Hi, I'm Kate, (aka the Disney Cicerone), your guide to obscure Disney history with a dash of encouragement 💜

Here's what you'll find on my channel:

- Deep-dive Disney history you've likely never heard of before
- Lost stories of the lives of Imagineers and animators who created the parks and movies we love
- Disney parks-inspired words meant to encourage, inspire, & motivate

Cicerone literally means "a guide who gives information about antiquities and places of interest to sightseers" and that's why I'm here, to be your personal tour guide through obscure Disney history.

Whether you're someone who LOVES Disney but has heard all the usual "secrets" and is ready for more, you're someone who wants to learn a few unique things about the Disney parks, or if you just need a little extra encouragement, & inspiration, you're in the right place!

PS. I'm also a podcaster (Distory with Kate & Kirk is here on YouTube) & an author of Disney history-inspired books (available on Amazon!)









Disney Cicerone

She was just posing for a picture
aboard a tuna-sandwich pirate ship in a theme park and yet I see myself there
holding on loosely to the wheel
not really steering the ship
as the wind has blown me in a direction
I never intended to go.

I can adjust my sails
sure
I have in the past, over and over,
when the tide was not in my favor
but for now I just pause and survey

where do I make land
when the port has washed away?

I breathe
grip the wheel one last time
feel the grain of the wood under my tired hands
and finally start to accept
that the harder I hold on
fighting against the current
the more splinters I will get in my palms
so I let go
unfurl my sails
and let the wind move me where it will
because I can have an adventure anywhere I go
but not if I don't first surrender the one
that wasn't mine to keep.

15 hours ago | [YT] | 82

Disney Cicerone

This view could have been different.

While a castle and carrousel
were a given in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland the attractions that surrounded them were not.

Imagineering planned for Mary Poppins, Sleepy Hollow and Sleeping Beauty rides but then tragedy struck and everything changed.

A whole team grieving the loss of their leader chose the easier path led by budget conscious Roy
reimagining the Disneyland dark rides instead of starting new leaving us to wonder what could have been while accepting what is.

This Fantasyland might not be what it could have been.
But that doesn't mean it wasn't exactly what it was meant to be.

Where you are right now might not be what you had hoped for, either but that doesn't mean you aren't exactly where you're meant to be.

It's ok to be a land in progress.

2 days ago | [YT] | 161

Disney Cicerone

Hearing the Liberty Belle's whistle is the sound of Walt's dream coming true. He tried to travel the length of the Mississippi in a steamboat twice, but never got the chance until he built his own for Disneyland.

The Liberty Belle wasn't the first Disney steamboat (it wasn't even the first one in the Magic Kingdom but hearing its whistle calling to us, beckoning us to board and have an adventure on the Rivers of America restores us somehow. Reminds us that we aren't meant to stay where we are forever, for there is simply too much world to explore.

The Liberty Belle's whistle is both nostalgic and a call to action. You can choose to stay ashore if you want, safe with the familiar while you watch the boat pass you by and fade into the distance, or you can climb aboard and see where it takes you.

The choice is yours.

Will you be waving goodbye from the shore
or from the deck?

4 days ago | [YT] | 166

Disney Cicerone

Why Mr. Toad?
it wasn't the most popular movie or character or story
and yet it's one of three dark rides that made it to opening day of Disneyland.

Of the three things
Walt wanted people to feel in Fantasyland
Snow White brought drama
Peter Pan offered beauty
but Mr. Toad gave people joy
reminding them that they could still laugh
surprising them on purpose.

Mr. Toad doesn't live in Fantasyland
because he was popular
he's there because he's necessary
we need him
a little mania to balance the mundane
and to remind us
that just because things don't turn out as we planned doesn't mean we can't still find joy in unexpected places
the key is to keep driving until we find it
believing that eventually our nowhere in particular
will become the somewhere we were meant to be.

1 week ago | [YT] | 225

Disney Cicerone

It’s complete.

The year you thrived
or survived
or watched pass
as you moved from task to task,
commenting how how fast the days move now
when they used to be savored & celebrated.

