Mousin' It Up

Recently, during Project XL the WDW Celebrations fan-sponsered event held in celebration of Walt Disney Worlds 40th anniversary, I had the opportunity to engage in a couple of "scavenger hunts". The first in Epcot was a photo/task based one with a bit of luck thrown into the mix by the fact you had to complete a puzzle with somewhat randomly distributed puzzle pieces. Although we had a lot of fun our team had poor luck with the pieces and we did not place. Later in the same trip I was teamed with two other Disney fans whom I had not met previously, and this was for a less task/photo based, and more of a trivia/attention to detail based one. This scavenger hunt was in the Magic Kingdom, and we did QUITE well, in fact we won. If I recall correctly, we were five points ahead of the second place team, which I think was the biggest spread between any two places. Still, as much FUN as we had, and despite the fact that MANY of the answers were things new to me, I doubt many of the answers to the things we got right will stick with me nearly as well as the things we tried to find but just could not find the correct answer to. In fact the things I think will stick with me for the longest time are the things we learned the answers too AFTER it was all over. For one thing this is because it is fun to go back and FIND these things afterward, I made a point of taking photos of a few of them later in the trip as I came upon them. I also have had a similar experience in the past that makes me think that this is true as well. In April 2001 less than a month after "Who Wants To be a Millionaire-  Play it" opened (According to Wikipedia it opened April 7, 2001) I managed to get in the "hot seat", much like the, then popular, television show you "locked in your prizes at the 1000 point and 32,000 point level and the levels progressed as follows;
100
200
300
500
1000
prizes 5 pin set with those point levels on them,WWTBAM pin lanyard, 1000 point embroidered ball cap

2000
4000
8000
16000
32000
 5 pin set with those point levels on them, the CD-Rom Version of the Show, WWTBAM logo polo shirt
64000
125000
250000
500000
1000000
1 million point leather jacket, 1,000,000 point medallion, Disney Cruise Line vacation for four

Well the first several questions were fairly easy, many of the low point value ones related to Walt Disney World, and the basic disney characters,  I even got through 32,000 fairly easily, but by the time I got to the 250,000 point question I had burned my lifelines, I think I used the "phone a complete stranger" one to help confirm my hunch on a baseball related question, and I think I used another lifeline on the 250,000 point level question too, but when the potential answers to the 250,000 point question were read off the first words out of my mouth were something like "well I know it's not scrimshaw" unfortunately since the question was "the art of carving bone or Ivory is:" I was completely wrong. 

Still as you can see from the photo below I was quite happy with my 10 pins, lanyard, hat, polo shirt and CD rom.





and I'll NEVER forget that the art of carving bone or Ivory IS Scrimshaw!

 Recently one of the podcasts I listen too (I think it may have been Inside the Magic) mentioned that the Cruiser "Mermaid I"
pictured below, is out of service for the next few months for repairs, and that folks might possibly experience longer waits for the runs cruisers and
launches make to Fort Wilderness, but it occurs to me that since they also brought over some of the former Animal Kingdom boats to
Bay Lake/seven seas lagoon for fireworks cruises, it seems to me that at least when they are not being used for that those vessels could be
used to aid the other ships on that run. It might also give folks a better chance to get good photos of them, which I would really like to see.
As I mentioned in a previous article http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/9169.html
the few ships were brought over from Disney's Animal Kingdom were re-chrstiened with new names,
ones that make more sense for use on the
Seven Seas Lagoon and that also make a nostalgic nod to a few vessels from the past. Of course these ships have thier downside, they are open to
the weather and that might make them hesitant to use them, but once again, even if they can only use them PART of the time that would
at least allow them a bit more chance to keep the other Cruisers and launches well maintained




This sort of moving boats from one route to another has been done before, as I was reminded just today by George Taylor of the imaginerding
blog http://www.imaginerding.com/ He sent me a link on my Facebook page, my reply got so long I decided it worked better as a blog post, and here we are!

