Mousin' It Up

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.

The theme of Main Street U.S.A. in Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom could possibly summed up in one word "Americana", there are many Red, White and Blue touches, for much of the year there is Red white and blue bunting in many places including at the train station (though nowadays it is replaced in the Fall with Autumnal colors). The folks who perform the Trolley show seem to have these as the dominant colors in their wardrobes as well, and all along Main Street U.S.A. (though around Christmas much of that blue seems to be replaced by red for a red and green Holiday feel).



Also, all along the tops of the many buildings on Main Street look at the tops of the buildings, they ALL have their own American flags as well.



Those flags along the building tops presented a bit of a challenge though, after all the American Flag as a symbol of our nation demands special treatment, and rightly so, typically an American flag is supposed to be taken down and carefully stored each day, or it must be lit at night, taking them down each day would not take all that long, but I doubt these places are built with easy access in mind, also since the upper floors of the Main Street buildings have a scale that diminishes with each floor so sending someone up there would break the illusion of that scale, similarly, lighting these flags at night would possibly pull you out of that Illusion of being on a street of the 1890s. Still the imagineers came up with a simple and ingenious solution, one that sort of fits into the theme in a way, they simply use flags with LESS than 50 stars, this works on a couple of levels, after all, at the turn of the 20th century (from the 19th) the USA did not yet have 50 states, also in dealing with flags of less than 50 stars these are not technically referred to as flags but rather pennants, and do not hold the same status as an official US flag, they don't need to be lit at night or taken down every day.



Above and below : on a typical American flag there are 5 rows of 6 stars each with 4 rows of 5 stars each between those rows, whereas you can see these 45 star flags there are 3 rows of 8 stars alternating with 3 rows of 7 stars.







That said one of the reasons I noticed this detail is that I have had lots of time to take zoom photos of those flags while I was standing near Town Square waiting for the daily flag retreat ceremony, where they take down the true 50 star flag that flies at the center of Town Square each day, they do this with a grand ceremony that often includes the Main Street Philharmonic Marching band, The Dapper Dans, a guest who is usually a retired member of the United States military, and many of the Main Street Cast Members, so they do really go all out in taking care of their true 50 star flag.

I listen to a LOT of Disney World related podcasts, sometimes I want to give them feedback, if that feedback gets sufficently long to warrent being it's own blog post it can end up here this is one of those times:

for the episode you can right click to open in a new tab or window, or save file as to listen.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/tdc/TDC46_economy_040109.mp3



I loved the Disneyland Rainy Day intro,classic and totally perfect for the subject matter.
As to Hong Kong the wheels of Government sometimes grind slowly and that is not unique to our country, so for the time scale it would be pointless for Disney to try to say, since what they are really waiting on is reaching an agreement with the HK government.

As for DCA, I'm not sure it is a "fail", it has ALWAYS suffered by comparison to the Disney Theme park with both the greatest number of and greatest density of attractions that stands across the Esplanade from it. DCA didn't bring in what was projected and what they need it to be capable of, so they have to fix it BUT, what I'd like to know is a comparison of Disneyland RESORT attendance statistics for the last 4-5 years before DCA opened and compare that with the most recent 4-5 year period, from that you could probably see what DL's rate of growth was before DCA, and how much they have been able to grow the audience WITH DCA, BUT, even if  DCA has not significantly increase the growth in turnstile clicks, you do have to keep in mind that at some point Disneyland would hit a ceiling where that one park just could not have continued to grow their audience each year, you can only squeeze so many people per day into a  60-70 acre theme park, at some point the HAD TO open a second gate to sustain growth AT ALL.

As to weather WDW is or is not more crowded, I've heard enough reports to believe that it is, BUT as Pete said on the DIS podcast with the buy 4 get 3 free special folks are paying a LOT less for those rooms, and as you guys pointed out people will be more conservative with other purchases like souvenirs and food, souvenirs can take an incredibly steep drop and many folks may downgrade from Table service to Counter service, or even bringing some sandwiches/snacks along to replace at least one meal.

Lisa, I  hope you don't  find the restrictions on your gift card to be all that oneous once you actually get there, you just need to get on vacation so you can relax! and if I'm wrong my apologies, but you just sounded like you really needed a little stress relief.

After above saying I do believe some of the anecdotal evidence about WDW crowding this spring I'm now going to turn around 180 degrees  and totally agree with Jenn about the fact that the buses seem to take longer mostly just being random chance is 100% right on the money, with the exception of the times there actually have been reasons for which they expected disruptions, like during the roll out of the new bus deployment system last year.

As to the pin codes and Lisa's frustration with them (I believe I heard her say "I Hate Everything"), there are some separate Room codes that are not PINs as I belive PIN is being used to stand for Personal  Identification Number, and the room rate codes she may have heard folks get excited about are probably NOT PINS, but the booking codes for various discounts like those available to AAA members Annual Pass Holders, or in some cases even the general public.

As for Jens specific PIN offer, you mentioned that you got it ON A POSTCARD!!! I'm the WDW postcard collecting guy! I'd love a scan of the card you got! If you can send me scans or photos of both sides to use for the web, I can make any personally identifying information unreadable if you are not sure of how to do that, or I can give you ideas on how to do that if it is something you would be willing to tackle (just putting text over the portion of the photo where your name and address were often works, doing a "cut" of a small box on those lines of ID information works too. Also for ANYONE reading this who has old ROOM RATE special/Pin code or  GUEST FEEDBACK/SURVEY postcards, please share scans or photos, these are the HARDEST types of postcards to collect so even any scans of photos are always appreciated!

As to the Sanrio land memories, it's always fun to hear Jen's interactions with the whatchamacalit, and the pug  putting in his 2 cents worth didn't hurt things either.

