More Walt Dizzy World, May 1972

Today we're heading to the east coast for a quick visit to Walt Disney World! These are the final four photos from my May 1972 bunch.

I love the fact that the Florida version of the Haunted Mansion looks different from the Anaheim version. It's pretty neat! And definitely more fitting for the land known as "Liberty Square". It's hard to believe that most of that structure is simply decoration, although in this case the stretching rooms stretch up rather than down. At Disneyland you are actually on an elevator that takes you underground so that you can travel beneath the train tracks and outside the berm. This wasn't necessary in Florida.


This striking structure is the home of the Tropical Serenade, the Magic Kingdom's version of "The Enchanted Tiki Room". The attraction was "under new management" for a while, but Iago and Zazu have moved out and Jose, Pierre, Michael and Fritz and all the other tiki birds have returned.


There's the building that held the Diamond Horseshoe Revue! It's funny, in most cases, buildings at Walt Disney World tended to be much larger and grander than their counterparts in Disneyland, but this structure is relatively modest. I believe that this is a restaurant now.

Lastly, and leastly, is this shot of a woman hangin' out in front of the First Aid station. Maybe there were restrooms there too. She looks angry; maybe she has a boo-boo that needs attention.

This may have been the last from this bunch, but I have a few more vintage WDW images to come!

*Note: I will be out of town starting today, and will return late Monday night. There will still be new posts each day, and I will respond to comments when I have access to a computer!

3 More From WDW, May 1972

Here are a few more photos from an 8 month-old Walt Disney World. You won't see any evidence of construction or anything exciting like that, but hopefully they are worth a look anyway.

How can you not be impressed by Cinderella's Castle? At 189 feet tall (compared to Sleeping Beauty Castle at a mere 77 feet), it soars.


In Fantasyland, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel is an authentic 94 year-old merry-go-round originally built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1917. It has 90 horses - and every horse is unique! Just like each of you, faithful readers. For reasons that aren't even worth going into, it was clunkily renamed "Prince Charming Regal Carrousel" in June of 2010.


Florida's Frontierland is looking awfully bare in this photo. I can only imagine what it must look like today after 40 years of growth. The sternwheeler named after Admiral Joe Fowler is churning the waters; does anybody know if it is basically the same in size as the Mark Twain in Disneyland? I learned (via Wikipedia) that a second sternwheeler, the Richard F. Irvine, was added in 1973; and in 1980, the Admiral Fowler, somehow suffering damage during refurbishment, was scrapped! Sacre bleu!


Stay tuned! Just a few more left in this lot.

More From Orlando, May 1972

Let's look at some more scans from Walt Dizzy World, from the early days. I admit that these three photos are not exactly the most interesting in the world, but perhaps those die-hard WDW fans will find something to love.

I am not entirely sure, but I believe that this first image was taken from Main Street Station's covered platform, near the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. Please correct me if I am wrong! Notice the Monorail beamway; and you can't miss the fabulous Contemporary Resort Hotel. Somehow I never really noticed the restaurant on top of the Contemporary (I manage to not notice a lot of stuff!); is there another place on the roof where these photos could have been taken, or were they shot from inside the restaurant through the large windows?


It sort of looks like our photographer panned to the right to take this image of the Monorail Station (complete with one Monorail train!). I think. You can definitely see the railroad tracks here. I'm trying to imagine how this same scene might look today, with large mature trees.


And finally, a third, very gray photo - possibly taken from near the location of the first two pictures? - looking towards part of the lake, and what I think is a covered boat house or landing where the steamboats and ferries loaded and unloaded passengers. On the horizon to our right is a structure that appears to be in the earliest stages of construction. Not surprisingly, I have no idea what it could be!

Walt Disney World, November 1972

Today I'm posting the remaining images from a lot of November 1972 Walt Disney World slides. Plus an extra! 

While I am woefully unfamiliar with the Florida park, I am guessing that this neat view was shot from the Walt Disney World Railroad; if I'm wrong, please correct me! It's cool that guest were able to get a much closer look at the friendly Indian Village - it almost feels like we could just saunter over and help that guy start the fire. "Need a match, bub?". People love being called "bub"!

Meanwhile, over in Adventureland, we are enjoying the pre-show for the Tropical Serenade. This isn't much of a picture, but notice that the torrent of water has (apparently) parted to reveal a tiki god, accompanied by two animatronic boids. At least I think those are boids. They're kind of hard to see.

It's time for the soothing steel drum sounds of "J.P. & [the] Silver Stars". Let's pretend we're on a white sandy beach in the Caribbean (sans pirates), sipping a rum drink of some kind. You know what would make this fantasy even better? No steel drum music! But hey, that's just me… the lady to the extreme right is having a blast.

And you may recall that I recently posted some snapshots from WDW, circa December 1971; somehow I missed this one. It is probably the greatest photo of the Magic Kingdom ever taken. (OK, second greatest).