Under The Mouse Ears

by Sam 11.5.21 Although there aren't many left, 1971's opening of Walt Disney World offered guests to enjoy some attractions that were replicas of (or at least similar to) their counterpart in Disneyland. WDW's Magic Kingdom's original Fantasyland has some familiar faces - like Snow White, Peter Pan, Dumbo, etc.. but a few of those original rides are sadly no longer with us. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - a strange attraction based on the moderately successful animated feature, 1949's Wind In The Willows, was just that. I personally remember going on this ride in both 1984 and 1988 and being like "what is this? This is dumb. Who are these characters...?" Well it took a little longer than that, but Michael Eisner obviously agreed, and in 1998, closed the ride for good. Luckily, the internet offers no shortage of websites dedicated to Mr. Toad. And luckily you can still ride it in Disneyland all day long if you want. I've done this too in recent memory and

 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

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 10/29/21 Way back when Walt bought all that Florida property, most people (including probably most of Disney's 'money people') thought it was for some amazing theme park. In reality, it was for a pretty way out there idea. Walt Disney's 'Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow' was some fairly Orwellian stuff of the future. But when everybody started to balk at it, the eastern version of Disneyland became a stark reality. In order to build Walt's EPCOT, it would take building a Magic Kingdom first. With an Epcot coming though, it's obviously important to put as many strange and bizarre means of transportation throughout. Monorails are one thing... but you need more than just that. And it's not like there was no solid precedent for Walt's wacky ways to get around. While the Disneyland monorail opened in 1959, it was beat by another, older model to get from one place to another.. The Disneyland Skyway opened on June 23, 1956. Purchased