9/23: The Columbia Story, Pt. I

[Al Lutz]

Steve begins a series on the history of Disneyland's Sailing Ship, Part One. Discuss it here...

DIRECT ARTICLE LINK: MiceAge.com - A different look at Disney...

[flynnibus]

thanks for the research steve.. an interesting read

[BassBone]

You mean it's not a pirate ship? *gasp*

[danyoung]

Some very interesting history. Looking forward to reading more about our Columbia!

[Steve DeGaetano]

You mean it's not a pirate ship? *gasp*

Don't tell Hook.

[KENfromOC]

Great article! I can't wait for part 2. I love American history, specially as it relates to Disney!

[SeaWolf38]

Great article! I can't wait for part 2. I love American history, specially as it relates to Disney!

I'm with you. American history and Disneyland?? How much better could it get?? Great article so far, Steve, and I'm waiting w/ anticipation for the next part. :oD

[BassBone]

Don't tell Hook.

The way I see it, the Columbia like the rest of the characters in Fantasmic! is wearing a costume. She's dressed up as the Jolly Roger, but after the show she takes off her costume and her makeup and goes home as the Columbia. She's just an actress in the show.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Unfortunately, much of the "costume" is permanent, in the form of show rigging and the elimination of details (such as sails). I prefer to have the merchant vessel in her original state (in most cases, slow merchant vessels made poor pirate ships anyway).

[flynnibus]

Well - the trade off is valuable tho in the grand scheme. Just look at Fantasmic in DHS.. without the Columbia an entire sequence is replaced by a pathetic Poca/John Smith sequence which dogs the show compared to the DL version.

At least the losses in detail got a pretty good return instead of just being lost for costs, etc.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Well...my view of Fantasmic is just to the right of Swab's view, if you get my drift.

[flynnibus]

If it the tradeoff was Tarzan's Treehouse.. sure but one can't deny the pull of Fantasmic. That's why I say 'in the grander scheme' - somethings are always going to fall prey to the mothership's needs. The trade-off is symbiotic at least... Columbia does get a lot of attention because of her Fantasmic role too. She's unlikely to be shuttered like a keel boat for little reason

[devans]

Great article Steve. I definitely have a greater appreciation of this ride now. Looking forward to part 2!

[Steve DeGaetano]

Thanks, Devans! Always gald to see a new member, and always glad to reveal some of the layers of history and detail that make Disneyland special.

[evmo]

So I'm sure this will be covered in part II, but I'm wondering what the dimensions of the Disney ship are. I always thought the original would be bigger but at least from what I'm seeing measuring from google earth it seems the replica is quite a bit larger.

Stern to bow is coming out at 100 feet exactly and about 27 feet abeam.