Snorkeling on Castaway Cay

I was able to find the pictures from snorkeling at Castaway Cay that we talked about on Show # 26 of the WGTWDW podcast.  These came out of a camera that died as we were in the water.  So I was surprised that we were able to get anything off the card at all, but I did.  They are not the best pictures, but you at least get the idea of some of the items you might find on the bottom of the lagoon.  There is a lot of stuff on the bottom including these Ball like coral substitues.  If you swim long enough, you'll see Mickey and Minnie waving to you underwater, you'll see a tractor, you'll even see Mickey's boat from SteamBoat Willie.  I'll try to get better pictures next time.

Anchors Away and on the Bottom



Ceramic Coral Urn

The Crows Nest

20K Leagues Sub in the Murk

 

 

Lost Luggage

 

20K Sub Portholes

Seeing the Portholes reminds me of the old 20K Leagues under the sea ride big time. 

These things were found randomly all over the bottom. I would not be surprised if there is a story behind this. Something like Mickey, on the hunt for a vacation spot, found Castaway Cay. The ship they arrived on had some issues during a storm and dropped all of this debris on the bottom for us to find. 



Below is the loading area and some netting ment to keep us out and safe.

Snorkeling is a great sport and very fun.  Like I said on the show, the rental cost for snorkeling on Castaway Cay is about $25.  We found similar quality gear at Walmart for the same amount.  Since we drive to Fla, the extra bag is no problem. 

Websites to Check-out: Disney-pal

I am a member of the forums over at the Be Our Guest Podcast.  It's a great place to find out and share Disney information.  Every day, one of the great members over there posts a picture that the rest of us try to guess from where at WDW it comes from.  My method in guessing is to go from memory, then from my pictures, then to the Internet.  Well there is a hard picture out there now and I had to go to phase 3, the Internet.  Lucky for me.  I found a great Disney Parks web site that has every American Disney park and even Disneyland Paris.  This is the Disney-pal website.

 

 

After you select the park above you then select a park section and then either Attractions, Shopping, Entertainment or Restaurants.  Every location at Walt Disney World has been chronicled on the Disney-pal .  Each location page has some very sharp pictures and a description.   If it's a restaurant you've selected, there are menus with prices. 

 

 

 

With a Ride  or Entertainment page you might get a video from the attraction or an audio clip.  There are really cool facts and information written on each of these pages also.  There was a great video of a family starting the Agent P game at Epcot.

 

 

The Disney-pal web site is one of those sites that makes searching the Internet so worth while.  This is a quality site with A-1 information about Walt Disney World.  It is in my Favorites and I am now obsessed to see if they really have every location.

Make sure you check out this web site and don't forget the take a look at the Resort Page

 

 



 



The WGTWD Podcast Show # 26

 

Hello and thanks for stopping by.  On this show we once again spin the Wheel of Attractions.  We then spend some time talking about Castaway Cay and some fun activities we did in June 2011.  We're getting a little anxious for our upcoming trip, can you tell? 
This show's Wheel of Attraction landed on The American Idol Experience from Disney's Hollywood Studios. We always hit this show. You never know when you'll see the next star.

 

We then start talking about a couple things we did on Castawy Cay, Disney's private island for their cruise line.  We talk about renting bikes and riding to the end of the island.  We also talk about the Snorkeling that they offer which was real fun.

 

Can't find the snorkeling pictures but I'll get them posted as soon as I can.  Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to hearing from you.

 

Tomorrowland or 1952 Movie Mystery

I love a mystery.  Or a good Scavenger Hunt.  Or hard trivia.  But I love nothing more than a professionaly done game of Movie Hype Mystery.  About a year or two ago when Tron came out I had written about a web site that was geting eveyone excited for the new movie.  The site was FlynnLives.com and it was great in dropping clues and meet-ups and a lot of very cool stuff all in the quest to find Kevin Flynn and release him from the system.  Here was my Post from Back Then.
It looks like I might have missed this picture when it first came out 4 or 5 weeks ago, but it seems to be a hint as to an up-coming movie written by Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof.

There is a lot of information in this box.  It has been analyzed by a lot of people online already (as I saw this late) and there reasoning is very sound.  In a nut-shell this box beckons back to the 1950's when Walt Disney was making movies about space for the Disneyland TV show.  They were really good documnteries.  Well the story goes there was to  be a fourth movie funded by the government.  The jist of the story was telling Mr. John Q. Public that aliens were real.  It never happened, but...

Check out these articles from Jim Hill at Jimhillmedia.com and Alex Billington over at Firstshowing.net as a good post with alot of the d23 archivist info.  Now I'll be looking for this.  Hope to see more soon.

The "WGTWDW" Podcast # 25 now Available

Happy New Year...a little late and we're back. On Show # 25 we once again re-visit the Wheel of Attraction. We then take some time to review our year that was 2012 and the year to be in 2013. We then take a couple of minutes to read some emails from our listener Tom from Wi and his trip to the world. So welcome and thanks for listening!

