Tag: Los Angeles

May The Fourth Be With You: Our Visit To The Star Wars Themed Scum and Villainy Cantina

First of all, no May the Fourth post this year would be complete without remembering Peter Mayhew, the actor who brought Chewbacca to life. May you rest in peace, Peter. Thank you for your work and for sharing your life with millions of sci-fi geeks all over the world.

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You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
We must be cautious. – Obi Wan (Ben) Kenobi

Ever since I first saw the Facebook page from the Scum and Villainy Cantina in Los Angeles, I was convinced I wanted to go. To my surprise, Sharon was interested in going as well.

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When we were planning our Southwest Road Trip and knew we would be visiting Disneyland, we thought a trip to L.A. would be possible. Then we got tickets for Hamilton in L.A. (Note from Sharon: 5th time!) and decided to stay in town for the last weekend of our trip. It was fate. Or the Force. Or maybe you’re like Han Solo and don’t believe in hokey things like that.

Your friendly neighborhood geek bar.

No Tickets, No Reservations, No Judgement

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Adventures By Disney: Bringing Disney Magic Around The World

The Walt Disney Company has always been trying to expand the Disney brand experience outside of their theme parks. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Disney unsuccessfully tried to build different types of theme parks with the unrealized Disney’s America concept and the Port Disney project, which eventually morphed into Tokyo DisneySea. After these missteps and the eventual failure of the DisneyQuest concept, (which eventually lead to the closing of the final location at Walt Disney World), the company smartly changed course. Instead of trying to build Disney around the world, why not take people around the world “the Disney Way?”

The first step of this initiative was Disney’s launch into the cruise business in 1998, with Disney Cruise Line. The executives noticed the success of the cruise division and looked for a way to replicate the model, but somewhere they didn’t have to build multi-million dollar cruise ships. There are iconic places around the world that people want to visit, why can’t Disney take them there. IRL.

That’s how I imagine Adventures By Disney was born. Continue reading “Adventures By Disney: Bringing Disney Magic Around The World”

Fall Asleep In One City & Wake Up In Another, In A Moving Hotel!

In 2016, some entrepreneurs solved the problem of finding reasonably cheap travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They got a double decker bus, redesigned it with 23 sleep pods, and began a service where you can fall asleep in a private bunk in one city and wake up the next morning in another.

They call it Cabin.

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May The Fourth Be With You: The Star Wars Themed Scum and Villainy Cantina

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
We must be cautious. – Obi Wan (Ben) Kenobi

Ever since I first saw the Facebook page from the Scum and Villainy Cantina pop-up bar in Los Angeles, I was convinced I wanted to go. To my surprise, Sharon was interested in going as well.

 

At first, the location was only selling tickets for two months and you needed to purchase admission in advance and then reserve the date you wanted to go. Living on the other side of the continent, I just couldn’t make a trip there on a whim. So I kept following their website and their Twitter and Instagram feeds, hoping for more information. First they extended for a month, and then another. I knew this pattern…they were following the Sleep No More playbook, where the event says they’ll be open for a limited time so you’re made to feel the need to attend now before they close, and then they extend and extend. I kept hoping it would continue.

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Just When I Think I’m Done With Skymiles, They Pull Me Back In

Delta Skymiles were the first airline miles currency I used with any frequency. I flew Delta often and they were a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, the only credit card I used, at the time, that earned points. I then started collecting them for real when I knew we were looking to go to Australia. Delta ran an offer in 2011 where if you transferred miles, they would double the amount of miles you were transferring, basically letting you buy Skymiles at a little more than a cent a piece. I maxed out Sharon’s and my limits on transferring miles. In retrospect I lucked out because in 2014 I was able to book two business class tickets from Los Angeles to Sydney on Virgin Australia using our Skymiles.

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