Saturday is July 25, I guess that makes this week Christmas in July week.
I thought it might be fun to take a break from summer and have another 10-year flashback report. This one is from December 1999, our family’s first trip after Walt Disney World began its Millennium Celebration which marked the arrival of the year 2000. Since the Celebration’s festivities were centered in EPCOT, we decided to spend our Christmas trip there. So, turn on the Christmas music (I know I have) and enjoy this Holiday mini trip report.
Day One
After a rainy drive to Walt Disney World, we arrived at our resort- the Boardwalk Inn. This was our first time staying here, and I believe this was the trip that I fell in love with it. It’s still my favorite resort. The atmosphere is so wonderful, especially at Christmastime. I just love the charming old-time Boardwalk look and feel of it
Shortly after check-in, I found this Bellhop Mickey bean bag. Back in the late 1990s, these Beanie Baby-esque Disney plush characters were the big collectable in the parks until Pin Trading caught on and became the new phenomenon. They use to have tons of new releases, limited editions and such just like they do now for pins. I’ll admit that even I got caught up in the Beanie collecting craze, and Boardwalk Bellhop Mickey was added to my collection. The whole bean bag craze sounds so silly now that I think about it now. I wonder if we’ll think the same thing about pins in 10 years.
Once we got all our stuff in the room (which was beautiful) we headed off to Downtown Disney West Side for the evening. We got reservations at Wolfgang Puck Cafe that evening. I believe that this was our first time here. I don’t really remember much about it except for I think I got pizza and Mom got a pumpkin pasta dish that she loved. We rounded out the evening with a visit to many of the shops at West Side before heading back to the Boardwalk to rest up for our day at EPCOT.
Day Two
We began the day by having breakfast at the Bellevue Room. In the evening it’s the hotel’s bar, but in the morning, it’s the nicest little breakfast nook, filled with shelves of knickknacks and old fashioned radios that play old radio programs and music. It’s incredibly charming- one of my favorite counter service breakfast spots in the world. After breakfast, we took the boat to the International Gateway and made our way to Future World. On our way in, we got our first glimpse of Spaceship Earth now adorned with the giant wand that was put up in commemoration of the year 2000 and checked out MouseGears, which was completely refurbished and redecorated for the celebration (it had been called Centorium up until than point).
Our first ride of the day would be the newly-opened Journey Into Your Imagination. This was the version of this ride that came between the original version with Dreamfinder and Figment and the current version. Like the current version, it was a tour of the Imagination Institute hosted by Nigel Channing, but unlike the current version, Figment only made one appearance at the end of the attraction. It wasn’t as bad as I think a lot of fans have made it out to be, but really wasn’t as good as either the original or current version. After the ride, we checked out the Imageworks.
By this point, the day had gone from gloomy and cloudy to shaping up to be a very rainy day. We still wanted to get a glimpse and take some photos of Spaceship Earth and the new Leave A Legacy sculptures from the entrance since we didn’t get a chance to do so when we got to the park since we entered through International Gateway. Luckily, we were able to stand under a canopy near the turnstiles and get our shots. You can see a little bit of it in the top left corner of the shot. I don't really miss the wand now that it's gone. It was alright for the Millennium Celebration, but when it just stayed around for years and years afterwards, it felt like it overstayed its welcome a little. Our morning in Future World was rounded out with a visit to Innoventions which was refurbished to take on its “Road to Tomorrow” theme for the celebration and given a new host- mini-animatronic Tom Morrow 2.0 (is he still the host there?)
Once World Showcase opened, we headed to the Millennium Village, a temporary pavilion between Canada and the United Kingdom in the building that now house the World Showplace events space. For the Millennium Celebration, it housed exhibits and attractions from a number of countries not previously represented in World Showcase. This pavilion proved to be the highlights for the day- a completely indoor pavilion filled with enough diversions to keep us out of the rain for a while. We ended up seeing a lot of the exhibits. Looking back 10 years later, I’d have to say that the attractions I remember the most were Sweeden’s giant walk-through “eggs” that simulated the country’s seasons, Israel’s “Journey to Jerusalem” simulator ride, Saudi Arabia’s pop-up book inspired presentation “Rise of the Kingdom” and Denmark’s Tivoli Gardens puppet show. The pavilion also had its own food court where we had lunch and a giant marketplace to explore. It was pretty cool pavilion; I was surprised when it was closed after the celebration. Oh well.
Next: The rest of our day at World Showcase plus Boardwalk and Downtown Disney Marketplace
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Though there maybe a bit fewer of us Brits this August - swine flu may have decimated the population by then 
And I should have known you'd love the chandelier. It's right up your alley!
