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Old 28 Feb 16, 06:32 PM  
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Nimbus
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Our Original Orlando Odyssey - Dec 1997


I thought I'd try out the Dibb's trip reporter app and post some scanned photos of our first ever trip to Orlando back in December 1997. These were the "good" old days before people booked holidays and tickets via the web, before folk had digital cameras, and before the Dibb even existed! And also before Hannah, our DD, had arrived.

We stayed at the old Gateway Inn hotel at the north end of International Drive. The motel was cheap and cheerful - and had free transport to the theme parks - but unfortunately doesn't exist any more. I suspect it was booked as a package holiday with Thomas Cook or Thomson.

During our 2 week stay we visited the 3 Disney parks (AK hadn't been built), one Universal park (again IOA didn't quite exist yet), Seaworld, KSC, Florida Mall and wandered along International Drive. It was too cold to visit the waterparks.

Enjoy!



First stop - Magic Kingdom. The train station at the entrance to MK looks just the same then as it does now.



Here's Michelle, drink in hand and being blinded by the bright Florida sunshine, standing on Main Street USA. Note the Christmas decorations hanging across the street.



Another photo of Main Street, looking backwards towards Town Square. You can see the large Christmas tree in the distance and a band greeting us as we entered. It was a coldish December so lots of people are wearing coats.



Yet another photo looking down Main Street decorated for Christmas. There's a gorgeous blue sky - unfortunately that didn't last long into the holiday. Also, you may notice something different about the castle...



And here I am at the hub (looking younger and with a bit more hair!). And as you can see Cinderella castle looks a little different. WDW was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Magic Kingdom and had dressed the castle to look like a giant pink birthday cake. Technically the 25th anniversary was in 1996 - but Disney liked to milk celebrations for as long as possible.



Here's a closer photo of that wonderful castle. I know some people detest that pink cake makeover, but I actually like it. At least Disney did something different rather than just a celebratory cupcake and a button/badge.



Here comes the parade!

I think we're stood in the hub near the entrance to Frontierland whilst we watched this.



From what I can remember, I think this was a very good parade and we loved it. Michelle especially loved the Lion King bit, which had stilt walkers.



More of the parade with the pink sugary castle in the background.



Near the end of the parade. Here comes Minnie!



Cinderella's pumpkin coach.

Also note the Skyway cable cars in the distance. I don't remember them at all but I have a photo of them so I must have been there when they were at MK. Sadly, the Skyway has gone now.



Michelle meeting Pluto, in the days when characters just used to pop up randomly. He was very funny/cheeky. It looks like he was licking Michelle's arm in that photo.



We must have stayed at Magic Kingdom until the very end because here's a photo of the Electrical Parade. Unfortunately I only have one photo; we only had a basic camera and the photos wouldn't have turned out very well at night. And as the camera had 35mm film with only 36 exposures, we didn't want to waste any.



Next stop - Epcot. Which is also joining in the 25(+1)th birthday celebration.



There's me again, in the bottom left, wearing a Mickey Mouse jumper. I hadn't packed any jumpers because I thought it was supposed to be hot in Florida - so I had to buy one whilst over there. That would become something of a recurring theme during our first couple of trips to Florida.



Michelle meeting Tigger, and Pooh in the background, in the garden at the back of the UK pavilion.



Some amazing stilt walker animals somewhere in the World Showcase area of Epcot.



China pavilion at Epcot.

(I think some of these Epcot photos were taken on different days. Either that or we've somehow changed clothes and the weather changes from hour to hour)



The view across the lake in World Showcase with Spaceship Earth in the distance.



Mexico pavilion. I remember it took us a while to realise you could go inside this building.

It now appears to be raining!



Meeting Mexican Donald.



Inside the Land pavilion at Epcot. Sorry the photo is a bit dark. The balloons hung from the ceiling were very impressive.



Inside the Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot.

Unfortunately, the Wonders of Life pavilion is only open during special occasions and, even then, the attractions inside have been removed or closed. I fondly remember Body Wars (a simulator very similar to Star Tours) and Cranium Command. The radio-controlled Get Met balloon was an early version of today's drones and slowly glided around the pavilion. It's a pity this place was closed.



Disney's MGM Studios next.

This was before it changed it's name to Hollywood Studios. As you can see, the weather wasn't very good on this day. In fact, the weather wasn't great on around half the days we were there - which was a bit surprising to us. We thought this was the Sunshine State!?!



Beauty and the Beast show at MGM Studios.



There I am again, bottom left, in my Mickey sweatshirt stood outside the Tower of Terror. Again, the weather doesn't look great.



Now I'm in a lovely yellow Disney poncho in the central area of MGM Studios next to Echo Lake. MGM was also decorated for Christmas, just like Magic Kingdom was. I think we're waiting for the parade...



And here comes the Zero to Hero parade, back in those days when MGM had a regular afternoon parade. This parade celebrated the oft-forgotten Disney film Hercules. I'm not sure whether I've ever watched it.



Another MGM parade photo, this one showing Hercules behind the lamppost disguised as a Christmas tree.



Michelle wearing a Mickey Ears Christmas hat standing in the Streets of America (?) at MGM Studios. This gives you an idea of the "crowds" back in early December 1997.



And here's the Earffel Tower at MGM also wearing a Christmas hat.

Sadly, Disney will soon be removing the water tower that used to be icon of MGM Studios.



The obligatory shot of the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator whilst on the Backlot Tour at MGM Studios.

Sadly, Disney has also removed the Backlot Tour.



A dark, blurry photo of the old Hunchback of Notre Dame show that used to be at MGM Studios. From what I vaguely remember, this was great show with a very acrobatic Hunchback.

Sadly, Disney closed this show back in 2002.



