Between 1974 and 1986, almost every summer my family and I spent our Dad’s hard earned money on Walt Disney World vacations. Due to the rapidly rising cost of a WDW vacation, we had a brief intermission before returning to Walt Disney World in 1992 and almost every summer since continuing our grand tradition of spending our Dad’s hard earned money. Having experienced what can only be described as two separate eras in Walt Disney World history, I’ve become stuck between being hopelessly in love with and longing for the return of the Walt Disney World that I once knew and my semi-resistant love for much of what exists there today.
My Disney love story begins in 1974, when at the age of four I went on my first trip for six sun-filled days (not really it rained every day) and seven glorious nights to Walt Disney World in Florida. I don’t remember much from that trip and thank goodness, because as the story goes much to my horror, my then inexperienced, first timer parents stayed off Walt Disney World property at a Howard Johnson’s, then proceeded the first night to forget where they parked their car in the Magic Kingdom parking lot. Fortunately exhausted from a whole day of Magic Kingdom fun, I apparently slept as my mother carried me throughout the entire parking lot fiasco. Only having so many days worth of admission tickets to the Magic Kingdom, my parents needed someplace else to go other than Stuckey’s and Gatorland. They went to the hotel front desk and asked a remarkable woman, for whom although I do not remember her, will be forever indebted to as it was she who smartly suggested that they visit the Polynesian Village Resort Hotel, revealing to them that it was an attraction all its own. Much to their amazement my parents learned on that historical day that this hidden paradise was a mere $6.00 more per night than the Howard Johnson’s. The rest as they say is history, for with the exception of one random stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, the Polynesian became our South Seas summer home almost every year until 1986. We traveled by plane only that one time in 1974, afterwards we made the ever so popular family road trips from Connecticut to Florida in everything from station wagons to vans, to an old Chevy Suburban once used as a school bus, with no back seats, no air-conditioning and curtains on the windows that my mom added to help keep out the sun. Anything was alright with us as long as it made it to Walt Disney World. One ill-fated day the room rates at the Polynesian began to soar, my brother and I were now teenagers and my sisters too grown to sleep in cribs or any other makeshift beds causing the need for two rooms and making the cost too high for our modest budget. It would be six long years before Disney would build moderately priced hotels and we could once again afford to go.
In 1992 we arrived at our first “moderate” priced hotel, Dixie Landings, which is now non-offensively known as Port Orleans Riverside and thus began our 2nd era at Walt Disney World. As we waited now 15 minutes for the new Disney buses, with our nifty, new Park Hopper passes in hand, foolishly thinking that we’ll easily go to Disney MGM Studios and later that same day to the Magic Kingdom, which was frightfully far away from the new hotel, suddenly I found myself longing for the days, when the only hopping involved was a hop on the monorail which would arrive in the blink of an eye and whisk us away, ever so quickly to the Magic Kingdom. We rushed down the ramp with the same excitement each time, to the walkway, through the entry tunnels under the Railroad Station anxiously anticipating that first step on to a perfectly sparkling Main Street USA. We dashed toward the towering, majestic Cinderella Castle and quickly made our way to Peter’s Pan’s Flight before the lines were too long. Then as the afternoon sun beat down on us, we’d leave on a quick, monorail ride back to the Polynesian for a midday swim and return just as easily to the Magic Kingdom refreshed and ready to ride until midnight. What a joy it was at the end of the night as we left the Magic Kingdom to go up the always, curiously empty Resort Monorail ramp while watching as mass crowds of fellow exhausted Disney guests piled up the other ramp to the Transportation and Ticket Center Monorail. It was as if the Monorail was our very own. On off days we went to River Country, the first themed water park reminiscent of an old fashioned swimming hole and to the Contemporary Resort Hotel, always pretending that the monorail may crash, but knowing magically at the last minute it would go right through the hotel where we would spend hours playing in the arcade and seeing classic Disney movies in the Cinemas. In 1982 EPCOT Center (now just EPCOT) had its grand opening. This unique scaled down version of Walt Disney’s original Florida Project; the “Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow” was the first and only theme park of its kind and still is today. Walt Disney World remains the best and most popular place to visit in the world. Who could have imagined that the opening of EPCOT would ultimately be the birth of someday having to miraculously cram everything there is to do at four great parks and two fun water parks into one not nearly long enough week?
