Disney's Wedding Pavilion

Walt Disney World's Wedding Pavilion is located on a private island on The Seven Seas Lagoon between The Grand Floridian and Polynesian Resorts.

Doom Buggy

Doom Buggy is the show name for Disney's OmniMover system (used in their Haunted Mansion attraction). It was initially developed for the "Adventures in Inner Space" attraction. Disney World's Haunted Mansion has 160 cars with a guest capacity of 3,200 guests per hour.

The Omnimover is an amusement ride system used for Disney theme park attractions. Roger Broggie and Bert Brundage developed the system for WED Enterprises, which patented Omnimover in April 1968. The term was coined by Imagineer Bob Gurr and is a portmanteau of OmniRange and PeopleMover. 

Click Here to read an Exclusive Interview with Bob Gurr talking about the creation of the Haunted Mansion Omnimovers, People Mover, Monorail, small world boats and more! 

 Current attraction series using the Omnimover system

    * Haunted Mansion Series
          o Disneyland
          o Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World
          o Tokyo Disneyland
          o Disneyland Paris

    * Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster Series
          o Disneyland
          o Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World
          o Tokyo Disneyland
          o Disneyland Paris
          o Hong Kong Disneyland

    * Boo Blasters on Boo Hill (Kings Island)

    * Hershey's Chocolate World Great American Chocolate Tour

Current individual attractions using the Omnimover system

    * Spaceship Earth

    * The Seas with Nemo & Friends System recycled from a previous attraction
          o EPCOT at Walt Disney World

Omnimover attractions no longer in operation

This list includes all Omnimover attractions that have been permanently removed and not recycled.

    * Disneyland
          o Adventure Thru Inner Space (replaced with Star Tours in 1987)

    * Epcot (Walt Disney World Resort)
          o World of Motion (replaced with Test Track in 1999)
          o Horizons (replaced with Mission: SPACE in 2003. Homages to Horizons can be found in both Mission: SPACE and in the Magic Kingdom's newly refurbished Space Mountain.)

--Two Omnimover systems have been in continuous use since their debut but have featured different attractions.

    * Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom uses the Omnimover ride system of two former attractions. The first attraction to occupy this space was If You Had Wings, which was sponsored by Eastern Airlines from 1972 to 1987, when they dropped sponsorship. The ride then was known as If You Could Fly until closing in January 1989. Six months later, the old ride system was reused as If You Had Wings was transformed into Delta Dreamflight, which was sponsored by Delta Air Lines until 1996. The ride vehicles were reprogrammed in 1989 to alter their viewing direction. In 1996, the ride became known as Take Flight, and closed on January 9, 1998. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin uses the very Omnimover ride system of If You Had Wings/Delta Dreamflight, except for having new third generation vehicles that can be rotated by the riders to any angle to shoot at various targets. Space Ranger Spin also uses two of the speed tunnels from If You Had Wings.

Although Journey Into Imagination with Figment in Epcot is now an Omnimover basis track it was once all Omnimover (this was back when the Dream finder was still part of the attraction).

    * The Seas with Nemo & Friends previously was home to The Living Seas, which utilized a different attraction theme as well as a different Omnimover vehicle design.

 Click Here to read "Limbo: Loading the Doom Buggies" at doombuggies.com

 

The Original Magic Kingdom's "E ticket" Attractions

The original eight "E ticket" attractions at WDW’s Magic Kingdom were Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, Jungle Cruise, It’s a Small World, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

Dumbo premieres at the Broadway Theater

October 23, 1941

Disney's 4th animated feature film, Dumbo (directed by Ben Sharpsteen) world premieres at the Broadway Theater in New York City. Walt Disney, his wife Lillian, and a handful of his staff are in attendance. The 64-minute film, released by RKO Pictures, will win the Oscar for Best Score for a Musical Film and "Baby Mine" (the song that plays during Dumbo's visit to his mother's cell) will be nominated for Best Song.

