The WDW Radio Show - Your Walt Disney World Information Station Lou Mongello - Disney Expert, Host, Author, and Speaker

This week, we look at the origins of Walt Disney’s True Life Adventure series, the Academy Award winning films that were not only entertaining, but important. I am joined by Didier Ghez, author of “The Origins of Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures.” We’ll explore how and why Walt Disney started making documentary films, including his personal attention to and concerns about the vanishing frontier, and how these films helped influence the way that nature and conservation were and are portrayed in media.

Since on our last episode of the show, we imagined Walt Disney World resort concepts that could be and we’d like to see, this week, we go back in time not just on the show to 2008 and Show # 91, but way back to a time before Walt Disney World had even opened. We’ll metaphorically trek through the Florida swamps, as we take a close look at a Walt Disney World we never knew by exploring the Lost Resorts of the Magic Kingdom. The exotic Asian, Persian, and Venetian resorts would have been built along the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon (hence its name) as part of Phase One. We’ll take a fun look back at what was supposed to be and might have been, with a little wondering and wishing as well.

This week, we play armchair Imagineer and get creative as we share our Top Ten Walt Disney World Resort concepts, including details about theming, dining, activities, and location.

The closing of the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser… and the good that may come from it. From our conversation on WDW Radio LIVE and in the WDW Radio Clubhouse.

Join me at the table at one of my favorite lounges in Walt Disney World, Nomad Lounge in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We review not just the entire (large) menu, but the entire experience, as I do something I’ve never done before.

Stay tuned for an announcement of our next WDW Radio group (family) adventure… or should I say, Adventures.

On last night’s WDW Radio LIVE show (WDWRadioLIVE.com), I brought you with me to and through Disney’s Polynesian Resort for a walking tour at sunset of the grounds and Great Ceremonial House. We also looked at and discussed the construction of the new Disney Vacation Club Tower, and I remarked how the idea of a tower at this location was not something new, but was planned for from the very beginning, as early concepts for Disney’s Polynesian Resort featured a 12-story tower before evolving into a more architecturally authentic “village” layout.

So in the spirit of aloha and the origins of Disney’s Polynesian Resort, I went back into the Archives this week to Show 111, where we boarded my Walt Disney World Wayback Machine and looked at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort through the years… at least up until 2009 when the episode first released. We turned back the clock to a time before Walt Disney World was even a vision in Walt’s mind, and look at how his personal interests influenced what would become the model for themed resorts that would follow. We explored the Polynesian Village through the years and looked at some of its additions, changes and lost experiences. It’s also interesting to hear how we discussed what the resort was like today (today being 2009), and then speculated as to what the future may hold… or should I say may have held. Were we right? Let’s see…