Brian, check out the boat at 9:25 in this video. It is on the World Showcase Lagoon.
Reminds me of the launches that go from the Poly to the MK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ClqM5SrhJA

Very cool George that is one of the Motor launches, and I can ALMOST tell you which one, as it first comes into view you can see a green reflector
on the side of the ship on top of the canopy, the reflector is Green because it is on the right or Starboard side of the vessel, anyhow in the center
of the reflector is a letter, since the launch has a blue hull it would have to be the Mariner, Seafarer, or Voyager (as the Adventurer, Explorer, and
Navigator have white hulls) the letter on the reflector is quite square edged so it is certainly not the "s" of the seafarer I THINK it's the Mariner,
but the letter is blurry enough that I can not be certain that it not the Voyager. Today there are 8 friendships and they were built over time,
back then the Seven Seas Lagoon had excess capacity, there were fewer resorts (no Grand Floridian or Wilderness lodge) and more
ships (the two side-wheelers) than there are today so it was not so bad to pull one of the launches for this duty.
Now with two more resorts and two fewer big ships and 8 vessels on the World Shocase lagooon/ Crescent Lake.
It would almost make more sense to do it in reverse.

Also, I have one more thought, if they decided to perhaps bring over the remaining Animal Kingdom Vessels it would be really cool if
they renamed them for the old Side-wheelers, those ships were named the Southern Seas and the Ports-O-Call, but the pre opening art card of one of these vessels
showed one named the Osceola and I think that would make a great name with a tie to the past for one of these ships

Way back in 2005, almost five years ago as I write this, I took my first trip to Disneyland since moving "back east" at the beginning of High School in the 1980's. That 2005 trip is also currently my only trip to DL since that time. Recently I read a book that is closely tied to an event whose anniversary will be 5 years ago even sooner this coming Friday June 25 in fact, and boy am I glad this happened BEFORE my trip as it gave me the change to enjoy the fruits of that dedication during my visit in July of that year, I'm speaking of the dedication of Disneyland's fifth steam engine the Ward Kimball, and the book I read was by a fellow Carolinian Steve DeGaetano who literally wrote the book on this engine!
http://www.steampassages.com/
From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Engine No. 5, the Ward Kimball
Which is a very LONG title for a great little book it tells the story of this engine with words, photos, and great illustrations as Disney parks related books go this one seems to me a pretty good value as well at $29.95 especially considering how well done it is, that said I see how this could seem to be a bit specialized to some folks, still if you would consider buying any books on the Disney parks railroads it would seem to me that this one would be hard to pass up. In celebration of this anniversary I helped write a "This week in Disneyland History" segment for the Disneyland news today podcast, you can listen to that episode here:
http://disneylandnewstoday.com/blog/podpress_trac/web/142/0/dlnt-show-24.mp3
or if you'd rather read it just continue, and I'll throw in my photos of the Ward from the 2005 trip:

On June 25Th 2005, that's just 5 years ago, a new steam engine debuted at Disneyland. Unlike the previous four engines instead of being named for a head of the Santa Fe Railroad this one was named for a Disney legend, and this is fitting not only because Santa Fe which was, from 1955 to 1974 the sponsor of the Disneyland Railroad, but it was also fitting because the Disney legend it was named for was himself arguably the biggest rail fan of the generation of folks who worked with Walt (or since then for that matter), this engine was rededicated with the name Ward Kimball, sure Walt had a scale model railroad in his backyard, as did animator Ollie Johnston, but Ward had a FULL SCALE steam engine the Grizzly Flats Railroad. Now while I called this a "new steam engine" that's only used in the same sense as when I purchased a car, and my friends or coworkers say, "oh I see you got a new car" as in a new car to me, so this was an engine that was "new" to Disneyland, and this engine has a story and history too it, its story is also a good example of the type of story at least two of the other Disneyland steam engines have as they all have some things in common, but also important differences. Compared to their sister engines at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom , these 5 Disneyland steam engines all tend to be a bit smaller, and the first two have a different reason for that than the others, as they were constructed to five-eighths scale by Roger Broggie and the Disney Studios machine shop, but it was soon realized that a better way to go would be to take advantage of all the old steam rail equipment that was being retired in the 1950's across the USA, but they couldn't just take any steam engine and bring it to Disneyland, after all with those first two engines being built to a reduced scale (and many other bits of the park too), a full size engine would not only be "not to scale" but would not fit the track, it turns out however that Disneyland's five-eighths engines were set to run at 36" gauge, the most common narrow gauge in North America, this meant that Disney could look for smaller engines, such as those used is some locations for logging, or those found on sugar cane plantations, the Ward Kimball was originally purchased for just that later purpose, it was bought by the Barker and Lepine sugar plantations in Louisiana In 1902, and was named the "Maud L" after a daughter of one of the plantation owners, it was cutting edge in one respect, rather than running on wood or coal, the plantation owners specified in their request to Baldwin locomotive works (a HUGE steam engine manufacturer in Philadelphia) that it was to be an oil burning engine, Baldwin had built their first one earlier that same year.




