A walk through Walt’s life
The park is quiet — something rare for Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Guests gather at Town Square Theater, awaiting tours beginning promptly at 8 a.m. Guide Anibal Soto leads my group outside, asks us to don our headsets and begins the story of how Walt Disney shaped Magic Kingdom as many fairy tales begin, “Once upon a time … ”
Disney’s Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour gives a behindthe-scenes glimpse at Magic Kingdom while offering details about Walt’s upbringing in Marceline, Mo., and using the blueprint of the park to walk through his life.
“As we develop new guest experiences, including immersive theme-park tours, we focus on how those experiences can be made extra special by being uniquely Disney,” said Jason Kirk, vice president of Magic Kingdom.
The Marceline tour is factheavy. Here are some interesting tidbits shared by Soto during my tour. Soto, who has worked at Disney World for 16 years, started by discussing Walt’s early life. (A local connection: Walt’s parents, Elias and Flora, were married in what is now Clermont in Lake County.)
They had five children: from oldest to youngest, Herbert, Raymond, Roy, Walt and Ruth.
In the small town of Marceline, the family owned a farm. Here, Walt earned his first payday for his artwork — a drawing of a doctor’s horse — and saw his first motion picture in Marceline.
The family eventually sold the farm and moved to Kansas City, Mo., where Elias bought a Kansas City Star newspaper route. This was Walt’s first job, and as a paper delivery boy, he learned customer courtesy, something Disney parks are well-known for today.
Also in Kansas City, Walt first laid eyes on Electric Park, an attraction that featured parades,