Grand Floridian Cafe: A Review

On my most recent trip to Walt Disney World for my birthday in the middle of October we stopped at the Grand Floridian Cafe for dinner.

 

I wrote the review for AJ over at the Disney Food Blog. To read it click here. I hope you enjoy. 

Final Stop in Asia

   

Being the second Disney mountain to open with the park it resides in, Space Mountain in Hong Kong Disneyland opened in September 12, 2005.

The newest Space Mountain is based on the refurbished Space Mountain at Disneyland, with a similar soundtrack and the same layout. It also features new show elements not presented in the refurbished California version, like the hyperspeed tunnel.

Unlike most Space Mountains, the boarding area for the attraction is quite small. Not like Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland’s load area, which takes place in a Space Station, Hong Kong’s instead features a dark queue consisting of neon earth-tone colored planets along with star patterns decorate the area. Lining the walls of the station are colored neon light bars that are used for lighting and decoration.

 

As part of Hong Kong Disneyland's Haunted Halloween event in 2007, Space Mountain went under a Halloween overlay. The new overlay applied some of the same effects that Rockin' Space Mountain, in Disneyland, used, but instead of a rock 'n' roll concert, the ride was themed appropriately to the Halloween season.

Time for the pins…

This is the attraction poster pin for the attraction, released by WDI.

This pin is apart of a larger WDI pin set released when HKDL opened, featuring key attractions/weenies of the park, this one features the outershell of Space Mountain.

These last few feature Mickey as an Astronaut on Space Mountain, with the red SPACE MOUNTAIN logo.      

Pictures and Information from HKDL Source and PinPics

From Discovery Mountain to Mission: 2

After the Parisian site had been chosen and work began on Discoveryland, a showcase attraction was planned. Discovery Mountain was initially designed to feature not only Space Mountain, but a variety of other attractions, exhibits, and restaurants. The building was going to be 100 meters in diameter, rather than 61 meters, the diameter of the Space Mountain dome.

Inside there was to feature the following items.

• A large version of the Nautilus (which ended up outside of the attraction and as a walk-through attraction)
• An underwater restaurant with a Nautilus theme alongside a café
• A copy of the Horizons attraction of Epcot
• a Disneyland Railroad stop
• Free-fall ride concept, themed to Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Space Mountain
• Walkway tubes linking to the now closed Cine Magique and the Videopolis dining and stage complex

Discovery Mountain's budget became so huge, cuts were inevitable. In addition, Euro Disney had encountered a loss of billions of Francs in its first few years. Attendance was also sliding, because of the lack of visitors during the cold and Winter months, in sharp contrast to Tokyo Disneyland which sees crowds year-round regardless of weather. The Victorian design Space Mountain with only the coaster inside was then decided upon as the best choice.

   

 

Construction on the attraction began in March 1993. 

Located in Discoveryland, Paris’s Space Mountain was originally designed as a view on space travel from a Jules Verne-era perspective, based on the novel From the Earth to the Moon. The Disneyland Paris version of Space Mountain is the fastest of the five versions of the ride, and is the only Space Mountain to include inversions. It is also the only Space Mountain to feature a portion of track outside the mountain itself.

Opening on June 1, 1995, the attraction features a 1.5G up hill launch at 42MPH, and three inversions including a sidewinder, a corkscrew, and a cutback. It was the first Space Mountain with on-board music, known as a SOBAT (Synchronized On-Board Audio Theme). From 1995 to 2005, the ride was known as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune.

Space Mountain underwent modifications in 2005 and is now officially named Space Mountain: Mission 2. Some aspects of the ride have changed, such as the video shown in the second "climb" of the ride and the introduction of a very well simulated Vortex, using bent neon lights. A welcome addition to this conversion is audible French spoken countdown from three when loaded into the "Cannon", whereas before riders were held in suspense over when the "Cannon" would fire. Trains also are now fired from the bottom of the cannon, whereas originally trains stopped at the bottom of the cannon, then moved to the top of the cannon, and then launch. The track has not been altered.

