“How Disney Built America” Debuts on the History Channel

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 30, 2024

 

There have been a number of very good docuseries on Disney+ for those of us who appreciate Disney history, or even the backstory of Disney rides. (See, for example, The Imagineering Story, One Day at Disney, The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, or Behind The Attraction on Disney+, each one very different takes on the docuseries format.)

 
Now, there’s a well-done series debuting on the History Channel over the next few weeks, bringing a closer look at Walt Disney, the man, and how the Disney Empire came to be.  The six-part series, How Disney Built America, features actor re-creations, interviews with historians and experts, film clips and cartoon shorts, and archival material.

You may already be familiar with the other entries into the History Channel’s “The Stories That Built America” series, including The Engineering That Built the World, The Machines That Built America, The Mega-Brands That Built America, The Titans That Built America, The Cars That Built the World, and The Food That Built America.

 

The Disney-based series premiered April 28, and will continue to drop one episode per week on Sundays at 10/9c for the next month and a half. Episodes will be available for streaming at the History Channel the next day.

 

According to the History Channel, “How Disney Built America is a nostalgia-filled ride that paints a vivid picture of the world of Walt Disney and the history-making empire he and his brother Roy Disney built. Each hour-long episode focuses on a different example of game-changing brilliance in Disney’s history including creating the world’s most recognizable characters, establishing the animated features industry, revolutionizing the concept of merchandising, and using groundbreaking design and engineering to construct Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort, and beyond. Viewers will hear from legendary Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr, a direct hire from Walt who developed over 100 designs for Disney theme park attractions, to gain surprising insights into the unique innovations and struggles involved in realizing the dreams of a visionary. The series utilizes rarely seen historical material, original dramatic recreations, and key interviews from Don Wildman, Margaret Kerrison, Douglas Brinkley, Mindy Johnson, and others to expand on how the brand is forever woven into the fabric of American life.”

A brief synopsis of the first three episodes includes:

 

Episode 1: The Birth of Mickey (April 28)

“A struggling cartoon studio creates one of the most recognizable characters in the world. Mickey Mouse begins as a pencil sketch, and through a journey of failure, betrayal, innovation, and guts becomes an American icon, and the foundation of an iconic media empire.”  Run time: 43 minutes.

 

Episode 2: Dawn of the Animated Blockbuster (May 5)

“Facing soaring costs, mounting criticism, and a tight deadline, Walt Disney pushes the limits of technology to create the first full-length animated feature film. It’s Disney’s magic combination of passion, brilliance, and tech innovation that gives rise to the billion-dollar business of animated films.”

 

Episode 3: Destination Disneyland (May 12)

“Walt Disney overcomes immense obstacles to create the first Theme Park, where instead of thrill rides, he gives the visitor an immersive journey into a story, like the experience of being inside a movie.”

 

Episodes 4-6 haven’t been posted to the History Channel’s calendar with their descriptions yet, but will air on the following dates:  Episode 4 (May 19); Episode 5 (June 2);  and Episode 6 (June 9).  Upcoming episodes will look at Imagineering; merchandising of the Disney brand; and the creation of Disney World.

The first episode, “The Birth of Mickey,” is now streaming online with the History Channel for those who don’t have the History Channel on their cable systems.  It was an hour well-spent, an engaging kick-off to the series that was entertaining without descending into a dry look at a history with which many Disney mega-fans already have at least a passing relationship.  The technological discussions were also woven into the episode remarkably well, placing the early years of the Disney Company into historical and industry context without getting bogged down in the weeds. You’ll find yourself rooting for Walt and Roy, even though you already know where the story is heading. 

If the quality of this docuseries continues at this level, we are indeed looking forward to the next five segments.

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

Water Taxis in Disney Springs Temporarily Closed

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 29, 2024

 

One of our favorite ways to get from Disney Springs to the neighboring resorts is the Sassagoula River Cruise boats.  It’s a lovely, tranquil boat ride between the four nearby Resort hotels and the variety of dining and shopping options at Disney Springs. We’ve been known to take the free water taxis up and down the river just for fun, checking out the local flora and fauna and enjoying the sun (or sunsets).

The Sassagoula River boats run between Disney Springs and the resorts at Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, and both Port Orleans-Riverside and Port Orleans-French Quarter. 

 

Unfortunately, the vagaries of Florida weather has made the use of those water taxis temporarily unavailable, as water levels in the Sassagoula River are currently too low for the boats to operate safely.