It wasn't until Mach 4, 1914 until Ward Waldrath Kimball was born, Ward had a love of trains and once he became an animator at Disney often seemed to work on those scenes in Disney films where trains could be found, his wife Betty was quite supportive of him and his hobby to the point that when he bought a rail coach to save it from scrap and put it on static display in his backyard it was SHE who suggested that he needed to find a locomotive to pull it!In 1948 Ward accompanied Walt on a trip to the Chicago Railroad fair, on the way back they stopped at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn Michigan, it is possible to see many bits of inspiration for Disneyland.


Meanwhile back in Louisiana in 1946 the Maud L was retired, sugar cane work and the humid Louisiana air are not kind to anything made of iron, and it is easy to imagine her rusting away in disuse, in the late 50's a a rail fan named Arthur La Salle purchased her saving her from he scrap heap Arthur's American Railroad Equipment Association restored old steam engines.




Meanwhile in Ohio two businessmen bought some land that an old amusement park named Cedar point sat on they thought the site it was on would make a great housing development, but the park had a least that didn't expire until 1959, well at least one of the owners made a trip out west before then and visited a little town called Anaheim and an attraction known as Disneyland that was well known across the country due in large part to the power of the new medium known as Television, and the Disneyland television show, following this trip he convinced his partner that there just might be something to this amusement park business after all. So in part to emulate Disneyland they sought out old steam engines to bring to their park, the Maud L was purchased and arrived in rough shape, Ceder Point restored her and used her.

In the mid 1990's Disneyland knew they needed a fourth engine, as that would give them to release the other engines, one at a time, for their own renovations, and still be able to run four engines at a time . Disneyland had an old set of closed coaches that they had used previous to the construction of their open air cars that provide such great views of the park and they traded those coaches with Bill Nored, a California rail collector for an engine originally built by Davenport locomotives Works, but they soon realized that engine was much heavier than Disneyland's existing engines and would have resulted in a need to reinforce all the trestles on the Disneyland Railroad, and also be a bit "out of scale", so it was sent to Walt Disney World where it was painted up and named....the Ward Kimball, unfortunately though the engine was a bit large for Disneyland it was a bit small for the Magic Kingdom, and more to the point, the Magic Kingdom didn't have a need to run four engines at a time, so they really didn't need (or want) a fifth engine. Disneyland continued to look for an appropriate engine, and they now know what NOT to do. While they were looking for a smaller engine they ran across an Ohio Amusement park looking to acquire a LARGER engine in 1999 a trade was arranged and the former Bill Norred Davenport locomotives engine that had been sent to Florida and named the Ward Kimball was traded for the Maud L, the Maud L arrived at Disneyland inoperable a new boiler was constructed, and Disneyland staff built a new cab very similar to the original, then all work stopped due to budget issues, in 2003 parts were being wrapped and prepared to be put in long term storage since no apparent end was to be seen of the budget issues, but in that same year Cynthia Harris who had been Paul Pressler's hand picked successor as Disneyland President, left Disneyland and Matt Ouimet was brought in and soon realized that Disneyland had a lot of spiffing up to be done if it was to be readied for a big celebration of its 50th anniversary, and the refurbishment of the Maud L to become the new Ward Kimball was back on again.





The rest as they say is history, in 2005 I enjoyed my only trip to Disneyland so far this millennium, and I was lucky enough to see the Ward in operation several times and some of my favorite photos from that trip are of the Ward Kimball.  If you'd like to see many more great photos of this engine I really do reccomend Steve's book as it is a fun and easy read with lots of great details and images.

