Fireworks of the Universe

You know, I love vintage Walt Disney World ad publicity. It's nearly always well written, terse, and evocative. The Lake Buena Vista Club isn't just a golf clubhouse, it "features 14-ft. vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, rough-sawn cedar planks, plush carpeting and wide-view windows overlooking the fairway." Really, who wouldn't want to go there after a description like that? And the Polynesian luau isn't just dancing, it features "the delightful Samoan slap-dance, [and the] romantic Hawaiian Wedding Song."

The delightful Samoan slap-dance. Try saying that to somebody out of the blue. Spectacularly strange language.

But sometimes they just hit it clear out of the park and into a low-hanging orbit, such as the cover story for this January 1975 edition of Walt Disney World News:

Take that, Arthur C. Clarke! We got there 26 years early!

Amongst a front page featuring such curiosities as "World Swings into P.G.A. Winter Activities" and "Hall of Presidents Adds No. 37" is a pretty picture of Space Mountain (with topiaries!) and the subject of our article today. We all can agree that Space Mountain is a pretty big deal, right? I mean, Magic Kingdom would not be Magic Kingdom without it. It's been rebuilt in every Disney "castle park" around the globe. But you just don't get it, man. Space Mountain isn't just a big deal - it's going to CHANGE THE WORLD. The article is so full of astonishing hyperbole and bizarre turns of phrase that I have no idea what to say about it besides..... it may be the apex of all Walt Disney World promotional material.

"THE FUTURE BEGINS TODAY IN ALL-NEW TOMORROWLAND

As the rest of the world steps nimbly into 1975 with the hopes of better times in a better year - Walt Disney World steps boldly beyond the limits of time and space into the 21st century!

At 2:00 pm, Wednesday, January 15, the Grand Opening Ceremonies of Space Mountain, the monolithic white "mountain" towering over Tomorrowland, will mark the beginning of a new era in space adventure! Visiting dignitaries (including U.S. astronauts), the musical pageantry of over a thousand band members, plus a spectacular display of daytime fireworks will celebrate the end of the "armchair astronaut."

For in Space Mountain, presented by RCA, you, without any previous aeronautical acquaintance, can experience the incredible adventure of outer space!

You'll board the eight passenger space capsule, buckle your seat belt and be whisked away into the most enthralling, free-falling flight through brilliant stars, whirling spheres and unearthly forces ever imagineered!

Disney imagineered, of course (see related story, p. 8).

After a spinning re-entry into earth's atmosphere, you'll disembark and tour the technological wonders of life in the twenty-first century in the RCA "Home of Future Living."

Then, be off to visit the second exciting addition to Tomorrowland - the G. E. Carousel of Progress. A unique unveiling of the American Family's advancement from the wood-burning stove of the 1890's to the micro-wave wonders of the 1970's, each of four eras is portrayed by audio-animatronic actors as the audience rotates around them, carousel-style.

This unique theater is similar to the original "Carousel of Progress" which entertained more than 45 million guests at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and later joined Disneyland in 1967.

And, for another high-speed adventure, board the air-bound gantry elevators to the launching pad of Tomorrowland's centerpiece, Star Jets. Here, you'll pilot your own space ship up, down, and around the atmosphere of your very own mother ship.

Adding still another futuristic look to Tomorrowland will be the People-Mover, scheduled for operation later this year. An elevated transportation system, which winds its way around the entire complex, the People-Mover will be comprised of 30 "trains" with five cars each. Operating under a covered guide way 14 feet above the Tomorrowland mall area, the People-Mover will transport over 3,500 guests an hour.

The most highly appreciated aspect of the People-Mover, however, is that it operates via a magnetic field of force without moving parts and, consequently, free of any pollution whatsoever.

Space Mountain, Carousel of Progress, Star-Jets, People-Mover. All part of an all-new Tomorrowland which will allow you, our guests, to touch tomorrow today - at Walt Disney World."

Wow. Where to begin. That's a heck of a way to begin an article, isn't it? All this time you knew that your method of entering the new year was inadequate compared to Walt Disney World's ability to bend time and space. And let's not forget that we take for granted that back in 1975 humankind forever vanquished the age of the "armchair astronaut." Somebody behind the typewriter had a previously unforeseen gift for the Amazing Ongoing Alliteration. And of course it's always amusing to see a description of the plastic red re-entry tunnel as "spinning", which popped up both in Disneyland and Walt Disney World promotional materials and which seems as inappropriate as ever. Really, spinning? Did that red plastic ever spin?

It's amusing and fun to see the term "imagineered" half explained and not capitalized as it would be today. It was not yet a marketing term!

And I personally am very enthusiastic about calling the cavernous Tomorrowland pedestrian space the "Tomorrowland Mall Area." Thank you, anonymous Walt Disney World ad-pub writer of two generations ago!

Let's not overlook the brilliant use of boldface!

The hilarity continues in the article mentioned on page eight, "The Mountain That Imagineering Built", although with less concentrated interest and lunacy. I'll not transcribe it here, but I'll have you know that it features the phrase "Fireworks of the Universe", which is either Byronian opium-induced poetic verse, of just another example of early Walt Disney World's astonishing fever dreams of promotional prose.


I only wish we had nonsense like this today.

Palate Cleanser

My goodness, it's been a long time, hasn't it? It has... in the meantime I've gone to Disneyland and come back with a head full of ideas and not much desire to write them. A lot of stuff has happened to Disney and to the rest of the world too, and not all of it has been great.

