EPCOT And The World Showcase Part Two

Sunday 24 April 2016. We met up with the family for breakfast at the resort and then caught a bus to EPCOT. There's a few Disney characters to meet along the way but we'll have another look at the World Showcase during our visit.

Grace wanted to meet Joy and Sadness from the recent Disney/Pixar film Inside Out. Eddie was fancying a ride that had a very long waiting time and we said we'd take Grace whilst he and Gill went on that. We took her off in the right direction, saw a sign saying "Character Meeting" or something similar and joined a half-hour queue. With ten minutes or so to go we realised we were in the wrong queue and that we should have gone into the opposite building. We were now queueing to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy...

We could hardly jump out of the queue at that stage so we met up with the aged trio (Goofy is 84 and Mickey and Minnie are both 88) and figured we would just have to queue for the other characters later. Grace was quite happy to meet them anyway - she loves Minnie Mouse especially and had not so far had the chance to meet her.

The queue for the Inside Out characters was 45 minutes so I said I'd go to our rendezvous point and meet Gill and Eddie whilst Miss Franny took Grace and joined the queue. It took me half an hour to find Gill and she said there were two lines for the ride they had gone for. The one for two riders was 90 minutes and the one for a single rider was an hour. Eddie had gone for that and was still in there.

I explained what had happened and left her to wait for him and then follow. I went back thinking that I wouldn't have long to wait. After sitting outside the entrance for a further half hour I was wondering whether they had come out a different door and I'd missed them. After an hour I was pacing up and down, but then they came out with Gill and Eddie who had gone in a different way and had been told they could wait near the exit and sneak in when they saw Grace and Fran have their turn.

In the film these characters occupy the brain of a little girl. Joy and Sadness control those emotions and two more characters, Fear and Anger make up the full team. Sadness had seen Grace's long hair and used it to dry her (Sadness's) tears! Whatever had caused the hold-up in the queue, Grace had weathered it without her own brain coming under the control of Anger, causing tantrums!

We split up for a bit after this and Fran and I went to resume our look around the World Showcase that we had started but had to rush the other day. This is the interior of the Aztec pyramid of Mexico where it is always twilight. We looked through the market stalls and watched a craftsman carving wooden animals.

Then, heading for the rear of the room, we took an eight-minute boat ride through the Gran Fiesta Tour starring The Three Caballeros. This is a slightly different theme and content from our previous visit in 1993.

Outside, the sound of mariachi music drew us over to watch and listen to this group of dancer and musicians. We hadn't too long to stay and listen as we were meeting up again for a pre-booked meal at the Norway Pavilion.

We visited the real Norway in 2013 (and will again in 2017) and we appreciated a chance to recall slowly sailing up the fjords and walking around wooden buildings and shops in both Stavanger and Bergen.

A row of shops in particular reminded us of the old town areas of those two cities.

We didn't find any buildings with grass on the roof though. The Norwegians use goats to keep the grass from growing too long on the roofs!

Also authentic were the many trolls in the shops. I wasn't taking any chances this huge one might pass on a cold...

We were booked at the Princess Storybook Dining at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. Belle from Beauty and The Beast is the first to welcome us and then Grace tries out her throne as we wait to be seated.

First around the tables is Grace's absolute favourite Princess - Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. She was awake, but she certainly was a beauty. After this, she could easily be my favourite as well...

Cinderella too is no slouch when it comes to beauty - Norway must have first pick of the actresses playing these princesses!

Snow White and Arial, the Little Mermaid (the version with legs) make up the full compliment of princesses for the day. Grace wants to see Aurora again (good girl!) and after enquiring, she comes back for a return visit to talk to Grace and give her a hug. Then she goes back to whichever table should have been next on her tour, much to the surprise and disappointment of everyone else on the other tables in our alcove...

The meal over, we split up again and we continue our stroll through the pavilions of the World Showcase. Looking through the Chinese Gateway into the Chinese Pavilion. The circular blue-roofed building contains a 360 degrees screen and shows a 14-minute film Reflections of China.

The Morocco Pavilion where we had a wander through the shops, a much more relaxed experience than it would have been in Agadir, where we were bombarded with people trying to drag us into their shops.

At Morocco there is a viewpoint over the lagoon. One of the ferry boats from the Showcase Plaza, the edge of the lagoon closest to the park entrance and Future Worlds, is coming in to the landing at Morocco.

Approaching the France Pavilion. The bridge takes you over a waterway. I'm not sure if it's a river or a canal (which is more likely) but you can get a boat from here to Disney's Hollywood Studios and some EPCOT resorts.

