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Editor's Note: Kevin will have two columns this week. Look for part two of his Walt Disney World round-up on Thursday. - Al

Rumors... World of Color?

I have no inside scoop on this question, but wanted to ask it anyway: what are the chances that they plan to roll out an actual show at Pleasure Island once the transition to Hyperion Wharf is done? A friend recently examined the artwork posted at PI with me, and together we noticed a few things.


Look closer…

First, there is terraced seating in the image. That doesn’t exist pre-refurb, so obviously it’s something they plan to add. By the looks of the image, this is right outside the current Harley Davidson store. Why would they build amphitheater seating next to Paradiso 37 unless they intended to add a show?

As for which show, the artwork reveals “Flowers and Trees” designs on columns… and that yellow Mickey design in the background—two things that remind me of DCA’s World of Color show. Could it be?

Clearly they couldn’t bring over the whole show. The water screens in particular would pose a problem for viewing. And could they (would they?) drain the lagoon to install fountains? Still, stranger things have happened. I’ve seen them wall off a section and drain just that (I think they did that for Anaheim’s Fantasmic a few years ago), so maybe they could install some fountains after all. Even if Hyperion Wharf only gets the smaller fountains and the dazzling color LEDs, it could be very cool indeed. I’m crossing my fingers.


An unrelated photo: the Beast’s castle is rising in Fantasyland!


An unrelated update: the castle projectors were covered one weekend in this
oddly-themed building, but it was gone the weekend after that.

Rumors... Tropical Serenade?

Speaking of tasty rumors completely unsubstantiated: what if the super-long extended closure of the Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management was *NOT* for the purpose of replacing the fire-damaged Iago animatronic? What if the reason for the ultra-long closure was instead to replace the show with something closer to the original “Tropical Serenade” (ie, “regular” Tiki Room show) version of the attraction?

Supporting evidence:

  • The attraction has been closed WAY too long to simply replace one burned animatronic (Iago)
  • They didn’t originally block the view of the preshow from the walkway, but after several weeks, the preshow birds disappeared from view and THEN a wall went up, implying they are changing the show
  • A manager in the area told a friend who told us (yes, this is all very third-person) that the “original” show is coming back… and one of the Iago animatronics (there were two) which was NOT damaged will be repurposed as the “Orange Bird” to serve as emcee.
  • There’s been an awful lot of Orange Bird promotion with Disney lately, including on the artwork for the 40th anniversary stuff… are they prepping us for something?


Under New Management: Not long for the world?

At the end of the day, this is still just a rumor. I haven’t heard independent confirmation yet, but I have to say, I won’t be too surprised if we hear as such. This rehab is taking an AWFULLY long time to just replace one burned-up animatronic.

40x40 Meet

As you recall, I’m going on all forty attractions at the MK for the 40th anniversary (to be finished on October 1). Newcomers and first-timers are welcome to join in the fun! We meet every Saturday at 2pm, and have several regulars now. We have changed the meeting location to be in the air-conditioning (and away from summer rains): we now meet at Curtain Call Collectibles (which is at the EXIT to Meet Mickey in Town Square, not the entrance). There’s a large open carpeted area here by the door where we just set up residence, and we usually depart by 2:10 for our destination.

Each week, we visit one honored attraction. You can see the list of attractions, kept updated, here. This particular weekend, we’re going to the Astro-Orbiter. If you’re on vacation and want to drop by for the one attraction, feel free to melt back into the crowds after the ride. Several regulars stick around, though, and we travel as a group to whatever ride we feel like doing next. Everyone is welcome to do that, too!

If you’d like an email reminder of the meet each week, email me ([email protected]) and I’ll get you added to the yahoo “listserv” group. And/or you can opt to join a Facebook “page” to get updates on meets.


An unrelated photo: the Adventureland bridge is finally done!

Life and Death in the Magic Kingdom

I have a sad coda to include in today’s update. This past Saturday I witnessed a death at the Magic Kingdom. Normally I wouldn’t mention this kind of incident in the parks—it wasn’t Disney’s fault, and this kind of death is more frequent than most of us care to think about, even in Disney’s parks (it’s usually not reported unless an attraction is involved). But witnessing the event affected me pretty deeply, much more than I would have expected.

First, the facts. This appeared to be a collapse due to a medical condition. It happened on a sidewalk in Town Square. I was walking from the City Hall bathrooms toward the train station when a female guest (she was short, I think, but I can’t remember if she was a juvenile or an adult) crossed my path near City Hall and intercepted a blue-shirted Cast Member manager, saying “someone’s been hurt and there’s blood.” I glanced to my left and saw a woman on the sidewalk. She was doubled over, as if she were sitting cross-legged and with her head down so far her forehead was almost touching the concrete. It looked to me like she was moving her head almost continually in small motions (a little bit of up and down, perhaps some side to side), as if she were silently crying, but I couldn’t tell for sure, as she was facing the ground and her hair obscured her face. And I couldn’t hear anything.