What we need is a palate cleanser, hopefully to kick my butt back into gear and to give us all a little relief from drudgery. And since this is Passport to Dreams Old & New, that likely means... seventies stuff. Bright, beautiful, early Walt Disney World goodness to keep us mindful of our priorities.

Shall we?


This early Walt Disney World couple, taken for a 1976 merchandise catalog, may be showing off their spiffy "Collegiate" tees but they're also standing in a spot where taking this photo is today impossible. In the background where the white rail and benches are was the original proposed location for the Tomorrowland Railroad Station; it's also the original exit to the Space Mountain attraction. Today, a massive half round salmon colored arcade blocks this fantastic view.


Wow, look at the line for the Peoplemover!! All those people are going to be happy to have spent their E ticket (yes, it was an E ticket in 1975) on what is arguably still one of the greatest experiences at Walt Disney World. Who remembers the little dioramas in the tiny hexagonal boxes on your way up and down the speedramps (visible in the background here)? Tomorrowland was so awesome.


Look how clean the track is. Tomorrowland hasn't looked this good in years.

Hopping across the Seven Seas Lagoon, we come across this group, also modeling Walt Disney World "Ready To Wear" tees at the Polynesian Village:


Besides Bob-A-Round boats and the Asian Resort expansion pad, let's take time to apprechiate the rich wood grained sides of the Polynesian longhouses long before they were painted cartoonish yellow and the lovely effect of the decorative wood tucked into the peak of that roof before it was alternating shades of yellow, orange and white. The roofs of each longhouse were intentionally rusted to an orange patina instead of being painted that way.


Here's a Rarity I've been looking for for some time: this is the sign for the short lived Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village tobacconist, which as you can see did not lack for seventies "groove". All of the original Shopping Village signs were brilliantly executed craftwork pieces; the sign for "Von Otto's Antiques" was emblazoned on an antique coffee grinder and anybody who stared in fascination at the sign for "Lite Bite" will likely never forget it. This one can't quite compare but it lasted less than two years, so what it lacks in interest it makes up in obscurity!

The following pictures were taken to celebrate the second anniversary of the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village in Eyes and Ears of Walt Disney World, and although they focus on goofy-looking Cast Members, the photos, like most, reveal interesting details at the margins that the photographer did not intend.


It's fun to see the proper scale of this sign which featured an actual spout! It's also fun to see the rather uninspired costumes worn by cast outside of the "Vacation Kingdom"... that blazer with the Lake Buena Vista emblem looks pretty dorky today. The caption for this one is too cheerfully lame not to reprint:

"Modern as well as 'vintage' spirits are the specialty of the Vintage Cellar. Jo Tisdale and Jerry Robinson compare their job with the Haunted Mansion... both deal with the spirit world!"

Well... not everyone got to wear the Mansion green and white, so we'll go easy on them.

This rather assertive mugshot is chiefly interesting for capturing, even if in passing, the interior of Shoe Time. The ladies pictured therein are Jeannie Clarke and Kaye Frampton.


...and we'll go out with this page from the merchandise catalog we've been skirting this whole time. I don' know if these kids are actually in a room at the Contemporary or on a set somewhere, but I suspect that this will bring a smile to even the most hardened heart:

Rubber Spider Revue

You know it wasn't all that long ago that you could walk into the Haunted Mansion, hop in a doombuggy, ride up through the library and past the self-playing piano and see this:

Boo.

HBG2 at the excellent Long-Forgotten blog has recently written on the Haunted Mansion's debt to popular culture Halloween traditions, or the lack thereof, and locates these spiders in a tradition of iconic Halloween images - like sheet ghosts, orange and black treat bags, etc.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that, at the time when the Haunted Mansion fangroup was still being organized on the internet, a time I was absolutely a part of, everybody hated this scene. It was dark, spare, unimaginative, and cheap, and - worse of all - put square into the middle of a ride known for lavish sets and effects. I took that picture in 2002 and it was for my old GrimGhosts.Com Haunted Mansion website, by the way, so I speak from experience here!

Well... I'm not so sure about all that. I've posited in the past that the Grand Staircase scene was a bold if failed attempt to create something basically impossible to represent, that it was Claude Coats at his most representative and basic, that the concept was interesting if the execution was not, etc. By and large these opinions have not infiltrated the fan community to any extent and most people will agree that the endless staircase / spooky eyes scene that exists in that spot in the Haunted Mansion now is a far better use of that space than what was basically a flat black wall, some string and a few rubber spiders on wires.

Or, to put put it simple: rubber spiders, nobody loved you.

But here's the thing, those guys may have just been stupid rubber spiders painted day-glo colors and jerked around in webs, but those rubber spiders deserve your respect, darn it. And I'm going to prove it. You may not agree with me in the end, but at least you'll be fully equipped to understand where that scene came from and make up your own mind about something that was, after all, despite its obvious faults, part of our Magic Kingdom heritage.

Now, I've searched high and low to find the origins of those rubber spiders. Ken Sundberg offers in his super comprehensive look at Snow White's Scary Adventures that the 1955 version of that attraction may have included one or more rubber arachnids in the original Ken Andersen dungeon sequence, but photographic evidence is not forthcoming and I have a better idea anyway. Although Mansionologists like myself tend to associate these rubber spiders with Claude Coats and his ideas about negative space in themed design, Marc Davis is actually the one to blame.