The Canada Pavilion. We went in to see another of those 14-minute Circle-Vision 360 degree films about Canada, narrated by Canadian actor and comedian, Martin Short.

Some of the topiary sculptures for the Flower and Garden Festival. Bambi and friends.

We went back towards the main park and waited to catch a photograph of the Monorail on this part of the track that circles the Future Worlds between dropping passengers off and taking on new passengers to and from the park.

Snack time before leaving the park. Apple pieces and a coffee.

Disney World Holiday Index

Second Blackpool 1977 Photo Album 3 - The Pleasure Beach

Today we'll turn the pages of my photo album from 1977 to look at some photos of the Pleasure Beach on the south side of Watson Road.

Personally I much preferred walking along the front of the Pleasure Beach before the row of shops was built. The view of the Log Flume with the Big Dipper behind it always raised great anticipation of going on rides. Even for people who didn't like the white knuckle rides there were the rafts of the Tom Sawyer ride and every now and then the Pleasure Beach Express would chug along the edge of the lake at the foot of the Big Dipper woodwork.

The lake had once been home to rowing boats and then what I used to call putt-putt motor boats. These were moved to a spot in the north-east corner where a twisty canal was made to drive them along. The Tom Sawyer ride was a raft ride with a few tableaux of scenes with caricature figures of hillbillies placed here and there, perhaps just a touch incongruously amongst the supports for the Log Flume and Big Dipper.

In the background are the Aztec towers of the River Caves - the frontage I always think of if anyone mentions the River Caves. Because of its position with only a narrow space in front of it, I always found it impossible to get a really good photo of the River Caves which is a shame.

The Grand Prix dated back to the 1960s. After the bridging of Watson Road, the ride's station was situated on top of the bridge and a double spiral road led up and down to the track. I remember the cars being petrol driven but they were later replaced by electric motors. You steered the cars yourself and could either try to go top speed or you could zig-zag as much as you liked, but a central metal barrier stopped you from running off the road. It was very popular with teens still under the minimum driving age.

There were three parts of the Monorail ride I always particularly liked. This shows one of them - the passing of the train through the wooden structure of the Big Dipper seen here from the south station of the Pleasure Beach Express. You always hoped that the Big Dipper itself would be thundering down the dip towards you as the Monorail came out, but it seldom happened that way!

The second was when the Monorail went around the casino building at the northern end of the park. This part of the ride was later closed and a new section of rail kept the ride within boundary of the Pleasure Beach. After going round the Casino building it briefly travelled over the car park on the north side of the Pleasure Beach.

I don't have a photo of the third part but it was when the Monorail passed through the back of the Fun House. A favourite part of the ride for lots of people I imagine!

The Pleasure Beach Express passes the South Station and will now travel along the length of the Big Dipper before looping round up the side of Watson Road to enter its main station. Dating from 1933 the Express had three diesel engined locomotives, shaped to look like steam engines. The bulk of the carriages were open as seen here but the train usually pulled one enclosed pullman carriage designed (or at least sized) for younger riders.

In the days when radio controls were large and expensive and involved complicated arrangements of transistors and soldered joints, the nearest most people got to them was something like this. The boats could be made to turn left and right and go forwards or backwards. My Dad was into electronics and had made a radio controlled boat that we used to sail at a local pond before we had moved to Blackpool. The boat itself was just a little larger than these but it had an engine that was started with a length of leather chord and it went about 300 times as fast as these... The radio control quite often stopped working and it would smash itself into the stone-flagged side of the pond with a ferociousness that caused a very sore hand if you tried to catch it!

One of the kiddie rides. The southern half of the Pleasure Beach had started out as a children's version of the northern side and it was only with the bridging of Watson Road that larger rides started to appear.

One of the many sideshow attractions of the Pleasure Beach. Knocking a pyramid of cans over was easy. Knocking them off the back of the shelf wasn't... Consolation prize from the bottom shelf - tiny screwdrivers, combs, pencils...

Return to Blackpool Pleasure Beach Index Page

1977 Blackpool Photo Album 7 - The Pleasure Beach

We've done it. We've reached the end of our series from the recently unearthed photo album of Blackpool. The photographs were all taken in 1977 and I hope you've enjoyed looking through them with me. Today we'll be taking a stroll through Blackpool's Pleasure Beach. In contrast with the earlier articles in this series, most of the photos this time have already been seen either on this blog or elsewhere in the past. The consolation is that they all show either rides no longer with us, or ones that were under construction in 1977, so there is something in every photo that you can't see today.

