DIS Rumors and News Dolphin Meet - Report

[All Aboard]

First, I have photos but they are not ready yet. I should be able to post them Wednesday morning.


The gameplan was to meet at the Dolphin Pool at 7:00 pm on Saturday. Bad weather and bad traffic (and the fact that Dolphin self-parking is about 14 miles from the Dolphin pool) caused a mild delay in gcurling's arrival at the meet. But, at about 7:15 I wandered into the pool area to find two guys (the only two folks in the pool area) chatting. I knew I was about to meet DVC-Landbaron and Peter Pirate/Captain Crook. The pool bar had closed because of the weather (which, Landbaron immediately blamed on Eisner) so we decided to move indoors.

We found a comfortable seating area on the main floor (conveniently located next to the bar.) Landbaron picked up the first round and discussion insued. The conversation was great, seems like we covered would required two or three weeks of posts in a quick three hours. We could have continued for another three, but we had some hungry tired kiddos that needed our attention.

As expected, Landbaron is not at all as tough on WDW as he comes across on these boards. With him in his element (WDW) it's clear that the Magic is still alive and well in him. He'll argue that it has dimmed quite a bit, but it's kind of hard to tell when he speaks with the enthusiasm he has. He's a great guy and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit and talk with him (albeit for such a brief time.)

The Pirate/Captain is a great natured, really funny guy who has a real passion for WDW. His daughter was fantastic with Natalie, they had a great time playing while their fathers debated the finer points of All Star theming with this guy from Chicago.

At times I couldn't help to think that the folks around us must have figured us for nuts. "Hey honey, these three grown men over here are discussing why The World of Motion grew stale, but Pirates of the Caribbean has not. No, I'm not kidding, they really are."

All in all, it was a great time. One that I hope gets repeated in the future. And, as promised photos will be up later this week.

 

[Captain Crook]

Thanks for the kind words gcurling, although he mistakenly thought the Peter Pirate was in attendance...Sadly he couldn't make that meeting!

For me it was just fantastic to meet two great guys as these. As gcurling said, DVC-Landbaron is much less negative in person although it comes across more in tone & attitude rather than any actual change of opinion...His actual words stayed true to his written word, but his love of WDW was evident.

gcurling and I have a lot of similar opinions and only disagree on some personal "takes" of subjective items for the most part. His knowledge of WDW was intimidating but his demeanor was not. A first class guy with a great little girl!

I was very pleased to find that both guys lived up to and were actually quite close to the people I had envisioned, not in appearance necessarily for no one can conjure that but rather in the type of person each was. I concur with gcurling that more than a couple people must have thought our conversation quite odd, but I am 100% thrilled to have made the trip to talk to these two guys. Hopefully next time we'll meet a few more!

 

[HorizonsFan]

Dang! I wish I could have been there...

Looking forward to the pictures!

 

[DisDuck]

I know this is way in the future but I will be at the World June 23, 2002 to June29, 2002. Maybe something could be put together for all of us carpoolers since this is far enough in the future. This time first round on me.