Walt Disney World Dreams

Walt Disney World 40 Years Later

2011-10-01T15:11:00.027-05:00

And 45 years after Walt's death. I present to you a list of things in the park today Walt would be proud of, baffled by, and angry at, in no particular order. Or to be more accurate in the order I thought them up.

5. Monorails! They go almost everywhere- er a few places!

Monorails and trains were Walt Disney's personal obsession, from the mini train he built in his backyard, the Carolwood Pacific to the 5/8th scale steam engine that circled Disneyland. I think the fact that Walt Disney World's highway in the sky is less a highway and more a few residential streets would confuse Walt as he originally laid out all of the hotels (including Asian and Persian Hotels that never made it past blue sky,) along the monorail path. The fact that only 3 hotels and two of the four parks are connected to the monorail would be baffling to the train loving zombie (I am assuming he is coming back as a zombie, that was just inherent in the premise right?)
[Map of monorail route taken from disneyrevealed.com]

4. New Technology:

Walt would likely be amazed by, and proud of, many of the new technologies employed by Disney attractions. Between compliance allowing for more realistic movements, new silicons being used for "skins," and better computers for the Audio Animatronics' puppeteer to program it's movement, AAs are far more advanced than they were when Walt died. Other technologies that would likely make Walt, who was notoriously stingy with praise, ask what took so long; FastPasses have made it so that parkgoers no longer have to spend the majority of their time waiting in line, thus missing lots of attractions and shows, new projection systems have plussed the fireworks shows perhaps more dramatically than they have been plussed before (even Wishes was really just music and fireworks, like the first fireworks shows in Disneyland,) new theming and attractions have made the parks more immersive than ever before.

3. EPCOT is neither a community nor very experimental, discuss:

In fact, it is a just a combination of two tried and true concepts, every bit as trite as the cliche that describes them: Future World is Tomorrowland 2.0 and the World Showcase is a year round World's Fair (with the added benefit of showcasing fewer countries and less innovative products! Oh wait...) As much as I love Epcot I think that Walt would have a tearfilled aneurysm seeing his truly original concept for an ultra modern neighborhood turned into a rerun of the old classics in entertainment. He would likely also be confused by the decision to combine the two separate projects by, as even the imagineers working on it describe it, shoving two models together. Yes the World's Fair was where many new products and technologies were first shown to the public but really what does Future World have to do with truly new technology, particularly now that Innoventions is no longer about new arcade games, cars, and robots, something I mourn as robots always beat games that teach children about recycling. That is just a fact.

2. Animal Kingdom, a dream world Jungle Cruise finally actualized:

When Walt was first developing the Jungle Cruise he envisioned an attraction filled with real giraffes, hippos, and yes real god damn crocodiles and lions. He went on designing the attraction including the idea of a live cast of animals for a nearly a year before someone at WEDway said hmm, animals don't do what they are told on the set of movies, and those are usually well trained domesticated dogs, not rhinoceroses, this might not work out well. Actually it was Harper Goff and a zoologist who convinced him of this and it is a good thing that they did as with the plans, space, and technology of the time it would never have worked; animals would never be in the spot they were meant to be in order to be seen and the hippos would have inevitably turned on the Skippers and their constant fake gun fire ("you brought a fake gun to a giant nearly amphibious mammal fight, Sucker.")Now I can't help but picture hippos yelling "Skiiipppers come out and play-ay," like the scene from the Warriors. Anyway, Animal Kingdom developed an attraction successfully starring live animals. Sure it was forty-three years too late, but it is a beautiful park and that attraction would make Walt proud. While portions of the Animal Kingdom might confuse him, with the park's emphasis on thrill rides that were not seen at Disneyland until after his death, I think he would overlook that or accept it when he saw the whole package.

