Ward Kimball - Disney Family Album

Here are a few clips that you absolutely must see weather you are are aware of Ward Kimball Disney's number 1 or not, this will give you a good idea of his home life and some of his collections. Now trains are not his only passion outside work, he also has a bunch of fire engines and old mechanical tin toys from back in the day. He also collects are and creates it as well.
See these clips

Pirates Paris

When Walt created POTC he thought a backwards dream sequence was the way to do this show and it shows today in that same form. In Disneyland Paris the Pirate's starts out pulling you up a waterfall and then dropping you down a waterfall into the living swashbuckling times. So you work your way through the battle scene and the dunk scene and then finally to the treasure scene with dead the skeletons. Here is an interesting clip showing some of the ride from Disneyland Paris. It's in nightvision and a little dark but it shows most of the show pretty well. Enjoy

The Pirates of the Caribbean Construction

Now this attraction needs no introduction, we all have ridden it and appreciate it as one of the most creative attractions in the park. Walt had a hand in all aspects of it but passed away before it opened. So despite what some think, he did see it. I have seen very few changes over the years to this attractions and for good reason. It's a masterpiece as it sits. When the pirates movies came out they made a few changes and did some other tweaks for the politically correctness crowd but I think a show is a show and shouldn't be altered for those reasons. I mean add to it but add to it because it's time to, don't add to it because some movie made way too much money!. Here are a few clips of the early days and Walt himself does some explaining here. One of the only things I really miss from this ride are the fireflies that used to be everywhere in the bayou. They seem to have ejected these from existence for no apparent reason. Come on, bring em on back, they're cheap enough to run using a few fans to blow air creating the appearance of flying insects.

Adventures Through Interspace

I used to call it the eye ride when I was a kid. I loved that ride but in the early days the visits were a bit weird for me. I always thought the machine really shrunk you because you could see it right there. The big people go in and then you could see them after they shrunk, tiny beans in little omnimovers, the evidence was irrefutable. Well apparently other older kids of the day had other ideas on how to utilize this dark ride which we won't discuss in this blog, but exciting nonetheless. Here is a good little clip showing a lot of the ride as it was before being turned into Star Tours later in the 80's.

Forgotten Disneyland Clips

This guy put together a rather creative little set of clips that shows some little known secrets of the park. I knew maybe 75% of them already, but I learned a few things watching them. He definitely has a few original undocumented ones in there that are quite interesting. Go ahead and check out these other two clips if you like the first one. Part 2, Part 3 Interestingly enough these clips also include some nice elevator muzak for your enjoyment.

The Skyway Ride

No, I will never forget going up the narrow little Fantasyland staircase up into the cute Swiss chalet and seeing cable cars going around a giant wheel driven by a huge electric motor. I think this was one of the most fascinating rides for me when I was younger, little did I know at the time that they used almost standard ski resort type lift mechanics. I couldn't believe they were safe. They would disconnect from the cable on the fly and reconnect automatically. It was amazing. I remember looking behind the walls and seeing giant overhead tracks with tons of hanging cars stored back there. It was too cool. I also remember the guys that were loading people always did it fast, opening the door, getting you in and slamming the door behind you and off you go swinging out over nothing. Quite creepy when you are 8 years old. Here is a clip showing Florida's setup complete with Autopia cars running below. It also shows a non destroyed Tomorrowland like you wouldn't find today in Disneyland. See both clips to see the haunting remnants of what was once a high tech, high capacity highly functional and popular guest transport that Walt himself dedicated in 1956.