This is a segment from a beautiful Davis piece from 1963, drawn for his top-to-bottom re-imagining of the Jungle Cruise's "sunken city":


And the actual scene from a mid-60s Pana-Vue Slide:


You'll notice that although Davis' concept features Ganesha, the Hindu Remover of Obstacles, the final scene actually depicts Hanuman, the ape-headed disciple of Rama. Ganesha got moved to appear just before Davis' new Indian Elephant Bathing Pool scene and the alligators which previously appeared where those elephants now play were moved to this new scene. This whole little stretch of the river has been subject to dozens of iterations which may be tracked on Daveland's Jungle Cruise page more or less chronologically, but the point is that once Hanuman shows up in his rebuilt shrine, the giant spider makes his debut in Disney history. Marc Davis spearheaded all these changes.

Let's take a close look at that Jungle Cruise spider because it's the best look you'll ever get at her.


I say that this spider must date from 1963 for a variety of reasons. The first is that it's a custom mold and an excellent one at that; we're used to seeing the default "orange spider" around these days but painted differently it can look like a pretty creepy beastie. Even had there been rubber spiders in the 1955 Snow White ride, they likely would have been off the shelf spiders. By the mid 60s WED had a very robust model shop and had the time and money to make a serious and unique rubber spider, which is what they did. It's impossible to prove but to my eye it looks like the work of Adolfo Procopio, who was WED's resident wildlife expert for almost 40 years.


Now HBG2, resident Mansionologist at Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion, tells me that this spider and its twin which lurked in the loading area of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion for almost 35 years, were basically props, ie, not animated in any way. But from the Disneyland Haunted Mansion to the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion it's only a leap of about two years, so follow me now and together we'll go on a...

THE HAUNTED MANSION!

We'll begin our Safari at the point we began this article, in the Haunted Mansion. It's fairly common knowledge these days that the Florida Haunted Mansion expanded on the Disneyland load area concept to make the "Grand Staircase" it's own scene (or maybe not: as we used to joke, the "Grand Staircase" was neither grand nor the staircase [it is and has always been a ramp]). For a few weeks in the test and adjust phase, the scene consisted of three webs: two with the familiar rubber spiders, and one with a skeleton caught in it. The skeleton was shortly removed but the vacant web stayed for almost 35 years.

Both of these spiders got upgraded to what Disney calls "animated figures" for the 1971 show, via a wire attached to a solenoid valve which would click open and closed, causing the spider to wiggle slightly. The resulting clicking sound was familiar enough to anybody ever got stuck in this part of the ride.

Here's the spiders. This first image I stole from Imagineering Disney because it's a different angle than the first and shows the spider clearly. The second I got off Disney Fans and was taken by Al Huffman in the mid 90's, showing the second of the two spiders and webs.


(I feel like I'm making a GrimGhosts.Com page again...)

Two things about these spiders. First, they looked okay under black-light, but their webs were pretty terrible. Just look at that first spider, whose web was very impressively sized, but just filled with broken strings, spit, and debris. Goodness knows how old that iteration of his web was - twenty years? Thirty years? Scroll up and look at that 60s Pana-Vue slide and you can't tell me that these webs weren't in awful shape. I think this accounts for the poor reputation of the scene: it just looked cheap.

The second issue is that the webs weren't painted so much as sprayed with the Mansion webbing effect, giving the scene a dusty, ethereal quality. Because the web was right near a wall and very large, it was lit up a bit too much, casting light on the wall and ruining the "boundless void" effect. Had the scene been suitably black, had the webs been well maintained and commonly replaced, and painted properly, this particular part of the Haunted Mansion may have needed nothing more than some new set dressing to update it.

Well. Okay, maybe not.

THE JUNGLE CRUISE!

Let's hop across the park and visit an attraction Marc Davis was heavily involved in c. 1969-1970: the expanded Walt Disney World Jungle Cruise. For this incarnation, Davis took his 1963 "sunken city" concept to new heights with an entire indoor sunken temple. The pivot point of the scene is a shrine to Hanuman, covered with gems and treasure and guarded by swaying cobras. This is pure gold Marc Davis intrigue, but he repeated the spiders too, to the left and right of the scene:


Also noteworthy: unlike the Disneyland original, these spiders also moved, in the same manner as the Haunted Mansion arachnids discussed above.

Both of these spiders actually look fantastic under show lighting conditions, with careful painting, properly built webs, and excellent staging. That first spider, which is to the right of the shrine, is rarely seen due to appearing extra-dim on daytime cruises but if you ride the Jungle Cruise at night and the skipper turns off all the lights on her boat as you head through the temple, you'll see and appreciate the proper appearance of this simple gag.

I've never much liked the second spider because she looks a little too flopsy and rubbery, but expand the image and you'll be able to clearly see the wire tied 'round her midsection leading behind the pillar to the solenoid that makes her wiggle. Classic Imagineering, people!

I think it's important to note that Davis still felt this simple tableau - I mean, is there anything simplier than sticking a rubber spider in a fake web? - merited inclusion in a ride which dramatically and sometimes totally reworked the basic stuff of the Disneyland original, and despite his gag having been already recycled twice in other attractions.

Twice? Actually... make that three times.

SNOW WHITE'S ADVENTURES!

Moving further eastward, we come across the 1971 Snow White's Adventures, probably the nearest WED ever got to designing a true, traditional spookhouse dark ride. A variety of people worked on these rides, including the "1955" crew for Fantasyland, amongst them Ken Andersen and Claude Coats, plus some later-generation Imagineers who had a hand in refurbishing the 1955 originals in the 1960s: Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump.

