Disney Gallery Rededicated (LONG)
Jason Schultz
Well, today has been one of the best days of my life. Arrived at 8 AM for the
Disney Gallery Imagineering Brunch and later the rededication.
At about 9:05 they started letting people in, I quickly hurried up the back
stairs. When I heard they were opening a new exhibit, I thought they would
just take out the Indy room and put some paintings or whatever there. But the
whole Disney Gallery is Tomorrowland oriented (there are a few cells left,
though).
If you came up the front entrance, the first thing you would see would be the
space suit that someone used to walk around Tomorrowland in the 1950s. Lining
the walls were a bunch of concept paintings, including one that said "What's
New in Tomorrowland in 1959" or something to that effect. There was also a
long poster of the Moonliner.
The former Disneyland Paris room now is late-60s, early 70's. In the middle of
the room is a model of the Space Mountain track. There is also a model of the
Star Speeder 3000. There are some Carousel of Progress as well as Adventure
Thru Inner Space drawings. Also in the room is a small model of the Atomobile.
The best part of this room is they play the entire Adventure Thru Inner Space
spiel!!!! We need to plan an a.d.d. where some of us will bring tape recorders
and others will block the door so no one can come in and make noise. ;) Also,
when I went in later I heard Space Mountain sounds (like "All personnel, clear
the launch platform", not the music).
In the room where transactions occur, they now only have Tomorrowland
mini-attraction posters. They have some of the new Tomorrowland art work for
sale (although they haven't gotten them in yet). Also for sale is a smaller
version of the Moonliner poster I mentioned earlier.
The room that formerly housed the Indy exhibit is my favorite. There are two
large models in it (the Astro-Orbiter and the Moonliner(!)) and a smaller one
of the Rocket Rod (seating is 1-1-1-2). This is where all the concept
paintings for the new Tomorrowland are. They have the ones we've all scene, as
well as concepts for an attraction for the Carousel theater before
Innoventions was decided upon. In the corner of the room a video is playing
about the new Tomorrowland. Next to that is a board that says "A Current Look
at Tomorrowland." Today there were 8 or 9 pictures there. Tony Baxter said
they would change the pictures about every 2 weeks. They have the entrance to
to Tomorrowland, a Rocket Rod prototype, a prototype of the fountain that's
going to go in front of Space Mountain, the Orbitron from the platform, the
Carousel Theater (exterior) and the Carousel Theater (interior).
I had a chance to listen to Tony Baxter talk for over 2 hours total, and I did
ask about the Country Bear Jamboree and the nostalgia restaurant to go where
Mission to Mars was once housed. When I asked him about the Country Bear
Jamboree he said, "You've been reading the Internet, haven't you?" But he said
there was discussion of a Pooh ride, but no concrete plans. For the
restaurant, they are going to have the Moonliner, so that's good. He said that
he has a secret plan to get some nostalgia stuff in the restaurant if all else
fails. An interesting fact I found out was that a Rocket Rod is being brought
on site around July 25th to test, so construction crews are madly rushing to
finish the track. Yesterday the mural that will replace the Mary Blaire one on
the Circle-Vision side was presented to Imagineering, and I hear it's
spectacular. The length of it has a train blending into the Viewliner blending
into the Monorail. I can't wait to see it. An addition to the new Tomorrowland
display room is going to be the murals that will decorate the outside of the
Innoventions building. They are going to be hanging.
The watches they gave out were really cool. They had a blue leather band, and
the image on the watch said "Disney Gallery, Tenth Anniversary, July 11,
1997". I heard from a cast member that there were only 75 made.
For the rededication ceremony, I was the first one to choose my VIP seat, so I
got a perfect angle to video tape. The Disneyland Ambassador introduced Tony
Baxter, who spoke about the new Tomorrowland, then introduced the other
Imagineers who were seated up on the balcony. John Hench and Mickey then came
down and cut the ribbon. I followed them up afterwards and did some more video
taping, then I went out on the balcony and with a few other people (including
my mom) talked to Peter Ellenshaw. He's a really great guy and so easy to talk
to. He got in yesterday, and he tried to enter the Park with a silver pass,
but it had expired. The person at the Gate said something to the effect of "I
don't know who you are, so I'm not letting you in." That just seems so
disgraceful to the Disney Company. I think whoever did that should be fired.
If you have a silver pass, don't you think that says something about who you
are. We have Peter Ellenshaw's address, and we are going to send him a thank
you note for all the wonderful work he's done, as well as send him some
pictures I took today.