Maybe this past year was one of tears
or moments you’ll never forget
or people who love you
or people who left.
Maybe it was when you learned hard lessons
or held something you’ve always wished for in your arms.

Regardless, it’s complete.
It’s done.
A whole chapter that’s closed.

As the calendar flips forward
and the clock chimes midnight
let yourself be where you are
accepting what is
but refusing to spend another minute
holding onto what’s been holding you back.

2024 may be complete, but you aren’t.

You’re just beginning, again.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 208

Disney Cicerone

Perspective changes everything.

I have studied the Haunted Mansion for 18 years.

I’ve done a 16-part podcast series
about its history, backstory, & details.

And yet, my 9-year-old daughter was flipping through a Hidden Mickey book the other day & said, “did you know the lobby sconces have a hidden Mickey in them we viewed from below?”

I was dumbfounded. How had I missed that?
Because I’d never thought to see it differently than I always had.

We often think that what we see is all that there is.

But our view is limited. Our perspective is just one of many.

What you know now isn’t all that exists.
You just haven’t viewed your sconces from below, yet.

Perhaps your story has some hidden surprises that you simply haven’t noticed in the dim light of your current circumstances.

But just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 143

Disney Cicerone

Every Christmas, I like to think about how Town Square’s purpose has changed throughout the years in Disneyland.
The center of the square was meant to be a bandstand for concerts to be held
a gathering place for the community of Main Street USA
The gazebo was planned for that reason
but then relocated
when Ruth Shellhorn talked sightlines and views of castles with Walt.
The flagpole moved in,
complete with a repurposed story of its own
and the words of opening day found a home at its base
But music was still played despite the gazebo’s absence
albeit at a lower elevation
and trees and fences grew over the decades.
Another tree joined the fray
when the park’s main Christmas tree moved in
sometimes snuggling with the flagpole
but it needed its space
so more often it settled near City Hall
or replaced the drinking fountain that used to have a front-row seat
for horse-drawn trolleys and sparkling castles.

The square retained its shape but changed its clothes, its purpose
once a place of concerts
now a line for photos
once a drinking fountain
now a symbol for the latest celebration.

If someone time-traveled from 1955 and saw town square today
they might say
it looks the same
or
it looks different
and both would be equally true.

Each year we add shifts and changes us, too.
We build new fences to protect ourselves from careless people
We shift our trees to make space to breathe
We realize fountains are ill-placed
We redecorate, renovate, remove.

But every shape we take is still us
just a new version of who we are
with the heart of the old
and our memories holding us up
like bricks under our feet
some a little wobbly or broken
but we have no choice but to walk on them, anyway,
to make forward progress
letting each one support our steps.

And as we go on,
we raise our eyes to look around us
we realize
we are just like the square
same as we always were
yet different than who we used to be
both.

-kg

Merry Christmas, dear Disney friends. 💜

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 178

Disney Cicerone

Folly.

Lacking good sense.

That's what people said about Walt Disney.

A mouse no one recognized.
A full-length feature animation.
A theme park.
A castle just for aesthetics.
All of it, folly.

It looked like it, from the outside.
From those who saw only what had been instead of what could be.

Walt saw more.

He took those voices and tuned them out
drawing
creating
building
anyway.

Let them think it's folly.
Let them scoff
Let them criticize
Let them wait for you to fail.
Let them.

Then go do it, anyway.

Let their folly be your fuel.

1 month ago | [YT] | 200

Disney Cicerone

Christmas used to look different on the Matterhorn.

The Skyway soared through its glacier grotto
and more snow frosted its peak.
perched on the top
sat a massive star
rotating slowly at first
then stationary
but there all the same
illuminating the dark
reminding us of hope
when we're stuck in midwinter seasons.

The star is gone now
and it would be easy to think
that the light has gone with it
that hope has gone with it
but like all good things
the memory of what was
is often all we need to get us through the dark.

Christmas used to look different
but the one we have now
is no less beautiful
we just hold the light instead.

1 month ago | [YT] | 135

Disney Cicerone

Thank you to everyone who listened, learned, and laughed along with us this year for Distory with Kate & Kirk! We appreciate you all so much 🫶

1 month ago | [YT] | 94