New Technology in Epcot's American Experience

One of the things that impresses me the most about Walt Disney World is their sense of technology.  It seems that while some other amusement parks find something that works and sticks with it for years and years, Disney never waits until something is obsolete to replace or upgrade it.  Some of the biggest complaints from WDW world fans is when a ride is replaced or updated.  This idea of updating technology and staying in the fore-front has been part of Walt Disney's ideals from long ago.  Here are some really great quotes from Walt Disney about this:

"I believe in being an modivator."

"Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved."

"It's something that will never be finished. Something that I can keep developing...and adding to."

"Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."

"EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

And one of my favorite Walt quotes:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Well one of the "new paths" is now found at the American Experience in Epcot and we were happy to see this the last time we were there.  The American Experience pavilion has three main areas.  The first is the Main Lobby, where there are great paintings and where the Voices of Liberty perform.  The second area is the gallery exhibit called National Treasures and the third is the main show area. 

Inside the National Treasures area the WDW Imagineers have introduced of of those new technologies in the form of a 3d imaging lamp, to tell the story of the items on display.  I wish I had taken more video.  Here is what it looked like:

 

 

This is such a great way to grab the interest of the park guests as they walk through the exhibit.  Let me know what you think.  Have you seen these new lanterns?  Post your thoughts below.

Show # 31 of The "WGTWDW" Podcast

Hello and welcome to show # 31!  On this show we take a break from the conversation and spend some time with sounds from the parks.  We've done this kind of show before and I personally love to listen to these kind of shows.  I'm a Disney Geek to the core, so even hearing sounds from the parks gets me really happy. 

 

On other Disney Podcasts that do this I love to listen, figure out where the clip is from and then see if I get any memory responses from when we did or saw what we were listening to.  As we do shows like this down the road, consider them a tribute to Paul and the Window To the Magic Podcast.  He owns this idea with is Disneyland park walkthroughs, Awesome

I mentioned on the show that these audio clips came from video, so below are the video segements I got these from.  There out of order and I might have missed one or two, but most of the are there.

Thanks again to Jim and Kim over at Once Upon at Time Travel, contact them when making plans for your next trip. 
And for Quinn, Hope, George and Ed, thanks for listening.  Email us at WGTWDW@gmail.com  and go to Itunes and give us a review.  And, we're up on Facebook.  Stop by and give us a LIKE!  Enjoy the videos!

We took this first video a while back, but it's still great.  Sam the Eagle is so straight and get's taken by Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat, Classic!

 

The next clip is Yehaa Bob Jackson who performs over at the River Roost at the Port Orleans Riverside Hotel.  This is a great show and if you ever have the chance, please go.  I've gone three times in the last 4 trips. It's a great place to Meet up with friends!

 

 

This is the Animal Kingdom Parade.  As I mentioned on the show, we're not Parade people anymore now that the kids are older.  But as we were walking along a Cast member was cutting off the walk-way to set-up for the parade.  Well, since we were there, we watched the parade.  Very fun!

 

 

 

Here is part of the Captain jack Tutorial.  I actually had put two different videos together to give you more of a taste of the show.

 

 

And now the Nemo clip.  This is such a great show, as a father the message really hits home to me.  This is a broadway quality show.  We've seen it every time we've been in AK.  Very cool to see the same actors as we go back doing different parts.

 

 

In this next clip, these guys are great.  If I could only play an instrument like these guys can. It's always worth a couple minutes to stop and watch a couple of songs.

 

 

 

And the last clip for today, is of course, Wishes.  We love this fireworks show.  I've watched my kids grow up from them sleeping through it, to the ear plugs and hugs to get them through it.  Now there telling us where to watch from.  Priceless!

 

Monstrous Summer at Disney

A little while ago, the Execs at WDW put on a presentation at Epcot with a couple of our favorite Monsters as special HUGE guests.  The parks are happy to announce that this is going to be a Monstrous Summer of fun.  To start off, they are once again throwing  an all night party which is happening at the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida and Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure park in California. The parks will stay open from 6 a.m., May 24 to 6 a.m., May 25, 2013.  Wish I could Go!  For those that missed it, here is the way it was announced.  Thanks to Ricky at Inside the Magic for the great video.

Her is another version of the video I found.  It looks like they did a test run first.  The other thing to take note is that the above I had assumed was on the back of SpaceShip Earth, but could not tell.  The below video of this announcement is done in an empty Epcot and it is defiantly the front of SpaceShip Earth.  Thanks to the Disney Parks Blog for getting this out there for us.

I was also lucky to find this third video of the event with some great behind the scenes interviews of the Imagineers who put this together.