-Definitely 64 for Table Service. There are 64, shouldn't make cuts before needed. Suggested Brackets: Disney Springs, Resorts, Epcot, AK/MK/HS (might miss a couple, but they're pretty light on Table Service)
-64 for Quick Service as well the more I think on it. Suggested brackets: Disney Springs, Epcot, AK/HS, MK (resort QS can be sprinkled in across categories to complete brackets that fall short, preferably by resort area)
-Even with 64 initial cuts some places will need to be left out (at least it seems like it just thinking about things anecdotally).
-Although, to be honest, QS feels entirely unnecessary. It's Les Halles. Let's just all agree it's Les Halles. :figment:

I’m with you on Last Jedi. I’m not a big Star Wars fan, enjoy them enough, but the pacing and some of the plot points were so absurdly bad that I almost walked out at one point. Particularly the Leia flies through space. I can suspend my disbelief pretty well most of the time. But that just about broke my brain.

I don’t even really eat Qucik Service outside of the Japan pavilian’s restaraunt so I wouldn’t even have anything to say about QS (a lot of the fast food food that’s served at those kind of places I physically can’t eat).
 
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SAFD: Wow this is a tough one. In my mind I always separate out the animated movies, so will do the same here for sanity purposes. Favorite would be Toy Story (easily could just say full series too) just edging out the original Dumbo, which was my favorite growing up.

Love the idea of a restaurant bracket. I would divide up based on location and maybe just combine a couple of the parks with fewer options (AK and HS) in a single bracket to make it work. Suspect this will be one where my vote could easily change during the week depending on what I'm hungry for!
 
SAFD - This is tough. I'm going to go with Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. If I really, really, really had to pick one, I'd pick Beauty and the Beast as I love both the animated film and the live action version. Evermore is an incredible addition to an already great soundtrack.

And I would totally do a restaurant bracket, though I am not well versed in Disney restaurants.
 
SAFD.....
Mary Poppins by a mile. I LOVE many of the Disney films but numbers two three and beyond are not even close. One of my happiest childhood memories was going to the theater to see Mary Poppins when it was rereleased in 1973. I was just a little girl. We were poor and that was a huge extravagance. Looking back now I have no idea how my at that time single mother of four made that happen.

There are many magical Disney films. I love them all. But Mary Poppins is my favorite Disney and maybe any movie of all time. I'm both smiling and holding back tears (mom is gone) as I type this.
 
Rogue One, because everyone dies in the end. I am a bright little ray of sunshine sometimes

So, the first time I saw that movie - I had two bottles of wine between the dinner beforehand, bar time and the movie itself. It wasn’t until my second viewing that I realized everyone died at the end. My husband must really love me to put up with that.

My favorite movies are Lilo & Stitch as feeling like the odd one out resonated with me and Muppet Christmas Carol as that feels like the holidays for me as I always watch it at least one a holiday season.

With Disney now owning 20th century Fox, they have some of my other favorite movies now too...
A Cure for Wellness
Alien
Aliens
 
I'm in for the attractions, but all of the extra pay to play stuff has really turned me off.
I have seen the build your own lightsabers in person. The quality is comparable to what you would pay for an officially licensed high end replica lightsaber for a known character in the Star Wars stories at a price point comparable to what they were for years before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Building your own lightsaber in Galaxy's Edge is not even comparable to the toy lightsabers you can build in Disneyland or DHS. It's a very different experience that is ultimately aimed at a specific kind of Star Wars fan.

Same thing with the droids. These will make noise and move around after you leave Galaxy's Edge.

I know these things are expensive. I will not dispute that. But I do not think they are pay for play. I will soon build a droid and lightsaber, but I have had a lot of fun in Galaxy's Edge without doing either of those yet. Those experiences are very different and in a sense not designed for everybody.

