I posted the exact same thing yesterday over at my other blog on WDWFanBoys.com, but I figure that I haven’t added any content to this site for too long. I’d really like to get Disney Abled on the ground running, but school has thus far prevented me from doing so. Now that I Have the summer to work on this, I hope to add more.

We Americans love vintage stuff. We love our vintage cars, vintage baseball cards, vintage rings. I get it. We all yearn for the days where everyone, not just people like us, found black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons to be entertaining. We want the good old days where worry and stress brought on by this age always seemed to be strangely absent in the popular sitcoms. I really do get this. It’s sentimentalism. By principle, I find sentimentalism has no place in some arenas, such as art. But if there’s one place I enjoy a bit of sentimentalism, which is raw emotion that one does not need to work for, it’s Walt Disney World. (Vacation isn’t really time I use to think deeply). So, this all being said, I’m rather happy with a number of changes Disney has made recently that harkens back to that foregone era we so memorialize with such raw and simple emotion. Take, for example, the reintroduction orange bird, or the reopening of the old Tiki Room, or the name change to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover. Some of these changes are large, some very small, but each of them has the potential to awaken memories that had been buried for decades within those of us who visited the parks as children. We have made a little fun of the name change to the TTA in the past, but really what it’s done is reminded us of a bygone era of Walt Disney World; an era of which many of us have fond memories. Disney is reminding us that they haven’t forgotten either. To me, that’s encouraging.

Disney has also made some brilliant design decisions in some of the merchandise they have sold in the past few years. I don’t know that I can substantiate this, but Disney started selling vintage tshirts before the modern day hipster arose. (The hipsters probably never heard of it, though.) Think of all the merchandise that Disney sells that has the simple image of Mickey Mouse, hands behind his back, one toe raised. That image is older than most everyone reading this, but it’s because it’s old that people want to bear it on their person somewhere. It’s an image that is familiar to generations of Americans, and the world we so desperately want to live in. We want the old days back, and Disney seems to be one of the remaining places where we can almost reach out and claim it for ourselves again.

These retro Disneyland iPhone wallpapers have apparently been floating around the web for a bit, but my wife ran across them today in her ‘I just got an iPhone for Christmas’ fervor. Being a nerd for nostalgia, I almost let some projectile tea through my nostrils with excitement when she showed them to me. Below are a few of my favorites. You can find all of them here.

I believe that one thing that Disney has caught on to well within the past couple of years is that there is a huge demand for quality t-shirts among repeat guests. Why else would you find classic EPCOT Center logo t-shirts in Mouse Gear? Despite the fact we “fanboys” tend to complain a lot about all of the nostalgia that seems to always be in danger, you won’t find us complaining about the lack of quality clothing that allows us to show everyone else what nerds we are when we return home. In fact, at this moment I’m wearing a classic EPCOT Center t-shirt I managed to acquire in 2009. Since then, the availability of classic and vintage WDW clothing has increased exponentially. They seem to really get us sometimes.

Disney also has been able to keep up with new trends, as they’ve shown us by opening such boutique shops as TrenD. Go to Hollywood Studios, and you’ll find an array of clothing options that the average 25 year old man should not be ashamed of donning outside of the parks. I’m actually proud to wear my Haunted Mansion wallpaper pattern shirt and to have total strangers say, “That’s a cool shirt. Where did you get it?” Disney is clearly doing something right here. However, all of this acknowledged, I’d say that some of the bread and butter of Disney clothing has to do with corny, but still witty, joke t-shirts. I was therefore excited today when I saw the Disney Parks Blog was announcing a new line of t-shirts to be released in EPCOT. Being a beer lover, I responded positively when I saw the various drinks of EPCOT shirt. Also, being a novice German speaker, I was also pleased with the bilingual Grumpy t-shirt. Go check them out and enjoy! Oh, and if you don’t already collect WDW or Disneyland t-shirts, I do and don’t recommend it. If you think your budget can support you going overboard on t-shirts as you already do with pins and vinylmation, you won’t regret it. Happy shopping everyone!

The fan boys will be hosting a live show tonight at 7:00 ET on LiveStream. Be there!

http://www.livestream.com/wdwfanboys

Check out the newest aerial photos of the Fantasyland construction. The photos were taken 12/20/11 and hosted on WDW Fan Boys podcast site.

http://www.wdwfanboys.com/blog/disney-worldfantasyland-aerial-photos-12202011/

I’ve been trying to figure out where my Disney Christmas photos have gone, but I gave up because I figure most everyone here has already seen pictures that are far better than mine or has experienced the magic themselves. In any case, check out the podcast I’m on, WDW Fan Boys, on Sunday to hear our special Christmas episode. It should be mediocre at worst and great at best! Happy Christmas everyone!!

I think that any of us that meets the disabled category has very specific reasons that we keep returning to Disney parks. I’ve shared part of my story in the post before this, but I want to hypothesize a bit more about why I think Disney keeps people with various disabilities coming back. I certainly don’t mean to segregate people with disabilities from those who don’t have disabilities in this. It’s just an attempt to single out what it is that Disney does to meet the wants and needs of people who do have disabilities.

#1. Disney is accessible for all people, no matter what age, sex or life challenges. I know this is a no-brainer, but think about it for a minute. How many places can people who struggle with mobility issues go where they will be guaranteed easy access to almost everything everybody else has? Disney has spent the past couple of years to make accessible those things that weren’t previously available to individuals in wheelchairs. For example, Living With the Land in EPCOT went under a recent change in which a wheelchair ramp was added to allow everybody to see the attraction. I’m sure we could think of a number of attractions that have undergone recent changes to make them more usable for all people.

#2. Disney treats all people equally. Yes, I know that there are special entrances for people with wheelchairs, and I know the guilty feeling of breezing by long lines of people during the busier holidays, but when you think about it, Disney draws as little attention as possible to those special queues. If you approach the Haunted Mansion queue in Walt Disney World, no one pays any attention as the cast member opens the chained entrance for you to access the wheelchair accessible lane. You are greeted with the same courtesy and given the same attention as any guest in the parks, and I know from my time as a CM that average Cast Members experience so many individuals who have various needs that they quickly become well prepared to help almost anybody in any situation at a moment’s notice.

#3. Disney is a safe place. I’ve paid attention to the attitudes and behaviors of Disney park guests, and it seems that the dreamy, happy nature of the parks rubs off quite quickly on the park-goers as well. Disney parks seems to be one of the few places a person can go where children don’t stare and people feel comfortable around absolutely everyone. And it really makes sense. Every time I watch Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, I feel a sense of fraternity with my fellow human beings surrounding me. I’ve watched total strangers talk, laugh and become fast friends in Disney Parks. I suspect that those same people would not give each other much time if they crossed paths elsewhere. Disney is a place that affords us time to really relax, drop our guard and simply enjoy each other for who we are. Regardless of what life situations each of us faces in the world that awaits us outside of the park, we are all equals in every respect while inside the turnstiles. And that is something that all of us, especially we who face different challenges, really deeply desire.