Walt Disney World Tickets & Stuff 2008

Today we’ve got some not so vintage tickets from Walt Disney World. These are from my trip of a couple weeks ago. These tickets look nicer in person, something happened when I scanned them so they look kind of fuzzy, maybe some form of fraud protection? Odd, since all the good stuff is on the back anyway!

These were 3 day “basic” tickets (not park hoppers). I had used up the three days during the week with Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom.

Fun folder to keep your tickets safe.

On the last day of the trip the family wanted to go to “Wet and Wild”, I was not in the mood to get wet or wild, so I dropped them off at the water park and headed to the Magic Kingdom parking lot like a moth to the light! I figured for the $11 parking I could ride the Monorails around and see the resorts. Did you know you can ride all the monorails all day with just the parking fee? Hey, don’t knock it, they have great Air Conditioning.

Anyway, when I got to the transportation center, there we no lines for the ticket booth so I went up to one of the booths. I presented my Disneyland Premium Annual Passport to see if it had an clout for a discount into the Magic Kingdom, I had more pictures to take but didn’t really have $71 left to spend for just a few hours. The nice gentleman kindly waved my AP away (as if to say “put that away or I'll hit the silent alarm”) and then he asked “have you been to any of the WDW resorts in the last 14 days?” Well, yeah, I have. I gave him my expired 3 day ticket and for $16.07 I got one more day! That's the best deal I got on the whole trip!

Now for the covers of the gate flyers and time guides for each park I visited.







Large parking tickets at 3 ¾” by 8”.

Come back this weekend for big scans of the maps from inside the above flyers. PLUS my final Walt Disney World Trip report with over 40 pictures!

Pirates of the Caribbean - LIFE Magazine September 1967

Taking a much needed break from the Magic Kingdom, today lets journey back to Disneyland in September 1967.

This LIFE magazine article on the new Pirates of the Caribbean is about 6 months late and it’s located at the very end of the magazine. However, it’s a great article with some fun original pictures of the attraction.

The cover showcases’ the lead article. “The Intimate Recollections of Stalin’s Daughter”. To be honest I didn’t read it, it sounds dull and I’ll read just about anything.






It cost Disney eight million dollars to build this attraction and produced one million riders a month at 75¢ each, a pirates life indeed! That’s an average of 2,083 guests per hour, 16 hours a day for a 30 day month. Seems easy with a claimed capacity of 3,600 per hour, WOW!






“Shift your cargo and show your larboard side”. The Auctioneer still looks remarkably the same, even at the Magic Kingdom.







Interesting how the end of the article talks about reprogramming the computers if repeat guests get bored with the show. Does adding Johnny Deep and removing Black Beard count as “feeding a new plot into the computer”?






And now some classic full pages ads. Better Ideas for Ford in 1968. I guess 1967’s ideas we just "good". I want that Mustang with the 427, thanks…






A fish for the Mopar fans.






7up. Back when there was no Sierra Mist.





This isn’t an ad, it's part of an article on the Saturn 5 Rockets, beautiful machine, isn’t it?






And you just gotta love Avon men’s cologne. They all basically smelled the same but came in these unique shaped bottles. I bet there is an entire sub-culture on EBay for these things now!





Tomorrow: ?

Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress

The kids might think this attraction is boring and slow, but to me it's pure Disney Magic. Knowing the history behind this attraction undoubtedly slants my opinion. I’ve seen videos of this attraction, and I have some short low resolution videos for you today, but you gotta see it in person. The stage is much small than I envisioned, definitely smaller than America Sings.

This was a free attraction at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, from what I can tell there was never a ticket charge to see this show. If anyone has info, please let me know.





The main building has changed very little, basically just the sign and the upper level railings have been replaced. And of course the color has changed.







I had to push a few strollers out of the way to get this shot.






Inside the theater, the show is about to begin. No flash photo’s, so you get this blurry shot of the curtains.






I recorded the first line from the song in each of the 4 time periods. There are plenty of full versions on YouTube if you want to see the whole show. These just give you a glimpse of the show and the great mega catchy tune!

(The first time the theater seats started to rotate I was instantly transported back to my youth and "American Sings", boy do I miss that show.)

On with the show, by the way, “There's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day!”

You’ll be singing that tune all day! It beats singing “It’s a small world”…

More great architecture, the paint job is ok and actually works as far as blending in to the area.









