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Daytona Beach has a problem. Spring Break is in full swing now, but the folks in Daytona want to preserve their reputation as a family-friendly destination. The recent arrival of the Girls Gone Wild party bus flies smack in the face of that reputation.

Honestly, what the hell is wrong with the folks in charge of Daytona's government? The city is a tourist town, but it's targeting the people who are least likely to spend money - families. We're in a recession. Family budgets are tighter than a coon's ass. The only reason they're going to Daytona outside of special events is because they're cheap. This is not a way to build a healthy economy.

Learn from Las Vegas, Daytona. Cater to the sinners. Let the Spring Breakers party their asses off. Show some skin and make the place seem like FUN for a change, rather than the place where old & fat people go to bake in the sun and then eat breakfast at the IHOP.

When Daytona was getting its Spring Break party on with MTV in the 80's, Las Vegas experimented with family-friendly marketing. Guess what? It doesn't work. Families are worried about bills to pay. Families are boring and dull. They don't make for a vibe that attracts more tourists.

On the other hand, people on vacation love a party. Those college kids here on Spring Break come a lot closer to being the attractive person you put on a brochure than some of the people staying in your hotels. Attractive people partying in your town will bring more people, more money, and a better economy.

So loosen up, Daytona. Let people have a beer on the beach. Open up your nudie bars the way God intended. Try to realize that it's better to have tourists clogging your roads than to have empty hotel beds that don't bring in any revenue for local businesses. You're a tourist destination. Start acting like one.

I remember Spring Break in the 80's. Lots of skin. Lots of hot pink bikinis. Lots of alcohol. Lots of sex. Lots of loud music. Basically, it was a party/ That's pretty much all you need for Spring Break at the beach. At least, that's what I thought.

However, Daytona decided that was too much and wanted to crack down on all those rowdy kids. They pour out the kids beer on the beach, setup a temporary jail, and control the hell out of the Spring Breakers.

Except, things are wilder now than ever before. Two of the reports from WESH News spring to mind. A security guard hired for a hotel raped an 18 year old girl and then tossed her off a 6th floor balcony. She hit the second floor and survived and the rapist was arrested. Then there's the story of three kids from Illinois & Ohio. It seemed they detonated a 1/4 stick of dynamite on their patio the other night and blew the windows out of a couple of rooms.

Maybe the drinking and screwing around weren't so bad after all. At least then people weren't getting thrown over balconies (though some fell on their own) and they weren't blowing shit up.

Are the Las Vegas hotels getting so full of themselves that they're collectively killing the goose who lays the golden egg? It's possible. Hotel rates for popular conferences like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) are astronomical. Hotel rates have risen 365 percent in the last two years, according to this story by Richard N. Velotta with In Business Las Vegas. Perhaps most telling is this excerpt from the article:

Executives with the Consumer Electronics Association, the owner of the show, approached the LVCVA earlier this year for a meeting with resort executives to try to persuade them to keep prices in check.

Karen Chupka, senior vice president of events and conferences for the association, said several exhibitors have had to reduce the number of delegates they can send to the show because companies can no longer afford to send as many people as in the past.

"It's crazy," Chupka said. "The rates have become astronomical. Some of the resorts are requiring a food and beverage guarantee on top of the hotel rooms and that has gone up by 365 percent in the past two years. Las Vegas is no longer the cost-effective destination it once was."

Chicago and Orlando were mentioned in the article as two possible alternatives to Las Vegas, since there are few choices that have capacity for the 140,000 visitors that CES draws. Considering the timing of the event during the first week of January, Chicago would be a bleak alternative. One good snowstorm could ruin the entire event for everyone. With Orlando's temperatures traditionally around 72 degrees at this time of year, my guess is that we'd be the odds-on favorite for a potential relocation if the show stays within the USA.

One event that tagged on to CES and has grown with it is the AVN Adult Entertainment
Expo. My guess is that Orlando's family-friendly image wouldn't go well with a porn expo. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to attend and take some pictures, but it's just not going to happen here. Orlando's power players don't want that crowd nestling up to the kids going to Disney World, and the porn folks don't want to fly across the country to a town that just doesn't have the nightlife facilities to accommodate them. If CES moves to Orlando, look for the AVN Adult Expo to stay in Las Vegas. It's a short trip from the LA area where many of them reside and Vegas embraces the Sin City nature of overused and scantily clad women roving through its hotels.

