Running Through Walt's Original Magic Kingdom **COMPLETE 10/9** - Page 7 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Ok, I am officially gutted now that we didn't make it to It's A Small World - I cannot believe I missed it on our recent trip.
I know how you feel. Our family had to miss it at WDW when it was down for refurb!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
I enjoyed all the pictures from It's a Small World!! Can't wait to check it out next week!!
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Originally Posted by Tere WDW
Great pictures of IASW! It looks like the outside is decorated in the IASW theme as well. The clock tower is also different at DL.
I think it's really that the queue starts outside at DL.
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Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
I love iasw at WDW and I can't wait to see the DL version--especially since I'll get to see the Christmas overlay! Great job getting all of those characters in the photos!
Wish I could see it at Christmas!
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Originally Posted by disney_duke
I loved Small World at DL. Thought it was a wee bit better than WDW. Couldn't even tell you why?!
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Time to get back to this! Sorry I've neglected it for so long; we've had some illness in the family, plus I started a new job a couple of weeks ago...I'm really in the mood to reminisce about my trip, though, so here we go!
We'd just finished up our first ride on Disneyland's it's a small world...
and we decided to take the train to the Main Street station to see if we could ride on the Lily Belle. It was a little later in the day than I'd planned to ask, but with the upset of the morning's breakfast, the thought of the Lily Belle went right out of my head. (The Lilly Belle was Walt's special car, which he named after his wife. You can read more about it here: Disneyland’s ‘Lilly Belle’ Presidential Train Car)
First, a quick stop before we left Fantasyland:
Then it was off to ToonTown to catch the train:
I cheated a little on this one; we were actually entering at the time, but I couldn't resist!
I'd really like a weathervane like the one on the Haunted Mansion, but I'm not sure what a bat weathervane would say to the neighborhood...
Apparently, the Fab Five left their luggage behind...
We had to wait for a bit, and then we hopped on the train through Tomorrowland to Main Street, USA. We got a nice view of the ride we'd just experienced as we chugged by:
I believe this is the sign for the Tomorrowland train station
On my first trip to Disneyland, back in 1999, I tried to take a few photos as we rode the train. They didn't turn out very well, so I was excited to try again. I believe it was here where the CM reminded me that there was no flash photography allowed, to which I responded, "I wouldn't dream of it!" You can tell from the quality of the photos that I was true to my word. Here's a few of the better shots:
There are three of the smaller dinos in this scene; Walt called them Huey, Dewey and Louie.
These are DD6's favorite dinos. In the display that comes to our zoo, there's a big one being attacked by a T-Rex. She hates that, so she'd love to see these guys alive and well!
It's exciting to me that Walt worked on these dioramas for the 64-65 World's Fair. This is almost like being there!
When we arrived, we asked about the Lilly Belle and were told that we'd have to ask much earlier in the day to even get a chance to ride this special car. We were sad, because this was the last time we'd be able to ask early in the day. The race was the next morning, and I think that they really wouldn't let us on when we've just run 13.1 miles!
We checked out the train station a little bit before moving on:
Our next stop was Adventureland, so we waited for the next train to save our feet a bit of walking. When the train arrived, we hopped on near the back, because we could see that the Lilly Belle was the last car in this train! We overheard a couple in the back of the passenger train ask about the Lilly Belle, and they were told there would be no more rides today. There wasn't anybody in there, that we could see, so we discussed with the couple whether they really let anybody ride in it or not. We figured the answer was . Here's the closest we got to Walt's special train:
Up next: breakfast where Walt ate, and Adventureland
So many great train photos! We've been to DLR twice but haven't ever ridden the train there, so I had no idea about the cool dioramas and such. We'll have to check it out on our next trip!
Sorry you didn't get to ride on the Lily Belle, but at least you got to see it up close!
So many great train photos! We've been to DLR twice but haven't ever ridden the train there, so I had no idea about the cool dioramas and such. We'll have to check it out on our next trip!
Glad I got to give you a sneak peek! Definitely check it out next time; Walt loved his trains!
Love, love, the train station pictures!! Somehow I completely missed all of that. Guess I just better return.....
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I never knew about the Lilly Belle - what a neat fact! I am so with you about the diorama - I won't use flash and I've never been able to get decent shots of it, but this last visit, my photos came out much better than previous visits.
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Great update, Beth! I also love the dioramas. And I got to ride the Lilly Belle on my ABD Backstage Magic trip. It was one of a bunch of magical moments!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I never knew about the Lilly Belle - what a neat fact! I am so with you about the diorama - I won't use flash and I've never been able to get decent shots of it, but this last visit, my photos came out much better than previous visits.