Hey, Yale, what'cha doing there?

See? The Rubber Spider conspiracy grows by the moment.

I'll stop here and quote Ken Sundberg's Snow White Adventures page now. He's talking about the 1955 original version of the attraction at Disneyland, referencing scene where the shadow of the Witch crosses your path through an arch. In that arch was a spider web, and a picture of the scene may be found in issue #13 of The E Ticket.

"Following immediately after the Dungeons scene, the vehicle faced a huge spider web in a dark archway. The silhouetted Shadow of the Wicked Witch emerged behind the web and moved across the wall. [...] In the late 1970's the foreground of the Shadow of the Wicked Witch scene was changed glowing in fire-orange, with a spider possibly flicking across the web as the vehicle passed the archway. The movement of the Witch's shadow was also changed; it didn't move across the wall anymore, but rocked up and down to the right, as if the Witch was dipping the apple in a cauldron."

Whoever it was who decided to add this little vingette to the Walt Disney World version of the ride, however, was undoubtedly doing so in the spirit of both the original and the generally increased interest in rubber spiders at WED in the late 60s:


Mike Lee took this picture of part of the original dungeon scene in the early 90s, shortly before the ride was removed. The skeleton would flap its jaw at you and warn you to "Go Back!" You'll notice that this spider's web is painted right on the wall behind it... because this spider was the only one to actually move. That's right, it would slowly lower towards the skeleton on a track. I remembered this vividly from my early visits to Walt Disney World and after the removal of this scene - this corner is where the witch can now be seen poisoning the apple - I couldn't remember which ride it was from and swore that the Haunted Mansion spiders used to move towards you on a track.

We lost this spider, probably the most impressive of them all, in 1994.

In 2007, both of the Haunted Mansion's spiders went away, leaving the two in the Jungle Cruise the only spiders left holding down the fort. The Magic Kingdom's 1971 rubber spider population has been decimated by 60%.

Over at Disneyland, the spider in their Haunted Mansion load area bowed out in 2003 and has not been seen since. In 2005, as part of a larger refurbishment effort, the 60s WED spider was removed from the Jungle Cruise. Some new spiders, in more realistic but less fun webs, appeared deeper in the Sunken City sequence. But these spiders look off-the-shelf and don't match the subject of our article here, the 60s version.

Overseas, Tokyo Disneyland's Haunted Mansion carries on the tradition of the giant rubber spiders, and I'm sure their spiders and webs looks very good, not just because they're Tokyo Disneyland but because they each have to be removed and replaced once a year for their Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare overlay. And in an ironic twist of fate, the same year that the original WED spider was removed from the Disneyland Jungle Cruise, in Hong Kong Disneyland the "Jungle River Cruise" ride opened, the saddest and most anemic of all the Jungle Cruises. But it features an astonishing number of these fake spiders... I counted at least six in one ride video and there's probably more. So overseas at least, rubber spiders continue to haunt the darkest corners of Disney rides.

It's sort of hard to feel bad for the fate of these singularly unconvincing rubber arachnids. I've made the best possible case for them here but let's not forget: It's a rubber spider. In a fake web. Some of you have probably made more impressive rubber spider displays in your Halloween decorations than all of WED could muster in the early 70s.

But the real fascination isn't what it is, it's how easy it was to find it. All of Imagineering and WED-era design especially has maddening consistencies, consistences which made the experience of going to The Magic Kingdom or Disneyland truly singular. Beyond the obvious scope and scale of the ambition, it had to do with the excellence of the staging, the care of the painting and sculpting, and yes, sometimes, the constant recycling of materials. Submarine Voyage's tropical fish obtained a new coat of paint and became salmon jumping in and out of the water on the Mine Train Trough Nature's Wonderland. The "Old Man in the Bayou" scene of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean begets The Magic Kingdom's Beacon Joe, who makes return appearances at Tokyo and Disneyland Paris. Beacon Joe's face is a Blaine Gibson sculpture who appears elsewhere in Pirates of the Caribbean, along with several appearances in the Haunted Mansion and so on.. and on and on. These are the sort of fun games the true hardcore students of WED design can play.

So now I've clued you into a secret. Have fun playing the game and remember: it all started with a rubber spider.

Written by Us!

Last year, I was approached by Chad Emerson, whose book "Project Future" had recently been published, to write for an compendium of Walt Disney World essays to celebrate the resort's 40th anniversary. Naturally I accepted and am pleased to announce that the book is actually available, for reals, in print, to hold and to cherish!

For those of you looking to complete your (tentative) FoxxFur library, this is my first published material.


The lineup of authors contributing the twenty-eight essays is pretty impressive. On one hand you have fanpress authors like me, George Taylor, Michael Crawford, Sam Gennaway and Jeff Pepper, but there's also contributions by much larger Disney personalities like Lou Mongello and Kevin Yee. It's also safe to assume that this is your only option for reading essays by myself and Mike Lee printed together with an introduction by Jim Hill. The world moves in mysterious ways.

As for my own essays, I've included a revised (and hopefully improved) version of my urban legend mystery story Goodnight George, first published over at 2719 Hyperion. I've also written a totally new account of the Walt Disney World Village with improved coverage of the Empress Lilly and an all-around effort to be more concise and accessible. That the Village article is still somewhat incomplete means either I need to find a new obsession or maybe I just ran out of space.

