Monthly Archives: February 2012
Quick Message From the Author
Feb 29
Hello everyone, sorry for the delay in material on the site. I had been sick for the last two weeks and needed to really catch up on sleep and taking a little bit of stress out of my life. As much as I love writing here, I also need some “me” time so thats what I did. New stuff will be up this thursday with Part Two of the Epcot story and then Monday Memories will start e first Monday of March. Thanks for reading here at the site and for understanding. See you all soon.
Monday Memories (2/14/12)
Feb 17
Author: Josh Taylor
Hey guys, I’m back with another Memories post just from myself. I have others in the lineup for the weeks that follow but I just wanted to do this very special one. I know it’s not Monday, it’s actually Tuesday, Feb. 14th which is Valentine’s Day. It’s a special Holiday edition. I’ve never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, which I’m sure most men aren’t, however I am a fan of seeing true love in the Disney parks. I’m not talking about my obsessive love for the Carousel of Progress either. I’m talking about being with the one you love most and sharing a fun and exciting experience for the 1st time or for the 100th time. Disneyland or Walt Disney World are fun places to be and can be very romantic as well if you know what you are doing.
An example of such love is an experience I had this past summer at Epcot in Walt Disney World. My good friend Devin and myself were spending the day casually walking through the World Showcase, with drinks in hand, taking in all of the cultures, shopping for family and friends, and just having one of the best days at a theme park I’ve ever had. I had made dinner plans earlier in the week to eat at one of the pavillions I had yet to eat at, Japan. (My personal goal has been to eat at all of the different main restaurants in World Showcase.) I will be honest and say I’m not huge on the Japanese culture like some people, but I do LOVE Japanese food, and I love the teppanaki style of eating at a table with others you don’t know while a chef cooks in front of you. We were both in the mood to eat and boy, it was a great meal, but my story isn’t about the food, it’s about the company.
Like I implied with the style of the restaurant, we got to sit and eat with other people. There were only four of us at our table since we ate a bit earlier in the day, my friend and I of course, and then a couple celebrating their 4th anniversary together. We spent the entire meal talking about our trips and really got to know each other. They were a couple from Detroit, so like us being from Denver, it is a day of travel when visiting Florida. They had been to Walt Disney World as a couple several times. In fact, they had spent their honeymoon at Walt Disney World as well as every anniversary after that. They also told us that Teppan Edo was their favorite restaurant along the World Showcase and they spent their first night at Walt Disney World eating there. It had become their “Welcome Home” kind of tradition.
I was so happy for them, as they looked thrilled to be married and be together in a place they both shared and loved in their hearts. It made my dining experience at Teppan Edo even better. Never mind the great chef, the onion volcano, the delicious food, as it was all about my conversations with two people who enjoyed Walt Disney World in a unique way and would be coming back for years to come to commemorate their love. Ideas of my relationship grew and I can’t wait to spend time at Walt Disney World with my special someone in the future.
Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone
(If you’d like to submit a Disney memory, please send it to Please keep it to 1,000 words or less and if you would like to submit a photo, please attach to your email and I will insert it with your memory.)
The World That Never Was: Epcot-Part One
Feb 10
This particular article is one I’ve been wanting to write and one I’ve been fearing for a while now. Epcot is such a unique and wonderful idea that it just seemed like quite the task to take on. I mean, this was Walt Disney’s pet project towards the end of his life. It was the Utopian city that never came to be. Come on, Walt Disney had the plans hanging above his hospital bed before he died just so he could imagine the place. How could I not be a little terrified? It’s scary to think how big this project was, but how great it could have been. So here I am, slightly afraid and slightly excited, to talk about Walt Disney’s big vision for the future, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or Epcot.
When Walt Disney had reached his 60s, he had already done so much. He created iconic characters for his animated shorts, popularized and practically created the feature length animated film, brought new technology to the film industry, revolutionized movies with color, jumped on board the new medium of television, and did what many said would never work, build the first theme park in Disneyland. With all of that credibility and knowledge, he decided to move on to something that had been bugging him.
As a grandparent, he was worried about the world his grandchildren were going to grow up in. With crime and economic problems on the rise, Walt Disney decided his next venture wouldn’t just be an escape from the world like Disneyland, but a way to show the world how we can live. He decided this next project would take place on the east coast. He had already had east coasters excited about Disney projects after his showing at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and he eventually found his perfect lot of land in the middle of Florida. With various fake corporation names, Disney bought nearly 28,000 acres of swamp land that would be the start of the Disney World project and Epcot.
