Matt and Scott's Be All, End All, EPCOT Center Thread

robbalvey · March 4, 2008

Genetics is a scary, scary thing...because without those glasses, that IS Matt!

BTW, I totally love this thread!!!

If you need me to post any high res versions of stuff in the Members Only forum I will!

--Robb

mcjaco · March 4, 2008

^ I'm wearing glasses the next time I see you.

mcjaco · March 8, 2008

Well, Scott has run into a hellacious work week, so I'll keep this moving. I had hoped to get back to the parental units home and grab another set of PTR type pics from our trip in 1984, but that will have to wait until next week.

So, intead I bring you the 1986 Pictorial of EPCOT. This book included the Magic Kingdom, but I'll post those in a seperate thread with some other WDW goodies I have. More importantly, we've got pictures of three new additions to EPCOT Center since it's opening four years ago (in 1982, in case you forgot). Horizons *giggidy, giggidy, giggidy* is open along with Living Seas, and Morocco. Journey into Imagination the ride has also been open for three years now.

Off to Spaceport.....

Honestly. Canada? Does anyone know they exist? Eh?

Jolly, jolly, jolly.

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a secondah tahme.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What in god's name is this? Morocco? Next thing you know they'll add some country like Norway.

Any country that comes up with Robotech is alright by me.

America. Raise your golden wings. Let freedom ring, above the skyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

It will be a grand three hour finale about all countries, but mostly America.

When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza a pie. That's amore.

Home of my ancestors. It explains my love for beer, and my short fuse.

Boom, boom, boom. Let me hear you say way ooooo. Way ooo.

Ole, ole, ole, ole.

I just loved this pavillion at night. The design and lighting were awesome.

Until they did away with the Hydrolators, I made my parents watch the movie. I used to really think we were going to an under sea base.

There it is. Kitchen Kabaret. I miss Bonnie Appetite. She was one hot mama.

Listen to the Land we all love. Nature's plan will shine above.

Why do these songs torture me?

The Dreamcatcher, which can now be found in Mousegears. The awesomely cool Rainbow Tunnel, and one of the computer that let you color pictures.

Still my favorite part of Future World. We used to play in the fountains by the exit of the Magic Eye Theater for hours. I've got video tape to prove it.

Here's some of the hands on exhibits. I'm glad to see Innoventions getting back to this format.

Communicore. You can go on the Astor Commputer Revue, and talk to SMRT1 (the little blue robot).

The outdoor part, was such a cool way to begin a ride.

I'll just keep singing you the theme songs. It's fun to be free. To be on the move. To go anywhere.

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow....

Oh gawd......tissue. I NEED TISSUE!

I like picture books.

Here we go. Watch it grow. It's the Universe of Energeeeeee.

I miss Walter Cronkite's narration. I don't miss him as Walter Croncat, though.

This book takes you through the attractions in good order and quickly, as it's sharing pages with the Magic Kingdom.

Disney is magic. How the heck do you get the sky to match the pavillions light scheme?

Yay! We're back!

Pelydr · March 8, 2008

WOW. This really is an amazing thread! EPCOT is by far my favorite Disney park ever created so it is fantastic to see stuff like this. Keep up the fantastic updates!

orangecats2 · March 8, 2008

I love this thread. EPCOT Center was my favorite park back in the day. I was so LOL at a bunch of your captions. I put up one of your pics on my desktop.

I'll be there Sept 21-28 this year or my honeymoon. Cant wait to see all the changes that have been made since I was last there in 1996.

RIP Horizons and WoM.

Edit: I forgot to say that I think I have that book you showed on page one. I also have a huge map of EPCOT Center that says in World Showcase "Africa - Coming Soon"!

dandaman · March 8, 2008

...Apparently they not only shortened it to the Polynesian Resort, but they lengthened the name from "Contempory".

...That loop by Fort Wilderness wouldn't happen to be the F.W. Failroad, would it?

...Hidden Mickeys on the rail coach?

...Is it just me, or has this view changed a lot? I don't even mean the pavillions; it seems that the whole area pictured is blocking a great view of Illuminations now.

...Welcome to Canada, Matt. You look so happy to be here.

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a secondah tahme.

Mmmmm, that's good reference.

