So almost two years and three months after the pictures at the start of this thread... I was back at Pop Century last week for a visit. I wasn't going to bother taking new pictures of the Legendary side of things because not much looked different.. But then I took a closer look.
Before I get to those pics however, first off.. I was walking around the lake to take these pics, when the typo on this sign jumped out at me.. Had to take a picture...
Now, it pretty much goes without saying, that ALL the following pictures were taking from the public paths, walkways or parking lots of Pop Century ... most of 'em with a zoom lens. No animals were harmed in taking these pictures. A Canadian was however, slightly sunburned.
From a distance - Not Much Looks Different
First thing that caught my eye was something in the hallway on the third floor of this picture...
You can see it a little better here..
And even better in this shot..
It looks weathered so I would say it has been there for a while.. But it doesn't show up in the pictures I took back in March of 2007.
The second thing I noticed was that a number of the pieces of 'temporary work' railings had been replaced. In reviewing my earlier pictures, it is obvious that a number of spots where the railings had been falling apart are now fixed with new wood.
You can see the differences in the wood colors most notably in this picture:
I saw some wires protruding for a light fixture at the end of one of the second stories... but those are NOT new.. I see those wires were present in March of 2007.
Those wires are show here.. again NOT new..
What was new as I got up close to the fence.. was the fence itself. When I was there in 2007, the material that was attached to the fence and blocked your view was old and faded, very worn and had a number of holes in it. The fencing cover now in place appeared quite new and had no holes. There was however a 'seam' where two pieces met together that had a small gap which was roughly in the same spot where I took pictures before.
In looking thru that gap, you could see a couple of things..
First of all, the rooms with doors left open/ajar ... those doors have now been closed. AND the grass around the exterior of the building had been mowed recently. That was interesting.. and altho it's hard to tell in these pictures, there tire tracks in the grass.
You can see the tire tracks a little better in this shot..
I'm no CSI investigator, but since the railings had been fixed and this particular building has no elevators or stairs built on to it yet, it seems reasonable to assume that the tire tracks might belong to this beast..
That's a cherry picker type bucket affair usually used to replace lights in the parking lots and the sides of the buildings on the operating side of the resort. It was parked just outside the 'gate' in the fence which leads thru to the Legendary Years side.
Just inside that gate there were three or four large construction style dumpsters. At least two of them had clearly been parked there for a while and the stuff inside looked weathered etc. Two others tho did not have marks on the pavement around them indicating they'd been there a while, and the stuff inside looked fresh.
Unfortunately, I don't have pics of those, because I could only see them briefly while standing on a bus driving into Pop Century.
So.. no MAJOR differences.. but there were some small things to see which were clearly different from March of 2007 and that may mean something.. or it may mean nothing.
The Latest Rumor That I'm Hearing : I heard from at least two different sources while in Florida that Iger wants something done with Pop Century and that *something* will probably involve retheming of the Legendary Years side. Concerns apparently remain about having a decade for the Depression and the War Years. One idea I heard floated was repeating 1950 to 1990 again.. another was going from 2000 to 2050 on the Legendary Years side... obviously some 'futuristic intent' would be behind that notion.