News

• Jim and I are doing our first-ever Disney Dish cruise in 2022.  We’re calling it “The Disney Dish on the Disney Wish”  

• Dates are September 23-26, 2022.  That’s a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday out of Port Canaveral
• We made it 3 nights so it’s as affordable as possible.
• We’ll have tons of chances to meet up while on board, we’re planning some exciting events so we can all get to know the ship, and we’ll record a special, live show while on board.
• We have 4 cabins left:

• 2 balcony
• 1 ocean-view
• 1 inside

• Storybookdestinations.com/disneydish

• Disney World ticket prices increased this week  

• 1-to-3-day base tickets, and 1-2 day upgraded tickets didn’t change
• Multi-day tickets went up roughly 3% to 6%
  

• The After-Hours event DVC Moonlight Madness returns to EPCOT in March.  If you’re a DVC member, look out for an email with all the details soon.

• Speaking of returns, rumor has it that V&A eyeing a summer return.  Not sure if that’s enough time for Michelin reviews.  If anyone’s in the food industry in central Florida and knows how far in advance they typically schedule these reviews, let me know.
  
• Also, rumor has it that the Galactic Starcruiser media event is February 24 and 25, so this week.  There are two tracks:

• Smaller media outlets and podcasts get half a day of playing around in the hotel, and half a day of interviewing Imagineers
• Larger media outlets get the full two-day experience
• Media embargo lifts on February 25.
• As a reminder: the only way you get on these lists is if you work for the New York Times, or Disney feels almost certain that you’re going to write very positive things about it.  So expect all of the stuff that you read this week to be breathless love-letters to free travel.

• The question you should be asking these writers is “Have you put down $5,000 of your own money to do this again?”  
  

• Disney dropped its indoor mask mandate at all US parks.
  
• Disney announced its next planned community, Storyliving, in Rancho Mirage, California:

https://www.storylivingbydisney.com/

"As more and more fans look for new ways to make Disney a bigger part of their lives, our company today announced plans to introduce Storyliving by Disney, vibrant new neighborhoods that are infused with the company’s special brand of magic. These master-planned communities are intended to inspire residents to foster new friendships, pursue their interests and write the next exciting chapter in their lives—all while enjoying the attention to detail, unique amenities and special touches that are Disney hallmarks."

Jim, have you seen the site plans for this?  A lot of the street maps look like they came from Celebration.  There’s even a Water Street, which is the street I live on in Celebration.  So I could move to California and only have to change one line of my address.  I call that a win.

Surveys

From Eric, a survey from Disney about how committed he is to his upcoming Galactic Starcruiser stay:

And let me just say that although I’ve booked a stay for March 1, I’ve received absolutely none of the pre-trip media that is going out.  No videos, no emails, no nothing.  It’s all in my MDE, but I’m not getting anything.  

Also, our own Guy Selga pointed out for this survey that if you say your occupation is ‘media / blogger’, the survey ends.  You’re welcome, Disney.

Len: Look, we all know the hotel will be fun. The characters will be fun.  The food will be fun.  The question is whether it’s going to be $5,000 to $12,000 worth of fun.  And I think Disney’s hearing from play-testers that the answer is … no.

Listener Questions

From Nathan:

Hello! Thought I'd write in and add myself to the list of rocket scientist listeners who enjoy the Disney Dish podcast. While I'm not a rocket scientist, I am a CM at Mission: Space, so that probably counts.

I'll pass on a bit of trivia for the people that enjoy riding Mission: Space. The big gravity wheel in our queue is actually a set piece from the movie Mission to Mars.

From Sean:

With Remy opening, I'm eager to hear some of the area music when some of the Epcot background music loops / Megamixes on YouTube will update their music feeds. On that note, I'm wondering if you know anything about the people that do these or the process involved? I assume it's more complicated than walking around the parks and sticking a microphone behind every bush and trashcan...but you never know right?

I've enjoyed listening to a lot of Disney background music while working during covid and would love to hear if you have any more info about how these things come to be.

