BeemerBoy Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I'll take 100 wands, hats, or stones before that stupid ass cake makeover. Honestly, going with that cake was the worst decision in the history of bad decisions. It was like covering the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge with Grandma's table cloth for a year. It still makes me cringe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 ^^Those stones in front of Spaceship Earth have always looked like broken teeth to me. Love to see those things go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoCo Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Superb report. I almost teared up a couple of times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimster Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 ^^Those stones in front of Spaceship Earth have always looked like broken teeth to me. Love to see those things go. They look like gravestones to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastershark Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Some of these pictures bring back memories from when I visited when I was growing up, my mother always made sure to visit at least twice a year since I was six. The first visit I remember was 1976 on the 4th of July, the Bicentennial. It was so packed with people and literally butt to butt waiting for the monorail, my brother had to put me on his shoulders because I was getting crushed by the crowds. What a memory. Love this Photo TR, thanks for posting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Hmmm, this: Â Â Or this: Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueerRudie Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Matt- the second one, by far. It still looks like a real attraction that's warm, friendly and inviting, instead of the entry to a building from "Soylent Green." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 (Continued) The Magic Kingdom's Mainstreet USA continues to take shape... This photo was taken by Dave Smith on the first day that the tarmac asphalt was poured on Mainstreet. Would you believe that this is the Crystal Palace? Any idea what this is? If you guessed Jungle Cruise, you were right. These trellises were only at the attraction for its inaugural year before they were removed. This is the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse before it became a treehouse. Another classic attraction... You don't get to see the Haunted Mansion like this very often. A very clever photo. Since the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Haunted Mansions were being developed around the same time, the animatronic figures were created together in batches. A soon-to-be-demolished Fantasyland Skyway station being built. Roy Disney stands before a mid-construction Cinderalla Castle. Fun fact: Mainstreet's facilities were built as whole buildings with facades added later to divide each "store." In reality, all of the stores are contained in one building on each of the two sides of Mainstreet. The castle forecourt being built up. And the topping off... Getting closer now. Notice the Utilidors entrance at the bottom of the photo? Believe it or not, this was the show building for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Tomorrowland in development... And the first prototype Swan Boat in place in the water near the entrance to Tomorrowland. Is this the space shuttle platform? Here are the Contemporary's rooms assembled and ready to drop (or rather, slide) into place. They can remove these any day and replace them, right? *wink* One of the first monorails being delivered to the Walt Disney World monorail barn. Speaking of the monorail barn... That's no moon... That's a Space Station. Thunder Mountain before the rockwork was fleshed out... And Splash Mountain as it was being built. I think most of you have seen this photo before, but I'll include it for good measure. ^Ditto. World of Motion as it was being rounded out. Notice the support column base for the little rotation the ride used to do near the entrance. Best I not comment. The Living Seas, sans Seas. The entrance of the Disney-MGM Studios gets some work... This is the western scene in the Great Movie Ride being built. Sunset Boulevard under development. The oil rig that became Disney's Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life. The first family to be welcomed into the Walt Disney World Resort. This makes me smile. As does this... Here's the Frontierland Railroad Station, pre-Splash Mountain. The Country Bear Jamboree has has a few seasonal overlays in the past. The Mike Fink Keel Boats are another long lost attraction from Yesterland. Before it became Cinderella's Royal Table. The Mickey Mouse Revue... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 (Continued) Does this count as Index worthy? "Magic Journeys... Are they real?" I miss this show. Don't even remember this one. I'm smiling right now. Not so much anymore... Never got to see it operate... Just watched the lagoon sit unused for years. Way before New Tomorrowland. One of the early Circlevision films shown at the Magic Kingdom. Somewhere around the world, a tear has been shed. ^Ditto. "If you had wings... Had wings... Had wings..." Can you guess where this came from? An old favorite of mine. Still one of my fondest memories of the Magic Kingdom. Not in its original location, and definitely not sporting its newer colors. Also, notice the Sun Giant sponsorship. Pre-Sonny Eclipse. Mickey's Birthdayland! The old EPCOT Center touchscreens. SMRT-1 at Communicore. Rollercoaster Tycoon Version 0.15B The voting for this was supposed to happen for a decade, but when cast members stationed at the attraction seemed to vote for themselves on a daily basis, Disney quietly retired the concept. Â These stories were given to us by Archivist Dave Smith during his presentation. Centorium before it was replaced by Mouse Gear. Presented without comment. We'll get back to you later in the report... Somewhere across the interwebs, a pool of tears is shed. The old Horizons mural... Before the attraction was closed, the mural was removed, but it wasn't sent to the Walt Disney Archives. To this date, the mural's location or status remains unknown. "And then, the deluge..." "I swear, we just moved at least 20 feet!" Am I the only one that misses the SeaCabs? I remember this so fondly! Not much has changed here. The Monster Audio Show. Back when the Mickey Mouse Club was still filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios. Anyone remember the live poachers with guns at Kilimanjaro Safari? I certainly do! The original lobby of the Contemporary. It looks radically different now. One of the floors at the Contemporary, way back when. The Top of the World, jazz singers and all. And the old game room at the Contemporary. The original look of a standard room at the Contemporary Resort. A restaurant that no longer exists at the Polynesian Resort. Anyone remember the name? The Fort Wilderness Railroad while it was still in operation. Later on, several of the passenger cars were reutilized as ticket booths for Pleasure Island. Those booths were later removed and replaced with non-functional replicas. And then there was Discovery Island... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 (Continued) A pirate at Discovery Island at the Seven Seas Lagoon. The main entry plaza to the Animal Kingdom (past the Oasis) was eventually renamed Discovery Island. "River Country! Big River Country..." I had never heard of this one before. The Disney Inn became what is now the Shades of Green Resort. An old restaurant that used to be at the French Quarter. One of the original Treehouse Villas. The Disney Institute was a cool idea that unfortunately never caught on. I really didn't realize how old the Downtown Disney Marketplace really is. This store was located where Basin is now. Two of the three restaurants at the Empress Lily at Downtown Disney before it became Fulton's Crab House. I believe the top photo was the Fisherman's Deck and the bottom was Steerman's Quarters. Each of the three restaurants had its own specialty, theme and menu. And this was Empress Room, an extremely-limited-seating, four star restaurant at the top of the Empress Lily. The outside of Pleasure Island's Neon Armadillo... Never saw it. Not saying anything. The same goes for this one. Did anyone get to go to the XZFR Rockin' Rollerdrome before it was closed? STOLport still exists, but it is no longer an active runway. Time for a presentation on EPCOT, the concept from Walt Disney, and not the park. The amazing things they find in the archives... As with the majority of the Destination D seminars, there was a good deal of humor thrown in the mix. My jaw hit the floor upon reading this correspondence. One of Walt's original napkin layouts of the Walt Disney World Resort. In the top left is the Magic Kingdom, and in the center would be EPCOT. A previously unreleased photo of the film shoot for Walt Disney's last film, Project X. One of the concepts Walt had intended to pitch to potential EPCOT sponsors... I didn't know this, but Walt had so deeply thought out EPCOT, that he commissioned (and designed) entire apartment complexes for the city. According to Steven Vagnini there were reportedly hundreds of these sketches, all unique to a different building or complex. Walt was so specific in his planning, that they actually found furniture plans and designs that he created for EPCOT. More humor thrown in the mix... A unique photo taken from inside of the Utilidors... The next presentation was something I was glad I gave a chance, because it ended up being fantastic. Tim O'Day's binder featured the title poster for The Mask of Zorro, one of my favorite movies of all time. Some of the more odd press stunts... The grand opening of the Disney-MGM Studios. The following day, the two current Walt Disney World Ambassadors kicked things off by reintroducing Steven Clark, Head of D23. Ready for an interesting