Walt Disney knew, with all of the knowledge in construction and technology that his imagineers had at WED, they could construct a whole city, not just a theme park that allows people in, but a place where people could live, eat, work, shop, etc… This was to be what the Florida project was. He gave a presentation to the Board of Directors about his new plan, but they were skeptical of it. They thought if this was going to attract visitors it needed to have it’s own “Disneyland”. Walt was reluctant but finally caved and decided to use the new “Magic Kingdom” park in Florida to his advantage by placing it in the Northmost part of the property (where it is now) so that guests of Disney World would have to see everything else before they got to the park. Guests would have to see everything at several monorail stops before finally be let off at the last monorail stop which was the Magic Kingdom.
In fact, the whole Florida project was based upon a single monorail track that would travel form the south end of the property to the north end. As Walt was planning his new city of tomorrow, he knew several things had to come together and they would all be linked upon one single strip of monorail track. He understood that people wanted to see some of the same things that they were familiar with from Disneyland, so the monorail worked as a great way of transportation and a familiar attraction that would help guests move from one area of Disney World to the other.
Walt also knew that not everyone would be driving to Disney World, so of course, there would be a Disney World airport where people could either fly into or park their cars. The airport would be in the southern most part of the Disney property and would be the departure point for the monorail. Nothing much more is known of what the airport would be like, but much like most Disney transportation, I’m sure the airport and airplanes, coming in and out of Disney World, would be state of the art and full of Disney magic.
Guests arriving at Disney World would board the monorail to visit the first stop, the Welcome Center. Guests would be welcomed, of course, in their native tongue as cast members would be trained in several languages. At the Welcome Center, guests would be briefed on what they would see on the next several stops along the monorail track, what they could access, their hotel room key, and tickets to the Magic Kingdom park. Because of cast members, people from around the world, no matter the language, would feel like they were at home here and would be able to reach someone who spoke there language from anywhere within Disney World.
As guests left the Welcome Center, the second stop would be Epcot’s industrial park. Here, major corporations would have a home to experiment and install the latest and greatest in Disney World’s city of tomorrow. It would be a tour like area, seeing how things were made, who was creating these things, and what these things could do for the future of living. Imagine companies like Apple, General Electric, Sony, Kohler, and so many other home product companies, having a headquarters right in the middle of Disney World. Imagine yourself being able to walk through and see all of the new products and being able to test them out. It’s like Innoventions but much bigger and much more fun.
Your next stop after the Epcot industrial park is the city of tomorrow itself. The monorail, which would travel right through the middle of the city would give you a bird’s eye view of the whole area before stopping at the hotel in the center of the city. Here, much like other Disney resorts, you would enjoy the luxuries and accomodations we are used to. Spas along with world class pools and recreation areas would be a priority in the city of tomorrow’s grand hotel. As a guest of the hotel, you would be able to wander the city, seeing everything for yourself and enjoying the technology and luxuries that are provided within the city limits. Of course, there is much more to the city itself, but we will have to get to that in part 2 because there is just so much to cover.
The last stop and northmost part of Disney World, like I had said previously, would be the Magic Kingdom. Much like the Magic Kingdom we have today, it would be a similar park to the West coast’s Disneyland. Here guests could enjoy everything about the park before getting back on the monorail going south and heading back to Epcot’s hotel. Of course, there would be plans over time to build new accomodations but when Disney World would open, this would be the main plan.
Stay tuned because we have much more to talk about. This subject deserves more time and that is what it will get. In my next post, we will cover the city of tomorrow in depth and learn what it would be like to live within Disney World.
Until next time!
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
Monday Memories (2/6/12)
Feb 7
Author: Jennifer Delmont
In my last trip to Disney World, the thing that I loved the most was having breakfast at the Royal Table with my 3 1/2 year old daughter. She got to wear her own beautiful Belle dress so she felt like one of her favorite princesses. She had her picture taken with Cinderella before we got seated at our table. In my daughters eyes these are the REAL princesses, she doesn’t get that they are just dressing up. The look on her face was so amazing. She felt so special getting to meet Cinderella in Cinderellas castle.
When we were seated at our table there were 3 more princesses she was able to meet and get her picture taken with. First was Princess Aurora, then Belle, and last was Snow White. Snow White was actually supposed to be off but our waiter asked if my daughter had gotten the chance to meet her yet and we said no, so he went over and asked her to come over to our table. She did and she was so sweet and sat down with us for a couple minutes.
