By the co-author of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020, the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series ever.

Available on Amazon here.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)





Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: World of Motion at Epcot

by Dave

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

WORLD OF MOTION AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

The World of Motion, sponsored by General Motors. was an opening day attraction in the Future World section of Epcot, and continued to operate until January 1996. It was replaced by Test Track, also sponsored by GM.

GM had signed a commitment to a transportation pavilion in 1977, making it the first official Epcot pavilion participant.

World of Motion, a dark ride omnimover vehicle attraction, was designed by Imagineer Mark David, with significant contributions from Disney Legends Marc Davis and later Ward Kimball in staging the various tableaus.

It was a whimsical look at the history of transportation, from caveman’s “foot power” to the first traffic jam (of a motor car smashing into a horse-drawn produce cart), to the modern day, with thirty-one amusing scenes featuring approximately 140 comically exaggerated audio-animatronics figures as well as projection effects.

(c) Disney

The exterior of the pavilion showed the blue Omnimover vehicles slowly spiraling clockwise from the ground floor up to the second level before entering a contoured hole in a red wall.

The narrator of the attraction was radio personality Gary Owens, who told guests, “General Motors now invites you to travel the open road – to discover that when it comes to transportation, it’s always fun to be free! Throughout the ages, we have searched for freedom to move from one place to another.”

The theme song, It’s Fun To Be Free, composed by Buddy Baker with lyrics by Xavier “X” Atencio was repeated during the experience in a variety of styles from ragtime, Dixieland jazz, Broadway show tune, symphonic, Copland-esque western, kazoo and more. The two song writers had previously collaborated on Grim Grinning Ghosts for the Haunted Mansion.

The journey on 1,730 feet of track ended after a trip through a “speed tunnel” at the sixty foot high CenterCore, a city of tomorrow in perpetual motion that included a Pepper’s Ghost illusion to put guests into futuristic bubble cars.

The narration intoned: “Yes, our world has indeed become a world of motion.  We have engineered marvels that take us swiftly over land and sea, through the air and into space itself.  And still bolder and better ideas are yet to come, ideas that will fulfill our age-old dream to be free; free in mind, free in spirit, free to follow the distant star of our ancestors to a brighter tomorrow.”*

Guests then disembarked into the Transcenter, designed by Bob Rogers and his BRC Imagination Arts studio, that featured several hands-on experiences that showcased what the engineers at GM were developing for future transportation.

A GM promotional brochure stated, “The GM Transcenter is an open invitation to visit a world rarely seen. The Trancenter showcases candid, behind the scenes views of what it takes to design, engineer, and manufacture cars and trucks with the highest order of quality and imagination.

“But satisfying today’s personal travel requirements is only part of the ongoing creative process.  Anticipating what lies ahead is another story that comes to life in the GM Transcenter.  Clearly, The Future of Transportation is Here…and on full display!”

Guests could design a car through computer modeling, view an animated film about different types of engines, visit a display of options for the interior of a future car, or be entertained by The Bird and the Robot show where an audio-animatronics toucan interacted with “Tiger,” an assembly-line robot arm.

While the attraction served approximately 20,000 guests a day who enjoyed the experience, GM wanted something more of a thrill attraction that focused solely on automobiles, which resulted in the development of Test Track in the same location.

*  *  *  *  *

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!!

May 17, 2020   No Comments

Dining at Disney’s Riviera Resort

by Dave

(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Riviera Resort, click here.)

DINING AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Most of the Disney Vacation Resorts largely share the dining offered by their paired deluxe resort. Disney’s Riviera Resort, as a standalone DVC offering not paired with a deluxe resort, offers its own complete set of dining venues, with a substantial table service and a major quick service offering, and also several bars, each of which has a food menu of some sort.

When you factor in how convenient all of these offerings are—Disney’s Riviera Resort is the most compact of the stand-alone DVC offerings–on balance dining at Disney’s Riviera Resort is better than that at the other standalone DVC resorts, and on a par with or better than dining at all the paired resorts except for the monorail resort DVC offerings.

PRIMO PIATTO AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Primo Piatto (Italian for “first plate) is the principal quick-service venue at Disney’s Riviera Resort. On the first floor of the East Wing, it is also convenient to the two pools at Riviera.

