Digging thru some boxes of stuff, I found an envelope with some of the paperwork from our first Disney trip together. We had both visited Walt Disney World with our families while growing up - Tracey's grandmother moved to Cocoa Beach in 1982, and the family spent several summers and Christmastimes with her, while Scott's grandparents used to head to the Tampa area for the winter, and the family would go visit with them as well.
I'm pretty sure we bought the 1995 Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Official Guide for this trip, as pages are dog-eared in my copy. Mid-March was considered "average attendance" - not sure why we chose this time other than to get away from Indiana winter! I can't recall if we went with a travel agent or not - I do know we had to make our money stretch as far as possible, which probably explains why we flew from Indianapolis thru Charlotte to get to Orlando. I found a receipt for the Mears shuttle to & from the resort - we didn't rent a car.
We stayed at All-Star Music in the Broadway section, building 7, room 7512. I remember how long it seemed to take to walk back to the room after a long day in the parks! The key card is labeled with the specific resort logo - I don't recall if that card was also our park admission or not.
We probably got a 4 day Park Hopper pass ($141.55, according to the Birnbaum) - we took a couple of disposable cameras, so the photos aren't the best quality. I did save maps from each park - here's some highlights:
This park has changed a lot in the last dozen years - a lot of the "studio" elements are long gone. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was up and running, tho I'm pretty sure we avoided it - it took until our third trip, I think, until we braved some of the thrill rides. I was OK with TOT when there was a set number of drops - the random ride sequence is just too intense for me!
The Toy Story Parade ran daily at 1:00pm - we have photos of it from our first 2 trips, apparently it was very popular (as well as pretty expensive - Disney likes to get its money's worth out of its floats!) We were there during Toy Story Weekends, in fact - which from the description is basically extra character meet & greets.
The live show Ace Ventura - Pet Detective: Live in Action (20 min show 4 times a day) played on New York Street -I don't think we saw this, or Superstar Television (30 min 5 times a day) , but I do remember the Monster Sound Show (15 min - check at theater for times). The Walt Disney Theater featured "The Making of Disney's Toy Story", while Soundstage 1 featured the sets from Tarzan, The Epic Adventure (doesn't ring a bell)
Inside the Magic: Special Effects and Production Tour (35 minutes, running continuously) was listed as a separate attraction from The Backstage Studio Tour: a 25-minute tour that ran thru Residential Street, Catastrophe Canyon and the working portion of the studio (no quotes around "working" - a couple of TV shows were still in production, if I recall correctly). The Animation Building was also active at the time - 35-min tours of The Magic of Disney Animation were also being offered at the time. Beauty and the Beast was the only stage show - I don't know if we saw it during this trip or not, as we don't seem to have any photos. Same with the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.
We did dine at what would become one of our favorite table service restaurants - the Sci-Fi Dine In. Admittedly, the atmosphere trumps the food quality ( especially the last few trips). but where else can you see such awful B-movie trailers?
Featured in the map: The Wonders of Life Pavilion (RIP) was listed as a Must See, as was the GM Preview Center, offering a sneak peek at Test Track, set to open in late Spring 1997 (that opening date slipped just a bit, didn't it?) Innoventions featured the Family PC Exhibit, where you could send live messages and on-line photographs to neighboring booths "or plan a future trip with printed details and appropriate maps".
The WorldFest March - featuring high school bands - stepped off from Morocco and went clockwise around the World Showcase Lagoon to Germany at 7:05 pm - I don't recall seeing this parade & don't have any photos. Other World Showcase live performers that are no longer with us:
FutureCorps had a selection of (now extinct) live entertainment as well:
My Epcot recollections from this trip include the original version of Journey Into Imagination, Horizons, and Spaceship earth, as well as the Living Seas - I'm fairly sure the seacabs were still running, tho it's not noted in the guidemap. I don't recall if we ate anything here besides basic counter service, probably either in the American Adventure pavilion or somewhere in Future World. I do recall one night as we waited for Illuminations, it rained really hard - we took shelter in one of the open-air shops in the Showcase Pavilion - as did a duck!
I also found my Epcot Center (yes, it says "Epcot Center"!) Passport from this trip, with the stamps & notes from CM's in World Showcase.
Just like now - the hours for this park varied based on the day of the week. Sunday, Wednesday & Thursday were the short days, 9:00a - 8:00p, while Monday & Tuesday the park was open from 9:00a - 9:00p. Friday and Saturday were the late nights, with hours from 9:00a - 11:00p. It looks as if the fireworks "Fantasy in the Sky" and Spectromagic only ran on Fridays & Saturdays.
The daytime 3:00 parade was the Mickey Mania Parade - VERY colorful! This must've been one of the last appearances of the old-style Winnie the Pooh, where his snout was brown instead of gold, like the rest of him. Will post pictures of this as well. Spectromagic doesn't seem to have changed much (except they used to have marching bands, too!) In checking our photos - it looks as if Roger Rabbit used to play the conductor role - wonder when the Genie took over? Lots of guest performers - mostly high school orchestras or marching bands - were listed: Fantasyland Pavilion and the Galaxy Palace Theater were the most popular locations, while the daytime parade had 2-3 marching bands every day.
Live Entertainment included the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, "Disneymania!" and "Every Day's a Holiday (both featuring the Kids of the Kingdom) in front of the Castle and Galaxy Search in Tomorrowland. The following attractions were being refurbished for our future enjoyment:
Other fondly-recalled attractions that are no longer with us: Skyway to New Tomorrow, Dreamflight, The Timekeeper, the original Enchanted Tiki Room, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I don't think we ever made it onto the Mike Fink Keelboats, and Tracey only did the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter once... that was plenty!
This trip may have been the "One Little Spark" that began our fascination with Disney...