Well here it is, my first parade pictures post. I'm not really a parade kind of person. For me, in Disney World, a parade is a thing other people go to so I can have shorter lines for the rides. Plus the non stop loud music they play for parades really hurts my ears.. I once saw a parade where they had some people who had won some sort of Dream prize that let them ride on a parade vehicle.. I noticed that they all wore earplugs. But I admit, I'm missing out on some major components of WDW. I dislike crowds and in general watching a parade is kind of an unpleasant experience for me.. and I keep getting trapped by them, especially in Animal Kingdom, where at one point a parade completely blocks any avenue of travel through the park until it passes.. but I can't say I don't appreciate them. This winter I watched the Stars and Cars parade at MGM, because I'd heard that they had some Star Wars content. Unfortunately this was a Christmas themed parade that appeared to have no Star Wars content whatsoever, but I still have to admit I enjoyed it. For the first picture.. well.. he couldn't have been pointing more directly at my camera if I'd have asked him to. And he did it twice, so I got a chance to pick the best shot. Could he have actually been pointing at me, seeing that I had a major camera pointed at him that he wanted to ham it up for? I have no idea.. but I like to think so. For number two.. all I have to say is that she plays a good Cruella Deville. What is it about villains that makes me smile? It's kind of weird when you think about it.. they're holding up signs complaining about the holidays, and frowning at the audience.. and I'm grinning. It was a neat parade, I got a kick out of it. I was especially impressed with how often some of the characters (the ones not sitting on a vehicle) came to the edge of the route to interact with people. I mean *I* thought that was neat.. the guy who usually gripes about how the parades get in his way when he's trying to ride as many rides as possible. Yet a penguin in a scarf walks up to the edge of the crowd near me and I start smiling.
This is what I don't understand. I mentioned this on another thread stating that the loudness at WDW is actually right at the dangerous level especially for little kids. Nobody, including the WDW corporation seems to care, however.
I noticed this too! WDW was MUCH louder than DL. Especially that parade...it was so loud, we could hear the music from the first section wayyyyy before the parade got to our section (near the end). I had to turn off my hearing aids several times during our visit. And then there was RNR Coaster. Aerosmith? All I heard was the "wind" whipping past my hearing aids. I sure Rockin' Space Mountain (the attraction formerly known as Rock It Mountain) would be the same thing, so I'm glad I didn't experience it.
agreed. During our visit, I have to always carry earplugs for myself, hubby and daughter. On a more depressing note, more and more places are getting louder and louder everyday. I'm pretty sure that for my daughter's generation, many of them will start noticably losing their hearing in their early 30's. Heck, even I have already start to lose my hearing (not noticable other than from hearing test, however).
Dangerously loud sounds are one of my many pet peeves.. It's not just that it hurts, it's that I know it's damaging my ears, and hearing is very important to me, if for nothing else because of my love of music. I started carrying earplugs in WDW last year.. I started out bringing them to help me sleep because I'm terrible sleeping in strange places, the isolation of earplugs helps, but then I started carrying them into the parks and using them for rides and shows. In particular they're a must have for Dinosaur. It's funny.. the ride is SO much more pleasant with the earplugs in, I almost feel like it's some sort of armor.. protecting me from the unpleasant aspects of the ride. I don't spend the whole ride cringing from the oppressive sound pressure levels. Among the worst in my experience was a time I saw Tarzan Rocks.. the music was so loud that it was either overdriving their sound system or else peaking my eardrums, if such a thing exists.. it was just AWFUL. The sound was badly distorted as well as being painfully loud. And then when that one woman sang.. YOWCH.. that high pitched voice just drilled into my skull. I had no idea that WDW was worse than DL in this regard, it just seemed to me that this was happening everywhere.. movie theaters, live performances of nearly any kind.. I've often wanted to get a VU meter so I can measure the sound levels and tell them exactly how far over the safety limit they're going. I don't know.. maybe this is one of those things that'd take a vicious lawsuit if they're ignoring more civil attempts at bringing it to their attention. Not that I'm exactly suggesting we all band together and sue the Disney Corporation.. but.. yes, it DOES bother me that they're blasting park goers with sound beyond the accepted safe limits. And it's a shame to hear that they're ignoring attempts at bringing this to their attention.
maybe it's time for everybody who is concerned about their (and their loved ones') hearing buy an SPL meter (my apology, Dan, not VU meter). Radio Shack sells them for around US$30 (in Canada; I'm sure it's cheaper in the US). Al you need to do is set the SPL meter to "C Weighting", adjust the response to "slow" and if the option is available set it to "hold peak" so it'll record the loudest level without needing you to read the needle at all. If the "hold peak" function is not there, you'll have to look at the needle and check the peak level. The last time hubby brought his SPL to Dinosaur, it reached 108 dB (back in November 2004; we didn't tide Dinosaur in 2005).
Odd. Just like the Crush song in Finding Nemo: The Musical. I couldn't understand a word they were singing because it was too loud and overdriven.
