Listener Feedback

MouseStation 41 – Listener Feedback

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Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.

In this week’s Listener Feedback:

An anonymous listener wrote in to tell us that our show is boring, that our
presentation needs an awful lot of improvement and that we compare poorly
to the DIS podcast. We wrote back to the listener (while they didn’t include
their name, there was a return email address) to ask what we could do to improve,
but we haven’t heard back from them yet.

Folks, we love constructive criticism, as the only way that we can make this show better for you is to know what you expect. If you’re going to tell us that we come up short, at least let us know what you’re expecting from us.

John Friedman called in to take Mike to task for feeling foolish about enjoying
Dumbo during the fireworks. John explained how it’s a rare thing to find something
that makes anybody of any age enjoy it, and he really enjoyed sharing that
Dumbo ride with Mike.

Mike and Mark also talked about the best way to get a photo of someone riding
Dumbo.

Kris, a.k.a. dizy4disney, wrote in to say that she loves the show. She likes
the new format, but didn’t mind the longer shows, either. Thanks, Kris!

The show can be a lot of work for us to do, but we enjoy it. We’re certainly
not doing it for the money.

Jeff Peterson wrote in to clarify the issue of Lenny the Cab vs. Benny the
Cab from our Attraction of the Week focus on Roger
Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin in Episode
36. He also referenced the Wikipedia
entry on the attraction. Jeff’s explanation seems to make sense. Mark’s
can’t recall where he originally heard the explanation that he used, but he
guesses that he’s not going to use it any more.

Following up on Wednesday’s show, Pete Altemese wrote in with his own Magic Kingdom Top 3 lists:

Dining locations
- 3. Main Street Bakery (Mike’s #3)
- 2. Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale Inn and Cafe (Mark’s #3)
- 1. Columbia Harbour House (would have been both Mike and Mark’s #4)
Live Entertainment
- 3. Disney Dreams Come True Parade (Mike’s #3)
- 2. Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial (Mark’s #3)
- 1. Wishes (Mike’s #2 and Mark’s #1)
Attractions
- 3. Splash Mountain (not on Mike or Mark’s list, but a great choice)
- 2. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Mark’s #2)
- 1. Haunted Mansion (both Mike and Mark’s #1 – does this make the Haunted Mansion the official #1 attraction at the Magic Kingdom for the MouseStation podcast)

Stewart got ahead of us by writing in with his Top 3 lists for Disneyland
and Disney’s California Adventure. With our plan of doing one Top 3 per month,
we’re going to do DCA on Episode 52 (our September 5 show), and we’ll publish
our Disneyland lists in Episode 91 on December 5, while we’re at MouseFest.
Here are Stewart’s lists:

Disneyland
- Dining locations
  - 3. Hungry Bear Restaurant
  - 2. Rancho del Zocalo
  - 1. Plaza Inn
- Live Entertainment
  - 3. Parade
  - 2. Billy Hill and the Hillbillies
  - 1. Remember … Dreams Come True Fireworks
- Attractions
  - 3. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
  - 2. Haunted Mansion
  - 1. Pirates of the Caribbean
DCA
- Dining locations
  - 3. Ariel’s Grotto
  - 2. Corn Dog Castle
  - 1. Taste Pilots’ Grill
- Live Entertainment
  - 3. Disney’s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular
  - 2. Block Party Bash
  - 1. Disney’s Electrical Parade
- Attractions
  - 3. Golden Dreams
  - 2. The Magic of Disney Animation
  - 1. Monsters, Inc.: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue

Suzan wrote in to question the sanity of the Disney executives that allowed
Spaceship Earth to be closed on the day of Epcot’s 25th anniversary, and asked
how she could contact someone in the Disney organization. Mark explained that
the refurbishment with changes related to the new Siemens sponsorship needed
to get done, and by the time that they got all of the changes mapped out,
permits approved and parts built, they wouldn’t be able to finish before October
1. If they waited until after any kind of anniversary celebration for the
park, by the time that the refurbishment was done it could very well have
been out of commission for the Christmas and Easter holiday seasons. With
Spaceship Earth perhaps the biggest people-eater at Walt Disney World, they
need that ride capacity during the peak periods to suck up the crowds. That
didn’t leave them much choice. Of course, we can take some solace in the fact
that the wand will be down by October 1.

For those that do want to write to Walt Disney World, you can address emails
to Guest Communications,
or send letters to:

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
PO Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

If you’d like to write to Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton or Epcot
Vice President Jim MacPhee, you can write to them at the same address.

Kelly wrote to complain about the admission cost for a day at Walt Disney
World. She noted that her family has not gone to the resort since 2004 because
of the cost of going. They are planning a trip in October, but have shortened
it from 7 to 5 nights and will only be visiting two parks because of the expense.
She ridiculed the marketing campaign that states “now everyone can enjoy the
magic of a Disney vacation” because she doubts that it will hold true in the
very near future.

Mike noted that all theme parks raise prices on an annual basis and that
the cost of a Disney vacation is rising, but that it just means that you need
to plan ahead more. Mark passed along a fact that he heard, that the average
family saves for five years for their Walt Disney World vacation. On that
basis, families are less likely to worry about a $71 dollar one-day ticket
price when they are going to buy a 10-day ticket for just over three times
that amount.

Mark also noted that the ticket pricing structure has been changing in the
last couple of years to front-load a lot of the cost, making it difficult
to make a one- or two-day visit to the resort, but making it much more affordable
on a longer-term basis with the sharp drop-off in added-day pricing.

Wrapping up

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278). You can also make suggestions by replying to this post.

If you want to contribute a story for our Magical Moment segment (and possible
inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use
our email form or the toll-free feedback
line. (We like when you use the voice mail system, because then we can play
it on the show.)

Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.

Don’t forget to go to the iTunes podcast directory and give us a good rating!

You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the MousePlanet
CafePress store and the brand-new MouseStation
CafePress store.

Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

Thank you for listening!

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