Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida

Monday 25 April 2016. We are now starting our second week in Walt Disney World and it's starting to feel like an entire world too... We are meeting up with the family for a meal later at Disney Springs, but before then we decide to have a look at a park that didn't exist when we last came to Florida in 1993: Disney's Animal Kingdom.

It was a bit of an overcast day, but it was still very hot. In fact it reached 92 degrees Fahrenheit this day and from now on would get hotter!

This has a very different look and feel to the other Disney parks. Nature plays a much greater part both in attractions with animals and in the lush vegetation that forms the background and surroundings. We both found the humidity was hitting the roof, making this feel much hotter than the other parks. Drinking regularly is a must. There had been an Island of Discovery at Fort Wilderness in 1993. This had a collection of both wild and "displayed" animals, but was closed in 1999 after a guest died through swimming in the lake in which the island sat. His death was put down to his having swallowed an amoeba, a microscopic animal, from the water and people are kept well away from it these days.

The name is remembered in Discovery Island in the middle of Animal Kingdom. This is the hub of the park with trails leading to the various main areas. The 145 feet tall artificial baobab tree which is somewhat magnificent, covered in sculpted animals.

We have our photos taken and they ask Fran to hold her arm out. A little green cartoon chameleon is added! I somehow have the feeling that Miss Franny would not be so relaxed and smiling if they had tried to plonk a real one on her arm...

We pass through the Gates of Africa. The park closes earlier than the other parks as the many animals are returned to their pens for the night. They mostly do this of their own accord and the process takes around two hours, which for safety has to be completed before it goes dark.

Once through the gates we have to cross Discovery River, seen here extending into the Asia section of the park with Mount Everest at the rear..

Harambe is a fictional village in East Africa. It has restaurants, refreshments stalls and shops all with African-themed products. There's a 30-minute version of The Lion King presented Broadway or London West End theatre style with actors, dancers, puppetry and music.

The deliberate "distressing" of buildings creates a very different feel to that of the other Disney parks! Other little touches like low-slung wires across the street or spider's webs of electrical or telephone wiring on the sides of buildings all adds to the feeling of being in a less affluent environment.

A cannon reminds us of colonial times. Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Portugal all had colonies along the East African coast with the island of Madagascar coming under the French. Each jealously guarded their dominions.

A line forms at the Festival of The Lion King show. It being a show, the start times are known so it's only worth going well before time if it is likely to be over-capacity.

A sign warned of crocodiles. I wasn't sure if it was meant to warn of real danger or just set dressing. There are crocs and alligators a-plenty in Florida, but as far as I know they are removed from Disney property, particularly if large. That being said, they roam Florida wild, there have been reported sightings even in Magic Kingdom in the past. The only one I saw this entire trip however was at the side of a pond as we were on the bus from the airport to our resort.

We took a ride on the Wildlife Express Train. This goes between the Africa area and Rafiki's Planet Watch on a round trip and goes through some backlot areas where the animals are housed at night. We saw a couple of white rhinos in one compound but most were empty with the animals being out in the open where they could be seen on the safari rides.

Unlike the more usual carriage, seats were arranged to give a view out of the side of the open coach.

And back at the Africa station again. We'll take a safari through Africa on another visit. I waited before exiting to get a shot of the train pulling in. There were two trains running and the round trip takes around 10-14 minutes.

It was quite cool under the shade of the station - we were almost reluctant to go back out now as the sun had come out and the temperature was soaring up!

Following the path round the back of the park, we leave Africa and pass into Asia. In normal circumstances that would be one heck of a walk...!

The props, buildings and kiosks change in nature and now we are on the Spice Road. If you ever wish to know what in your house has caused the most deaths and misery to people throughout history - just look at those two little shakers in the centre of your dining table...

We are walking through the sights of India, Pakistan, Nepal et al on our way to the mighty Himalayas. The Yak and Yeti Restaurant ("Mummy, I don't like yeti..." "Well leave it at the side of your plate, Harvey") actually sells Asian and Mandarin style chicken.

Just let's have a closer look at that previous photo - that seems to be a lady desperate not to be photographed... Sorry!

We pass a part-ruined shrine. There are two gibbon monkeys playing and hiding amongst the scaffolding if you can find them. If you can't see them, there's a closer look at the same photo below.

A little spot of India, selling soft ice cream. Actually, soft or hard didn't matter - it was all soft within a few seconds...

We are approaching Mount Everest in the distance.

The mountain, home of the Yeti, has a coaster ride, Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. Possible the roller coaster with the longest name...

The mountain itself contains loads of hidden sculptures of animals all of which need to be seen from just the right angle for you to see them. I'll just point you to a few. Above and to the left of the clump of bushes on the right of the mountain's base is a seated elephant. The coaster's lift hill at the left passes behind a bluish rock which is a gorilla's (or Yeti's) head. Just down and to the right of that is another face. They are quite small on here, but take my word for it, they are there!

On this view, find the hole where the train comes out in the previous photo and compare the two photos. In the first it's just rocks, but from this angle there is clearly an animal's face. We're still not quite in the exact position to see it properly, but the dark area makes one eye with cheek bone beneath and it has a long nose. Very clever!

