Trivia Question

[MarkBarbieri]

Now that we have threads about the castle, the hat, the tree, and ball...what is the generic name that imagineers use for the big focal point element in a park?

 

[ukcatfan]

Is it Icon?

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Nope

 

[eugeniuss]

weenie?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Yep. I'm not sure where the term comes from, but they call them weenies.

 

[ukcatfan]

Let's try to keep this going. I have a CM friend in the special projects engineering department. Can anyone guess what former attraction they are referring to when they say "The Mistake by the Lake"?

Kevin

 

[eugeniuss]

trying to think of something by a lake, cannot think right of one, so I will guess Davy Crockett canoes

 

[Geoff_M]

I'm not sure where the term comes from, but they call them weenies.

Per The Imagineering Field Guide To The Magic Kingdom (good little book, btw), the term was coined by Walt himself. The book also offers a slightly broader definition: "A visual element that could be used to draw people into and around a space. A weenie is big enough to be seen from a distance and interesting enough to make you want to take a closer look." Cindy's castle is certainly a "weenie" in MK, but so are Astro Orbiter and Splash Mountain.

Can anyone guess what former attraction they are referring to when they say "The Mistake by the Lake"?

It's not an attraction, so that rules out my first guess: Pop Century!

 

[eugeniuss]

Davy Crockett was never a big enough attraction,, so I will now switch to River Country

 

[Geoff_M]

so I will now switch to River Country

I thought about that too... but it was a success, not a failure. It was the first themed "water park" in the US whose popularity only faded when it's two bigger offspring were opened.

It was "in" instead of "by", but I'll go with the original "Discovery Island".

 

[Groucho]

20,000 Leagues, perhaps? From what I understand, it was a nightmare to keep running so it might not have been as popular with the engineering crew as it was with us guests...

OK, it's not "by a lake" but I can cut them a little slack!

BTW, speaking of Imagineering books, I just finished going through "Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look At Making the Magic Real", which was pretty good, despite the awkward title. There's not much hard information in there (frankly, most of the text is pretty bland and forgettable), but there's a ton of old concept art, neat old photos, etc - pretty neat stuff for someone like me who always wanted to be an Imagineer growing up.

 

[eugeniuss]

cool, now I can look for that book as well as "Spinning Disneys World" book since I have finished the Walt Disney bio...

 

[eugeniuss]

why was 20,000 so hard to keep up, yet the one at DL still continues?

 

[Groucho]

The one at Disneyland was shut down several years ago, as well. I believe the WDW one was shut down in 1995...? not sure about the DL one.

The DL one will be re-opening as a Finding Nemo ride, but I think it's been several years since the Nautiluses were plying the waters.

And it wasn't such a nightmare that they couldn't have kept it going, but my understanding was that it was starting to show its age and wasn't as popular as it once was, so it was getting hard to justify the money that it was taking to keep it running.

As for books, yeah, the "Spinning" one is on my Amazon wishlist. I have very, very few Disney books in my collection (I've always been a lot more of a Disney theme park fan than an all-things-Disney fan, although with a 2-year-old, I'm finding myself enjoying seeing some of the movies I've missed and the ones that I haven't seen in years)... but that one sounds pretty interesting.

 

[ukcatfan]

I have not seen the correct answer yet. I will give a hint. It is more of a pond than a lake.

Kevin

P.S. I probably will not be back on until around noon EST.

 

[ukcatfan]

Nobody has a guess? I will bump this back to the top with another clue. This attraction was not created yet when this park opened.

Kevin

 

[eugeniuss]

Swan Boats?

 

[ukcatfan]

Nope.

 

[sk8belle]

Is it Disney's California Adventure in Disneyland? Or does that count as a whole park, not just an attraction?

 

[Geoff_M]

I'm not getting any ideas... I even looked at Walt Dated World to find names of closed attractions that I might have missed! As far as bodies of water (that aren't "rivers") that I can recall in the various parks go, I can think of: the lake in World Showcase (and the ponds next to it), Echo "lake" in MGM, and the old 20,000 Leagues pool.