MouseStation 53 – Listener Feedback
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Let us hear from you!
Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email feedback
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 Monday Magical Moment segment (and possible
inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use
our email Magical Moment story form or the
toll-free feedback line. (We love it when you use the voice mail system, because
then we can play your call on the show!)
Thanks to our sponsor!
Today’s show is sponsored by Quicksilver
Tours & Transportation, your personal door-to-door car service. You get help with your luggage, a free 30-minute grocery stop, and a free call home from the limo. Now you can get $5 off round-trip service between Orlando International Airport and your resort by mentioning the code that we give on the podcast.
Listener Feedback Friday!
In this week’s Listener Feedback:
Kevin Peace wrote in to tell us that he plans to be at our MouseStation
Hustle-tini meet at MouseFest. Mike
will be giving Hustle lessons to those who don’t know how to do the dance
yet. We’re looking forward to meeting you, Kevin!
Todd Breaux from Lafayette, LA, wrote in to ask about Mark’s travel dates in October, since he and his father are going to Walt Disney World from October 20-27 to celebrate his father’s 60th birthday. (Happy Birthday, Todd’s dad!) Todd’s family was at Walt Disney World last Thanksgiving during Mark’s last family trip.
They’re not going to be able to meet up because Mark’s trip is going to be
Columbus Day weekend (the only available weekend in his schedule for September
or October). There will be a bunch of other MousePlanet staff members going
down for the weekend of October 26-28 for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
6.5K and 13K. If anybody else is going down October 5-8 and wants to meet
Mark, write in and let us know. Maybe
we can set something up.
Pat Toohill wrote in because he’s having trouble downloading the show to burn to CD. (He doesn’t have an iPod or other MP3 player.) Whenever he clicks on Download, a media player application opens and tries to play the podcast.
Mark suggested that he try right-clicking on the link and just selecting “Save Link As …” or the equivalent in his browser as the easiest way to do it. (“Save Link As …” is in Firefox, “Save Target As …” is in Internet Explorer.)
Mike suggested using iTunes to download all shows. Mark chimed in that any podcatcher software would work, and that there are links to Juice and Doppler in the Podcasts for Beginners section on the main podcast page.
Shawn Coomer wrote in from Guatemala as he, his wife and his son travel the world for the next two years. He enjoys listening to the show because it gives him a little taste of home. A Southern California native, Shawn is a Disneyland veteran and made his first trip to Walt Disney World with his family this past May and had a great time.
They hope to visit all Disney parks around the world during their travels, though Tokyo may prove too expensive for this journey. He enjoys listening to the show on his iPod during the long bus trips.
Shawn also sent along his Magic Kingdom Top 3:
- Entertainment
- 3. Main Street Family Fun Day Parade. It was a magical experience for his son and one of the best moments of their trip.
- 2. SpectroMagic. It was a great parade, but it still doesn’t compare to the Main Street Electrical Parade.
- 1. Wishes. This fireworks show was great and one of the best he has seen. He always gets a tear in his eye when he watches the fireworks with his son.
- Restaurants
- Shawn didn’t eat at The Magic Kingdom very much so he skipped the dining list.
- Attractions
- 3. Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The People Mover was one of his favorite attractions at Disneyland, and the TTA made me nostalgic for that good old People Mover. He also appreciated having the Astro Orbiter up off of the ground.
- 2. Splash Mountain. This ride is great for the whole family and if you are passing by the big drop at the wrong time, watch out for the wave of water!
- 1. Space Mountain. While it is not on par with Disneyland’s version, he loves the preshow, and you can’t go wrong with a roller coaster indoors.
Christopher Flinn is new to the podcast, and finds it informative. He wanted to make a point regarding our follow-up discussion on the Year of a Million Dreams in Episode 49, especially relating to what it takes to make a guest’s day magical. Chris said that, from his experience in the retail-oriented industry, he feels that Disney requires a special type of person that can naturally be pleasant and helpful without needing to be forced or rewarded. He’s sure that Disney will find better applicants right around the corner.
Mark and Mike wished that it was true, but also expressed some concern. Walt Disney World is already going to some extreme lengths (that Mark did not want to go into) to find enough people to fill the jobs that they have. Mark is concerned that Disney may not be able to hire enough qualified people if they don’t increase their pay rates, because otherwise people will go to work elsewhere, where they can make more money for the same work. Mike noted that it’s not quite as bad as it seems because of the perqs of working at Disney, but it’s still not great pay.
Steve Russo wrote to thank us for mentioning his upcoming book on last Friday’s feedback show. He somehow got delusions of grandeur that the dozens of MouseStation listeners will make him a mint on book sales. However, he did offer that any MouseStation listener that purchases the book is invited to his home for dinner. Mark’s plotting the route on Google Maps.
Steve will send along a copy of So… You’re Going to Disney World or How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the planning process after it finally hits the printing press. If his email is accurate, it’ll be available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, BookSellers, etc. ISBN: – 978-0-595-46690-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-595-90985-8 (ebk)).
He is starting to pick up on some rules for Stump the Hosts, in that he needs to avoid any question related to a voice actor because Mike doesn’t know those, or any attraction Mark hasn’t been on in 10 years or more. So he asked “Name any three characters that appear in the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. Bonus points if you can name all six.” The one thing that he didn’t count on is that neither Mark nor Mike has been to Hoop-Dee-Doo (believe it or not)! Mark has tried in the past on family trips, but has always been outvoted, and has never gotten himself to go on a solo trip. Mike always goes to Mickey’s Backyard BBQ instead.
Anyway, for those of you playing along in the home game, the answer is: Jim Handy, Flora Lawn, Johnny Ringo, Claire de Lune, Six Bits Slocum and Dolly Drew
Changing the feed, our contest and MouseFest
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new format of shorter, more
frequent MouseStation shows. Currently, MouseStation is published three times
a week, with short subjects on Mondays, featured topics on Wednesdays and
listener feedback on Fridays; the MousePlanetWatch news is published on Thursday.
We’re still currently maintaining the series of three feeds, one for MouseStation
only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both shows.
Based on listener feedback, we will be deciding whether to merge the feeds,
and return to a single feed with all shows, folding MousePlanetWatch into
the main MouseStation feed. That would still leave us with four shows per
week, but there would be only one feed. With the current listener numbers
being fairly even between MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch, it seems as if
there’s a great deal of overlap between the shows.
Please weigh in on the idea of returning to a single feed via email
or by calling our toll-free feedback line at 1-866-939-2278. Don’t forget
that we love voicemails because then we can put your voice on the show!
Don’t forget that you’ve only got two weeks from tomorrow to get your entry
in for our Owner’s Locker contest!
We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet
for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m.
at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney’s Pop Century
Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We’ll make
sure that we’re in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then
return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast.
For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored
meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest
information page. If you’ve got any ideas on what might make a cool MouseStation
T-shirt for MouseFest, let Mark know!
Wrapping up
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 West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and
sound editor Steven Ng.
Thank you for listening!
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