  
In the meantime, additional Disney bus service is being offered between the Springs and the Resorts from the Town Center Bus Depot area. It can be found between the Orange and Lime garages at Disney Springs.

Central Florida is approaching the “rainy season” of the year, so hopefully water levels will return to normal before too long. Signs at the loading docks are informing guests as to whether boats are operating each day.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

Sneaking in a Visit To Pecos Bill

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 25, 2024

 

Back in the day, Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe at Disney World was one of our favorite quick-serve stops.  It was a great place to grab a late night on-the-go dinner while waiting for the nighttime parade to come through (remember those?).  We’d grab our entrées from the counter, load up at the thrilling all-you-can-fit-on-your-plate fixins’ bar, and park ourselves on the curb out front, claiming a front row spot for the parade while enjoying our meal.

Post-COVID, though, the fixins’ bar did not return when Pecos Bill reopened.  So sad, but thoroughly understandable.  Unfortunately, it also meant that we now tended to blow off Pecos Bill, and head to other spots like Columbia Harbor House instead.

 
That perhaps was a tactical mistake on our part.  On a recent visit to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to once again lunch at Pecos, due mainly to speculative rumors among the bloggers and vloggers that with all the construction in Frontierland, Pecos Bill’s place could be in for some updating.  (Hmmm… beignets, anyone?). While Disney itself has been tight-lipped about any potential changes to that area of the park once Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens, and with a refreshed show coming to the Country Bears, we decided that, just in case Pecos Bill was due to ride off into the sunset, we’d pay him another visit.

The lunch menu at the restaurant is the same as the dinner one, and while it is a very limited menu in scope, it is a very good one.  We opted for the Taco Trio ($10.99), a set of three flour tortillas served with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream and salsa, and a good amount of the various meat fillings.  This eminently affordable dish was pretty substantial for the price, and offered one each of the seasoned ground beef, seasoned chicken, or pork carnitas.  (We also found out from the cashier that you can mix and match those fillings as you’d like. You can have all three of your tortillas in the same meat choice if you want.)

We opted for the three different fillings in our tortillas.  The meat was very tender and moist,  nicely seasoned, with just a hint of a kick to the ground beef.  Totally fine for the spice-adverse!  While the unlimited fixins’ bar is long gone, the restaurant does serve up most of the toppings alongside the taco trio – you can assemble them as you like.  We received two packets of sour cream, a small tub of salsa, a paper tray of lettuce and diced tomatoes, and 2 small containers of shredded cheese with the order. Be warned, though, you’ll have to pick up a lot of extra napkins. This was a satisfying, but very sloppy meal.

The taco trio was also an excellent bargain in the world of Disney restaurants, and as we were eating in the late afternoon, it kept us full all the way through park closing. The cost of the three tacos with all their toppings was far less than most other entrées in the parks.  

 

Even the giant turkey legs at Prince Eric’s Village Market are $15.49, almost $5 more than the tasty tacos!  Eric’s jumbo pretzel is even pricier than Pecos’ trio…. Eric hawks his jumbo pretzels at $11.29.  Want a plain foot-long hot dog at Casey’s Corner?  Pony up $12.79.  Add a few toppings, such as the pulled pork and slaw, and you are looking at $15.79. So, Bill’s taco trio is looking like quite the bargain!

Pecos Bill is themed as a frontier hall, with a large “fireplace” in the entry, and even a flower and fountain bedecked indoor courtyard.  There’s an outdoor courtyard, too, and if you time it right, you might be able to catch some of the afternoon’s Festival of Fantasy parade from your table.

  
There’s lots of themed art and decorative objects tacked to the walls to keep you entertained as well.  But look carefully as you sit under them – you might find out that you are seated near Davy Crockett’s cap.  Pecos Bill is a bigger café than you realize from the outside. While it is often crowded, especially at peak dining hours, you can usually find a seat without too much trouble, especially if you head further back into the room(s). Most people stop further to the front, grabbing the first open table they spot.

In addition to the tacos that we tried, Pecos serves beef or chicken nachos ($11.49); cheeseburgers ($12.99 or $13.29, depending on toppings); a pork carnitas or chicken rice bowl ($12.29 or $12.49); and mixed green salads with chicken or pork carnitas on top ($12.29).  The most expensive meal here is a fajita platter ($15.49).