Muppets, the Unkown Queue Around the Corner

     On our last trip to WDW, we had to do something that after how many years of going to the Disney Hollywood Studios, we have never done.  Wait on line outside at Muppetvision 3D.  That sounds kind of weird, but until this last August, I did not even know the line ran outside and we've been on this attraction countless times over the years. 
     As you approach Mv3D, there is that little alcove, off to the right, under a roof as you go into the building to the pre-show room.  I had always assumed that little alcove was for strollers or for those people traveling in wheel chairs.  Well it's not.  As you move to the right of the entrance-way, it opens up around the corner into a very Sesame Street like alley-way.  There was a pathway down around 50 yards and then back to go into the building at the entrance.  I'm not sure if I'm right, but at then end of the alley-way it opens up to the cross street in the Streets of America leading to the San Francisco hills.
     The reason why I spend so much time talking about this alley-way is once again, the Disney Imagineers have set-up and incredible waiting queue experience.  With the help of a lot of Muppet magic, this alley-way has been transformed into a time killing wonder.  With the help of a little parody and a chuckle/laugh for every three feet, this queue goes super fast.  The movie poster were all hanging on the building side and mos of the blueprints and things were on the board wall opposite.  The kids and I spent a couple of minutes walking down here and looking all around.  The Pig Security sign(great irony) was a little sign a door in the back.

     We always keep coming up with things as nice as this that we never knew existed.  It makes it worth going back again and again.  If you've seen something new, write us at WGTWDW@gmail.com and we'd love to hear about it and share on the show.

Magic Kingdom Rope Drop...Which Way Do We Go?

One of the questions we get asked a lot is which way to go in the Magic Kingdom once you get past Rope Drop.  Rope Drop is the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom.  Our first destination has changed over the years as the kids have gotten older.  Early on, when they were very young, our first stop had to be Fantasyland.  Dumbo, then Pooh and then Peter Pan and then whatever else we got on after that.
Once the kids got older and a little more adventurous, our first destination was Big Thunder and Splash in Frontierland.  We had a great secret way to get there in that once we got through Rope Drop, we would go upstairs to the train station and hop the first train to Frontierland and usually get there before the foot traffic did.  Then 2-3 rides on each and then onwards into the park. 
Now, the last couple of years we've been heading for Tomorrowland with the masses to get on Space Mountain a couple times and get a fastpass before it gets crowded.  On our last trip, our first day at the Magic Kingdom was an afternoon/evening because we got into Orlando in the PM.  We had a good night and really did a lot in Tomorrowland.  The next morning was to be a Rope Drop Magic Kingdom and this time when we got to the Hub, we took a left into Adventureland.  We've not done it beforfe and were shocked at how empty it was.  This was the end of August on a Touring Calendar rating of a 7.  Here are two videos that we took without really knowing I was going to use them in a post, so they're short.  What they show is a jammed Main Street and an empty Adventureland minutes apart.

 

So this can be an alternative strategy for you in the MK.  With the boy at 16, we will send him to Space Mountain for Fastpasses while we go through Adventureland and meet up with him at Pirates or Jungle Cruise.  The only downside is that we will need to be back in T-land for that fastpass time.  We'll deal. 

Where do you go at Rope Drop in the Magic Kingdom?  What do you think about the above alternative route?  Comment here or email at WGTWDW@gmail.com.

It's all in the Details: Fantasyland Construction Artwork

While in WDW in August I had a couple of minutes to walk around and take pictures while the kids went on Goofy's Barnstormer.  I cannot fit in that roller coaster so I just skip it now.  I was walking around and noticed the walls that they had setup to hide the construction of New Fantasyland.   I love the detail that the Imagineer's put into even construction walls. 

All of the art work is great and reminds me of the Shorts with Goofy from the late 40's and 50's.  If you noticed the slide with Goofy riding the Rocket?  This is why I really do appreciate the imagineers.  There is so many levels of detail.   I always am taking pictures and finding things that I did not see while at the parks once I get home.  On the rocket is the name Dolores.  I thought there might be something there and did a quick search and guess what?  Dolores is a character in a couple of the Goofy shorts.  Dolores the Elephant was first seen in 1945 in the short Tiger Trouble.  She makes another appearance in The Big Wash in 1948.  In the Big Wash, look for Dolores' water bowl for her  name.

 

 

So keep your eyes open for the details.  You never know what they'll lead you too.

The "We're Going to WDW" Podcast Show # 24 Just Released

On this weeks show The kids take control and do their own Wheel of Attraction. We then spend the rest of the show listening to the sounds from the parks from our last trip. See if you can guess where each sound clip comes from. Here are a couple of the Videos we took that I ripped the audio from.

 The Dapper Dan's

These guys are always great.  Anyone know the name of the instrument they are using?



 

Star Tours 

  This is one of those lines that you want to stop and watch things and let people pass you.  This guy has a ton of these one liners.  I'd love to record them all sometime.

SpaceShip Earth
This is another part of SE we love.  Although, it would not hurt to see an update of this in the not too distant future.


 

The rest of the videos that the sound clips came from are over at my Youtube Channel .

Keep your eyes and ears open for Show # 25.  It'll be our 1/4 century show.  We'll read some email from one of our friends who was just in WDW and we'll talk a little about the Holidays in Walt Disney World.

Thanks for Listening and Rate us on Itunes! Email any comments to WGTWDW@Gmail.com or leave them here.