When I was 6 and went to Walt Disney World (aka ‘The Diz’) for the 1st time, I threw a penny into the Cinderella fountain just beyond the backside of the castle in Fantasyland.

This was my wish.
“I wish that all the Star Wars men were here.”
Apparently, all that there was for me before The Diz was ‘Star Wars’. I remember seeing it when I was age 2 1/2 – at a movie theater on Union Turnpike in Queens. At the re-release in 1979, I cried outside a movie theater in Lynbrook after losing the pamphlet featuring the movie’s toys. It was 8 months after ‘Empire Strikes Back’ had given the biggest twist since Rosebud and I swear to this day I sat in the front row of the Massapequa’s theater at least 30 times.
Why I wasn’t wishing for Princess Leia & Aunt Beru to be in the Magic Kingdom I don’t know. But, I also used to wish for ‘Star Wars’ underoos. That wish would come a few years later (and ‘Star Wars’ men at The Diz a few years after that). For the time being, the only underoos I would wear would be superheroes, like Spiderman…
Which brings me to a little purchase the Walt Disney Company made this week…I would have thought Marvel Comics was worth more than $4 Billion. I thought Spiderman alone would be worth that. My toes curl at the thought of Spidey web-slinging across the Triple Mountain Whammy.
When the Disney-MGM Studios (I won’t call it anything else) opened in’89, the Star Tours & Indiana Jones attractions made perfect sense, especially in the Cold War like race against Universal Studios. Is Marvel Superhero Island at Universal’s Islands of Adventure now part of The Diz? If so, they’re going to have to get a separate entrance…but now have the best ride & the best roller coaster in Central Florida.

When I made that wish in Fantasyland in 1981, I don’t know if I ever really thought that all the ‘Star Wars’ men would be there, or superheroes for that matter. There is something to be said out of building from within.
Curiosity has now commenced to see how Marvel infiltrates The Diz and wonder if IOA’s Superhero Island is on its way to being Fairy Tale Island wherein the Hulk Coaster becomes named for a certain Broadway Ogre.
dillo4
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