"It's like 64 minutes, and it's so concise in its storytelling. I learned a lot from it, as a student at CalArts and a young animator at Disney."
-Pixar's John Lasseter on Dumbo

Like Dopey in Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo never utters a single word!

Animator Bill Tytla, known for his sinister characterization of Pinocchio's Stromboli, was the key animator for Dumbo. He based the character's childlike expressions and earnestness on those of his son, Peter.

"What's the matter with his ears? I don't see nothin' wrong with 'em. I think they're cute."

- Dumbo's Timothy Q. Mouse (voiced by Edward Brophy)

The Western River Expedition

Pirates of the Caribbean was never intended to be part of Disney World out of fear that it would not be exotic enough to Floridians, due to its geographic proximity to the real Caribbean. Instead, planners intended to build a ride called the Western River Expedition. Designed by Marc Davis, it would've featured Audio-Animatronic cowboys, banditos and Native Indians.

Western River Expedition was an Audio-Animatronic delight with dozens of new AA figures, and certainly as many as in Pirates of Caribbean. Just like in POTC Marc Davis designed scenes where humour was always present. Potential scenes included:

A stage coach robbery




Banditos where even their horses had bandanas across their faces!



An Indian (Native American) rain dance that causes it to rain



Other gag scenes with desert animals, cactus, buffaloes, bear...





A western town called Dry Gulch with scenes showing a cowboy on horseback on the roof of the town's saloon - and 10 characters, including a bartender ( who is trying to shoot the cowboy and his mount off the roof ), saloon girls, and other cowboys hooting and hollering, and more...





...And a waterfall-drop finale.

Click Here to read this entire article (How Marc Davis Legendary Attraction was Almost Built at Disneyland Paris) at the amazing Disney & More blog!

Click Here to read "Thunder Mesa & The Western River Expedition" at Widen your World!

DisneyQuest

Florida's Downtown Disney Westside is currently the home to the only DisneyQuest in the world

 DisneyQuest Chicago closed in September 2001

King Louie from The Jungle Book

King Louie (the orangutan voiced by Louis Prima) was one of the characters created especially for Disney's The Jungle Book, for he doesn't appear in Rudyard Kipling's original story.

Direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Walt Disney personally selected Richard Fleischer (son of his old competitor in animation, Max Fleischer) to direct the live-action film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Wilderness Lodge's Geysers

There is a wind gauge installed in Disney World's Wilderness Lodge's marina. The computer that runs the resort's geyser senses the wind speed for each "eruption" and adjusts the height of the water. This prevents blowing water from hitting the balconies of lake view rooms!

The Tree of Life

Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life has hundreds of intricately carved animal images.

Ten artists and three Imagineers worked full-time for 18 months to create the animal carvings on it!

Walt Disney World Wardrobe

Walt Disney World has the largest working wardrobe on Earth with more than 1.5 million operational garments in use and over 7,000 different garment types. In addition there are over 2 million pieces of entertainment costumes. (That's a lot of dry cleaning!)

The Walt Disney World Fleet

About 300 Walt Disney World buses transport guests around the Florida resort, making the Walt Disney World fleet the third largest in Florida behind Miami and Jacksonville!

Golf Resort at Disney World

In 1986, the Golf Resort at Disney World changed its name to the Disney Inn.

Disney's Florida theme park

In the beginning Disney's Florida theme park was to be called simply Disney World. But when Walt past away in December 1966, his brother Roy renamed the project Walt Disney World.

1971 Life Magazine - Walt Disney Opens

1953 - Stanford Research Institute

In July 1953, Walt Disney hired the Stanford Research Institute to scout a location in Southern California for Disneyland.

By August a site in Anaheim was found.

Snow White mementos

Snow White was the first film ever to have a complete merchandising campaign ready to roll on the day the movie opened! Movie fans were able to purchase Snow White mementos from Sears and Woolworth's.

The League of Nations

In 1935, Walt Disney was presented with a medal by the League of Nations (whose goals included disarmament, preventing war, settling disputes between countries, and improving global welfare)

in Paris, France.

