Category: Photos

America’s #1 aquarium photos added.

Ever notice how so many theme parks and other places state they are the “#1” in America? There are so many polls from places like USA Today that are referenced. Well, here is another one… According to whatever poll they use, the #1 aquarium for many years is … Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield, Missouri.

This is operated by the “Walt Disney of nature attractions”, Johnny Morris. He started Bass Prop Shops and is no stranger to elaborate theming. Even their restrooms are highly themed/decorated. Remember when top-dollar theme parks used to do that?

Photos from Wonders of Wildlife, as well as the nearby ride-thru Fantastic Caverns, have been added to my Misc gallery in the Missouri section:

https://www.disneyfans.com/photos/misc/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Springfield/index.html

Indiana Jones Adventure original warning sign photo wanted

Well, we are on a quest today… Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure has a warning sign just before you turn to go up the stairs over to the other side of the ride track to board. It was a nice, authentic looking wooden sign, but it did not last. Within a few years of opening, the sign was replaced with a mode modern-looking sign with lots of extra warnings. Here is a photo of the updated sign from 2003:

Since my first digital camera (first taken to Disneyland in 1996) had very limited storage, I never used any of that storage for a photo of the original sign. Had I known the sign was going to be replaced, I probably would have.

Do you have a photo of the original version of the sign? Please leave a comment if you do, or send me an e-mail: allen@disneyfans.com

New Epic Universe and SeaWorld photos

I have finally had time to update the photo galleries. New photos have been added to the Universal/SeaWorld gallery including:

  • Universal Epic Universe
  • Universal Studios Florida – Mardi Gras celebration.
  • Islands of Adventure
  • SeaWorld Orlando – Seven Seas food festival.

I have also spent some time regenerating all the other galleries to shut off that annoying “cookie” pop-up, as well as updating the main page banner with links to the other galleries.

You can find them all here:

To be continued… My hosting lease is increasing prices again, so I may need to scale back these huge sites at some point later this year.

Truth Traveller in Branson, MO and more photos

Another small batch of photos has been added the the Misc. gallery. These include images from the new VR experience Truth Traveller, plus restaurants like Steamy Joe Cafe, Hidden Pines, and more.

https://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/Branson2025/index.html

Happy holidays!

Discovery Cove photos added…and more.

A batch of photos from Discovery Cove have been sorted and added to the Universal/SeaWorld gallery:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com

While I was there, I found some Disney Skyliner photos I never added to the Walt Disney World gallery:

https://wdw.disneyfans.com

I had completely forgot that while we were in town last year, we took a ride share over to one of the resorts and then explored the Skyliner routes. (Probably the “cheapest” day to spend in Orlando, if you don’t stop and buy food and drink while visiting them 😉

I am still going through the VR360 footage and uploading it to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube Channel as time permits:

https://www.youtube.com/@ParkHoppingInVR

There are a few nighttime ones taken at Universal Epic Universe in the Dark Universe area of the park. They are pretty cool to watch, even if the low-light quality is pretty poor. It is a much more accurate way to “see” what it is like in that immersive area compared to photos.

I also have a similar on walking through the portal (green pipe) to Super Nintendo World all the way to the entrance to Donkey Kong Country. These, and more, will be showing up soon-ish.

Meanwhile, my submission to Google Street View of the walking path from Stella Nova Resort to the entrance of Universal Epic Universe has been processing for 11 days so far. While it is promising that it did not get rejected the first day, as often is the case (gaps in the GPS signal being the usual suspect), it is bothersome that it is taking this long. I am now bracing for some new error telling me to try again.

More to come, I am sure.

Universal Epic Universe (and more) photos being added…

Thousands of photos taken last week at Universal Epic Universe have been sorted, and are currently being generated into a gallery. It will take a day or so to get it all complete and uploaded, but they will be in the Universal-SeaWorld gallery:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com

I have also fixed some mistakes (misspelling of “Sapphire Falls”, having the wrong Water Taxi destination, moving some files to where they need to be), but nothing significant.

