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Passing time on vacation with the Ice Game

Does anyone else play this game?

My kids love this one: on airplanes, restaurants and other places that serve ice with a hole in the middle.

Each player fishes one piece of ice from their drink (use spoons, please!), then threads it across the top of the glass, using a straw. Like this:

The winner is the one whose ice drops last.

Yes, this is incredibly silly. But it kills time when waiting around like no other no-cost solution I've found.

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Me vs. the Walt Disney World Smiling Police

Hey, I love Disney World cast members. Heck, I used to be one. But there's one thing that some Walt Disney World employees do which drives me nuts, and I really wish they'd stop.

Here's the scene: My son and I are walking out of one of Epcot's Future World pavilions, just before lunchtime. We're heading over to The Land, but the August mid-day heat's already baking the park. As soon as we walk outside, the hot air slams us and my son just starts to melt. He'd been having a great time, but the high heat and humidity - coupled with a rumbly tummy - are draining him.

We walk past the cast member stationed at greeter.

"Hey, you need to smile!" he orders my son, while sporting a huge grin. "No need for a grumpy face."

This comment immediately changes my 10-year-old son's mood from tired and hungry to seriously ticked off. All he wanted to do was hurry across the hot plaza to a nice air-conditioned lunch. But now he's got some Disney World cast member riding him, because he doesn't look happy enough.

I've had Disney employees pull this on me in the past, too. Yes, Disney wants its cast members to smile. And it very much would like its guests to be happy and smiling, too.

But, dear Disney cast members, while it is your job to smile, it's not ours. You are getting paid to be there and smile. We're paying out the wazoo to be there, and can sport any facial expression we want, thankyouverymuch. Your job is to give us reasons to smile - not to order us to do so.

Worse, by telling a guest to smile you are, in essence, criticizing him or her - which was an absolute, you're-getting-a-verbal-now no-no back when I went through Disney University.

I suspect that the Disney University lesson that cast members should try to get guests to smile has morphed into a belief among some trainers that cast members should tell guests to smile. That's a training error that Walt Disney World management needs to address and correct.

I'd like to encourage that greeter to find ways to put smiles on the faces of the hot, tired and hungry people emerging from his pavilion. Wearing that big grin himself was a great start. Asking people if he can help, complementing them on their clothes or souvenirs, or even simply wishing them well all can initiate a positive interaction between cast member and guest.

But telling someone to smile sounds like an order - and that's a negative interaction, something cast members should be working hard to avoid.

I've not ever encountered this demand at other companies' theme parks. I attribute that to Disney's obsession with promoting guest happiness in its parks, shown by mass smiling. While that's a noble goal, giving people a reason to smile and telling them to smile are two very different things.

I just wish that all Disney cast members would recognize that.

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Disney's former chairman to take over Tribune?

I tweeted about this a few days ago, but haven't yet addressed it on the site. It really doesn't have anything to do with theme parks, but since it involves one of the bigger names from the Walt Disney Company's history, I thought it worth mentioning here.

It looks like former Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner is set to become the next chairman of the Tribune Company, the (now bankrupt) publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel, among other newspapers. Tribune also owns 23 TV stations and has a stake in several websites and the Food Network.

I'm so conflicted on this story that I really don't know what to say, having worked and consulted for several Tribune properties, and worked for Disney during Eisner's time there.

So I'll punt this one to you, instead. What do you think?

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Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy to replace Katonga at Busch Gardens Tampa

Busch Gardens in Tampa has announced that it will be closing its live musical show Katonga on September 6, to replace it next year with a production of Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy.

That show played on Broadway starting in June 2008. Currently, Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy has two productions on the road, one at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and the other (closing today, BTW) at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Connecticut. (That production stars former pop idol Debbie Gibson, which TPI readers of a certain age might find noteworthy.)

Here's a video look at the production, from the Cirque productions website:

Next year's shaping up to be a big one for Busch Gardens Tampa, as the park also will debut its as-yet-unannounced Cheetaka roller coaster in 2011, as well.

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What's new on the discussion board: Disney World rumors and a Fantasmic rant

Here are some of the top new threads this week on the Theme Park Insider Discussion Board:

Dan S asks for your picks as the Best/Worst Thrill rides at Walt Disney World?

Tim W reviews some of the recent Rumors for WDW and asks which ones you'd like to see happen.

Joe Brown's considering a trip to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and wants to know if it is worth the money.

Nick Markham wonders about California Adventure Expansion: Phase 2

Kylie Bee asks Where to stay in Anaheim for Disneyland trip?

Michael Smith celebrates that Poseidon's Fury has its favorite feature restored!

Javi Badillo wants to know Which Universal Classic Ride Do You Miss the Most?

Victoria Jurkowski is looking for some Suggestions for a Labor Day trip?

Alex Gamso takes a look at recent changes and wonders if Cedar Fair is turning into Six Flags?

Rob P asks Theme Park Insider readers to Remember Your First Time On A Ride.

We'll close with a rant from Andrew Holden - Fantasmic: What's Up Guys?

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