Month: February 2025

With contributions from Chris Bales and Yesterland Curator Werner Weiss.

EPCOT

in 1982, EPCOT Center opened. While uppercase EPCOT mixed-case Center was a wonderful place, I sure would have loved to see acronym E.P.C.O.T. (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) that Walt Disney wanted to build. But at least the Every Person Comes Out Tired version we got lived up to its unofficial acronym.

For 1994, Walt Disney World decided that EPCOT would become mixed-case Epcot ‘94. This required changing many of the signs on property.

For 1995, the name was changed to Epcot ‘95.

Today, the park name is back to EPCOT. It was all a dream, and nothing changed.

I guess.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

In 1989, Disney-MGM Studios opened (possibly officially “(The) Disney-MGM Studios Park” or “(The) Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park” depending on what source you look at). In 2008, the park was renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disneyland Paris

In 1992, Euro Disney Resort opened. It was quickly renamed to Euro Disneyland Paris. And then to Disneyland Paris when “Euro Disney” became a punchline (speculation on my part). In 2002, it was renamed to Disneyland Resort Paris and in 2009 to simply Disneyland Paris.

Paris’ Walt Disney Studios Park opened in 2002. In 2024 it was announced the park would be renamed Disney Adventure World. (Was this a joke?)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

In 1995, Disney’s Wild Animal Kingdom was announced. By the time the park opened on Earth Day in 1998, the name had been changed to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Those of us who are old enough to remember watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom may be surprised to know this old show was the reason for this name change. Thank you, Marlin Perkins! (I honestly did not know that TV show continued with different hosts and is apparently still being made to this day.)

Disney California Adventure

In 2001, Disney’s California Adventure opened. After a major park update in 2010, the apostrophe and “s” were let go, and the park was renamed Disney California Adventure. With the new entrance theme representing California when Walt first arrived there, it seems the original name would have been a better fit.

Magic Kingdom

And, to add further confusion, the official name of the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom has changed over the years, too — Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and even Magic Kingdom Park. You might even find The Magic Kingdom if you look hard enough. I am a bit unclear on how many of these were official name changes over the years, or just changes made to the big sign on the train station at the entrance.

Side note: As of this writing, the official names as listed on the official Walt Disney World website are: Magic Kingdom or Magic Kingdom Park (depending on where you look), EPCOT (uppercase), Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Bonus Round

Many lands of the Disney parks have also gone through name changes.

• Disneyland’s Indian Village turned in to Bear Country which turned in to Critter Country and, since I first wrote the draft of this article, is now Bayou Country.
• DCA’s Bountiful Valley Farms turned in to Flik’s Fun Fair which turned in to Avengers Campus.
• DCA’s Paradise Pier turned in to Pixar Pier.
• TMK’s Mickey’s Starland became Mickey’s Toon Town before becoming Storybook Circus (though this is not a separate land, but a part of Fantasyland ).
• DCA’s Pacific Wharf became Sanfransokyo Square.
• …and I am sure there are more.

Help me continue to evolve this list. Leave a comment with any others you know of.

To be continued…

In the days before the World Wide Web, finding information about Disney theme parks was nearly impossible. There were some books and TV specials, but beyond that, unless you knew somebody with inside information (i.e. someone who worked or had worked for the Mouse), you probably didn’t know much.

Today, of course, every nook and cranny of the parks is fully documented. You can find photos and videos of backstage areas, scans of ride maintenance manuals, attraction audio files and more just by typing a few words in a search engine. You can even find endless videos from inside the “secret” Club 33 which, before the World Wide Web, most of us didn’t even know existed. Heck, even *I* have photos I took inside Club 33.

But before the modern Internet, things were different. If you didn’t live in California or Florida, you probably did not encounter many (or even any) people who worked for Disney. Everything I knew about Disneyland and Magic Kingdom was from my family taking me to both several times as a kid in the 1970s.

Finding Disney information in the early 1980s…

But that started to change when home computers and telephone modems became a thing. In the early 1980s, I learned about computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). I could dial in to some other kid’s computer and read messages from other users that called in at other times. Unlike a real bulletin board on the wall at a local book shop, this computer bulletin board could be accessed by anyone in the local area code! (Or around the world if they wanted to pay long distance phone charge to call some random kid’s computer in Houston, I guess.)

It was through one of these BBSes I met my first former Disney employee. He had worked at Magic Kingdom in the maintenance department. The stories he shared were my first glimpse “behind the magic” of Disney theme parks.

