Monthly Archive for April, 2009

3 Fire Stations

They may not really secure any Kingdom they inhabit but each of them has a unique purpose and style, from the founder’s appartment Fire House, to the Firemen store… This article is about the 3 Fire Stations of the 5 Magic Kingdoms!

3 Fire Stations but only 2 design.

The first Fire Station ever build was of course in Disneyland.
Walt Disney had enclaved his privates appartements in there, just above the garage. They were to be used on the man’s ’saturday’s’ strolling and monitoring…
Then came along the second Kingdom to be build, and it naturaly came with a different Fire House to go along with that new kind of  Main Street.
The 3rd Fire Station was built in 2005 when Hong Kong opened its Main Street as a faithful replicate of the Original.

firestation_anaheim_hongkong1

Both Fire Department share the red brick and pinnacle look as well as their disposition on Town Square, for those three are both attached to their respective City Hall.

firestation_orlandob

But none of the 3 Kingdoms equipped with a fire brigade use it the same way.

Magic Kingdom’s Engine Co. 71 shelters a store where young and adults can buy goods related to our beloved firefighters.

Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland’s share the same name and look but serve different purposes. The first Disneyland Fire Dept. 105 is a simple exhibition of a horse powered fire engine. Guest can pose for pictures and feel the different tools hung on the walls. The second Fire Dept. 105 is used as a stroller and wheelchair rental office idealy located right by the City Hall.

strollers

So 2 designs, 2 names, 3 functions but then again what about those 2 Kingdoms striving without fire protection ?

Tokyo Disneyland’s lacking doesn’t come as a surprise for its very own World Bazaar’s layout rules out any chance for stand alone structures.

The only mension of a Fire Dept. in Disnyeland Paris are painted on some Main Street windows. It may come as a shock to read in this article that the French Kingdom doesn’t have its own Fire Dept. Honestly most visitors could swear they’ve seen it ! What most Disney fans mistook for a Fire Dept. there is a piece of Imagineering dressed in red bricks, topped by a pinnacle, and proudly sitting right on Town Square.

It has everything of a Kingdom’s Fire House but the name. Main Street Transportation Co. serves as a counterpart for the other park’s Fire Houses but was themed differently. Obviously to better suit the automobile twist given to the European Main Street.

This is not a Fire House.

This is not a Fire House.

CREDITS & RESSOURCES

  • Magic Kingdom’s Engine Co. 71’s picture – unfairly cropped – is from Brian from www.bigbrian-nc.com, Flickr user bigbrian-nc
  • Stroller & Wheelchair sign pictures is from Flickr user xWIZEx World Tour.
  • Thanks to Jorn for pointed out Paris’ window painting, check out his comment for more info !

Have not grabbed your Homepark badge yet ? Do it now !

17 years

Today, the European Kingdom turns 17.

200px-logo_eurodisney

It all started with a very different image which now that we think of it was a bit too 90’s anyway. That could be litteraly translated as DollarDisney couldn’t it ?

Happy birthday Homepark ! Happy birthday Disneyland Paris !

What is your Homepark ?

 

my-homepark1

What is your homepark, what is your Kingdom ?

It is not necessarily the Disney park you enjoy the most or the park you rate the highest. It is the Kingdom nearest to your home, the one your parents took you to the most willingly. It is the Disney park with the most memories. It is the Kingdom you grew up with.

Thing with our Homepark is we build on it our expectations for what a Disney venue should be.

Any other Kingdom is gonna be better or worse based on how it competes with the standards of our Homepark. That is why most Disney fans will almost systematically pick their Homepark as their favorite Disney park.

Because we always want people to know which park we feel to closer to, 5 Kingdoms designed those modest badges so that you can share it with everybody visiting your website, blog, social networking profiles anything.

All you need to do is add an HTML code and answer that simple question :

What is your Homepark?

Took you half a sec to answer, then Add your badge now !

4 Kingdoms

That’s it. In an unexpected move the The Hong Kong government decided to buy back Disney’s share in its theme park Chinese venture. They must have felt fooled by the competing Shanghai negociations.

But the 1998 deal between Disney and Hong Kong stated they would not be able to use Disney’s name shall they choose to use their buyout option.

On the other hand China in an effort to warm tensed relations with Europe have for long work close with Belgian franchiser Moulinsart which owns the rights to comic hero Tintin. They’ve been trying to associate it with an entertainment project in the country for as far as before shaking hand with Disney.

Now with this buyout move, instead of building a new venture, various sources predicts they will use the now copyright free resort and hastily redisign it so it reflects the newly secured franchise. Think Skeeping Beauty Castle turned into Moulinsart !

tintinland

oh My !

 

So without any legal response from Disney who cannot afford to upset the Chinese government while trying to secure the approving of their more profitable Shanghai project the park will be stripped of any Disney references.

Starting summer 2010 expect Hong Kong Disneyland to be renamed Hong Kong Tintinland with a six month head to the highly anticipated Tintin Spielberg/Jackson adaptation.

No doubt it will be massively promoted with the park opening.

Anyway untill Shanghai finaly makes it up for this disappointment: we’ve lost a Kingdom.

And I just changed my domain name weeks ago…