1787 & The Hall of Presidents

The year 1787 over the entrance to The Hall of Presidents (at Walt Disney World) refers to the date the United States Constitution was completed.

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Walt Disney World Railroad

The trip around the Walt Disney World Railroad is 1 1/2 miles or about 20 minutes.

Click here to see amazing pictures from Disneyland's photographer, Paul Hiffmeyer,and his point of view of the Disneyland's Railroad.

Disneyland's only residents - Owen & Dolly Pope

Disneyland's only residents were Owen andDolly Pope. They were hired in 1951 to put together some livestock for Walt's future park. They first lived in a trailer at the Disney Studio where they raised and trained horses. Three days before Disneyland opened, they moved into the park to run the Disneyland Pony Farm

 Located on the side of the Car Barn

"In 1951, Walt hired Harper Goff to begin drawing up plans for the little park he was visualizing being built on the Studio grounds in Burbank. Walt also hired horse trainer Owen Pope and his wife Dolly. He wanted the couple to begin training horses for the western section of his new park. Being close to the livestock was necessary for the amount of training that was to ensue so the Pope’s moved into a trailer on the Studio lot. Besides teaching horses and mules how to behave, they also helped build wagons and coaches for the new park. 

As plans for Walt’s dream changed and grew, the location of his park moved from the Studio to Anaheim. Eventually the Popes needed to move to Anaheim as well to be near the horses. 

Before construction began on Disneyland, something had to be done with the houses that belonged to the former owners of the land. Walt told the Popes they could choose any one of them to live in. Their selection was soon moved to a ten acre area behind what would eventually become Fantasyland. This area was known as the Pony Farm and at one time, the Pope’s cared for as many as 220 animals. The Popes are also the only people to actually ever live at Disneyland. Walt may have had an apartment above the Fire Station, but he never lived there. This honor belongs to the Popes alone. 

The Popes continued working and living at Disneyland until 1971. It was at this time that they moved to Florida to help open the Magic Kingdom. They created the Tri Circle D Ranch at Fort Wilderness where it still stands today. They retired in 1975 and it’s due to their efforts here in Florida that they earned a window at the Magic Kingdom – and it is appropriately located on the Car Barn."

- Posted by Jack Spence on April 17, 2009 5:00 AM

 Click Here to read the entire post at allears.net

Scrap Metal and Wooden Pallets

The Fact: Disney World recycles over 1 million pounds of scrap metal and 1.5 million pounds of wooden pallets each year.

To know more:

Disney Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability to maintain a certain status or process in existing systems. The most frequent use of the term “sustainability” is connected to biological or human systems in the context of ecology. The ability of an ecosystem to function and maintain productivity for a prolonged period is also sustainability. 
 

Living a sustainable lifestyle is one way to help. In this series pages we will go into what sustainability has to with ecology, recycling, water, and more. We will also reveal what some companies (like Petsmart and Disney) are doing to make a difference by operating their businesses in a sustainable way.

Disney Sustainability / Walt Disney Cares

Walt Disney, the largest media and entertainment company in the world, has shown great commitment for the environment. It strives hard to conserve the environment from its ill effects. Disney has been included in Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies (G100) list announced at the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 2007 to 2009. Enormous concrete steps are being taken by the Corporation to ensure sustainability, as mentioned below.

Disney Sustainability / Cutting Emissions

The foremost step is that Disney plans to cut carbon emissions by half by 2012, reduce electricity consumption by 10 percent, reduce fuel use, halve the garbage at its parks and resorts by 2013, and ultimately achieve net zero direct greenhouse gas emissions and landfill waste. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has designated eleven resorts at the Walt Disney World Resort as Florida Green Lodging certified

Disney Sustainability / Recycling and More

Next, The Disney Harvest program founded in 1998, distributes nearly 50,000 pounds of food to the Second Harvest Food Bank each month by collecting food which is prepared and not served from restaurants and convention centers.

