It’s time for another cast member kudos post, this time about an exceptionally helpful one I encountered during a visit during the Garden festival.
Scattered around Epcot’s World Showcase are various Festival Market booths like this one near the Outpost:
Epcot Festival Market booth on April 10, 2019.
I’d seen and taken pictures of these booths, but hadn’t felt the need to buy any festival souvenirs. When a display listing various tours caught my eye, I went over to take a closer look.
There, a cast member named Brandon described some of the various tours they had available. I knew there were Epcot tours (I’d taken Behind the Seeds in The Land a decade ago), but I was unaware that there were special festivals tours, including some that were free!
For instance, over in United Kingdom you could sign up for an English Tea Garden Tour, sponsored by Twinings Tea:
A FREE tour at Epcot?!? Well, the photo was taken on April 1, 2019…
Brandon letting me know about something free at Disney should be enough to get him on the kudos list, but he was also great at suggesting things folks shouldn’t miss during the event. He specifically suggested trying The Honey Bee-stro over in Showcase Plaza.
The Honey Bee-stro at Epcot on April 10, 2019.
He said the honey cheesecake was one of his favorite items.
The Honey Bee-stro menu at Epcot on April 10, 2019.
I guess I’m easily suggestible, since I did end up at the Bee-stro and did indeed try the cheesecake. Although the portion was small for $5 (like all items at these events), it was indeed delicious. I also tried the honey ale, but that one is on me.
Kudos to you, Brandon, for being outgoing, friendly, and helpful. Rather than just answer questions, you took a proactive approach with suggestions that really helped enhanced my visit.
Last year, Disney’s Animal Kingdom celebrated 20 years of being “not a zoo.” The park opened on Earth Day in 1998 (April 22). This was the first U.S. Disney park to open during my adult lifetime (I was a teenager when EPCOT Center opened in 1982). I considered making a trip out for the grand opening, but decided I’d wait a bit and let the crowds settle.
I wish I had visited earlier, because by the time I saw it in October 1998, things had already started changing — including the removal of one original attraction!
But I digress…
I wanted to share a sample of what it was like experiencing this park for the first time.
While I was walking towards the entrance, I noticed how beautiful the greenery was. This light caught my attention:
Disney’s Animal Kingdom parking area light October 17, 1998.
I don’t remember what it said not the rock, or if that is even still there. I’ll look for it my next trip.
I remember it being a long walk to get to the entrance.
Walking to the entrance of DAK on October 17, 1998.
I remember being amazed when I saw this waterfall. What a great entrance for this new park!
The waterfall entrance on October 17, 1998.
A minute later, and I would realize this was not the entrance at all. It was the Rainforest Cafe! Neat. Of course, today, you can’t even see the waterfall from here. The trees have grown in and blocked that view.
The real entrance was cool, but now I was a bit let down.
The DAK entrance on October 17, 1998.
I don’t recall what that truck was doing, but I’m betting it was trying to sell tickets to Pleasure Island 😉
I could continue with these photos and take you on a tour of my day, but instead we’ll stick to the outside of the park. Back then, the trees were freshly planted:
The trees needed a bit of help on October 17, 1998.
Even though it didn’t open with the park, we were still pretty excited to see what might come when the fantasy animal realm (Beastly Kingdom) was added. You could see the dragon in the logo, so we knew it would be happening…
Original DAK logo featuring the Dragon on October 17, 1998.
I’m still waiting.
I’ll end with two pictures from the outside of Rainforest Cafe. Click to open the full-size gallery:
I’m not sure how much the inside has changed since I never spent much time in it after this first trip. I got to visit the first three Rainforest Cafes in the Chicago area, so I already had my T-shirt collection started.
There. Now I’ve given Walt Disney World a bit more love. But they will be much, much more love to give in future installments.
Previously, I shared a photo of the original FastPass tickets that were give out at Magic Kingdom‘s Space Mountain in 1999. I thought I’d share a few more photos from the ride that started it all…
…or did I?