If Disney were to offer the build your own lightsaber like they do outside Galaxy's Edge for the same price point as they do outside of Galaxy's Edge, they would be heavily criticized for making the experience cheap. So if someone really wants to build their own high end lightsaber, they can do so. I view these as supplemental experiences. Guests will certainly have a great time without doing them.

Aside from the cost, I don't see these as any different from buying a banshee in Pandora

Just curious, is it the droid and lightsaber building that you are considering “pay to play”? I look at them as interactive souvenir buying experiences rather than a pay to play situation. There were always going to be droids and lightsabers for sale at varying price points as souvenirs. These experiences allow guests to be more immersed and get something more personalized than just buying an item off the shelf. I have a hard time seeing that as a negative.

To me, “pay to play” would be more along the lines of charging extra for the rides or something like that.
Agreed and I will take it one step further. Do you want to cast spells in Wizarding World just down the street from Disney? Then you most definitely must pay to play. Because it will cost you to buy that wand from Universal in order to cast those spells. Except there's one major difference. As soon as you are no longer in Wizarding World, those wands magically transform into paperweights with the same ability as a stick you find on the ground. Yes, the wand is cheaper, but it also does nothing once you leave Wizarding World whereas the lightsaber and droid will continue to operate outside Galaxy's Edge.

To be clear, I'm not bagging on Universal here. That's a very cool feature of Wizarding World. I just don't understand why Universal gets so much praise for doing something incredibly awesome and then when Disney follows suit, Disney gets all the criticism for pay to play. It's not like Universal is giving away butter beer for pennies on the dollar. They're expensive too, but they rarely face criticism the way Disney does.

And there are plenty of ways in which guests can participate in Galaxy's Edge that do not cost extra. The app can be used to scan containers and find out what's inside. People are free to interact with Star Wars characters wandering the land and get photos with them. Likewise, they can interact with the cast members in Galaxy's Edge, many of whom have created their own in universe backstory as to how they ended up at Black Spire Outpost. And Smugglers Run is most definitely not Mission Space. Ignoring the buttons on Smugglers Run will change your experience.

I suppose I feel this way about the 3.

At Wizarding World, I felt almost like they had opened Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley to the public to let us wander around. It felt incredibly immersive, yet I also did not feel like I was living my own wizarding adventure.

At Pandora, I felt like it was incredibly detailed with one spectacular attraction and one okay attraction. But I didn't really feel like I was on Pandora. Although that may be a function of the movie itself, which I think has incredible effects, but an okay story that has been told in much the same way many times before and often better.

In Galaxy's Edge, I felt like I was in a completely different place. It's incredibly surreal to leave Galaxy's Edge and return to Disneyland. It also felt like I was right in the middle of a Star Wars story that I could explore for myself and not actually know what will happen next. In my opinion, having real Star Wars characters roam the land adds to that experience. You will never see Harry Potter in Wizarding World except on the Forbidden Journey. But you can interact with Rey, Chewbacca, and others in Galaxy's Edge.
 
I have seen the build your own lightsabers in person. The quality is comparable to what you would pay for an officially licensed high end replica lightsaber for a known character in the Star Wars stories at a price point comparable to what they were for years before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Building your own lightsaber in Galaxy's Edge is not even comparable to the toy lightsabers you can build in Disneyland or DHS. It's a very different experience that is ultimately aimed at a specific kind of Star Wars fan.

Same thing with the droids. These will make noise and move around after you leave Galaxy's Edge.

I know these things are expensive. I will not dispute that. But I do not think they are pay for play. I will soon build a droid and lightsaber, but I have had a lot of fun in Galaxy's Edge without doing either of those yet. Those experiences are very different and in a sense not designed for everybody.

If Disney were to offer the build your own lightsaber like they do outside Galaxy's Edge for the same price point as they do outside of Galaxy's Edge, they would be heavily criticized for making the experience cheap. So if someone really wants to build their own high end lightsaber, they can do so. I view these as supplemental experiences. Guests will certainly have a great time without doing them.

