I was hoping to find some interesting photos from Fantasyland in 1996, but it seems most of the photos I took there during my first visits with a digital camera look about the same as the area does today.
Sure, the King Triton statue is now gone and replaced by a Tinkerbell meet-and-greet. And sure, the statue of Ariel the mermaid is also in Yesterland, but beyond that, the photos I took that visit could just as easily have been taken this year. (Except I’d expect modern photos to be larger than 320×240!)
I suppose it might be of interest to know that Sleeping Beauty Castle‘s walk-through attraction was open in 1996…
“But Allen, it’s open today, too. What’s the big deal?” I hear none of you asking.
Well, there was the original version of the castle walk-through, then there was the 1970s update of the castle walkthrough, and then there was … no castle walkthrough. For many years.
After 9/11, the castle was sealed off and remained hidden away until it got fully refreshed and updated in 2008. The version of the walk-through that is beyond the entrance in that photo no longer exists in that form.
So that counts. I think.
About the only other thing that caught my eye was a photo I took of this:
This was a “unique” discovery in 1996. As its internet fame grew, you’d see people stopping and pointing at it, or taking pictures of it, or even asking a cast member to take one of them with their digital camera that they had to call a “computer camera” so the CM would even know what that meant…
But I digress.
If only selfies had existed back then, we might have had our first (more awkward?) “purple wall”:
Yep. That’s the official Disney blog posting about a purple wall. That should make all my odd pictures and comments here seem even better 😉
But back to that ground photo … I’m not even sure if it’s still there today, though I expect it is. Maybe no one cares any more because the original information was either completely bogus, or correct but no longer relevant. Either way, I took a picture of it in 1996. Take that, purple wall!
You know what that is, don’t you?
Until next time…