Trail 5 of six · Walt Disney World · 7 finds
Stand Where It Happened
Match the place to a real photograph, signature or historic event. Some are exact marks under your feet; others are the surviving public viewpoint.
One URL, one search: where the resort was dedicated, and where the photographs were taken.
Your guide
Trixie the Time Traveler, the guide written for this hunt. She also guides Trixie’s Time Adventures on the TrixiePlanner front page.“Match the surviving place to the photograph or event. Stand respectfully—history shares the walkway with today’s guests.”
How this trail reads
Some of these are a mark in the concrete and some are a viewpoint that survived. Both are places a reader can stand, they are not the same kind of evidence, and each find says which it is. Where Disney does not list the place -- the Chinese Theatre forecourt is not a listing, and no register in this house is about celebrity handprints -- the house holds nothing to set beside the source, and prints that.
Your own record
A reader keeping track of what they have seen is collecting, and these pages support it. What they do not do is turn it into a score: there is no total set against another reader, no ranking of one find above another, no badge and no streak. The three difficulty words the original page carried on the Hidden Mickey finds — they graded the finds against each other — were removed for that reason, and a build that lets one back onto a page fails.
Marking a find is a convenience for a reader and not a record this house keeps. It is written into this browser's own storage on this device; it is never sent anywhere, it is never counted against another reader, and there is no badge, no streak and no leaderboard at the end of it. With scripts switched off there is no button, and nothing else on this page changes.
The seven finds
1 of 7 · Michael Jackson's hand and footprints
Hollywood Studios · Chinese Theatre forecourt
The clue
Search the concrete forecourt for the slab signed by Michael Jackson. Match your shoes and hands to the impressions without stepping on other guests' view.
What you are looking at
Jackson made the impressions during the Disney-MGM Studios era. The slab remains in front of the Chinese Theatre, now home to Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADwdwinfo.com
A third party published this and the house holds nothing beside it yet. https://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/hollywood-studios/a-time-capsule-in-the-concrete-hollywood-studios-celebrity-handprints/ ↗
2 of 7 · Jim Henson and Kermit left one slab
Hollywood Studios · Chinese Theatre forecourt
The clue
Find the paired impressions credited to Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog. Look for the playful non-human print beside Henson's marks.
What you are looking at
The slab predates Muppet*Vision 3D and records the brief period when a much larger Henson-Disney future seemed possible.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADwdwinfo.com
A third party published this and the house holds nothing beside it yet. https://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/hollywood-studios/a-time-capsule-in-the-concrete-hollywood-studios-celebrity-handprints/ ↗
3 of 7 · Carol Burnett signed before opening day
Hollywood Studios · Chinese Theatre forecourt
The clue
Find Carol Burnett's concrete inscription and read the message around the prints.
What you are looking at
Her slab is dated June 25, 1988—nearly a year before Disney-MGM Studios opened—making it part of the park's pre-opening history.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADallears.net
A third party published this and the house holds nothing beside it yet. https://allears.net/disney-hollywood-studios/great-movie-ride/ ↗
4 of 7 · The resort was dedicated here
Magic Kingdom · Town Square flagpole
The clue
At the base of the Town Square flagpole, find the Walt Disney World dedication plaque and read it from where the opening ceremony took place.
What you are looking at
Roy O. Disney dedicated Walt Disney World on October 25, 1971, deliberately naming the resort for his brother. The grand-opening events ran October 23–25.
Who published it
DISNEY IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADd23.com
Disney published this. https://d23.com/fleeting-keepsakes-a-closer-look-at-mementos-from-the-walt-disney-world-grand-opening/ ↗
- Disney lists
- Flag Retreat Field File
- Read this carefully
- Disney lists the daily Flag Retreat at this pole, not the 1971 dedication plaque at its base. Same place, different thing.
Every piece above is something this house holds, and the link goes to it. A listing establishes the place. It does not establish the find.
5 of 7 · “I am not a crook” at the Contemporary
Contemporary Resort · Ballroom of the Americas
The clue
On the resort's convention level, identify the Ballroom of the Americas—the site of a nationally televised presidential question-and-answer session.
What you are looking at
President Richard Nixon made the phrase 'I am not a crook' famous here during the Associated Press Managing Editors convention amid the Watergate scandal.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADpresidency.ucsb.edu
A third party published this; the house holds its own evidence beside it. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/question-and-answer-session-the-annual-convention-the-associated-press-managing-editors ↗
- Disney lists
- Disney's Contemporary Resort Field File
- Read this carefully
- Disney lists the resort; the Ballroom of the Americas on its convention level is not separately listed.
Every piece above is something this house holds, and the link goes to it. A listing establishes the place. It does not establish the find.
6 of 7 · A presidential speech on Main Street
Magic Kingdom · Cinderella Castle forecourt
The clue
Stand on the castle side of the hub and look back toward the forecourt where a presidential podium once faced cameras.