Len: The internet is your friend.  At least some of the older stuff comes directly from Disney source audio.  The newer stuff might, too, or it could be that audio production technology is so much better now that everything just sounds better.

From Brian:

Writing as the husband of the main Disney planner in the family. Does the Disney World app only work for one family per account?  I’m perplexed at the strategy (or lack thereof) to make the Disney World app critical to almost everything you do at Disney, but tie it to one username only. Is Disney aware of families?  We are getting by using my wife’s login on my phone as well as her’s, but we think (do not know) that Disney only wants the account logged into one phone at a time. She and I are constantly (seemingly) have to re-log back in and have an email with a code sent to her email. Luckily my wife and I share all our passwords with each other.

Maybe we’re the edge case and spouses can normally see room reservations and do mobile orders for food and make dining reservations and see photo pass photos. I cannot. We are set up as “family and friends”.

From Charles:

Our family stayed at Beach Club the 2nd week of December and had a blast.  (I actually loved Harmonious AND the planning/"gamesmanship" of Genie+.  Sue me.)  It was by no means empty, but the crowds were manageable if you knew what you were doing.

My hope was to return in 2023 to get a break from the dark New Jersey winter, preferably around my birthday which is February 4th.  Conventional wisdom used to be that late January/early February were among the slowest times and we've taken advantage of that in past years.  Is that no longer the case?  Judging by the Crowd Calendar, that time is going to be pretty busy in 2023.

So my question is - if not late January/early February - is there a better time to escape the winter in the northeast and enjoy manageable crowds in WDW?  Or has that "slow season" evaporated completely?

Len: This February has been much busier than we expected, and we just now started Presidents Day week.  Part of that, I think, is that omicron suppressed travel (and travel planning) in December and January, we think by anywhere from 20% to 40%.  And let’s face it, we all are so crazy to travel right now that the rapid drop in omicron case numbers is as good a sign as we’ve seen that it’s okay to head to Florida.

SPECIAL GUEST:

CommuniCore Continued

Part Three of Three

Picking up where we left off, having just visited the American Express TravelPort and the EPCOT Computer Central Show in the Northeast Quadrant of CommuniCore …

Again, if you think of Future World as the face of a clock with Spaceship Earth in the 12 noon position, we’re now at the 2 o’clock position. Which is where Exxon’s Energy Information Exchange is located. Here the Imagineers set 15 - 20 hands-on displays. Which were then supposed to address any questions that visitors to EPCOT Center may have still had after they exited Future World’s “Universe of Energy” pavilion.

But because a number of the answers to those energy-related questions are kind of problematic, the Imagineers knew that this area needed a distraction of sorts. Something that would pull people away from Exxon’s “there’s-absolutely-nothing-wrong-with-coal-please-ignore-all-those-miners-who-are-dying-of-black-lung-at-the-age-of-50” display. Which is why the interactive robot Smart AL-X was set up in this area.

Please note that -- as late as the Summer of 1982 -- this was the name of this EPCOT Center character, Smart AL-X. NOT Smart-1. This CommuniCore exhibit was supposed to demonstrate how computers were able to understand and respond to human speech.

Here’s the official description of the “Smart AL-X” show:

Guests are introduced to a lovable robot who plays various games as number guessing, where a Guest picks a number. Smart AL-X responds to human speech through the use of a voice recognition box that denotes whether a player answer yes or no to the robot’s questions.

WDW Managers reportedly got cold feet when it came to calling this CommuniCore display Smart AL-X, worrying that some visitors to the Resort would get the wrong idea and then somehow be offended because Disney’s smart aleck-y robot beat them at a number guessing game. So very late in the game (we’re talking late July / early August of 1982. Literally weeks before this theme park opened to the public), Smart AL-X’s name was changed to Smart 1.