There are a few sides available to round out your meal, too, including tortilla chips ($5.49); pinto beans ($4.99); guacamole ($2.50); and some cilantro rice ($4.99).  Kids’ meals include cheeseburgers ($8.49); a beef or chicken taco ($7.79); a chicken or pork carnitas rice bowl ($8.49), or a veggie rice bowl ($7.49); and, of course, the ubiquitous mac and cheese ($6.99).  Kids’ meals come with choices of sides and drinks for the young cowpokes.

Did someone inquire about desserts?  We believe you did. There are mini churros with chocolate sauce ($6.79); peach and raspberry trifle ($5.99); Greek Yogurt ($3.19, but who thought that was “dessert”??); and powdered cinnamon-sugar doughnut holes ($5.79).

So, who was Pecos Bill, besides a Disney cartoon short from the 1950s?  Well, according to the D23archives, Pecos Bill was actually a segment of the film Melody Time, and the tale was told and sung by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. Roy tells the story of the life of the legendary American folk hero, Pecos Bill, and how he fell in love with Slue Foot Sue. Roy’s song, “Blue Shadows on the Trail,” is included in the cartoon. Originally released as Melody Time on May 27, 1948, Pecos Bill was re-released as a cartoon short in 1955.  If you are a fan of the late Patrick Swayze, you can also catch him playing a version of Pecos Bill in 1995 in Tall Tale on Disney+.

Before Disney came along though, the legends originated from a series of mythical re-countings written down by Edward O’Reilly. He published the tales beginning in 1917, claiming to have heard them from actual cowboys, who often told the stories around the campfires at night. The Saga of Pecos Bill was published in 1923. And, as is often the case, the stories were added to as time went on.

 

Folklore tells us that Pecos Bill was “the greatest cowboy that ever lived.” He was born in Texas in the 1830s, but grew up raised by coyotes because, as his family was traveling west in a covered wagon, the infant Bill bounced out of the wagon near the Pecos River (hence the name), and he was raised by the coyotes who took pity on the baby.  He was so tough as a baby that he used a bowie knife as a teething ring!

Among Bill’s constant companions were his rattlesnake named Shake, and his horse, Widow-Maker.  He often used Shake as a lasso, and in one of the tales that grew up around Bill, he used that lasso during a drought to create the Gulf of Mexico by lassoing a storm cloud in California and pulling it all the way to Texas, where it rained so much that the Gulf was formed.   In a painting over the fireplace at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café at Disney World, Pecos Bill is depicted riding on Widow-maker with Shake whirling around overhead. Shake was also a tough one, helping Pecos Bill to lasso a tornado to ride. That tornado?  It helped to form the Grand Canyon as Bill rode it this way and that, until it spun itself out of energy.

 

If the old stories are to be believed, Pecos Bill also formed the Rio Grande River. Again suffering a severe lack of water, Bill grabbed a big stick and, dragging it along, dug a deep ditch that filled with water, becoming the Rio Grande.

 
Also included in many of the Pecos Bill tall tales is his companion and girlfriend, Slue-Foot Sue, who rode a giant catfish.  Want to know where the “Lone Star” nickname comes from for Texas?  It was said that Pecos Bill shot all the stars from the sky except for one, just to impress Sue. It became “the Lone Star.”  (Some versions credit Bill with creating the Lone Star before he met Sue, so choose the story you like best.)

And you thought “Pecos Bill” was just a random name for a quick-serve restaurant. Not in the Imagineers’ world!  You just have to peel back the layers and look a little deeper.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

What Are Those Weird Towers at EPCOT?

 by Beth Keating

Parks Visit

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 24, 2024

 

There’s an unwritten rule at Disney that no matter where you are in the Resort, you need to look up, down and sideways because the Imagineers “fill in all available spaces,” and if you aren’t looking up-down-and-sideways, you’ll be missing important stuff.  Sidewalks aren’t just sidewalks, and plants and trees are often chosen for reasons other than just aesthetics.

If you’ve hurried along the World Showcase bridge recently, and didn’t raise your eyes to the sky, you may have overlooked a very neat detail.  On the Odyssey pavilion side of the bridge, you’ll find a half dozen strangely shaped towers, and you may have wondered what these sci-fi looking spires were.

  
Those poles are home to Disney’s visiting Purple Martin families.  For more than two decades, EPCOT has played host to visiting Purple Martins as part of Disney’s conservation efforts, and you can learn more about them at the 2024 International Flower & Garden Festival.