My memory says Space Mountain was the first, and I had assumed it did so in “late 1999” because the Wikipedia also said that, but I have since been reminded (via a well-researched Yesterland.com article) that it was announced to be starting in July 1999.
Amazingly, the Wikipedia was wrong about something. Let’s digress for a quick moment.
Doing some poking around the ancient archives of the rec.arts.disney.parks newsgroup, I found a post on February 18, 1999 by someone who got to try out a new “virtual queue system” on Countdown to Extinction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I then find a post from Al Lutz on May 31, 1999 referencing an Orange County Register newspaper article about the system being tested with plans for it to come to Disneyland. Then, on April 16, 1999, someone asked if the virtual queue was still being used and someone replied that it was not working on Space Mountain or CTX “this past Friday.”
Based on what I can find so far, the original testing seems to have been done on one (or both) of those two attractions sometime before February 18 and had ended by mid-April. But which was was first, and when? I shall continue to dig…
UPDATE: I found a reference from January 19, 1999 talking about the system being used on Space Mountain “last Christmas.” It seems December 1998 and Space Mountain?
But I digressed. Let’s get back to my November 1999 visit to Walt Disney World.
At that time, Space Mountain was sponsored by Federal Express:
TMK’s Space Mountain on November 11, 1999.
I grew up with the ride being sponsored by RCA, so this was quite different than the old entrance sign I was used to with the “rocket” with astronauts in it. Inside was also different… The RCA dog listening to the record player had been replaced with a galactic mural.
TMK’s Space Mountain entranceway on November 6, 1999.
When I visited next in 2006 and 2007, FedEx was no longer the sponsor. The signage and theming was still the same, but direct references to FedEx had been removed. I thought it was interesting they didn’t change this mural since “FX-1” in white and red colors was a referenced to FedEx.
Here’s a better look from 2007:
TMK’s Space Mountain “FX-1 Intergalactic Tracking Network” referencing former sponsor FedEx. October 4, 2007.
When I visited next in 2018, I saw that the FedEx references had been removed and the mural had been updated to be Starport Seven-Five… Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain opened in 1975. A similar update had been done at Disneyland with Starport ’77 (I bet you can guess which year their’s opened).
TMK’s Space Mountain entranceway on April 10, 2019.
But I digress. Let’s get back to 1999.
This was the year FastPass went into public testing and was installed on Space Moutain. This meant new entrance markers for FastPass and for the normal line, which would be called Stand-By.
TMK’s Space Mountain entrance got complicated with FastPass and Standby entrances, and FastPass machines. November 6, 1999.
You now had the Stand-By line if you wanted to line up for the ride the way you always did, and a “Disney’s FASTPASS Return” line if you had the magic FastPass ticket…
TMK’s Space Mountain Standby and FastPass entrances on November 6, 1999.
Notice how the “Disney’s” looked like it was added to the sign after it was made. Maybe this was just in the era where “Disney’s” got added in front of anything the company made, yet somehow it wasn’t originally planned to be on this sign.
There was also a place to go to get those magic tickets. “Disney’s FASTPASS Distribution”:
TMK’s Space Mountain FastPass distribution area on November 6, 1999.
Although my camera could not capture the specific time, the return time was the one-hour window where the ticket you received would allow you to return and use the FastPass Return entrance. (I guess we all understand this today, but back in 1999, it was a completely new concept.)
Let’s take a look at the machines…
Folks line up to use the new FastPass machines at TMK’s Space Mountain on November 6, 1999.
Let’s take a closer look…
TMK’s Space Mountain FastPass machines on November 6, 1999.
Insert park ticket here, receive your FastPass there… Simple enough (assuming that’s what it actually says; my ancient digital camera only took 640×480 pictures).
The machines were new, and often had issues.
I wasn’t bold enough to get closer, and the digital camera I had did not have a zoom (or a screen, or removable memory, or anything but a button for that matter). You can really tell this was more of a prototype than production system. Just look at all the wires and pieces of equipment all mounted inside there!
The end result was a nice FastPass ticket that could save you an hour or more waiting in line…
TMK’s Space Mountain FastPass ticket on November 6, 1999.
Humble beginnings!
