katt789
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2010
The group of the tour departed into Adventureland, Katie pointing out the subtle changes in environment from the Hub as we went. On Keys to the Kingdom they usually do Jungle Cruise as their attraction, but since it was down for refurb, we only stopped to talk about it. The biggest thing that I remember was that when they were building it over in California they couldn’t afford to have the exotic plants actually shipped in, so they pulled up some Orange trees, and planted them upside down along the course of the ride! When guests asked them what they were they had to make up some crazy names to make it seem like everything was real. By the time they built in Florida though, they had enough money, so everything there is authentic.
Since Jungle Cruise was down, the first attraction of the tour was the Enchanted Tiki Room. You might notice, it’s one of I believe, three attractions that actually has Walt’s name in the title. The idea sprung from when Walt and his wife, Lillian were out, I believe, at a garage sale? And she discovered a little stuffed/animated bird that she loved so much that Walt wanted to create an attraction for Disney off of it.
The imaginers spent a WHOLE TON OF TIME trying to animate these birds, and after everything was done and ready to roll, Walt came in to watch the show and seemed to be enjoying it the entire way through, everyone was happy. Until it ended… Walt stood up and simply said “the birds aren’t breathing. They need to breathe.” And that was it. Yup. Complication number one, they aren’t breathing, but they’re not alive…this ended up taking a ton more thought and work until they finally got it right. Someone working on the project was talking to either Walt himself or another imagineer and the person was wearing a nice cashmere sweater that was moving with him and breathing so well and the thought was born! Thus, they created a cashmere outer shell for all the birds in the Tiki room so that they would be “breathing” and not busting open, and it would look realistic. There were also jokes about how the birds were “better dressed” than Walt. Ha1
We also did go through the attraction to experience it after Katie had told us a bunch of the trivia, which was great. It was ncie to get to do an attraction that Mom hadn’t wanted to do again, so we didn’t do, but anything Walt himself has a hand in, I have a soft spot for. Heehee.
Next we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean, where we spent some time outside of it talking about it, obviously it had originated over in DLR, and when they opened WDW, they didn’t plot it into the park. WDW ran for a year or so, and the workers noticed a ton of people were coming over from California and asking about it, and were upset that it wasn’t there. The problem was, the park was already laid out, and the train tracks were set, and there wasn’t enough space for the attraction. Well, Disney does what Disney does, and they found a way to make it work! So, when you’re on pirates, and you’re going down the drop, that’s actually you going down UNDER the train tracks and out of the “park boundary” that they make! Hence why when you exit the ride you are coming back up the escalator.
We took the time to go onto the ride, and discovered that there are many nods to chess in the queue, and that they’re all towards one of the imagineers that created the ride. Also, many of the animatronics on the ride are the same one, with a different costume, as to save both money and time when creating POTC. Katie also let us know a little tidbit that in the first “town” scene after you come down the drop, you see the pirate being pulled out of the well, right? To the left of the well is a pirate in red, with a hook in his left hand, and a sword in his right, behind him, a man in a striped shirt. These guys are a nod to Captain Hook and Smee!! Super awesome!
A question was asked about all the hair on the animatronics while we were on the ride, and Katie said that all of Disney’s animatronics all have REAL human hair on them, to create the authentic look. Where as all of the performers in Disney have synthetic hair, since it’s easier to style and keep styled in humidity and the uncontrollable Florida weather! Lol. And yes, in case you didn’t know/notice, ALL of Disney entertainment performers are wigged, or have a hair piece or head piece that covers their hair. Everyone is wigged with the exception of Prince Charming and sometimes Phillip, the male parade/show performers/dancers, and in Move It Shake It they only have a fake hair piece as well as the hats! Neat to know!
And now, Imma jump to yet a THIRD update of just reading, sorry no pictures, but this next bit, this next bit is reeeeaaallly awesome….just sayin.
Since Jungle Cruise was down, the first attraction of the tour was the Enchanted Tiki Room. You might notice, it’s one of I believe, three attractions that actually has Walt’s name in the title. The idea sprung from when Walt and his wife, Lillian were out, I believe, at a garage sale? And she discovered a little stuffed/animated bird that she loved so much that Walt wanted to create an attraction for Disney off of it.
The imaginers spent a WHOLE TON OF TIME trying to animate these birds, and after everything was done and ready to roll, Walt came in to watch the show and seemed to be enjoying it the entire way through, everyone was happy. Until it ended… Walt stood up and simply said “the birds aren’t breathing. They need to breathe.” And that was it. Yup. Complication number one, they aren’t breathing, but they’re not alive…this ended up taking a ton more thought and work until they finally got it right. Someone working on the project was talking to either Walt himself or another imagineer and the person was wearing a nice cashmere sweater that was moving with him and breathing so well and the thought was born! Thus, they created a cashmere outer shell for all the birds in the Tiki room so that they would be “breathing” and not busting open, and it would look realistic. There were also jokes about how the birds were “better dressed” than Walt. Ha1
We also did go through the attraction to experience it after Katie had told us a bunch of the trivia, which was great. It was ncie to get to do an attraction that Mom hadn’t wanted to do again, so we didn’t do, but anything Walt himself has a hand in, I have a soft spot for. Heehee.
Next we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean, where we spent some time outside of it talking about it, obviously it had originated over in DLR, and when they opened WDW, they didn’t plot it into the park. WDW ran for a year or so, and the workers noticed a ton of people were coming over from California and asking about it, and were upset that it wasn’t there. The problem was, the park was already laid out, and the train tracks were set, and there wasn’t enough space for the attraction. Well, Disney does what Disney does, and they found a way to make it work! So, when you’re on pirates, and you’re going down the drop, that’s actually you going down UNDER the train tracks and out of the “park boundary” that they make! Hence why when you exit the ride you are coming back up the escalator.
We took the time to go onto the ride, and discovered that there are many nods to chess in the queue, and that they’re all towards one of the imagineers that created the ride. Also, many of the animatronics on the ride are the same one, with a different costume, as to save both money and time when creating POTC. Katie also let us know a little tidbit that in the first “town” scene after you come down the drop, you see the pirate being pulled out of the well, right? To the left of the well is a pirate in red, with a hook in his left hand, and a sword in his right, behind him, a man in a striped shirt. These guys are a nod to Captain Hook and Smee!! Super awesome!
A question was asked about all the hair on the animatronics while we were on the ride, and Katie said that all of Disney’s animatronics all have REAL human hair on them, to create the authentic look. Where as all of the performers in Disney have synthetic hair, since it’s easier to style and keep styled in humidity and the uncontrollable Florida weather! Lol. And yes, in case you didn’t know/notice, ALL of Disney entertainment performers are wigged, or have a hair piece or head piece that covers their hair. Everyone is wigged with the exception of Prince Charming and sometimes Phillip, the male parade/show performers/dancers, and in Move It Shake It they only have a fake hair piece as well as the hats! Neat to know!
And now, Imma jump to yet a THIRD update of just reading, sorry no pictures, but this next bit, this next bit is reeeeaaallly awesome….just sayin.