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Walt Disney World’s Liberty Tree

May 7th, 2011
by Steve.
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Walt Disney was a very patriotic man, proud of and confident in the American spirit. He looked forward to what we could achieve and back at what we had achieved. Disney’s theme parks are filled with homages to that spirit. From the lands within the parks: Main Street USA, Liberty Square, and Frontierland; to the attractions and restaurants they contain: The American Adventure, The Hall of Presidents, the Columbia Harbor House, and the Liberty Tree Tavern.

This is the first post in a new category, Patriotic Disney. I and guest posters will cover all things patriotic about Disney, from Walt himself, to his works, and of course the theme parks. I hope that you enjoy these posts.

Today I’ll be taking about Walt Disney World’s Liberty Tree. You may be familiar with the Liberty Tree Tavern located in the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square, but it’s possible you might have walked right past the Liberty Tree. Many do, in the rush to take in all that WDW has to offer.

The Liberty Tree in Liberty Square - Walt Disney World

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Tinker Bell Arrives at the Magic Kingdom

Sep 27th, 2009
by Steve.
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Disney’s Favorite Pixie, Tinker Bell, Introduces Magic Kingdom Guests to Her New Fairy Friends
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (Disney) — To celebrate the animated film “Tinker Bell,” Disney’s most famous fairy and four of her best friends are featured in a meet-and-greet experience in Mickey’s Toontown Fair at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

To meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, guests enter a magical forest called “Pixie Hollow,” a special place deep in the heart of Never Land.

Tinker Bell, made famous in the 1953 Disney animated classic “Peter Pan,” for her “hostess” role in Disney television specials and for “flying” above the Disney theme parks, is joined inside Pixie Hollow by four fairy friends: Fawn, an animal fairy; Iridessa, a light fairy; Rosetta, a garden fairy; and Silvermist, a water fairy.

In addition to meeting the Fairies at Magic Kingdom, guests can learn more about the Disney Fairies at www.disneyfairies.com.

And if Tinker Bell doesn’t “ring a bell” or jog a memory, here are some “fun fairy facts” about the sprightly pixie:

# Tinker Bell debuted at Walt Disney World Resort in 1971, as the classic attraction Peter Pan’s Flight opened in Fantasyland. The beloved attraction immerses guests in the “Peter Pan” story as passengers board flying pirate ships bound for Never Land.
# Tinker Bell began “flying” from high atop Cinderella Castle in 1985. Since then, she has taken her flight thousands of times to light the sky with magical fireworks.
# Tinker Bell made her Walt Disney World parade debut in 2007. She made that premiere appearance atop a float in “Disney’s Enchanted Adventures Parade,” an entertainment extravaganza during Disney’s Pirate and Princess Party.
# Tinker Bell merchandise continually ranks among the top sellers of character-based merchandise at Walt Disney World Resort.

The 1970′s heyday of Apollo 11 and Tomorrowland

Aug 1st, 2009
by Steve.
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With all of of the coverage the past two weeks of the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission it got me reminiscing about the early 70′s. I was in grade school and the Apollo Program was in full swing at that time. I was so into everything having to do with the space program. I’d memorized everything I could about the space program and the solar system in general.

During that time my family started taking annual vacations to Florida for spring break. We’d spend the time visiting relatives in the Cocoa area and going to the beach, but the highlights of the trip for me would be our visits to Kennedy Space Center and Walt Disney World! I loved going to KSC and seeing all the spacecraft and facilities, they even had a moon rock! During our day at Disney World my favorite land was of course Tomorrowland, the theming and rides just tied right in with my passion for space.

I loved Mission to the Moon (Later Mission to Mars, then the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, and finaly Stitches Great Escape), the Carousel of Progress, the WEDway People Mover and of course Space Mountain. I’d just soak it all up imagining that it was all real. We always ate lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant. it was ironic that when I went to work at WDW later in life that I worked at the Tomorrowland Terrace (Now Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe).

Here’s a YouTube video of the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant

It’s been fun thinking of those times, so much has changed, Apollo’s long gone and the shuttle program is about to end, Tomorrowland had it’s makeover in the 90′s when the name of the TLT changed. And now there’s the awesome Mission Space at EPCOT. But after all these years and all the changes, I still love going to Disney, and my favorite land at Walt Disney World is still Tomorrowland!

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The best time to visit Walt Disney World

Nov 1st, 2008
by Steve.
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The best time to visit Walt Disney World will soon be here! The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the best times to go to WDW! The weather is great, gone are the humid 90 plus days of summer with their daily rain showers, it’s been in the 70′s this week. Gone also are the crowds, once the Thanksgiving weekend is over the crowds disappear.