I went up the train station steps and found my party on the second floor looking down at Town Square, so I pointed out to them the incident. “Look,” I said, “a Code-1” (this is Disney-speak for ‘medical situation…non-emergency’). The blue-shirted manager was bent down next to the woman, and the children (presumably with the woman) were clustered around as well. By now a few Cast Members were also nearby, facing outward in that familiar stance of warding off curious bystanders, keeping the area clear.

“That’s more than a Code-1,” said my friend, who is a Disney manager in another location. “That’s a Code-3. Look, he’s performing CPR!”

“CPR?! Where?” Donny, a fireman who was with my party that day, snapped into action, followed the silently pointed finger, and bolted without a word down the stairs. Before I knew it, he was at the side of the woman. The manager was indeed performing chest compressions, and Donny lent a hand. Some other Cast Members were in the area by now, including one with a defibrillator. I was impressed that none of them had sprinted into the area, which I’d seen in Code-3 situations at Disneyland some years before. Everyone seemed very professional. In fact, the Cast Members across the board performed well, and deserve to be commended.

At this distance, I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, but Donny later shared that he applied the portable Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and made sure no one was touching the woman as it ascertained whether to administer a jolt. There was no pulse. Within a few minutes, paramedics from Reedy Creek had arrived with a stretcher, and they loaded the woman onto the stretcher and took her backstage, administering the breathing bag as they went. Donny later told me that in the absence of a pulse for so many minutes, it was all but impossible that the woman would recover (and if she did, she’d be brain dead). Her condition and lack of response, in fact, implied that she was probably dead before he even arrived on the scene. Possibly even before she hit the ground.

Not knowing what else to do, after a few minutes we collected our thoughts and decided to ride the train anyway, if for no other reason than to give ourselves time to process what had happened. By the time we returned from the round-trip voyage, the sidewalk had been cleaned (by bleach-water?) and was wet, but there was otherwise no trace of the incident.

Lacking any other information, I pieced together what I could by talking with Donny. The “bleeding” which I had heard about was likely on the woman’s forehead, and may have resulted from her smacking her face on the ground. Did she maybe trip and that caused the injury? My memory, increasingly hazy the more I poked at it, suggested she was not “lying down” when I first saw her, but had her legs under her. That seemed to argue against a trip/fall – maybe she collapsed first and then doubled over, smacking her head in the process? That would explain the blood. She may have had a heart attack or stroke, or some other calamitous medical emergency that robbed her of life very quickly.

It occurred to me at that point that those small motions I had seen may well have been convulsions in death rather than a sign of life and struggle. In other words, she may have been dead already by the time I saw her doubled over, with her forehead bobbing up and down just above the ground. I’ll confess that this is haunting my thoughts as I replay the image over and over in my imagination, which brings the horror of the situation into even sharper relief for me. My heart aches for the people in her family who were there, seeing everything I was.

I’d known that people have died at Disney parks before. Like many, I have heard the propaganda that “no one dies at Disney” – supposedly they don’t issue death certificates until the person is ushered out of the parks. But how can a death certificate claim death occurred “later” in those situations where vehicles had caused the death? So we’re dealing with semantics here.

Most of the time, you don’t know exactly WHERE it happens. You may hear “Typhoon Lagoon wave pool,” but you don’t know which exact corner that refers to. I only have a general idea usually, with the exception being the one tunnel in Disneyland’s Big Thunder where a bump upward marks the spot where the train derailed several years ago. That incident led me to thinking about the accident for several rides thereafter each time I was right here.

Having a specific spot to mark the incident rendered it more “real” somehow. The effect was magnified in my case because I had walked by only a few paces away, before there was a single Cast Member on the scene. I’m not sure how long it will be before I can walk by this section of concrete and not think of the incident. Into my brain are seared images of the woman’s young female companions (daughters?) who clutched at each other desperately at one moment as I watched from a distance. They must have realized at that moment that there was no pulse.

If Disney parks are the ultimate form of escapism, it seems the ultimate insult for death to come visiting here. Almost as if Fate it thumbing its nose at the idea of escapism—there *is* no escape, it almost seems to say. For someone who ponders the meaning and reception of Disney parks literally on a daily basis, this is a heavy message to absorb. It makes me chastise myself and wonder why I’ve been so shallow previously as to not “hear” the message until it unfolded right before my eyes. Why have I been so callous as to not see the symbolism of previous deaths at Disney parks?

To be sure, the Magic Kingdom is a place of happiness. I can follow the logic of the sole consoling thought in this whole affair; namely, that this woman shuffled off the mortal coil surrounded by loved ones while in the “happiest place on earth.” This is true, as far as that goes. When I go someday, as we all must, maybe I’d also like to be amidst the splendor of Walt Disney’s magical realms, where I’ve spent so many happy hours.