Not too long ago I featured some audio of Nova Era a group that used to perform in the World showcases Epcot pavilion at Epcot, on one of the podcasts I do.
eartotheworld.net/archives/253

listen here:
eartotheworld.net/podpress_trac/web/253/0/ettw-27.mp3



, but that wasn't the only group that ever performed classical music in the Italy pavilion, though some of the others that performed there used "traditional" instruments rather that the updated electronic counterparts that Nova Era uses, here is a photo of a group we saw perform there back on my first trip to WDW in 1996, though I swear I think the guy on the cello here MIGHT be the same guy that plays in Nova Era!

www.bigbrian-nc.com/tr1c.htm

www.bigbrian-nc.com/wdw96/23ws.jpg

Looking at the history of Epcot live entertainment it looks like this group is Rondo Veneziano - which was an "Epcot Version" of a long time popular classical group of the same name.

quote from:www.last.fm/music/Rondo+Veneziano/+wiki Underlining added by ME
For a while, Rondo Veneziano had a group that performed at Walt Disney World in EPCOT Center at the Italy pavilion. The photo at left shows the group at Disney in front of the stage where they performed. Sadly, they no longer perform there, however, for a few years afterwards, a new group, Nova Era performed on the same stage and utilized some of the members who played for the Disney edition of Rondo Veneziano.


later after they dropped their affiliation with that organization (and I'm speculating also dropped perhaps some type of annual licensing fee, they may have paid the original group? ), and Disney made the group their own by simply changing the name to Rondo Masquerade:

http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/Rondo.htm

pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/rondophotos.htm



UPDATE:

When I wrote that post this morning it occurred to me that it might not hurt to use the email for the "Nova Era Fan Club" I found on their site http://www.novaeramusic.com
they emailed me back today in fact according to the header the groups founder Andres Roca is the one who replied and he confirmed my suspicion about the Cellist Daniele from Venice.


Hello Brian,


Thank you for your email and for enjoying our music. Our current Cellist was a member of a previous group in 1996.


Regards
Nova Era



How cool is that!

In October of 2007 hundreds of long-time Disney parks fans gather at Walt Disney World for the Celebration of Epcot's 25th Anniversary, for many of the internet fan groups this gathering will be remembered forever as "Celebration 25" but for me the short 2-day trip I took for this celebration has another nickname, "The Trip Without A Camera" as once I checked into my room at All Star Movies I proceeded to unpack from my bag, my batteries, cords, memory cards, and slowly came to the realization that I had left my camera at home!.

Still if I had to leave the camera at home for one trip I certainly picked the right one! As for most of the events of that trip I was surrounded by other members of the WDW internet fan community, at an event like the Epcot re-dedication I was surrounded by MANY fans who had their own cameras trained on the same sights I was seeing. Anyhow there are a quite a few photos that actually go with this trip but for this post I just want to concentrate on those taken of one set of the Voices of Liberty that I recorded on September 30th, not only did the photographer get a nice set of photos of the folks as I recorded them but you can even see me in some of the photos, I'm seated on the floor a few rows ahead of the photographer, and you can even see my ear microphones in a few of the photos (I'm in a lime green shirt). The photographer, Amanda, goes by Aeillill on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74307853@N00/

Amanda has eclectic tastes and a look through her photo sets will show it, and she also clearly has a love of Disney as probably OVER half of her over 6000 photos are of her Disney trips.
and the photos below are part of her Disney 2007 set which itself has just a bit over 1000 photos in it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aeillill/sets/72157603356916474/


If you'd like to hear the set recorded on that day here's a link:
http://eartotheworld.net/podpress_trac/web/258/0/ettw-28.mp3


















Above: This is probably the best shot of the Ear mics

Below: This was the only shot of the group where she got the conductor (Dirk, far right, in the shot).

A lot of folks would never consider camping at WDW, othere would consider it but perhaps the thought makes them nervous, well the best way to arm yourself against nervousness is with information, and there are some great resourced devoted to WDW's campgound including the Venerable FORT WILDERNESS - FAQ http://home.hiwaay.net/~jlspence/faq_fw.htm maintained by Jeff Spencer, If you really want to learn about the campground THAT is the place to go. Recently I heard a discussion on the Disney Dudes podcast that touched on the campground that let to the writing of the post below.


Hey Dudes,
You were talking about Fort Wilderness (and the guy who took a window A/C for his tent) and I thought I'd throw in a bit of information here. One of the thing that rises the Fort Wilderness campground to a level of civilization above many camping experiences are the "comfort Stations" There is one for each campground loop and they are extremely clean and well kept.




The comfort stations also have some information all campground guests can use:









The Laundry rooms are also located there:





Here is the view to your left from the entrance into the mens room side:







now imagine you've walked over to the stalls and are looking back out:




looking back at the entrance door:




Now if you had looked straight ahead instead of to the left when you came in:




walk down that hallway an then looking to the left you will see another short hall with three shower stalls on the left, and a bench to your right:






a shower stall looks pretty much like a shower stall, thought I remember liking the shower heads and water pressure when I stayed at the Fort some years ago.



The comfort stations are renovated every few years and there is tile throughout, including the floors:


I hope if you are considering staying at the Fort Wilderness Campground this information make you more COMFORTable with that decision.

Back to the world of blogging after a long hiatus! in fact a lot of my typical internet/mousing it up activities slowed down quite a bit in January, now I'm getting caught back up and the urge to blog has returned, in part because I've been starting to podcast more, but not on the "Mousin it up!"/bbdp feed. I took Tom Corless up on his offer to let me host the "Your Ear to the World" podcast, and have actually put out an episode a week for going on four weeks, and part of the inspiration for this post came from the latest episode Your Ear To the World 26 - Captain Lisa and the Jazz Lady.