Anyway the whole thing is now available online at Amazon.Com and you can also get it for your virtual reader Kindle thingie instantly. Or, you can visit the website of Ayefour Publishing for more details!

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I have not received monetary compensation for my contributions to this book and am publishing this article strictly as a voluntary announcement for readers of my blog.)

Buena Vista Obscura: The World Cruise

"What is the World Cruise?"

I asked that about two years ago. It would prove to be a fateful question, because answers were not exactly available. I can tell you now what it was with absolute certainty, but at the time the World Cruise was a total mystery and as always... the actual core of the mystery isn't as interesting - or as instructive - as all the other factors working into and through it.

So, for now, with your permission, we are going to defer that question a bit in the service of working towards it from a historical context, because simply telling what the World Cruise was is only half the battle - knowing why it was is the real story, and what took me so long to piece together. And as it always seems with these things, we can't help but to go all the way back to the start - the late 60s, when Disney's publicity and planning machines were moving in lock-step to bring Walt Disney World into being.

I would be very surprised if the experienced Walt Disney World researcher has never come across this image, as it's one of a clutch of late sixties publicity images - the monorail zipping through the Contemporary, Liberty Square, the castle itself - that more or less put over the resort concept to the Florida government and the general public. This particular incarnation is a post card, much like ones sold at the Preview Center and even into the resort's first few years. So in this way we can see that the roots of the World Cruise go back even deeper than may be suspected, all the way back to before there was a preview center or a Walt Disney World, to speak of.

From "A Complete Edition About Walt Disney World", 1969, page 10:

"The principal means of travel from the parking center and main entrance to and from the theme park and hotels will be aboard the Walt Disney World-Alweg Monorail trains. Current plans call for the building of six five-car trains, some to stop at every hotel on the way around the circuit, while others carry passengers non-stop directly to the 'Magic Kingdom.'

Double-deck busses and other land conveyances will back the monorail at peak hours, in the job of moving large number of visitors to the theme park.

On the water, there will be a pair of double-deck side-wheelers to cross the lagoon from the entrance area. They'll be driven by steam and patterned after river boats of a hundred years ago. A steam-driven, open-deck excursion boat is also in the planning for Phase One, and steam will be the motive power for half a dozen launches or water taxis for use in the various activities on the lake and lagoon."

And then later:

"The resort hotels will be showcases in themselves, presenting entertainment consistent with the individual theme of each.

In addition to its theme-slanted activities, plans are for each hotel to present nightly entertainment spectaculars to appeal to every taste, and both family and adult audiences. Top name popular, folk and rock groups will perform. A Dixieland cruise originating from one of the hotels will feature a southern fried chicken dinner and a show."

What ended up happening, more or less, is that all of these different concepts presented in the 1969 text ended up being integrated into the routines of two boats, which were built in drydock on property - the Ports-O-Call and the Southern Seas. These hundred foot long "Osceola-class" (Disney just invented that term, don't worry) steamboats were driven by a central "Gallows A-Frame Walking Beam" engine and roughly modeled on similar famous riverboats like the Mary Powell and Francis Skiddy. They were driven exclusively by side-wheel paddlewheels and authentic in every regard, including temperamental steam engines.

Quoting a "Captain Jeff" speaking on the boats at Walt Disney World: A History in Postcards:

"The Osceola class steamships "Ports O'Call" and "Southern Seas" were steam driven by a replica of an 1858 Gallows A-Frame steam engine. They were oil fired boilers running at 350 lbs of pressure. The steam engine only ran on 15-20 pounds of steam pressure, most of the pressure was used by a steam turbine to generate electricity. It took 3 people to run the steamships; a pilot that steered, an engineer that operated the steam engine and controlled the forward and reverse speeds and a deck hand whose duties were to cast off and secure the vessel at each dock. Each steamship was 100 feet, 5/8 inch long and 30 feet wide, drawing 3.5 feet of water, weighing in at 100 tons and could take on board 250 guests."

Assembling one of the live steam engines in drydock, 1969

One of the most intriguing aspects of the earliest years of Walt Disney World is the sheer abundance of varieties of modes of transit, including some varieties in an intentionally outmoded style. Live steam engines riding rails or rivers or lakes fought for attention with absurd 1970's Bob-a-Round boats (with stereo music!!!) and a converted Chinese junk docked at the Polynesian. Seven Seas Lagoon may have been ringed with futuristic monorails and modern conviences, but in those earliest days old fashioned steam power ran paddlewheelers back and forth from the Magic Kingdom. There was originally but one single dock at the front of the park, extending outwards with symmetrical precision into Bay Lake in a T configuration. Here's a blurry close-up image taken from Time magazine, showing the park just weeks away from an October opening:


And another, depicting an opening year post card, again from the superlative Walt Disney World: A History in Postcards:


An October 1971 issue of Walt Disney World News includes these opening year operating notes, including a hint that the Ports-O-Call was not ready for the October opening:

"OSCEOLA - Southern Seas: 9:30 am to 7:00 pm. (The Southern Seas will stop at the Magic Kingdom one half-hour prior to opening. Last stop will be made one hour after the Park closes.)"