Disney World Holiday Index

1970s-2000s - People In Blackpool, Part 2

A couple of the photos from this bunch of candid shots of people in Blackpool come right up into the current century. Most of them were taken on the Pleasure Beach this time but there are a couple which weren't, so let's start with one of them...

I just absolutely love this one. The year is 1979 and the lady is in the middle of processing in her mind the skimpy nature of the girl's shorts. She falters and then can't resist looking back to confirm what she thought she saw!

On the Pleasure Beach and from the same year. For several years this set of Gallopers was to be found on the park south of Watson Road.

Whoops, I've been clocked! But what was it they were all so intent on gathering around? Answers on a postcard to...

By 1995 The Big One was the big draw on the Pleasure Beach. Opened the previous year, the ride followed Pleasure Beach traditions in setting a number of records: on its opening date it was the tallest and the steepest roller coaster in the world. It was the fastest in Europe, second fastest in the world and was the longest in the UK.

Ah, the old faithful! Sir Hiram Maxim's Flying Machine. It was a bit of a disappointment to him as he had originally wanted the public to experience the sensation of flight and his original intention was to fit controls to let riders raise and lower the carriages. The fairground trade (several of these rides existed), no doubt wary of the potential for riders plunging into the ground, vetoed this and he thought the end result little better than a "glorified merry-go-round!"

Whilst undoubtedly a great viewing spot for watching the Grand National coasters race for the finish line, the window looking over the track as the cars dipped beneath the paving to rise again to the station was at its best late in the afternoons or early evenings. Before that on sunny days you had to contend with the shadows of the row of buildings containing toilet blocks, popcorn and sideshow stalls etc.

The trick was to expose for the shadows. After all of these articles no one yet has admitted to spotting themselves... Don't be shy folks!

We are all the way through time up to 2006 for the last two shots (including the second one of the Grand National). This is the Roller Coaster emerging from its station and banking left to join the chain lift for the pull to the summit.

Return to Miscellaneous Blackpool Index Page

Busch Gardens Roller Coasters

We've reached Sunday 11 July 1993 in our trek through the American holiday and this particular day we left Orlando for a look at Busch Gardens near Tampa.

As we left the hotel entrance there was a distant roaring sound and when I looked up, it turned out to be the burners of a few early morning hot air balloons.

Busch Gardens was way out on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, close to the city of Tampa. It was part theme park and part zoo with enough space to have some really great environments and an overhead monorail train so you could actually see the animals. One of the features of modern zoos is they create areas where the animals can feel safe and quiet but then of course, it's less good for the visitors because the animals can find spaces to hide away. The overhead monorail was quiet and unobtrusive and had the advantage of affording the occasional face-to-face with a giraffe!

There were supposed to be some white tigers, but I only managed to see the usual orange one.

There were a couple of roller coasters at Busch Gardens that I really loved. No doubt they are old hat now and there will be bigger and better coasters but at the time these were brilliant. I'd never ridden a coaster with a corkscrew loop before and Python had a double corkscrew that took you through 360 degrees twice in quick succession. That was pretty much all it did, but it was great all the same.

Plus I took the camcorder with me and sat in the front seat and I have a shaky black-and-white-cos-the shaking-affected-the-camera video record of the event.

I was going to do the same on the large four-abreast coaster Kumba. This was an awesome coaster, it did more aerobatics than the normal up and down with an occasional loop coaster. However the staff were adamant that my camcorder had to remain with them until I had got off the ride and I have to admit, it would have been very difficult not to bash myself in the face with it on that particular ride!.

Like Sea World the park was owned and operated by Anheuser Breweries so there was plenty of Budwesier beer to be had! It was another very hot day, but we went to see an ice skating show and it was brilliantly cool, even approaching shveringly cold, inside!

We had done the overhead monorail so it seemed only right that we should do the ground level railroad as well.

A fair number of large alligators came out of the water, tails thrashing about as they tried to driver their very heavy bodies up the raised bank before they feet could get a purchase. The turtle seemed to be taking its life in its hands as it shuffled across the nose of this alligator, but perhaps it was secure in the knowledge that it tasted bad... An excellent day. Even though Fran at one point was told by a woman "I'm going to hit you - you have a mosquito on your back!" There was then a hefty thump, enough to make Fran stagger! However she wasn't stung and didn't catch any grisly tropical disease so I suspect it may have been worth it!

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Scanning Old Photos

Several years ago I bought a film scanner to be able to scan all my old slides or transparencies.

Once I started I found that I could get much better scans of the black and whites and colour negatives than I achieved by scanning 6"x4" photos so started to work my way through them. An almost never ending job as I have at least 30,000 negatives!

Every time I think I'll just choose the best ones I always realise afterwards there was another one I missed out that I want to see so I started scanning them all. It will take years of course as I could spend all my spare time doing nothing else.

The sad bit is that as I got into digital photos early on there's a gap in the 1990s where I stopped taking photos on film but the quality of digital wasn't up to having full-screen sized shots. Nothing I can do about that now!

The one featured was taken on my Canon EOS 500 in 1995 and shows the then new "Big One" (then known as the "Pepsi Max Big One" - sponsorship and greed don't make for snappy names or titles!) and the 1904 Hiram Maxim Flying Machine.