Quick side note: On the heels of how well the Figment popcorn bucket sold at this year’s Festival of the Arts (did you see where the second wave of that merch -- which was staged out of World ShowPlace and you had to book your purchase in advance via an app -- has already sold out) … Well, the folks at EPCOT are already looking ahead to next year’s Festival of the Arts event and trying to decide which nostalgic theme park icon will be the follow-up to Figment. And I’ve heard from multiple sources at this point that a Smart 1-themed popcorn bucket is seriously being considered for next year’s Festival of the Art.

Burying in the needle in the completely opposite direction, they’re also supposedly looking at a Maui-themed popcorn bucket to key off of the opening of “Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana.” They’re making progress on this World of Nature water maze. But it’s still months behind schedule.

On the other side of Exxon’s Energy Information Exchange is the Stargate Restaurant.  A fast food / counter service location that -- thanks to the six registers it had parked out front -- could handle upwards to 1,400 Guests per hour.

Years of research that the Imagineers culled from operating the Magic Kingdom suggested that -- from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and then again between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day -- EPCOT Center was going to need to feed approximately 6000 people per hour. The Stargate was expected -- all by itself -- to handle almost a fourth of that need.

Moving past the Stargate restaurant now, between CommuniCore’s northeast quadrant and southeast quadrant, Guests would have encountered a breezeway. Which allowed Walt Disney World visitors to pass between these two enormous crescent-shaped structures without entering either. This breezeway also gave Guests access to Future World’s Central Courtyard. Which is where they’d encounter the Fountain of Nations.

This fountain -- which is an oval 180 feet long & 120 feet wide -- is controlled by a computer and sends 29,000 gallons of water cascading down a series of tiered walls. Meanwhile individual jets of water can shoot 30 feet in the air. Pretty, but not nearly as fun as the leap frog fountains or the upside down waterfall out in front of Future World’s “Journey into Imagination” pavilion.

Continuing across that breeze way, we now enter the Centorium, a large merchandise sales area of over 10,000 square feet that -- back in the Fall of 1982, anyway -- was dedicated to toys of the future.

EDITOR’S NOTE: EPCOT Center’s Centorium is obviously a riff on the Emporium over at WDW’s Magic Kingdom (Most popular store at that theme park with the highest sales per square foot). 21st Century version of the Emporium = Centorium.

FYI: EPCOT Center would -- on opening day -- have 34 merchandise locations. 30% of the merch offered in October 1, 1982 would key off of the EPCOT Center logo. The other 70% would then be tied to that store’s location (i.e., selling products that would be appropriate for that World Showcase pavilion and/or reinforcing the story told at that Future World pavilion).

The Imagineers made sure that the Centorium adhered to the Emporium’s hugely successful design rules. Meaning that this 10,000 square foot store was deliberately built in the southeast quadrant of CommuniCore. Which -- given that 90% of the population was right-handed -- would place the Centorium on most people’s right side as they went to exit EPCOT Center. Which made it far more likely that these Guests would then enter that store and check out its selection of merch.

Just to the south of the Centorium was the Electronic Forum, an area that was supposed to demonstrate how important the actions of each individual was when it came to determining the course of the future.

EPCOT Center’s Electronic Forum was outfitted with all sorts of electronic consoles that then allowed for all sorts of audience interaction when it came to a wide range of contemporary issues. With the idea that all of the opinions that Walt Disney World visitors had on various issues would first be recorded and then be made available for distribution to the mainstream media.

And the Imagineers … They honestly thought that this Electronic Forum area would really help put EPCOT Center on the map. That the poll results that would be generated by thousands of theme park Guests as they weighed in every day on current events or on issues of the day would eventually wind up being reported by network anchors on the nightly news (like the polls that Reuters or the Pew Institute generated).

This is why the Electronic Forum’s Future Choice Theatre (which is where Guests would be able to participate in an ongoing Epcot survey that would cover a wide array of subjects related to the future) was treated with utmost seriousness. This space was outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment.

More to the point, the Imagineers’ plan for this facility called for all polls that were done inside of the Future Choice Theatre then be conducted in cooperation with a professional survey organization. Which could then immediately validate those results. Which would then allow any survey results that the Electronic Forum’s Future Choice Theatre produced / generated to immediately be viewed as a legitimate poll.