This thread kicks serious ass. Keep it up.

mr_teisco_delrey · March 8, 2008

Thread of the year so far. That is a cool baseball jacket. I had one of those too.topic> . I agree with your tree observations. I took my kids there a few years ago, and my older daughter was amazed how Disney got all the big trees in there. I laughed! Keep it coming!

televisedconfession · March 8, 2008

OK.. perfect place to ask this question:

i seem to remember, for some reason, like 5 years ago... maybe more... there was talk of adding a new section on the right side near the entrance, near the living seas... and there was talk about a medium sized roller coaster, and other themed rides... but i never heard about it, and barely remember what was supposed to happen...

i also heard about a new country around that same time.

it could have been in some crazy trippy fantasy dream... but i seem to remember this.

basically, what do you know about proposed projects that never happened?

p.s. AWESOME THREAD!!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!

speedracer · March 8, 2008

Great thread guys, love old Disney concept art. Here's a recent article with some rare Epcot concept art, including this unique piece:

Some amazing construction shots in this cool retro promo vid:

scruffy · March 8, 2008

That loop by Fort Wilderness wouldn't happen to be the F.W. Railroad, would it?

Yes that would be the old F.W. Railraod. If you PM I can give you a link to a guy that owns one of the trains from the F.W. Railroad.

Carnage · March 9, 2008

Canada, home of maple syrup, gingers, the Hart family, Brian Boitano, Kids in the Hall, and bad beer.

What do you expect? They sell Labatts at Epcot. Even Canadians don't drink that crap.

Honestly. Canada? Does anyone know they exist? Eh?

Die!!

This last October was my first and only visit to Epcot. When my family went as a kid my brothers and I went to Magic Kingdom, while my sister and parents went to Epcot.

I enjoyed Epcot. Though that could have been due to the drinking around the world.

brianplace · March 9, 2008

I really like the pics of you and your family.

I first visited in 1984 - Horizons was open by then and it blew me away... been back a million times and made it back in october for the 25th (right after the TPR trip to Korea - I didn't anticipate the jetlag)

I started a little site - fixepcot.com - trying to "fix" some of the problems.

hifalling · March 9, 2008

OMG! Something innappropriate is happening to my body as I read this thread! THERE IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME!!! I love EPCOT so much! By far my favorite Florida Park. Matt thank you sooo much for posting this thread, it just made me SOOOOO HAPPY!

We will have to compare EPCOT Books, I was given one as a gift when I was like 4 from my uncle, and I looked at the pictures all the time as a child. It's too bad that it took me 25 years to get there! The book is called "Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow" and was published in 1982. I love this book! Ok...done being a dork for tonight!

chuck "TPR never ceases to amaze me!" garcia

mcjaco · March 9, 2008

Chuck, I would love to see that book!

Wait til you guys see some of the Disneyland and World stuff I dug out of the basement. My parents are Disney geeks, and kept everything from their earlier trips.

scruffy · March 9, 2008

Turns out my dad saved everything from are trip in 1990. When I get time I post some Epcot Center stuff. I forgot about the free comic book they gave out.

mcjaco · March 13, 2008

^ After Scott and I get most of our updates up, we'll be opening this up for anyone else that has stuff they want to post.

I'm dropping off the first three segments worth of stuff back at the parental homestead tomorrow night, and picking up more trip photos. I should have an update next week.

coaster05 · March 13, 2008

If the world ends in 2012 will we still be able to ride those rides on the moon?

alia2001 · March 13, 2008

Totally Awesome thread!! Have yet to go to WDW its my #1 thing to do before I die. I enter enough contest you think I would have won a trip by now. Anywho. Great pics and I can't wait to see more! Really interesting how things have changed over the years, and the way things were chosen or not chosen to be apart of the parks.

tsmcdon · March 13, 2008

This is one of my favorite pictures I can find for Epcot. I have in a hi-res version if anyone wants it.

Nice promotional picture

dandaman · March 14, 2008

^I love that picture, if not for the non-removable SSE sequin "FABULOUS!" stars, but for the two Mark VI's (IV's? Hard to keep up with you folks) that have an impending collision on their hands.

mcjaco · March 16, 2008

Sadly, I was unable to find much of anything of substance on Friday night. A few pictures here, a few there, but nothing worth an update on.

65skylark · March 22, 2008

You know, Matt, I've got some pictures from my trip to EPCOT Center in 1989 of you'd like to change the mane of this thread to "Matt and Justin's be all, end all, EPCOT Center thread". Or better yet, "Justin and Matt's be all, end all, EPCOT Center thread"

I think Monorail Man went MIA

mcjaco · March 22, 2008

^Be my guest Justin. Scott????? Scott? Where have you gone?

Mr. Erik Johnson has a retro Epcot PTR that I was going to ask to link to this as well.

Erik Johnson · March 22, 2008

You ask, and you shall receive:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19812

BeemerBoy · March 26, 2008

^I love that picture, if not for the non-removable SSE sequin "FABULOUS!" stars, but for the two Mark VI's (IV's? Hard to keep up with you folks) that have an impending collision on their hands.