During the resort's first few months of Operation, the Ports-O-Call and the Southern Seas served a dual purpose, because in those early years the Magic Kingdom was rarely open past 6:00 in the evening. Once those final Magic Kingdom guests had made their way back to the Main Entrance Complex or their Walt Disney World Resort, the two paddlewheelers would begin the Moonlight Cruise. What was the Moonlight Cruise? From an April 1972 Walt Disney World News:

"CRUISE ON A LUXURY YACHT OR STEAMER... Moonlight Cruises on steampowered paddlewheelers leave from both resort-hotel marinas Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday evening. Departures: Polynesian 9 pm (Saturday 9:45 pm) and Contemporary 9:30 pm (Saturday 10:15 pm). One and a half hours of leisurely cruising, live entertainment, cocktails... Adults - $3, Children under 12 - $1."

And from a 1973 Walt Disney World Vacationland:

"Guests who wish to cruise the waters of Walt Disney World after dark will have a lark on authentic, paddlewheel steamboats which depart twice nightly from both resort hotel marinas and from the Fort Wilderness dock. The "Showboat" cruises last approximately 90 minutes and, while costumed hostesses serve refreshments, a Dixieland Band entertains passengers with Ragtime favorites."

Generally two to three costumed hostesses, attending from the Contemporary Hotel, would be on hand to mix and serve drinks. Besides live entertainment, both the Ports-O-Call and the Southern Seas were provided with background music. Former Watercraft Operator Greg Chin recalled to me via e-mail:

"One of the great memories I have of the Watercraft charters that we did on the "Kingdom Queen" ferryboat (now the "General Joe Potter"), and the "Ports-O-Call" steamship is having the ragtime soundtrack tape.

Some of the ragtime songs on the soundtrack tape were Scott Joplin's "Peacherine Rag", "Pineapple Rag", and of course, "The Easy Winners", which was made famous earlier, by the movie "The Sting" (1973). There's also the famous ragtime song called "Dusty", which is also part of the Magic Kingdom - Main Street USA background music. There were other songs, too.

(Photobucket user Icegator-fan)

I remember how sometimes we would play the ragtime soundtrack tape for our own listening pleasure, while we were washing, cleaning and prepping the "Ports-O-Call" and the "Kingdom Queen". Ragtime music seemed to fit the "Ports-O-Call" and the "Southern Seas" steamships real good.

The tape cartridges were specially made to fit the tapedeck cabinets, in order to play them, over the ships' P.A. system. The looping 8-track tapes played at 1-1/2 times the speed of a normal 8-track tape that you would have at home. But these were show-quality 8-track tapedecks, and that was their playing standard. "

It was these demands and dual schedules of the Seven Seas Lagoon steamships that would soon bring The World Cruise into existence in 1972.

The problem is that 1971 and early 1972 saw some unexpected infrastructure stresses on the fledgling resort, and Disney's noble plans to have "...land conveyances [back] the monorail at peak hours, in the job of moving large number of visitors to the theme park" eventually proved somewhat unrealistic. In David Koenig's Realityland, Bob Gurr recounts having to engineer trams that could easily ascend the hills under the famous Water Bridge without overheating, and six more monorails were quickly ordered. The entire transit system was overtaxed. It's hard to imagine the sense of growing panic over concerns about the number of guests visiting the new resort, but these transportation concerns apparently even led to Mike Fink Keelboats being pressed into service on the Seven Seas Lagoon during Preview days:

(Taken from one boat looking at another. From Flickr user UFG8R)

In 1972, two new Ferryboats arrived at the Seven Seas Lagoon to alleviate the traffic concerns, the creatively named Magic Kingdom 1 and Magic Kingdom 2. Modeled on New York's Staten Island ferries, these two flat-bottomed, 120 foot long boats ran on diesel engines, not finicky and difficult to maintain steam engines, and had propellers on each end, allowing the boats to travel north and south laterally - without having to turn around - instead of side-docking at the Magic Kingdom's T dock like the Osceola steam boats.

A steamboat and ferryboat pass.

A second dock was built to accommodate the new ferries, and with a 600 passenger capacity per boat departing every five minutes, the leisurely steam boats were free of their peoplemoving obligations.

A 1975 view showing the steamboat dock and ferryboat dock.

And so this is where our story really begins. In the summer of 1972, Walt Disney World premiered two new attractions:

From a GAF guide to the Magic Kingdom, helpfully directing new riders:


A July 1972 Walt Disney World News fills in the details:

"World Cruise - Our Latest Attraction... See all that Walt Disney World is...and will be...an entirely NEW way, with a paddlewheel steamboat World Cruise around the Vacation Kingdom!

Osceola-class sidewheelers make 50-minute cruises daily around both the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake, giving guests an unprecendented opportunity to view all of Walt Disney World from the water.

Along the way, guides explain future expansion programs planned for the Vacation Kingdom, including construction of new Walt Disney World hotels and other attractions along the lakefront. Guests can also learn how Walt Disney World was created and how thousands of tons of earth were moved to form the completely man-made 200-acre Seven Seas Lagoon!

Cruises depart at noon, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5pm, from the Magic Kingdom dock, directly in front of the Main Street railroad station. 90 cents or "E" coupon at boarding gate."

Both the Ports-O-Call and the Southern Seas had been planned as charter cruiseships and so were equipped with snack bars and facilities. Available were cold sandwiches, Frito-Lay chips, and a basic soda fountain. Additionally, taped spiels describing the sights around Walt Disney World probably replaced the steamboat's arriving and departing narration at this time, even if some World Cruise pilots have told me they were not exactly always reliable about turning it on! Also, the issue of how often the spiels were updated is questionable - for how long after the projects had been abandoned, for example, did World Cruise guests hear about the Asian and Venetian Resorts? Or did the taped narration stick to only certain "official" events around the lagoon? Greg Chin relates:

"All of the large Disney Watercraft vessels had tapedeck cabinets in the "Trunk Rooms" where the electronic equipment was, aboard the ships. The tape cartridges resembled an 8-track tape cartridge... these Disney "Show Soundtracks", or "Spiel-Tracks" tape cartridges were usually gray on one side of the casing, and the other side was transparent polycarbonate plastic, so we could see the tape looping around inside.

