At the Disney World Resort back in July of 1981, Disney was celebrating their centennial. We were staying in the "original tree house villas" (which you might still be able see near Port Orleans river taxiway) I recall my dad speaking with one of the maintenance people on the resort grounds and my Dad said, c'mon, were going to take a special trip.
We took a shuttle to the transportation and ticket center and we boarded a new monorail line heading the opposite direction from the Seven Seas Lagoon. The monorail ride had a special pre-recorded introduction to Epcot Center. I recall as the Monorail entered the first curve over the entry plaza, the monorail slowed down to a crawl. It highlighted all the things that were coming to Epcot, they talked about the Universe of Energy, Sea Base Alpha (although it was not given a name during the ride), The Wonders of life, GM's World of Motion, and the Countries of the World Show Case Though they only really spoke about Germany, France, The "American Pavillion" and the UK. The slow motion ride around the campus was something I never forgot. The monorail was literally empty but I recall everyone going up to the windows when the ride went slow motion. That ride around the campus was something I never forgot.
Are there any great experiences like this that you remember?
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Swan Boats. Egg Roll Hot Dogs. Monte Cristos at the Columbia Harbor House. Trees on the Hub.
Adventurer's Club. The Odyssey diner at EPCOT. The old-time classic maps and guidebooks. The lush detail of the Birnbaum guides. So many classic versions of rides. The original Living Seas displays. The orange smell of Horizons. Back to Neverland. I could go on all day long.
I also had a similar experience in late 1988 with the preview center for all the stuff coming in 1989. Models of Pleasure Island, MGM Studios and Typhoon Lagoon and movie boasting of how Studios would mix movies and fun, whetted my appetite big time to enjoy it.
Wearing a piece of purple cardboard on a string around your neck with the date(s) of your visit stamped on it so you could ride everything.
My sisters just reminded me of the "Have more fun, we're open til 1" slogan. They were joking about what they referred to as the rope line swat team. They would corral people out though the spokes of the park starting at 1:15 AM and they said as the crowd was funneled toward main street you would see an army of sweepers, gardeners, power washers, and sometimes people with paint cans and grease. They got a kick out of seeing the night crews get started. The also talked about how they had so many sweepers that if a single pop corn kernel hit the ground their was some there to sweep it up almost immediately.
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Disney Dollars, though the one in my safe from probably @20 years ago is undoubtedly worth far less today than it was in 1987.