 

The loading area has 2 sides, like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.      

On to the pins… This first one is one of the first pins for DLP, featuring the ORIGINAL DLP Space Mountain: From the Earth to the Moon.

This button was given to all Cast Members who worked in the first couple opening days of the attraction.

This next pin was given to winners of contests organized throughout Europe, who formed "national space travelers teams" who could experience the ride this day (the day before it opened, May 31, 1995) along with stars and tell their impressions in front of cameras so as to promote the brand new attraction.

Released apart of a Disneyland Paris 15th Anniversary Retrospective series, Space Mountain was 1995’s milestone.

This pin is a bit larger then the previous one we showed, but this one also has Disneyland Resort Paris, instead of the original one saying Disneyland Paris. 

Released in 2005, these next couple of pins commemorate the newly “re-launched” Space Mountain: Mission 2. 

This pin was released as a part of the same Disneyland Paris 15th Anniversary series as the 1995 one, but instead features 2005 which has the renovation of Space Mountain, renaming it Space Mountain: Mission 2.

   

Pictures and Information from Disney and More blog, PinPics, AllEarsNet, and Wikipedia.org

A Space Flight Over Seas

Opening with Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, 1983, this Space Mountain became the first mountain to open with the park on opening day. Before then, all the Magic Kingdom style theme parks’ mountains (Splash, Thunder, Matterhorn) never opened with the park.

From 1983 to late 2006, Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain was an almost exact clone of Disneyland's Space Mountain as it had opened in 1977. Apart from some outside architectural elements with the exception of both having the same shape and dimensions, the interior was the same, although there were some different effects. The track layouts, rocket designs, and original special effects and elements were the same as its Californian counterpart.

Though there were some differences between Tokyo and California’s Space Mountains.

1- On the first lift hill, the ceiling lights were blue and the flashing arrows on the sides were yellow and flashed slightly faster than at the pattern of the Disneyland version. In the Disneyland version, the ceiling lights were yellow-white and the flashing arrows red.

2- On the second lift hill, the tractor beam light of the Tokyo version changed color as the trains ascended the lift, while the Disneyland version had a tractor beam that stayed on red for the entire lift.

3- Each version had their own version of the reentry tunnel. While Disneyland's reentry tunnel was an orange round warp effect, the Tokyo version had a hexagonal shaped reentry tunnel, with blue lighting instead of orange.

4- Before the Dick Dale soundtrack was added to the Disneyland version, the sounds of the tractor beams on the second lift hill were different in pitch. The Tokyo version also had an ignition sound in its sound effect while such effect was not on the Disneyland version.

 

In mid-2006, some Disney-fan sites reported that Tokyo Disneyland was rumored to get a small refurbishment of their Space Mountain in a period of six months between October 2006 and April 2007. While some thought it was a technical rehab and that changes to the ride and story were just rumors, in November 2006, outside the construction walls of Space Mountain, concept art of a new station and rockets, new logo, and new color scheme appeared, thus confirming all rumors and speculation of the rehab were true.

On April 28, 2007 Space Mountain re-opened. The new Space Mountain has a more sci-fi futuristic look to it, there are new effects, new space port which features a futuristic space ship hanging from the ceiling. The ride has changed but the effects are built on top the original ride effects. Like the California counterpart, it now includes a hyper speed tunnel at the end of the ride.

  

  

 

Now onto the pins…

This first pin features the original Space vehicle, it was apart of one of TDL’s first pin sets, and Attraction Series, PRE- Refurbishment. 

This pin was released for the Space Mountain Re-Launch of 2007, with the new color scheme of Blue, and the new logo.

This WDI pin was released for the reopening of TDL’s Space Mountain featuring new concept art to enhance the story.  

This final pin was released for the TDL Attraction Series, it features famous elements of the attraction: the building, attraction vehicles, space elements and CM attraction.  

Pictures and Information from TDRFan.com, AllEarsNet and Wikipedia.org