Disney Review | Selfish Mom

Archive for the ‘Disney Review’ Category

I only wake up early for Mickey

Feb 10, 2010 Blog & Social Media Stuff, Disney Review

Thanks very much to my Disney Social Media Moms sponsor, Juice Box Jungle.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Disney Social Media Moms Conference, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World

Win “Snow White” for Blu-Ray!

Oct 21, 2009 Disney Review, Product Giveaway

My First Blu-ray Movie

I bought a Blu-ray player a couple months ago. I didn’t have any Blu-ray discs and didn’t run out to buy any, but I was loving the machine anyway. It’s not like when we switched from VHS to DVD and had to either keep two machines around or replace all of our tapes. Not only do Blu-ray players play regular DVDs, they make them look crisper and better!

Then along came Disney. As if they knew that we had just purchased a Blu-ray player, Disney offered me a review copy of the Diamond Edition of “Snow White” on Blu-ray disc. It’s still our one-and-only blue-ray disc, but my daughter has watched it four or five times in the couple of weeks we’ve had it. It even comes with a regular DVD of “Snow White”, to use in your car or on another TV or computer.

I put the disc in and the first thing I noticed about it was the sound. We have an HD DVR, so I’ve heard shows with good sound on that same TV, but the sound coming from this disc when the previews started was something else entirely. And that was just on the speakers from our Bravia – we don’t even have surround sound speakers. The next little surprise was a viewing option called “Disney View.” Instead of stretching the picture or having those annoying black bars on the sides, “Disney View” lets you see “Snow White” in its original aspect ratio, with original artwork on the sides (columns, pulled-back theater curtains, etc.). It’s a beautiful way to watch the movie. At first I thought it might be distracting, but it turns out that it’s the jarring black bars that are annoying. The “Disney View” artwork frames the movie in a very natural way.

Snow White

I’m not sure that a hand-drawn cartoon that’s over 70-years-old is the best vehicle to tout the benefits of Blu-ray. Don’t get me wrong, the movie has been completely cleaned up and sparkles for its Blu-ray debut. It looks absolutely gorgeous, especially the colors, which were much more earthy than later, more pastel Disney movies. But sometime soon I’m going to buy something with lots of explosions and special effects so that I can see what the Blu-ray player can really do (I’m thinking I Am Legend). One huge benefit of Blu-ray though is that the discs themselves are reportedly more scratch-resistant than regular DVDs. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to let the kids touch it, but at least when I drop it (which will happen eventually) it will hopefully hold up better.

The cons? It can take a minute or two for the Blu-ray disc to load (but I suspect that isn’t specific to this disc – they load and are read in a different way than regular DVDs). In a world where I’ve gotten used to having everything in an instant, that took a little getting used to. And they’re more expensive. My two-minute, completely unscientific survey of Amazon movies shows that the Blu-ray titles tend to be between about 30% and 60% more expensive than the regular DVDs. But for that extra money you will likely get better picture, better sound, better wear, and more extras.

Win Snow White for yourself

And now the really fun part: I get to give away the Diamond 2-disc edition of “Snow White”, along with a Seven Dwarf Plush Set!

To enter, all you have to do is leave a message on this post telling me what your favorite Disney movie is, or which one you would like most to see on Blu-ray.

You can also get one extra entry by tweeting about this contest. Just make sure to link back to this page, and don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet! Or, you can just copy and tweet this:

Win the Diamond Edition of “Snow White” on Blu-ray & a Seven Dwarfs Plush Toy set over @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/3gq519

So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Wednesday, October 28th and random.org will draw a winner. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Blu-ray, Disney View, Snow White Diamond Edition, Sony Bravia

The Disney Wonder…lobby?

Feb 1, 2009 Disney Review

I have no idea what you call this part of a ship. In a hotel it would be the lobby, but on a ship I’m not so sure. It’s where we entered the first time (each party was announced as they entered, and everyone within earshot clapped and cheered – fantastic for the families, but a little weird when boarding by yourself), where the statue of Ariel is, where the big staircase is…Anyway, I’ve been absolutely terrible about posting my pictures and writing my review of the amazing cruise I took last weekend on board The Disney Wonder. Ugh, was it just last weekend? Yup, last Saturday I spent the day swimming with stingrays and relaxing on the beach of Castaway Cay. Sigh.

I sat down a couple hours ago to upload photos and get to writing but got sidetracked by many, many things. So I’m just going to post this, a photosynth of the “lobby” of the ship, and talk about the embarkation and disembarkation process, since they were the first and last times I saw this lobby. (If you’ve never seen a photosynth, they’re very cool. They mash together a bunch of pictures of the same place. This is a basic one, because I took all of these standing in one place. Now that I know how cool photosynths are I’m going to take more pictures with that in mind. If you’d like to learn more about photosynths, visit their site, photosynth.net. Very cool.)

I arrived at the dock around 12:45pm. I waited in a short line to check in, then another short line to get my picture taken for security purposes, then I walked on to the ship. That was it. The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes. I’ve never boarded a ship that quickly. My checked bag had been picked up at the airport by Disney, so me and my carry-on entered the ship’s lobby and sat down on a couch for a few minutes. My room wouldn’t be ready until 1:30, so I took out my phone and took advantage of the last little bit of “free” phone service I would have for a few days (using my cell phone on the ship would have cost me $2.49/minute – thanks Verizon!).

At 1:20 I decided to wander up to my room to see if it was ready, and it was. Others from our group who boarded later said that it took them way longer, so my advice is to get to the ship as early as they will let you. It won’t be crowded, you won’t have to wait, and while your room won’t be ready, you won’t have all of your luggage with you so you can chill out, eat lunch, read a book, whatever you need to do to start getting into vacation mode.

At the end of the trip, I totally held everyone up when it was time to go through customs and get off of the ship. I had forgotten to fill out my customs papers the night before, but I wasn’t worried, I thought I’d have plenty of time the next morning during the long wait to disembark. The absolute worst part of the cruises I’ve taken in the past has been the end. I’ve had to wait hours before being let off of the ship, kicked out of my room at 7am, with just a continental breakfast to keep me entertained. But that’s not how they do it on The Disney Wonder! They understand families! Full breakfasts were available in several different dining rooms (we chose to end our trip with a buffet), and then when we were done, we walked off of the ship. That was it! No waiting for your color or number or letter to be called, no crush of people, we just left. We did have to wait in a line at customs, but to my dismay it moved very fast (too fast to stop and write), so finally I just had to step to the side and fill out my paperwork.

Waiting for the shuttle back to the airport and saying goodbye to my new friends just sucked. I wanted to be back on the ship! It was right there, so close.

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