The desire to take a trip on the Sassagoula had been growing for some time as over the years I've covered many of the other "fleets" in WDW's navy on the WDW: A History in Postcards section of the site as well as in this blog.  Disney's watercraft is a subject that has brought be more feedback than almost any other facet of the resorts history that I have covered. During Mousefest, I was happy to have the opportunity to take a cruise on the Sassagoula after attending a party some friends had held in thier unit at Old Key West, and while heading to Downtown Disney to catch Nova Era a group that many moons ago used to play in the Italy pavilion of Epcots World Showcase.







I suspected that with it already being dark I might not learn all that much about the ships or get many good photos, but luck was on my side. As I walked up to the dock and took a few pictures of the ship that awaited, The Jazz Lady, my skipper for the trip approached and both offered to take my photo and struck up a conversation with me, what was even better was the fact that she seemed to have quite an appreciation for WDW herself, and tried to be as helpful as possible in trying to help me get all the names of the ships of the Sassagoula Steamboat company.









Now despite the fact that she had trouble remembering the names,by the end of the cruise she had come up with 14 of them, which is the same as the number of units in the fleet, she also passed on to me some other details below, now since she was a little unsure of some of the names this list is no "sure thing" but it's certainly more than I've seen anywhere else, the best I had seen before was a short list on the portorleans.org web site and I think it is possible that was a sort of attempt to capture what types of names the ships had, that might have been more to give the feel, than an actual recounting of exact proper names,  still I've given the list of which names are on his list that were not in Captain Lisas below.


These photos are the visual accompaniment to the podcast Your Ear To The World Episode 26.
http://eartotheworld.net/podpress_trac/web/249/0/ettw-26.mp3

Captain Lisa remembered 14 names,
Although I've assigned the list here a numerical order, I don't know what the actual order of launch was for all these vessels.

The oldest three ships on the Sassagoula river (in italics and underlined) are single hulled

1. Memphis Miss
2. Sassagoula Sunset
3. Louisiana Lady
4. Sassagoula Queen
5. Bayou Queen
6. Bayou Princess
7. The Azelea Bloom
8. Delta Lady
9. Jazz Lady
10. Florida Queen
11. Memphis Belle
12. Southern Breeze
13. Sassagoula Steamboat.
14. Florida Lady.

Names in bold are the ones I found on www.portorleans.org/ferryboats.htm that don't match one's mentioned by Captain Lisa

Crescent City Queen
Saratoga Queen
Magnolia Blossom
Blossom Queen

UPDATE: A reply by Andre of the Port Orleans web site (in the comments below), let me know that these are all actual names read from nameplates of the various barges. So the task now is to figure out which of the names on Captain Lisa's list were wrong the first obvious possibility is Sassagoula Steamboat, she may have been reading something of a piece of paper looking for names and I mistakenly assumed it WAS a name. Next candidate Bayou Queen , immediately after she said that name she said Bayou Princess, so perhaps she was correcting herself. Next up I'm wondering if either of the two ships with "Florida" in the name was a "correction" of one previously given incorrectly as well, same goes for the two "Memphis" ships.  I would imagine that the Saratoga Queen that Andre mentions is one of the newer ships in the fleet being that Saratoga Springs has not been open all that long.

The DVC lines tend to get the newer ships like the one I rode, the Jazz lady.

I've heard that with the addition of the Treehouse villas to Saratoga Springs there will be an additional dock added. There should be one more name on this list if they purchased the next vessel in the fleet that they were planning on, that gets mentioned in the audio.






I'd love to hear about any corrections to this list, and other bits of history for this fleet,

were all of these ships purchased just for this fleet, or were any of the earliest ships transferred here from elsewhere on property?

Are these fourteen the only ships that ever sailed this route, or are their some "retired" ships?

Have any of these ships be re-christened? if so what was their name previously?

How has the fleet size changed over the years, and at what poits did thay add "ports" for instance was Old Key west addded immmediatly when it was built, if so how many ships were added at that time? Did the old Disney village get service by these ships?

Recently while going through old WDW photos on Facebook  ( if you're on Facebook look for me Brian Martsolf ) I ran across a photo of a singer that rang a bell with me, this sent me on a hunt through my own photos first in the October 2002 trip (the honeymoon trip for my wife and I)
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/trindex.htm#moon

I found a photo on this page of this singer from American Vybe on the following page:
 http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/moon/b4.htm






and then these photos from a much earlier trip, September 1998,  http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/trindex.htm#09.98 ,

found on this page  http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/1998/sept/004.htm  .





I found a link to contact the woman singer (in the Red shirt with Vybe and in the Blue shirt  wth the group performing on New York Street in the Disney-MGM studios, and wrote her, the message you can see below:

Hi Michelle, I'm a long time fan of the Disney Theme parks, and as I've been fortunate enough to go repeated times over the years I enjoy catching the musical groups, I saw a photo of you with American Vybe, and so thought you might like seeing a few I have taken on my WDW trips that I think have you in them, some are on this page:
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/moon/b4.htm

also did you ever sing in a group at the Disney-MGM studios back on New York street? If so there are a few that look like it MIGHT be you in them on this page:
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/1998/sept/004.htm

I also have some audio of Vybe in an episode of my podcast that can be found on my site at:
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/sn2007-13.htm

if you listen to it bear in mind that the audio in it is from two different recording session, one I did in 2002 that corresponds to the pictures on the first page I sent you a link to, and another set recorded by my buddy Lou Oms of the WDW-memories podcast, and his was MUCH earlier.

