President Obama will visit Walt Disney World today (Jan 19th)

[arpinl]

The president will visit the Magic Kingdom's Main Street U.S.A. to deliver remarks on a strategy to boost tourism:

http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2012...-disney-world/

[PhineasTheGhost]

Sorry to hear that.

[GusMan]

Through mumblings around the internet, I have not heard many people express that they are looking forward to the disruptions related to a Presidential visit.

[DwarfPlanet]

Maybe he's just there to play golf ;-)

[carolinakid]

Thank goodness I'm not there. I've been in Manhattan when Obama & his wife have made things a nightmare when they flew into the city for a "date night".

[stan4d_steph]

I watched it streamed live online. The speech started at about 12:35 PM and lasted until a little after 1 PM. Highlight will likely be on the evening news of your choice. The idea is to boost tourism through streamlining the visa process while still maintaining security.

Moderator note: if this thread gets too political, it will be moved to the Lounge.

[GusMan]

The idea is to boost tourism through streamlining the visa process while still maintaining security.

Ok, did anyone else think of the most dreaded thing when they read what Steph wrote:

 

More Brazilian Tour Groups.

[petesimac]

Too cool! Wish I could have been there.

[stan4d_steph]

Undoubtedly that will happen, Gusman. Brazil was specifically mentioned in his remarks. Apparently there is a practice for 15 year old girls to have a big party or trip, and many choose to go to WDW.

[Toocherie]

A friend of mine is there and changed her plans from Magic Kingdom to Hollywood Studios today because Main Street was going to be off limits until 3 p.m. or so (apparently they were letting in people through backstage entrances to get to the other lands).

[GusMan]

Link to the speech.

[HTanner]

I dunno. Obama and Biden come to visit SF fairly often. It is kind of cool to see the motorcade drive by you on the freeway. One time, I was caught up in traffic on the way to work as his limo went the other way to the airport. A few moments later, I saw Air Force One take off - - the airport is minutes from my work. It was really cool.

Joe Biden was here this week and he drove by us going the other way on the freeway. You can't miss them. I'm glad they give the president and his family a little extra security - - it didn't seem outlandish to me. But, then again, I wasn't in WDW trying to get my Casey's hot dog!

[newhdplayer]

I dunno. Obama and Biden come to visit SF fairly often. It is kind of cool to see the motorcade drive by you on the freeway. One time, I was caught up in traffic on the way to work as his limo went the other way to the airport. A few moments later, I saw Air Force One take off - - the airport is minutes from my work. It was really cool.

Joe Biden was here this week and he drove by us going the other way on the freeway. You can't miss them. I'm glad they give the president and his family a little extra security - - it didn't seem outlandish to me. But, then again, I wasn't in WDW trying to get my Casey's hot dog!

Try sitting in traffic on the Westside when he's in town.

[HTanner]

Try sitting in traffic on the Westside when he's in town.

I guess it is all perspective. We get traffic every day during commute and it wasn't any worse (for me) when he was here. I didn't feel inconvenienced. But, if you don't get a lot of traffic or it is not common, then I can see how that would be really irritating.

[stan2u]

All in all, there seemed to be relatively little disruption. Our national leaders do and will travel. We can't keep them locked up in a box. And they ALL do it. We've had traffic problems in Seattle when Obama has visited. Also when Bush visited. And Clinton. And GHW Bush. And Reagan. Etc, etc. I personally like to see our leaders out and about. The disruptions aren't caused by them, but by security. It's something we have to live with, and I prefer that to the alternative.

[ourtrip]

i just returned from there and can tell you the entire "world" was affected in one way or another, but that doesn't mean the impact was totally negative.

they did stop guests from traveling through main street until about 3pm, so everyone had to move through the cast area on the right hand side of main street. there were all kinds of rumors swirling about before the visit (MK would be closed, disney guests were to get 1/2 off vouchers for dining...) but disney as expected handled things very well. it was a thursday so they added extra magic hours to the other parks. since we were planning to do HS we were told that they would stay open from 7-10pm which was fine with us. since we like to do rope drop anyway we headed out early and arrived at about 8:20. they had already opened the park and attractions. so it was like they added morning and afternoon hours. it was awesome. they crowds were light all week anyway and the extra hours were icing on the cake. i'm sure the other 3 parks saw a increase in crowds since a few were deterred from MK for the perceived issues (extra security, harder to move about, "special" guests everywhere...) but it really didn't seem to impact HS to any noticeable degree.

[TinaMouse]

Sounds like it went fairly well, then!

[cstephens]

Try sitting in traffic on the Westside when he's in town.

I totally hear you.

I guess it is all perspective. We get traffic every day during commute and it wasn't any worse (for me) when he was here. I didn't feel inconvenienced. But, if you don't get a lot of traffic or it is not common, then I can see how that would be really irritating.

There is A LOT of traffic on the westside of L.A. normally, but when President Obama is in town, it can be even more horrendous, depending on where and when he's going. There's been gridlock for hours before where people were literally trapped in a square of traffic because of the road closures. Of course, that's not his fault - it's the fault of the people managing (or in this case, NOT managing) the traffic.

Glad to hear it all went well at WDW. I've read from people who were there and who participated in the event, and it sounds like it was pretty cool.

[Toocherie]

A little late to the party, but unfortunately Presidential visits do disrupt lives. The sad fact of the extra security that is needed to keep a President safe.

A few years ago I worked in a big office building next to a hotel where President Bush (the second one) was going to stay. We all had to be "vetted" by the Secret Service and were inconvenienced for the couple of days he was there. Even though he wasn't my favorite President, I didn't mind the interruption/inconvenience. In fact, it was kind of interesting to look down from the 16th floor and see the slew of protesters outside the hotel. Democracy in action!

The following Sunday I was headed into the office to catch up on some work early that morning and got caught in a traffic jam as President Bush's motorcade was heading to the airport. Again, it was kinda cool to have all traffic stop (there weren't too many cars actually that time of the morning) and see the motorcade zoom by (although I wish it had been President Clinton!)

[Ohthatjeff]

I was inconvenienced once by the winner of American Idol being in the parks. I can't imagine how annoying it would be trying to get from point A to point B with the President making an appearance.

ETA: Though to be fair, I'd probably be more tolerant of being disrupted by the leader of the free world.

[nickjandrews]

Well, it can't ALWAYS be a good day for visitors and Cast Members...