Welcome to SamLand’s Disney Adventure.
Consider yourself my guest. I hope you enjoy my voyage of discovery and entertainment and find some personal value to take home.
The purpose of this blog is simple. This is one man’s observations about the Disney theme parks. My curiosity has immersed me in the design, function, impact, and history of the parks. The focus for this blog is the resorts in California and Florida. I may touch on Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and Islands of Adventure on occasion.
I hope to find a narrative balance of first person observation, solid reporting of historical facts, and the sheer joy I get when I experience that 12’ drop in the middle of Space Mountain.
So why me you ask? For a number of years friends and relatives have suggested that I start a Disney theme park website. I guess I have come across pretty much as a know it all. But I have saved many people countless hours in lines. And you really haven't experienced the place unless you have been on a SamLand tour.
Born and raised just up the street in Whittier, the park has always been there. I am as old as the Matterhorn but I can clearly see the little boy sitting on the floor of my mom’s house with the Disneyland huge map laid out, spending hours pouring over every detail of Sam McKim's incredibly detailed map. That was in 1968. That map is one of my most treasured souvenirs.
As I grew older I was fascinated by the tension between the constant change and the perception of timelessness. So I studied the park and watched how the bits fit together. And that one summer when we lived in Huntington Beach with season passes and the summer every great big band in the universe spent a week performing at the Carnation Gardens. Musical heaven.
I have two other special connections. My father-in-law, the great accordionist Myron Floren, spent one week every summer performing at the Carnation Gardens with a rocking big band. My brother-in-law is Bobby Burgess who is one of the nine original Mouseketeers. A lot of special moments have been spent in the park with those two fine men.
This lifetime hobby of trivia and observation was interrupted while I lived in Chicago but I was able to follow the resorts progress on the Internet. Got my fix at the awful DisneyQuest which mercifully closed after a couple of years.
My career transition from the music industry to urban planning was enabled by my hobby. When I moved back to California in 2000 I bought an annual pass.
I have collected all of my parking passes. I am afraid to look. Maybe someday.
Thank you for reading and I appreciate any feedback. Come back tomorrow and read the first part of a multi-part series on the urban design elements of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
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