In fact here's a "track list" that breaks it down:
* It Don't Mean A Thing if It Aint got That Swing (recorded by Brian oct. 2002)
* Seasons of Love (recorded by WDW Friend/Lou Dec. of 98 or 99)
* 60's medley (recorded by WDW Friend/Lou Dec. of 98 or 99)
* Rosie (recorded by Brian oct. 2002)
* Just A Giggalo (recorded by Brian oct. 2002)
* His Eye is on the Sparrow (recorded by Brian oct. 2002)
* Lean on Me (recorded by Brian oct. 2002)
* Ridin the Chariot (recorded by WDW Friend/Lou Dec. of 98 or 99)



Michelle replied:

I actually hadn't put it all together yet at that point (though all the parts were there, and I now remember enough other refereances that I had heard to the group over the years that I should have) so I  replied :


Very Cool I have heard of Toxic Audio from a couple of other WDW folks who are fans of your group, notably Earl of the "Trapped on Vacation" podcast, he is a big fan of your group. I saw that your profile listed your affiliation with Toxic Audio, but I did not realize that the group at the studios was basically an "on WDW property" version of that same group, thanks for the information that is neat to find out, and thanks for the link to the Toxic Audio site, I'm going to check it out now.


After checking out their site I investigated a bit more, I found a podcast by someone involved with the group that gave me a feeling for thier music, and this eventually culminated in the purchase of one of thier CDs from CDbaby.com
http://cdbaby.com/cd/toxicaudio4


Over the recent holidays I finally got the time to listen to it, and so when I noticed the notice in my email box asking how I liked it I wrote the following review:



This was my first purchase of one of Toxic
Audios albums, though I had heard of them a good while back thanks to Earl of the Trapped on Vacation podcast, since then I've learned of a podcast ran by their sound guy (if I understood it correctly), and got to sample a bit more of there work there, somewhere along the line I saw photos of one of these folks and it rang a bell, I went back through my old WDW trip photos and found photos of one of the members of the group singing with American Vybe, and a photo of an early incarnation of Toxic Audio singing on New York Street in the Disney-MGM studios, finally that got me to break down and spend a little  bit of my hard earned cash on one of thier CD's I always have lots of CD's and books related to Walt Disney World on my "wish list" and sometimes it takes a while (or events like these discoveries I mentioned above) for items to move up my list but I'm sure glad this one finally surfaced, and it likely won't be all that long before my next purchase of one of their CD's as even as vocal music (which I enjoy) goes these guys rank WAY up there!



Looking at  the  photos in the CD case (does the term liner notes apply to CDs?) I noticed that another of the faces in the group was also very familiar, from the same Honeymoon trip in 2002 as the photo of Michelle with American Vybe, the same afternoon in Epcot, and even from the same pavilion, and singing for a music group...but NOT American Vybe, yep a Voice of Liberty who is also a member of Toxic Audio



This fellow had already made quite an impression on me on that 2002 trip because we saw him perform with Four for a Dollar at the studios a on the same trip, and on whichever set was the later one we remembered him from the first, it's neat to see talented folks like this playing a variety of roles like this, but rarely do you get to see them in TWO different roles on the same trip ! Unfortuantly I didn't get a photo of him with Four for a Dollar because that was a "film camera" trip and we were running low at the end of the trip.


 here's his page from their site: http://www.toxicaudio.com/rene.htm



Having taken all these years to link these performers makes me wonder what else is out there in my photos.

I actually think someone may have mentioned the connection to the group at the studios to me at some point, but I don't see any referance to "toxic audio" in a search of my old emails, so perhaps it was right before one of those crashes most of us have from time to time where some data is lost.

As the guy who has the site that people tend to find when they search the terms "Walt Disney World Postcard" I sometimes get questions about postcards here are a few I have answered recently:

Brian Homenick asked about the postcards with the DASH in the number, in answering him I assumed from the context of the question that he was referring to the Standard size postcards with a dash in the number other than the ones from postcard booklets (as I really had already covered the ones from the booklets printing dates on the site in the chapter on those cards)

Let me ask you, When do you think or if you know when the ( I call them "dash" cards) cards with the - in the middle of the number came out? Because I realized they might have been mixed with the non banner regular cards. Because there are (from what I've seen) 3 different versions of Treasure Island, that park was only open between 1974-1976 but the brown back non banner cards were also out during that time with out a dash.

The earliest "Dash" cards are from 1975 and unlike other black inked dash cards printed later they have the "small castle" or "outline castle" icon at the bottom of the card, it looks like some of these cards appeared with this back until 1977, but I think it might be likely that the cards with this back that still seem to be sold later were little bits of this old stock that was printed in 1975.



A FEW of these dash cards have this script letters "POST CARD" printing on the right hand half of the back, I think the few cases where this appears were mistakes, and I think that part of the reason that this mistake was made was the fact that the same printer who printed the "dash" numbered cards (Dexter Press) also printed the postcard BOOKLET cards which ALL had this script on the back, and I'm guessing some of the press employees used to printing those may have included that lettering out of habit.

Many cards from that 1975 group received a new printing in the very next year, 1976.



Note that not only is the ink blue but the castle icon at the bottom of the card is the "large castle" or "solid castle" icon, it's probably better to go with the "large" and "small" designations since this icon is not entirely solid (it has openings for doorways and windows that are un-inked)
and that could lead to confusion.
Many of these blue backed cards appear all the way up to 1979, perhaps just excess stock left over from the 76 and 77 printings.



In 1978 and on into the 1980's a SOME cards were printed with backs that have Green Ink on the backs the Green ink is dark in many cases it could almost pass for black, and I have one case where I think it is black but still include it with these green inked backs, I include it with them for the fact that it has many other things in common with these Green inked cards, you see these green inked cards have a copyright in the Lower right hand corner (indicated by red arrow in scan above) all other cards in the "dash" series have the copyright in the lower LEFT hand corner under the caption. Another differance between this and earlier cards is the inclusion of the Registered Trademark symbol "®" after the Walt Disney World logo (see image below, for a close up, even though it is from a later black inked card).


