by Sean | Apr 24, 2014 | Favorite Food Friday
Our Favorite Food This Week: Smoked Turkey “Rib”
Location: Epcot Flower and Garden – The Smokehouse
Price: $4.75
Welcome to this week’s Favorite Food Friday where we share our favorite foods with our friends. This week are staying at the Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival and walking around to the American Pavilion to The Smokehouse where we picked up the Smoked Turkey “Rib”. This tasted a lot like a smaller portion of the classic Disney Turkey Leg. Since we usually throw away a lot of meat on the turkey leg this portion size seemed to fit us better.
There is a sweet and a spicy barbecue sauce available at the condiment stations. We chose the sweet and it did go well with the smoked turkey.
What is your favorite food from the Festival this year?
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by Sean | Apr 24, 2014 | History
Oh the smells of Disney – we all have our favorites. But did you know Walt Disney was the first filmmaker to ever explore the idea of including scents in his movies. In the 1940 film Fantasia, Disney wanted to add to the senses with smell, unfortunately the cost became too high for him to pull this off. General Electric went on to develop the Smell-O-Rama in 1953 and the first smelly movie was released in 1960 called Scent of Mystery.
The device that Disney parks use has had many names, one of them is “Smellitzer” or “Scent-Emitting System” as it’s called in the 1984 patent application. This device blows out any smell Disney would like towards park guests in areas all around the parks. Have you smelled the peppermint by the candy store or the fresh baked cookies by the bakery? No, Disney is not always cooking up a fresh batch of candy or cookies, but that’s definitely what it smells like. Take a look on the outside of these buildings, you will likely see a circle that looks similar to a speaker, yeah that’s your smell.
Today there are smells all around the Disney property. From the moment you walk down Main Street USA and smell the popcorn. To the rides such as the musty smell of Pirates of the Caribbean, Stitch’s chili dog belch on Stitch’s Great Escape, Rome burning on Space Ship Earth, the watermelon and animal crackers on Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train and our favorite Soarin and the smells or oranges, pine forests, and the ocean. Don’t forget the 3D/4D movies where smell was first introduced and Disney has perfected with Mickey’s Philharmagic pies and the wonderful stink bug smell at It’s Tough to Be a Bug.
Disney loves to fill all of our senses. Whether it is piped in or natural, what is your favorite Disney smell?
by Sean | Apr 22, 2014 | Wordless Wednesday
Theme: Disney Characters on Parade
by Sean | Apr 21, 2014 | Hidden Mickey
Our Hidden Mickey this week comes from Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. As you enter the lodge’s amazing lobby one thing that will quickly draw your attention is the 82 foot tall fireplace. The rock work in the fireplace mimics the layers of rock that make up the Grand Canyon but also contains a few images of our favorite pal. Be sure to walk all the way around it and see if you can spot any Hidden Mickey‘s, here is a few hints for one of them. Pay close attention to the area where our arrow is pointing below.
Here we zoom in for you and circle the area you should pay attention to. Can you see him. The next picture highlights the area to you can compare the two.
Hi Mickey!! He was hiding pretty good in this one. There might be a couple more around the fireplace so be sure to keep looking.
We love Hidden Mickey‘s. Where else have you spotted one at the Wilderness Lodge?
by Sean | Apr 17, 2014 | Favorite Food Friday
Our Favorite Food This Week: Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade
Location: Epcot Flower and Garden – Pineapple Promenade
Price: $2.75
Welcome to this week’s Favorite Food Friday where we share our favorite foods with our friends. This week we go to Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival to the Pineapple Promenade food booth. This booth has become famous for the Dole Whip served with rum, but if you are looking for something nonalcoholic to cool off with, look no further than the Violet Lemonade.
As you all remember on my last trip I was getting in touch with my purple side (American Tourister Purple Luggage), so I had to try the violet lemonade. The violet lemonade is a great way to cool off as you stroll around World Showcase. It was a perfect balance of Lemonade and other fruit flavors and we really enjoyed it.
What is your favorite food from the Festival this year?
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by Sean | Apr 17, 2014 | History
Before there was Walt Disney World, there was the Walt Disney World Preview Center. Unfortunately, I wasn’t born yet to experience it, but my parents have told me stories about visiting this unpopulated area of FL.
As the construction of Walt Disney World began there was not much in the area. There was a single convenience store near the property that many travelers would end up stopping at and talking with the owner. The owner loved to share information about Disney; although much of it was false and made up. Disney got word of this and figured the best way to share updates with the inquiring public was to create a Preview Center.
The Walt Disney World Preview Center opened in early 1970 and was the first building on property to be open to the public. The preview center contained many artists’ renderings along with updated aerial pictures of the construction. The main attraction in the building was a theater which housed a film and a 625 square foot model of the park that would be illuminated as the film discussed different areas of the park.
The center had staff to answer any questions and also to take reservations for either of the hotels on Disney property, the Contemporary or the Polynesian. The excitement for Disney could be seen in just the first three days of the preview center being open when it welcomed over 12,000 visitors. The preview center would go on to host over one million guests in just the 18 months that it was open.
When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, the preview center was closed. The people employed there were relocated to new jobs at the park. The building has been used for many different things since then and is currently the headquarters for the Amateur Athletic Union. The building does look the same from the outside, so if you want to take a look and drive in to the parking lot that met the first Disney World visitors then point your GPS to 1910 Hotel Plaza Blvd. Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Below are a couple great videos that I found that show the welcome center and some of the footage that you would have seen in the preview center theater.
