From: olivia@leland.Stanford.EDU (Olivia Williamson)
Subject: Rec.Arts.Disney.LIVE!  12/15/92  A Day in the MK
Reply-To: rad_live@gsb.stanford.edu
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 17:00:16 GMT



A correction to the previous posting, Subject "Shareholder discounts" -
the date was marked wrong, it should be today's date, 12/15, not tomorrows, 
12/16.  That's all!



A DAY IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM

We visited the Magic Kingdom today.  Crowds were light in the
pre-holiday season.  Today's high was in the mid 70s, and it
has been getting down to the low 60's at night, so it was 
definite sweater weather throughout.

Main Street looks great!  Town square has a HUGE, towering
Christmas tree guarded by an army of toy soldiers (that
are later seen, grown up, in the Christmas parade) and is
complete with presents and an operating toy train.  
Unlike the Tree at Disneyland which is approximately
scaled to Main Street, the Tree at WDW is easily 50 feet
high (completely blowing the forced and relative perspective
used in Main Street buildings and Cinderella Castle).  

Cast Members tell me that the tree takes over a month
to prepare, is trimmed into a perfect arrowhead shape, 
has extra branches screwed into the trunk to fill in bare 
spots, and then is painted with a green fire-retardant for
safety and to maintain that perfect green look throughout
the holiday season.

Everywhere there is a surface to decorate--eaves, 
streetposts, store windows--there are colorful red-and-green
garlands.  The streetlights also have wreaths whose design
suggests Mickey Mouse shapes (this in contrast to Disneyland,
whose wreaths actually HAVE ears).

The Emporium Store on Main Street has a lot of Christmas 
merchandise--Disney and non-Disney ornaments, and a really
cute red-and-green Mickey Mouse stuffed toy for Christmas.

Across the square you'll find an espresso wagon.  They do
espresso and cappucino, and also feature italian desserts
that tie into Tony's Italian restaurant in the building 
behind the espresso cart.  The espresso and cappucino have
come in real handy these past few chilly nights.  Pretty
good coffee, although I wish they could do more varieties.

There is a new video (VHS, NTSC or PAL, your choice) souvenir
of the Magic Kingdom at Christmas time to take home.  I've
picked a copy up and will take a look a little later in my
room.

Down at the Candy Palace, they're making rice-krispy treats,
dipped-chocolate candies (marshmallows, strawberries), and
I actually witnessed them making a batch of peanut brittle.

Now for those of you who frequent the Candy Palace, 
you probably know that most of the candy there is bulk 
candy packaged for Disney from all over the country; those 
of you who frequent DisneyLAND's Candy Palace also know where
to find the (rather significant amount of and variety in) 
fresh candy prepared there.  Well, I tried but couldn't 
reliably identify peanut brittle made there, versus 
commercial peanut brittle.  Sigh, for me the association's 
not enough.  But it sure smelled good.

Town Square has been prepared for the Candlelight 
Processional on Dec-20.  I've been told that it's
a not-to-be-missed show that is only held once a year, with
over a thousand performers.  I'll tell you more about this
show when I hear back from Entertainment about it.

Cinderella Castle is flanked by two (shorter) powder-blue
christmas trees, and is teched-out for the Christmas stage
show "Sparkling Christmas Spectacular" that opens Dec. 18th.
There are even a couple of snow machines...!  I can hardly
wait to see the show.

I saw "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade" a few days ago
from the Hub.  It's quite a parade, although I must say that
this is the first time I've seen it (it wasn't operating 
the last time I was down here, even though that was in 
December).  It's about 17 minutes long, and is entirely 
dedicated to Christmas (at DisneyLAND they usually just tack
on a Christmas segment to whatever off-season parade 
is in use).  There are a lot of segments: 
  Mickey and Minnie, Disney World band, Cinderella,
  Sleeping Beauty, Pooh, Country Bears, a very long, nice
  River Boat sequence, Snow White + Dwarves + Snowmen,
  a 50-piece toy soldier band (NEAT), Santa Goofy in
  toyland, Toy Train, Clowns, Gingerbread world + people,
  Reindeer, and Santa and his Elves.
I've heard the total parade cast is greater than 200.

This parade will show on ABC on Christmas Day along with
other special units, including the forthcoming "Aladdin's 
Royal Caravan".  The telecast, a 10th-annual tradition, will 
also include units featuring Beauty and the Beast, TLM, Dinosaurs, 
The Muppets, and characters from Disney Afternoon segments.  
The two hour show will also feature segments from the other
three Disney resorts worldwide.  Joan Lunden and Regis Philbin 
will host.
  
I rode Splash Mountain (Mark II) several times today, and 
will talk about it in the next segment.