All the Ferryboats, Cruise ships, Monorails, and even the Frontierland Riverboats have these Tapedeck cabinets aboard. At the beginning of the trip, or cruise, the Pilot will press a button on the P.A. box, in the Pilothouse. The spiel will start. The tape itself is equipped with a series of high-pitch signals on the tape, as it reaches certain positions in the "spiel". The tape and spiel will stop at those points. As the Pilot feels it's the right time, they will press the button again, and the spiel advances, and so on.

The ferryboat Pilots would press the spiel button on the black P.A. box on the port side of the Pilothouse, and the spiel would start. "Welcome aboard the Walt Disney World ferryboat, we're heading for the Magic Kingdom, across the Seven Seas Lagoon" and so on.

I don't remember all of the "World Cruise" spiel, but it was the same sort of thing. For instance, as we passed the Polynesian Village Resort, I would press the spiel button, and the spiel would say something about what the guests aboard would see. Back then we didn't have the Grand Floridian beach resort, and we were pre-occupied by guests in small rental boats (Aqua Larks) streaking by us, (hell-bent on suicidal runs), in front of my ship."

This is the pattern that the World Cruise followed for the first two years, but in April 1974 with the opening of the brand new Treasure Island attraction, Disney saw a new way to use their World Cruise attraction. From a 1974 promotional flier:

"EXPLORE TREASURE ISLAND! Sail the Seven Seas to Treasure Island... a remote tropical paradise inhabited by colorful tropical flowers, plants and birds of the South Seas. Treasure Island... where Ben Gunn's buried treasure lies amidst the memories of Long John Silver, Cap'n Flint and the Black Dog! Now... there are two exciting ways to visit the Island!

STEAMBOAT VOYAGES... a visit to Treasure Island and the Walt Disney World Cruise, the story of the Vacation Kingdom past, present and future departs from the World Cruise dock at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom daily. Adults $2.50 Children (3-11) $1.25. Last cruise departs at 4:00.

TREASURE ISLAND EXCURSIONS... direct sailings to and from Treasure Island only. Departs Magic Kingdom entrance daily. Adults $1.50 Children (3-11) $.75. Last launch departs at 4:30 pm.

Tickets are on sale at the World Cruise dock at the Magic Kingdom entrance. Island closes at 5:30 pm"

Climbing aboard the Ports-O-Call or the Southern Seas, we surrender our tickets and receive our "World Cruise Passport to Treasure Island":


Inside, information about the boat and the voyage, including some atmospheric nonsense about safe passage, mysterious waterways, and landfalls. Note the "entry stamps" on the first page, all dated 1973 despite the fact that Treasure Island would not open until the following year. Also, a beautiful fold-out map of the entire complex:


Each World Cruise left the Magic Kingdom on the hour, Treasure Island on the half hour, and lasted an aggregate total of one hour, meaning thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back. For $2.50, about the equivalent monetary value of two trips on the Haunted Mansion and one spin through Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the World Cruise to Treasure Island was a good value, providing a full half day of relaxation and entertainment at one's own pace.

For the duration of the rest of the seventies, the World Cruise and Moonlight Cruise provided hours of restful relaxation to Walt Disney World guests. These two attractions, besides providing some recreation and night-life to a still limited Vacation Kingdom, can best be understood as manifestations of Walt Disney World's early emphasis on relaxing activities to do outside of the Magic Kingdom, things such as River Country and the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village. These are the sorts of activities Disney had in mind when they termed the Seven Seas Lagoon/Bay Lake complex the "Vacation Kingdom of the World", a vacation that would include a theme park but also water recreation, horseback riding, continental dining and tennis.

Some great vintage Walt Disney World ad-pub from 1976:

"MOONIGHT CRUISE CAN BE ROMANTIC ON A PADDLEWHEELER

Paddle-wheel steamboats were as essential to early Florida settlers as the Prairie Schooners were to western pioneers. Throughout the mid 1800's, the Sunshine State's lakes, rivers, canals and bays echoed the rhythms of chugging steam engines.

Now, that most romantic means of travel has been given new life at Walt Disney World with two authentic side-wheeler replicas, the Southern Seas and the Ports O' Call. Mood music, cocktails, and twinkling nighttime scenery beckons guests aboard the steamboats for Moonlight Cruises around the Waters of the World, Bay Lake, and the Seven Seas Lagoon."

Ironically, by the time that article was being published in Walt Disney World News the information in it could hardly have said to be accurate. In 1975, the Southern Seas had suffered serious water damage to her hull and had been out of service for about a year, placed in the Walt Disney World drydock behind the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland. In 1977, the original 1969 Southern Seas was destroyed and a new ship was built - the Southern Seas II, although it's numerical status was never indicated anywhere on the boat herself - this one one hundred twenty feet instead of just one hundred. Designed by a naval architect by the name of Ben Ostlund, this new boat included many elements of the original Southern Seas, including the Gallows Walking Beam engine, but unlike on the original boat, the engine was just decorative - this new boat ran on diesel, just like the ferryboats. Each of the two propulsion sidepaddles could operate independently and in different directions, which allowed for greater maneuverability in the water and also made it the only other boat on Disney property which could spin in circles like the Plaza Swan Boats. Due to the increased capacity and longer hull, the Southern Seas II was termed a "Seminole" class steamship.