Image from Imagineer Disney's Why the Decline In Park Maintenance post

1. Maintenance, or lack there of:

The famous anecdote tells of Walt Disney stopping to pick up trash on the ground and place it in a trashcan on his walks through Disneyland. More than an anecdote this was often observed by cast members and guest alike, and in later years Eisner and other heads of the company affected this compulsion. Given his near daily attempts to make Disneyland even just a little bit more spotless I believe Walt would be saddened by the state many attractions reach before getting their yearly refurbishment. Touch ups to paint jobs in the middle of the night, divers cleaning the Rivers of America, and other daily maintenance once touted on travel programs and in books like my large beige Walt Disney World book have been abandoned it seems. Imagineering Disney contributer Lilly pointed out in her post Why the Decline in Park Maintenance?* what many stateside Disney fans have been noticing and lamenting for some time, as surely zombie Walt would when not foraging for brains. I tend to travel to the parks just before the holiday season, during the time right before the peak when everything is shined up for the massive crowds, and even then I have seen terrible maintenance issues, particularly on Fantasyland favourites like Peter Pan's Flight.

Read More on:
Walt & Monorails
Abandoned attractions that sadden me,& also zombie Walt
A biased but interesting look at why zombie Walt might be sad
The Jungle Cruise History
I have linked this before but: Walt Disney's EPCOT plan

* Warning: This post will severely depress

Disney Travel Channel Shows: Undiscovered Walt Disney Worlld

2010-09-13T00:00:00.003-05:00

Well, for Disney dorks who would seek out these shows about Walt Disney World, I am guessing none of the information presented is "undiscovered," but oh well. Also, there are some views of the hideous millennium wand, the Living Seas, unmolested by cute cartoon fish, and Pleasure Island.

Walt Disney World of the mid-90s

2010-08-29T00:32:00.007-05:00

[ Or Cheesy Hip Hop and Why (Oh Lord WHY!) it Was Required]

I stumbled upon this tonight and I decided after a dozen half written and unposted entries I needed to finally use this thing again.

Ah the 90s, a more innocent time when Alien's terrorized, crystals stood, glimmering before Spaceship Earth in all their glory, and apparently children were drawn to theme parks because Joan Collins was paying a visit...

... Yes, it was a time of conflicting hideousness and wonderful and a time that resulted in a often criticized but I believe necessary makeover of Tomorrowland ( Tomorrowland 95! It sounds so hip and so fresh,) one of my favourite now defunct attractions, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which fleshed out MGM so well ( yes, I do still remember when it was the Great Movie ride, Backlot Tour, MuppetVision 3D, and Star Tours, and then well, hmm, I guess we could head over to the Animation Courtyard since it is only 10am.) I just realized that I sadly still think of Tower of Terror as a new attraction; this makes me feel horrifically old.

The atrocities that were committed during this time were created the way most atrocities are, in the name of being hip, and fresh, and drawing people for that one year because, look, LOOK! our castle looks like a cake, isn't that slamming? Examples of such horrors are as follows: the Mickey Mania Parade [if you don't recall it, you are lucky, think skateboarders in primary coloured Zubaz pants and rap/house music about Mickey being rad (or some other term overused by my favourite heroes on the half-shell,)] videos like the one above that contained some rappers making "squeaky clean" Mickey Mouse related remixes for park commercials, and of course, the closing of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ( without this ride's watery ambiance Fantasyland has become too blacktop-esque, and I still wish they had plussed it rather than pulled it out altogether.)

I know mourning 20,000 Leagues is silly; it was a low draw attraction, and it has been preserved in Disneyland, sort of, and said ambiance will likely return with the water features that are planned in the current design of the Fantasyland Expansion, but mourn it I do, despite this.

Anyway, that wraps up this voyage into the dangerous wilds of the mid-1990s, tune in next week (same mouse time, same mouse place) when we will journey into the seedy underbelly of Toontown and learn just what keeps our 2D friends so jolly.

It's a dirty job, that no one really needs to do, unless said person is me, avoiding my first paper of the term.

Edit: For those who would like to inflict the awful that was the Mickey Mania Parade on themselves you can find a very good video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8cHrvkHV0

Don't click that link, no one is that masochistic.
No, I mean it, really don't.
[You did it, didn't you. What was that? And why, why were there weird creepy clown faced blow up Mickeys waddling about in the middle?] Imagine, I saw that in person, and I was only a child man, ONLY A CHILD! Well, I wasn't after that, a parade like that, it changes you!