A few years ago the Disney Company came out with an interactive plush Mickey Mouse called "Pal Mickey", Pal Mickey was deigned to actually interact, or react to electronic signals in the Disney parks, so if you were in Epcot he would tell you about things in Epcot, if you were at the Magic Kingdom he would share facts about that park and so on. While this pull string toy from 1976 is no where NEAR being up to THAT level of technology, it is an interesting parallel to think of this as a sort of precursor to that is some (tiny) way, and thought provoking as to how far the technology we would devote to something that is "just a toy" has advanced.
here are the 5 things he says during this video:
1 Oh Boy! ha ha
2. Are you a Mouseketeer too?
3. Mouseketeeers have big ears!
4. that tickles, ha, ha
5. M-I-C-K-E-Y

The photo above shows the tram lanes as they pass beneath a viaduct under a road. The Road above that tramway takes guests headed to the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, or Polynesian Village resort . In the distance a monorail appears to be entering the station on the express loop, and this photo was taken FROM a monorail that was heading TO the Ticket and Transportation Center FROM Epcot. While a parking lot may seem to be the "plainest" scene in WDW ...

...even in these wide open expanses of asphalt a few interesting details can be found, the very practical need to have row numbers gave the folks at Disney to use character names for parking lot sections, these make it easier to remember where you park, and by using the characters to name the sections at the Magic kingdom they were also able to use the characters on the signs for the various sections.

Thereis SO MUCH information about Walt Disney World out there on the internet that sometimes it seems like mit must have all already been written about MANY times over, then i'll hear some questions from listerners on a couple of different podcasts and realize there is one subject or another that a lot of newer WDW fans might not know abot, lately I've heard a few questions about "The walk around the world" on various podcasts including WDW Today, so it occurs to me that this might be a good time for a review.

What is it?

If you have ever noticed on your way to the Magic Kingdom, either at the TTC or at the Kingdom itself that there are large numbers of hexagonal bricks with names and dates inscribed on them then you've had a glimpse of the walk around the world, starting sometime in the early 1990s these bricks were sold, and, similar to the images on the leave a legacy monument for a one time payment WDW would agree that for a set number of years they would allow you to sponsor a brick in this walkway. Early on I think that just the standard Pinkish-reddish bricks were sold, but around the time of WDW's 25th anniversary in 1996 they also sold granite ones for a while that were used in to form some patterns (both on the TTC and Magic Kingdom side if i recall correctly.

Where is it.








One end of the Walk Around the World is at the TTC, part of it stretches through the Polynesian Village resort, but I don't think it necessarilly is paved continuously in those bricks the whole way, in some older parts of the Polynesian I think you simply walk on the Polkys own walkways to make the connection,






from the Polynesian though there is a LOOOOONG stretch out past Luaa cove, along the side of the Seven Seas Lagoon, around Disney's Wedding Pavilion, and extending to the Grand Floridian, much as at the Polynesian though, once it gets to the grounds of the GF I'm not sure if there are any portions of it that go through the grounds there.

On the other side of the lagoon there is are a large amout of Walk around the world bricks in the giant transportation hub at the Magic Kingdom,









They are used as a sidewalk to the Contemporary going along the side of the bus lanes nearest the monorail tracks (but not the other side of the bus area),again once it gets to the grounds of the resort hotel though I belive it ends.

The oddest spur of this walkway though is the one that goes the OTHER way from the front of the Magic Kingdom this spur goes along the lakeside IN FRONT of the monorail station and wind its way to a Cul De Sac (Dead End) near the canal that is betwen the Magic Kingdom and Grand Floridian.
















Why build it all the way out that far? you may wonder, well at the prices they were charging per brick it was quite profitable, and the little bit of money it cost to run the electric out there for lighting along the walk was small potatoes in comparison, in fact it was SO profitable that some folks speculated that it really WOULD become a walk aroungd the world after all it would not cost much to build a little footbridge across that canal right? well if you LOOK at the monorail tracks where they cross that canal they rise up QUITE high and there is a reason for that, that canal is used to get large watercraft to the Rivers of America in Frontierland, and it is also the home of the barges that perform th nightly electrical water pageant,







so to a person who knew the profit on these bricks but who did not know the potential cost of the bridge it seemed obvious it WOULD get built, but to those who realized that no "cheap little footbridge" would do here it probably seemed obvious from the start that this probably would NOT happen.


