Author: DLP

Confessions of a Disney Fan

~ DLP

Where to begin… 

The History

I have been a Disney fan in one form or another for as long as I can remember.  As a child, I was introduced to Disney on classic animated films like Peter Pan, Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella (still one of my favorites to this day), The Jungle Book, and others.  Live action films like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Swiss Family Robinson, and a host of Disney family films like Parent Trap, The Love Bug, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and many others. Then we had The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, hosted by Walt himself.  The Mickey Mouse Club, and TV series, like Daniel Boone (which I own on DVD).  I developed an emotional connection to all this material in my formative years and I still love it all today.  As Disney’s entertainment products evolved, I was right there with it and have seen the creative evolution of the company and its progress into the digital realm with the acquisition of Pixar and have really loved the amazing content they have created.  Disney Animation Studios has also created some amazing films like Wreck-It Ralph, Meet the Robinsons, and probably my favorite of theirs, Moana.  Moana was a double whammy for me because it speaks to me on multiple levels, my love of Hawaii and Hawaiian culture and music, and great storytelling.  Then came the acquisition of Marvel, which adds another dimension to Disney, which also speaks to my heart and my childhood.  I read many Marvel comics during my teenage years and most of the titles I followed have been brought to the big screen using incredible special effects.  The entirety of these volumes of entertainment keeps me emotionally connected to Disney.

The Parks

My first visit to Disneyland was in July of 1977.  It was a tiny part of a larger Southern California vacation with my family and a visiting relative (I was 16 at the time) and we spent only one day in the park.  My parents were not really fans and to them it was just a visit to a crowded theme park, and if I’m being honest, I barely remember it.  It was over 20 years before I would make it back, returning in 1998 with my partner at that time.  For the first time I truly appreciated the “magic” of Disney and being fully immersed in The Happiest Place on Earth.  I was present for that first walk down Main Street and soaked up the magic there.  I visited at least once per year continuously from that point on until 2016 when my life circumstances changed, and I really couldn’t afford to sustain that.  During that time, I came to appreciate the things that set Disney parks apart from, and above, everyone else.  Yes, they have us all by our emotional heartstrings, but above and beyond that, Disney maintains a very clean house.  I was amazed at how clean the parks really are.  In the wake of a Disney parade, a squad of janitorial staff are right there cleaning up the discarded trash, spilled popcorn, gum, liquid spills, and all other manners of refuse in minutes and before you know it, it’s as if the parade never happened.  I love that!  I have always felt safe at a Disney Park.  My children have practically grown up at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.  We all know Disneyland and DCA like the backs of our hands.  Just ask me where the nearest restroom is. Go ahead, ASK!  I have been fortunate enough to also visit the Walt Disney World Resort multiple times.  Both US resorts (and I’m counting the WDW resort as a resort and the DL/DCA complex as a resort) have unique appeal but…

Confession #1

My first confession is that I prefer Disneyland to “The World.”  While Disneyland has the challenge of limited real estate, that has had mixed results.  On the one hand, it’s difficult for them to expand and add new attractions without bulldozing old ones, or jackhammering existing asphalt being used for parking (and going vertical with parking structures).  And on the other hand, this space limitation has resulted in a more cohesive park space and an easier-to-navigate experience for guests.  So, I’d say I like Disneyland better because it is easier to get around in and to park hop back and forth to DCA, AND because I just have so many memories there.

Confession #2

After all the gushing I have done up to this point about how great the entertainment content is and how much I love the parks. This may be hard to believe, but for me, the magic is fading.  It is doing so because the bean counters seem to be in charge at Disney (and this has been in-effect since before the brief Bob Chapek era during which things got even worse).  Guests have seen park prices rise on an annual basis at all levels (single park tickets, hoppers, and annual passes) for many years now.  I’m pretty sure it was Walt’s intention that Disneyland and WDW be an affordable vacation destination for middle income families.  This is no longer the case.  Before Disney did away with their Annual Pass program (at least by that name), the Premium level AP was around $2200.00 per person.  Seriously!  I recently (in December of this year) spent nearly $700 for a single day in one WDW park and an overnight hotel stay at a non-Disney property for two people.  $159 per person for park admission.  And that is without splurging on Lightning Lane (Disney’s relatively new pay-per-ride system to avoid waiting in long ride queues).  This has turned “standby” lines into truly “stand by and wait” lines.  Even in shorter standby queues, so many are paying for lightning lane access that the traditional standby waits have increased dramatically.  Guests do not realize that in making this program such a financial success for Disney, they are guaranteeing that it will never go away.  Don’t misunderstand me. I’m a Capitalist.  I completely understand that first and foremost, Disney is a business and must be profitable, but Disney has, in my opinion, crossed the line into the greedy zone.  Everyone expects to pay more at resorts when on vacation, but I now feel gouged every time I visit a park.

Hope for a Better Tomorrow

With Chapek’s ouster and Bog Iger back at the helm of the massive Disney ship, and with his promise that control will be returned to the creatives at the company, I hold some hope that we will see paring back of the radical monetization that has occurred during the last nearly three years (under Chapek).  I still expect that Disney Park ticket prices will continue to rise regularly (but maybe every other year instead of every year!).  I’d love to see them return to the free FastPass program.  It worked great and helped guests to get the most out of their park visit.  I dearly want to hold onto the magic for as long as I can.  Disney has been a huge part of my life to this point (I’m 61 as I write this), and I don’t want to lose that.  Thanks for reading.

Surf’s Up!

