atreideslioness: (Family)
Ghanima Atreides ([personal profile] atreideslioness) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2010-11-10 10:29 am

Cultural Appreciation, Week X [Wednesday, Periods 4 & 5]

The portal today would spit the students out somewhere warm and sunny: the Magic Kingdom. "If the radio is to be believed, a day away from campus and the chance to run-off some energy is exactly what you all need," Ghanima announced. "I've got sunscreen and waterbottles for all of you, and if park security catches you causing trouble, I will be most displeased. Do not try to disassemble the animatronic creatures."

With this group, sometimes it needed to be said.

"The Walt Disney World Resort, sometimes shortened to Walt Disney World or Disney World, is the world's largest and most visited recreational resort, covering a 30,080-acre (47.00 sq mi; 121.7 km2) area just southwest of Orlando, Florida, USA and encompassing four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels (excluding 8 that are on-site, but not owned by the Walt Disney Company), including a campground, two health spas and fitness centers, and other recreational venues and entertainment. It opened on October 1, 1971 with only the Magic Kingdom theme park and has since added Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. This world famous resort was inspired by the dreams of Walt Disney and his creation of Disneyland in California. Its original theme park, Magic Kingdom, is designed similarly to Disneyland. Walt Disney created "Disney World" in order to have a vacation resort that was much different from Disneyland's one-day visit; this includes a much wider variety of sports, recreation, uniquely-themed resort hotels and entertainment."

"There are several anecdotes relating to reasons for some of the features of Walt Disney World, and Magic Kingdom specifically. According to one story, Walt Disney once saw a Frontierland cowboy walking through Tomorrowland at Disneyland. He disliked how the cowboy intruded on the futuristic setting of Tomorrowland and wanted to avoid situations like this in the new park. Therefore, Magic Kingdom was built over a series of tunnels called utilidors, a blend of utility and corridor. These tunnels allow employees to move through the park out of sight from guests, maintaining the illusion of the show. Because of Florida's high water table, the tunnels could not be put underground, so they were built at the existing grade. This means that the park is actually built on the second story, giving Magic Kingdom an elevation of 107 feet, or 33 m. The area around the utilidors was filled in with dirt removed from the Seven Seas Lagoon, which was being constructed at the same time. The utilidors were built in the initial construction and were not extended as the park expanded. The tunnels were only used in Magic Kingdom because of financial constraints, but they were meant to be employed in all subsequent Walt Disney World parks. Epcot's Future World and Pleasure Island each have a smaller network of utilidors."

"Now go run around and have some fun. Your homework is to watch a movie sometime this week done by Disney, to understand the impact one man's dream has had on the culture of a nation."


[OOC up and running!]
trigons_child: (Looking to the side)

Re: Adventureland

[personal profile] trigons_child 2010-11-10 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Raven took some time to explore the Caribbean area. She had a feeling the Fandom squirrels might really like it here.