[gps-talkusers] Mapping the Disney Resort

Richard raises a good point. POIs which are too dense or close together 
could be overwhelming. With WAAS enabled, 10 foot accuracy is quite 
reliable. Just having all the rides and restaurants marked as POIs would be 
very helpful. Even when I have been to these places with sighted friends or 
family, they get terribly lost. Half the battle is getting oneself into the 
correct segment of the park like Tomorrow Land or the like. Finding a trash 
can isn't so challenging. One can always ask for the nearest trash can but 
asking another tourist where a particular ride is, well that is another story.

To see just what is marked, I entered Anaheim CA as my city and Disney as 
the street. Three Streets appeared with Disney in them. I chose one and set 
that as my virtual position. I then did a search for all points nearby and 
found169 points within 1 mile. I then did a search on the keyword Disney 
and came up with 12 points. They were mostly points I marked a year ago in 
Disneyland and California Adventure. If you are going there, this is a 
handy way to find out how far your hotel is from the Main Gate. There were 
a couple streets mapped within the park as well as the monorail which shows 
up as a Railroad. I have marked a handful of points in Disney World as 
well. I guess some brave user will have to go there to mark more points. 
After my last visit on a busy holiday, I swore I'd never go back.

I have marked some points as well in Leggo Land in San Diego. Now, that is 
a much more sane place to go with children.

Mike




At 10:15 PM 2/16/2005, you wrote:
>Hi, Vincent and all,
>I have been checking out the last few messages and have a couple
>observations.  Mapping the Disney grounds should be no problem, but you
>gotta remember the accuracy limits of the GPS.  Last I heard, it was about
>30 feet on a good day.  Of course, you wouldn't want to go to Disney on a
>bad day, anyway.  I don't like Disney because there is no place to sit down
>if you get tired of walking or standing in line.  Anyway, two waypoints
>closer hat 60 feet could interfere with each other.  You would just have to
>experiment a bit.
>
>A good idea is, as you stated, would be to share waypoints with friends, or
>even post them to a list like this one.  That should be easy.
>
>Checking the speed of the roller coaster?  Well, that would be a challenge.
>Remember that the GPS measures horizontal velocity only, and in a straight
>line only,  and the roller coaster is going up and down.  Sounds like a real
>challenge.
>
>Good luck
>
>Dick Myers
>
>From: vincent <vinnroc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Fwd: Mapping the Disney Resort
>Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:55:34 -0500
>
>That is something I never thought of.  Checking the speed of the roller
>coaster.  Since that is a key part to amusement park advertising.  You'll
>know if you got your money's worth.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Michael May" <MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 11:47 PM
>Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Fwd: Mapping the Disney Resort
>
>
>  > One of the first public GPS demonstrations we ever did was at Disney Land
>  > in 1996. We mapped several park points. Main Street and a few other
>streets
>  > were already in the map data. We ended up by riding the Eutopia cars and
>  > yes, the blind people were driving without guides. Not that the GPS
>helped
>  > with that.
>  >
>  > I will write John off list because a Disney rep was at the recent ATIA
>  > conference in Orlando and we discussed this various subject.
>  >
>  > I also had another experience in 1997 when the Strider GPS won an
>  > Innovation award and we demonstrated it inside Disney World at a booth
>for
>  > 3 days. It was a trippy experience to be an exhibit rather than attending
>  > them. I'll have to calculate the speed of the roller coasters next time I
>  > go with my PK.
>  >
>  > Mike
>  >
>  >
>  > At 10:42 AM 2/16/2005, you wrote:
>  > >Hello everyone,
>  > >I received the following message and wanted to forward it to the list to
>  > >see if anyone has been to Disneyland and tried to map out the grounds?
>  > >Thanks,
>  > >Kim
>  > >
>  > > >HI,
>  > > >I use the Braille Note with Version 2 of the GPS maps.
>  > > >I work for Disney Travel and book the reservations into our three
>Disney
>  > > >hotels at the disneyland Resort.
>  > > >I was the first totally blind person hired at the resort in 2003.
>  > > >The resort would also like to begin hiring blind and visually impaired
>  > > >individuals to other resort jobs besides hotel reservations in the
>future
>  > > >and I have been invited to help with this process.
>  > > >While talking with my supervisor about those jobs blind people could
>not
>  > > >currently do at the theme parks, I mentioned that getting around
>  > > >disneyland, California Adventure and Down town disney without sighted
>  > > >assistance would be difficult if not impossible.
>  > > >I have always wanted to take my Braille Note with GPS and map out the
>parks.
>  > > >She thought that was a great idea and we are planning on spending
>several
>  > > >days at disneyland to se if this experiment would work.
>  > > >If disneyland works out I could then do the same for California
>Adventure,
>  > > >Down town disney and the three resort hotels.
>  > > >
>  > > >I am wondering if anyone has tried to walk through disneyland and
>  > > >basically create wave points and points of interest in files that
>could
>be
>  > > >used for other blind people.
>  > > >In creating such a file it would be possible for blind people to
>navigate
>  > > >around disneyland and could also result in blind people being hired to
>  > > >work in the park.
>  > > >Do you know if anyone has attempted this project?
>  > > >My experience with using GPS is very limmited in that I just haven't
>had
>  > > >the time to spend since being hired by disney Travel.
>  > > >My goal is to become very vamiliar with the various keystrokes and
>  > > >commands which would then allow me to create POIS and Wave Points in a
>  > > >Disneyland file which I could ultimately share with other blind people
>who
>  > > >might want to visit the park on their own.
>  > > >I was planning to identify every trash can, bench, restaurant, shop,
>  > > >bathroom and attraction in this file.
>  > > >
>  > > >Perhaps others could do something similar for other amusement parks in
>  > > >California and throughout the country and world.
>  > > >What do you think?
>  > > >Is such a project feasible?
>  > > >John
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
>
>
>(8):[(8)

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