On today’s episode, Howie and Ryan are looking into the wonderful, inspirational travels of Walt Disney. According to several sources, Walt was inspired by several trips he took that helped him shape his future park, Disneyland. Of the many influences that Walt had, Howie recently was able to visit one in person, the Tivoli Gardens.
Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park and garden that is located in Copenhagen Denmark. The park was first opened on August 15th in 1843 and is the second oldest operating amusement park in the world. The oldest happens to be a few miles north in nearby Klampenborg called Dyrehavsbakken.
Tivoli Gardens had just over 4.5 million visitors in 2017 and was the second-most popular seasonal amusement park in the world after Europa-Park. Tivoli is the most-visited theme park in Scandinavia and the fifth most visited in Europe.
Walt traveled there in 1951 only four years before the opening of Disneyland. It was said that he walked the park and made many observations, taking notes in his notebook and asking plenty of questions. Art Linkletter, who was a longtime friend of Walt, was with him on the trip and has been quoted as saying that Walt would ask Art’s opinion on this visit about how he could recreate or improve on all the wonderful things they were experiencing at Tivoli.
Howie does an excellent job of walking us through his experience at Tivoli and even points out where and what he found that reminds him of certain attractions at Disneyland. You will be surprised what Howie found and how much it resembles a lot of our beloved classics at the Happiest place on Earth. Ryan and Howie then close out the show by relating what Walt did and learned on his travels with ways we can be inspired in our own schools. We discuss things like visual reflective learning, finding inspiration from classroom visits, and developing creativity and innovation through engaging lessons. We hope that you enjoy our reflection on Walt’s trip to Tivoli and we are sure to find more inspiration from some of Walt’s many other trips which we will be sure to talk about on future My Disney Class Podcasts.