Day 2 dawned very early as the alarm clock went off at 6. We wanted to eat breakfast together before Eric's meetings started & he had to register by 7:30. So into the shower I went first to let him sleep a few more minutes.
We headed over on foot to El Centro which is the main building of Coronado Springs. It was a beautiful walk over.
We ate breakfast in the Pepper Market. Good thing I had read Glennbo's explanation of this place or I would have been confused. We got our food & then waited for several minutes for someone to get our drink order. It seemed like no one was responsible for us & no one would make eye contact. Finally someone came over & we started eating our breakfast & got something to drink.
My breakfast platter....
The food was good & fresh. I liked that you didn't have to stand in a long line to pay while your food was getting cold.
After we ate, Eric headed to the conference center & I went back to the room for a few minutes. I had to be at EPCOT at 8:45 for my tour so I got on-line & checked my email & made a post here & before I knew it it was time to head to the bus stop. I didn't have to wait but about 5 minutes & then was on a bus to EPCOT.
I was there well in advance of the 8:45 meeting time, but I certainly didn't want to be late. So I took a few pictures.
Then I checked in at guest services & was told to go wait in the shady area for the guides. Unlike some of the other tours, the Backstage Magic is not done by the Guest Services CM's but is instead done by the staff of the Disney Institute. There was a nice couple from North Carolina already there & we chatted while we waited for the rest of the group to show up. They were on their first trip ever without kids along & were so excited to be doing whatever they wanted. There ended up being about 20 people on the tour.
Around 8:45, the 2 guides Stu & Bryan showed up. They gave us a lanyard with a nametag on it & checked everyone's picture ID & that we all had on closed toe shoes because we would be going into some active work shops. Then, we walked over & boarded a
Disney Cruise Line bus that would be our transportation for the day. The 2 guides each told us a bit about their history with the company & what our photo restrictions were for the day. Anywhere with strollers & kids (meaning on stage) we could take as many photos as we wanted, but backstage photos are a no-no except they said there would be one exception & they would tell us where that was. They also told us there was a cooler full of water in the front of the bus & to help ourselves throughout the day. Before we knew it, we were backstage at EPCOT. It was amazing to me that once we got back stage, how close everything was. What would take you 20 minutes to walk to in the park was like no time back there. We drove right past the Test Track outdoor loop (which is technically back stage so even if you have never taken a back stage tour if you have ridden TT you have been back stage).
We made a brief stop at the gates, which had these big platforms that were raised up, & a security guard got on to do a bag check & then they lowered the platform so the bus could drive on in.....pretty cool way to keep people out of back stage that aren't supposed to be there. This was the procedure each time we entered the backstage areas.
Our first destination was the American Adventure. They split us into 2 groups here & I was in Bryans group. We walked up beside the pavillion talking along the way about the fact that back stage areas have few frills....the buildings are concrete with paint on them basically back there & there is no landscaping etc. As you get closer to on stage & the sight line of the guests, details start being added so the bricks on the building start right past where the guests would begin to see them. We then walked on-stage & into an empty World Showcase.
And then went around to the front of the building.
Bryan talked about the use of reverse forced perspective for the American Adventure building.
They wanted to make what is a 7 story building look smaller, so 2 stories are underground & they make the other 5 stories look like 3 buy making the doors & windows much larger than they should be which he illustrated by having someone walk over to the door & it was alot taller than the person.
It really does trick the eye into thinking what the Imagineers want you to think about the size of the building. We also talked about the style of architecture which is a blend of several buildings (Williamsburg, Philadelphia & White House) not just one building so that it would seem familiar but not be able to pinpoint it as being one famous building.
They put details there like using real Georgia bricks just like the used in colonial times because it makes everything look right. Walt didn't necessarily believe guests would pick up all the details but he felt if something didn't look quite right then guests would pick up that something felt wrong. Pretty amazing stuff. After that, we switched places with the other group & went back stage again & into the "Pit" area of American Adventure. We had to put on our safety goggles here & walked into a darkened area with a bank of computer screens on one side & a big pit in the floor on the other. The "pit" is probably 2 stories deep & it has a track that the scenes for the show slide along like they are on a train car. What amazed me is the whole thing starts out under the seats in the theater & rolls back into the back stage building scene by scene as the show progresses. That central mechansim has 16 different scenes loaded into it & there are a few other scenes off to each side. There are over 30 characters in the show. They were doing a test & we got to see it roll back twice as we were talking. I could see the first scene with Mark Twain & Benjamin Franklin really well from where I was standing & it was kind of eerie how real they look & I couldn't help but think about the Kingdom Keepers books.
The other amazing thing is that at the time they were building this show for the opening of EPCOT in the late 70's early 80's there was no rear projection screen technology that would work & they needed rear projection so that the screen would be behind the characters so no shadows would be cast. So that technology & even a special 7000 watt bulb had to be made just for this show.
I saw a funny sign taped up near one of the computers while in that building...it read "Old age & treachery will overcome youth & skill."
I also saw lots of big signs back stage that read "SafeD begins with me."
We then made our way back to our bus & were headed for our next stop. We talked alot on the way about the acquistion of land for the "Florida Project." Walt Disney World is 27,443 acres or 47 square miles which is about the size of Manhattan. Only 1/2 of the land at this point is developed so there is still room to grow!
Our next stop was backstage at the Magic Kingdom. We went first to the Magic Kingdom Central Shops which had a big sign that said the "Can Do People" because Admiral Joe Fowler that helped Walt build
Disneyland & oversaw construction at Walt Disney World as well always answered "can do" when asked if he could get something done. There were signs with Goofy on them everywhere reminding everyone that safety googles were a must in this building. This is the area where everything is built, reworked, refurbished, painted etc. It is a huge warehouse with a big central hallway which is mostly where things are stored while being worked on. We saw some amazing things in there like a Jungle Cruise elephant without his skin, a Jungle Cruise giraffe that was being freshened up, a Dinosaur ride vehicle, tea cups, a Peter Pan pirate ship, Buzz Lightyear ride vehicles and so many more things. We went down to an area where they had some audioanimatonics set up so you could see how they work. One happened to be Bonnie Appetite from the old Kitchen Kabaret show to show a more complicated figure & then a simpler tiki bird. They have fluid filled hydralics in some & air filled hydralics in others that cause the movements. Bonnie looked a little scary with crazy disheveled hair, but it was cool to see a character from a show I used to love.
In this area, we also went to the paint workshop where they do all the painting for things. They have over 20,000 colors they work with & a lot of them are patented like Tigger Orange. Here we saw different examples of faux painting techniques like for tree bark--like at Thunder Mtn the trees should be more reddish to match the kind of bark on the trees in that area. Amazing stuff. We also saw them working on alot of Splash Mountain Logs which are made from huge molds in there. They were sanding & getting them just right before they were to be painted. We also saw molds for bumpers for the Lights Motor Action vehicles which have to be replaces alot. One really neat thing we saw, was a carousel horse being repainted.
This was such a fascinating place & I was amazed at all the things I got to see. Back to the bus, we headed for another area of the Magic Kingdom. They asked us to guess how many employees WDW has.....most guessed way too low. They have 60,000 at WDW alone which makes it the largest single site employeer in the company. We reached a parking area that is right behind Main Street USA & got out there. We could see "Tink's Landing area" that I remembered from the Keys to the Kingdom tour so I asked about that & was told that there are at least 2 "tink's" up there to help catch Tink each night as she flys/zooms in over Tomorrowland for her landing. We walked on-stage through an area you see here.
And then, headed towards the Roy & Minnie statue.
Move It Shake It Celebrate It was going on so we paused a few minutes there & watched.
I was excited to see Daisy Duck as you don't see her often.
We saw a few Main Steet citizens too!
Cont in next post......
& glad you found me!
Can't wait to read more!
