T-Rex & Rainforest Cafes – Paying for Just the Food?

I’ve read and watched lots of people give reviews of Walt Disney World restaurants. Some are good while others are negative. And that’s fine – I don’t expect everyone to like every restaurant, that’s not normal. However there are always two restaurant ‘reviews’ that stick out to me: Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom & Downtown Disney, and T-REX Cafe at Downtown Disney.

Why do these reviews stick out? Simply because in every review, these restaurants get rated somewhat poorly because of two reasons: the price is too expensive, and the food quality isn’t that good. Sure this is totally true (even though T-Rex’s quesadillas are really good) – but I don’t think the food is all you’re paying for at these two dining spots.

I think you’re also paying for the theming experience. Think about it. Would you pay the same amount for a park ticket to Magic Kingdom as it is now even if no rides were themed and all attractions were simply put in a row and inside cement buildings? I wouldn’t.

If these two restaurants had no theming to them, the experience would be dull. No matter how good the food, if there’s no decorations, you’re bored. The food may not be exceptional at these two places, but I think the extraordinary theming work done here completely makes up for it.

Sure other dining places around the World are themed, but these two top everything as far as theming goes. Nothing compares (maybe other than San Angel Inn).

What do you think? I want to know if you think the price at these two places includes theming or not. Also, is the food really that bad? How’s the theming in your opinion? Let me know in the comments!

Photos by Joe Penniston & hyku.

Disney’s Awesome Things: A Series

You may or may not be familiar with the blog 1000 Awesome Things – a very simple yet popular blog counting down 1000 awesome little things in life. Anything from the sound of snow crunching under your boots to brushing your teeth with a new toothbrush, this blog has it all.

So I thought, what if I brought this idea into a Disney perspective? Well, it’s time to begin! Over the next few months, I will be posting a new series – Disney’s Awesome Things. This will simply be a collection of one-hundred awesome things in Walt Disney World.

Need more details? I don’t think so – this is one series you’ll just have to experience with me as the posts come! Once you read a few, you’ll get the general idea. We’re counting one-hundred awesome things at WDW – big or small.

If everything goes as planned, a Disney’s Awesome Things post will be published two times a week on Monday and Friday. Wednesday will be another article not part of the series.

Ideas, Ideas. Clearly the hardest part is coming up with 100 items! I already have a rather large list, containing about 65 things – so I’m off to a good start I’d say. But I would love your help as well. Comment on this post to give me your ideas!

Photo by Joe Penniston

Happy New Year! WDW Central’s Best of 2009

Of course there is no way we can finish this fantastic year without a ‘best of’ post! The articles below are the ones I think were most popular, based on comments, links, retweets, and hits. So let’s ring in the New Year right by taking a look back at the best from 2009. Posts with lots of comments will have the number of comments listed.

• “UP” Characters at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – For some reason, this post was the post with the most hits this entire year. It has barely any information, yet it gets about 150 views each week. Hmmmm.
• “Top 7 Must See” Show Replaced, Keeps Stacey – I was one of the first to notice that the “Top 7 Must Sees” show on Resort TV had ended it’s run – and in it’s place “Must Do Disney” with Stacey remaining as host. (24 comments)
• “Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration” Closes Already – It was announced by Disney that the very unpopular “Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration”, located in the middle of Tomorrowland, would close after almost 1 month of operation.
• Monorail Crash at TTA, Driver Austin was Killed – Not the news you enjoy reporting – that’s for sure. However this was major news – the biggest news regarding WDW in 2009.
• Disney Fans Unite: Honoring Austin on Twitter – After the terrible news of Austin’s accident, Disney fans united on Twitter to make #Austin a trending topic in his honor. It was completely successful!
• Top 5: Scents of Walt Disney World – We took a look at the Top 5 scents in the WDW parks. It turned out everybody else seemed to have this on their mind too! I enjoyed discussing it with you all. (22 comments)
• What’s Your Vacationing Style? – I discussed the two main types of vacationing styles are (relaxed or rushed) and asked you what your style was. Thanks to some of you for chiming in!
• The Elements of Disney Theming: Part I – Next we looked at an element of Disney theming – the MUSIC. I talked about parade music, theme music, and how well Disney hides/themes their speakers.
• Planning Central – Not necessarily a post, but it’s worth mentioning that I opened Planning Central in 2009 and almost 25 in-depth pages were added giving tips, event information, and more to help you plan better vacations.

My Favorite Disney Sites & Blogs of 2009

A ‘Best Of’ post wouldn’t be complete without a few of my favorite Disney sites and blogs of 2009.

• D-CoT – A jukebox with thousands of songs from Disney Parks and more – just select the song you want, and click play!
• Main Street Gazette – Ryan taught me a lot this year (without knowing it) about having a posting schedule and sticking to it – and I really enjoyed reading his blog!
• My Disney Blog – I enjoyed interacting with @DisneyDean on Twitter and reading his blog this year.
• Disney Food Blog – AJ started this blog in March of 2009 and it grew incredibly fast. It’s a unique blog idea saying that food is a theme park.

There you have it, folks. I found 8 top posts for WDW Central and my 4 favorite Disney sites in 2009.

What were your favorites this year? Let me know in comments what your favorite posts here were, as well as your favorite other Disney blogs!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, from WDW Central!

Hang On! A Look at DINOSAUR’s Enhanced Motion Vehicles

Whether you personally care for the DINOSAUR attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom or not, you must admit that the vehicles taking you on your treacherous, turbulent journey are very effective in getting that whole “you’re-going-through-a-jungle-during-a-meteor-shower” effect across. And because of it’s realistic movements, it improves the ride quality and believability greatly. So what does it take to make this jerky ride so jerky?

DINOSAUR has one-of-a-kind ride shells called EMV’s, or Enhanced Motion Vehicles. Disney Imagineers came up with the design and patented it. The blueprints for the mechanical aspect of it is seen below.

The EMV’s, or Time Rovers as they are named for the storyline, are very complex and can offer a wide range of motion beyond normal ride vehicles. They are specially made shells with hydraulic and pneumatic arms underneath to raise the shell, and tilt it up, down, left, and right.

This is great because it adds another sensory element to the ride. When something occurs during your journey, such as a Dinosaur encounter, or a lightning strike, or even a meteor hit, the vehicle can “respond” to these effects – making it seem that much more real.

On a side note, if you’ve seen History Channel’s “Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World”, they show some cool shots of the EMV’s of DINOSAUR being tested and programmed behind the scenes. For a few seconds, you can see them really making it jerk every which way fairly fast. I’m not sure if that’s actually in the ride or not, but I didn’t know just how much it could tilt before I saw that – it had to be at least five feet each way!

Photo by ep4919.