There are also new photos from Universal Studios Florida, CityWalk, Islands of Adventure, and resorts such as the new Stella Nova, and visits to Aventura, Hard Rock Hotel, and even Grand Helios Hotel (with its downstairs bar, and upstairs bar). Lots of new stuff in this one.

And Discovery Cove still needs to be sorted, including underwater photos from the SeaVenture uncharge experience.

More to come…

Did Disney World Christmas lights end up in Missouri?

During a recent trip to Orlando, I heard an interesting tidbit concerning the fate of the The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney/MGM Studios. Disney had this display in their park from 1995 until 2016, when it was removed due to construction of the new Star Wars land. Here are some photos I took in 2006:

https://wdw.disneyfans.com/DisneyMGMStudios/DMGM2006/OsborneFamilyFestivalOfLights/index.html

A bartender at one of the Universal resorts heard us mention Silver Dollar City and came over. He was originally from Arkansas, and that is where the Osborne’s originally had their display before it went to Walt Disney World.

He said that Silver Dollar City ended up with (some of?) these displays after they were removed from Disney, but they were not allowed to mention where they came from. This is similar to when certain off-the-shelf rides from Disney ended up somewhere else, but the new owner was not supposed to tell folks “it’s a Disney ride!”

Indeed, when we first visited the Silver Dollar City event in 2024, there were a number of displays that really reminded us of the Disney/MGM displays.

Silver Dollar City Christmas, 2024.

He said there were side-by-side photos online that showed some of the former Disney displays and the current Silver Dollar City ones.

Does anyone reading this know more? Please leave a comment. If we drive down to SDC this Christmas season, I may take the photos I took at D/MGM with me and see if I can spot anything that looks like a match.

Until then…

Silver Dollar City 2025 in Google Street View

Although Google has driven around Silver Dollar City, as well as down a restricted employee-only road a bit, and users have contributed many 360 “photo spheres” from inside the park, there does not appear to have been any Street View inside the park.

Until now.

On a recent visit, I roamed the park a bit with my 360 camera. The footage was submitted to Google and has since been approved. If you go to maps.google.com (or use the app on your phone/tablet) and search “Silver Dollar City,” you can turn on the Street View layer and see where I roamed:

You will find many small blue circles which are 360 photos submitted by others over the years. Be sure to check them out.

You can also click on the blue line and begin exploring the park — or at least the portion of the park I explored. I still do not know my way around this park very well so I ended up finding alot of “dead end” areas and having to backtrack.

But hey, you can see Southern Gospel Picnic in full effect!

Have fun roaming around. If you have a 360 camera, consider contributing more footage to Street View. It is a great way to “look back in time” and see how things used to look as the park continues to evolve.

Until next time…

Lost Island 2025 in Google Street View

The 360 footage I submitted to Google Street View from Lost Island 2025 has been approved. You can go into maps.google.com, search for Lost Island theme park, then click on the Street View layer to see where I went. This time, I recorded one continuous path from the entrance all the way around the park then back to the entrance:

There are some random “squiggles” there as well, which were recorded in 2024.

If you did not make it to the park this year, you can now “see” where the new Fire Runner coaster is located:

Since I submitted footage of this area in 2024 as well, you can click back in time and see what it looked like before the coaster was there.

Have fun!

More from Silver Dollar City and Branson

The Theme Parks gallery has been updated again with another batch of photos from Silver Dollar City. This updated adds some places we’ve never seen before, such as areas around rides we’d never made it to (Giant Barn Swing, for one).

https://themeparks.disneyfans.com/SilverDollarCity/index.html

There are also updates to the Other Places gallery with some new images from the Branson area, including first-time visits to two of the Crazy Craig’s restaurants.

https://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Missouri/index.html

And the updates will continue. . .