The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [57]
I have a point to make about that. Chief and I didn't like being told we couldn't do something. Especially from those in charge of the place that we had dreamed about our entire lives. It put a sour taste in our mouths and gave us one hell of an inspiration to do whatever we pleased to get the info we wanted.
As a follow-up to that, this really is sort of an ultra-geek activity. You could have been hanging out at bars, picking up chicks, or playing sports, or whatever guys do in their spare time. What did your “normal” friends and family think about this? What did girls think about it?
We didn't really talk about our adventures with other people. I guess we thought that other people wouldn't care. Chicks thought we were stupid so we didn't bring it up. We had girlfriends but they never came along or cared about what we were doing unless they wanted to lay a guilt trip on us. I remember dumping a girl because she didn't know that there were two separate tracks to Mr Toads Wild Ride! I couldn't have that :)
Hoot floats in Zero-G with the Space Station family in Horizons
It seems as if the Horizons exploration was very detailed and thorough, almost like a military operation. Describe the thought process that led up to it.
What makes the Horizons exploration special to us is that we had pretty much retired from our WDW exploits by then. Chief went off to the military, our third partner, who I can't name, got into a high speed chase with Disney security and was banned from property, and I fell in line and tried to make something of myself.
The closing of Horizons rekindled a deep feeling in me and Chief. It was an amazing piece of art that couldn't just slip away like some attractions before it. We decided to use the skills we had honed to preserve it all the best knew how. We did.
What made Horizons so special? Is there anything like it at WDW now?
There's nothing there like it now. I only go to the parks if I get in free and even then I don't even enjoy it.
Why did you decide, after so many years, to start telling the world about all of this through the Mesa Verde Times blog? It seems like you guys just came out of nowhere! For us Horizons fans it was akin to a Beatles fan finding out there were 4 unreleased Beatles studio albums hidden in a vault somewhere!
Hehe. My greatest fear is that I'll die and my pics and stuff will end up at the county landfill. I was flipping through my Horizons pics and for some reason I decided to blog about them. I didn't think anyone would care and neither did Chief. It became a way for the two of us to relive the adventure and we were happy as hell to find out that other Horizons fans are out there.
What has been the reaction to the stories you’ve published on the blogs? Have you been officially contacted by anyone at Disney with legal threats? Or has anyone in the company actually said they appreciate what you did? What about fan reaction?
We haven't heard from Disney legal officially. We really don't care what they think. They can't erase our memories and hopefully every Mesa Verde Times fan has saved our pics and writings. They're too late now and this is still America.
We have heard from several Imagineers, Pixar guys, and tons of WDW people who miss Horizons. We get hits from Burbank, Emeryville, Anaheim, Orlando, everyday. We hope they're inspired by Horizons and use the inspiration in their work.
During all of your WDW adventures, were you afraid of being caught and sent to jail, or worse, banned from WDW parks for life? If not, what was it that made you so confident that you could do this without getting noticed? Rumor is that every ride in WDW has a ton of hidden cameras…
There wasn't one time that we weren't afraid of getting caught or killed. Every Horizons trip was dangerous and we want to make that clear. I guess our will to learn