 

Recently several of the podcasts I listen to have mentioned the pending opening of the "First Holiday Inn" on Walt Disney World property, this announcement gave me that feeling that I think was best described by Yogi Berra when He said "It's deja vu all over again". You see there was a big announcement several years ago when Holiday Inn purchased with the transfer Courtyard by Marriot to Holiday inn took place effective Dec. 31, 2003, I don't think that it ever opened as a Holiday Inn though because it was very shortly thereafter that renovations began, and it is not hard to imagine that, later on that year, after three hurricanes affected central Florida in just a few months (Charley, Frances, and Ivan) the renovations became much more extensive, additionally at that time I would imagine that many construction companies probably had to re-prioritize their jobs, and that a business that was already closed may have taken a back burner to other jobs, for instance if Holiday Inn has any of their own "in house" construction crews, they would probably have been prioritized to fix up other OPEN Holiday Inns that had suffered damage. Still I'd love to hear some of the stories behind this.
This hotel will be one of a very small number of hotels that are actually ON Disney property but that are not ran by Disney four of those hotels opened in the early 1970's (Dutch Inn -- Howard Johnson's -- Royal Inn -- Travelodge)  on what is today known as "Hotel Plaza Boulevard" (though at the time they opened it was known as Motor Inn Plaza ), a few more opened around the time Epcot Center opened (Buena Vista Palace, Pickett Suites Hotel, and the Hilton), and then in 1990 on the new resort property developed between Epcots' then newly opened "International Gateway" and the Disney-MGM Studios the Swan and Dolphin Hotels opened The Swan was originally operated by Westin, the Dolphin by Sheraton, one additional lessee is a group that operates resorts for use by the folks in the United States Armed services, they converted the former "Disney's Golf Resort/ Disney Inn" into a resort called "Shades of Green".  These hotels have MUCH better bus service than "off-site" hotels, though still perhaps a bit below the level of service Disney offers to it's own resorts.


Here is a brief history of this particular property from my site:
www.bigbrian-nc.com/wdw-sb03.htm

Howard Johnsons Resort Hotel / Courtyard by Mariott / Holiday Inn
The view I have of this hotel is a bit unusual in that the view picked is one I think is an unflattering view of the hotel showing I-4 behind it,



 a better view might have been a view with the Walt Disney World Shopping Village in the background. I think this view is contemporary with the view of Americana's Dutch resort that has the Empress Lilly in the view, the reason I think this is that the number on the back of this card seems to be in the same series.

As I mentioned before, in 1991 many of these hotels had postcard strips produced the ones for this Howard Johnsons are shown Below. (NOTE: There are more photos on the site than the two below, but they are other scenes of WDW not the hotel, so I'll leave them out).







In 1995 this hotel became the Courtyard by Marriot. They issued the continental sized post card pictured below.




On Dec. 30, 2003 it became a Holiday Inn. ( information from Disney A to Z .pdf update available free from the Disney web site)

I don't think it ever opened as a Holiday Inn before the hurricanes damaged it and it began its LOOOOONG refurbishment.




Additionally here is a view that has not yet made it onto my site it's part of a series that came out in the early to mid 1990's that are actual WDW postcards complete with the WDW logo and Disney copyright on the back:

One day, when I was in Epcot in between sets of the Voices of Liberty I went over to the Counter service place in the American Adventure Pavilion to grab a bit to eat, and I took a good look at this placard on the wall done in the style of a colonial flag. Well this flag is a little odd in that these flags would seem to be ones the colonies might have used during their struggles for Independence, yet it is hard to imagine that this would have been around at that time, you see the date of May 20, 1775 refers to something known as "The Mecklenberg Decleration of Independence" Quoting from Dan Morrills Charlotte History site:
http://www.danandmary.com/historyofcharlottechap2replace.htm

It was not until 1819, forty-four years after the alleged signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, when Virginia and Massachusetts were arguing over which of the two states had been first to break with Great Britain, that U.S. Senator Nathanial Macon and William Davidson , the latter representing the Mecklenburg County district in the U.S. House of Representatives, put forth the astounding claim that the Scots-Irish of North Carolina were the first to declare their independence.   Thomas Jefferson dismissed it as a hoax "until positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced."

      Even its staunchest defenders admitted that no copy of the actual document existed.    "Nearly all of my father's papers," declared a son of John McKnitt Alexander , "were burned in the spring of 1800."  A document was supplied, but it was John McKnitt Alexander's account of what transpired in May 1775, not the actual Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence itself.  To bolster their case, supporters of the so-called "Meck Dec" interviewed several signers, all of whom had attained advanced age by the time they were asked to search their memories.  These elderly gentlemen, mostly Presbyterians,  all agreed that they had attended a meeting in May 1775 but could not recall the exact date.  William Polk, son of Thomas Polk, published a pamphlet containing these testimonials and declared the matter settled.  In 1825, a large crowd gathered in Charlotte on the 50th anniversary of the alleged signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and heard it read by Reverend Humphrey Hunter of the Presbyterian Church.  What further proof could one want?