CES in Orlando would be a great way to start the new year. Unfortunately, I don't see any signs that the folks in Orlando recognize the potential opportunity, much less their efforts to steal the show away from Las Vegas.

A few days ago, I wrote a post based upon an original statement from Miceage.com claiming that the boats on the It's a Small World ride in Disneyland were bottoming out and getting stuck due to the growing size of the average American visitor. The concept was that the ride, designed for the 1964-1965 World's Fair, could not accommodate the greater weight of visitors 43 years later. It sounds reasonable.

However, I wanted to dig into this idea a little more. Were there similar concerns for boat rides in Walt Disney World, such as the version of It's a Small World or Pirates of the Caribbean here in Orlando?

I contacted representatives from Walt Disney World to pose the question and received the following answer. Although the Disneyland ride It's a Small World is closing down, it is not because guests are weighing down the boats. The boats are 43 years old and have had repairs throughout the year. Per the Walt Disney representative, the repairs had a cumulative effect to correct wear & tear on the bottom of the boat that essentially increased the depth of the boat. Think of it as one layer of repair upon another.

One of the questions still on my mind is how Walt Disney World deals with the growing size of the average visitor and some of the aging attractions that may not have been designed for additional wait. The short answer is that Disney Engineers regularly inspect the attractions to maintain a safe environment for guests. Many aspects of Walt Disney World were designed with accessibility in mind to accommodate all guests.

So what about the issue of an aging infrastructure and changing guest sizes? We'll have to find out in another post, as the Disney representative promised to ask a few more questions and get back to me with an answer.

Whether you believe that guests are too larger or the repairs have added depth to the boat, it's undeniable that Disneyland is taking action to correct a problem.

It's a Small Small World., originally uploaded by Chris the Fish.

There's an interesting blurb on Miceage about the Small World ride at Disneyland. It seems our west coast friends plan to shut down the ride for 10 months starting next January for some major refurbishment. Why?

The people riding it are just too damn big and the boats keep bottoming out.

According to the article, the boats used in the ride are 43 years old and originally served in the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. They've come to the end of their useful lifespan and need replacement. Wear and tear is part of the reason, but another aspect simply has to do with the size of the average park visitor. When the boats were designed in 1963, the average adult male weighed 175 pounds and the average adult female weighed 137 pound. Fast forward to the present time and it's not hard to conceive that a boat filled with multiple adults weighing more than 200 pounds each is going to hit bottom and stop.

The only notice that a cast member has about a stuck boat is when the everything starts getting backed up and jammed. Some poor soul has to run forward to unclog the overloaded boat and get things moving again. It also means that cast members have learned the art of sizing up visitors and loading them appropriately to avoid potential problems. Unfortunately, it's not something that they can easily explain to guests without hurting some feelings.

"I'm sorry that I can't accommodate your entire family reunion on this 43 year old boat, but you're all just too heavy to go anywhere."

So how does this issue affect boat rides at Walt Disney World like It's a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean? Both of those rides are newer and have already been through refurbishments. Good thing, because I doubt DIsney visitors in Central Florida are magically lighter than their California counterparts.

I'm constantly amazed of our society's fear of women's breasts. Unless you're a beautiful model suntanning in South Beach, a woman just doesn't get any respect for her breasts being exposed in public. In keeping with the notion that bare breasts are bad, Universal Studios Orlando humiliated one of its guests, Cheryl Cruz, when she whipped the puppies out to nurse her baby.

Cruz is Canadian. It appears our neighbors to the north really don't have a problem if a mother decides to breastfeed her baby. Not so at Universal Studios Orlando, though. After Cruz refused to cover up at a park employee's request, she was surrounded by security guards ready to escort her off property. Never mind the fact that it is legal for a woman to breastfeed publicly in Florida.

What exactly is so horrible about a mother feeding her child? Pretty much every one of us nursed a nipple as babies. It's nothing sexual, it's just life. Lighten up, people. Stop being boobs.