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?
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top (if you’re on your computer) or the bottom (if you’re on your phone/tablet) of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just two or three times a day). Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
They aren’t no fly zones. They are TFRs— Temporary Flight Restrictions. As long as you are talking to ATC you can buzz right through. It only goes from surface to 3000
Thank-you. The video in the post explains that it’s actually TFRs. But more people are familiar with the term “No Fly Zone” so I used that in the narrative for simplification.