Day 19: We (finally) met Mickey Mouse!

Happy Sunday! This is Erin and Virginia, reporting to you from the hotel lobby - a place we’ve come to
call home. 

We started off the day by learning about physics applications in Disney World, which was a really fascinating switch up from the topics that we had been focusing on. We talked about force, acceleration, and magnetism through applications in different rides. We were particularly interested in the mechanics behind Mission: SPACE Orange as we did not know that the forces we feel when we are “taking off” on this ride are as a result of spinning really fast in a circle. Additionally, the applications of magnetism on rides like Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (rip), PeopleMover (Erin’s favorite), and TRON helped us to better understand how those rides work and gave us a greater appreciation for those experiences. We also talked about the mechanics of Tower of Terror in the context of Newton’s Laws of Motion to explain why it cannot simply be a freefall as if it were, we would stay on the seat. Instead, Disney pulls us down with external force in addition to gravity. Lastly, we discussed Expedition Everest, which contains 3 structures (the roller coaster, the mountain, and the yeti) and how each of these are heavily connected which is why when the arm of the yeti stopped moving correctly, it was not able to be fixed. If they wanted to fix it, they would’ve had to take apart the entire mountain and roller coaster apparatus, which is crazy to think about. 

After class, we split into project groups to begin working on calculations and presentations! Most groups have finished up their data collection and are moving into the analysis stage. Here’s how our projects are going! 

Hey everyone, it’s Virginia! My group, consisting of Savannah, John, Tori, and myself, is studying Toy Story Mania!, a 4D shooting game in Hollywood Studios. To get points in this game, you ride through a series of themed screens, shooting at targets and trying to unlock different easter eggs that open up more targets with higher point values. Dr. Hutson has been the man to beat on the trip so far, successfully holding the highest score and being annoyingly good at hitting every easter egg; it should be noted some of this success should be attributed to Dr. Bouzarth, his ever-dependable shooting partner. However, Savannah and John put forth valiant efforts to take him down (to no avail, but the effort was commendable). 

For our data collection, everyone rode the ride multiple times, recording their scores and the easter eggs they hit in a Google form we created. Today, we exported that data into an Excel file and began working on a regression analysis to determine which factors (accuracy, easter eggs hit, etc) have the most impact on overall scores. Savannah, Tori, and Dr. Hutson began working on creating the regression analysis in R, a programming language, while John and I created data visulaizations in Tableau. After 3 projects of working with Tableau, we have (deservingly) dubbed ourselves the Tablexperts. Our graphs are looking beautiful and presentation-ready - themed in Toy Story colors, of course. Tomorrow we’re looking forward to finishing up our analysis and polishing our presentation! 

Erin here! My group is working on analyzing wait time data on omnimover rides (see blog from day 15 for more detail) and non omnimover rides, as well as breaking apart wait times for different types, intensities, and locations of rides. Specifically, we are trying to see how variable posted wait times versus actual wait times are, which is data that we have been collecting since the beginning of this course! We also worked several days on collecting even more data by watching rides and timing individuals as they go through the wait and ride then subtracting the ride duration to know their wait time. Now, we are cleaning the data and doing a few different analyses to see what conclusions we can draw. Mostly, this is happening in excel and Tableau, in which we are also, as Virginia mentioned, becoming Tablexperts. I think we are nearing some really interesting results, although we will hold off on revealing these until after we present. 

After project time and lunch, we headed towards Animal Kingdom for the late afternoon! We had some free time until dinner, so groups split into different directions to enjoy the park. Some of us ventured toward the Dinosaur ride, while others made their way to get a rollercoaster ride in at Everest. 

Erin and a few others really wanted to meet Doug, the dog character from Up. This proved to be quite the task as Doug was “taking a walk” and wouldn’t be guaranteed to stop and say hi to anyone in particular. We tried extremely hard to get noticed by this friendly dog by taking fake selfies and walking right next to him. Erin tried her darndest to get noticed by literally walking next to the dog, waving, and putting her hand up for a high five. Doug did not entertain Erin, and instead made eye contact then promptly turned to his other side to wave and high-five the person to his left. Feeling defeated, they gave up and went into an air-conditioned shop to get over the hard rejection. 

Following that disappointing endeavor, we all met up to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse! This was mainly because Dr. Bouzarth insisted on getting a group picture with them to hang on her office door alongside previous MatM groups, but we also did it for the memories. So, after 19 days in Disney World, we finally got around to meeting the mascots themselves. It was truly a magical experience. The professors then treated us to a delicious dinner at the Satu’li Canteen, and groups meandered from there to find sweet treats or get another ride in before leaving! Finally, we ended our time in Animal Kingdom with a ride through the world of Avatar - always a group favorite! 

From there, we finished off our night by going to EPCOT for a few hours! We were left for free time in the parks, so we each decided on some key attractions that we definitely wanted to get in before our course ended. We both started off by going to Mission: SPACE Orange to feel the centrifugal forces in action! Erin had a blast feeling the forces and it made Virginia’s face feel funny but she enjoyed it as well. From there, we split off and Erin and some others headed to Soarin’ to use a lightning lane, which was really fun as that ride has a lot of nostalgia for her. From there, they headed to Test Track to wait briefly in the single-rider line and enjoy the amazing ride that is Test Track. For Erin, all five of the rides we rode today (Everest, Flight of Passage, Soarin’, Mission: SPACE, and Test Track) are easily her favorite rides in Disney World, so she was super excited to ride all of them again. After Mission:SPACE, Virginia and some friends went to Test Track and got lucky with lightning lanes, then she watched fireworks before meeting back up with the large group. Overall, it was a very successful two hours at EPCOT!

Thanks for following along with yet another exciting day! It’s hard to believe that we’re nearing the end of our time here. Many of us were talking over breakfast about how we will miss each other, the parks, and the hotel we’ve been calling home (although we’re sure the hotel staff won’t miss the groups clogging the lobby every day). Be sure to look out for blog updates in the last few days! 

Signing off, 

Erin and Virginia

Honorable Mention Photos: