An Imagineer Fell For Bill - **New 10/19 Last 2 installments**

[KatGarcia]

Caught up again, really cool to see how everything started!!!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Just found your TR. I was at WDW the exact same dates celebrating a BIG birthday with a couple of friends.

I did attend a few of the Pixar talks in Epcot and enjoyed those. And saw Boo there in the Pixar area. I also saw Slim from Bug's Life in France-he was so cool-on stilts. Gypsy was out too-I saw her from afar but didn't get a photo with her.

I did not attend the D23 so I am really loving all your photos!

 

[Mom&RN]

Loved the pictures. Every time I see a picture of WDW being built I am just in awe of Walt's dream. Really enjoying your trippie. I'm mostly a lurker so you know I must be enjoying it to come out from the shadows and post

 

[Trinity524]

Waiting patiently for your next installment!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I would LOVE to have seen all those presentations! How cool that you got to hear about the original Epcot. Did the City deny him, or did they withdraw the project once Walt passed?

 

[mrsksomeday]

I'm enjoying the glimpses of Disney history and Walt's ideas that were not implemented. Walt's mind churned out such incredible ideas and concepts!

Walt was amazing.

Sounds lie a great day!! I just really can't fathom the creativity that lived in Walt's mind... even by today's standards he would blow everyone else out of the water! Simply amazing!

Could you imagine the things he could create now? It would be fantastic.

Loved, loved, loved all the pictures. So glad you took them all and posted them for all of us to see!

I am so happy you are enjoying the pictures.

Catching up... so much fun! I would probably have used up all my pictures, too!


Kathy

I am horrible, I think I have to take pictures of everything.

This my be my favorite TR ever. I have looked at your pics a dozen times and they're great. Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much .

Caught up again, really cool to see how everything started!!!

We really loved this event.

Just found your TR. I was at WDW the exact same dates celebrating a BIG birthday with a couple of friends.

I did attend a few of the Pixar talks in Epcot and enjoyed those. And saw Boo there in the Pixar area. I also saw Slim from Bug's Life in France-he was so cool-on stilts. Gypsy was out too-I saw her from afar but didn't get a photo with her.

I did not attend the D23 so I am really loving all your photos!

I really wanted to see more of the Pixar characters but it was so hot that day that we just decided to not do it . I would have loved to have seen all the characters.

Loved the pictures. Every time I see a picture of WDW being built I am just in awe of Walt's dream. Really enjoying your trippie. I'm mostly a lurker so you know I must be enjoying it to come out from the shadows and post

Thanks for posting. The "what if's" run through my mind all the time. If Walt hadn't died then how different would WDW be?

Waiting patiently for your next installment!

Thanks for being patient, I have been sick.

I would LOVE to have seen all those presentations! How cool that you got to hear about the original Epcot. Did the City deny him, or did they withdraw the project once Walt passed?

When Walt died, the company didn't know what to do. That is why they built Magic Kingdom based on Disneyland, they knew the public liked that so they went with something that worked.

 

[mrsksomeday]

We were up early again and hopped on a Magic Kingdom bus. The front desk had told me to tell the driver we needed to be dropped off at the Contemporary. I explained the event to the driver and that there were at least 7 other people on the bus were heading that way too. I could tell because of all our lanyards. People thanked me for asking him to do this.

I met a wonderful DISer, SiAmCrAzY aka Lindsay on the bus. She is as crazy about WDW as we are. She was such a joy to talk to. We ran into her several times. In addition to her we met Cheshire Figment the king of ticket information and disability issues here and Justin_Jett aka Skip, both DISers. They both came to sit by me at different times during the event. I also got to actually talk to Lurkyloo, she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and she is such a classic beauty. Bill thought she was great, he says he got a neck sprain looking up at her because she is so tall, LOL.

Here is where I admit I am a horrible trip report writer, a wonderfully friendly DISer came up to us both days, said she recognized us from my trip reports and I can’t for the life of me find the paper that I wrote her DIS name on. I have looked everywhere. I feel so bad, so if you are reading PLEASE post. I feel horrible about not asking for a picture with you as well. It has more to do with my frustration with myself and my weight than anything. I hate taking pictures of myself. Now back to trip reporting….

Sunday Morning Surprise with the Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador Team
9:30 a.m. - 10 a.m.
You won't want to miss this very special — and did we mention surprising? — presentation at the start of your day!

Woo hoo, not much of a surprise. The 2011 Ambassadors were there to help D23 Head Steven Clark endorse their upcoming pre-D23 Expo event, the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament. The surprise was the winner of the tournament will receive a cruise on the Disney Fantasy. Some audience members went up on stage to for a mini trivia tournament and the winner was automatically entered into the semi-finals of the D23 Ultimate tournament.

Next up was:

Walt Disney World in Detail
10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Think you know everything there is to know about the Walt Disney World Resort? Find out as we join Disney author and Imagineer Jason Surrell as he uncovers the little-known details and design references that have made ride vehicles, cast member costumes and even unassuming trash cans such treasured parts of the magic.

Disney author Jason Surrell and Imagineers Alex Wright and Jason Grandt gave an enjoyable presentation about how much detail goes into creating a Disney attraction, sharing so many pictures with us. Here are a few:

On Pirates of the Caribbean many of us have seen the chess set. It seems the pieces are at a stalemate, well they were until someone cleaned and didn’t put the pieces back in the right order, now there is a diagram on the back of the board to show where they belong:

The colors on the curtains at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique are colored to match the Fairy Godmother’s cape:

Walt’s family crest:

We really enjoyed these guys, there were funny and informative. After that it was time for:

Imagineering Walt Disney World: From Yesteryear to Tomorrowland
11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Join longtime Imagineer Eric Jacobson, who oversees the portfolio for Disney's largest resort in the world. Eric will share insider stories and images of yesteryear, as well as new and exciting surprises of things on the horizon at Walt Disney World.

This presentation told us about Star Tours that was about to open while we were there:

The Art of Animation Resort:

Nemo Rooms:

Cars Rooms:

Lion King Rooms:

Little Mermaid Rooms:

Then they talked about the New Fantasyland. We had heard most of this before. The big surprise was the return of the Enchanted Tiki Room, that got huge applause although many of us knew this was coming.

After they were done we were told the line up for autographs. We wanted them all. It was then time for a lunch break.

Next intstallment… The reason for the name of the trip report

 

[jenseib]

YAY! Love the update. I had gone to a travel agent WDW trip in Aug. and normally when I got to "classes" I feel so bored, but it was so cool! I loved listening to everything and to tour the different resorts. It's the only time I think I didn't mind if the teacher was running late. I bet I would've loved this D23 thing too. Ok, call me geek!

 

[okw19]

Yay for an update! I hope everything is going well for you and Bill.
Once again great pics! That's awesome that you met Lurkyloo. I love her blog.

 

[tazdev3225]

Great update. I love all of the pictures and stories. I found a commemorative book from when WDW opened at a flea market that had some of the pictures you posted. It was actually published when MK opened and tells of the plans for EPCOT. I got it for free and consider it to be one of my most prized and priceless possessions.

 

[Lesprivate]

I love all this information so cool. I will have to go to one of these someday but probably by myself because DH would be bored. I can't wait to see the new back to old Tiki Room.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great update! I love all of the little details. I love how they made it sound like it's so simple to come up with the theme and concept of a ride. Oh, if only it was that easy, we could all be Imagineers!

 

[mrsksomeday]

YAY! Love the update. I had gone to a travel agent WDW trip in Aug. and normally when I got to "classes" I feel so bored, but it was so cool! I loved listening to everything and to tour the different resorts. It's the only time I think I didn't mind if the teacher was running late. I bet I would've loved this D23 thing too. Ok, call me geek!

If you are a geek then we are too. It was a fantastic event, we are so happy we went!!

Yay for an update! I hope everything is going well for you and Bill.
Once again great pics! That's awesome that you met Lurkyloo. I love her blog.

Bill just got a website building job for a company here in our town, he is happy. Lurkyloo is awesome, I love her writing style.

Great update. I love all of the pictures and stories. I found a commemorative book from when WDW opened at a flea market that had some of the pictures you posted. It was actually published when MK opened and tells of the plans for EPCOT. I got it for free and consider it to be one of my most prized and priceless possessions.

That book sounds wonderful!!

I love all this information so cool. I will have to go to one of these someday but probably by myself because DH would be bored. I can't wait to see the new back to old Tiki Room.

I can't wait to see it too!!

Great update! I love all of the little details. I love how they made it sound like it's so simple to come up with the theme and concept of a ride. Oh, if only it was that easy, we could all be Imagineers!

That presentation was so great, those three really work well together.

 

[GeminiAngel]

Nice update It was just what I needed today.
Congrats to Bill on the website job. That should keep him outta your hair for awhile.

I love Disneyland for keeping the Tiki Room unchanged here on the west coast! See it twice this year. What we miss here out west is the Country Bears Jamboree. Its been Winnie the Pooh for sometime now.

Do you know if the construction for Art of Animation has begun yet? We are staying at POP in 3 weeks.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Nice update It was just what I needed today.
Congrats to Bill on the website job. That should keep him outta your hair for awhile.

I love Disneyland for keeping the Tiki Room unchanged here on the west coast! See it twice this year. What we miss here out west is the Country Bears Jamboree. Its been Winnie the Pooh for sometime now.

Do you know if the construction for Art of Animation has begun yet? We are staying at POP in 3 weeks.

We enjoy the Country Bears Jamboree, we saw it on the May trip.

The Art of Animation construction has been going on for quite some time, I know you can make reservations for it for next year, June 2012 I think, but not sure if that is the opening month. They will open the family suites first then the regular hotels rooms will be the last set to open.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Another great update! There was so much fun information at the event!!

 

[JolllyHoliday]

Yeah! A new update. Another great report. Congrats to Bill on his new job. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Another great update! There was so much fun information at the event!!

Hi Amy!! I have just skimmed the surface on the information that was given those two days. It was amazing.

Yeah! A new update. Another great report. Congrats to Bill on his new job. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!!

Bill says thanks, I will be finishing up this report by the end of the week.

 

[mrsksomeday]

The reason for the name of the trip report

After lunch was over, we decided to go into the little Archive room.

We saw some of the presenters in the room so Bill wanted pictures with them.

Bill and Paul F. Anderson, we loved him, he knows everything about Walt:

Bill and Rob Klein:

After being in there for a little bit Bill’s eyes lit up and he pointed. Oh My GOODNESS, there was Bob Gurr, the imagineer responsible for the Monorail and about any ride vehicle at Disneyland and many at WDW. He was called “Walt’s wheel man”. He is a Disney legend. Everyone was trying to talk to him.

We waited patiently and I asked if he would take a picture with Bill. He smiled and said yes and quickly took a knee. The man is going to be 80 this year and is more limber than many people I know half his age. A CM told me later he runs 8 miles every day (if you can believe a CM lol).

I asked if he could sign something for us, I was going to get out the replica 1971 preview guide. Next thing I knew the man had a sharpie out and was on the floor:

Look at Bill cracking up and all the people behind him taking pictures, see it looks like “An imagineer fell for Bill” LOL :

Even DisKingdom on twitter tweeted “Bob Gurr on the floor signing a wheelchair tire”:

He jumped back up on his feet like a teenager. Here is the tire:

We thanked him over and over. You could hear everyone in the room talking about him doing it. We were seriously in shock, I mean how could you even imagine something like that happening? I kept looking at it.

We went to get back in line to go back in the ballroom and saw Lindsay and told her about it, we saw Carrie aka Lurkyloo and showed her. I mean how could you not show everyone that awesome souvenir?

Next installment… Destination D Day 2 Part 3

 

[mrsksomeday]

It was time for one of the presentations we really wanted to see:

Creating "A Whole New Disney World"
2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Hear the stories of how it all happened in this impressive panel discussion featuring: Debra Browne, Orlando Ferrante, Bob Foster, Bob Gurr, and Ron Logan. Hosted by Disney Legend Marty Sklar.

Former Executive Vice President of Entertainment Ron Logan, 1971 Walt Disney World Ambassador Debby Dane Browne, and Marty Sklar:

Disney Legal Counsel Bob Foster, Imagineer Orlando Ferrante and Imagineer Bob Gurr.

They covered the acquisition of the land up through opening day. Walt was great with ideas then handing things off to people to tell them to get it done and that is what he did with these guys. They knew they were going to have to do this quietly.

A huge challenge was obtaining the land. It was 25 different parcels in 4 different counties. The primary parcel was under contract to be sold, once they acquired that the next one that Walt wanted was the Bay Lake Property. There were title and mineral issues with a lot of the land, but they were able to get them.

The land all around the 535/4 intersection was broken into five acre parcels and was sold by mail order to people all over the country. It took some time to track these people down and some of them didn’t even know they owned it.


About this time news broke that Disney was buying up all the land. Once this fact was publicized it was harder getting the smaller parcels of land. They also talked about how hard it was to find talented people to perform in the parks. They bantered back and forth it was a great session. One of them stated that when Walt asked you to do something said you could do it even if you had no clue of how to do it or you wouldn’t get another opportunity to do something for him. We could have listened to them talk all night.

Next session:

Making the Magic Happen
3:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Opening and maintaining a resort the size of the city of San Francisco was no easy task and our panel of Disney Legends — Jack Lindquist, Bob Matheison, Tom Nabbe, Charlie Ridgway and Bill Sullivan — will recount what life was like making the magic happen, from opening the Magic Kingdom through the debut of EPCOT Center.. Hosted by Tim O'Day.

(I am paraphrasing this from memory) It seems on opening day the first people to purchase tickets were 3 college boys, but Disney wanted a “family” for the First Family so they picked a husband and wife with 2 boys. Little did they know that these people that they gave lifetime passes to would be a bit of a pain in the behind. They thought they could just show up any time they wanted and the Disney cast members should have to jump for them. They weren’t the magical family Disney was envisioning.

Jack Lindquist said: "We gave them lifetime passes -- but these are the mistakes we soon learned -- as they took unfair advantage of their perks. Appreciating an advantage is fine, but taking advantage in an uncalled for manner is not okay. After opening day, the Windsors often called and said, 'We'll be there in about two hours and we want someone to meet us to do this and this and this. We're bringing 12 people. We want to have dinner and stay overnight.' It sort of put a damper on the All-American family concept.”

Magic Kingdom had a month of soft openings for the construction workers and their families plus Kiwanis club members. They did this as an incentive to get the workers to finish on time. Monday through Saturday they would work hard in the park and would come on Sunday with their families to show off the work they had been doing.

Everything went well for the first couple weeks, crowds were controllable and everything ran well. The day after Thanksgiving problems occurred. The park reached capacity early in the day, the parking lot filled up soon afterwards. By afternoon, all the roads were backed up for miles, people were stopped on the road having picnics.

For Donald Duck’s 50th birthday, someone got the bright idea to have him walk down Main Street with a flock of ducks following him. The ducks needed to imprint on him from hatching so they would follow him.

They decided that the ducks needed hats. They learned the hard way that if they put a hat on one of the ducks the others would attack it. They found out if they had two pens they could put a hat on the duck and put it with other ducks that had hats and everything was fine.

After that session a quick break was scheduled but everyone went in line for this:

Autograph Session with Disney Legends and Authors
5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Please note, there is limit of one item per person to be signed for each guest. Thank you.

They had 4 lines set up with sets of people signing. It wasn’t the most organized but we did get autographs from all of them.

Marty Sklar:

Tony Baxter signing someone’s Figment:

After we saw everyone we ran into Laura a D23 Castmember, she was the one that coordinated with me the accommodations we needed for Bill during the event. She is fantastic as are all of the D23 CM’s.

Next installment… Destination D Day 2 Part 4