The Great Experiment

Friday, July 14, 2000: I had an unbelievably great day today.

It all started when I was catching up with the world online this afternoon, and browsing Screamscape, my favorite web site for Disney park (and other theme park) rumors. I noticed a brief note there which said that Disney's "Walk Around The World" is full and that sales of bricks for the walk would end tomorrow.

The "Walk Around The World" is a path consisting of hexagonal bricks leading almost the way around the Seven Seas Lagoon (The Magic Kindgom, the Contemporary / Polynesian / Grand Floridian hotels, and the Transportation and Ticket Center are on the shores of this lagoon.) Anyone can sponsor a brick for about a hundred dollars, and each brick bears one of seven symbols chosen by the sponsor, as well as up to three short lines of text. It was started back in 1994, and there are probably hundreds of thousands of bricks along the Walk by now.

Lots of movie stars and Disney bigwigs have their names on bricks along the Walk. There are bricks bearing the names of the children who died in the Oklahoma City bombing a few years ago; there are bricks dedicated to vacations and marriages and children. FDCMuck even has a brick there, but I'll save the story behind that for another time. I decided I'd like to have a brick with my name on it before they were all gone.

"We have five bricks left," said the Walk Around The World rep when I called on the phone to order one, "and we're only taking walk-in purchases for these last few. If you want one, you have to come by our kiosk in front of the Magic Kingdom."

I was in my car and on my way within two minutes.

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