December 7, 2012

Location: Fantasyland, Magic Kingdom

It's our 101st week here at Days of the Week so naturally we needed to do something 101 Dalmatians and "spot" week was created! While my first instinct was to head to All-Star Movies to talk about the 101 Dalmatians section of the resort, I realized that most of you probably read Page 93 of From Screen to Theme every night before heading off to bed so I needed to come up with something different.

Then while walking through Fantasyland I realized that there are spots all over Walt Disney World: Kodak Picture Spots.

While most of these spots just feature a good place to capture a memory, there's one in particular that has an interesting find that most guests never seem to notice. Last week we talked a lot about how the ground found throughout Disney is often themed in subtle ways that most guests don't even notice the transitions taking place around them, but throughout the majority of the Magic Kingdom, the ground's theming isn't too well done. However, the one spot in the original Fantasyland area that is well themed can be found at this often overlook Kodak Picture Spot:

Here you'll find the Sword in the Stone at the top of a few steps. As the story goes, the rightful king of the area will be able to pull this sword from the stone and take on the role of King. While guests often line up to have their picture taken while attempting to take out the sword, most guests don't pay attention to the ground at the bottom of the stairs:

While it appears to be a compass, its actually a whole lot more. To keep with the theme of Sword in the Stone, Imagineers added a touch to the ground here to keep with a subtle reference to the film by making the three gray and silver points of the compass to be swords projecting from the Sword in the Stone area! So next time you are getting to a picture spot, take a look around because there is always a lot more going on than meets the eye!