Disney Past, Present, and Future

2009-12-03T17:47:00.008-06:00

University has kept me very busy but here I am again, already in Christmas break mode though I still have my final exams between me and carolers out in the snow or my January WDW trip.

I am excited for said trip, particularly to show my boyfriend the wonders of the World and to see the refurbishment of Space Mountain in person. I have also spent some time, while avoiding fleshing out my notes, looking through old Disney photos from many people online, in particular over at Gorillas Don't Blog. I find these retro photos engrossing even when they are focused on the random family, so I thought I would share a few of my own retro family pictures.

My First Trip to Walt Disney World, 1986-1987

Yes that is a Horizon vehicle we are riding in, we here being (from left to right) my sister, my mother, my paternal grandmother, my grandfather, and myself, being tiny and in his lap. My father was either squished into the same vehicle or in one right after us, it is hard to tell, but he is the photographer of this.

In front of the Magic Kingdom 1989-1990

This is an awesome photograph for many reasons, one being that my mom has clearly not very enthused and has the a wonderful expression making this very obvious; the second fabulous part about this, my poor adolescent, awkward sister squinting into the sun in her terrible red plastic Sally Jessie Raphael glasses. Another great part about this is my clear excitement, in contrast to my sister and mom's posture, I am doing a dance, a very excited dance. I clearly aware and am excited about being in Walt Disney World, as opposed to the previous photo where I am looking off away from the action at something else that has caught my eye.

Outside of the Grand Floridian 1989-1990

Awesome outfits, both my sister and I and the people in the background.

Mickey's Starland or Birthdayland, Daisy's Cafe

This was the original Toontown type land, it was very small, as if scaled for the real animated characters and yet the suit characters in the area were still adult human sized, very confusing, anyway.

Let's leave those terrible haircuts and really bad jeans behind and push straight onto the now.

The now in this case being the newly refurbished, recently reopened Space Mountain.

Most of the work was done on the queue not the ride itself, you can now play games with an ORAC like robot in the queue which I have heard sadly effects the Star Tunnel (entrance tunnel)'s ambiance. The Star Tunnel is pretty much my favourite part of the ride so this is rather upsetting but I won't be able to report firsthand until January.

The Princess and the Frog: OPENING 12.11.09

Yes the Princess and the Frog, the animated film that is being touted as a return to the classic Disney animation beloved by many, the classical animation style that created Snow White, Cinderella, and the Little Mermaid. I am far too excited about this but I am so glad Lasseter explained that just because the Pixar style works for Pixar stories and has been successful doesn't mean Disney should abandon their own style, a style loved for generations.

D23 Park announcements| Tomorrow IS just a dream away!

2009-10-07T02:04:00.008-05:00

Well, it has been a bit since I have posted and lots of things have happened. D23 announced several amazing additions and changes to the parks, World and Hong Kong in particular.

First, the rumour floating around that Fantasyland will double in size, and there will be two Dumbo rides side by side and we will finally get The Little Mermaid ride that was mocked up years ago? TRUE! This will however mean the end of Toontown in Disney World, but it was never as good as Disneyland's so it is no lose too me.Hong Kong will also be expanding and two new lands are being developed, and so many other things that I can't detail them all here, so watch these videos!

Old Disney Park Travel Videos

2009-08-06T17:07:00.006-05:00

1954: The Disneyland Story

1971: Project Florida

1981: A Dream Called Disney World

1981: Disney Decade

A look into the history of Walt Disney World.

1984: WDW Brochure Video

1994:A Souvenir Epcot Video

The Disney Story

The story of the man himself, as told by his "best friend," Mickey.

Disney Parks in TV: II

2009-08-06T15:22:00.010-05:00

Disney Holiday Magic with Samantha Brown

Disney at Christmas, my favourite time to be there.

WDW: Past, Present, and Future

Disneyland Behind the Scenes

The Making of the Tower of Terror

Walt Disney World Unwrapped

Disney Tokyo!

