The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is in full swing over at Epcot, where the tasty delights around World Showcase can make your taste buds sing. At The Land Pavilion, there used to be a place where the food actually did the singing.
Food Rocks! was a mock rock concert in The Land Pavilion that delivered nutritional messages to guests and was hosted by Füd Wrapper, inspired by the rapper Ton Loc.
While the show included a number of outstanding acts, one has always been my favorite: Pita Gabriel, who wants to be your high fiber.
Even though these classic food musicians no longer perform at Epcot, you can still get your groove on during the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival at the Eat to the Beat Concert Series, although I don’t think the Refrigerator Police have been booked this year. Bummer.
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Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
On this day in 1982, the American Adventure Pavilion was dedicated at Epcot. Below is a look at the dedication ceremony.
Inside this 1,024-seat theater, home to The American Adventure show, are 12 statues known as The Spirits of America, representing American qualities.
How many can you name without any assistance from the Internet? Here’s a hint – their descriptions: seaman, doctor, mountain man, pilgrim, Native American, colonial solider, cowboy, scientist, teacher, aviator, farmer, and woman and child. I’ll be honest: I only knew three!
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Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
Ah, October – falling leaves, cooler nights and Not-So-Scary fun at Magic Kingdom Park. Who’s excited? Here are three oh-so-familiar ghosts scaring up a good time at the Haunted Mansion back in 1987.
That’s one pretty boo-tacular picture if I do say so myself!
Read more about Halloween at Walt Disney World Resort in the posts below:
Tagged: Halloween, MK, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort
On October 1, 1982, the 21st Century came to life when Walt Disney World Resort welcomed guests to EPCOT Center.
Opening Day involved honoring the first official family to EPCOT Center and the official dedication ceremony for Spaceship Earth.
Plans to move forward with Walt Disney’s vision for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) were first announced in 1974 by Card Walker (pictured above on opening day), then president of Walt Disney Productions. EPCOT Center was one of Walt Disney’s original ideas for the “Florida Project.”
Thirty years later, Epcot still stays true to the words inscribed on its dedication plaque, “May Epcot Center entertain, inform, and inspire.”
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Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
Let’s all take one big breath in and let it out slowly, because it’s time for a look back at…Horizons.
Although it’s now a thing of the past, Horizons, the attraction that took guests on “an exciting exploration of options for living and working in the 21st century,” continues to be an Epcot fan favorite today.
Called a “mind-boggling 15-minute journey” aboard a suspended vehicle, the first scene in Horizons was titled “Looking Back at Tomorrow” and offered a glimpse at past visionaries and views of yesterday’s future. Included in this area is one of the most iconic figures in Horizons, the Robot Butler.
Horizons also took guests to Nova Cite a community of the future where the use of a “holographic telephone” helped families keep in touch.
Designed over a three-year period at Walt Disney Imagineering in California, one memorable part about Horizons was the choose-your-own ending to the journey via personal spacecraft, desert hovercraft or mini-submarine.
It doesn’t matter where I am at; the smell of citrus will always evoke fond memories of Horizons.
Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
Epcot introduced the world to a lot of new technology when it opened almost thirty years ago, but it’s also responsible for creating one of the most iconic theme park characters, beloved by Disney fans: Dreamfinder.
With his top hat, beard and loveable sidekick Figment, Dreamfinder encouraged children of all ages to use their imagination in the original Journey Into Imagination attraction.
According to Dave Smith in his Ask Dave column, “Dreamfinder and Figment originated as Professor Marvel and his green dragon friend at the proposed, but never built, Discovery Bay expansion of Disneyland Resort. When Kodak signed on to be the sponsor of Journey into Imagination at Epcot, the characters were re-imagined. Professor Marvel became the Dreamfinder, and his green dragon became Figment, who adopted royal purple pigment.”
The kind, wise spirit of imagination, Dreamfinder always knew it only took one little spark to kick everyone’s imagination into high gear.
Follow @WaltDisneyWorld for the latest on Epcot’s 30th anniversary. To join the discussion on Twitter, use the hashtag #Epcot30.
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Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
I’m a huge fan of The Seas with Nemo & Friends attraction at Epcot where you can interact with the stars of the hit Disney•Pixar film, but there is one thing I miss about the original The Living Seas Pavilion – the hydrolater.
Iconic to The Living Seas Pavilion, this 20 passenger capsule elevator took guests on a 30-second trip to the ocean floor where they experienced water rushing by as electronic indicators measured the progress of their decent while the floor beneath them was shaking.
This 185,000 square-foot pavilion that opened in 1986 is home to a coral reef environment that holds 5.7 million gallons of seawater. When guests disembarked at Seabase Alpha (now known just as Seabase), they explored a model undersea research facility.
The previous queue at The Living Seas had artifacts that had a more nautical feel than the beach queue guests encounter today.
While saying “dude” as much as possible is today’s norm when leaving The Seas with Nemo & Friends attraction, I still like to yell out “the deluge” when it downpours here in Florida. Those two words are still memorable all these years later from the original The Living Seas preshow.
As the 30th anniversary of Epcot approaches, read more about the history of the park in the posts below:
Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Epcot on October 1, my “Vintage Walt Disney World” column will turn “Vintage Epcot” for the next five weeks.
Oftentimes in my job, I wish there was a fountain of information somewhere that could give me answers to every question asked to me. If I had worked at Epcot in the ’80s, I could have just visited CommuniCore, where the Fountain of Information (pictured below) actually existed!
Before Innoventions, there was CommuniCore. Short for “Community Core,” this group of interactive exhibits invited guests to participate in experiencing the future.
Some of the exhibits guests could enjoy were Epcot Computer Central (pictured below), Energy Exchange, FutureCom, Electronic Forum and TravelPort.
Need to know the current U.S. Population? Who needs the census? CommuniCore had an up-to-date count of just how big the country was getting.
If only the Computer Central could see our smartphones of today, it would be astounded.
Follow @WaltDisneyWorld for the latest on Epcot’s 30th anniversary. To join the discussion on Twitter, use the hashtag #Epcot30.
Read more about the history of Epcot in the posts below:
Tagged: Epcot, WDW
Filed: Disney History, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort
I scream. You scream. But it’s usually on the The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror when at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, right? Not today, kids. I’m talking about my favorite food that’s always worth screaming about – ice cream.
It wasn’t until today in 1999 that Hollywood Scoops started dishing up the delicious stuff (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and fat-free, sugar-free vanilla) to guests visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Sunset Boulevard. Here’s a look at Sunset Boulevard just prior to opening in 1994, without the scoop shop on the corner.
Never passing up an opportunity to do some on-the-job research, I forced myself to head out to Hollywood Scoops last week with my friend Patrick in order to refresh our memories of the ice cream offerings they have there. Final verdict: delicious.
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Tagged: DHS, Dining, WDW
Filed: Disney Dining, Disney History, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World Resort
Know a good joke? Well practice your delivery because today is National Tell a Joke Day. One place where the laughs (and jokes) used to entertain guests nightly was at the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island.
The 290 seat venue “where the tin roof rattled with laughter” was home to both headlining comedians and the Comedy Warehouse players who performed improvisational comedy shows nightly.
This early artist rendering of the Comedy Warehouse gave it a completely different look and feel to the prop warehouse guests and cast members grew to love.
While the laughs have stopped at the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island, last year the troupe was resurrected for a holiday special at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Today, guests can visit the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom Park for a fresh serving of jokes by the monsters of Monstropolis.
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Filed: Disney History, Downtown Disney, Walt Disney World Resort
