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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JULY 18 TO JULY 26, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

Things are … a little different… as Disney World re-opens.  See this for park previews and key insights.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/18-7/26/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-7p every day

Epcot will be open from 11a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 10a-8p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-6p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/18-7/26/20

There will be no Extra Magic Hours until further notice.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/18-7/26/20

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/18-7/26/20

There will be no evening shows until further notice.

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/18-7/26/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

NORWAY IN EPCOT’S WORLD SHOWCASE

By Jim Korkis

The Norway Pavilion was the 11th and last (so far) country added to Epcot’s World Showcase–in 1988. Norwegian Showcase (NorShow) was a consortium of eleven companies established to pay for the pavilion and represent Norwegian interests. The Norwegian government also helped pay for the pavilion.

Disney Imagineers first proposed an attraction called SeaVenture, where guests would ride along a 946-foot water flume and encounter trolls, gnomes, and the legends about them, with a theme song written by the Sherman Brothers. Another proposal was Vikings on their way on the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla.

The Norwegian sponsors wanted the attraction to be more of a travelogue to encourage increased tourism. NorShow gave the Imagineers a list of items they wanted shown in the attraction that they felt uniquely related to the story of Norway including Vikings, a fishing village, a polar bear, a fjord, an oil rig, and perhaps, if there was room, a troll or two.

Attraction Designer Bob Kurzweil came up with the new approach that it would be a time-travel experience through the history of Norway to give guests the experience that “those who seek the spirit of Norway face peril and adventure, but more often find beauty and charm.”

Disney Imagineer Randy Bright stated, “It’s the first ride that actually goes backwards, and the first ride that will utilize Audio-Animatronics in a black light environment.”

An Epcot press release at the time described the attraction as “Visitors take a fantasy voyage that departs a modern-day village on a Norwegian fjord and journeys up a cascading waterway into the Norway of old. The trip is aboard small ships patterned after the dragon-headed craft of Eric the Red and his fellow explorers.”

The boats were some of the first concept art work done by Imagineer Joe Rohde for Walt Disney World. It was also some of the last work done by famed Imagineer Jack Ferges, who built the model for the ride vehicle ship, and also sculpted the polar bear maquettes.

Originally, the polar bear (who stood 11 feet tall) scene was going to feature extensive rockwork but, to cut costs, most of it was replaced with black-light painted flats.

Adding to the attraction’s appeal would be various drops including one of twenty-eight feet, and visual effects, as well as a unique directional change with the ride vehicle briefly going outside over a waterfall and then return into the attraction and go backward. The new designs also called for a full-scale replication of a North Sea storm to include wind, waves, rain, thunder, and lightning.

Over the years, there were a few minor changes made to the attraction. The smoke effects in both the Troll scene and the reverse scene were toned down. The wave and rain effects in the North Sea Storm scene were also muted, and the Tesla coil that originally created the lightning effect over the oil rig was replaced with strobe lights.

At the end of the boat ride was a theater showing a six-minute film entitled The Spirit of Norway, directed by Paul Gerber, about the beauty of present day Norway. In later years, guests often walked straight through the theater rather than watching the outdated film.

In the first full year of operations nearly 5.7 million guests rode the Maelstrom attraction.

NorShow sold back its interest in the pavilion to Disney in 1992 for $26 million, a loss of more than $8 million on its initial investment of close to $34 million. In September 2014, Disney announced that the attraction would be replaced with a new attraction based on the animated feature Frozen (2013) that would immerse guests in favorite moments from that film.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JULY 11 TO JULY 19, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

Things are … a little different… as Disney World re-opens.  See this for park previews and key insights.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/11-7/19/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-7p every day

Epcot will be open from 11a-9p 7/15 through 7/19

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 10a-8p 7/15 through 7/19

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-6p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/11-7/19/20

There will be no Extra Magic Hours until further notice.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/11-7/19/20

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/11-7/19/20

There will be no evening shows until further notice.

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/11-7/19/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com has put together previews of how he expects things will go at the four theme parks once they re-open next week.

As he puts it, his previews include “everything that’s expected to be open, closed, and what I’m expecting from crowds, wait times, and potential touring strategies along with some nonsense.”

It’s best to start with Josh’s Animal Kingdom material, as that also covers some general concepts applicable to all four parts. (And before looking at Epcot, you may wish to ask children to leave the room.)

PREVIEWS OF DISNEY WORLD IN THE SUMMER OF 2020

Josh’s previews can be found at the links:

• Animal Kingdom
• Epcot
• Hollywood Studios
• Magic Kingdom

I have noted elsewhere that first-timers on a once in a lifetime visit to Walt Disney World ought to avoid going until the parks become more like they used to be.

But returning visitors might find a trip well worthwhile. Your best way of making that choice is to review Josh’s previews, and then return to easyWDW.com for updates after the parks open next weekend.

Note that you can’t enter the parks without both a ticket AND a reservation. 2020 Reservations can be made on the My Disney Experience website, but only if you already have a ticket or an annual pass. As of now, Disney is not selling new tickets for 2020.

Josh covers the reservation system here.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

By Jim Korkis

When CEO Michael Eisner had to make the decision whether to build Beastly Kingdom or DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, several things influenced his decision besides his interest in dinosaurs.

