Photo of the Week - Dreamfinder

Believe it or not, before Dreamfinder was discarded like a piece of trash, he could be found in the park with Figment. Figment was a puppet that could move around but of course wouldn't talk.

As you can tell by the attire this is an old school photo.

The Imagination Pavilion Rehab – How Not to do a Rehab

The Imagination Pavilion hit its zenith back in the late 80’s. Journey into Imagination was a bright, colorful, much beloved ride. In the other part of the pavilion Captain EO, staring the biggest star of the last 30 years, was playing. Outside you had a building with amazing architecture, jumping fountains, and backwards waterfall. How could things get better?

In time Captain EO had to be replaced. That was understandable. Not many movie based rides can stand the test of time. To replace it Disney placed Honey I Shrunk the Audience into that theater. That was an odd choice. Those movies were good but not classics. Despite that fact it was a good attraction. It wasn’t as good as Captain EO when it was at its peak but it was good.

The real trouble started when the original Journey into Imagination was closed for a major overhaul. When I heard that I was shocked. That attraction was the attraction in Epcot. No other attraction had the impact it had. The biggest reason for this was the characters in that ride. Figment and the Dreamfinder were huge hits. Beyond that the ride was stunning. From an artistic standpoint it was one of the best rides Disney had every made. I’m not a fan of art but that ride even wowed me with it’s colors, animatronics, and special effects.

The new Imagination ride opened in 2000. It was one of the biggest mistakes, if not the biggest, in Disney’s history. I really wonder what the people who designed this ride were on. Whatever it is, I want some. If they have someone that makes a torture seem good I think we all need some. Sometimes I think there was a contest among the imagineers to see who could ruin the ride the most. I honestly believe that someone sat down and thought “What works? People love figment. People love Dreamfinder. The song is a classic Sherman brothers song. There are lots of bright colors. There is a fantastic mural in the queue. This is a well lighted ride. It’s happy and it’s upbeat, leaving you feeling good after. How can I ruin every single one of those things?”

The new ride was dark, insulting, boring, and actually found a way to KILL you imagination. Figment, Dreamfinder, and the beloved song were all gone. Not only that the ride actually found a way to leave you drained and depressed. It seemed to last forever even though it was dramatically shorter.

To say there was outrage is an understatement. According to a number of sources, the overhauled ride garnered more complaints than any other ride in the history of Disney World. In fact so many complaints were received something unprecedented happened. After only two years the ride was closed down and overhauled again. The new version of the ride had Figment and the Sherman Brother’s song loaded back into it. It was a much better version but still a sad shadow of what it once was.

Where are we now? The ride is still there. It needs help. You can’t replace a classic unless you’re replacing it with something that is at least equal to the original. Therefore, without a complete overhaul this ride will always be a failure. The Honey show is still there. Remember what I said about movie attractions? Honey is so antiquated and outdated that you now have teenagers who were not alive when the movie the attraction was based on was in theaters. Add that to the fact a lot of people have never even seen the movie. It’s not what I would call a Disney classic.

It’s sad. This pavilion has suffered so much and fallen so far. It was once the top dog at Epcot. Now it’s competing with the Universe of Energy for next to last. Last of course is the Wonders of Life Pavilion. If you didn’t know, the Wonders of Life was euthanized a few years back.

I Don’t Even Like Hats…

One thing stuck me when I got home after my last Disney World trip. I bought a hat that I’ll most likely never wear. I don’t wear hats very often so why did I buy a hat? Come to think of, when did I go to Disney World and not buy a hat or come away with a hat? Most of the hats have been so embarrassing I’d never, ever, wear them out in public. Think I’m joking? Check this list of foolish and embarrassing hats I got at Disney World. This list goes from the least embarrassing to the most embarrassing hat.


Mickey Mouse Fishing Hat – Well first of all I don’t fish so I have no idea why I bout this hat and wore it around Disney. At least it wasn’t as bad as some of my others. It was just a tan fishing had with a small Mickey Mouse on the front of it.


You Better Take the Stairs: Tower of Terror Hat – This was my most recent purchase. I will admit it’s a “cute” hat. It’s black with white letters and three cartoon slides with Goofy and Mickey on them. Problem number one - a guy shouldn’t really be wearing a hat that could be described as cute. Problem number two – you probably don’t want to get attention from the people who would comment on this hat outside of Disney World.


The Goofy Hat – I was a kid when I got this and I loved it. It was a baseball hat with Goofy’s face on it. It had big Goofy ears that hung down to your shoulders and even had two big teeth the hung off of the end of the visor. Now that I’ve explained what it looks like you know why an adult wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.


The Figment Hat – When I was a kid Figment was my favorite park character. That being so, I just had to buy the figment hat when I saw it. This thing was just awful. It was purple, orange, and yellow. If that’s not reason enough not to wear it, it also had two orange figment horns protruding from it.


Only a select few ever wore this final hat. This was given away for obvious reasons. It took a brave sole to wear it. Before I start describing this hat, go back to the “HOLY POO FLINGING MONKEYS! It’s Darkwing Duck!” post to see a picture of this hat. For anyone who wore that hat a shiver instantly went down their spine when they saw that photo. It was the one, the only, Fifteen Years of Magic “I’m a Winner” hat! It was a blue sun visor. That’s no so bad is it? Well take that blue sun visor and print “I’m a Winner” on the front of it. Sounds bad right? Well wait just one minute! Put battery operated, flashing, yellow and red lights across the border! Ah, now there is a master piece that all the famous artists of history could never have equaled. You may ask, “How on Earth did you find yourself in possession that thing?” During Disney World’s “Fifteen Years of Magic” promotion, every fifteenth person through the park gates won something. My dad won something but I can’t remember what it was. The very next day I won the hat. Let me tell you I was thrilled. For a kid to get a hat that lights up…well you just can’t beat that.

