Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Tockstein Disney History, part 2

JANUARY 1985 In January of 1985 my Dad once again had business in Orlando, which meant that after 4 years the Tocksteins were heading back to Walt Disney World. During our first trip in 1981, we stayed at a hotel that was on Disney property, but was not a Disney owned and operated resort. That particular hotel is located in what is now known as the Downtown Disney area. For this trip, we stayed at the beautiful Polynesian Village Resort, just a monorail ride away from the Magic Kingdom. We had one of those rooms that you usually only see in Disney World commercials. We had a balcony that overlooked the Seven Seas Lagoon, with a perfect view of the Castle across the lake. We watched the fireworks from our hotel room! Disney also put on a nightly water parade out in the lagoon with a bunch of illuminated floats, all set to music. I have a vivid memory of sitting in our room on the first night and hearing the water parade starting and no one in my family knowing what the heck was going on. But it was really cool to see all of this from our balcony. I remember getting up in the middle of the night and looking out the window to see if they kept the Castle lit up all night long. They did.



This trip is more of a blur for me, but I do remember this was the first time I went on a roller coaster...Big Thunder Mountain. It was amazing! My favorite part was zipping under the dinosaur bones that are sticking out of the side of the mountain. I didn't yet have the courage to conquer Space Mountain. That would happen on our next trip.






This was the first year we visited when EPCOT Center was open. EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and it opened in 1982. I actually recall seeing EPCOT under construction during our first trip in 1981. EPCOT is the scene of what is probably one of my most vivid, and disturbing, memories ever...



We got in line for Spaceship Earth, which is the large geodesic sphere that is the symbol of EPCOT. You know...the big golf ball. There is a ride inside Spaceship Earth that takes you on a tour of the history of human communication. As my Dad was fond of saying, "It's slow, dark, and air-conditioned." We had almost made it on the ride, when up in front of us came a terrible scream. "My foot!" yelled a woman. "My FOOOOT!" Somehow, this woman had gotten her foot caught underneath the ride vehicles on the track. I can only imagine the damage that it caused. My Mom told me and my sister to look at the ground, but the sounds of that woman screaming is something I will never forget. Paramedics were on the scene quickly, and the ride was shut down. As I recall, we rode Spaceship Earth later that day without incident. To this day, I will sometimes call my sister on my cell phone while waiting in line for the ride and we will recall the terrible story of Spaceship Earth and "the foot". We never found out what happened to that woman.


EPCOT also holds more pleasant memories for me, chief among them was Figment, the purple dragon who was the mascot of the Imagination Pavilion, which was a great ride that was a journey through the world of imagination. I really liked Figment. I bought a Figment cap that I still own to this day, and a Figment stuffed animal, which my Mom has now given to her granddaughter. Although the original Figment ride has changed somewhat since then, my daughter Hanna loves Figment. She has several plush Figment dolls and a Figment pin in her very small (but growing) Disney pin collection.



Another aspect of this trip that was great was that my folks pulled me and my sister out of school for a week. I have memories of doing homework assignments just before going out to watch fireworks. The ironic thing is that school up in Knoxville was snowed out almost that entire week, so I was a week ahead of everyone else when I got back from Disney World!



This was a great trip, even with the nightmare of "the foot". It was my first exposure to EPCOT and the incredible Polynesian resort. It would only be three short years until we returned, and this time we brought along a video camera! See you soon.




Me in front of the Fountain of Nations at EPCOT Center.






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