And the Imagineers were so certain that this was actually going to happen that -- for Phase Two of EPCOT Center -- they had already drawn up plans for a radio & television broadcast center that was supposed to be built onsite at CommuniCore directly adjacent to the Electronic Forum’s Future Choice Theatre. So that Disney would then have the necessary onsite facility to immediately release the results of any poll that was done at EPCOT Center.

Wait. It gets better.  In June of 1983, Carl Bongirno -- the then-President of WED and MAPO -- during an Employee Update session (which all Imagineering employees were invited to attend) revealed that plans were in the works at that time to convert Disneyland’s “Mission to Mars” attraction into a West Coast version of the “Electronic Forum.” Which found in the southeast quadrant of EPCOT Center’s CommuniCore. Which meant that folks who visited Disney’s West Coast theme park could also take part in these polls.

Remember Disney wanted these polls to be available to news organizations / to be taken seriously. Raise the overall profile of the Company. Make people take EPCOT Center seriously.

Around this same time, the Imagineers were also toying with the idea of closing Disneyland’s “Adventures thru Inner Space” and then turning this Tomorrowland show building into a 3D theater. With the idea that this would then become the West Coast home of “Magic Journeys” (which had only just opened at EPCOT Center’s “Journey into Imagination” pavilion the previous October).

WED didn’t go forward with either of these plans. But “Magic Journeys” did start being shown at Disneyland Park in June of 1984. Kind of a weird bend to this story. This 3D movie wasn’t shown inside of a theater at that theme park. Not initially, anyway. “Magic Journeys” screened out of doors at the Space Stage (Tomorrowland’s outdoor theater) after nightfall. Sponsored by Kodak, the West Coast version of “Magic Journeys” was hyped -- in full-page newspaper ads in the Los Angeles Times & the Orange County Register as having come directly “ … from Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center.”

Interesting that Walt Disney Productions was looking to make Disneyland’s Tomorrowland look a little bit less dated by dropping some chunks of EPCOT Center into that side of this theme park.

So why didn’t any of this happen? The onsite TV & radio broadcast center being built right next to CommuniCore’s Electronic Forum. Or the results of those daily polls being reported on the nightly news?

Well, it turns out that people who are on vacation aren’t all that interested in current events. They tend to miss the nightly news if they’re in line for “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “Space Mountain” (You have to remember that this is prior to the arrival of cell phones. Back when people could actually unplug from the outside world as part of a Walt Disney World vacation). So when the folks who were running CommuniCore would ask questions like “How do you feel about the recent coup in Sierra Leone?,” their response would typically be “There was a coup in Sierra Leone?” or “Where’s Sierra Leone?”

Then -- as we discussed earlier on this show (when it came to Epcot’s Center Person of the Century poll. And how EPCOT Center hosts & hostesses quickly learned how easy it was to skew the results of that poll by repeated writing in the name of one particular cast member) -- the Imagineers quickly learned the hard way that all of the state-of-the-art tech they’d installed in CommuniCore’s Electronic Forum didn’t necessary deliver the always-sure-to-believed survey results that the Company had really been hoping for.

You gotta remember that one of the things that Disney had most wanted -- when it spent that $1.2 billion on the construction of EPCOT Center -- was to be taken seriously. That’s why they’d plowed all those years -- and all that money -- into exploring what the future-present was really all about. Only to then learn that -- when it came to Walt Disney World’s second gate -- what initially most excited folks about this theme park was “Wait. I can buy a beer here? And then drink it as I walk around World Showcase Lagoon?”

Speaking of beverages … As we continue around our clock face, in the 7 to 8 o’clock position, we encounter the Sunshine Terrace Restaurant. Which -- just like the Stargate Restaurant across the way -- is a fast food / counter service location sponsored by Coca-Cola. Different theming, but pretty much the same physical set-up. Six registers out front / designed to feed 1400 Guests per hour.