What you are looking at
President Barack Obama delivered tourism and travel remarks in front of Cinderella Castle on January 19, 2012. Official White House footage preserves the viewpoint.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADobamawhitehouse.archives.gov
A third party published this; the house holds its own evidence beside it. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/2012/01/19/president-obama-promotes-tourism-disney-world ↗
- Disney lists
- Cinderella Castle Field File
Every piece above is something this house holds, and the link goes to it. A listing establishes the place. It does not establish the find.
7 of 7 · The royal Splash Mountain photograph
Magic Kingdom · Tiana's Bayou Adventure
The clue
On today's bayou ride, recognize the same flume course where Princess Diana rode with William and Harry during a private 1993 visit.
What you are looking at
The famous photographs were made on Splash Mountain. The attraction closed in 2023 and the flume reopened as Tiana's Bayou Adventure, so the route survives under a new story.
Who published it
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCEStanding: LEADbusinessinsider.com
A third party published this; the house holds its own evidence beside it. https://www.businessinsider.com/princess-diana-prince-william-harry-disney-world-photos-2021-10 ↗
- Disney lists
- Tiana's Bayou Adventure Field File
Every piece above is something this house holds, and the link goes to it. A listing establishes the place. It does not establish the find.
What this house could not reach
3 of these seven finds reach nothing this house holds, and they are listed here as well as on their own line so the gap is not something a reader has to notice for themselves.
- Michael Jackson's hand and footprints — Chinese Theatre forecourt, Hollywood Studios
- Jim Henson and Kermit left one slab — Chinese Theatre forecourt, Hollywood Studios
- Carol Burnett signed before opening day — Chinese Theatre forecourt, Hollywood Studios
Nothing was attached to make the count look better. A pointer that is nearly right is a wrong pointer.
Sources for this trail
- https://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/hollywood-studios/a-time-capsule-in-the-concrete-hollywood-studios-celebrity-handprints/ ↗
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCE - https://allears.net/disney-hollywood-studios/great-movie-ride/ ↗
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCE - https://d23.com/fleeting-keepsakes-a-closer-look-at-mementos-from-the-walt-disney-world-grand-opening/ ↗
DISNEY IS THE SOURCE - https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/question-and-answer-session-the-annual-convention-the-associated-press-managing-editors ↗
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCE - https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/2012/01/19/president-obama-promotes-tourism-disney-world ↗
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCE - https://www.businessinsider.com/princess-diana-prince-william-harry-disney-world-photos-2021-10 ↗
SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE SOURCE
Every source is named in full so it can be opened and checked.
What a find rests on
- Who published it
- Disney’s own page — disneyworld.disney.go.com, d23.com or disneyparksblog.com — or somebody else’s. 1 of the 7 finds rest on Disney’s own; 6 do not.
- Standing
- LEAD, on all 7. Opening the operator’s page for the place does not open it on the claim, so a find stays a lead until a page is opened on the claim itself. Nothing on these pages is settled by having been published.
- Disney lists the place
- 4 finds reach a Field File — this house’s page for a thing Walt Disney World lists. That establishes the place. It establishes nothing about the find.
- Disney printed the name
- 0 finds reach a dated guide-map printing run off Disney’s own paper, which is the strongest thing in this set.
- This house wrote it down
- 0 finds reach a row in the Hidden Mickey workbook or the S.E.A. workbook, each row carrying its own owner and its own standing.
- A name left the map
- 0 finds reach a succession pair: the last sheet a name was printed on, the first sheet without it, and the pool of names that began printing after the gap. The pool proposes and nothing more; a person rules.
- Nothing at all
- 3 of 7 finds reach nothing this house holds. They say so on their own line rather than leaving a reader to assume more.
A printing run is Disney's own paper. Two kinds of sheet are read for it: one carries the operator's own digital text, the other was read by machine off folded paper. Both can attest that a name was printed on a dated sheet. Neither can anchor an absence, so a run states its own reading for its first and last sheet.
Where the rest of this lives
- The front door
- TrixiePlanner — plan a day on the map, and the resort year by year.
- The guide’s own pages
- Trixie’s Time Adventures — ten stops, and the places and people in them, every one standing on a page Disney publishes.
- What Disney lists
- the Field Files — one page for each thing Walt Disney World lists, and the page every find on these trails links into.
- The S.E.A. workbook
- Who Says So — S.E.A. at Walt Disney World — the Society row by row, each graded by who owns it.
- The Hidden Mickey record
- Hidden Mickeys at Walt Disney World — the full catalogue, including the shapes that are gone and the reason Disney names none of them.
- Built the same way
- Walt Saw It. Disney Built It. — six stories about what Walt saw and what Disney built, with the same evidence discipline.