Daniel Dickinson, Author, Adventurer

You want maps? We have maps galore! Ok, well, in all honesty, I'm not even done with all the map additions. MOST of the Xonthian Maps I have, with the exception of the cities, are updated and complete. Cities take the longest it seems, and some are not even sketched out. That said, there are currently 12 maps you can look at, most of them have hot spots you can mouse over, to find little tidbits of Loooooore. Totally just said that in my head as Mat Pat. Anyway, take a look around at the maps located in the Compendium, let me know if you find any errors. Hot Spots should all link to a wiki article. Some hot spots may not be easily identifiable either, explore, mouse over everything. There's no rush here.

I plan to add more in the coming months, I'm not sure however there will be a corresponding Blog Post though, since most of it will be just add-ons to whats already there. With the exception of the Emberwood side of the map. The eastern most world is still being fleshed out, and most of those maps and regions haven't even been started. I plan to chip away at that side more over the coming months, and depending on how late to early next year goes, Emberwood MAY take on more of a focus. We'll see though.

We recently went to Disney World for a family vacation. And well, it was fine. I guess maybe I need to back up, before I get into this. Some, guidelines, so to speak.

First of all, we're a Disney Family. My daughter was raised with a healthy dose of Disney love, which eventually even led her to work at Disney World. Which comes with perks. This will not delve into the perks, since we were lucky to have them. However, not everyone is as lucky. Second, we've traveled to Disney World from Arizona, over a dozen or more times, with family parties that range from 3-17 something people. So we have a wide range of experiences. Third, I understand things change. In large, that's not a problem. However, if it IS a problem, I'll specifically call that out.

With that out of the way, let's dive in. This trip was triggered by my daughter turning to adulthood. So she and I, along with her good friend, drank ourselves silly around Epcot. That was the sole purpose of this trip. Before we even got there though, we had priced out the trip and for a party of 4, would have cost us anywhere between 10-20k. Flight included. And those prices are with and without dining plan, and in the cheap Art of whatever resort, on Disney Grounds. I won't get into to much of how we could of saved money, we're pretty good at it. That said, the price tag for this trip was outrageous. We buckled down, and got it done though.

Sticker shock aside though, was it worth the price? Yes and no. Seeing our daughter, getting to drink around Epcot with her, and ride some of our favorite rides was as fun as it could of been. Those moments with your child really cant have a price tag. The rest however can, and between the crowd, the growing prices, the loss of perks such as Airport transportation, ect… It weighed a little differently this time.

Our last trip, post plague shut-down, I mentioned I was pretty much done with Disney trips. It just lost some of the magic for me. It's foot and calf breaking to power through crowds to stand in line for hours, to ride a 40-60 second ride. The food has consistently fallen short of expectations. Greed has firmly gripped the Disney Brand in all, and it's starting to show. Problem is, that, that greed, isn't necessarily all Disney's doing. That's probably a different topic, for another time. So I digress.

There has been creative decisions that frankly, are perplexing. I pointed out to my daughter that the newer rides, Tron, Cosmic Rewind, were very bare minimum when it came to their queue line and the "lore". There is very little setting, to these rides, that suck you in. For an example of what I mean, Pirates of the Caribbean, you step into a old Spanish coastal fort, that has cannons, barrels, rope, iron bars on doors. You step into the queue and you are transported to another world. Tron, they had maybe two walls of posters. Cosmic Rewind had a bit more, but when compared to the other Disney rides it was still minimal. I will however, be picking on Tron in this regard because it was so little. Why not have Flynn's arcade be the entrance? Tomorrowland used to have an arcade, back in the day, Disney missed an opportunity to bring in nostalgia with a new ride.

The food as I mentioned has fallen short of expectations. This was something we began to notice during our last trip. That's not to say there isn't bright spots, or all of it is bad food. No, I'm saying there are inconsistencies there, and with a brand that used to be synonymous with quality? It begs the question, why am I spending my small fortune on this, when the quality has dropped off?

It may seem like I'm hating on the trip, and I'm not. All I'm suggesting is Disney World has lost its luster in my eyes and I'm not sure it will ever get it back. Will we go back? I'm sure there will be future trips. Our daughter is there. I am however, done giving Disney my hard earned cash, for diminished returns. Their share holders are not the only ones they need to please, and it seems that the Mouse Board, only has eyes for their share holders. And NOT the people that props them up by visiting their parks.