The Monorail is only very recently decommissioned as a ride. But never-the-less, it has gone, never to trundle slowly round the concrete pillars holding up the track. Pictured is the futuristic enclosed train that everyone hoped for. Unfortunately the door seals were so good that after a mere five minutes regardless of whether snow was falling, you were sweltering in the heat from exhaled breath and neighbours' body heat! The springs on the doors were really strong too, so holding a door open with your foot to get some much needed fresh air was an exhausting business!

Just in front of the monorail train and on the other side of the track we see the backs of giant animal figures which overlook a row of children's trampolines. Behind them we can just see the black square hole of a bridge over the Pleasure Beach Express. Two of the Pleasure Beach "woodies" roller coasters can be seen in the background. On the left a curve of the Grand National and to the right, the riser of the Roller Coaster.

We've seen the tall thin column of the Space Tower a couple of times already in this series, but here is the gondola that spun round and rose in a spiral up the tower. It remained in Blackpool until 1993 when it had to come down to make way for the Big One, roller coaster. It was moved to Morecambe's Frontierland and renamed the Polo Tower, being repainted in appropriate colours. It has the distinction of being the last bit of Frontierland standing.

In the same area were these rockets. This was an old ride - I have a photo of me and my brother on it that was taken around 1964. Each rocket had a lever control that raised or lowered the rocket as they went round. Riding high was a more comfortable ride as the angle you sat at was either leaning inwards at the top, in which case gravity counteracted the centrifugal force, or leaning outwards at the bottom which added the gravity force to the centrifugal force and your left shoulder took a bit of punishment against the side of the cockpit!

The Log Flume was an immensely popular ride in its time. It was built over the old boating lake in front of the Big Dipper. There were two long downward ramps during the ride which resulted in the fibreglass log carriage splashing down into the chute that carried the water along with the result that riders stood a good chance of coming off the ride considerably soaked. On the lake itself the motor boats had been replaced by the rafts of the Tom Sawyer Ride. This was a slow ride along a series of scenes that would have been better screened off, with just a few tableaux of mannequins and animals that you might see on the Mississippi. I could say it was a bit like the Mississippi stern wheeler ride at Disneyland - but only if you believe that Mr Jinks and Pixie and Dixie were as good as Tom and Jerry...

In 1977 the Pleasure Beach were making a big thing out of their new ride, currently being constructed on the southern half of the park. This was called the Steeplechase and had three parallel tracks running round a twisting layout with occasional rises to go over the "jumps". A horse-glider that reminded onlookers of the Derby Racer roundabout is displayed whilst work is ongoing so that visitors could imagine what it would be like to ride. On the left is the station of the ride being built.

The Virginia Reel was another superb ride that many people thought of as their favourite. It dated from 1922 and in 1977 would have just five more years to stand. Riders sat around the inside of a tub which revolved whilst clattering around a sloping track that zig-zagged back on itself like a piece of corrugated cardboard seen end-on. A great ride for courting couples - as I recall...

Well there you go... We've been through the pages of this photo album in seven instalments. When I picked out this photo album I had a few to choose from. It wasn't even the only one from 1977. It wasn't even the only one with a photo of the Steeplechase under construction... So this series may have come to an end, but there will be another. Not straight away, perhaps, but then... I don't want to get boring, do I?

Return to Blackpool Pleasure Beach Index Page

The Monorail, Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Rumours that the Monorail has run its last trip around the Pleasure Beach are reaching my ears.

The Monorail opened in 1966 and was 11 years old when this photograph was taken in 1977. Having seen film and TV images of the sleek, fast monorails at Disney parks in America the appearance of this train - which appeared to have been designed using Lego bricks and which crawled round the track - was an initial let-down.

There were a couple of trains and the rather strange design was made even more striking when they were joined later by a sleek futuristic tube of a train which was what everyone had been expecting in the first place.

The one disadvantage of the more modern monorail train was that it was enclosed. Whilst this certainly kept visitors dry on wet days, with the doors shut the atmosphere soon got rather stuffy inside. The doors were highly sprung to keep them closed and keeping the door open with your foot to allow a bit of fresh air in soon meant an aching foot...

Blackpool almost caught "monorail fever". There was a scheme reported in the local paper to replace the trams with a monorail service along the Promenade. Thankfully the trams remain!

The ride was a staple favourite though with older visitors and young mothers as there were no height restrictions so young children could ride. A highlight came when the train entered the old Fun House at the back and ran the full width of the building before leaving to pass over the maze and on into the southern half of the park.

Change on a park of this kind is inevitable if the park is to survive. The Monorail will join other rides remembered with rosy tints - the Virginia Reel and the Log Flume.