I've been telling folks over at my website for months that a blog was on the way. In the meantime my stepmother, a co-worker, my little brother, two close friends, 336 people on my favorite WDW forum and my cat have all started blogs.
So if I don't have anything to say at least you have choices.
I'll spend my time sharing what I know about the parks I suppose, but there are many more who live closer and know more details of the history than I. There are tricks to going on your WDW vacation that may come in handy for some, vacation reports that may amuse you and days when I might just wanna let something out. In that case I apologize in advance.
So, here goes. Let's get the history out of the way first. No flashback storytelling here, I'll leave that to "Lost". My dad first took me to Disneyland in the mid-to-late 70s. Back then a trip included a stay at a seedy Hollywood motel, a few minutes looking at a proper ocean view and a visit to Grauman's before it was Man's and then Grauman's again. We would stay wherever was cheap and spend most of dad's hard earned with Disney, Knotts, Universal and Magic Mountain. I loved the thrill rides and TV and movie tie-ins that the other parks served up but like most kids I was captured by the magic of Disneyland. Even the cheap bookends of sleazy motels and tourist traps along the outskirts of the park couldn't diminish my excitement. Heck, I could barely see over the dash anyway so my eyes were just focused on that wonderful Disneyland sign, the tracks of the monorail and in our last trip that first glimpse of Space Mountain.
In that time after Star Wars and before teenage cynicism set in there wasn't anything I could imagine better than Disney AND sci-fi. Of course I hadn't seen "The Black Hole" yet but that's a topic for another day. I remember the year after this dad had to go to LA without me and returned with a trip video he had recorded all over the different parks. I still watch, and offered on one of our bonus discs the video of Disneyland. Shot on a two piece Panasonic camcorder, one big camera and a separate tape deck, he captured moments I was crushed not to share but grateful to have now. It's great to see so many attractions that are gone and how little other things have changed.
As much as I love the parks now I was never that excited about seeing WDW as a kid. I saw it as some sort of upstart competitor, some new entity challenging Disneyland's claim to fame and somehow doing it better. I knew nothing about Walt's desire to do it over, do it better. I didn't get it at all until I saw it for myself.
It was in '79 that I first got a taste of what Walt really wanted all of us to experience. I was astounded by the drive to begin with. Parents have so much more to keep their kids busy now and there's a lot more to look at on the way. I'm sure dad heard "How much farther?" a time or two. If I impressed by the remote location I was absolutely floored by the size. Every part of the park was so much bigger, grander. It was the beginning for me of a lifelong appreciation of architecture, of seeing art in a building (a fake one at that).
I hope I've kept that sense of wonder as I grew older. We never got to go back to the parks with as much frequency as I would have liked. I got the opportunity to visit in '89 and again in '97, both times with groups of friends. That last visit renewed my obsession with that world. I was telling stories to the first time visitors in our party of my first visit to Epcot. The park had not yet been completed but visitors were allowed to take the monorail ride with a brief stop at the station for some promotional materials. I remember pouring over that brochure and the excitement of seeing the park for the first time. It's still a rush to see them every time and to see the faces of people who are stepping into that world on their first day.
A friend of mine took his family and later his new baby to the parks starting about 8 years ago. He was excited about showing off the parks and sharing the vacation on video with me when he returned. One year, after editing his vacation videos together for me to see, we started talking about combining our video and photo efforts together on one big park tribute video. We weren't too surprised to see that others had the same idea and were selling them and giving them away online. With that Atomic Monkey Films was born.
It's sounds much loftier than it is but we're admitted movie geeks so we like to do it big. We made a few for ourselves and some friends, then friends of friends started asking for them and offering to pay so we went online. I started the website a while later offering a four disc DVD set. A few vacations and a lot of editing later we had our second set: Magic Journeys Vol II. This 8 disc set is my baby. I learned alot about editing and DVD authoring with the first one and put everything I had to use.
So that's about it for the history lesson. I'll talk a bit next time about our last trip to the parks a couple of weeks ago and share some more pics.