For example, he explained the projectors that made the singing busts and the Madam Leota’s face on the table in the Haunted Mansion. He described how the face surface was mostly flat with a bit of shape for where the nose and eyes and such would be. He mentioned they used a fan to blow air to keep dust from being in the projection beam. He said they used special lenses that refocused it around the shape. He also mentioned “angel hair” (though I still have no idea what this meant) for Leota’s crystal ball.

Was any of this true? A decade later, thanks to the World Wide Web, it sure seemed like most of it was.

But, not all of his stories checked out. He said that the Disney designers had been wanting to do a similar Leota type projection effect for 20,000 Leagues under the sea involving an octopus. Have you ever heard of such a rumor or experiment?

Even before the internet, there were rumors, and Disney cast members heard plenty of of them — some true, but most were not (just like today).

Finding Disney information in the late 1980s/early 1990s…

The 1980s also brought us national text-based services like CompuServe, The Source, Delphi and GEnie. Instead of just being able to interact with folks who were calling in to some random kid’s computer in same town, now you could dial a local number and be connected to a series of mainframe computers connected across the country (or even around the world).

I was a member of a few of these services in the later 1980s and early 1990s. It was on one of these services in the early 1990s that someone sent me a list of Disneyland radio codes. Thanks to my dad, I had already become familiar with some of these. His van was loaded with radio equipment and police scanners. When we’d drive to Walt Disney World, we’d sit in the parking lot listening to Disney radio chatter. (Have I told the story about carrying around scanners in the park, listening in? If not, I will have to sometime…)

He had written down a list of codes and what they meant. He had also gotten some more codes and information from Disney security staff. I am pretty sure I must have asked my Disneyland contact about these codes to see if I could get a complete list for my dad.

So below, I present to you a slightly redacted (just in case he still works for Disney in some capacity) of these codes. I wonder if any of these are still in use? I certainly recognize a few of the more famous ones… But back then, I don’t think any of us know what a ride going “101” meant.

Enjoy this trip back to the early 1990s…

Sub: Disneyland's radio codes...

Allen,

I'll bet you thought I forgot you!  Well, do be honest, I did, but I ran
across the printout I made, so now I remember! :-)

Here are all of the codes I have...

Common Radio Codes Used At Disneyland

10-1      Receiving poorly
10-2      Receiving well
10-4      OK or Acknowledge
10-6      Busy
10-7      Out of service (usually used when going to lunch)
10-8      In service (when back from lunch)
10-9      Repeat last transmission
10-14     Escort or convoy (I've never heard this one used)
10-19     Return to office
10-20     What is your location?
10-21     Call x (where x is the telephone # given following the code)
10-22     Cancel last message/assignment
10-23     Stand-by
10-28     Registration request (never heard this one, either)
10-87     Meet __________ at __________
10-96     Request test of select call
10-97     Arrive at scene
10-98     Finished last assignment
10-99     Undesirable person (add to 10-99 the following codes)
     Code C = Caucasion
     Code B = Black
     Code L = Latino
     Code O = Oriental

11350     Possession of Dangerous drugs
11357     Possession of Marijuana
5150      Mentally disturbed
211       Robbery
240       Assualt
242       Battery
314       Indecent exposure
390       Drunk
408       Counterfeit bill
415       Disturbing the peace
417       Person with weapon (add following codes)
     Code G = Gun
     Code K = Knife
459       Burglary
486       Petty theft
502       Drunk driver
503       Stolen vehicle
594       Malicious mischief
901       Traffic Accident, unknown if injury
901-T     Injury traffic accident
902       Accident, non-injury
904       Fire
921       Prowler
925       Suspicious person
982       Bomb threat
999       Officer needs help, any unit respond

Code 1    Routine
Code 2    Urgent
Code 3    Emergency
Code 4    No further assistance needed
Code 5    Stake out
Code 7    Lunch
Code H    Call home
Code 100  Attraction delayed opening
Code 101  Attraction down - routine
Code 102  Attraction down - urgent
Code 103  Attraction down - emergency
Code 104  Attraction up - Normal operation
Code 105  Attraction up - reduced operations
Code 106  Attraction up - Full capacity

GC        Guest Complaint

There are many more that I can't think of off the top of my head, but this
will give you alot to listen for.  Please don't indiscrimanantly reveal
these codes, i.e. 'in the RT'.  This is _not_ for public knowledge,
although with a little investigation by anyone, they could find most of
these out. ;-)


[Redacted]

Until next time…