There had been other strange purchases at Disney World through out the years: pocket watches, figment plush toys, a Skippy plush toy, and a “Hundred Acre Wood” Henley. Even when I think of those odd purchases the hats still stand out. I’m starting to think that now I have to buy a hat every time just keep up appearances. But, how could I possibly improve on that list? I think I set the bar too high.

Rides That Need to Retire

We all have our favorite rides. Some rides that others consider boring we love. Some rides we love are now alive only in our memories. Then there are rides that need to be put out of their misery.

Ride I want to see shutdown:

The Tiki Room Under New Management. The old Tiki Room was kind of boring but I liked. I liked it because I had fond memories of it when I was a kid. Too many people thought the old one was boring so Disney found a way to make it worse. The “new” Tiki Room is about as pleasant as a festering gut pile. What were the Imagineers thinking (or smoking) when they came up with the “improvements?” To fix this ride I suggest that it be shut down, restored to its original form, and moved to the Polynesian Resort. I know that’s not feasible but I like the idea.

Stitch’s Great Escape. Dumb parents who force kids on a scary ride should not be a valid reason for shutting down that ride and replacing it with arguably the most abysmal ride in the history of Disney World. I remember going on The ExtraTERRORisal Alien Encounter when I was 15. I was blown away. I loved it. The technology, the story, the experience, everything about it was amazing. The problem was it was too graphic and too scary to be in the Magic Kingdom. So Disney flushed it down the toilet and replaced it. Everything that was good was replaced with crap. I’ve never met anyone who likes the new Stitch version. To fix this – One: burn everything down so it’s sterilized. Two: Rebuild it from the ground up at DHS and follow the original plans and put the alien from Alien in it.

I’m going to get flack on this one – Winnie the Pooh. This ride stinks. It’s the worst dark ride I’ve been on. Mr. Toads Wide Ride was demolished for this? The artwork is good but not great. The special effects are bland. The ride doesn’t do the story justice. The only reason people like this ride, is because people love Pooh. How to fix: a gallon of gas and a match.

That thing in Mexico. Mexico has such an amazing atmosphere. It’s the most impressive of all of the countries in the world showcase. The original ride was bad. There is no other way to describe it. It stunk. I was glad when I heard they were overhauling it. When I went on the new version I couldn’t help but think “This is it? You overhauled it and this is the result?” It’s better than the original but that like saying the bread is now stale instead of moldy. How to fix: The entire ride needs to match the beginning of the ride. It’s impressive when you float by the pyramid. Gut the rest and start from scratch.

Let the hate mail roll in – Finding Nemo the Musical. I’d like this ride if I was on dugs. This show is just too odd for me to enjoy. I can’t wrap my head around it. Do puppets or do people or have them both but interacting with each other. Why stick someone in a body suit and run around with a giant puppet and then have the person talk to the puppet? I might be splitting hairs but I think this one could be better executed. I also have to pose this question: Why did a nonmusical get converted into a musical when you could have done a Little Mermaid musical? I’m not some sicko who has an Ariel fetish. The Little Mermaid had three songs that actually turned into hits. Go figure. To fix: Do a puppet show. Get the people out of there. Don’t cut corners by having people running around with giant puppets because it’s too expensive to have puppets controlled from above or below.

The Movie in Norway. On second thought don’t replace this one. It’s a riot. I laugh every time I watch this movie. The scene with the guy in front of the computer makes me laugh so hard I nearly pee myself. This has to be the most outdated movie in Disney World. It’s like watching a public service announcement from the 50s. It’s loud as any anything too. This movie will hurt your ears! To fix: Umm…maybe shoot a new movie. What’s worse paying for it yourself because Norway doesn’t want to help foot the bill or continuing to show this joke of a movie?

I think I’ll get the most flack for this one. Astro Orbiter. My reasoning is this, how may of these rides do we need? We have Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, Magic carpet ride, and the Dino ride in Animal Kingdom. We don’t need Astro Orbiter. Dumbo is iconic. You cannot remove it. Astro Orbiter might be iconic but we can do better. How to fix: put a highly themed launch ride in there that shoots people sky high. That way you get the amazing views from up there but have something new and exciting that can move a lot of people in a short period of time.

Tomorrow Land Speedway. This wasn’t really cool when I was ten. How has it lasted so long? It stinks (literally), it’s loud, and it takes up an enormous amount of space. It doesn’t even fit the theming of Tomorrow Land. To fix: Just get rid of it. It’s just not worth keeping.

The Universe of Energy. First of all why isn’t an oil company sponsoring this? You think they’d want to try to improve their public image a little. This ride amazed me when I was a kid. I loved dinosaurs back then. Even the songs that were part of the ride were good even if they were corny. Jump to today. We have the beloved dinosaurs sandwiched by an awful movie which is beyond loud. Even though I love those dinosaurs it’s time to demolish this attraction. To fix: This ride needs an overhaul on the level of the Horizons and World of Motion Pavilions (not that I agree with those but that’s another story). Tear it down and start from scratch.

Journey Into Imagine With Figment. This was my favorite ride when I was eight. I loved figment, the ride was bright and colorful, and it was fun. Anyone who has been on it since the first rehab understands why this in on the list. What has happened to this ride is really sad. This ride is such a waste of space now it’s appalling. To fix: Major Rehab to restore the look and feel of the original ride.