Aside from the cost, I don't see these as any different from buying a banshee in Pandora

Agreed and I will take it one step further. Do you want to cast spells in Wizarding World just down the street from Disney? Then you most definitely must pay to play. Because it will cost you to buy that wand from Universal in order to cast those spells. Except there's one major difference. As soon as you are no longer in Wizarding World, those wands magically transform into paperweights with the same ability as a stick you find on the ground. Yes, the wand is cheaper, but it also does nothing once you leave Wizarding World whereas the lightsaber and droid will continue to operate outside Galaxy's Edge.

To be clear, I'm not bagging on Universal here. That's a very cool feature of Wizarding World. I just don't understand why Universal gets so much praise for doing something incredibly awesome and then when Disney follows suit, Disney gets all the criticism for pay to play. It's not like Universal is giving away butter beer for pennies on the dollar. They're expensive too, but they rarely face criticism the way Disney does.

And there are plenty of ways in which guests can participate in Galaxy's Edge that do not cost extra. The app can be used to scan containers and find out what's inside. People are free to interact with Star Wars characters wandering the land and get photos with them. Likewise, they can interact with the cast members in Galaxy's Edge, many of whom have created their own in universe backstory as to how they ended up at Black Spire Outpost. And Smugglers Run is most definitely not Mission Space. Ignoring the buttons on Smugglers Run will change your experience.

I suppose I feel this way about the 3.

At Wizarding World, I felt almost like they had opened Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley to the public to let us wander around. It felt incredibly immersive, yet I also did not feel like I was living my own wizarding adventure.

At Pandora, I felt like it was incredibly detailed with one spectacular attraction and one okay attraction. But I didn't really feel like I was on Pandora. Although that may be a function of the movie itself, which I think has incredible effects, but an okay story that has been told in much the same way many times before and often better.

In Galaxy's Edge, I felt like I was in a completely different place. It's incredibly surreal to leave Galaxy's Edge and return to Disneyland. It also felt like I was right in the middle of a Star Wars story that I could explore for myself and not actually know what will happen next. In my opinion, having real Star Wars characters roam the land adds to that experience. You will never see Harry Potter in Wizarding World except on the Forbidden Journey. But you can interact with Rey, Chewbacca, and others in Galaxy's Edge.

Question you might know the answer to since I’m assuming you’ve done Oga’s. I managed to grab individual reservations for my friend and I because there was no availability for parties of two on the day we’re going to do GE. There about 20 minutes apart from each other. I’m just wondering if one of us checks in early if they’ll let the other come in or will they have to wait the extra 20? I’m going to keep checking for parties of two regardless just wondering.

Normally I don’t do my reservations like this for the record but this was the easiest way to do it at the moment.
 
SAFD.....
Mary Poppins by a mile. I LOVE many of the Disney films but numbers two three and beyond are not even close. One of my happiest childhood memories was going to the theater to see Mary Poppins when it was rereleased in 1973. I was just a little girl. We were poor and that was a huge extravagance. Looking back now I have no idea how my at that time single mother of four made that happen.

There are many magical Disney films. I love them all. But Mary Poppins is my favorite Disney and maybe any movie of all time. I'm both smiling and holding back tears (mom is gone) as I type this.

That's the first movie I remember seeing too and it's always been magical to me. My daughter goes to college in Chicago and she was telling me that the Chicago Theater will have a conversation with Julie Andrews in December. She wants to go and I'm seriously considering flying up that day and back the next morning so I can go with her. I can't think of anyone else who would make me consider it. She's only got four of these scheduled in the US, two in Florida and one in Atlanta.
 
1. Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite movie ever, though I did not associate it with Disney. Who knows why. I'll pick that one. Always.

2. Babes in Toyland - are we talking the live action with Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore? I'm all for that movie. Haven't seen it in years though (but I guarantee it is taped on a VHS somewhere in my parents' house!).
 

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