And of course, in 1977 all efforts to theme Treasure Island to the classic Robert Louis Stevenson book were scrapped, including elaborate recreations of Spyglass Hill and Ben Gunn's cave. The Island closed and re-opened as Discovery Island, with an emphasis firmly placed on tropical bird and wildlife displays. As such the daytime attraction became the "World Cruise to Discovery Island".


Despite this significant investment in time and money, by the time EPCOT Center opened in 1982, it becomes difficult to find references to the World Cruise in Walt Disney World promotional materials. Greg Chin explains:

"As soon as EPCOT opened in 1982, suddenly the resort guest-population that was centralized at the WDW Magic Kingdom area resorts, was decentralized and suddenly shifted down towards EPCOT area... all of a sudden, the long-running "World Cruise to Discovery Island" and "Moonlight Cruise" was rendered unnecessary. Attendance dropped off sharply to 50% for both cruises, right after EPCOT opened in October of 1982....

[Editor's note: given the popularity and adult appeal of the World Showcase area of EPCOT, the first area of any Disney theme park to sell alcohol, this makes sense.]

...plus increased competition from Church Street Station in Orlando. Being in Watercraft during the late 1970's and mid-1980's, I would see plenty of daily skywriting over WDW, advertising for "ROSIE", which was a pain in the butt for Disney Co. Pleasure Island was the Michael Eisner/Disney nighttime entertainment plan in 1987, to get the guest-business back, that Church Street Station - Rosie O'Grady's Good Time Emporium, Phineas Fogg's Balloon Works, and Apple Annie's Courtyard (all in Downtown Orlando) was siphoning off Disney property."

And so the World Cruise and Moonlight Cruise simply faded away. Discovery Island became part of a ticket package with River Country, and this is the way most people my age or slightly older remember it. The Southern Seas II, then a recent investment, became a boat exclusively for charter cruises in 1984. These corporate programs were a huge source of income for Disney, who could charge $250 an hour to rent the boat out to meetings and conventions - not including food, drink, and staffing, of course. In this way, it could be said that the Moonlight Cruises continued to exist for some time.

So the World Cruise goes off to a quiet and unglamorous end. But what about the boats, you say?

The 1969 Ports-O-Call had by then fallen to the same water leakage in the hull of the boat which led to the destruction of the original Southern Seas. In 1984 the boat was hauled out of the water. Problems with the steam engine system compounded the problems, making reparations costly and unlikely to return any significant investment. Despite Watercraft Cast Members' efforts to have the boat purchased by the Smithsonian Institution as a display on steam power, Disney destroyed the boat with a bulldozer.

A proposed "Orlando-class" steamboat, again designed by Ben Ostlund with a length of 140 feet and featuring a dance floor on the first deck and observation level on the roof, was never built, although blueprints of it may be seen on the back wall of the Boatwright's restaurant at the Port Orleans Riverside resort. The days of live steam on the Seven Seas Lagoon were over, the blue canopied Motor Launches which still service the resorts today having long ago been converted to diesel engines.

The Ports-O-Call being dismantled in drydock. Photo by Greg Chin, 1984.

In 1996, the Southern Seas II, now overdue for a refurbishment, was put in drydock. With Watercraft Operations no longer using the boats on a daily basis and Convention Booking unwilling to finance the task, the steamboat was without a home. It was eventually destroyed in 1997.

Stories like this rarely have a happy ending in Walt Disney World history. Times have changed. In 1996 when the last of these boats was decommissioned, the entire property was in the midst of her 25th anniversary promotion, Cinderella Castle was painted bright pink, a new era in Disney fine dining was coming of age high above the Contemporary Resort in the California Grill, New Tomorrowland was still new, and the Pirates of the Caribbean had not yet been made politically correct nor into action-movie advertisements. EPCOT Center was in the midst of a massive identity crisis, The Disney-MGM Studios was the new park, and Animal Kingdom was still on the horizon.

It was, in short, the last moment of the last gasp of breath of old Walt Disney World before everything began to radically change, and the destruction of these boats, once such an emblematic image for Walt Disney World - not just as a marketing image on a postcard, but of an entire way of thinking about a vacation - is a moment where we can see the final connections to the reality of the first ten years, of the Vacation Kingdom of the World, snuffing out.

The Southern Seas II in port at Discovery Island, 1980.
From Walt Disney World: The First Ten Years

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Further Reading:
The Walt Disney World Watercraft Home Page
WDW: A History in Postcards: Sailing the Seven Seas (Lagoon)
Widen Your World: Treasure Island/Discovery Island
Imaginerding: Discovery Island, the Early Years
Progress City, USA: The Great Discovery Island Logo Contest

Special Thanks:
Michael Crawford, Mike Lee, Scott Otis, and Watercraft Captains Greg, Jeff and Robert.

Buena Vista Obscura:
The World Cruise
Captain Cook's Hideaway (plus followup)
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part One
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part Two
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part Three
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part Four
The Golf Resort

History and Esoterica:
Snapshot: Mysteries of the Second Floor
Snapshot: Olde World Antiques
Snapshot: The Great Southern Craft Company