Wordless Wednesday
Theme: Disney Couture
Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia – Walt Disney Quality
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” – Walt Disney
“Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.” – Walt Disney
One of the reasons that I fell in love with Disney was their commitment to quality and how they never compromise on it. This commitment was all started with Walt. I love hearing the story of when Walt wanted the Sleeping Beauty Castle spires to sparkle. No, this could not be done with paint or anything else in Walt’s eyes; this had to be 22 karat gold. But his brother Roy, the money thinking side of Disney, wanted no part in the cost of real gold on the castle. Since Walt was not willing to compromise he sent Roy away on business and while he was gone went ahead and had real 22 karat gold applied to the castle spires. Gold still adorns the castle today. This commitment to quality made Disney what it is today.
After Walt’s death, Roy picked up the Disney World project with many of the directions already set in place by Walt. There were a few things that could have been changed early in the project to save money, but Roy now understood Walt’s quality commitment and went along with his brothers previous plans. One of these was the location of the Magic Kingdom. The accountants at Disney were arguing that the location should be at the intersection of two highways at the front of the property. This would save the Disney company time and millions of dollars. Walt’s plan called for the Magic Kingdom to be at the back of the property bringing the guests slowly through the property. You know the decision Roy made.
Another of these decisions came with the location of the parks services. They could go with backstage buildings or put many of the services under the park similar to what Walt had proposed for EPCOT. Meetings were held and again the accountants wanted to save money. $5 million is what it would cost and that was a big chunk of change at that time. Again, you know the decision that was made.
Which brings us to our trivia question this week….
How high was the land raised so that the utilities/services for the Magic Kingdom could be “underground”
A. 4 feet
B. 8 feet
C. 16 feet
D. 20 feet
Overtime many companies fall victim to sacrificing quality to make more money which is always only a short term win. I hope the Disney company continues to learn from the man who started it all and keep their quality standards high.
The answer this week is C – the ground had to be raised 16 feet so that the utilities/services could exist under the ground at the Magic Kingdom. Over 8 million cubic yards of dirt had to be moved forming a 200 acre lagoon.
“Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” – Walt
Hidden Mickey Monday: Maharajah Jungle Trek
Our Hidden Mickey this week comes from the Maharajah Jungle Trek at the Animal Kingdom. The walking paths at the Animal Kingdom are many times skipped over by guests. These paths are amazingly themed and offer some great up close experiences with many animals. If you are looking to get away from the crowds for a bit and take in a few more animals, be sure to check them out. And while you are on them, watch out for Hidden Mickey‘s you just might spot one or two. Like in this tiger mural below, can you spot him?
Take a look below the tiger in the blue paint, do you see him?
Hi Mickey!! If you haven’t experience this Jungle Trek, check out our video below to see what you are missing.
Favorite Food Friday: Disney Jelly Belly
Location: Hallmark, Amazon, etc
Price: $20 (Machine) $7 (Bag)
Welcome to this week’s Favorite Food Friday where we share our favorite foods with our friends. This week we go outside the parks and into my Disney lair at home. For my recent Birthday my wife and son gave me a Disney Jelly Belly dispenser. So far it has been a lot of fun, but only dispenses a few jelly beans at a time, although this might help with portion control I find that I may have the machine warn out pretty quickly to satisfy my jelly bean appetite.
To get the jelly beans out you have to push down on Mickey which in turn turns the gears and dispenses 2 or 3 beans. To fill my new machine, I also received a pack of Donald and Goofy Jelly Bellys. The Donald contains Berry Blue, Blueberry, Lemon, Orange, Sour Grape, Very Lemon, and Sour Orange. And, Goofy contains Green Apple, Lemon Lime, Orange Sherbet, Pinapple Pear Smoothie, Sour Apple, Sour Orange, and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. I have always enjoyed the flavor of a Jelly Belly and these beans are no exception.
What food related Disney Item do you have in your home?
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Fastpass to History: Little Red Has Been Captured
Little Red has been captured by poachers! And you must now cut your safari short in order to help save him! Are you up for the task? Many of us were in the early days of Kilimanjaro Safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Kilimanjaro Safari opened with the park in 1998, but not to the original storyline that was imagined. As the park plans were coming together, ideas on the Safari were tossed around when one of the Imagineers tossed out the idea of using a story similar to Bambi. Little Red’s mother would be killed and Little Red would be rescued showing all the guests the negative side of poaching. Yes they even had Big Red’s (Little Red’s Mother) corpse on the side of the road. Well before the park opened to the public cast members and their families were invited to experience the park. After riding the Safari kids could be heard crying all around Africa.
This was not the reaction that Imagineers were going for. One of the Imagineers brought up the fact that in Bambi the mothers death was more implied than shown on film. Thus the elephant corpse was removed and the story adjusted just a little to imply the death of the mother. This storyline stayed with the attraction until 2007 when the storyline changed to be more about the animals in the reserve with a search for a lost elephant in the end.
The most recent storyline change has come in 2012 when Little Red and his story were completely removed. The area of Little Red’s truck was cleared a bit to allow Zebra to be introduced. Well, turns out this was not the best animal selection. The Zebra were constantly blocking the vehicle path, biting each other, and even liked to attack the ride vehicles as they passed. So the Zebra’s didn’t stick around long and we now have Addax in their place.
Do you miss Little Red, or do you like the new storyline of the Safari?
Wordless Wednesday
Theme: Retro