I am definitely going to go to Disney World again and I will do breakfast at the royal table again. Everyone there was so nice and it was very enjoyable for not only my 3 1/2 year old but for my husband, sister and myself.
(If you’d like to submit a Disney park memory, please send an email to Please keep your post to around 1000 words or less. If you would like to add a picture to your post, you may do so by attaching it to your email.)
Trekking through the Jungle
Feb 2
Amongst many Disney park enthusiats, one of the things often preached is to “take your time” and enjoy your surroundings. Unlike most amusement parks, everything has a back story, a reason to be there, and worth stopping to look at. That is the beauty of Disney parks and what makes them greater than any other amusement park in the world.
One of the challenges that has faced Disney park enthusiasts, and even Disney personnel themselves, is keeping people at Disney’s newest park at the Florida resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When initially debuting, it was difficult to get the message across that this was not a zoo, with Disney using the “Nahtazoo” campaign, which initially helped, however keeping people at the park for more than just a few hours as a pit stop on their way to the Magic Kingdom became another challenge.
When building Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Imagineering added tons of theming and back stories to the different lands that circle the Tree of Life. One of the most rich in detail, possibly because it was the first new addition, was the Asia area of the park. Like Africa’s Harambe village theme, the Asia area theme revolves around a made up small village with tons of history, Anandapur. When this area opened to the public, it’s major attraction was Kali River Rapids, a fast water rapids ride through dense jungles, but off in the back of the village of Anandapur is the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
Maharajah Jungle Trek is greatly themed, maybe a little too themed, as it may be flying over some guests’ heads. Never-the-less, the breath taking walk through this area of jungle and animal habitats is worth taking the time to see and slowing down to take in the surroundings.
The backstory is very elaborate, but if you look at the details throughout the trail, it all makes sense to what you see. As (made up) history would have it, this trail was created by a wealthy Indian Maharajah who loved to hunt and kept animals within the perimeters of the trail to make hunting easier. As time passed, other Maharajahs turned the hunting trail into an animal preserve, and the villagers of Anandapur took care of the animals amongst the trail. As in true Indian history, the British came to the area. The British took over the Jungle trail and named it, hence the actual sign out front in English while most everything else in Anandapur is in an Eastern language.
To keep the backstory alive in this area, there are several paintings of the original Maharajah hunting as well as the other Maharajahs that helped turn this area into a preserve amongst the walls that surround the walking trail. Even the tomb of the original Maharajah is amongst the ruins as you walk by.
What most guests do get out of the theming on the Maharajah Jungle trek is they are somewhere in Western Asia walking through a zoo like atmosphere, seeing animals that would inhabit this area on the world. Amongst the animals here are a komodo dragon, fruit bats, flying foxes, blood pythons, and of course, the Bengal tiger.
The trek has several stops along the way to check out these animals from different view points. The crown jewel from the Jungle Trek are the Bengal tigers, with a giant area dedicated to these beasts and cast members explaining several facts on how the tigers live. On my last trip through the Maharajah Jungle trek, I spent 15 minutes talking with a cast member about the tigers, how they live, how similar they are to other cats, etc…, and these cast members are trained and very knowledgeable about the tigers, and the ones amongst the exhibits specifically. All of the have names, back stories, ties to Asia, and so much more to hear about.
Most come to visit the tigers in this area, as there are paintings of Bengal tigers everywhere leading up to the Treks finale, however, most people are surprised, maybe a little scared and excited to come close to the Rodrigues fruit bats. These creatures are non-threatening to humans so it is easy to be up close and personal with them, especially with a cast member by your side “keeping you safe” as most nervous people might think. The bats are fed several times a day, keeping them active during park hours for guests to see. They are very large and there is nothing but a ledge with windows that you can reach through keeping you from interacting with them even more.
There are several other animals among the trek and this attraction can easily take up 30 minutes if guests take the time to stop, check out the ruins, paintings, animals, and talk a bit with the cast members. An educational walk with some exciting animals is always great for children and adults alike, and you may be surprised how close you can really get to these magnificent creatures along the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Next time you are at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, make sure to add this attraction to your must-do list as it may surprise you how wonderful it can be.
Have you been along the Maharajah Jungle Trek? What are your thoughts on it? Do you prefer it over Africa’s Pangori Forest Trail? If anything what would you add to it? Let me know your thoughts.
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com