Walt Disney World Explored in Television

2009-07-29T17:06:00.010-05:00

I am addicted to these shows, Travel Channel, Modern Marvels, anything about Disney parks. It is a shameful not-so-secret guilty pleasure of mine, in fact Disney is a keyword permanently in satellite's recent search field. I will watch these shows too often, usually just in the background while I mess around online or talk on the phone. In fact, sadly, I have seen most of these so many times that I can pick up on the slight changes that occur, like when they update the show to talk about newly opened rides.

Discovery Channel's Everest: The Experience

I love Disney, the incredible effort they put into things is why they are Disney. They talk about mostly unnoticed details, but they are right, they are taken in as a whole and that is why their themeing is the best.

Disney's Imagineers

I want so much to play in the Imagineer's simulators and mock up rooms!
This special is a bit older so it also has a look into ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, one of my favourite now defunct rides.

A look inside Disney Thrill Rides (which, for some reason, includes Toy Story Mania)

Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World

Now if that isn't an indepth look at Walt Disney World I don't know what is, oh wait I do, and that is why I have about twenty more videos to fill this page with...

The Making of Walt Disney World

Yes, there is inexplicably no part three

Behind the Scenes: Walt Disney World

I realise now that there are far too many Disney Park television specials for me to post at one time, next time? Disney and the Travel Channel,synergy at it's best??

Disney World Musical Theming III: A look at Epcot

2009-07-20T12:51:00.009-05:00

Subtitled: "How I learned to stop worrying and love Epcot"

Full Soarin' Epcot Soundtrack

Soarin by alldrenched

The Original Journey into Imagination Ride Music

One Little Spark by alldrenched

Horizons Music 1

Space|Horizons by alldrenched

Horizons Music 2

New Horizons by alldrenched

Tomorrow's Child

Tomorrow's Child by alldrenched

Epcot is a jumbled mess, but I love it. The Imagineers involved with it's beginnings literally explained that they had two projects mocked up: a Future World, based, sort of, on Walt Disney's concept of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and a park based on showcasing international cultures. They literally shoved the two models together and decided, yes, yes that looks about right. What they had made was a year round World's Fair, which they would consistently deny was just a year round World's Fair (sound familiar? AK's promotions which insist it is more than just a zoo with rides.)

Originally Epcot was just for learning and drinking it seemed. Before boarding your omnimover in the Living Seas you watching an education video about water, and how water has effected the Earth and our evolution. Now the Living Seas has been transformed into a paraphrasing of the movie, Finding Nemo. The movie was great, and the ride is entertaining, but you come out and look at the famous space aged sphere that houses Spaceship Earth and you remember, isn't this meant to be future world? What do lost cute, cartoon fish have to do with that exactly??

There was the, now defunct, Wonders of Life Pavilion, which contained Body Wars and Cranium Command, took a lighthearted look at everything from teenage hormones to DNA. Yes, the information was more candy-coated than at the Living Seas, or The Land Pavilion, but it definitely taught some children a few general facts about human biology.

The Original Journey into Imagination, and it's pavilion,was a Montesorri-esqu experiment with creativity and children. Jump over here, you make music, run through that tunnel, the lights change. It was all about interacting and creating. The new, maimed, "Open house at the Imagination Institute" lacks a lot of it's original pavilion and seems just to chant about experiments and senses with no experience for the children afterward.

Mission Space is one of the few new attractions that I feel actually fit the theme, though it does make Future World look a bit more like Space-World. That is not to say that I don't miss Horizons, I really do, but I think that Mission Space is the logical next step. It will be so easily plussed because it is a simulation, and thus could be reprogrammed completely.

As for Soarin', a ride I also truly love, the Land Pavilion was just where it sort of fit best, and since it was such a success in Disney's California Adventure, they found the slot and stuck it in. I have hopes that the Imagineers will film new footage that fits in with the the theme more, though I doubt this will happen anytime soon since it is relatively new and very successful. I can dream though, of a Timekeeper like video you could "soar" through, but it will likely just be a dream for some time.