It begins with a snacks/cold drinks/pre-packaged foods/bakery area.

After that is an electronic menu area and a couple of cash registers. The current Primo Piatto menu is here. Toggle it to see the various meal periods.

You order here, and bring one of the increasingly common electronic pucks to your table, which a cast member will use to find you and deliver your order.

Behind the registers is an area with condiments and such, and also some beverages–coffee and three Coke Freestyle machines in particular.

The seating area is bright and nice…

…includes a view of the kitchen…

…and is lined with photographs, particularly from Walt’s summer 1935 visit to Europe.

I’ve had a number of meals here, and with one exception–more about me than the food–found them all just fine.

The Riviera Burger…

…the Croque Monsieur, which was fine as a representative of its kind, but I have never quite gotten the point of this sandwich…

…some delightful blueberry-lemon pancakes…

…and the “Primo Piatto Breakfast,” where the eggs were nicely done (they were not dry, although they look dry in my lousy image), and the sausage–also featured with the pancakes–delightful.

TOPOLINO’S TERRACE AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Topolino’s Terrace is the distinctive table-service dining venue at Disney’s Riviera Resort. (“Topolino” is how Mickey Mouse is referred to in Italy.)

It offers a character breakfast in the morning, with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy, and a non-character dinner in the evenings. It also has a bar, and an outdoor terrace with distant views of the higher parts of the evening shows at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The menu for Toplino’s Terrace is here–toggle it to see the breakfast and dinner offerings.

Somewhat ridiculously, I did not eat in Topolino’s Terrace in either of my 2020 stays at Disney’s Riviera Resort. But co-author Josh has published a review of the character breakfast here, and of the bar and outdoor terrace here.

THE LOBBY BAR LE PETIT CAFE AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

The lobby bar at Riviera, Le Petit Cafe, functions as a coffee shop in the morning and as a bar with a light dessert and appetizer menu in the afternoon and evening.

The menu of Le Petit Cafe is here.

The desserts are quite appealing…

Le Petite Cafe does not have seating in the ordering area, but you can sit in the lobby, just outside, or in this next-door library-ish area.

THE POOL BAR AND POOLSIDE DINING AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

The pool bar at Disney’s Riviera Resort, Bar Riva, serves both drinks and a set of hot and cold food offerings. The menu of Bar Riva is here.

Poolside service is available as well–the menu from my last trip is above.

The bar is just outside the main Riviera Pool–and Primo Piatto is just steps away from it, if you are looking for a broader menu.

USING YOUR OWN KITCHEN AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Villas at Riviera have a full kitchen, and studios have a coffeemaker, toaster, and microwave.

There’s a reasonable selection of food and dining supplies in the gift shop, and you can also use the various delivery sources to stock up as well.

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

This review continues here.

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

 

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

May 10, 2020   No Comments

A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Horizons at Epcot

by Dave

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

HORIZONS AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

Horizons was an omnimover dark ride in the Future World section of Epcot that focused on the future, and specifically how families might live in the 21st Century on desert farms, in outer space, and under the sea, and how advances in technology could make all that possible.

(C) Disney

It opened in October 1983, temporarily closed in 1994 after General Electric dropped its sponsorship of the attraction, briefly reopened periodically and permanently closed in January 1999. It was replaced by Mission: SPACE.

Mission: SPACE includes tributes to the Horizons attraction that preceded it, including the center of the gravity wheel in the queue having the attraction logo, and a stylized version appearing on the front of the checkout counter in the Cargo Bay gift shop at the exit to the attraction.

The official description for Horizons included that it was “dedicated to humanity’s future. It is a careful synthesis of all the wonders within Epcot, and applies the elements of communication, energy, transportation, creativity, and technology to a better life-style for the family of the future.”

Because of the sponsorship of GE and its emphasis on families, it was generally considered a spiritual sequel to the Carousel of Progress attraction. Horizons featured all the key elements associated with the original Epcot: communication, community interaction, energy, transportation, anatomy, physiology, and imagination, along with man’s relationship to the sea, land, air, and space.

