Opening this week’s mailbag, we find a lot of “Disney stuff” from contributing writer Chris Barry, who responds to reader mail on his recent article about the periodicals Disney News and Disney Magazine.
David B. writes:
I love your column! This last one is your best yet. I’ve been collecting the Disney magazine since the early 1990s and have every issue since then, all neatly cataloged in order of release. It’s great to see that I’m not the only one that misses and appreciates how great it was. I’d love to see an article on the Disneyana conventions.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the kind words. There seems to be many of us out there who love and miss the magazine. Unfortunately, I have yet to attend a Disneyana convention, but that’s definitely an article waiting to happen!
Robert S. writes:
I loved your article on the Disney Magazine. Yes, it was a bummer and even a little shocking when I got that last issue with the note that this would be the final issue! Perhaps if they do bring it back, it would be a blend of the two forms—a thin newspaper video screen device! You never know!
One thing I like to collect and look over are the Disneyland park maps. It’s great to pull them out and see how the Anaheim resort has changed over the years! Also, there are great bits of info, like shows and attractions long gone, and the passing of seasons to note. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought to keep them from my early visits, my collection starts around 1994, with only one from the 70’s. I see there are some on eBay I may need to look into! Keep up the great work! I look forward to your next article!
Thanks for reading and taking the time to respond. I like your futuristic idea for a Disney video newspaper—very Tomorrowland in spirit!
Park maps are a great collectible! We have a folder for each trip we’ve taken. Actually they’re the welcome folders that you get when you check in to a Disney resort. Each one has a set of park maps for that year, resort maps, Times Guides, some receipts, and anything else that represents that particular trip. They’re a great way to keep track of our vacations.
Wendy D. writes:
I just wanted to say again how much I enjoy your monthly column. We have our collection of Disney Magazines too. We were extremely disappointed when they cancelled the magazine. I believe there is room for both a hard copy and cyberspace articles. Something tangible is nice to have when you’re waiting in the doctor’s office or riding on the bus.
I was disappointed when they ended the Magic Kingdom Club as well. My dad was a member for years working at McDonnell Douglas/Boeing and then I used to get them from the University of Alaska when I was up there for school. The magazine was a nice benefit of that program and I was more than happy to pay for the magazine afterwards. I get the Backstage Pass for being an annual passholder and some news from the Disney credit card, but it’s just not the same. I enjoy reading the Disney sites, but am unimpressed with the Family Fun magazine we now get from Disney. I was unaware of the predecessor Disney News magazine, so I’ll have to keep a look out for those. We tried another Disney magazine that came out four times a year by another site (can’t remember the name now), but it was all ads and fancy photographs, with no real substance. I think we got that for one year after the Disney magazine went away.
I hope now that you know about Disney News, you seek them out. There are years and years worth of articles for you to read at the doctor’s office, or on the bus. I have to agree, Family Fun was nice to have, but it’s no substitute. As far as the other magazine, maybe you’re talking about Tales From the Laughing Place? I don’t recall many ads in Laughing Place, so maybe not. I still get Laughing Place and enjoy it very much. The photography is always creative and keeps me guessing and saying, “Where have I seen that image before?”
Paul S. writes:
Thanks for the great article on the Disney News and Disney Magazines. I completely agree with you on what a great source of information these magazines used to be (although I think the Disney News was better at covering the behind-the-scenes angles to the stories than the Disney Magazine was). Over the years, I’ve lucked into a lot of back issues of the Disney News and the Disney Magazines – I have a fairly complete collection of the magazines back to about the late 70s now, and I’d love to be able to find more of them.
Your article remind me about a couple of other Disney-related magazines in my collection or that I’ve seen. From about the mid-60s to the late 70s, Disney used to put out a free magazine called Vacationland; my dad would pick up copies at the information booth at Sea World San Diego, of all places! The cover story was almost always a reprint of a cover story from the Disney News, but they also had stories about other places that people could visit. The most fun part of finding one of the old Vacationland magazines is looking at the ads for all of Disneyland’s Southern California competitors. You can find these magazines on eBay from time to time as well.
You mentioned the Life Magazine article on the opening of Walt Disney World, but there was also an issue of Look Magazine from about that time on the opening, featuring the Mickey Mouse AA from the Mickey Mouse Revue on the cover. There were also a couple of issues of National Geographic featuring stories on the parks; many people know about the 1964 issue that profiled Walt and included photos from and a map of Disneyland, but National Geographic also published an issue in about 1973 that featured an article on Florida, and it had a couple of photos of Walt Disney World, including a photo in the Utilidors. I’m sure there are many more magazines with stories about the Disney parks out there to discover.
Your letter is the type of dialogue I hope for when writing an article like this. Feedback from readers is great. It’s even greater when the reader enhances the story with more information, so thanks for writing. I’d like to check out some issues of Vacationland. I actually have the Look Magazine issue I think you’re referring too. I didn’t know about the National Geographic stories. I’ll have to seek them out.
In the second half of this week’s mailbag, staff writer Andrew Rich responds to reader mail on his recent review of the Nightmare Before Christmas collector’s edition DVD as well as other travel questions.
Claude writes:
I can’t wait to see the new remastered version of Nightmare Before Christmas. My question is: with “Fastplay”, is there any way to skip the “trailer trash” and go directly to the only thing I really want to see, the main movie?
Yes, you can bypass FastPlay and start the movie immediately. There’s a pause after inserting the disc before the FastPlay features start, with an instruction on the screen to press “Play” if you want to start the movie, or just wait if you want to run through the trailers and features first. FastPlay is intended for families with kids, who want to just pop the DVD in the player and not have to worry about which button to press.
Don’t forget, if you purchase it through the link on the review page, MousePlanet will get some small referral bonus from Amazon.
Jennifer M. writes:
I was just wondering if you knew whether or not BCAA gets the same (or any) restaurant discounts in Disneyland like AAA does?
If BCAA is an AAA affiliate club, all the same discounts and benefits should apply. You might check with your local BCAA office to verify that, though.
Jan writes:
I adore reading trip reports— the completed ones! How about segregating the pre-trip reports from the completed trip reports? Thanks for continuing to provide a place for us trip report addicts to feed our addiction! MousePlanet is always the first trip report board I check.
Thanks for writing and for the suggestion about our Trip Report forums. We’re always looking at ways to keep MousePad, and the Trip Reports forums, running smoothly. Right now I don’t know if we’ll be moving pre-reports to a separate forum, but it’s definitely something we’ll take under consideration. Again, thanks for writing and for participating on MousePad!