     Trouble for the backers of the "Meck Dec" surfaced in 1838.  An archivist uncovered an article in the July 12, 1775, issue of a Massachusetts newspaper that reproduced a series of resolutions that had reportedly been drawn up in Charlotte on May 31, 1775. Unlike the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the Mecklenburg Resolves expressed the hope that the exercise of independent authority by officials of Mecklenburg County would end if Great Britain would "resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America."  This was a remarkable display of defiance, but it was not an unequivocal pronouncement that the people of Mecklenburg County were "free and independent."  Any doubt about the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Resolves disappeared in 1847, when scholars found the entire text published in the South Carolina Gazette of June 13, 1775.  No such contemporary verification of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence has ever come to light.  

     The fact that the leaders of Mecklenburg County backed a conditional separation from British rule just eleven days after they allegedly declared their independence seems oxymoronic.  Also, none of the participants who was interviewed years after the dramatic events of May 1775 made any mention of the Mecklenburg Resolves.  One cannot help but wonder whether these aged men remembered the meeting where the Mecklenburg Resolves was signed, not the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.


So being that the Meck Dec was not really known at the time of the American Revolution it would seem this flag is from a later time than that. The hornets nest design would seem to stem from October 1780 when after suffering a number of losses in this area Cornwallis was forced to retreat from this area and the British refed to the region as "A Hornets Nest of rebellion"
I did find another referance to this flag design near the bottom of this page:

http://www.houseofflags.org/flaghistory.asp

North Carolina’s 1st Historical Flag: The “Hornet’s Nest Flag”

After being driven out by fierce opposition of Charlotte’s & Mecklenburg’s citizens to British occupation in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War British General Cornwallis wrote that “Charlotte Town was a hornet’s nest of rebellion.” The date “May 20, 1775” reflects the date that the citizens of Mecklenburg declared independence from Britain… more than a year before the Continental Congress in Philadelphia declared independence from Britain.

"The first flag of North Carolina… was white and bore a hornet’s nest and the date May 20, 1775…” (page 627: Preble, George Henry. Origin and History of the American Flag…Fourth Edition 1894, First Edition 1872 Boston.

Still this flag would seem to be pretty obscure and I bet the folks who brought these flag style plaques to this counter service restauraunt in Epcot certainly dug deep for some interesting details. You can hear a bit more about this, if you wish by listening to this weeks "Your Ear to The World" podcast Episode 37
http://eartotheworld.net/

Epcot's 25th Anniversary Celebration or Celebration 25 bears another nickname for me "The trip without a camera", and this is just the second in what I hope will be a series of posts with memories from this trip shared by others who let me use their Celebration 25 photos here with a special focus on those photos that have me in them.

here's a link to the previous post in this series
http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/11645.html






While we were gathering and waiting to take the BIG group photo I got to talking to a few of the Disney fans nearby one of them took this photo and let me use it (thank you Brad Lewis!), as we talked I noted that the name tag on this fellow in the blue shirt said Werner, so I had to ask "Are you Werner Weiss of the Yesterland web site" or words to that effect he was and so I told him how much I liked his site complete with the whole "you're the reason I bought a computer" thing, as his site has always been the one I considered my "favorite". I would still claim that, though in the early days of the internet he really went a LONG time without having any real competition in providing fantastic Vintage Disneyland content, even now his site is so well put together with very consistent well themed and formatted pages (right down to the text fonts) and so not to be missed if you do like vintage Disney parks content.

In addition to the American flags I mentioned yesterday there are other flags as well, in fact over the City Hall building (which serves as the Guest relations department of the Magic Kingdom) flys a flag which seems to best represent this park.





Also over near the train station there are a couple of flags that fly atop the Main Street buildings nearest either end of the station that are also icons of the Walt Disney World company, being at the entrance to the park and being that the Magic Kingdom is generally most folks first exposure to Walt Disney World these too seem quite appropriate, as these can be seen from the entrance turnstiles of the park.








Below: I see that I didn't take a photo of this flags context the way I did with the others above, but it too is near the train station and you can see it from the turnstiles, the flag was actually turned the "wrong" way when I took this so I "flipped" it (if you want to see the original orientation just scroll down a bit further.