   
Purple Martins make their home throughout North and South America, migrating to North America to nest. These songbirds are only native to the Americas, and will often travel thousands of miles during their yearly migration. Their journey northward from their warmer winter homes brings them through Florida in late January or early February, meaning that their arrival fortuitously coincides with the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. They will stick around until early to mid-summer when they finish nesting.

  
And that’s what those weirdly shaped towers are for – a place for momma and poppa martin to hatch their babies. If you look closely, you’ll see that the individual, gourd-shaped houses are lettered and numbered, so that observers and researchers can keep track of the new little families. Bonus? The Purple Martins often return to the same breeding site, year after year if they liked the digs the first time around.  According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, “East of the Rocky Mountains, Purple Martins nest almost exclusively in human-supplied housing. They are dependent on us for their survival.”

I may have noticed the nesting towers a few years back, not because I’m more observant than the average Disney fan, but because, many moons ago, when I worked in suburban government in New York, we had a town wide project to increase the number of Purple Martin colonies visiting our area.  (Fun fact: Purple Martins eat while flying, making them especially lethal to the local flying bug populations.)  So, to combat our area’s mosquito population without resorting to more chemical means, one of our councilmen dreamed up the idea of encouraging residents to post their own Purple Martin houses.  Soon, local scout troops, schools and individual families were picking up plans to design Purple Martin houses for these members of the swallow family, and the birds were welcomed with open wings… err, arms. Or at least, available housing units.

In Florida, nearly one-third of Walt Disney World Resort has been set aside as a protected area. That’s 8,000 acres of wetland and upland habitats in which a wide variety of critters make their homes (and not just the Florida gators or the animatronic creatures!). More than 200 different species of birds feather their nests at Walt Disney World, both seasonally and permanently. You aren’t the only one who wishes they never had to leave the most magical place on earth!  Central Florida is on the flight path for many kinds of migratory birds, and like countless families, they too enjoy making a vacation pitstop in Lake Buena Vista along the way.

   
The EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival runs through May 27, 2024.   Stop by and see if you can spot a Purple Martin or two.  

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

Walt Disney’s Patriotism Alive and Well at Disney World

 by Beth Keating

Parks Visit

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 22, 2024

 

Leaving the Emporium one afternoon several years ago, I unexpectedly came across a very brief, but very heartwarming, ceremony just steps from the Emporium’s doors at the front of the Magic Kingdom.  The Dapper Dans had gathered to sing some patriotic tunes, and at first, I didn’t realize they were the prelude to a special event.  As a Dapper Dans fan, I stepped forward to hear them perform.

The Dapper Dans were just the lead in that day to a Flag Retreat ceremony, a daily tribute to America, and to our men and women in uniform that most park guests don’t even know about.  The ceremony still takes place today while the American flag that has flown over the Magic Kingdom is retired for the night. According to the cast member I was recently standing next to in time to catch the ceremony again, the flag was reverently lowered each day during COVID as well, even though the parks were closed and there were no park visitors there to see it happen.

  
During the daily tribute, the Main Street Philharmonic brings out the brass and drums, and accompanies the gathered crowd in the singing of the "The Star-Spangled Banner.”  The Pledge of Allegiance is recited, and a trumpet fanfare sounds the Retreat as the American flag is lowered.

 

The Flag Retreat Ceremony is also an homage to our country’s veterans for their service, and each day a visiting vet is chosen to be recognized during the ceremony and presented with the flag that flew over Disney World that day.  The service member accompanies the Main Street Philharmonic as they parade down Main Street, to the applause and thanks of assembled park guests, playing the anthems of each branch of the armed forces. 

 

The entire ceremony lasts only 15 minutes at most, but it is a quiet and moving few moments in the middle of the frantic pace of the park. The Retreat currently takes place at 5:00 p.m. at the center flagpole in Town Square in front of the train station. (Times subject to change along with the sunset.)

Walt himself once declared, “Actually, if you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them and up my spine is glowing this red, white, and blue stripe.”  (He also noted, “I get red, white and blue at times.”)

And perhaps we can also remember Walt’s gratitude that, “I thank God and America for the right to live and raise my family under the flag of tolerance, democracy and freedom.”

