Monorail in the Evening / Permanently Closed?

Monorail in the Evening

As we were walking along the path that runs from the bus stop to the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World, a Monorail passed overhead. I already had my camera out looking for photo opportunities (something I always seem to do around there), but it was starting to get dark out, so I thought it wouldn’t be much of a picture.

But then the Monorail going in the opposite direction came along and stopped right above us. That was just the break I was looking for. I got my three exposures for the HDR, and then we kept on walking toward our destination – dinner and a Dole Whip from Captain Cook’s. Yum.

Photo location: Polynesian Resort, Walt Disney world, Florida
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Permanently Closed? 

As we were enjoying our vacation at Cocoa Beach, Laura and I decided to make a side trip one evening to Walt Disney World to eat and shop, and to take the above picture. Well okay, taking the picture wasn’t necessarily one of our main objectives, but I couldn’t go without my camera, could I?

While we were still sitting in our beach chairs in the sand at Cocoa Beach, I pulled out my phone to look at the map. I wanted to see if there might be a route that didn’t involve quite as many of the toll roads through the area, so that we might save a couple of dollars.

I put in Walt Disney World, Florida in the search box of the map app on my phone. And something strange came up. Something completely unexpected. Here it is, have a look:

Yes, that’s right. Permanently Closed. That’s exactly what it said. 

I showed it to Laura, and she said, “No way! You don’t think it really is, do you?” And no, I didn’t think it really was. Given just how important Disney is to the whole state of Florida, whether or not they want to admit it, if Walt Disney World were permanently closed, it would have been big news all over. We wouldn’t have been able to sit through the continental breakfast at the hotel without hearing something about it on the television that was always on, or from overhearing conversations of the other hotel guests. And we hadn’t heard anything.

Just to be sure, I checked Twitter while I was still sitting there. I knew that I have enough Disney-related contacts on there that if something was up, they would be talking about it. But everything appeared to be going along as normal. No angry or excited Tweets about Disney being closed. Just the usual chatter about Disney parks, wearing socks, what was for lunch, what your best friend’s pet just did, and whatever else is usually on Twitter.

With all of that, we decided that we just had to go to Walt Disney World that night. Just to check it out for certain. You know, to put our minds at ease. Just to be sure. Because knowing that one of our favorite places in the world was permanently closed would just ruin the rest of our vacation. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?

So we went. And we had a good time. And everything was open. There were no big “Permanently Closed” signs anywhere. And we were glad.

Although we still don’t know why the map said that.

Words from the Bible

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. – Proverbs 15:13