The attraction was developed by Imagineer George McGinnis, who at one point considered calling it New Horizons. That became the name of the attraction’s theme song written by George Wilkins. The message of the pavilion that “If you can dream it, then you can do it” is often falsely attributed to Walt Disney.

Imagineering Show Writer Tom Fitzgerald said, “I am very familiar with that line because I wrote it!  It was written specifically for the Horizons attraction at Epcot and used in numerous ways, from dialogue in the ride to graphics.”

At the exit of the attraction was a large wall painting done by famed space artist Bob McCall entitled “The Prologue and the Promise”. It was a gorgeous image of a family standing on a mountaintop facing a bright future with famous monuments of the past and future. It was later covered up and replaced.

The attraction began with a look back at how the future was perceived and transitioned into modern technologies that might be used in the world of tomorrow. The main portion of the ride focused on life in the future in different habitats.

The end of the ride allowed guests to select one of three different routes to return to FuturePort: from the space station Brava Centauri, the desert farm of Mesa Verde or the Sea Castle research base.

These thirty-one second video sequences featured a video fly-through of elaborate scale models. The model for the desert route was 32 by 75 feet long. All the models were filmed at a hangar at the Burbank airport. It took a year to build and shoot the three segments.

Orange Fragrance Scent R-2534, dispersed by air cannon during the attraction, was produced by Felton International Inc. in Los Angeles, California, and is still available. Many of the props from the attraction were sent to Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland Paris (Solo Sub and hovercraft). Others were auctioned off to private collectors.

*  *  *  *  *

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!!

May 9, 2020   No Comments

Amenities at Disney’s Riviera Resort

by Dave

(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Riviera Resort, click here.)

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Disney’s Riviera Resort is a standalone Disney Vacation Club resort, so largely has its own amenities.  Guests share a Disney Skyliner station with next-door Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, and are also welcome in the shops, dining, playgrounds, jogging trail etc., of Caribbean Beach.

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

Arrival at Disney’s Riviera Resort is at this port cochere.

This is also where Magical Express buses load and unload.

A water feature separates this area from the entry doors to Disney’s Riviera Resort, somewhat reminiscent of that at the Polynesian Village.

Inside the lobby you are greeted by lovely flowers and some intriguing design.

To one side is the bell stand…

…and next to it the check in and concierge services area (at Disney, concierge means help with tickets, dining reservations and such).

There’s also a kids waiting area with an electronic play table.

The seating area of the lobby–which also serves as a seating area for the coffee shop/bar that is here, which I’ll cover in my material on dining at Disney’s Riviera Resort–is small, not particularly themed, but lovely and comfortable. The light at the right comes from windows in a two-story staircase down to the pool area.

A slightly different angle on this space.  Directly at the back–between the two floral art works–is the entry to the resort’s gift shop.

The gift shop includes the usual toys and clothes…

…but also offers art inspired by Disney’s Riviera Resort.

As is true in all Disney Vacation Club resorts, there’s also lots of food available in the gift shop you can use in your kitchen or kitchenette…

…including cold and frozen items.

Downstairs from the lobby is the airline check in desk (note that this is a tip-based service).

Just outside and to the right is a nice-sized workout area.

More from the workout area.

Bus transportation is outside the lobby’s port cochere entrance, to the right.

Buses here go to all parks and Disney Springs.  While the Disney Skyliner is operating, service to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is hourly.  When it is not operating, bus service to these two parks is the same as to the other parks–on average, every 20 minutes.

The Disney Skyliner is the other transportation option, providing gondola service to Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and, should you wish to go for a visit, Disney’s Art of Animation and Pop Century Resort.

The Skyliner station that Disney’s Riviera Resort shares with Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is outside at the pool level, to the right–pass through a breezeway with fun murals.

The Skyliner station has two boarding areas. The first one will take you to the Caribbean Beach hub. Change here for Hollywood Studios (or Pop Century/Art of Animation.)

The second boarding area will take you right to Epcot.

In this same area of Disney’s Riviera Resort near the Skyliner station, you can also see the portion of the Epcot evening show that goes well above World Showcase Lagoon.

