Underground Teapot update and future outlook

(by Howard)

Currents Thoughts on Walt Disney World

I have never been so minimally excited on travel to Walt Disney World.  Our APs have been extended to mid-March, 2021 from October, 2020.  Due to familial obligations, we are traveling to and from Florida in January and March of next year, so we have trips booked for those times.  Leah has a birthday in March too with another trip booked.  We have an RV rental that we rescheduled from our canceled September 2020 trip to Fort Wilderness for our January trip.  In past times, this would be exciting. After all, we have three trips on the books, one for January, 2021 and two for March, 2021.  Just like old times.  While there is some excitement in my heart for these trips, it is muted.  

I understand and support the use of masks everywhere within Walt Disney World property.  COVID is no joke.  Disney is a business and in the current environment cuts are inevitable.  Yet, Disney’s PR seems ham-fisted.  While Disney is releasing trip deals to entice people to their resort, these deals just do not comport with the current situation.  Walt Disney World has most of its shows cut, no parades, no fireworks, reduced menus, reduced hours, no meet and greets, less efficient attraction flow due to cleaning procedures, and while I support it, guests have the burden of wearing a mask.  Nothing about it strikes me as particularly magical.  This situation of getting less for the same posted price just seems off.  To me, seems as if Disney has the attitude if they are willing to come under these conditions then let’s jingle every last nickel out of our guests.  It would seem more fitting if Disney straight up said the park tickets are ‘value’ priced for the duration of COVID.  We want you here, but you won’t pay the same for less.  

If I am more candid with myself, I do wonder what Walt Disney World will be like in two or three years when COVID is not the current threat.  Pre-COVID Disney introduced seasonal ticket pricing, resort parking fees, flirted with photo ops sans real photographers, and like the ticking of a clock, raised resort fees and rates.  More worrisome to me is that Walt Disney World launched three new lands in the past few years, two of which were technical marvels but somehow left me a bit cold.  Andy’s Backyard is a delight and always brings a smile to my face even though Alien Saucer swirl is a tarted up carnival ride.  Pandora and Galaxy’s Edge are clearly engineering marvels yet in both there is something dark about them.  Pandora is a land set in an ex-war zone for god’s sake.  Please imagineers take me away to that fabled land.  I always wondered what post-Blitz London was like in 1946 now I get that warm and fuzzy apocalyptic feeling in Animal Kingdom.  

When I edit our videos and reminisce in general, the things that stick with me are not the big new technical feats, but the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Electrical Water Boat Pageant, riding Dumbo three times in a row during fireworks, getting my hair cut at the Harmony Barbershop or listening to live music while sipping a cocktail at the Grand Floridian.  Smugglers Run is cool, but I don’t daydream about it.  I am a Star Wars fan dating back to 1977.  I do like hearing the loop of “Hang On” on the second lift of Slinky Dog Dash in my head when I think about that land.   What a nice touch.  

That feeling I had in Disney when I was a kid in the late 1970s, or visited the Magic Kingdom during Spring Break in the early 90s or the various trips my wife I took from 2008 and to about 2016 feels to be slipping away.  I think I spent the last few trips trying to chase those old highs and each time falling a bit short.  It very well could be I burned out a bit, and if after our March 2021 trips we take a year or so break from Disney, it might stoke that flame again.  Two years from now we could be back to rationalizing how four or five trips in a year makes perfect sense, and just look at these deals Disney is sharing.  Let's book those Southwest Flights right now. I do know now I am very blah about the place at the moment.

No. I am not about to swear off Walt Disney World and we are not on the verge of selling our DVC, but I do hope that a year off might reset things, or at least brings more clarity to a place that has brought me such joy in the past and a bit of frustration recently.  

The future of the Underground Teapot Vlog

Once we wrap up our Williamsburg, Virginia trip, we are out of material.  As noted above, we have a number of trips planned to Disney World at the start of 2021.  We have penciled in plans for a possible Caribbean trip next Spring and hopefully a Las Vegas trip in September.  However, even if those trips do occur (a big if these days) given the nature of those trips they likely won’t generate much content.  (Watching two adults sitting on a beach with cocktails for a week is not compelling viewing.)  If we happen to do a thing of interest back home in and around South Central Pennsylvania, we will post something.  As we are not home vloggers, this YouTube Channel will likely be quiet overall for the next year.  As always, thanks for reading and thanks for watching.