It's good to see that spirit still alive and well at Disney World.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

Carousel of Progress and Other Disney Attractions Hit Their Sixties Approaching the World’s Fair Anniversary

 by Beth Keating

Parks History

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 19, 2024

 

Sixty years ago, Walt Disney helped kick off the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York, and while I wasn’t personally there, my teenaged parents were, and as a New Yorker, I grew up with references to my family having attended the World’s Fair.  Later trips to Shea Stadium (yes, I know Shea Stadium is gone and replaced by CitiField) would take us past the giant globe (the “Unisphere”) and the flying saucer towers (the “Tent of Tomorrow”) that marked the location of one of the defunct World’s Fair pavilions.  If you’ve seen Men in Black, you, too, have seen those landmarks!

Photo courtesy of D23.com

Four Disney exhibits were part of the fair, which debuted April 22, 1964. Walt was quite the businessman, leveraging other companies’ financial investments in the World’s Fair displays into attractions that would make their way to his Disneyland park when the fair was over. Walt saw his opportunity to expand his own park as he was invited to create the exhibits for other sponsors. Someone else was footing the bill for Disney’s Research and Development (R&D)!

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln awed everyone at the State of Illinois’ pavilion with its previously unseen animatronic abilities.  On Disneyland’s website, it notes that Abe was “so life-like that National Geographic magazine called the figure ‘alarming’ in its realism.”  Great Moments was a project that was personally important to Walt, and it later landed at the Main Street Opera House in Disneyland, opening there on July 18, 1965. The show still thrills audiences at Disneyland today. Walt Disney explained, “Ever since I was a small boy in Illinois, I’ve had a great personal admiration for Abraham Lincoln. So when we decided to recreate some of the great moments in Mr. Lincoln’s life for the World’s Fair, we directed all our energies to that task. We wanted to bring to the people of today, the inspiring words of the man who held this nation together during its moment of greatest crisis, the Civil War.” (credit to the Walt Disney Archives at D23.com).   The attraction is now called “The Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” and has been updated with more modern animatronics, and additional films and displays.

it’s a small world, presented by Pepsi-Cola and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was a slow boat ride that showcased the beautiful artwork of Mary Blair and the gorgeous costume design of Alice Davis (with more than 300 costumes!). Both ladies later became Disney Legends. The ride has subsequently been duplicated at Disney parks around the world, including Florida (1971), where it was an opening day attraction.  After the World’s Fair, the ride was trucked back across the country to set up the “happiest cruise that ever sailed” in Disneyland in 1966.

Ford’s Magic Skyway introduced guests to an early version of a continuously moving attraction – a prototype Omnimover ride, if you will – at Ford Motor’s Wonder Rotunda with dinosaurs that are now residing along the Disneyland Railroad route. Walt Disney himself provided the narration for the ride on the cars’ radios, which took riders into the past to experience the evolution of transportation.

Carousel of Progress was created for sponsor General Electric, and it first moved to Disneyland after its glorious debut at the World’s Fair, before later being relocated to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 1975. Despite some (ahem) technical and mechanical difficulties of late, the attraction is one of the most historically important to Disney fans, in part because Walt himself had a hand in its creation. The first three scenes - the 1890s, 1920s, and 1940s – are still pretty much the same scenes that were seen at the World’s Fair, while the final scene has been updated a few times as John, Sarah, and the family moved forward in time. 

The “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” follows the American family as they “go through the 20th century, experiencing all new wonders as they came.” Walt’s theatre-in-the-round moved guests around the center stages as the decades pass by, and his revolutionary new audio-animatronics wowed audiences. Oh, and the appliances on stage? They were all state-of-the art GE appliances at the time!  If you listen to the opening narration, you’ll also hear credit given to the 1964 World’s Fair.

  

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

 

Disneyland Expansion Approved in California – Without Taxpayer Subsidies

 by Ray Keating

News/Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 18, 2024

 

It might seem strange to some in other parts of the country, but in places like California and New York, efforts by business to invest in the economy, in the community and in jobs often get rebuffed, or chased away by draconian costs. But then the same politicians who chased away business and investment will use taxpayer dollars to subsidize other businesses – you know, the ones they happen to like. Sure, it makes no economic sense, but that’s politics and government.

Therefore, The Walt Disney Company’s effort to get approval for an expansion of Disneyland was anything but automatic in Anaheim, California.

 

But Disney’s plan to expand the Disneyland theme park did get unanimous approval on Wednesday, April 17, from the Anaheim City Council. A second vote related to the project comes on May 7, and is expected to pass. Disney is pledging a $1.9 billion investment over the coming 10 years, including new rides, attractions, dining and hotels.

