Originally Posted By ImgineerBob So I was wondering if anyone on here could answer something I was wondering about yesterday. Does anyone know why tomorrowland on opening day had only 2 rides operating?? We all know the reasons behind DL TL, but there really isn't any info as to why on opening day WDW's TL was so sparse. Did they start construction late? was it a money thing?? Since most of the rides that opened were clones of Disneyland rides I can't imagine they were extra hard to build or had mechanical problems. Anyone help me out???
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I always assumed that it was because Space Mountain was on the drawing board at the time and the exact route of the Peoplemover hadn't been determined yet. Most of the eastern end of Tomorrowland premiered around the same time as Space Mountain, that is, around 1975, three to four years after WDW opened.
Originally Posted By ImgineerBob so were there nothing but contruction walls all over tomorrowland or was it open and just had a lot of closed off areas?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I'm not sure ImgineerBob, but here's the concept art for the 1975 expansion: <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NB7Bwdam9SY/SMxvJSO4DiI/AAAAAAAAA7M/4d4up4-R2uM/s1600-h/SPACEMTN+TOMORROWLAND+ORIGINAL+ART.jpg" target="_blank">http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NB7B...+ART.jpg</a> Here's an undated Skyway pic showing the area under construction: <a href="http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/CarouselofProgress.jpg" target="_blank">http://land.allears.net/blogs/...ress.jpg</a> Note how the unfinished Peoplemover track ends abruptly.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Why? Budget was short, and it's always smart to wait to construct "the future" as it catches up on you. In 1975 they fixed that with Space Mountain and Carousel. And heck, they added If You Had Wings in June of 72, so TL had the honor of hosting WDW's first "new" ride.
Originally Posted By tonyanton I think Grand Prix Raceway, Skyway, and maybe Circle-Vision were ready for opening day. Flight to the Moon(later Mission to Mars)opened in December and "If you had wings" in '72. I think that was it attraction-wise until '75 when Space Mountain, CoP, Starjets, and WEDWay Peoplemover (and maybe the Tomorrowland Stage) debuted.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Imagine if that happened today." Yeah, all hell would break loose on the Internet forums. True story: When I was a kid the opening of WDW was a big deal and I really wanted to go bad. Some friends of our family went the first year it opened. When they came back they reported that there was "nothing there". I was so disappointed.
Originally Posted By standor We were there in 1974 and there was a lot to do. That's when they had the book of tickets.
Originally Posted By ImgineerBob circle vision didn't open til thanksgiving, and rocket to the moon opened in december
Originally Posted By ImgineerBob also on a similar note, does anyone know why the liberty bell riverboat and peter pans flight opened the 2 days after the rest of the park? Clearly they were ready on time, since they opened so shortly after. Was it some kind of mechinaical problem or what??
Originally Posted By standor I can't remember. In 1974, was there a downtown villiage and if so what was it called? When was the downtown area first opened?
Originally Posted By RobinsonCrusoeEsq It was called the shopping area in Lake Buena Vista, and became Walt Disney World Village in 1975.
Originally Posted By RobinsonCrusoeEsq Also, Peter Pan's flight opened on October 3 because there was a problem in final assembly. An air-conditioning duct was installed in the path of the ride-vehicle track. The A/C and the ride track were installed by two independent companies working together on the same site. They noticed the problem and fixed it, but the ride opened late. 20,000 Leagues opened on October 20. Again, just not ready. Opening day at WDW was no Black Sunday, but there are some incredible stories about the race to the finish line.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>...Why? Budget was short.<< Actually, the budget was pretty generous, especially for the time. And it came in on time and under budget. Roy Disney did a really good job. They even had a bit of a breather before opening. True, there were some delays here and there. But nothing like the race to get Disneyland open. Interesting to note that the first ticket books at WDW were for 7 and 11 tickets. At Disneyland they were 10 and 15. I assume that reflects the lower attraction count in Florida.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Yeah, a much lower attraction count they still haven't fixed at Magic Kingdom 40 years later.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I actually one of those odd west coast people who prefers the MK to DL... at least the the version before management let it deteriorate. I love the bigness of it - the bigger castle, the bigger Space Mountain, and the overall roominess of the place. Of course DL is special for obvious reasons, but all things (maintenance, good show, etc.) being equal, I prefer WDW's MK.
Originally Posted By CDF1 IOA was one of the few parks that opened with pretty much the full slate of attractions ready to run, was it not? Wasn't it true tha the Disney people really weren't sure the Magic Kingdom would be a huge success? It was located in a relatively quiet area of Florida where they thought that many of the locals would be too old to enjoy that much of the park and the Orlando area was hardly a big east coast tourist destination at the time. No POTC, Space Mountain still on the drawing boards .... they were certainly going to be conservative and see if the concept worked.
