Fun Fact: Both Walt Disney World (WDW) and Disneyland (DL) have no fly zones over their respective properties. How and why that came to be, and exactly what/where the no fly zones have entailed in the past versus today (especially at WDW – theirs is not exactly the same as DL’s) is a very interesting piece of Disney theme park history…
Prior to 9/11, it was an everyday occurrence to see planes over Disney parks. I distinctly remember seeing planes over the Magic Kingdom on more than one occasion – sometimes just a commercial flight, but more often planes for hire that had banner ads for local establishments (Rosie O’Grady’s, anyone?) and services such as local law offices. Some religious organization(s) also used to have banner ads to “warn” people of when it was the week of Gay Days – that turned into one of my most favorite memes ever:
The printing is small. One plane says, WARNING GAY DAYS AT DISNEY and the other plane says, WARNING IT’S FABULOUS!!!!
Anyway, 9/11 changed all that – Disney requested and received No Fly Zone status over both of their American parks. However the details of that step, and the aftermath of same, are very interesting. Take a look…
Here some more interesting reading about the topic:
- Orlando Sentinel 2003: When WDW got the No Flight Zone status
- CNN 2003: When WDW and DL got their respective no flight zone status
- Mental Floss: Other places in the U.S. that have no fly zones
- Orlando Sentinel 2016: When Disney asked to break their own rules in regards to the No Flight Zone status
Learn something new every day, huh?
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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