 

As the Orange County Register reported: “The development agreement the city is agreeing to maps out where new theme park construction could occur over the next 40 years, giving Disney flexibility to determine what exactly would be built – though all still within the footprint of its current properties.” 

 

Interestingly, Disney isn’t seeking taxpayer subsidies. Instead, the company has agreed to pay “more than $100 million in community benefits,” which would fund related infrastructure upgrades, and would “give Anaheim $30 million to use to help build affordable housing and $8 million for city parks.” In another Register report, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken was quoted, “I have been a critic of city subsidies to private corporations. I have been a critic of sometimes not working with the community … a critic of the city shortchanging itself and selling its assets for below fair market value, I do believe (Disney) did it right.”

 

Government subsidizing business makes no economic sense, and quite frankly, a private company having to effectively pay extra – on top of very burdensome taxes and regulations in California – to get its project approved is a costly precedent. 

 

Regarding payments to the city from Disney, the Register noted, “City staff are already thinking of ways to use money coming from Disney.” Of that, I have no doubt.

 

In the end, Disney got their project approved, and Anaheim got a really good deal … for now.

 

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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, the Alliance of Saint Michael novels, and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

 

The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more.

 

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Various books by Ray Keating…

 

• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. There are 19 books in the series now.

 

• Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel is at Amazon. 

 

• Order The Weekly Economist III: Another 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist, The Weekly Economist II: 52 More Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist, and The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist at Amazon.com.

 

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Also, check out Ray’s podcasts – the Daily Dose of Disney, Free Enterprise in Three Minutes, and the PRESS CLUB C Podcast.

Butterfly Landing Offers Peaceful Retreat at EPCOT

 by Beth Keating

Park Visit

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 17, 2024

 

Whenever we travel, it’s a sure bet that we’re going to step into the butterfly tent at the regional zoos or botanical gardens where we are visiting.  It’s always a colorful and peaceful respite in what is sometimes a hectic round of airline flights, business obligations, or family events.

EPCOT is currently hosting the 2024 International Flower & Garden Festival, and tucked away near Figment’s Imagination! pavilion is a delightful butterfly garden. The enclosed tent is home to dozens of different butterflies in various stages of their life cycles, flying freely and occasionally landing on delighted guests.  Disney is usually a loud and boisterous place, but stepping into this tent, it’s as if someone turned the sound off.  It’s quiet and peaceful, an oasis in the middle of park craziness. People find themselves whispering to each other.

It's a beautiful place with winged creatures all around you, but Butterfly Landing also harkens back to EPCOT’s original mission – that of “edutainment.”   You can certainly enjoy these delicate creatures just for their beauty, but you also have the chance to learn about their role in the environment.  Placed strategically throughout the walkways are small signs that introduce some of the flora needed for each stage of the butterflies’ lives, as well as ways that you can encourage butterflies to make their homes in your landscape.

  

There are a number of nesting boxes for the chrysalis along the walkways, so you can see the hatching butterflies as they make their way into the world, but there are also markers helping you learn what plants are necessary for each step of the butterfly life cycle.  Other placards give you details about individual species of the creatures.  

While this is a fascinating spot to visit during your trip to EPCOT, it isn’t just for the “oohs” and “ahhs” (though there are quite a few of those happening!). Disney has been very involved in breeding Atala butterflies, a species thought to have been extinct in Florida.  Helping these delicate flyers make a comeback, Disney has been breeding the Atala and releasing them back to their native habitat.  Atala butterflies only lay eggs on cycad plants, and Florida happens to have a native plant, the Florida Coontie (Zamia integrifolia), a fernlike looking plant, which is attractive to the butterflies as an egg site since it is an important food source for the caterpillars.

In fact, Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, on Florida’s east coast, is very involved in the efforts, and the Vero Beach climate is perfect for these special butterflies (and the Florida Coontie).  Vero Beach has reported promising new Atala butterfly populations as a result of Disney’s efforts.  (They aren’t just about the Loggerhead Sea Turtles at Vero Beach!)

The butterfly pavilion hours are different than EPCOT’s daily hours. The tent closes at dusk, and cast members will also limit the number of visitors in the tent as needed so that everyone gets a great visit with the butterflies.  The EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival runs through May 27, 2024.   

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

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