Tuesday, March 20 2001

Good morning and welcome to Day 4 of the 8th Annual Spring Training Trek 2001!

It's day four of Spring Training Trek 2001 - A Baseball Odyssey.  It is a beautiful sunny but not at Disney.  Today is an away game and with the cost of car rentals, I have chosen not to visit away games this year.  So instead, I am making a special trip to the Magic Kingdom.  In past years, I have taken you to and through the Magic Kingdom.  Today I will take you behind the scenes and underground.

The Keys to the Kingdom tour is a 4 1/2 hour tour of Disney's original theme park that takes you back stage and gives you a peek how the magic is done.  First, we began with a lesson in forced perspective.  The buildings in Main Street USA are 3 stories tall.  Or so they appear. Actually, the ground floor is 7/8s normal height.  The second floor is only 5/8s, and the top floor is 3/8s.  From the perspective on the ground, however, the building looks normal size.  Cinderella's castle uses the same technique to look imposing even though it is no more than 199 ft. above sea level.

A Disney tradition is for artists to sign their work with little telltale designs.  Recognition is made by adding cast members' names to the design.  The upper floor windows contain names of proprietors as credits for individuals who over the years have made significant contributions to Disney World.  In the center of Main Street USA is Roy Disney with Minnie Mouse.  In the hub in front of the castle is Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse.  Story goes (and Disney is all about stories) that Roy and Minnie are waiting at the front of the park for Walt and Mickey to make one last trip down Main Street after Walt's passing.

Our first stop was Tomorrow land, where we took a ride on the Carousel of progress.  This attraction reflected Walt Disney's idea of demonstrating the technologies of tomorrow, using electro-magnetic induction to speed cars along a track.  Walt Disney believed that this technology would become a common place mode of transportation, and is what the famed monorail system is based on.

Next we made our way to Fantasy Land and Cinderella's castle.  In Disney Land in California, it is Snow White's castle.  Both castles are designed the same - only the name was changed.  The castle is actually made not of brick and mortar but of fiberglass.  Disney could not get a permit to build a castle, so he created an engineering company to arrange for a special land use permit for controlling operations from the center of the park.  On this land, he built his castle.  The second floor of the castle is an exclusive restaurant.  Above that is an unfinished apartment built for Walt Disney when he stayed at the park.

From Fantasy Land, we went where most people only wonder about - the Utilidoor.  Rumor has it that there is an entire city below the Magic Kingdom.  Actually, it is about 1.3 miles of tunnels and support rooms that encircle and across the park.  Cast members are quick to tell you that the tunnels are actually the first floor of the Magic Kingdom, and the park is actually on the 2nd floor.  In the utilidoor, we visited the costume counter were cast members pick up their wear daily.  We also stopped in a cosmetology work area where character wigs were maintained.  Another stop took us outside to the warehouse that stored the floats for the Main Street Electrical Parade (ending it's run April 1st) and the Spectramagic Parade (debuting on April 2nd).

We also walked behind Splash Mountain, looking at the reservoir where the water flume ride is drained and filtered each night and divers fish out lost items.  We popped back on stage and made our way to Liberty Square for lunch.  Afterwards, we visited the Haunted Mansion.  Known for it's technical effects, we were told that it takes much more work to maintain the horticulture.  Also, it is the attraction at the Magic Kingdom where it is bad form for the cast members to smile.

>From here we made our way to Adventure Land and the Pirates of the Caribbean.  This was the last attraction for which Walt Disney was involved in the design and construction.  It was shortly before he died that he was able to see the completed ride which featured animatronics, a technology he imagined and developed.  By this time, the nice weather had turned against us, and it began to rain.  Fortunately, the tour was about over and we made our way back to Main Street.

After a little window shopping, I made may way to the resort boat docks and made my way to the Fort Wilderness Campground.  I am sure the last thing you thought of when you began today's post was that I would take you horseback riding.  Surprise!  This is exactly what I did, on Taco, a horse that was short and feisty.  In fact, Taco tried to make his way to the front of the line by biting the rear ends of all the horses in front of him.  Can you say horse's ass in ChopChat?  Although the 45 minute trail ride was fun, this was the first activity at Disney World that I could not describe as magical.  The trail guides were courteous, safe and organized but they forgot the "Show" key to the Kingdom.  It was not until Taco had bitten his way to the front of the line that the lead guide opened up and became conversational.

Never-the-less, it was a good afternoon and the weather cleared long enough.  Afterwards, I returned via monorail to the Magic Kingdom. First stop in Adventure Land was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a roller coaster that starts in the depths of a gold mine and rockets up and around a rocky mountain.  Next I made my way to Frontier Land for a Jungle Cruise for a little witty repartee.  I would like to say it was an educational experience, but all I learned was how to tell a bad joke.

Back to Adventure Land for Splash Mountain.  It is at this point that I must regretfully report a fatality of Spring Training Trek 2001.  It is a first, and sadly it is a tragic loss.  As many times as I have ridden the flume at Splash Mountain, I have always remembered to sit on my hat as the log makes it's final free fall to the waiting pool below. Somehow it got away from me this time, and my Braves ball cap, that has accompanied me to West Palm Beach, Fulton County Stadium, the Wide World of Sports and Turner Field since the Worst to First season of 1991, became part of the Brier Rabbit Collection.

There was not time to mourn, however, because the lively carnival music of the Main Street Electric Light Parade soon came down the path.  From Pete's Dragon to the Little Mermaid, the parade shined thousands of lights on eager and excited viewers as Disney characters from Chip and Dale to the Seven Dwarfs received cheer after cheer.  After the parade, I made my way back out of the park and to the boat back to the Fort Wilderness Campground.  While waiting, I viewed the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks show from the Magic Kingdom.

The Hoop-De-Doo  Review is a dinner show continuously running 3 times a night for 27 years.  All you can eat bread, salad, sangria, pork ribs, fried chicken, corn and baked beans.  For desert, a whip crème topped shortcake smothered in strawberries.  And all you can take of singing, dancing, and bad chokes from the Pioneer Hall Players.  A fun time time was had by all, including a washboard finale.  It was a fun day, it was a sad day, it was a day without baseball.  Tomorrow will be another day, but for that you will have to wait.

Fuskie