This was taken from the moving PeopleMover on the upper level of the Carousel of Progress. It looks like an older sign, I like it.





It’s amazing that Walt’s 1964 World’s fair ideas just keep on giving! There is a great posting over at Yesterland about the Carousel of Progress (link) be sure to check it out.

Between the Carousel of Progress and the WEDWay PeopleMover, its almost like visiting Disneyland in a time machine. Almost...

Bonus Sunday

Today's Bonus Sunday brings us to the New Tomorrowland 1967 courtesy of Vacationland Magazine, Fall 1967. The Vacationland magazines from 1967 thru 1968 are slightly larger, well, taller by about 3/4 of an inch.


Vacationland Fall 1967 - 60mb





Tomorrow: Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (as seen on pages 9 in the above Vacationland)lives on at the Magic Kingdom....

Skyway Saturday at Walt Disney World

The Skyway at the Magic Kingdom was, as with everything else at the Florida property, BIG. So big it even had a turn in its route!

A solid “D” Ticket from Opening day in 1971.






“D” tickets from 1971 and 1979.






Here’s a close up of route it used to take.





Looking over the Sub Lagoon in a picture from a 1978 guide book.






Pretty amazing view as you left the Fantasyland station.






The Magic Kingdom Skyway Closed in 1999, both stations or “Terminals” are still hanging around. This would be the view looking back at the Fantasyland station (you’d be up higher of course!). This is still the focal point of one whole end of Fantasyland. I must have heard 10 kids ask what ride it was.





Well kiddies, guess what? It’s “Stroller Parking – The Ride”… ugh…





The Tomorrowland Terminal building is amazing. This style of architecture has become my favorite of all vintage Disney styles. Here is the terminal as seen from the WEDway PeopleMover, I bet it looked even better when it was in operation.






Come to think of it, maybe it looks better without the cables and buckets? I’ve heard rumors of turning it into a restaurant. It’s big enough and that would mean keeping the building intact, I hope.







The rear of the lower level has a bathroom (of the future?).






Under the load area, there are three large benches like this one. All of them were empty.






Off to the side of the benches is this little area, again, empty of people. Everyone likes to just stand in large groups and clog the main walk ways, yet areas like this go empty? Hmmm.






The old Plaza Swan Boats loading platform. Too bad those are gone, they even went around the Swiss Family Tree house! (Check out this GREAT WDW site – link to Widen Your World).






I sure to like the roof on the Swan Boat building, and it’s repeated throughout the hub area on other roofs, even on the pop corn stand.






And this sad photo is for blog reader Eric. I found a bench while looking for a place to sit and eat my ice cream (it was melting quick), when I looked up I saw the Pooh Ride, “Oh no, this was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”. I stopped eating and gave a moment of silence in memory of Mr. Toad and his wild ride.





Tomorrow: For Bonus Sunday, since I feel so Tomorrowland 1967-ish, lets have a full post of a great Vacationland from the Fall of 1967.

Disneyland Plaza Gardens Fence - Before and After

I was at Disneyland yesterday and stayed until after the Fireworks last night so today’s post is light. It was good to back at the park and to spend 10 hours there on a beautiful summer day.

The flag pole shot looks somewhat different at Disneyland than the Magic Kingdom. The castle looks better further away (or what appears to be further away). The Magic Kingdom castle is awesome, but a little too much “in your face”.





It’s temping to rip down that “years of whatever” sign. Is it just me or is that promotion really getting old and tiring?






The crowds were actually not too bad for summer, although some of the lines mid-day got nutty. I actually waited an hour for Indiana Jones, I’ve never been in the outside queue line, and it’s great, for about the first 5 minutes… Ah, a castle that you can walk right thru, it's good to be home...






Now a brief before and after. Gorilla’s Don’t Blog had a post on Monday (link) that showed this great photo of the Gazebo that is where the Plaza Gardens are today. Progressland commented that the fence on the bridge (far left in the photo below) looks like the same fence that is there today so I just had to check it out.





This photo is from Stuff from the Park, I’m not sure on the date, but it shows the same little fence on the bridge.






From yesterday. It looks pretty much the same to me.







This close-up does reveal this is not a “new fence” or new bridge for that matter. Could this actually be the fence from 1955? Here’s the bigger question, how in the world would we ever find out for certain?





Tomorrow: Come visit the defunct Magic Kingdom Skyway Buildings and related stuff…