I’ll leave you with one more view, taken at night…
TMK’s Space Mountain FastPass entrance at night, on November 6, 1999.
There is so much more to be said on the topic of FastPass, especially during the early years, so I look forward to writing more articles like this one, covering the other “first” attractions to have FastPass. (Or, FASTPASS as it was known at the time.)
My Walt Disney World gallery (over 40,000 photos) has been updated to included photos taken a few weeks ago. I have also done some resorting of the early years of my Epcot World Showcase photos, correcting a number of mistakes I found.
I have also added the latest batch of Universal Orlando Resort photos from a few weeks ago. These are on my non-Disney Theme Parks gallery (over 33,000 photos):
All three galleries were restarted from scratch, using new settings. Please let me know if you encounter any issues. Thanks!
Up next: I still have to sort photos from Knott’s Berry Farm (2017 and 2018), Universal Studios Hollywood (2018), and Iowa’s Adventureland Halloween (2018). I also found I have photos form Worlds of Fun (Halloween 2014) I never got around to posting.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened on April 22, 1998 (Earth Day). I had considered being out there for the grand opening, but thought it would be a better trip if I let the crowds die down first. I made my first trip six months later in October that year.
The main attractions were the Kilimanjaro Safaris (still there, but changed), It’s Tough to Be a Bug (still there), and Countdown to Extinction (no longer there by that name, but still there and known as Dinosaur today). I’ll be writing about that first visit later, but I wanted to pass along this photo:
Super fan with a Sorcerer Mickey tattoo at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on October 17, 1998.
If I recall, I noticed her tattoo after my first ride on Dinosaur and I asked her if I could get a photo of it. Twenty years ago, tattoos still weren’t very common, and I’d never seen one in that position on the lower arm.
Today, such a simple arm tattoo wouldn’t get a second glance, and I’ve since seen folks with entire “sleeve tattoos” of copyrighted Disney characters walking around Disneyland. (When did the tough image of biker/military/pirate/prisoner tattoos become something you could mix with Disney?)
But back then, it was something surprising, and worth using one of my limited amount of digital photos on.
Does anyone know her? If so, tell her the guy with the computer camera she met at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 1998 says hi.
After twenty three years doing this, I have decided to switch my focus from photos and video of the U.S. Disney Parks and concentrate on my collection of refillable popcorn buckets.
And that’s as much of an April Fools joke as you get from me today. Instead…
Walt Disney World used to be far more strict on allowing photos and/or video inside attractions. When I visited with my first digital camcorder in 1999, I recorded dozens of hours of video, but almost none inside any attractions. I do, however, have many pre-shows that end with a cast member walking up to me and “asking” me to stop recording.
No flash (?) photography or video recording as recently as December 4, 2006.
I can only imagine how many more photos and hours of video I would have if this were not the case.
Keep this in mind as you watch all the YouTube videos that were recorded in direct violation to posted signs and cast member instructions 😉
My trick was to keep going through until a cast member forgot to make the announcement, or asking a cool cast member if they would look the other way for me. I mean, in 1999, it’s not like anyone was ever going to be able to watch that video other than friends I invited over to see it on my TV.
Yes, Virginia, there was a time when Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom had buildings that were not used for retail space.
The Main Street Cinema used to be a small cinema that played classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. It was still doing this in 1996:
Main Street Cinema in August 1996.
That is the only photo of it from 1996 I have, but here is is in January 1998:
Main Street Cinema on January 23, 1998.
Later that year, it was being used to show previews for the new animated film Mulan:
Mulan replaces Mickey at the Main Street Cinema on October 16, 1998.
In 1999, Tarzan had replaced Mulan:
Tarzan replaces Mulan at the Main Street Cinema on November 6, 1999.
…and Toys Story 2 soon followed (they changed it out during my visit):
Toy Story 2 preview at Main Street Cinema on November 18, 1999.
I do have a photo of the cinema ticket booth from 1999:
Main Street Cinema ticket window on November 20, 1999.
I wonder what her name tag said. At Disneyland, it has her hometown listed as Marceline, Missouri (where Walt Disney grew up).
