Chuck Schmidt

Chuck Schmidt, bitten by the Disney bug at an early age, remembers watching The Mickey Mouse Club after school in the mid-1950s. During his 48-year career in the newspaper business, he channeled that love of Disney as the Sunday News and Travel editor for The Staten Island Advance. Chuck has written or co-authored seven books for Theme Park Press, including Disney's Dream Weavers, On the Disney Beat, An American in Disneyland Paris, Disney's Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History and The Beat Goes On. Chuck has shared his passion for all things Disney in his Still Goofy About Disney blog on AllEars.Net since 2015. He resides in Beachwood, N.J., with his wife Janet. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.


SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 2: Disneyland, A Place Without Peer, Opens With Several Piers

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
In the sweltering summer of 1955, guests who walked through the turnstiles of Disneyland, under the railroad tracks and into the magical environment of the world’s first theme park, saw things that were atypical for amusement parks of the day. To begin with, there was a perfectly replicated Main Street, circa the turn of the … Continue reading "SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 2: Disneyland, A Place Without Peer, Opens With Several Piers"
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SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 1: Walt, The Train Guy, Takes To The High Seas

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
Sailing vessels – from cartoon props to park attractions to resort launches to majestic ocean liners – have been woven into the fabric of the Disney experience almost from the day Mickey Mouse was created. Whether it’s the rickety wooden boat piloted by Mickey in the 1928 animated classic Steamboat Willie or the awe-inspiring Disney Cruise Line fleet, sailing with Disney has always been a unique, fun-filled, family friendly trip over bodies of water … be they great, small or animated.
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Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Embraces the Beach Lifestyle While Embodying a True Disney Experience

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
In 1993, when Disney Vacation Club announced plans to build a time-share resort in Vero Beach, Florida, about 100 miles southeast of the Walt Disney World resort, the question on many people’s minds was: Why would Disney build a resort so far from its central Florida theme parks? After spending a few days at the idyllic DVC property just steps from the Atlantic Ocean, it became obvious why that decision was made.
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New Book Helps Shine Light on Career of Disney Background Specialist Claude Coats

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
With the recent release of David A. Bossert’s Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer—The Making of Disneyland: From Toad Hall to the Haunted Mansion and Beyond [The Old Mill Press, 264 Pages, $65] the world will learn about Claude Coats – through indepth text and stunning archival photos – and his amazingly productive career with the Walt Disney Company.
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