These days, having grown to love many of the new things I happily spend hours meticulously planning each fun-filled moment of our vacation so that we can experience everything that delights and fascinates us as much as humanely possible. Somehow, the Disney buses have become a source of many laughter filled memories of piling on with the other guests, and having to stand just so we won’t have to wait for another bus. As I stand packed into the bus, gripping the railings trying to keep my feet firmly planted on the floor I usually think to myself, ‘How are they allowed to pack so many people on a bus without it being illegal? And I wonder if trying so hard not to fall into the people all around me is a good workout for my legs.’ The Value resorts have also become near and dear to my heart. Colorfully themed with enormous iconic displays of characters and pop culture, huge swimming pools, arcades that will suck up your money in no time flat, sometimes crowded, but always spacious food courts with tons of menu choices and plenty of Disney buses; more than the expensive hotels have or so it seems. The Value Resorts have become to my children what the Polynesian was to me and of course I can appreciate that.
In 1989, we welcomed the opening of Disney MGM Studios and Typhoon Lagoon. The nineties marked the arrivals of Magic Kingdom’s Splash Mountain and Spectromagic; MGM’s Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Beauty and the Beast Live! and Fantasmic; Epcot’s Test Track, Blizzard Beach, Animal Kingdom with its authentic Kilimanjaro Safaris and finally the incredibly, awesome, don’t know how we lived without it Fast Pass, a magical first of its kind system that turned waiting in line for two hours to ride Space Mountain the only thing welcome to stay in the past. Since the year 2000, Soarin, Turtle Talk and Mission Space have all arrived at Epcot, Mickey’s Philharmagic opened at Magic Kingdom’s old Mickey Mouse Revue Theater, an attraction I applaud not only for its tremendous 3D technology, but also for re-introducing the ever hilarious, always favorite character, Mr. Donald Duck. Plus, MGM has a wonderful tribute to the man himself, Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream and Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. At Animal Kingdom there’s Kali River Rapids and the newest thrill, Expedition Everest.
The last thirty two years of Walt Disney World have given me some of the best, most fun memories that I have ever had in my life. As it grows larger and I notice beloved attractions and familiar landscapes vanishing I can’t help but feel a sense of loss for all that I loved from the old days, sacrificed to the changing times, such as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Main Street Cinema and Penny Arcade, WEDway Peoplemover before it was called Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Mickey Mouse Revue, If You Had Wings, the Plaza Restaurant’s chicken pot pies, The Plaza Swan Boats, The Empress Lily Character Breakfast and the Empress Lily not being Fulton’s Crabhouse (Yuck!), River Country, Disney Village Marketplace which had only Disney owned and operated establishments, Breakfast on the open terrace at Tony’s Town Square, the Polynesian’s turquoise and green décor and the brightness that those colors brought to its Great Ceremonial House. More recently, the lower level of the Land at Epcot with it’s great food court and fountain in the middle, the music from Fantasy in The Sky, and finally the Cinderella Castle without all the Happiest Celebration on Earth gold stuff covering it and the ugly stage in front of the Castle that hosts so many continuous shows that it disrupts the atmosphere on Main Street and blocks us from walking through the tiled archway of the Castle too often throughout the day.
Walt Disney was once described as having one foot in the past and one in the future, how ironic to think that he would create a legion of Disney World and Disneyland fans alike, that now can essentially be described in exactly the same way thanks to what is known as “The Disney Decade”.
It is my sincere hope that Walt Disney World does continue to evolve for that was Walt’s wish. However, I have to believe if Walt were alive he would not comprise the nostalgia of Walt Disney World as it evolved. He would find a way to preserve it so that no matter how many new ideas were created and built we could always look around and see and feel the same as we did when we first stepped into this wonderful, magical place no matter how long ago that may have been. Perhaps, if all of us who feel stuck between two worlds wish hard enough and speak loudly enough Disney may just hear us and restore some of what was needlessly lost from the good old days. It happened once in 1999 when the Main Street Electrical Parade came back briefly to the Magic Kingdom.
In the meantime, we can be eternally grateful that we are lucky enough to say, “I knew Walt Disney World when…”
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