We cross the breeze way and -- in CommuniCore’s northwest quadrant -- is FutureCom. Presented by the Bell System (which -- of course -- was the original sponsor of Spaceship Earth, EPCOT Center’s thesis attraction) … FutureCom was … Well, you know how Exxon’s Energy Information Exchange was supposed to answer any questions that Guests were supposed to have had after experiencing the “Universe of Energy” ? Well, FutureCom was initially envisioned as Spaceship Earth’s version of the Energy Information Exchange.

As in: If you still had any question about the history of communication after riding EPCOT Center’s thesis attraction, you only had to duck into FutureCom (which was deliberately built on the right side of CommuniCore as one entered Future World. Which meant that this Bell System sponsored exhibit space was often one of the very first things that Guests experienced after they arrived at this theme park and then began exploring EPCOT Center).

Just so you know: Again recognizing that this part of CommuniCore was light on real entertainment, this was also where the Imagineers planned on building the TRON Arcade.

By the way … In an earlier installment of this series, I mentioned that the TRON Arcade was cut from this project in August of 1982 just prior to the official opening of EPCOT Center. Well, that’s not entirely true.

By that I mean: Prior to the opening of Walt Disney World’s second gate, the funds that had initially been set aside for the construction of Future World’s TRON Arcade area were shifted to another aspect of this theme park … But there was still the matter of the sign that had already been created for this part of CommuniCore. This thing was three feet tall and nine feet wide and already prominently displayed a piece of concept art of this TRON-inspired area that was supposed to look like upon completion of construction. Which -- at this point -- had already been canceled.

And I know this because a number of folks who visited EPCOT Center in the Fall of 1982 sent me pictures of the “Coming Soon” sign for CommuniCore’s TRON Arcade. Which featured this chunk of text:

“What’s in a game? Lasers. Simulators. Robotics. Enter an extraordinary new world of Electronic Micro-Magic. Coming Soon -- The TRON Arcade.”

Just so you know: There were other signs around EPCOT Center for things that ultimately never got built. We’re talking the sign for the Israel pavilion:

Where The Old Meets the New in the “Land of the Bible”

Not to mention the Spain pavilion:

Discover the golden land of Segovia, Cervantes and Picasso

As well as EPCOT’s Equatorial Africa pavilion. Which we’ve already discussed at length on a couple of earlier Disney Dish shows. We should probably circle back on the Israel & Spain pavilions at some point. Given that … Well …

In an August 1981 issue of the EPCOT Center Construction News, it was officially announced that there is a design agreement in place with both Spain and Morocco for pavilions for those countries to be built along the shore of World Showcase Lagoon. Construction of Morocco obviously eventually went forward, while construction of the Spain pavilion did not.

Also -- in a press release that Walt Disney Production issued on November 10, 1981 as part of the Company’s on-going efforts to keep the investment community aware of what was going on with the construction of EPCOT Center -- it was revealed that pavilions celebrating Venezuela, the State of Israel and Equatorial Africa would be built along the shores of World Showcase Lagoon as part of Phase II of this project.

Of course, Phase II of EPCOT Center got derailed by the fact that -- by the time 1983 rolled around -- the Company was in its third consecutive year of declining earnings. And while Walt Disney World’s second gate did mean that Guests were now extending the time that they & their families typically spent at that Resort (which then immediately translated into more on-site food & merch sales), it wasn’t enough to mitigate EPCOT Center’s cost overruns (You gotta remember that Disney World’s science & discovery park was initially budgeted to cost just $400 million to build. And the Company was then forced to spend three times that amount just to get Phase One of this Park open).

That then set the stage for greenmailers like Saul Steinberg & Ivan Boesky to sweep in and threaten the Company. Which -- in turn -- led Disney’s Board change out its management team.

Enjoyed this look back at CommuniCore. What the Imagineers originally wanted EPCOT Center to be.

Other unbuilt ideas for CommuniCore: https://waltdatedworld.com/id206.htm