In production for a release in 2000 was the Disney feature film entitled Dinosaur that combined live action backgrounds (mostly filmed in Venezuela) with CGI dinosaurs to create a “photo-realistic” appearance. The film would prominently feature an iguanodon and a carnotaurus.

The Imagineers pitched a thrill ride that would also prominently feature those two dinosaurs so it would tie in with promoting the film. It would also utilize the EMV (Enchanced Motor Vehicle) ride system developed for Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure attraction and a nearly identical track layout, so it would save construction money as the park was going way over budget.

The backstory of this was that the Dino Institute was struggling for funds, so hired Dr. Helen Marsh, who had a reputation for fund-raising for museums. Within days of her arrival, she purchased Chrono-Teck Inc. and announced they had developed a CTX (to reference Countdown to Extinction attraction name) Time Rover vehicle that could travel back in time.

This invention brought the Institute prestige and funding to build a state-of-the-art facility to assist in research and house classrooms. The “new” version of the Dino Institute was dedicated on April 22, 1978 (to reference the opening of DAK on the same date in 1998).

Dr. Marsh insisted that tours to the Cretaceous period be offered to non-professionals to help subsidize the costs of the new facility. Controller Dr. Grant Seeker informs the visitors that he intends to use the time rover to save an Iguanodon from extinction and bring it back to the Dino Institute.

Once aboard the Time Rover, riders begin a turbulent journey back to a prehistoric jungle where they encounter several dinosaurs, including a styracosaurus, alioramus, raptor, sauropod, and pterodactyls among others, and are chased by a Carnotaurus before finally rescuing an Iguanodon seconds before an asteroid hits.

Disney expected the movie Dinosaur to become another classic and attract families with younger children so significant changes were made to the attraction.

Two weeks before the movie was released, the attraction was renamed Dinosaur.

Outside of the Dino Institute, the styracosaurus standing in an infinity pool was replaced with an iguanodon in a garden and footage from the film was inserted into the pre-show.

The first time warp tunnel (where the Time Rover is “sent back into the past”) no longer used the lasers and pyro effects to blind guests. The compsognathus that jumped over the Time Rover were on a chain and pulley system and were deactivated so they just hovered in place (and were replaced by projections in 2016).

The ending was changed with a large, static, blacklit, cartoon-proportioned carnotaur head sliding toward guests on a visible rolling rig. Changes were made in the narration to make it more comedic and emphasize more urgency.

The motion of the EMVs were reduced and made less jarring so the height requirement could be lowered for younger children. The audio of the chase by the carnotaur was softened, so instead of getting ever closer, it faded off as if the dinosaur had fallen behind.

These changes did not make the attraction less scary for children, but did make it more disappointing for adults. As a result the original version, despite some similarities to the current version, is considered an entirely different ride experience.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (29)

By Jim Korkis

• The Making of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park by Melody Malmberg

Melody Malmberg was a full-time show writer at Walt Disney Imagineering for six years. This was her first book, but she was uniquely qualified to write about Disney’s Animal Kingdom because she was the wife of Joe Rohde, the Executive Designer of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Amusingly, that marital bias may be reflected in the text. Rohde was very upset that his concept for a Beastly Kingdom was cancelled and replaced by the small Camp Minnie-Mickey that allows guests to have meet-and-greet opportunities with the classic Disney animated characters.

So while the book painstakingly explores in great detail the development of every other area in the park, including at the time of writing some yet to come like Asia, it only gives a brief, cursory half page description of Camp Minnie-Mickey that includes a small color concept sketch of Mickey, Donald and Goofy fishing in the river while guests watched.

On the other hand eight pages were devoted to listing in four columns per page in tiny type every WDI team member who worked on the park. It would have been nice to have more information about the concept and challenges of Camp Minnie-Mickey as were shared with other aspects of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but that is not the case.

The book clearly emphasizes the park’s original focus on real animals (rather than thrill rides), education and conservation. Since its opening in 1998, the new additions to the park have gone in a much different direction as reflected by the inclusion of Expedition Everest and Pandora.

Originally released in May 1998, this 192 page hardcover book is both colorful and informative as it charts the park from the initial concepts to opening day, although the book went to press before the actual opening day ceremonies so that is not included.

While some of the information in the book is now outdated because of all the changes in the last two decades, the historical information is still valid and fascinating. It gives an interesting perspective on why certain choices were made and gives credit to specific people who were primarily responsible for certain things. It is an insightful look into what it takes to build a Disney theme park.

The book is filled with full-color Imagineering concept sketches, caricatures, behind-the scenes photos of Imagineers working on details for the park, personal photos of people involved, beautiful images of animals and locations as well as much more.

There is even a two page detailed look at the forthcoming Tiger Rapids Run that later evolved into the Kali River Rapids attraction. The two pages include six large concept sketches of what it was meant to look like along with a full page description with quotes from Rohde.

The book still continues to sell very well and at a reasonable price because to the best of my knowledge there are only two other books entirely about Disney’s Animal Kingdom: he Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom (2007) by Imagineer Alex Wright and Disney’s Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History (2018) by Chuck Schmidt that I previously reviewed here.

Malmberg also authored two other Disney related books:The Making of Hong Kong Disneyland: Magic at Work; (Disney Enterprises) and The Making of Hong Kong Disneyland: Magicians at Work; (Disney Enterprises). Good luck trying to find copies of those volumes. I am still looking.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!