After my 1999 visit, I turned my focus to Disneyland trips and did not return to Walt Disney World until 2006. By that time, the Main Street Cinema had been turned into another shop. During this visit, it was also being used as the in-park headquarters for the Virtual Magic Kingdom online game:
Main Street Cinema no more on October 23, 2006.
They at least kept a projection screen at the back in tribute to the sign outside:
All that remains of the “cinema” part of Main Street Cinema on December 8, 2006.
Meanwhile, at Walt Disney’s original Disneyland, the Main Street Cinema is still a cinema, with multiple screens inside showing various Mickey Mouse cartoons. I guess California didn’t need another spot to sell T-shirts.
Recently several very old Adventureland post cards popped up on eBay that I had not seen before. One in particular showed “The Moat’ which was the original entrance to the ride area of the park. I knew that the location was the bridge at the end of Main Street, but I’d never seen a picture of what was there. I guess in my mind it was someone just taking tickets or something, but it was actually a ticket building of some sorts:
The Moat (entrance to the ride section of the park). Behind it: Der Flitzer. Back of post card for “The Moat.”
I believe that is the original bridge that was still in the park in 2017, but was rebuilt between the end-of-season and that year’s Oktoberfest. If you notice, there is fencing along the left of the photo, which would have kept visitors from going past the end of the Main Street buildings.
Also, middle right of the photo are the old one-way exit turnstiles like the park used to have at the entrance. That would have been where ride visitors would have exited back to Main Street.
Behind it appears to be Der Flitzer. That roller coaster (originally called Rallye Racers) sits about where the Splash Over is today. This clears up something I’ve wondered about.
The roller coaster was located in the “Alpine Village” section of the park and the Giant Skywheel (100′ tall Ferris Wheel) operates in its spot today.
– Roller Coaster Database entry for Der Flitzer
Apparently this is incorrect, since this post card shows it’s location further down, towards The Boulevard. Also, we found a photo of the Sky Ride that had the coater in the background, and the coaster in that picture matched the description of Rallye Racers. My wiki entry notes:
It was located somewhere around where Tea Cups is. This is based from seeing it in an old photo of the Sky Ride that was taken in 1975. It shows a coaster matching this description in the background. (Thanks to Johnathan C. for pointing this out.)
If Rallye Racers were there (down from the Tea Cups) and the post card shows Der Flitzer in the same location, then the notes about it being relocated may be incorrect.
Does anyone know if Rallye Racers was just rethemed and renamed in the same location to become Der Flitzer?
I have begun the process of reorganizing all my Walt Disney World photos. When I started taking digital pictures in 1996, I was just grouping things together by park and land. I mean, no one has hundreds of photos from the same place, do they? Back then, one visit to Magic Kingdom may have only resulted in a few photos from Adventureland — hardly enough for a gallery, right? Thus, my photos from 1996 to 1998 were all grouped together. By 1999, I had started bringing my laptop into the park with me so I could go back to the lockers and then download photos during the day so I could take more. Here’s me at the front of Disney/MGM Studios in 1999:
Me, “discretely” using my laptop at Disney/MGM Studios to download photos on November 19, 1999.
Since there were no web galleries yet, I even went as far as renaming photos to things like “tmk_1.jpg” or “dmgm_15.jpg” so folks who downloaded them by filename at least had an indication of which park the photo was from. (Microsoft Windows at the time only allowed for 8-letters for a filename, so it was impossible to have a photo called “CinderellaCastleSideView.jpg”.) I wish I had NOT done that, since some of the photos lost their embedded date code leaving me with no easy way to tell what year they were taken.
I am now trying to split them out by year, even though that means some areas will only have one or two photos. Ah, the early days of digital cameras with 1 megabyte of memory! I did this last year with my Disneyland and Iowa Adventureland Park photos, so it’s going much faster this third time around.
During my sorting, I’ve found interesting patterns to my photo taking. Sometimes I’d only have one picture (Epcot World Showcase pavilions) as if I just took a token photo to represent the area. Other times, I’d have a dozen or more (favorite attractions like Haunted Mansion, or something that was brand new like the opening of Buzz Lightyear).