One of our most memorable photos from our first trip to Walt Disney World back in 1997. Michelle is on the left of the MuppetVision 3D fountain looking lovely in a yellow poncho. She is also sporting a thoroughly fed up look on her face due to the terrible weather.

BTW, it rains in Florida.



On to Seaworld and the Shamu show in the big stadium. It doesn't look a lot different to how it looks now - they've just added a few more screens.



Back in 1997 the trainers were allowed in the water with the orcas. If you were lucky enough, you could get photos like this one with the trainer balanced on the nose of a killer whale whilst it was leaping out of the water.



This is the dolphin show in the Key West area of Seaworld before it changed into the wonderful Blue Horizons show.



Seals at Seaworld.



Nighttime show at Shamu Stadium in Seaworld.

Again, just about visible, there's a trainer balanced on the killer whales' nose. I think I must have liked that trick.



Kennedy Space Center - a change from the theme parks.

We didn't have a hire car so had booked a trip to KSC through our holiday rep. This included coach transport and one day entrance. It's the only time we've visited KSC and the day we picked was cold and grey.

The photo above is the huge Saturn rocket.



To get an idea of the size of that rocket, there's me at the bottom in the black jacket.



A view of the Space Shuttle (and other rockets) launch pad at KSC. This is as close as the tour got. Sadly there was no launch that day.



Here's the Space Shuttle construction building on the KSC tour. The driver liked to point out that the US flag on the side of the building was the largest one ever and was something like the size of a (American) football field. Or something like that.



Michelle balancing the Space Shuttle's booster rockets and fuel tank on her head.

Unfortunately, it was very chilly and started to rain whilst at KSC so we didn't spend much time outside looking at all of the space craft and rockets.



Next stop - Universal Studios. And the usual photo in front of the spinning globe outside the park.

This was Universal's original brushed-steel globe before they replaced it a few years later.

Note the large crane in the distance. Universal was still building Islands of Adventure in 1997. It didn't open until 1999. You can see the top of what I think might become the Incredible Hulk coaster to the left of the globe. Or maybe it was Duelling Dragons?



Michelle (in her well-used yellow poncho) outside Mel's Drive-In at Universal Studios.



Universal used to have these photo illusion things where you could place your camera at a certain spot in front of some fake scenery and, in this case, it would make it look like you were in Hollywood.

The fake top part isn't quite lined up with the real bottom part but it still looks quite convincing. It'd probably help if it wasn't raining.



Me showing off my knees in a Flintstones 'scene' after the exit of the Hanna Barbera ride at Hollywood Studios.

The Hanna Barbera ride was replaced by the Jimmy Neutron ride and then the Despicable Me ride. The above photo was taken in the bit where you can now dance with the Minions.



There was a special previews building at Universal Studios that was showing some of the plans and attractions coming to the new park, Islands of Adventure. Michelle was a big fan of Dr Seuss and so loved the idea of the Caro-Seuss-el.



Back To The Future train at Universal Studios.



The entrance to the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios, before CityWalk had been built.

I can't remember whether we actually ate there in 1997 or not. We have been to the Hard Rock Cafe a couple of times since.



Finally, a photo of the old FAO Schwarz toy store on International Drive.

This was located where Pointe Orlando currently is. TBH, I preferred the old "Pointe Orlando" with this wonderful toy store than the new version with all its eateries, bars and posh shops.

And, there we go - a retrospective trip report of our Orlando holiday back in December 1997. Thanks for reading!


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Old 28 Feb 16, 07:09 PM  
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OB1LukeLucas
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Fabulous! So nice to see some old photos. I rather like the castle as a cake. I hope you are going to do more!
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Old 28 Feb 16, 08:22 PM  
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Fab photos. We went in 1991 I'll have to see if my mum knows where the album is and scan some in
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Old 28 Feb 16, 08:38 PM  
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Pretty sure that's the Spectro Magic parade, not Electrical Parade. I miss that parade so much. It's a great shame we'll never see it again
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:17 PM  
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Nimbus
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Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas View Post
Fabulous! So nice to see some old photos. I rather like the castle as a cake. I hope you are going to do more!
I'm adding more as we speak, all from 1997 (because they are the only ones I've scanned in).

Originally Posted by Conno View Post
Pretty sure that's the Spectro Magic parade, not Electrical Parade. I miss that parade so much. It's a great shame we'll never see it again
You're right!

I'm sure when I checked the internet it said it was the Electrical parade in 1997. Not sure what website I was looking at. Oops.
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:27 PM  
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Thanks for taking the trouble to post these great memories.
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:29 PM  
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We went in April/May 1997 and seeing your photos brings back happy memories of when my Mum was with us and my son was young.
I remember the castle being decorated like that. I didn't mind it but lots of people hated it.
I also remember riding on the Skyway, such a shame they closed that.
Ahh Wonders of Life pavilion in Epcot, again miss that too.
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:29 PM  
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It's amazing seeing the old photos. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:53 PM  
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New Photo Added by Nimbus - 28 Feb 16 8:53 PM.
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Old 28 Feb 16, 09:58 PM  
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Nimbus
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Originally Posted by m84ourlife View Post
Thanks for taking the trouble to post these great memories.
Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by MarionG View Post
We went in April/May 1997 and seeing your photos brings back happy memories of when my Mum was with us and my son was young.
I remember the castle being decorated like that. I didn't mind it but lots of people hated it.
I also remember riding on the Skyway, such a shame they closed that.
Ahh Wonders of Life pavilion in Epcot, again miss that too.
We never went on the Skyway, as far as I can remember.

I'm not sure why people hated the castle like that. I like the fact that we have different photos of it. All of our other photos of the castle look the same from one year to the next.

Originally Posted by joanna23 View Post
It's amazing seeing the old photos. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
It was a pleasure looking over all these old photos again. Thanks for reading.
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