presentation? Loving this! Only 721 slides to go! This may take a while... ... Surprise! That whole part was a lead in to the test of the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament which will take place at the D23 Expo this August. If you had wings, Delta Dreamflight, Dreamflight and Take Flight. The last set of photos should be online sometime next week. Thanks again for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Yes, you are the only one who misses the original Sea Cabs. Thanks for posting this. Brings back memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The SETGO Guys Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 The wonderful world of Walt Disney World Ephemera actually sounds really interesting….I would actually be really interested in seeing the changes over the years.  Great look back a Disney World, I would really have loved to be there!  Will you be posting more of the Trivia?  Thanks, Zachary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 ^Unfortunately, those were all of the questions they asked using the screen. They did a speed round verbally and narrowed it down from there, so that's all I've got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrock23 Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 These pictures were fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Adam, you've really outdone yourself on this one! There's just SO many memories associated with this update. Â Never got to see it operate... Just watched the lagoon sit unused for years. You missed out on what I still consider to be the greatest Disney ride ever! I'm sure you're probably familiar with this site, but for those who may not be, check out 20kride.com. Â - Loved the Mission to Mars pic! My brother was notorious for needing to go to the bathroom each time we "landed" on Mars. My mom would have to walk him out the exit doors and ruin the whole effect for everyone. Â - And speaking of which, you copied that MTM pic for this quote: "Rollercoaster Tycoon Version 0.15B" I've actually been searching for a good pic of this at Epcot for years now. I really wish I had video of it too! I should have my name in the RCT credits for "beta testing" then! Â Am I the only one that misses the SeaCabs? No. You have company. And by the way, I LOVED that construction pic of the tank!! Â - Thank you, thank you, thank you for that old Contemporary game room pic!! Â - Oh snap! The Kids of the Kingdom.....Mom just HAD to see them every time we were there. Â - Before it was called "The Disney Inn," I'm thinking it was named something else, but I'm drawing a blank. We stayed there several times when it was basically used as a golf resort. Â - MONORAIL CONSTRUCTION FTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Really awesome stuff, Adam. Ton of memories flooding back. I never cared for If You Had Wings, but I always liked the signage....I was weird. Â That pic of Centorium has me perplexed. I really don't recall it being two levels. Amazing what one can forget. Â I too loved the Seacabs. What a great way to introduce the audience to a great aquarium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) (Continued) So later in the day, we sat in on one of my favorite panels of the event... Hosted by Jason Surrell, Alex Wright and Jason Grandt, the Imagineers focused on the subtle and not-so-subtle aspects of the Disney Detail left by the Imagineers. All three had plenty of Disney experiences as kids. Time for some reading... Tropical Amity TropiCalAmity Tropi-Calamity So Jason Grandt told us this very neat story about how he implanted a shape he loved from Tomorrowland into Epcot. See the banner? Well over at the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, there is a stairwell that leads up to the Astro Orbiter. The stairwell has steps with a very distinct shape (see the right hand image). When designing the banner, Jason added this shape into the image as a fun little tribute to his favorite steps. Â True story, bro. Anyone ever see this Haunted Mansion artwork before? Â Notice the Hatbox Ghost in the role of the Grim Reaper. You wouldn't believe how much thought went into the planning and design of the Pirates League at the Magic Kingdom. Also something I didn't realize, but a lot of the thought went into the Pirate Chess Stalemate scene in the queue. When refurbishing the attraction, the chess pieces were to be put back into the exact same stalemate position they were in when the attraction first debuted. This card was found in the archives as an instruction to the original designers on where to place the pieces when first building the ride. A fun gem to be found in Pizzafari at Animal Kingdom. As I think I've mentioned before, there is a ton of detail thrown into the new Mickey meet & greet at the Magic Kingdom. A little tribute here that I hadn't noticed in person before. Jason Grandt drew this art as a child and it was actually used in the meet & greet! The next panel was a "What's Next?" for