In 1979 some of the cards they went BACK to Black inked backs, BUT there is a difference between these and the earlier black inked backs they as these 78 versions had the"Large Castle" icon.



One ODD thing about these 1979 Black inked cards is that they did not yet have the registered Trademark symbol "®" after the Walt Disney World logo.
in 1980 that was rectified and for the remaining years of printing "standard size" (3½" x 5½" cards) they seem to all have that logo.





At 02:33 PM 12/16/2008, Albert Palazzola wrote:

Hello

I was looking at your site (WDW: A History in Postcards). Under Chapter 10 The Animation Gallery Page 2: More Scenes from the Screen, I saw the sketch of Goofy on skiies (the one of him fallen); it is the second to last drawing on the page. I have that exact postcard framed along with a Walt Disney 1968 6-cent stamp. What, in your opinion do you think this is worth? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Although this is a question about value (actually one of the most common types of questions I receive) my answer delved into a lot of other aspects and seems a natural to add here.


Hi Albert
        Valuing WDW postcards is always tough, if I find them anywhere other than Ebay they are almost always under  $5, even on Ebay where all bets are off I, might BID more than $20 for a card I want particularly badly, but I might get it for under $5 or I might get outbid, there are just not all that many serious WDW postcard collectors, or at least not as compared to Disneyland postcard collectors, and additionally, there are fewer WDW cards that had "short" print runs, for collectors like me who collect ALL variants of a card it  is a bit harder as there might be 2 or 3 backs for that card front you described. Sorry I can't give you a simple, firm answer. As for the 6¢ stamp is it on the card? or both mounted in the same frame but two separate items? It might not make much difference in the value.



As for the different backs I was talking about I'll use that Goofy card you have as an example the one I scanned was numbered as 00157-70114 the back has the animation galley logo over on the bottom left side, actually kind of an odd placement for a post card, but that is how all those early cards were first printed, in the early 1990's, when WDW went to having bar codes on all their postcards, many of the cards from this series were re-printed with the bar code in the stamp block, and a new logo, centered over the dividing line (a more typical logo placement). At first these cards bar coded cards had a logo that was a box with the words "Disney Galley images" in it, later, there was yet another printing with a logo that reads "The Art Of Disney" on it. For that Goofy card I don't have a bar coded version, though looking at the cards that do exist in both series I can make an estimate at what the bar code number would probably be if it does exist in a bar coded version. it would probably be 00159 20009 or 00159 20010 if it exists as a bar coded card at all.


 Below: although in the email I used the goofy card as an example I thought a better example of "backs vs fronts" would be a card I have in all three versions.






Do you have WDW postcard questions? If so,  you can always feel free to email me:  martsolf@mindspring.com

I've added quite a few items to the Mousefest planning spreadsheet since I first posted about it, some of them are "informational only" as in they are there to remind me that these are possible things I could do at these times but I may or may not participate, for instance show times for Nova Era at DTD, other things have time conflicts but I'll try to find a way to work around them for instance a friend of mine is in a group that will be playing bells in the lobby of the Grand Floridian at 6PM and 7PM on Wednesday, well we have a 6PM reservation at Citricos I may try to see if I can push that back a little. Also I know i want to take in some live entertainment groups so where some of the meets are duplicate activities, with folks that I will be spending time with at other meets, I may choose between them for instance I have two meets schedules with the "Those darn Cats" crew on here and both of them are dupicates of some activities I also have listed with RADP (Mansion and Splash Mountain) i'm leaning towards doing Mansion with the cats crew, and Spalsh with RADP that will free up time Thursday Morning for Entertainment recording (when the cats will be doing Splash), and Sunday Afternoon while the RADP are doing mansion.

Last week I made a post about the re-purposed Animal Kingdom ships that are now used on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay lake for fireworks cruises, 
http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/9169.html
I mentioned it was something I'm looking forward to seeing, possibly as soon as Mousefest, but since I don't know how likely there are to be some of these out in the day it's hard to say if I will really see any of them, that said I won't be heartbroken if I don't see them there are similarly a LOT of things I HOPE to experience or see that I don't necessarily know if they will happen, but just by having so many of them I'm sure I'll see some of them,

Missing these things won't necessarily be a BAD thing, but seeing them could be a huge BONUS to my trip, because I know they are out there and if I see, and or photograph, video, or record (audio), it will be one more great thing to share when I get back!


Also, some things are so obvious that I would look forward to them I won't bother to list them here like the Toontown Tuners and the Voices of Liberty, also most things that I have on my Mousefest schedule I posted a while back http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/7584.html are things I won't  list here unless additional explanation is needed as to WHY I'm looking forward to them.