You can also see these fireworks from the top-floor viewing area and lounge outside of the principal dining venue at Disney’s Riviera Resort, Topolino’s Terrace.  See the link below for dining at  Disney’s Riviera Resort shortly.

DINING AT DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

This review continues here.

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S RIVIERA RESORT

 

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

May 4, 2020   2 Comments

A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Epcot Parades

by Dave

THE EPCOT PARADES

By Jim Korkis

There was a short-lived World Showcase Parade that started in October 1982 to celebrate the grand opening of Epcot. It included dancers, musicians and costumed characters on the World Showcase Promenade to the music of the Sherman Brothers’ The World Showcase March, but it was performed only a handful of times. This parade was followed by the longer-lived Tapestry of Nations and Tapestry of Dreams parades.

Tapestry of Nations Parade (1999 – 2001)

Tapestry of Nations was selected as the theme to embrace an international audience and to reaffirm the World Showcase commitment.

“A tapestry has many threads and our tapestry symbolically represents the diversity of planet Earth, and our hope for a better world woven with compassion, love, kindness and joy,” explained Show Director Gary Paben. “When you weave all of these elements into it, you have a magnificent image, and that image represents the human spirit.”

The parade’s forty huge puppet characters were designed by Michael Curry, who also designed the puppets for the Broadway stage version of The Lion King. Each puppet weighed between eight and eighteen pounds, and added an additional fifteen to eighteen feet in height to its puppeteer.

The impressionistically-styled puppets were not meant to represent any particular culture, and included Aztec Man, Bird Man, Inverted (or Reverse) Marionette, Angel Girl, Wiggle Girl, Disc Man, Hammered Man and The Sprite.

The puppets were interspersed with fifteen identical rolling percussion units called Millennium Clocks that were 19 feet tall and 16 feet wide, with drummers on each side.

In order to effectively control the time of the parade around the lengthy World Showcase Promenade walkway to roughly twenty minutes, three separate identical units were released simultaneously at different locations along the parade route.

One unit started from the area between the Millennium Village and the UK pavilion; another from between Morocco and Japan and the third from the gate between Germany and the Refreshment Outpost. Sometimes the route would be reversed, and over the years, as Tapestry of Nations changed into Tapestry of Dreams, were reduced to two processions and finally just one.

The parade began with the Sage of Time, who was represented by a stilt walker wearing a white robe with gold trim that had designs of timepieces and alchemy symbols as well as a headpiece resembling a sun with a face.

The music was composed by Gavin Greenaway, who also scored IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth.  The parade included the song Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand.

There were actually three versions of Tapestry of Nations, primarily with differences in the audio, like changing the more serious narration of the Sage of Time into a more gentle interpretation, and later incorporating the idea of dreams. Tapestry of Nations served as the theme of the 2000 Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show with the Sage of Time and huge puppets.

Tapestry of Dreams Parade (2001 – 2003)

Because of its popularity, the parade was re-themed into the Tapestry of Dreams Parade and traveled from Mexico to Morocco twice a day.

The Sage of Time was replaced by three Dream Seekers: Elfen (nature, magic, emotion), Cosmos (space, the universe, infinity) and Leonardo Columbus (discovery, invention and genius). The parade concept was re-themed to be a “visible dream” in which ideas, images, and emotions are evoked and the dreams of the guests, especially the children, are collected in the hope that they will spring to life.

The music (with additional contributions from Jonathon Barr) now featured new spoken introductions by the Dream Seekers and the voices of children speaking their dreams in many different languages. The parade also had a tribute to Walt Disney who it proclaimed was “…the greatest and most wonderful dreamer of all!”

Children would write their dreams down on a piece of paper and place them in the butterfly style nets of the Dreamkeepers as they harvested them as they passed by those along the parade route.

*  *  *  *  *

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.

May 1, 2020   No Comments

Next Week (May 2 through May 10, 2020) at Walt Disney World

by Dave

The parks and hotels are closed until further notice.

My best guess today–and it’s just a guess, and just for today–is that the earliest we might see partial operation of the parks (along the lines noted towards the end of this post) is Monday June 1–which is also when (as of now) Disney is accepting bookings.

 

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

April 29, 2020   No Comments

← Previous EntriesNext Entries →