The First Three...and the three that didn't make it...

As it stands right now there are almost 20 resorts at Walt Disney World, and that's only if you don't count all of the Vacation Club Villas that are available to guests. It wasn't always that way though. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971 there were only three resorts to choose from. The Polynesian Village Resort, Contemporary Resort, and Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground were completed in time for the grand opening, and for quite some time they were the only on-site option for guests to the Florida property.









Most people know the basic time line of development for other resorts at WDW, and many can quote verbatim opening dates and the exact year that Disney started differentiating between Deluxe, Moderate, and Value resorts. What many people don't know, however, is that there were resorts that were already planned, locations picked out, and plans drawn up, that were never built. These resorts were to have amazing theming and access to the monorail. As a matter of fact, if you look at early pictures of the property around Seven Seas Lagoon you can see the square of land that was already developed for Disney's Asian Resort.


This was to be the first of the monorail line expansion resorts, but plans for it were canceled. This resort was even featured in Walt Disney World literature available in the early 1970s. There was a resort built on the site that was planned for this resort. The Grand Floridian, opened in 1988, occupies the land originally developed for The Asian Resort.

The second resort that was scrapped was Disney's Venetian Resort.


This resort was to be built between the Contemporary Resort and the Transportation and Ticket Center on the shores of Seven Seas Lagoon. It was to be themed after Venice, Italy, and was to be connected to the monorail line. This project was scrapped and enjoyed a short rebirth during the 80s and 90s when the concept for the Mediterranean Resort was developed. This was also scrapped although land had been cleared for its development.

The third resort was the Persian Resort.


This resort was to be built not on the shores of Seven Seas Lagoon, but on Bay Lake. Early concept drawings of it had a monorail spur line running from the resort to Tomorrowland. This resort was also scrapped.

Although these resorts never came to be, they have become a part of Disney Lore and a very serious point of speculation and discussion by many Disney fans. I will leave you with an aerial view of the area surrounding Seven Seas Lagoon from the early 70s. See if you can pick out where these resorts were supposed to go.


Till next time, have a great Disney day!!!!!

The Other Side of the World...

One of the things that I have learned in my license plate collecting is this: The bigger the resort, the more license plates. Where Walt Disney World has had literally hundreds of license plates produced for it, there have been but a fraction of that number that have been produced for the park that started it all, Disneyland in California. This week I have decided to leave Walt Disney World for a little while and share some of my Disneyland license plates. These are not all, but rather just a sampling of what can be found for WDW's older but smaller sibling.






The last one was actually sent to me as a free bonus for an auction that I won on ebay, so I can't really complain about the condition. Till next time have a great Disney day!!!

Diamonds in the Rough...

In a previous post I talked about mistakes that have been made with some of the license plates that have made their way into the hands of the general public. The most notable ones have been the mistakes that were made on the 1970 WDW pre-opening license plates:



These are just two of the error plates that made their way into circulation. There are others such as the green mis-cut, which has no white printing and is a little longer than the plate above with the edge of another plate attached to it. There is also a double plate that has been found as well as several other mis-cuts. Steve Garner has some great pictures of these errors on his website if you would like to see them.

The main subject of this post, however, is a little gem that was discovered by my younger brother while searching for license plates on one of his WDW vacations. We have developed the habit of looking through literally every single license plate on every rack we come across just in case there are any variants in the pile. It was during one of these searches that my brother ran across this plate:


For the sake of comparison, here is what it's supposed to look like:


The error on my brother's plate, although pretty obvious, is made all the more interesting when it's observed first-hand. Not only is there an error on the Mickey, but all of the black print on the license plate is shifted over to the left. This being an aluminum plate, all of the lettering is raised when the plate is stamped, and the lettering for the word "STUDIOS" is shifted in such a manner that the lettering itself sits on the flat of the plate while the raised sections remain blank. In my opinion this plate is truly a rare find in that it's one of those errors that's just a glitch in the printing process that may not have been duplicated more than a couple of times, making this license plate a true "Diamond in the Rough."

Now, as a bonus for making everyone wait so long for a new post, I want to share another Disney MGM Studios license plate. This was a cast member only issue many years ago. The special thing about this license plate is not that it was only issued to cast members, but that it was also issued with a letter from Dick Nunis thanking them for all of their hard work. This is not by any means the norm with Disney license plates, cast member or otherwise. Normally they are simply issued en masse to the public or the cast members or to the appropriate group in the case of opening team and other exclusive commemorative plates. This plate is one of the true gems of my collection as I was able to not only acquire the plate but also the original copy of the letter that was issued with it:





I truly hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that I can get back to a somewhat regular posting schedule again very soon. Till next time, Have a wonderful Disney day!!!

Crazy Times and Good News...

To all the readers of this blog, I once again apologize for an extended down period. As the title says, there have been some crazy times going on lately that have had to take precedence over my updates here. The first bit of news is that my younger sister recently gave birth to a new daughter. She's absolutely beautiful and both mother and daughter are doing great, so I think she'll be ready soon to begin her indoctrination into the world of Disney! The second piece of news is that I have been in the process of transitioning from my old job to a new one. As some of you know I used to work for a library system as Technology Manager. I thought I was doing a good job, at least that's what my immediate supervisor said, but it turns out that other people in positions of power had very different ideas. Whatever the circumstances were (to be truthful I really don't know the whole story), the Acting Director (you read that right, he's not even a permanent fixture) decided that it would be a good idea to contract out the entire technology department thinking he could do it for less than my salary (good luck there). Rather than wait around to be fired I decided to accept an offer from a company that had been after me for some time. I am now working again as a marine electronics technician, and I'm convinced I should have made this move a lot sooner. So for the last few weeks I have been trying to prepare to leave the library and make the move back to ships. I think I'll send the library a thank you note for getting me a raise and a better job! There have also been some other happenings, but I won't get into them here. I will be getting back to my regular posting ASAP and I promise the next post will be a good one!