• The World Showcase Players doing "A Christmas Carol" not only do I want to see this because I have not seen it before but at least one former Adventurers Club cast member is in the WS players.
• The Hat Lady, yes I enjoyed Leon Gregory as a piano player at the Rose and Crown Pub and was sorry to see him go, but I'd LOVE to see Carol there too, though if I happen to walk in on one of Pam Brody's two days a week  that would not be disappointing either.
• Nova Era, this band had appeared in the Italy Pavilion several years back, but this holiday season they are performing at DTD http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/pi.htm , I'd LOVE to see them BUT it probably won't happen unless we were to "add a  day".
• Gui-Tar-Dan at Camp Minnie mickey in Disney's Animal Kingdom, While I don't anticipate that this singers, guitar players act would be all that riveting because it's probably aimed squarely at keeping the kids entertained, it will be great to see Dean face to face as I really enjoyed his "Singing Cowboy" act at the Diamond Horseshoe, and I enjoy listening to the CD I bought of the Rusty Cutlass pirate band that  he performs with at some of the Hard ticketed parties in the Magic Kingdom http://rustycutlass.com/.
• Rusty Cutlass themselves I would love to see them perform but I decided to pass of the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this year.
• The Tropicals, this steel drum based band plays at Disneys Animal Kingdom, I haven't seen them yet but I enjoyed their CD.
• Beauty & the Beast stage show, not only have I not seen this show in several years, but the latest Gaston is a former Dapper Dan.
• The Village Beatniks, yet another AK band I have yet to experience
• The REAL Mor Thiam, as I noted in a blog post a while back the audio I used in my AK episodes of the drummer in Harambe in front of the Mombassa Marketplace, was the guy who fills in on Mor Thiam's days off, while the fellow I recorded was great I am rather embarrassed about miss-representing the material I used when I played it on my podcast, until I later learned the truth http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/4790.html
• The Boardwalk Entertainment, especially Musicale Mark (who also fills in on piano Man Jims days off at the MK) or the former juggler from the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage show
• Flights of Wonder, it's simply been several years since I saw this,and I don't necessarily see time in the schedule for it this trip.

There are many other little things I'd like to catch certain sets or songs by the Dapper Dans, Main Street Philharmonic, and the Spirit of America Fife and drum corps come to mind (The Disney Medley the dans do, Mary Poppins Medley the Philharmonic does,  and the sons and daughters of Liberty set the Fife and drum corps do )

I enjoy technology, but I'm not always that adept with it. As in I can usually figure things out but sometimes it takes me a very long time to get around to doing that figuring. One such case has been in figuring out how to subscribe to a live journal blog via and RSS or ATOM feed. I was late in subscribing to blog feeds anyhow, I only discovered a while back while I was trying out Firefox that when I clicked on one of these feed links in a blog I like (usually represented by a little ICON) a bookmarking page would pop up, not only that but it would give me the option to subscribe to a blog in a way that would put that blog in a bookmark toolbar right up there on the top of my screen, then when I hover over that bookmark it will show me a list of posts in that blog with a different symbol fro READ posts than unread one, I REALLY like this part as it makes it VERY  easy to see at a glace which blog posts I have not yet read!

Though I have yet to figure out how to do this in MSIE, that will be a project for another day.

anyhow I recently figured out that I can do this On live Journal too, here are links you can click on to subscribe to this blog:

• Atom: http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/data/atom
• RSS: http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/data/rss

I'll see if I can find a way to add these as a permanent link off to one side or the other of this page if not I'll probably just add at the end of each article swords to the effect of , as always you can subscribe to this blog via the following links:

• Atom: http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/data/atom
• RSS: http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/data/rss

(and that's the end of this post!)

 

While the attraction known as it’s a small world has been tagged with the description “the Happiest cruise that ever sailed”, perhaps the ships of WDW’s Epcot resort area and the World Showcase lagoon could bear the tag line “the Friendliest cruise that ever sailed”...

Original paint scheme Friendship III

...after all the name of the boats in this fleet are the Friendships, all bearing names with a Roman Numeral following them from Friendship I to Friendship VIII. Despite having almost identical names design and function they have a few Individual characteristics to tell them apart, first off the easiest way to tell them apart is the obvious one, if you are looking at the stern of the ships there is a huge nameplate with the name of the individual ship, also there is a much smaller inscription of the ships name on the "front hood" just below the base of the Windshield, but if you really want to be the ultimate Disney geek you can tell them apart even from a distance and from the side ...how you may ask? well they each have their own Paint Scheme, all following the same pattern, but with a different set of colors for each ship the main body of all of the Friendships is white, they then have an accent color for the roof stripes, and a second accent color for the trim around the windows (this color also continues as stripes across the "front hood" of the ship), these two colors are then repeated as a pair of stripes around the boat, the upper wider stripe matches the roof color and the lower "pinstripe" matches the window trim. . Over the past few years I’ve taken a lot of photos of these ships and I’ve used these photos to make a list of these ships that identifies them each by their color scheme, it first appeared in my Mousefest 2006 trip report, a copy of that chart is further down the page. One thing that original chart does not take into account though is that the Friendships were only painted into these newer paint schemes in the mid 1990’s; before that instead of having the striped roofs that the friendships have today they had solid colored roofs, recently I got in contact with Greg Chin a former watercraft cast member who has a great web site about WDWs watercraft.

http://www.wcdept478.com/WCHomePage1a.html

He was a cast member at the time most of the Friendships were being built and he shared with me some of his memories about them in some emails we exchanged, he also has a couple of pages about them on his site:

http://www.wcdept478.com/AboutWatertaxis.htm

and, you can see some construction photos of them on this part of his site:

http://www.wcdept478.com/Index10.htm

Excerpts from an expert

Below are some excerpts from some emails I exchanged with Greg that shed a lot of light onto many of these subjects for me.

Greg Chin in 1982

Here's a photo of me , and Chris Mohler, (Note from Brian, Gregs photo is above, Chris is not pictured here) taken on Friendship III (the Red one), when it was brand new, in late 1982.

We had just docked, and shut down 2 motor launches.

I saw that Friendship III was there. The new interior and helm console looked wonderful. And I noticed: there was no front AC column duct-work to block the forward view of the bow windows. They got it right, this time.

The watertaxi had recently been lowered into the water, during the noon hours. Since Chris and I were part of the 14 test-pilot crew, I wanted to get some photos of this one, before it was moved over to EPCOT.

I took photos with my 35mm Nikon FM camera, on the watertaxi, as it was docked, in Drydock. Chris and I snapped the photos, of each other, next to the helm console.

This watertaxi was never used in Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon, for hauling passengers. After the trial runs were done quickly, it was taken out of the water again, placed on a large flatbed trailer, and taken over to the Epcot Drydock area, at night.

It was the only time I could have taken these historic photos of us, on the brand-new watertaxi. Friendship III was needed right away, over at the WSC Lagoon.

I should say that it was wonderful to see the first 2 watertaxis being built, in the Facilities - Main Bay area of the WDW Central Shops, during 1980 to 1981. Knowing that we, 14 test pilots would soon be getting the 2 boats, to do the trial runs, on Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon. That gave us a year to test everything and see how they performed.

I would go over to visit the Main Bay, in the Central Shops, and see how the construction was coming along. They built two watertaxis, at a time, with them arranged stern-to-stern.

The Main Bay has a large gantry crane overhead (on guide rails), since the crane was used to pick up the watertaxis, and put them on a flatbed trailer, and then moved over to Drydock, where the boats were painted. Then, their interiors were finished-out with their engines, generators, seating, and equipment.

The Drydock Mechanics are the qualified experts to install all the marine-gear equipment, so they get to do it. They also got to spray paint the watertaxis, using the very best catalyzed - poly-urethane acrylic enamel paint. It's tough spray paint!

I'll tell you, the watertaxis look totally different, once they are spray-painted in their white coat, and color schemes. Being made of 98% aluminum plating, they didn't require any primer coat, at all. The bottom hull is spray painted black. The boats rest on specially-made yellow jackstands, while they are out of the water, in the Drydock Bldg. area.

Original paint scheme Friendship I

The watertaxi seats and interior beige paneling is made of vacuum-formed Kydex plastic sheeting. It's a tough industrial-strength, vacuum-formed, and thermal-setting plastic.
Once it's heated, and vacuum-formed, it sets, and cannot be re-heated or re-shaped again.
It's the same Kydex plastic that's used in the Mexico and Land pavilion boat rides.
I saw the vacuum-forming being done, during the Watertaxi construction. Also, for the interiors of Monorails Lime and Coral, in 1981.
All the beige interior pieces were then trimmed, and stacked on wooden pallets.
The blue seats were being molded and assembled for the watertaxis.
Green seats are used for the boat attraction seats. It has a nice textured finish on it.

Original paint scheme Friendship II

Connecting the EPCOT Resorts to the WSC Lagoon:

For about 2 years, the half-completed hull of the 5th Watertaxi, sat back in WDW's Drydock area, wrapped-up with thick clear plastic coverings, to keep out the rain water. That was during the 1987 slow-down, and the need for them. For a while, the Omnibuses around the Lagoon, and the 4 watertaxis filled the immediate needs for guest transportation. Michael Eisner and Tishman Construction were deciding about the Swan and Dolphin Hotel Resort's ultimate design and location.
Once the decision to connect the EPCOT Resorts' "Half Moon Lagoon", to the WSC Lagoon was made (big changes on the WDW map), they went ahead and completed the 5th and 6th watertaxis. And planned on th 7th and 8th watertaxis, as well. Thanks to the EPCOT theme park, and the EPCOT Resorts, Walt Disney World's watercraft fleet doubled in size,

Original Friendship Colors

Friendship name	Solid Roof Color and around windows	Accent stripe below windows, around bow
FRIENDSHIP I	BLUE	RED
FRIENDSHIP II	RUSTY ORANGE	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP III	RED	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP IV	YELLOW	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP V	LIME GREEN	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP VI	LAVENDER (less certain)	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP VII
FRIENDSHIP VIII

As you can see from the chart above there are two color schemes not accounted for (and one with a discrepancy but more about that in a minute), In the photo below you can see the ship has a solid roof color but, UNLIKE the earlier Freindships that color DOES NOT continue down around the windows, in fact if the roof was striped Teal instead of solid it could pass for Friendship VI.

 

Greg also pointed out several small details that help distinguish the Friendships from each other than the paint schemes, in the photos in the first half of this article, look at the frames around the windows of Friendship I and II, you’ll see they are a silvery aluminum color, but on all of the later Friendships they have “black anodized aluminum window frames” though nowadays even I and II have changed over to that style also.

Later Changes
Another difference with I and II is that originally the ductwork for the A/C on
these two ships was more obtrusive, but in the later ships the ductwork was ran under the deck, I’m
not sure but I think I recall hearing that had changed on I and II, though if it has I don’t know
weather to think it happened in the mid 1990’s refurbishments that included the re-painting or when
the new A/C systems were installed on the roofs of the Friendships around 2004, that change led to
another thought not right away, in photos I took of the Friendships in late 2004, and late 2005 the
new A/C units were easily visible on the roofs of the ships (well in the 2004 photos it was on just
some of the ships), but by the time I returned in 2006 a new flange had been added around the perimeter
of the roof that is more aesthetically pleasing to view than the asymmetrically laid out A/C units.

Friendship I - 2000
It looks as if that duct work may still be blocking the view for guests in this year 2000 view, but look at he clean lines on the roof of the ship before scrolling down to the later photos.

Friendship IV - 2004

Friendship I – 2006
With the new flange around the roof perimeter, note also the curved windows on the front corners

MID 1990’S REPAINTING

Friendship name	Roof Stripe Color	Window Accent Color
FRIENDSHIP I	LT BLUE	PINK
FRIENDSHIP II	PINK	TEAL
FRIENDSHIP III	RED	BLUE
FRIENDSHIP IV	ORANGE	YELLOW
FRIENDSHIP V	TEAL	PINK OR CORAL
FRIENDSHIP VI	TEAL	ORANGE
FRIENDSHIP VII	RED	TEAL
FRIENDSHIP VIII	YELLOW	BLUE

One final difference that Greg clued me into after he looked at some of my photos...