I also found out that they're trying to keep Circle-Vision open for as long as
they can, but eventually they're going to have to close it. While peering
through the little door-handle things today in Tomorrowland, I found that they
already have a deep hole dug under the former PeopleMover loading area. Could
that be the start of the tunnel. The Rocket Rods are going to take 4 minutes
to complete the track, whereas the PeopleMover used to take 16.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at w...@thegrid.net. Soon I
hope to have screen shots from the video I took up on my web site. I'll
probably post here when I get some up.
Jason
w...@thegrid.net
Visit the Happiest Page on Earth at:
http://wed.simplenet.com
Jason Schultz
One more thing I forgot to mention (sorry about all these follow-ups):
Imagineering want to change the subs so you basically have the first part of
it the same, then you go under the waterfall and into that area. Then you
would be able to get out and explore, until a sudden catastrophe occured (sp?)
and you would be ushered back into a sub and complete your journey. I'm pretty
sure that's how I heard it from Tony Baxter.
Jason
w...@thegrid.net
wed.simplenet.com
Jason Schultz
I forgot to mention that Innoventions is going to have "It's a Great Big
Beautiful Tomorrow" done in Main Street Electrical Parade style.
And Imagineering is trying to get the Sherman Brothers to write a new song. I
think I heard that it would be for the Rocket Rods queue.
Bart David
In article <5q6g55$8ke$1...@zinger.callamer.com>, w...@thegrid.net (Jason
Schultz) writes:
> An interesting fact I found out was that a Rocket Rod is being brought
>on site around July 25th to test, so construction crews are madly rushing
to
>finish the track. Y
OK, so I am going to be there. Who's with me?
Dave, the anxious
Jason Schultz
In article <5q8he3$2ro$1...@newsd-113.bryant.webtv.net>, RPle...@webtv.net
says...
>
>I don't belive you mentioned the fate of CircleVision. Are they still
>planning to make a music video in the CircleVision format, as part of
>the pre-show for the Rocket Sleds?
>
>That plan was announced at the AP Light Magic Sneak Preview, but I
>haven't heard any talk about it recently.
Yes, it is still going to be used as a pre-show. There are going to be 3
movies shown continuously. From what Tony Baxter said, it sounded like 100
people at a time would be released from the theater after one movie was shown,
I guess to go down the underground tunnel and board the ride.
IndyRyan
w...@thegrid.net (Jason Schultz) wrote:
>Well, today has been one of the best days of my life. Arrived at 8 AM for the
>Disney Gallery Imagineering Brunch and later the rededication.
Kudos to Disney Imagineering for providing such an awesome place! clap
clap clap
Indy Ryan
im...@mindless.com
The Hub ((Disney Theme Park Enthusiast's Web Site))
http://ryan.simplenet.com/
nei...@earthlink.net
On Sun, 13 Jul 1997 03:38:15 GMT, im...@mindless.com (IndyRyan) wrote:
>w...@thegrid.net (Jason Schultz) wrote:
>
>>Well, today has been one of the best days of my life. Arrived at 8 AM for the
>>Disney Gallery Imagineering Brunch and later the rededication.
>
>Kudos to Disney Imagineering for providing such an awesome place! clap
>clap clap
>
Caught it Saturday night, bumping into Adrienne & Tony with a private
tour guide yet. Fantastic... loved especially the models. 100%
agreement on the kudos to Imagineering !! They are GREAT!!!
Neil in Sunny Southern California only 8 miles from heaven... well... Disneyland
(remove the "z" for email replies, hate that junk mail!)
Sarah Sammis
Nick Morgan wrote:
>
> Bart David wrote:
>
> > In article <5q6g55$8ke$1...@zinger.callamer.com>, w...@thegrid.net (Jason
> > Schultz) writes:
> >
> > brought
> > >on site around July 25th to test, so construction crews are madly
> > rushing
> > to
> >
> > OK, so I am going to be there. Who's with me?
> >
> > Dave, the anxious
>
> You AP's are great about keeping us out-of-towners up to date on all new
> DL developments, I am sure there will be many reports about this as
> well!
> --
> Visit the Morgan & Morgan hompage- http://cust2.iamerica.net/nmorgan
> Also stop by Nick and Amber's Disneyland site-
> http://cust2.iamerica.net/nmorgan/DL
Maybe that explains why I could have sworn I heard the old People Mover
tracks up and running. Remember that old whine? We heard it while
waiting for the monorail to show up (7/19)
Sarah