Used cooking oil at the Walt Disney World Resort is recycled into bio fuel and other products, which are used by local companies.  Food scraps are combined with horticulture clippings and leftovers from Disney’s Animal Kingdom and other degradable items to create compost which is used locally as rich fertilizer.

The Walt Disney Company Healthy Cleaning Policy has been launched this year with the aim to minimize the environmental impact of its cleaning products, including their toxicity. It is made possible by using chemicals that both protect health and embody desirable environmental properties. A further goal is to minimize the amount of chemicals needed to accomplish cleaning tasks.

Disney's Hydroponic Approach to Gardening is another giant step in this direction. This space-saving agricultural approach allows crops to be grown in areas where they can't be grown by traditional methods. Foods grown hydroponically have the same nutritional value and flavor as those grown in more traditional ways.

The majority of props, vases and containers used by the Disney floral team for events are made from reusable glass and plastic. Many of Disney’s floral suppliers have received the "VeriFlora" seal of approval, which certifies that the flowers have been grown without harmful chemicals.

Furthermore, there is a concentrated focus on monitoring energy and water use throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Because of its extensive efforts, the Walt Disney World Resort has received the EPA’s “Energy Star Partner” designation.

Every day, 10 million gallons of wastewater is reclaimed and used in irrigation systems and other applications. Recycling is a major part of waste management and more than 18,000 tons of materials are recycled every year.

Disney Sustainability / Preserving Our Wildlife

Disney made a stupendous contribution to the wildlife conservation habitat by setting aside more than one-third of the planned resort/theme park property (8,700 acres) during the time Walt Disney World Resort was being built. The Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park is focused on educating Guests on the importance of conservation and preserving nature.

As part of those efforts, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund enables Guests to contribute to the protection of endangered species worldwide through 650 projects from 160 organizations in more than 100 countries. Over $11 million has been earned through the fund since the park’s opening in 1998.

Disney Sustainability / Trees For Everyone!

Adding another feather to its cap, Disney committed to plant a tree for everyone who sees their nature movie titled “Earth” on opening weekend from 22nd – 28th April, 2009. With more than 5, 00,000 tickets sold so far, half a million new trees are already committed.

Disney’s aim is to plant trees in critical areas of biodiversity. The company will supervise the planting of the trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, which is considered one of the most endangered rain forests in the world at present.

Finally, Disney’s 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report is a major step in the direction of conservation of the environment. The long-term environmental goals outlined in the report are:

1. Zero waste
2. Zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions from fuels
3. Reduce indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption
4. Net positive impact on ecosystems
5. Minimize water use
6. Minimize product footprint
7. Inform, empower and activate positive action for the environment.

Therefore, Disney has set high standards when it comes to protection of environment. The interminable efforts being made for the cause of environment truly makes Disney stand apart in the crowd sending a strong conservation message.

Captain EO 3D

Captain EO (a 3-D Sci-fi musical film starring Michael Jackson) ran at EPCOT for nearly 8 years in the Imagination pavilion. It featured 2 new songs written by Jackson - "Another Part of Me" (which later appeared on his Bad album) and "We Are Here to Change the World" (which was not officially released until 2004 as part of Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection).

Put you 3D glasses on and enjoy the original movie:

Patriot Day

Patriot Day occurs on September 11 of each year, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

 We have to protect our future

The Walt Disney World Visitors Center

The Walt Disney World Preview Center (at one time located near the intersection of Interstate 4 and State Road 535) became the first building on WDW property to open to the public in 1970.

The Lion King & Frank Wells

Disney's 1994 animated classic The Lion King is dedicated to the late Frank Wells - Disney's President and Chief Operating Officer (1984-1994).


At the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction at Disneyland, Wells' love of mountain-climbing is honored with skiing expedition boxes emblazoned with the words "Wells Expedition."

 Wells and Eisner

Tron

Disney's Tron was the first film in motion picture history to make extensive use of computer imagery.

On July 24, 2008 Disney surprised San Diego Comic Con attendees with test footage from a sequel to Tron.

This year they came with this beautiful replica: