Under The Mouse Ears

by Sam 11.11.21 So you're walking around World Showcase with the whole family. You've got plans set on getting a margarita from Mexico, maybe seeing how long the line is for the Gran Fiesta ride. Perhaps you'll grab a yard at the Rose and Crown or watch that cool drum show in Japan. But hey wait a minute - what's this weird, gated off blue pavilion between England and Canada? It's hard to imagine now, but rounding the millennium mark was a very odd time in this country. With Y2K fast approaching, people literally didn't know what to do. The world pre-9/11 obviously had a certain kind of innocence to it that looking back, kind of clashes with the Disney we know today - especially post pandemic. Still, the mouse wasn't going to miss an opportunity to theme things out and make a little money off it. Enter the Epcot World Showcase Millennium Village. Check this out from our friends from The Kingdom Insider: https://thekingdominsider.com/35-epcot-35-countdown-da

 by Lou Mongello 2.11.05 from WDWRadio.com: https://www.wdwradio.com/2005/02/wdw-history-101-how-to-buy-27000-acres-of-land-and-no-one-noticeq/ From the Oct. 18, 1971, issue of TIME Magazine Actually, most people don’t realize how much land Walt Disney World actually encompasses. In fact, it’s about about 80 times the size of the entire nation of Monaco, twice the size of Manhattan, and the same size as San Francisco, California! So when you say Walt Disney World is huge, you ain’t kidding! The  Walt Disney World Resort  is made up of 47 square miles of land…. or about 30,000 acres. Only about 1100 acres of that land is devoted to the 4 theme parks. In fact, with only 7,100 acres developed, there’s quite a lot of room for expansion! But how (and why) did Disney buy up all that land? Back in the early 1950s, Anaheim, the home of  Disneyland , was a quiet little town, surrounded by nothing more than acres and acres of orange groves. Originally, Walt Disney wanted his new, 8-acre theme pa

by Sam. 10.30.21 As a kid, I remember walking around the OLD Epcot (i.e. Horizons, obviously World of Motion, etc) and marveling at the things us youths at the time referred to as "those Learning rides". Everything was slow and boring... a welcome AC break for parents from all those thrill rides at the Magic Kingdom. Where else could you learn about dinosaurs in the ploddy World of Energy; or ride up into the Epcot ball in Spaceship Earth.. all at the speed of a turtle? There was virtually no end other than Figment. I mean, he was of course my homey. Figment is my boy. But all that changed when the Wonders of Life pavilion opened in 1989, introducing Epcot's first thrill ride: Body Wars! So yeah. This is gonna be a Body Wars blog, right? Meh. Maybe later. How about we talk instead about the quieter, less interesting attraction in the Wonders of Life... Cranium Command! You know, that ride that you went on when the Body Wars line was too long.  The Wonders of Life in happi

Theme Park History: Walt Disney and the beginning of his 'World' Derek Potter, Dec 2013 From Theme Park Insider: https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201312/3819/ When the Magic Kingdom opened its doors in 1971, it marked the beginning of an era for Disney, the theme park industry, and the state of Florida. The park would eventually eclipse its predecessor, both in size and popularity. The modest sized city of Orlando would quickly be transformed into an international city visited by more than 50 million people per year. Disney World's opening is a story over 10 years in the making. It involved a near five-year search for a site, secret land dealings, questionable business tactics, controversial political deals, a gargantuan engineering feat, and the death of Walt, the heart and soul it all. Disney World was not built as intended, meant to be not just another theme park, but also a city that would be a model for the future. While Walt's utopian would never come to pa

  By Sam. 10.26.21 You're going to notice a recurring theme of my blog posts are defunct rides or attractions that are no longer with us. While it's not an every day thing for me, it certainly isn't uncommon to cast Youtube to the TV and show the kids things that have been removed from the happiest place on earth. With Ellen's Energy Adventure now joining the ranks of Horizons, Communicore, and Kitchen Kabaret, there will never be an end to nostalgia in Walt Disney World as it's constantly evolving. And that brings us to one of Epcot's hottest opening day attractions waaaaaay back in 1982 - the General Motors' presented World of Motion. Thanks to Ford's participation in the 1964 New York World's Far - a pretty historic shaping event in the annals of Disney lore, GM wouldn't be denied when it came time to sponsor an attraction at Disney's newest theme park. They signed a 10 year sponsorship deal and thus began famed 9 angry men member Ward Kim

by Sam 10.22.21    As anyone who has eyes can tell, Epcot's Futureworld is undergoing a rather momentous retrofit. As the Fountain of Nations was drained and toppled, so have nearly all of the winding buildings that jutted out from Spaceship Earth and winded all throughout the front of the park been gutted and town down. As Epcot's Moana themed revolution continues, we're left to reminisce about what was. But alas, Disney lovers. Like that's really anything new.    In 1982, these winding buildings were quite alive, primarily educating the public about the technological advancements made in human communication. As Wikipedia so eloquently puts it:  CommuniCore was the hub of EPCOT Center, both geographically and conceptually, as it brought together nearly all of the ideas and concepts explored in Future World and complemented the experiences offered by other pavilions. For example, the Energy Exchange was located in a sector of CommuniCore adjacent to the  Universe of En