The Sorcerer's Guide

The Fantasyland Theatre of today is home to Mickey and the Magical Map. This stage should not be confused with the other Fantasyland Theater, which closed in 1981. The difference between the use of the British and American spellings of “theater” may be coincidence, or it may have been to help distinguish these very different attractions. The Theatre is used for live performances. But the Fantasyland Theater was used for showing recorded videos. The Theater opened as the Mickey Mouse Club Theater shortly after the rest of Disneyland on August 27, 1955. Along with The Canal Boats of the World and a lot of Tomorrowland, the Theater wasn’t quite ready for opening day of Disneyland. Regardless, the Mouseketeers performed in Fantasyland as part of the Disneyland Grand Opening. Since this was several months before the Mickey Mouse Club first aired, this was the Mouseketeers’ debut to the world. The theater was also special for the Mickey Mouse Club because, at one point, it was home to 3D Jam...

Disney's new Lightning Lane Premier Pass for Walt Disney World  and Disneyland  is Disney's latest way to sell exclusivity. With a daily charge more than the price of a one-day ticket, this is a premium product for a premium price. While Disney's profits will love the new revenue stream, is it going to alienate even more guests? Even though Disney keeps building the narrative that it's expensive and confusing to visit, it's unlikely that standby lines will be noticeably longer because of the new product. Same Offerings, Higher Price Overall, the Premier Pass doesn't represent a new service being allocated to the park. The number of people that can ride each ride is essentially fixed. There are small variations based on breakdowns, guests taking extra time to load, or the number of ride vehicles being used. But the availability of a Lightning Lane Premier Pass does not  make a difference for that capacity. So, regardless of how many people buy the pass, the same ...

Height restrictions keep kids safe, but they can be frustrating. If you have ever taken kids to the parks, you know what I mean. Every cast member measures a little differently, so sometimes you make it all the way to the loading zone and then get turned away. Other times your kids are just slightly too short, and you wish they would have worn taller shoes. One of the most difficult things, in my mind, is planning trips and figuring out how long it will be ’till your kids can meet height restrictions. Especially when some can ride and some can’t, the younger ones want to know how much longer ’till they’ll be big enough. I don’t know any parents that have memorized a growth chart and can say, “My child will grow 1 inch in the next 9 months, so we should plan a trip then.” When we plan trips with our kids, we just keep measuring them and telling them to eat a bunch in hopes they’ll be tall enough for more rides. Fortunately, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has released  data ...

If you haven’t tried a Monte Cristo at Disneyland you definitely need to try one. They are by far our favorite meal at the park. And since we celebrated a birthday last week I thought I’d try my hand at making one homemade. After some searching I found this official Disney recipe: It only took a few minutes to make the batter. The batter is much thicker than I thought it would be, almost as thick as pudding, but it coated the bread easily and fried well. We used “Texas toast” instead of regular bread so the sandwiches were a little thicker. We don’t have a fryer so we just heated oil in a pan and that worked well. I realized I didn’t have any powdered sugar so I couldn’t put the finishing touch on. They don’t look nearly as pretty as Blue Bayou or Cafe Orleans, but surprisingly they tasted pretty good.

Disney has carved a strange place in the consumer’s mind. Few other brands command the love and respect of a group of fans the way Disney can. Not many people set goals to see every Six Flags park, collect every variation of Great Value pasta, or to decorate their homes like natural architecture symbols. But Disney fans try to visit each of Disney’s parks, impulse buy pins, plush, figurines, and hundreds of other collectibles, and decorate their homes to match Disney architecture. Simple themes – like the American Frontier, a European Village, or a Tropical Paradise – are instead labelled as Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland, whether they are actually connected to the Disney places or not. This is partly because of Disney’s skilled marketing teams. But the reason these teams have been so successful can be attributed to nostalgia. Disney thrives on nostalgia. Here are several websites that describe Main Street as nostalgic – one , two , three ,. It’s a common claim, but there...