Mark VI's. And I'm assuming you're suggesting they'll collide while in the station, considering one's entering and one's leaving Epcot?

-end Monorail dork observation.

Okay, anyway, my apologies for not posting stuff sooner. Sometimes life just seems to get in the way, as it has these last few weeks. Along with many other craptastic things going on, I realized I'm not going to be able to contribute to this awesome thread as much as I had originally planned.

When Matt and I originally began talking about putting the thread together, I thought for sure I'd finally get to showcase all of the incredible Epcot keepsakes I had collected through the years. Unfortunately, just as Matt was going through all his old stuff, I received word that my stuff has been lost forever....even many of my old family pictures. There's no need to get into who, what, where, when, and how. It's simply gone, and I've been pretty bummed about it.

Fortunately, I have a small fraction of the collection in my possession. It's not much, but it obviously means a lot to me. Matt did an awesome job of scanning his stuff and starting the thread. Ironically, I actually still have all the stuff he posted.

Before I post what I've got, I'll just say a few things about the park. I have a love affair with this place. It's my second favorite park, behind only the Magic Kingdom, and only because of my sentimental attachment to the MK. In thinking about this thread, one thing immediately popped into my mind....just how much the internet has changed the world. Sounds cliche, I know, but Epcot is the perfect example of how.

Before TPR. Before Screamscape. Heck, before any of it existed in every house, you really only had the evening news and several random TV shows to find information on new stuff at Disney. I can remember driving along World Drive towards the MK, and seeing one of those simple plywood signs saying "Coming Soon," with one of those artist renderings on it.

Not much to go on, right? Besides the brochure we got in the mail for being annual passholders or something, there wasn't a whole lot to tell us what to expect. Naturally, as the building process began, some information, along with varied TV reports on the construction process started to give you a taste of what was to come, but still, it was nothing even remotely close to what it is today.

Unlike today, where you can probably find out what each toilet seat at Hard Rock Park is gonna look like months before it opens, you really weren't sure what Disney was up to. As kids, all we knew was that it was not gonna be like Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom. The shows on the construction process were great, but you knew until you walked through the gates, you'd never be quite sure what to expect.

And this is precisely why I think the internet has worked against the original spirit of Epcot in recent years. The element of surprise is gone from society. I was lucky enough to be there the week Epcot Center opened. It was amazing! To kids and adults alike, things were genuinely fresh, new, and "futuristic" in many ways.

Years before Roller Coaster Tycoon was even a thought, you could stand in front of a monitor and create a roller coaster with your very own POV of what you created. It's taken for granted now, but back then this was groundbreaking.

I distinctly remember an exhibit sponsored by AT&T, where you could walk into a sealed room with your family and call long distance to someone. The catch? It was on........(drumroll).......SPEAKERPHONE!!! Yeah, seriously. You'd type in your....again, hold your breath....long distance calling card number (lol), and be put through to whomever you wanted. I'll never forget the amazement of speaking to family back home in Lauderdale over the speaker as if it were magic!

See, it's almost impossible these days to grab the amazement of society. Everything seems to have already been done in one way or another, and you hear about it immediately. It's very difficult to captivate an audience anymore. Ironically, the clip of the "Big Dog" project that Robb posted would've been something that I'd expect to see in Epcot's early years. Maybe now the only thing that would truly amaze us, would be a lifelike hologram phone system, or teleportation (sp?).

Don't get me wrong. The park continues to easily be one of the most unique and awesome parks on the planet, and I'm very happy for that. I continue to appreciate the fact that it remains one of those places that you may still enjoy as a kid, but not fully appreciate until you are an adult.

But enough of my yapping. I'll go ahead and post some random old Epcot stuff that I actually still own. It's not much at all compared to what it could've been, but I hope you enjoy it. Like Matt said, feel free to contribute anything you may have to the awesomeness that is the old school Epcot Center thread.

You didn't think I was gonna leave without featuring a classic Mark IV did you? Thanks for reading. Sorry there wasn't more to look at.

Wait, found this one too.

And of course, my most cherished possession....my ticket from opening week. Glad this one survived.

Finally, here's a couple tickets from back in the day. This one from 1983.

For all the Lego enthusiasts. Here's the Capital Building built of Legos, and featured at the American Adventure.

Here's official proof for when the Celtics win this year. I've been a fan since birth, and no I'm not bandwagoning. Wes, we'll see you in the Finals. Why I'm showcasing a grape? Hell, I have no idea. There's a side story there that I can't remember.