But for the people left behind, which certainly includes this woman’s family, the calculus is far less certain. The “place of happiness” will become a “place of sadness” for them—and possibly for me, too, at least for an uncertain period of time. Perhaps this emotional reaction will be localized just to the exact spot in Town Square where it unfolded. If so, that will be convenient. It will mean I can go about my day elsewhere in the Magic Kingdom. But that, too, will be problematic. I’m sure I will experience “survivor’s guilt” and hate myself for daring to have a good time in a place of tragedy.

Those exact emotions overtook me a few times that same day as I went about my business. I also could not help myself from photographing my own young children more that day than usual. Life-and-death situations have a way of reinforcing a true perspective—only on such days can you truly appreciate what really matters.

A little bit of the luster has rubbed off the “Magic” Kingdom for me. I hope it comes back. But part of me also hopes it doesn’t. Wouldn’t that mean I will have lost some of my humanity, to so callously forget what transpired here? The grieving process seems to have overtaken me, too, despite being completely ancillary and auxiliary to the event. In yet another novel way, Disney’s theme parks have become a microcosm of the rest of society and life. At the end of the day, “escapism” is revealed to be an illusion after all (was there ever really any doubt?), and the true nature of the human condition shines through.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Kevin Yee may be e-mailed at [email protected] - Please keep in mind he may not be able to respond to each note personally. FTC-Mandated Disclosure: As of December 2009, bloggers are required by the Federal Trade Commission to disclose payments and freebies. Kevin Yee pays for his own admission to theme parks and their associated events, unless otherwise explicitly noted.

© 2011 Kevin Yee


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On his public page and Twitter feed he also offers regular smaller updates on the parks.


Kevin's Disney Books

Kevin is the author of many books on Disney theme parks, including:

The Unofficial Walt Disney World ‘Earbook 2010 is a photo-rich volume of 70 pages that park fans will find especially useful if they want to know what’s changed at WDW since their last visit.

History was on my mind as I composed this book. As you might expect, there is a section on additions, another on removals, and a third on events. But I wanted to make sure to include some prices from January 2010 in the book, the better to capture in future years (and future generations?) exactly what it costs to buy admission, parking, a night at each level of hotel, or such food items as a turkey leg. I also wanted to provide a bit more specificity to the unfolding of events, so the various additions and removals, as well as smaller alterations and debuts, are laid out in a timeline broken down month-by-month.

In short, the book is designed to appeal to those folks who are similarly history-minded, as well as those who are hungry to know what changed at Disney World since their last visit. Or perhaps it’s a worthwhile keepsake for anyone who DID visit in 2010—it captures what was new, after all.

Also recently issued...

Walt Disney World Hidden History: Remnants of Former Attractions and Other Tributes:

As the title implies, this is all about those little things in the parks that have significance to insiders and long-timers, but are never explained or highlighted. When a ride closes, sometimes pieces or props from that ride are folded into the replacement attraction (think of the World of Motion car seen in the queue of Test Track). Other times, designers intentionally craft a tribute to the previous ride—an example of that might be the carving of a submarine in the cement tree created for Pooh’s Playful Spot where the 20,000 Leagues subs used to be.

The other kind of homage in the parks concerns not rides, but individuals. The designers, artists, engineers, executives, and people important to Disney’s history often provide the inspiration for names and titles used at the attractions. Sadly, these are almost always unheralded. All of these remnants and tributes are normally left for the truly obsessed to spot piecemeal. They are usually not even discussed in the official Disney books and tours. This book sets out to change that, and catalog all such remnants and tributes in one spot.

The final result is 225 pages of hyper-detailed historical factoids. Broadly speaking this is a “trivia” book, but remember that it’s a particular kind of trivia. You’ve known before that the Walt Disney World theme parks wove a thick tapestry of details and backstory into a seamless (and peerless) experience. But armed with the specifics of homages and tributes, you’ll become aware that the parks are even more alive, and layered with meaning, that you could have ever imagined.

Might this be an ideal present for the Disney fan on your shopping list? If so, please have a look.

Also written by Kevin...

  • Your Day at the Magic Kingdom is a full-color, hardcover interactive children's book, where readers decide which attraction to ride next (and thus which page to turn to) - but watch out for some unexpected surprises!
  • Mouse Trap: Memoir of a Disneyland Cast Member provides the first authentic glimpse of what it's like to work at Disneyland.
  • The Walt Disney World Menu Book lists restaurants, their menus, and prices for entrees, all in one handy pocket-sized guide.
  • Tokyo Disney Made Easy is a travel guide to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySeas, written to make the entire trip stress-free for non-speakers of Japanese.
  • Magic Quizdom offers an exhaustive trivia quiz on Disneyland park, with expansive paragraph-length answers that flesh out the fuller story on this place rich with details.
  • 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland is a list-oriented book that covers ground left intentionally unexposed in the trivia book, namely the tributes and homages around Disneyland, especially to past rides and attractions.
  • 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World follows the example of the Disneyland book, detailing tributes and homages in the four Disney World parks.

More information on the above titles, along with ordering options are at this link.

CONTENTS | LEGAL  
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