How does the confused theming and purpose of Epcot reflect in it's music? Listen and then you tell me.

Original Plan for EPCOT

(yes I am such a dork that I made these videos semi-Epcot colours.....)

Disney World Ride Through and Miscellaneous

2009-07-10T23:42:00.000-05:00

Ellen's Energy Adventure, Epcot:
Ride/Watch Through

AKA The Nap Ride; Also Sam, the "radio" portion starts at about 7 minutes into the second video.

Monorail Ride Through

An Odd Collection of Disney Music/Announcements

I Want My Resort TV

2009-07-09T15:51:00.005-05:00

Your sister is doing her hair, your mom is getting her purse together, your father is in the bathroom.

LET'S JUST FREAKING GET OUT THERE ALREADY. But no, you watch this instead, waiting impatiently.

The Disney Resort Channels mean you are in Disney World, that sometime soon you will be one of the happy children you are watching now, with a giant smile plastered on your face.

Bonus Commercial from the 1990s:

Disney World Musical Theming II: Queue Music and beyond

2009-07-06T23:17:00.006-05:00

Space Mountain Queue Ambient Music

Amazingly long and loud version of this audio, which is hard to find even in parts.

Disneyland Main Street Theme Music

Shock, a Disneyland Cali thing, yes I do focus too heavily on WDW and I just stumbled upon this and love for the original overcame me.

Sunset BLVD/ Tower of Terror Area Audio Loop

I love this loop, it makes me feel like I am sitting outside of Tower of Terror when I am exhausted from running around DHS. It is haunting and beautiful.

Innovention's Area Loop

The loop for the arcade/world's fair area of Future World, not my favourite but it is nice to have on hand and it is very Epcot-esque in general.

Tomorrowland Area Music

The area themeing music for both Disneyland and WDW's Tomorrowland section. It is less discordant than the Star Tunnel Queue area music inside Space Mountain, and at times it has an odd new age slant. Hypnotic, like much of Disney's background music it seems.

Star Tours Queue

Awesome puns and jokes about Star Wars mostly, but lovely nontheless.

Hope you enjoyed this tiny exploration of Disney Parks through music.

WDW 3D Shows

2009-05-31T15:20:00.008-05:00

Do you sometimes still miss Captain EO? Do you wish you could watch MuppetVision 3D at home?
Well slip on your 3D glasses and prepare for the show!

Captain EO was awesome, and now you can watch it again! Michael Jackson and weird scifi alien creatures.

Remember stopping in the middle is distinctly unpatriotic.

Disney World of Yore Part II

2009-05-19T18:45:00.011-05:00

Okay,we saw a bit of the original "If You Had Wings" ride yesterday and I dug up another version of this ride, with higher quality footage and audio.This is the second version of the ride, "Delta Dreamflight," which later became "Disney's Take Flight" after Delta pulled sponsorship. This ride was totally removed and replace with Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. It was never one of my favourite rides but I feel it should have a bit of a tribute nevertheless.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a ride that many long time Walt Disney World guests still miss, and I am one of them, though I do appreciate the ride that replaced it in the end. If you have never been on it, or miss it desperately take heart, it is still winding about it's dangerous way in Fantasyland in Disneyland, California. This attraction displays again the dark humor of Disney Imagineers; the guests vehicle gets hit by a train and then sent to hell, a risk that they just won't take with newer attractions (in fact the only reason you "survive" Tower of Terror is because Eisner thought that people wouldn't want to purchase anything in the gift shop after if they were dead; how he and other management came to this conclusion I am unsure, but it amuses me greatly.)

I honestly miss this ride most of all the ones posted here, not only for the attraction itself but for the ambiance the water brought to Fantasyland, also having even this small body of water made if seem more like a full land. I know they needed land for Winnie the Pooh, but they used very little of it, most of it is now taken up by the place holding Pooh's Playfull Spot and Ariel's Grotto (where I hope one day they will put the Voyage of the Little Mermaid Ride, but that is a topic for a later post.) Also, I feel that Tomorrowland Speedway could and perhaps should be destroyed, it takes up a lot of real estate and could have easily been broken up to make room for maybe three other rides, it is also on the cusp of Fantasyland, allowing it to have easily become a part of it.