Walt Disney World. Kathy Rogers started out by talking about Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. They decided to show us some concept art of the new queue... It is amazing how close the attraction ended up looking to what was conceptualized. They even conceptualized the Rex tribute! Then they decided to give us a preview of the Art of Animation Resort! The lobby of the resort... Edited June 3, 2011 by jedimaster1227 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) (Continued) The entire layout of the new resort and all four of its wings. The Nemo rooms will look like this. The exterior decorations of the Cars wing are seen here. And the interior decor... The Lion King rooms... On to Fantasyland we go... An early model of the entrance for The Little Mermaid... And a little more fleshed out. And a new model for the Be Our Guest restaurant and Belle's Village. Maurice's Cottage will be the entrance to an interactive retelling of the story of the Beauty and the Beast. The Imagineers described this alone as a 45 minute experience from start to finish (though it wasn't stated if this figure could include queue time). Dumbo's look will be updated to better reflect the surrounding Storybook Circus environ when it moves into New Fantasyland in 2012/2013. Oh, and one last minor piece of news... Â The Enchanted Tiki Room is coming back to Walt Disney World! During our lunch break at the Liberty Tree Tavern, I tried the Rainbow Trout with Mashed Potatoes (was the catch of the day). It was amazing! We skipped one of the presentations to go try our hand at a Star Tours soft opening. This time, we were lucky! This was the last photo from the soft opening I could take--all rules followed here. Back at Destination D, they had an Archives Exhibit with a few selections of note. Its Jose Carioca from the Mickey Mouse Revue! OOOH! *drools* Despite being quite old, Panchito's animatronic has been preserved as if it were brand new. Why haven't these figures been repurposed for Gran Fiesta Tour at Epcot? Seriously? There is a perfect stage already set up for them at the end of the attraction! Inner mechanics... Edited June 3, 2011 by jedimaster1227 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 (Continued) Who could this belong to? Remember Tom Morrow 2.0? He was only removed from Epcot's Innoventions a few years ago. And the last part of the Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th event? Magic Journeys, a concert with Richard Sherman and the Cast Member group, Encore! The show started off with some songs from an entertainer who had been performing for Disney since Walt Disney World first opened. Then the Kids of the Kingdom performers that were still cast members came out on stage to do one of their original routines. The Mainstreet Marching Band came out next to perform. Here we go! You really can tell Richard Sherman loves what he does, and is truly fond of the work he and his brother have done for Disney over the last four decades. I'm not sure if anyone else there noticed, but Richard Sherman was wearing an Orange Bird pin on his lapel. Then something happened that no one in the audience expected. The Dreamfinder came out, with Figment in is arms. Â Get ready for a Dreamfinder photo overload. Indulge a nostalgic fan, won't you? "No, I'm not going to try to sell you." Â A reference to the sale of various Figment dolls in recent years. Then, the Dreamfinder asked Richard Sherman to sing One Little Spark for him. To which he soon joined in. The Dreamfinder then led a sing-along of One Little Spark. I'm pretty sure half of the audience couldn't sing, as they were too busy crying. Â Seriously, this was a very emotional moment for masses. A few more long-time cast members came out to sing Golden Dreams to the audience. Then Encore! came out to perform a medley of music from Epcot's history. It really was an amazing show! Time to wrap things up... Farewell everyone! Â That's all for this photo report... Thanks for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 DreamFinder needs too lose a few LBs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueerRudie Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Once again, these photos are great- After recently acquiring a copy of E-Ticket featuring Space Mountain (StarPorts 75 and 77) and seeing all the great historical stuff makes me want to bust out the wallet and raid e-bay. Â These pics just pushed me a little bit further towards doing so. Â (And MCJaco- you're right. He's definitley put on as many pounds as there are years at EPCOT!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Gold. Pure gold. Â Thank you, Adam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 DreamFinder needs too lose a few LBs. Â Maybe he dreams about Chipotle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 If I had a first-born, I'd have sold them to be at that last panel. Amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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