About the WebSite
Introduction
elcome to the Disney Experience, an online collection of Disney-inspired crafts, projects, and digital magic for you and your computer. We're all about imagination and creativity, so you'll even find recipes, product reviews, tutorials, craft tips, videos, and unique projects in our News Blog.
Customize your computer with desktop wallpapers, mouse cursors, icons, fonts, and avatars. Explore even further to discover unique paper models and other fun projects! But, the fun doesn't stop there. You'll find links to other great websites & designers and the magic that they have to offer as well.
Trader Sam, Webmaster
What's Inside
Exploring the website is easy; all of the primary site features are available on the menu (above), with some areas are divided into sub-sections.
The Disney Experience offers a multitude of digital media to liven up your computer. Combine icons, mouse cursors, desktop wallpapers, and more to create your own desktop theme.
In addition to everything listed above, visit the Projects & Crafts page, a collection of creative and artistic projects. Learn to write in Atlantean (an online course taught by Milo Thatch), learn how to make Mickey Mouse pancakes, or create the Ultimate Disney computer!
If you're feeling generous, we also have exclusive gifts that you can get for free with a qualifying minimum donation. Some of the gifts even have donation-free, low-res alternatives.
Special Events
October is a very special time for the site. Each Halloween, the Disney Experience becomes the Haunted Experience, complete with a spooky site makeover (usually themed to either the Haunted Mansion or the Disney villains). We even have a special trick-or-treat page that is available year-round!
In May, we celebrate Star Wars Week (May 1-7), which is full of fun, geeky goodies from a galaxy far, far away.
Every so often, we have a Monthly Giveaway. Entry is free, but if you want a better chance of winning, a donation goes a long way. Every dollar that you donate gives you an added entry (up to 20).
For the Fans
If you're in a sharing and creative mood, you can have some of your own artistic creations posted on the Fan Board (restrictions apply).
Keep an eye out for special materials such as the icons and mouse cursors created exclusively for DoomBuggies.com and TellNoTales.com.
And finally, there are a few guest services that you may find useful. Read the F.A.Q. section for answers to common questions. Have additional questions, concerns, or praise? You can contact Trader Sam directly.
History
The Disney Experience was started in October, 1999. We really don't know the exact date, so we typically celebrate the anniversary throughout the entire month. Back then, the website was originally called the Wonderful World of Icons. We started the website as a way to share our original Disney icons, each one created by hand, pixel-by-pixel. Computer icons were only 32 x 32 pixels back then, so it was a bit of a challenge to work in such a limited space. As we expanded into mouse cursors and fun projects/crafts, we changed the website's name.
Trader Sam, the webmaster here, maintained a seperate personal blog called the Head Shrinker since the Disney Experience didn't have one. But, as the blog posts began to shift from being personal to news about the Disney Experience, everything was migrated to the current News Blog. So, if you see references to the Head Shrinker, you now know what it means.
In the early years, the website was hosted on free hosting sites that offered limited space and bandwidth. The downloadable content had to be limited in availability and continuously rotated because we quickly ran out of our alotted monthly bandwidth. Luckily, we were approached by Disneyana.com with an offer for unlimted space on their servers. It was thanks to them that we were finally able to spread our wings. We'd eventually move away to become fully independent, but we still keep in touch with our Disneyana.com friends.
In 2004, we began our annual Halloween makeover into the Haunted Experience. Yeah, we kinda took inspiration from seasonal slogans like "The Merriest Place on Earth" and "Knott's Scary Farm."
Through the years, we dabbled in creating fonts, desktop wallpapers, paper models, and much more. Our goal is to focus on artistic creativity and interactivity of all types, for all ages.
If you would like to see more art of our unique past, have a look through the Art Corner.