Sometimes I took things like this:
Liberty Square CMs pose for me on August 27, 1996.
Notice they are posing for the photo. Folks generally just didn’t “waste” film on taking pictures of cast members back then unless the cast member had a princess dress on or was a giant mouse. I suspect they must have asked me about my weird camera, and after explaining what a digital camera was, I took their photo. I can’t think of any other reason I’d have used one of my limited photos on a parasol cart.
These two girls are now twenty two years older than they were when I took this photo of them in 1996. I wonder how long they worked for Disney World. Maybe they are long gone, or maybe Vice Presidents somewhere out there.
In an earlier article, I speculated a bit on when EPCOT Center became the Epcot we know today. Today I’ll dive a bit deeper and include some comments from others.
Derek Mullins on Twitter commented:
From my observation, it was most likely the beginning of the sponsor losses, and the changes to be more thrilling (Test Track) and ‘hipper’ (Ellen’s Energy Adventure) in the mid-90’s. Of course, it’s all subjective, so I’m curious what answers you get.
Derek Mullins, @mewhunter67
Sponsor losses. That’s interesting, because sponsors go both ways. An existing ride could get a new sponsor which causes big changes… Or a ride could become sponsor less, and stay frozen as-is.
The comedic additions of Ellen and Bill Nye the Science Guy to Universe of Energy were certainly a change in feeling. That began in 1996.
Ellen is coming to Epcot! August 29, 1996.
World of Motion had closed and was to become Test Track in 1997.
Test Track opening spring 1997 on August 29, 1996.
The times they were a changing…
Howard Bowers on Twitter commented:
1999. Horizons is closed for the second time. Journey into Imagination is closed. Test Track is finally operational, having replaced World of Motion. And the 2000 wand is up next to Spaceship Earth.
The ride’s closed. Mouse outside shoulda told you. November 11, 1999. Lines out the door for the newly-opened Journey into YOUR Imagination. November 8, 1999.The new Test Track with a 1 hour wait. November 11, 1999.Epcot 2000?
Four notable changes certainly is a good percentage of the original attraction lineup. Howard also added…
Original Epcot took some hits in 1994 with the closing of Kitchen Kabaret and the addition of Food Rocks and the switch to Ellen’s Energy Adventure, along with Innoventions, but all of that still felt like Epcot, just the next generation. / Taking out Journey into Imagination and Horizons basically removed the Heart and Soul of Future World.
Howard Bowers
Ah, Kitchen Kabaret! Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit was the “it’s a small world” song of EPCOT Center… During my first visit with a digital camera, Food Rocks had already taken over:
Food Rock on August 29, 1996.
That was part of the sponsorship change from Kraft to Nestle.
The Land, presented by … the chocolate company? August 29, 1996
I recall many of “us” joked at the time that having a chocolate company take over the “healthy” pavilion made little sense. But it’s not about finding a sponsor that fits — it’s about finding a sponsor that will spend the money. At least Listen to the Land didn’t become a chocolate boat ride ala Willy Wonka! (Hmmm, that would have made great sense and fit the sponsor… It just would have not fit at Epcot…)
The loss of Imagination was sad, since no other attraction ever embodied just what “imagination” really was like better than that original dark ride. Still, the two updates (Journey into YOUR Imagination, and Journey into Imagination with Figment) at least tried to keep the theme rather than becoming, say, a Wreck It Ralph ride through.
But Horizons, well, that was just a total loss. Nothing put the “future” in Future World better than Horizons. And, unlike updates done to Tomorrowland, or the final scene of Carousel of Progress, the futures presented in Horizons would still be as futuristic today as they were in the 1980s. I think it had much more life left… Pity the crowds disagreed, and it was almost always a walk on when I visited.
The closed building made a nice backdrop for Cast in Bronze, at least.
Cast in Bronze performs in front of the closed Horizons on November 8, 1999.
I think this needs “to be continued”…
Until next time…
Final year Horizons cast member on October 24, 1998.