~ DLP ~ Leave a comment

Are you a surfer?  There’s an Australian company called Rip Curl that makes a line of surf boards and lots of surfing accessories like board shorts, wetsuits and such.  Well, they also make a line of surf/tide watches.  So, if you’re a serious surfer and you monitor those tides for the best conditions chances are Rip Curl has a watch for you.

Rip Curl’s website says they are “a company, for, and about, the crew on The Search.”  I don’t know about you but that evokes images of Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze and Swayze going after “the big one” at the end of Point Break.

Anyhoo, we’ve got a decent selection of Rip Curl watches on Amazon.  Whether you’re looking for a water-resistant tide watch or something to wear every day I bet we have you covered.  Click the affiliate link below to see our selection…

Rip Curl Watches on Amazon.com sold by Great Timing Inc.

It’s time for Watches N’ Stuff!

~ DLP ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to the first post in what I expect to be a long and glorious period of commentary about watches. I have been in the watch business as an e-tailer since 2000. My business partner and I have watched our business grow from the VERY modest beginnings of literally boxing watches up on our bed and running them to the post office to peaking out in a very small parallel to the growth curve of Amazon.com with retail sales of around $1,000,000.00 for a couple of years in a row. After that, the online watch business became very competitive. And why shouldn’t it? Watches are really the perfect item to sell online. They are small, lightweight for the most part (and so are easy and inexpensive to ship), and “back in the day” they had pretty good profit in them.

Since then, however, the profit all but gone. There are so many players in the online watch game now that you can really only make money on volume. But we’re not giving up. We still love watches and this blog is an effort to come at this thing from a different angle. My business is called Great Timing. Our presence is primarily on Amazon.com, although we also compete in other sales channels. Today, I’m hoping you’ll click the affiliate link at the end of this article and have a look around our Amazon store. We carry several lines and I think we have something for just about everyone. I can remember going to trade shows and agonizing over what lines to take on and ultimately telling my partner that there was a seat for every butt in the watch biz. LOL! It’s hard to know what will sell and what won’t.

We’ve got sport watches, dive watches, fashion watches, surf watches, a few pairs of sunglasses (and I mean like 3, ok?), and a few jewelry items as well. So come on over and take a gander. I realize this first post isn’t loaded with substance and is more or less just a blatant request to come and spend your money, but it’ll get better. I promise! Here’s the link:

Great Timing Inc. Products

Star Trek, Enterprise; My Review

Featured ~ DLP ~ Leave a comment

As a life-long Star Trek fan, I have watched all of the various series with the exception of the two currently available on CBS, All-Access; Discovery, and Picard. I just can’t bring myself to subscribe to CBS’ paid TV on the strength of Star Trek alone. If they ever land on Netflix, I’ll binge the hell out of them.

Right now, I’m revisiting Enterprise. I didn’t even get through season one on my first attempt because I had some issues with it going in. One of these issues was the main lead, Captain Jonathan Archer, competently portrayed by Scott Bakula. In my prior experience with Trek, the Captains had all been–to me at least–relative unknowns. Sure, they had achieved some level of fame, but I was largely unfamiliar with them when they landed on Trek. Patrick Stewart, an experienced Shakespearean actor was only known to me through his role in a B-grade Sci-fi film called “Lifeforce” and the much more well-known “Excalibur.” The same with Avery Brooks, who portrayed Captain Benjamin Sisko on ST, Deep Space Nine. I knew him from Vega$, but that was it. Scott Bakula, however, was very well known for his long-running TV series, Quantum Leap. I can’t really explain why it bugged me, but it did. The other issue I had with Enterprise is that it’s a prequel occurring before the original Star Trek series, but was made with far superior special effects. To me, this made it less believable because the “technology” was older than what we saw in the original series, but it LOOKED much, much better. Anyway, this is just me unable to suspend my disbelief about a sci-fi show. Pay me no mind. =P Fast forward to a few weeks ago. ST, Enterprise is now streaming on Netflix so I gave it another go, AND I LOVE IT! Bakula and Co. do an excellent job almost right out of the gate. I can recall during season 1 of Star Trek, The Next Generation, noticing how wooden the performances of the cast were, all of them. But as the show progressed, they all improved, each of them finding their characters. Another thing about Enterprise I love is that you really get your money’s worth. They produced a TON of episodes, over 20 per season. Compare that to the measly 7 or 8 you got per season from Game of Thrones. Seriously, I feel that some of the episodes are rather derivative of the original series (and possibly others), but they are well written, well acted and have excellent FX. Who knew the crew of the NX-01 would save the universe and make friends with the Antarans all before Kirk ever set foot on his Enterprise. Thanks for reading.

Blog 1: Nonsensical BS

~ DLP

I’m going to preface this with a few comments. What you are about to read is the product of my brief cranial musings after following the instructions of an e-book on blogging. Please don’t judge me too harshly. =]

Will anyone read this? I doubt it. Just sitting here, thinking about what I should write. I feel like I have something to say, but I don’t know what. I like sharing my opinion on things I like, like movies, music and other entertainment. I’m an Atheist and that is a huge can of worms. I’m a Libertarian and there’s another controversial aspect to me that is usually met with negativity. Here’s the kicker; I think Ayn Rand was a genius. I’m seeing many of the things she wrote in Atlas Shrugged coming to pass today. And yet, she is vilified and hated and attacked viciously. People I encounter on social media claim to know her work and dismiss her (but not before they mount a vicious attack on her, and by extension, me). I feel these people do not have a realistic grasp of what Capitalism is, or any clue as to what “rational selfishness” means. Everyone thinks they are an expert on philosophy. I also think I have a story in me. There is my personal story, certainly. I’m 58 now, so that story is a bit long, but I’m talking about a fictional story. Maybe one that blends fantasy with Randian objectivist ideals?