It's co to actually see things that Walt had such an important hand in. That was my favorite thing about DL!
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Originally Posted by lauriep
I'll have to remember to look for the Lilly Belle next summer!
Hope you have better luck than we did!
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Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Love the train ride--I'm going to be sure to ask about the Lilly Belle on my visit in December!
Be sure to let us know if you get to ride it!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures!
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Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Great update, Beth! I also love the dioramas. And I got to ride the Lilly Belle on my ABD Backstage Magic trip. It was one of a bunch of magical moments!
Awwww...I'll have to look for that in your TR! (You've got so many, I can't keep up!)
We'd taken the train from the Main Street station to New Orleans Square, because we were going to tackle Adventureland today. DH was hungry, so I sent him to the River Belle Terrace, a counter service restaurant where Walt sometimes ate breakfast on Sunday mornings. He had the Steamboat - Three Fluffy Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Choice of Bacon or Sausage (thanks, allears.net!) while I ran and got a FP for the Indiana Jones ride.
I wasn't hungry, and knew he'd take a while with his breakfast, so after getting our FPs, I headed to Tarzan's Treehouse. I'd asked DH earlier if he would be interested in visiting this attraction, and he said no, so I was on my own. I almost passed on it myself, but our son really loved this movie, and I had good memories of that time in his life. I'm really glad I checked it out.
I was listening to WDW Today during my run this afternoon, and Mike Scopa said he figured that Tarzan's Treehouse was just like Swiss Family Robinson, and I discovered that he couldn't have been more wrong. Yes, it's a house in a tree, but that's about all they had in common. Get ready for treehouse photo overload!
To start us off, a nice light fixture (the first of MANY!)
Up next, the view of Adventureland (you can see the sign for the River Belle Terrace):
Just like in the movie:
Look for a "random dude's" head in this photo (as my DDs would say).
Speaking of random, here are a bunch of shots that don't really need captions:
BTMRR
Scary Sabor
"You'll be in my heart..."
See the photo, just like in the movie?
What do you think: Hidden Mickey?
Continued in next post...
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Last edited by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince; 10-16-2011 at 09:54 PM..
Believe it or not, MORE photos from Tarzan's Treehouse. (Do you think maybe I went overboard?)
Does this look familiar?
I encourage you to check it out if you find yourself in Disneyland. You don't have to take as many pictures as I did.
My photo extravaganza only took about 10 minutes, and then I met DH back at RBT, where I was greeted by this sign:
DH was just finishing up, so I took a seat and a couple of photos:
When I uploaded this photo to FB, I mentioned that Walt may have sat here. My DD12 responded with: "Now tourists will come from far and wide to see where the famous Duffy sat."
When DH was done with his breakfast, it was time to
We had time before our Indy FP was ready, so we hit Jungle Cruise again. I wanted to see if I could sit on the other side to get pictures of what I missed the first time. We waited in the standby queue, because at this time of the morning, there wasn't much of a wait. I tried to take photos only of things I couldn't see in WDW.
See the one in the back climbing up the rock?
I know this may LOOK familiar, but the low man on the totem pole is different than the one at WDW. (Did you know that at WDW, he looks just like the caretaker with the dog in the Haunted Mansion.)
I think the DL boats are different from the WDW boats
I enjoyed Jungle Cruise, as usual, just as much as the one at WDW. It's to think that John Lasseter was a skipper at DL back in the day! Now, it was almost time to head to Indy!
We shopped here for a bit, picking up a Vinylmation for one of the kids.
Even though we had FPs, there was still a bit of a wait. Plus, the queue for this ride is really looooooong (especially if the family around you has never heard of deoderant!)
See the Hidden Mickey on the nose?
We really loved Indy! I am NOT a fan of Dinosaur, but I'd heard that this ride was very different even with the similar ride vehicles. It was awesome!
Words to live by!
Up next: Frontierland, Critter Country and lunch with some new friends
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Last edited by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince; 10-16-2011 at 10:54 PM..
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that I couldn't get Peter!
that the queue starts outside at DL.
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You can tell from the quality of the photos that I was true to my word. Here's a few of the better shots:
. Here's the closest we got to Walt's special train:
the train station pictures!! Somehow I completely missed all of that. Guess I just better return..... 
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I am so with you about the diorama - I won't use flash and I've never been able to get decent shots of it, but this last visit, my photos came out much better than previous visits.
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