Also, on Watertaxis I thru V have a one-piece curved-plexiglass window, right next to the helm console.

Apparently Watertaxis VI, Vii, and VIII have an extra vertical window mullion in the same place, to eliminate the need to get specially molded/curved plexiglass window panes for that corner window.

Below is a photo of Friendship VII that shows the later type of window, compare this to the windows on Friendship I in the image above the chart, that one illustrates the earlier type pretty well.

     Before closing this out I want to thank Greg for his generous amounts of time he took in writing replys to me as well as the hours he has already poured into his wonderful site, Thanks Greg!

and for anyone out there who can fill in a few more of the blanks as to the original color schemes for Friendships VI VII and VIII, or other details we have not touched on here,  please feel free to email me martsolf@mindspring.com
 

 

When speaking of things to look forward to at Mousefest first, a few obvious things come to mind, enjoying the attractions of Walt Disney world is something almost all of us look forward to on any trip, but at Mousefest you get to take that to another level, enjoying these attractions with lots of other fans who “get it” when it comes to Walt Disney World. Perhaps the most obvious when it comes to mousefest is meeting those folks we’ve met online and in the parks over the years, this is certainly a highlight of any Mousefest trip for me! But, I have a few odd things on my list that, in some cases will overlap with those of others, but in other cases may be less common. For instance since there are so many of us in the Disney Fan community who enjoy sharing our trip photos on our web sites and blogs a lot of us will enjoy taking pictures we can use for just that purpose, and I have many favorite photo subjects, I also learn about new things at the resort form time to time and want to go take pictures of those things when I arrive. I have a lot of pictures of things like the monorails and the ships at WDW, and while I’m always looking for a new good angle on these those can be hard to find, so when something changes a bit it really catches my attention, this year a few of the old Animal Kingdom Discovery Island River Cruise vessels have be moved to the Seven Seas Lagoon / Bay Lake  complex and are now being used for fireworks cruises, so I’m not sue how often they are seen out in the daylight but at least a couple of Disney fans caught views of them this year, in fact I first became aware of this change because of a photo by Jason, the Disneygeek of http://www.disneygeek.com, and with his gracious permission I’m re using his photo here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 additionally one of my online friends Denise often takes WDW photos and shares them on her site too http://www.mousesteps.com/ , and I got permission to share her image too:

 

 

 

 

Now you may notice from their photos that the ships have been re-christened, at Disney’s animal Kingdom the ships were named the Darting Dragonfly, Otter Nonsense, Leaping Lizard, Crocodile Belle, Hasty Hippo, now the Darting Dragonfly was the one being used as a character barge so I would bet that it might still remain at DAK, and I’m not sure as to how many of the other ships have been moved and renamed, but I really like the “retro” names they have given these two vessels, you see MAGIC KINGDOM I, was the original name of the ferryboat now named the Admiral Joe Fowler, while MAGIC KINGDOM II, was the original name of the ferryboat Richard F Irvine, now of course when the Magic Kingdom opened the Admiral Joe Fowler was the name of the dual stacked Steam Engine in Frontierland that resembled the Mark Twain steamship at Disneyland, but after that ship was damaged and retired in the early 80s’s and its companion on the Rivers of America the Single Stack Richard F. Irvine, was rechristened the Liberty Belle in the mid 1990s it was decided to re-name the ferries in honor of these folks who had so much to do with the design and building of the Disney parks (more on each of these men, and General Joe Potter,  in some earlier posts on this blog)

• Admiral Joe Fowler      http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/1706.html

• Richard F. Irvine           http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/1892.html

• General Joe Potter      http://bigbrian-nc.livejournal.com/1448.html

. So naming these new fireworks viewing barges with these old names is a neat way to pay homage to the history of WDW itself. Only having those two photos does make me wonder, exactly how many of these barges got moved, and it there are additional ones what their names are, if there is only one more well than the next logical name would be the KINGDOM QUEEN since that was the original name of the General Joe Potter.

 

            Speaking of those ferryboats I think that I had heard they were not there on opening day before, but not any details. Recently I went over to check out a site I had known about for a while but had not checked back in on recently the WDW Watercraft pages at http://www.wcdept478.com/WCHomePage1a.html

After my visit I wrote the webmaster Greg Chin, a former Watercraft cast member of the from at least the early 1980’s (if not earlier), and even into the 90’s, he gave me a lot of information about the Friendships which I’ll put in a later post, but in regards to the ferries he let me know that they didn’t go into service until 1973 (and I believe that would have been just the first two as the KINGDOM QUEEN came later), in those first two years folks had to either take the monorail, or one of the lower capacity, and slower loading (as compared to the ferries) Side-Wheel ships, the Southern Seas and Ports O’ Call, accordingly those side-wheelers didn’t start their “WORLD CRUISE” service until 1973 when those ferries came on line . In addition to that back in those days there was another way for guests to get from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom in Gregs words:

“For years, the Watercraft Dept. and Parking Lot Dept. also manned the extra Trams from TTC side area, to the entrance of the MagicKingdom. Only if the crowd capacity warranted it, the extra Trams were put online. But we keep them warmed up, and idling during the busiest parts of the morning and night, in case they were needed.

 

Florida has a lot of dew, in the morning hours. It takes a while to go, and suddenly dry off any wet tram bench seating. We use a wide 12" or 16" squeegee and plenty of towels. Same thing on all of the Watercraft boats and Parking Lot trams, in the morning. Once the new MK Bus Depot, and expanded TTC Bus Depot were built in 1986, that problem finally went away.