Hmm, some of this doesn't seem to make sense, but I am dizzy, so I will edit later.

Disney World of Yore

2009-05-19T01:02:00.009-05:00

I spoke earlier of my love of the Disney World of my childhood, I speak of it frequently, and I talk of missing many rides, some replaced with now long time favorites, others replaced with ill conceived toned down versions of themselves (i.e. Alien Encounters) and still others ripped out for a small amount of extra room for a new attraction (I am still not sure that 20,000 Leagues needed to be torn out for Winnie the Pooh, only to be filled in with a small Pooh play area)

Join me on another watch down memory lane:

This is a dark film so it might be hard to see, also there is no audio, but it is almost impossible to find footage of this attraction from Tomorrowland.

Journey into the Imagination with Dreamfinder, Epcot
It is sad, this attraction has been so deformed, and now the Pavilion is basically gone!

Cranium Command from the now closed Wonder of Life Pavilion, also in Epcot.
I love all the jokes in this, some of which are clearly geared towards adults, I feel this is missing in some of the new attractions.

This attraction was so terrifying and awesome, also, I feel like Tomorrowland had a real all encompassing theme during this time. I love the dark humor which, surprisingly I suppose, is in a lot of Disney rides. A crazy company using Earth for testing new technology that they will sell to them, then abandons the audience when things go wrong. And the very company motto has a Gordon Gecko-ness to it that is wonderful! If you can't do it with X-S, you shouldn't do it at all.

Disney World Musical Theming

2009-05-16T14:11:00.008-05:00

Disney Parks enshroud guests in a theme in every way possible; appearance first, and scents, and lastly, subtle background music. This background music is coveted by many Disney-goers, and is also rather difficult to find, but VAULTDISNEYreturns over on YouTube has gathered some of this music and set it to a slide show of attraction pictures, Enjoy!

Expedition Everest Background Music

I find this music very soothing and semi-hypnotic.

The Land Pavalion Background Music

This is really just "Listen to the Land" slowed down, and instrumental.

Canada Showcase Background Music

Weird western/?= awesome!

The Disney World of My Youth

2009-05-15T20:02:00.008-05:00

The Disney World that I grew up with was, for the sake of narrowing it down, WDW between 1986 and 1997. These years were (for the most part Eisner years,) a period of rapid growth in Walt Disney World, and in particular in the "Resort" part of WDW.

In other words, though of course the theme parks themselves gained many attractions and rides, Disney hotels sprung up faster. These hotels added to the profit and all encompassing and enveloping theme of Disney, many more visitors could now eat on property, sleep on property, shop on property ( Downtown Disney,) and use Disney transportation. This time, dubbed by some Disneyites as the Disney Renaissance, marked also the new reign of Disney Classic movies, after a period of slowed production and, some suggest, decreased quality (Sword in the Stone, Fox and the Hound, et al.) Eisner brought with him Jeffery Katzenburg, and he, with Roy Disney, Howard Ashmann and Alan Menken, along with the great team of Disney animators, brought us The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and many more movies. Eisner's reign was, in the end more profitable and helpful to the Disney company than harmful, and despite the fact that I could rant for days about the problems with Eisner's heavy handed, quasi-tyrannical ways, I thank him, (as well as all Disney cast members of the peroid,) for my childhood Disney World.

And with no more delays, on with the show:

Yes, that is ORAC talking, want slightly clearer/louder audio?

I hope you enjoyed that trip back in time, from TTA to the WEDway Peoplemover!

Introductions are in order

2009-05-15T15:57:00.000-05:00

Okay,a first post needs a mission statement like a It's a Small World needs the brain numbing music.

I plan to display and share awesome Disney Parks related articles(with a Walt Disney World slant,) videos,photos,graphics,and other awesomeness here for other Disneyphiles to find and enjoy as I have.