Wednesday, October 17, 2012

One Man's Dream, The Scripts Part 2

This past January I ran a post that discussed the scripts found in the Walt Disney Office scene shown in One Man's Dream.  Here is a link for the first post to get a background, One Man's Dream, the Scripts.  (I don't often link back to myself so that's pretty cool.)  Anyway, I was down in WDW a couple of weeks ago and was able to finally get the fourth script that is shown behind Walt's desk in this scene.  So far we've seen Westward Ho, The Happiest Millionaire and Monkeys go Home.  Well the fourth script is another Fred MacMurray movie, Follow Me Boys. 
I had talked about this movie in even an earlier post about the Arrival/Departure board (and that's a record 2 links to myself) at the Magic Kingdom Railroad Station on Main Street USA.  Fred MacMurray played Lem Siddons a WW I vet travelling with a jazz band. The band passes through the town of Hickory and Lem decides this is the place he wants to settle down. He ends up as the Boy Scout Troop Leader. Kurt Russell is also in this.
With the new camera this picture was easy to get.  With a little research I found that Walt also produced this one.  It was released in 1966 so the date matches two of the other scripts.  Hmmm, why these four movies.  I'll be doing more research into this and will bring you my findings down the road.  One small note of interest, John Larroquette was in this movie also in the un-credited role of a soldier.  Go figure.  Also, not to show my age, but the date of the script is one day after the day I was born.  Very Cool!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Websites to Check-Out: Mouseventures

You know, the other day I was thinking, there must be a better way to post my trip reports. Well, I think I might have found the answer. The web site Mouseventures.net is a site that has, in my opinion, found it’s niche in the Disney online community. The premise of the site is a way to organize and present trip reports. The site itself is run by a couple from Texsas and in their words, “…We created this website because of our love of Trip Reports. They are the ultimate insider guide to Disney Resort vacations. Our goal is to create an immersive and interactive experience to entertain and educate you on taking a Disney vacation!”

And their site is truly immersive and interactive. With easy to read text and sharp pictures and even video, I think they have found a great way to display trip reports and anyone can do them. They are also correct in that the best way to find out about Disney world is to read some trip reports. A trip report is kind of like a Hotel review, but for your trip. What’s great with Disney Trip Reports is they are usually a great read. No-one has time to do-it all. But by reading about some of the experiences other people have had can help you plan and decide on what to do on your trip.

Up until now the trip report idea was pretty much the property of the big boards and forums like Disboards and Be Our Guest Podcast’s Forums, but Mouseventures.net is dipping their toes into this Disney Fan Site pond and they’re finding the water quite comfortable.

The site is on the new side but since the idea was so good I wanted to let you know it exists. There needs to be a more clear way to submit your reports, but for now an email to the site owners should do it.  I'm going to submit my latest trip as soon as I can, hopefully you will also.  Good Luck MouseVentures, I hope to see more and more content!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Epcot's Food and Wine Chase Lounge

While down on the BOGP Epic Event and the first weekend of Food & Wine at Epcot, my friend Jackie and I were lucky enough to get invited into the Chase Lounge at the Food & Wine Headquarters located in the Wonders of Life Pavilion.  As to the getting invited, well us and a few million of our closet friends that own a Chase Disney Credit card were invited

I was not planning any special Food&Wine events so it was nice to have a reason to go into the Wonders of Life Pavillion one more time.  We were lucky to get in there with all of the rides a couple of holiday seasons ago right before it closed up for good.  The Pavilion looked great inside.  The ceiling had been cleaned and was very white.  The floor was set up with many vendor tables and small areas of either rows of seats for the speakers or tables and chairs for food/wine tasting.  The lounge itself was across the pavilion from where the door is.  There was a CM forming a line and monitoring how many people go in at once. 
Once in, it was very nice.  The room itself is not large, but medium sized.  It had a couple couch areas around TV's.  There was a soda machine and a Iphone/Ipod/Ipad charging table, very cool.  There was also a large touch-screen TV that gave you the map for Food&Wine and food ideas.  And to finish it off they had a small table in the corner where there was a Cast Member giving out wristbands for the special standing area for Illuminations that night.

Entry Door to right.  Charging table far center. Refreshements left. First Couch area bottom.
Back to First Couch Area, Otherside of room left is Illuminations table.  Other couch area.  Touchscreen to left. Soda back and far right.
Touchscreen Map of food and Wine
There were bathrooms behind where the soda machines were and there were also baskets of candy spread throughout the room.  This was very nice.  The second Couch area showed cartoon shorts while the first area showed Chase commercials.  The seats were super comfy and did I mention the AC was cranked.  We stayed for about 15 minutes and really recharged our batteries. 
If you've got the Chase card, make some time and stop into the Wonders of Life pavilion and the lounge.  The exhibition tables seemed open to everyone and not just people registered for F&W events.
Let me know what you think?  Did you visit and take some better Photos?  Send them on and I'll post them.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Show # 23 of the "WGTWDW" Podcast

 
On this weeks show we Spin the Wheel of Attraction one more time. We’re down to 90 something attractions so we’re looking good to continue this for a while. This week it was just Hope and I for the Spin and we lucked out and got the Country Bear Jamboree. We love this ride and go on it each and every time, unless of course it’s down. We discuss our likes about it and both totally recommend this each and every time you go. Plan it out and as you are exiting the show, Pecos Bills is right next door. We’d love to hear about your stories and memories from the Country Bear Jamboree. Please send on any pictures of the Christmas Overlay. Our email is WGTWDW@gmail.com .

We then continue our discussion of our August Trip. Wednesday was our sleep in day and then the Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot. We spend a little extra time talking about the tour on the show for our friend Russ, way up there in NY state. He had requested this as he was thinking about taking the family on the Tour when they go next.
The Bug Room

The Plant Reproduction Lab

Sample Hydroponics set-up

Hope and the Ladybugs

A special Pumpkin


Eggplant Trees

Croc Tank


After Epcot, it was over to Disney Hollywood studios for Linner (between Lunch and Dinner) and then Fantasmic. Of course we filled the time between with some rides. Fantasmic was the first time for the kids in 3 years. The schedule for the past couple of years had been very prohibitive as to trying to catch this show. We lucked out and had center stage seats about 15 rows up. Close, but not so close we would get wet from the water screens. The only differences we noticed this time were the pre-show trio of ex-streetmosphere people to warm the crowd up and that all of the big animatronic characters, the snake and dragon, worked. A very fun day!
Our Table
Sci-Fi Diner
 

 
 
We really, really, really want to hear from you. Please email us any suggestions comments or ideas for the show. Our email is WGTWDW@gmail.com . Thanks for listening and see you next week!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Epcot's 30th Maps

One week ago today I was very lucky to be down in Walt Disney World and able to go to Epcot on it's 30th Birthday.  However, I was flying out that day so I was very limited in being able to attend any of the planned Epcot 30th events.  Most were held in the afternoon and I figured correctly that I would be able to catch up on the events thru Youtube.  Thanks to Ricky, from Inside the Magic.

I was however, able to get the special button you see above and the Park Map for the day.  What was great about the park map, was once unfolded it showed the various stages of growth that Epcot has undergone over the years. Here are some of the parts of that map:







Just think in 1982, I was a Junior in high school and had only to that point been to WDW once.  Wow do things change.