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Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$27.95
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$18.45
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Manufacturer: Bonaventure Press
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.06875924
EAN: 9780964060524
ISBN: 0964060523
Label: Bonaventure Press
Manufacturer: Bonaventure Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 334
Publication Date: 2007-10
Publisher: Bonaventure Press
Studio: Bonaventure Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Realityland - A walk back in Disney history
Comment: David Koenig has another great book here. The Mouse Tales books have been spent taking an inner look at Disneyland in California, and he has now taken on the task of telling the secrets of Walt Disney World. This book does not only tell the story of park operations...but also draws the picture of creating this resort from inception to reality. It talks about what made it in, and what was left on the drawing board. If you have an interest in Disney...EPCOT...or just in land development and infrastructure I feel this would be worth your time.
I can say that without doubt I enjoyed this book. I have read other books by this author and found them to be very entertaining and informative.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Informative and completely enjoyable.
Comment: I read a couple of reveiws that said this book was unduly harsh toward Disney. I didn't see it, and I'm a huge Disney nerd. I thought the author was really fair. I would have like a bit more recent information (the Animal Kingdom chapter--snooze) but he obviously knows his stuff and I found the book really fascinating. I definitely thought a little more about Disney World the last time I went there (the history, how it was built) than I did in the past.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting Tale of Challenges at WDW
Comment: "Realityland" is one of the most entertaining "behind-the-scenes" books I have ever read. I'm a big Disney fan, so when I saw this on the shelf at the library I had to pick it up. The book details all of the challenges that went into building Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, and pulls no punches. Highly recommended for Disney fans, and certainly not a fluff piece.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't see what all the fuss is about
Comment: I keep reading reviews about how harsh this book is on the Disney Company. I'm an avid fan of Disney and I don't think it's harsh at all.
I will say, it's a far more interesting read than Married to the Mouse.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The hard facts behind creating the ultimate fantasy land
Comment: David Koenig wrote Mouse Tales. Realityland continues his detailed `behind the ears look,' but this time he looks at Walt Disney World (WDW) in Florida rather than at the original Disneyland in California. David's introduction surprised me: `I thought I knew most of the `secrets' of the Disney theme park," he wrote. I was surprised because Disneyland and WDW are radically different from each other. David wrote that before WDW came to town, central Florida was considerably more rural than Anaheim had been before 160 acres of orange groves became Disneyland. For example, on page 55 Realityland says that some of the 14 original cast members staffing the Preview Center during WDW construction were normally barefoot prior to being hired by Disney. Today Disneyland in Anaheim remained the most provincial of the two parks. I had thought it was obvious--Disneyland is small-town America and WDW is the big city. I am prejudiced by visiting both as a regular guest--and by taking the guided tours of both places. Mr. Koenig was able to overcome his original impression--one he earned while interviewing 250 Disneyland cast members over seven years and while researching records and libraries for Mouse Tales. In 1995 David Koenig got his `I don't think we're in Kansas anymore' moment when he began interviewing WDW cast members at the Big Bamboo Lounge in Kissimmee, Florida.
From there this enjoyable history of Walt Disney World delves right into Project X days. There is a connection between the CIA and WDW--see page 24: William Donovan (World War Two OSS chief--the forerunner of today's CIA) was a partner in the New York law firm used by Walt Disney for his Florida project. Tradecraft (as spy techniques are called) was used to hide Walt Disney Production's identity as the company acquired 44 square miles of swampland. One measure was co-opting the owner and publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, Martin Anderson. The history lesson is only part of Realityland--an enjoyable part. The role played by the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and Walt's death and the `ghost town' opening day are all in here.
The heart and of the Florida Project was an experimental city that Walt called EPCOT. Walt was the soul of the Florida Project--when Walt died, EPCOT went from bonfire to glowing cinder. That cinder was enough to become Walt Disney World. Reading history shows that Walt Disney Productions/The Disney Company has always had hard times. EPCOT Center was opened in 1982 as a permanent world fair, a second theme park near the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom.
Today's United States has more homogeneity than when Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971. That is why people like Buzz Price of ERA were hired--to make sure that culture shock didn't sink the Disney Company. Still, there were culture shocks. Many WDW guests that first year were from New York and New Jersey--and not laid-back like the majority of the Disneyland guests. The crepe craze had hit the West Coast--but the East Coast guests wanted `real food'--hot dogs! Sometimes Planning doesn't ask Research the right questions.
David Koenig's Realityland is packed with gems for the Disney fan--such as a Utilidors diagram on page 120. WDW was one of the first `green' companies--its waste water is treated so that it is fit to drink (but isn't--the treated waste water us used to keep WDW's lawns green). Page 122 goes into the innovations at WDW--significant ones.
For Mouse Tales fans, the injuries and fatalities are exposed in Chapter 8, Crash Mountain. Chapter 11, Starring in the Show, is about cast member (employee) experiences. There are uniquely WDW experiences that Disneyland cast members never deal with--wild hogs and alligators for examples. The roller coaster Eisner years at WDW are told--including the sad transformation of the world's finest theme parks into shopping malls with $100 cover charges--shopping malls that carried the same merchandise available at any mega warehouse store, but at twice the price...
So how did EPCOT transform from the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow to an Experimental Prototype Theme Park of Tomorrow? David writes on page 321 that the Spirit of EPCOT has all but vanished--on the last page (324) David explains why: "Sadly, this world doesn't produce a whole lot of Walt Disneys."
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