Day 909: Bay Beach

I always have beleived that you can never appreciate Disney quite as much as when you go to another amusement park and suddenly feel like something is missing. I've been to my fair share of parks that aren't Disney, believe it or not, and while some have been enjoyable (like Valleyfair only a couple of weeks ago), others have been, to say it lightly, not fun. Disney does an incredible job with their parks, whether you realize it or not, and while the closest amusement park to me is a far cry from the enterprise Disney has created in central Florida, it still made me think about what I could be missing out on.

Bay Beach is a super tiny little amsuement park right here in Green Bay, and it's one that my family used to frequent back in the day. Of course, we don't head over there often now, and if I do, it's probably because I'm off hunting for a glance at a Swan at the wildlife sanctuary. It has your classic carnival sort of rides, a merry-go round, a ferris wheel, bumper cars, that sort of thing, and then there are some more thrilling attractions...if you can call them thrilling. The Zippin' Pippin' is the latest of the additions to the park, although I've been told new attractions will be appearing throughout this summer as well, and for those of you who may not have heard of this little coaster, it's an interesting one.

My roommates and I headed to Bay Beach to celebrate a birthday, and that meant that Megan and I got to experience the Zippin' Pippin' for the first time. We'd been told by numerous people that it was sort of harsh, whiplash sort of coaster, but I suppose that's to be expected with its wooden form. The coaster actually is more interesting than it sounds though, because of all things, it was Elvis' favorite roller coaster. Would I call it my favorite? No, not by a long shot, but it wasn't bad either. Think of a mix of Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and Everest and that's about what this thing in, only much shorter and is mostly just up and down and up and down.

What sorts of things did I really miss from Disney though? The variety for one. As I've said time and time again, it's very easy for my entire family to head to Walt Disney World and all go on an attraction that suits us, even with my motion sickness problems. You don't have that same variety at other amusement parks, where, if you want to do something, you'd better believe it'll be a roller coaster. Granted, not all attractions are roller coasters, but with motion sickness you've got to remember that anything that spins is off limits too. Otherwise, I definitely missed the food options and air conditioning, not to mention ample seating and covered queue lines. Definitely things you don't even realize Disney is providing until you have to live without them.

After our time at Bay Beach itself, we headed over to the Mini Golf course across the street. I actually ended up winning by like a point (it came down to the last hole), but there's something to be said for Disney's mini golf courses too. Playing on one that wasn't themed sure makes you miss the weird stuff you putt past at Disney, even if that snowman DOES make it harder for you to get the ball in the hole.

Have a magical day!

Day 898: Cheater Cheater

I don't often go to other amusement parks, and quite frankly, I really don't enjoy them more often than not. So it takes a lot for me to have an honest to God good time in a "theme park" that's not Disney. It's really, really hard. My band director has been trying for years to take us to amusement parks on band trips, and not once have I enjoyed it...other than our Disney trip of course. So when I was asked to come along on this summer's band trip to film and record their experiences, I was delighted by the end of our first day when I realized that I had a really great time at Valleyfair amusement park in Minnesota.

The day started off, of course, with a nice six hour drive from little old Seymour, and we arrived to approaching clouds and storms for the band to play a pep band performance. Luckily, they got it finished and we were off to lunch before rain hit the pavement, but the first bits of our Valleyfair experience were a bit wet.

We did quite a bit during our day at Valleyfair. We found obnoxiously priced water...

If I ever hear a complaint about expensive Disney water again...not to mention the obnoxiously priced food...

But I'm making this sound all bad when in fact most of the day really was good! We hit up several of the rollercoasters and our band director made several challenges to students in return for them forgetting instruments or music they needed earlier that day. I watched, mostly, but it did lead to one of my favorite parts of the day: the Lazer Maze! Basically it's like in the movies or on TV with the spies and the lazers and it was an absolute blast, especially since I beat my friends and band director! 

However, it was a group of guys that really made our day: The Acafellas! As an a capella group, they were dressed pretty dapper, and we passed them earlier in the day before we all took refuge in one of the stores during the rain. They noticed our bright orange shirts from the performance earlier in the day and gave us a special performance right in the store! We saw them again later on and it didn't take long for them to recognize us (and the camera). We hit up their show later in the day and loved every second of it!

So overall? Yeah we had a pretty darn good day at Valleyfair...although I may have had to bring along a bit of home to make myself feel like less of a cheater!

By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired out, and I have to tell you...the bed felt like a cloud where I had some pretty sweet dreams of the Acafellas singing once more.

If I ever find myself out in Minnesota again, I'll seriously debate returning to Valleyfair, although I'll still take Disney any day. If you've ever been to Valleyfair, let me know in the comments below!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on June 24 due to travel).

Day 646: Cedar Point

My roommates and I have drastically different majors. I mean, while they sit working on graphs for economics or some sort of DNA chart for genetics (honestly I can't remember what that was), I sit at my desk and watch plays or write music. It's actually a fairly calm life at my desk, as long as I don't have a french test coming up. What else does this mean? It means that rarely we can help one another with our homework. It just doesn't happen very often. Once and a while I'll read through a paper or something, but that's about it.

At least, that was it until two of my roommates got a project based around a theme park. Honestly I don't know much about the assignment other than the fact that Megan asked me question after question about the travel industry, especially when it comes to amusement parks.

The assignment was based around a theme park in Ohio called Cedar Point, which, according to their website, is "The Best Amusement Park in the World." Either way, this post isn't about how Cedar Point isn't as good at Disney (I haven't even been there for goodness sake...), but rather about the random questions I've been able to answer about how they can maybe make their own system better.

It started out with talk about MagicBands, which is probably one of my favorite subjects these days. MagicBands are great, and while initially I was a bit skeptical, I'm now 100% in love with them. I like to travel light at Disney, and they make that easier for me to do. Plus, it's so far ahead in technology that it sort of makes the regular tickets at other parks look sad. But maybe that's just the Disnerd in me talking.

Then we talked about a variety of other things, from hotel rooms to restaurants to attractions. It was actually a pretty fun conversation for me to have since this is such a huge part of my life. I love talking about Disney, obviously, and I love learning about the new things they're bringing along to enhance the guest experience.

Oh yeah,we talked about that too, the idea that we're guests at Disney, not customers, and how that too makes a difference in the time we spend there. Just goes to show how well Disney does just about everything, right?

Have a magical day!

(Note; This blog post was written on October 10).