Splash Mountain adds lap bars

After a month long refurbishment, Splash Mountain recently reopened, with lap bars installed onto all the boats. Apparently, some guests felt they could get up and wander around during the ride, causing the entire ride to be shut down while cast members look for the guest. A few people always have to ruin it for everyone.


I'm not sure how much I like this new institution. I always thought it made the ride more exciting without them; the final drop down Chickapin Hill into the briar patch below felt so much more risky, as if you were going to fall out of the boat. Hopefully the new lap bar doesn't affect this feeling.

Another concern: load times. Now the cast members have to check every row before the boats leave. Shouldn't take too long each time, but added up over the course of the day? That could cause some longer lines. Disney says it won't affect the wait times, so I guess we'll just have to wait to see how it all works out. Fingers crossed for the best.

Now, there's the snow

I escaped the rain of South Jersey for an excursion back home in North Jersey... Now, there was some serious snow there!







This was a gift given to us by a friend. It's an outdoor heater. Supposedly it blows hot air down onto people standing around it. Perfect for outdoor parties in the spring and fall! ...We've never used it. I've always thought it looks like something else...

It's a moisture vaporator from Star Wars! There's a whole lot more moisture around here than on Tatooine, though.

Bet you never noticed this on the Pirates of the Caribbean

At the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Disney World, there's one of those moving ramp escalators that brings you up to the exit. Throughout the rest of the park, when there's a moving ramp, there are usually footprints painted on them so you can tell it's moving. But to fit in better with the theme of the attraction, the Pirates ramp has one foot and one peg leg painted on it! It's the attention to little details like this that make me love everything Disney does so much.

Advertising is fun!

I'm really enjoying my advertising class. The way it works is a whole bunch of professors rotate doing a lecture once a week, and then we're all assigned a professor and we go to that same professor each week for a discussion. Today's professor was incredible. I wish I had her for my discussion group. She was this little old lady that's spent pretty much her whole life traveling and advising advertising agencies all over the world. She really knew her stuff. I hope she does another lecture sometime.

I could totally see myself going into the advertising field. It's so interesting. The professor today was telling us about where most of the big advertising agencies are located, and basically, all of them are in New York City, Chicago, Tokyo, and Sydney. It'll probably be difficult, but maybe it might actually be possible to get a job in Japan doing this? Or maybe I'll just stay here on the east coast. Or even Sydney would be cool. But living in Japan would be amazing. Time to really step it up with my Japanese studies. 日本語はＯＫです！

Rainpocalypse 2011

While most of the northeastern United States is getting pounded by snow, here in South Jersey we're not getting a bit of it. It's just been raining. Not pleasant. But tomorrow I'll be heading back home to North Jersey for the weekend, so I'll be able to experience the massive amounts of snow first hand [assuming the roads are drivable, of course!].