Updated 04/08/08 ! *Book Club Discussion Realityland Intro - Chapter 13* About This Page:

[sparks74]

Hello everyone! We are now officially beginning our discussion of "Reality Land". I hope that everyone is enjoying it as much as I am. This week we are discussing the introduction and chapters 1-3 only. Please do not talk about anything past chapter 3 as that will spoil it for the rest of us. Also, please refer to the guidelines pertaining to posting in the forum.

I would like to know if anyone has found anything new in the introduction that they did not know about Walt Disney prior to reading it? I found the way he introduced the world to the concept of WDW to be fascinating.

[Jennifer2003]

Thanks Sena!

Just as a reminder:

To help keep things organized for the readers and moderators, we ask that one person starts a new thread for each book you read. You may want to elect one person to do this in your group.

We can make the thread a "sticky thread" for the duration of time you need to read & discuss the book. Sticky threads will always be at the top of the forum so they are easy to find.

Once we feel a thread gets too long (about 100 replies), we will start a new thread for the remaining chapters and make the new thread the sticky thread. (You can see examples of how this works in the Trip Reports forums.)

If you have any questions, please contact one of the forum guides, Shell_of_the_South, wdwlovers, or myself.

Thank you!

Also, please remember to stay within our regular message board guidelines as well, which can be found here: PassPorter Community - Message Boards and Forums - FAQ: PassPorter Message Boards FAQ (Frequentlly Asked Questions... and the Answers!)

[PamelaK]

I was also fascinated and delighted by how the whole concept of how Disney World was introduced to the public. I always knew that the land had been purchased through a series of undercover purchases, but I never realized the lengths they went to be able to keep everything top secret. I was reminded of spies that needed secret contacts in every city and then all report back to one person without a real "face." (ok that brought to mind Charlie's Angels and the mysterious "Charlie".)

The Next thing that fascinated me was how carefully planned out everything was before even the smallest pebble was moved. They had truly done their research on what would be needed to make sure that they could build and change things as needed without hindrance. I chuckled when Roy laid out the "demands" to the state of Florida. I wonder where our happy place would be if the state of Florida had chosen NOT to go along with Disney's demands.

The fact that one of the first things they did was to find plants that would work in that area and also begin cleaning up some of the waters found on the property speaks alot to how much care was put into the environment as well.

Pepsi and Coke sold at the same place together?!?!? Oh my! I can just imagine the Pepsi guy's face when he realized they had to dispense their product through a Coke dispenser. LOL

So far I LOVE it and have found several things that I didn't know about Disney in general, much less Disney World.

[janicelovesmickey]

I am kind of skipping ahead, and read chapter 4, and started 5
but will hold off...well at least try to.

As many of Walts bios I read this one is very interesting so far, alot of it I had already known, but when you get thru chapter 4, there was a lot I didnt know. so I will not mention anything of course.

I am loving this book though. I really like seeing the old photos pre-construction, and who is who.

[pea0470]

I also enjoyed the whole "keeping it all secret" way that they went about buying the land in Disney! Not to mention all the research to find out who owned the little pieces and time spent buying those up as well.

I got the book in the mail today and looked at it a bit when I was home at lunch. I spent the afternoon at work just itching to get home so I could read it!! Then I had to hold off because my husband was sick and we needed to get dinner ready and spend some time together! Oh the sacrifice!! LOL

[sparks74]

I am playing catch up today and am just getting to the mid of Chapter of 3. But, as I was reading I began thinking about how Walt passed away so early on in the beginnings. He also passed from Cancer, he had to be in a great deal of pain and discomfort as he was excitedly planning and implementing his strategy to purchase the land and begin his build. I assume he was so excited and exhilirated to be working on his "dream" that it did not matter. WOW! What a strong individual.

[Luvsun]

I am truly enjoying this book.
I had heard about all the secrecy regarding WDW. It just is amazing to me how much they did to keep everything so secret!
I think it is kind of interesting that the death of Walt was given one paragraph.
I have to wonder how long he had been sick, and did the people around him know?
I am one of those people who love the idea of "The City of Epcot". It all makes sense to me! I would have loved to live there!

[tndisneyfam]

I just love this book. I really felt for Walt in Chapter 2, when it talked about all the high rises and hotels that were going up all around his Disneyland.

I wonder if he knew while planning, even when he was dying, how big his dreams and ideas would become?

I too love all the secrecy to buy the property in Florida. Can you imagine them trying to do that today???

Ann, I believe that not many people knew he was so sick. But I could be wrong.

[iamgrumpy]

Wow I knew you all were discussing the book club but didn't realize this was the first book to read....I started reading it a few days ago to keep busy at work and i guess it was meant to be!


I found the secret way of buying the land to be very interesting. The whole routing the call from Florida to NY to CA just so the phone records couldn't be traced was amazing. Walt and Roy both new how to do things.

I found the fact that the gentleman building the Campground having to go at night and steal the furniture from another departments trailer and leaving all the other person's stuff on the floor to be hilarious!

I am only part way through chapter 2 as i can only read between phone calls so I'll add more once I am through Chapter 2 and 3!

But I love the book

[PamelaK]

Originally Posted by iamgrumpy

I found the fact that the gentleman building the Campground having to go at night and steal the furniture from another departments trailer and leaving all the other person's stuff on the floor to be hilarious!

Actually, this was not discussed in the first 3 chapters. (Unless I missed it.)

[DisneyFun-atic]

I loved how many small parcels of the land they wanted to buy were swampland lots bought by "naive yankees" who had no idea the lots were worthless. Then Disney wanted to buy it and went through all kinds of hoops to get the small lots, including purchasing better buildable lots in another part of Florida to trade for the lots they wanted. I thought that was funny.

I too, could not believe that Walt's Epcot video was filmed only 8 weeks before he passed away. I think he did a wonderful job. I really wish they could have achieved his dream of Epcot. It would have been so amazing. Although I didn't realize that people would only be able to live in Epcot while they were working and would have to retire to a different community.

[Cheriemek]

Love the book! I have a question - is the Preview Center still on property somewhere? If not, when did they take it down?

And when they talked about how best to do PR for the newly emerging park - I am surprised that the author didn't mentio the Walt Disney World (which at some point became The Wonderful World of Color). My dream to someday see Disney World began on that show. Didn't they talk about building DW ?

[sparks74]

Originally Posted by iamgrumpy

Wow I knew you all were discussing the book club but didn't realize this was the first book to read....I started reading it a few days ago to keep busy at work and i guess it was meant to be!

I found the secret way of buying the land to be very interesting. The whole routing the call from Florida to NY to CA just so the phone records couldn't be traced was amazing. Walt and Roy both new how to do things.

I found the fact that the gentleman building the Campground having to go at night and steal the furniture from another departments trailer and leaving all the other person's stuff on the floor to be hilarious!

I am only part way through chapter 2 as i can only read between phone calls so I'll add more once I am through Chapter 2 and 3!

But I love the book

It was definetly meant to be that you join us in discussion of the book! I love this book as well.

I stealing of the office furniture was hilarious, I was imagining people sneaking around trying to act as if nothing was happening while carrying a large desk, chair, and filing cabinet out of trailer.

It would have been so much fun to be involved in the start of WDW.

[sparks74]

We are ready to move on, we can now discuss chapters 4-7. There are a lot of funny parts in these chapters as well as some very interesting challenges. What do you all think?

[janicelovesmickey]

I will be starting to read these this week. I think I left off at beginning of chapter 5, I read very quickly and didn't want to get too ahead.