It’s such an enjoyable time to be in the parks. They aren’t open as long but with less people in them you can get so much more done. Disney will be have up the Christmas decorations, it will really get you in the mood! They have an after hours “party” in the Magic Kingdom, for an additional charge, called Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

This years dates are

November 10, 11, 14, 16, 20, 21, 30
December 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19

Tickets are on sale now

Premium date prices:
November 14, 21
December 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19
$59.59/adult
$53.20/child

Advance purchase prices for the following dates:
November 10, 11, 16, 20, 30
December 2, 7, 9, 16
$52.13/adult
$45.74/child

Annual Pass holder/Disney Vacation Club Discount Available for
November 11, 20
December 7, 9, 16
$48.94/adult
$42.55/child

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Free admission to Disney World or Disneyland on your birthday!

Oct 11th, 2008
by Steve.
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Everyone who visits a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park on their birthday in 2009 can get in free, as Disney Parks embraces a newly identified family travel trend called “celebration vacations.”
In this new national trend, American families are hitting the road to mark life’s special occasions – birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, reunions and more – with a “celebration vacation.” In 2009, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts will lead this growing trend with new entertainment and services that allow guests to turn their personal milestones into magical Disney experiences.
And to kick it all off – a first-ever opportunity for guests to receive a free ticket to one of the Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme parks on their birthday in 2009.
“Birthdays are the one occasion that we all share every year,” said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “We thought a free birthday ticket would be the icing on the cake as we extend this new ‘celebration vacation’ trend to Disney Parks.”
Disney parks provide the perfect setting for this new style of vacation that celebrates the special occasions in life, Rasulo added.
Whether a guest is celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, Quinceañera or any special occasion, Disney parks already are filled with favorite characters, world-class attractions and entertainment, and legendary guest service – exactly the “something for everyone” that trend-watchers say families look for in a “celebration vacation.”

“The special moments in your life become truly magical when you celebrate at a Disney park,” Rasulo said. “Sharing a milestone at Disney connects families, friends and generations.”

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Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Tunnel

Sep 26th, 2008
by Steve.
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You may or may not know that there is a tunnel that runs under Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park. The story goes that Walt Disney was dissatisfied with the setup of Disneyland in California where cast members from one themed area in costume had to walk through another themed area to get to work and looked out of place. He wanted to fix this when he built his Florida theme park. He envisioned a tunnel running under the park so a castmember in a Tomorrowland costume didn’t have to walk through Fantasyland. Also deliveries could be made through the tunnel keeping the inner workings behind the magic hidden from the guests.

Other articles I’ve found on the internet love to refer to the tunnel as the Utilidor which while it sounds cool, no one who works there calls it by that name. Perhaps Utilidor might have been the name for it on some original design drawings but I’d never heard that term till the advent of Disney sites on the internet. During the three years I worked there one of my office doors opened into it. Everyone who works at the Magic Kingdom simply calls it the tunnel.

The tunnel wasn’t built as a tunnel in the traditional sense. Because the elevation in Florida is so low and the ocean so near the water table is very near the surface. Digging as deep as was needed for the tunnel would have yielded trenches filled with water, which would continuously have to be dealt with for the life of the park. Instead the tunnel and lots of rooms off it were built at the original ground level, covered over and the Magic Kingdom was built on top of that. The tunnel isn’t level in several areas it dips under structures and waterways above.

The tunnel is a huge structure, at least 20 to 30 foot high in different areas, wide enough for a large truck to drive through with room to spare. It’s always a hub of activity; castmembers walking to and from work or breaks, electric forklifts towing trains of carts with supplies destined for the various restaurants or retail locations, electric carts moving supplies or people to and fro, or maintenance workers on bicycles riding to a job. There are many castmembers who never set foot in the park, they spend their entire day in the areas off the tunnel (kitchens, offices, stockrooms, computer areas, cast support functions).

Doors off the tunnel lead to elevators or stairs to the park above, castmember break rooms, kitchens, storerooms, offices, and ride machinery. Overhead you’ll see a huge amount of conduits and plumbing, everything needed to run the park. There is electrical wiring; hot, cold, and chilled water (for air-conditioning and refrigeration) piped in from a long distance behind the park; communications and ride control wiring; and the Avac system.

What’s the Avac system? While walking through Disney’s parks you’ll notice custodial castmembers with dust pans on long handles and little brooms sweeping up the small trash that inevitably makes it’s way to the ground. The contents of these pans and other light trash from the trash cans in the park are taken to numerous backstage points around the park and dumped into what looks like a large trash can attached to the floor with a lid that seals. The trash falls down through a tube to the tunnel overhead area where it is stored temporarily. Periodically the Avac system “fires”, and the trash whooshes through large tubes through the whole tunnel complex out of and quite a ways away from the rear of the park. There it’s processed in Disney’s trash facility. The Avac system operates much like a toilet but with air instead of water and on a huge scale.

Disney doesn’t allow photography in the tunnel so there aren’t lot of pics out there, but if you Google image search Disney utilidor you can find some pics, also there is a cast member map you can find on the net.

Fortunately there is one way you can experience the tunnel yourself in person, you’ll need to reserve ahead of time the Keys to the Kingdom Tour a five hour walking tour which spends some time in walking through the tunnel. There is an additional fee of $60.00 for this tour on top of your regular Magic Kingdom admission, lunch is included. Tours begin at 0830, 0900, and 0930 in front of City Hall.

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