Need a dose of Disney? New sites put you there
Dewayne Bevil
May 23, 2008
On your next Magic Kingdom visit, your grandmother in Wisconsin can virtually tag along.
So can your college roommate, your boss and your mortal enemy through a new Web site that enables users to post and plot their current whereabouts in the Walt Disney World theme parks.
Twisney.com is the brainchild of Scott Mitchell, a software developer from Naples, who initially was improving his skills at online applications such as Twitter, Flickr and Microsoft Virtual Earth. That morphed into a personal use during an upcoming trip to Disney with his son.
"I thought it would be pretty neat to just take some pictures while I was there and get those to automatically plot on a map so that my wife and daughter, who were going to be home for that trip, could see our progress," Mitchell says.
He launched Twisney in late April, and Disneyphiles -- especially those trapped at their desks -- latched onto it.
"You need that Disney fix every once in a while," Mitchell says. "It's giving people the chance to live the experience and be there -- without being there."
Here's how it works. Park guests snap photos with their cell phones and e-mail them to
twisney@twisney.com. The location (Epcot, the castle, Tomorrowland) is first in the subject line, followed by other pertinent text ("Checking out the butterfly garden").
After sending the e-mail, the photo and text are automatically placed on a map on Twisney.com for the world to see, bird's-eye-view style. That may sound a little Big Brother or stalker-ish, but remember, posters willingly share this information. No chips have been planted in their heads.
"It's pretty simple. It takes about 30 seconds to go through the whole process of uploading a picture," Mitchell says.
Another posting method is available through twitter.com, a micro-blogging site. In fact, the Twisney name is a blend of Twitter and Disney.
Mitchell hopes Twisney users will share more real-time information, such as wait times for popular attractions. And he wants folks to be able to receive that data on mobile devices.
"I'm really trying to build some things to encourage more stuff being posted inside the parks," he says. "Not so much photos, but quick tweets about what people are doing."
On a recent trip to Magic Kingdom, Mitchell's children wanted to ride the Barnstormer, a kiddie roller coaster that can have long lines but no FastPass capacity.
"It would have been really helpful just to have gone on to something and say 'What's going on with the Barnstormer?' and see like maybe the last four or five recent posts there."
Aquatica notes
Observations from last week's trip to Aquatica, the new-ish water park of SeaWorld Orlando:
*I am embarrassed to realize that in previous coverage of Aquatica, the absence of wait-time signs was not noted. I guess I didn't miss them, but they would help set priorities. On my latest visit, the lines were lengthy for Dolphin Plunge and Tassie's Twisters. The issue there -- aside from popularity, obviously -- is low capacity. Plunge can handle only two sliders at a time, and the Twisters allow one raft per side, plus the time spent spinning around the bowls adds wait time. A good, time-saving alternative is Whanau Way, which has four slides, each of which has loading areas for two two-person rafts.
*New simple pleasure: Eating at Mango Market and watching folks come and go at the eight-lane Taumata Racer. And I'm strangely drawn to MM's potato salad.
*Since its opening, there's been improvement in signage, although some of it remains obsessed with telling guests that lifeguards might not make direct eye contact. It's a safety issue, of course. They should keep constant watch on folks in the water, but I don't think apologies are necessary.
*Another improvement can be seen in the gift shop, particularly the beach towels featuring the park's distinctive, black-and-white Commerson's dolphins. (Bonus: Watching parents insist that the animals are whales, only to have kids blow them out of the water with facts. Good times.)
Dewayne Bevil can be reached at 407-420-5477.
dbevil@orlandosentinel.com
