December '14 Walt Disney World Trip Report : Part 4

By Nick

Tuesday, December 9th

Barbie, me, Jill, Josh and Nicole

We started our day early at Epcot, having breakfast at Sunshine Seasons, and a ride on Soarin', before taking the Behind the Seeds tour.

This tour at the Land Pavilion takes you backstage to see their pest control and Biotech Labs, before walking through the various greenhouses seen from the Living With the Land attraction.

The tour lasts a little over an hour and is a pretty good bargain at $20 for adults and $16 for children.

We headed over to World Showcase for a visit with Father Christmas at the United Kingdom Pavilion, followed by a visit with Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit.

Our friend Jill LOVES Tigger. A LOT. So Barbie and I went off to see Santa and Mrs. Claus at The American Adventure Pavilion...

...while Jill, Josh and Nicole stayed in the UK waiting for the arrival of the one and only Tigger.

See, I told you Jill LOVES Tigger.

We all met up in Germany for a late lunch at Biergarten. I'll have a more complete review of this great buffet in the future.

Afterwards, we stopped at the Italy Pavilion just in time to watch their holiday storyteller, La Befana, one of my favorites. Please stop back on Christmas day for a more in depth look at some of World Showcases storytellers.

We then made our way to the America Garden Theater for the 5pm Candlelight Processional. We'd booked the Candlelight Processional Package, so we had reserved seating.

The line started forming early, and at 430pm, it was past Japan!

We got in, and had pretty good seats, despite being so far back.

Our speaker that evening was LeVar Burton. As we are Reading Rainbow and Star Trek the Next Generation fans, this was truly amazing.

If you are in Walt Disney World during the holidays, this is highly recommended. It is a wonderful and moving event.

Next stop- Norway to see Julenissen and Sigrid, the funniest of the storytellers.

On to Mexico, and a photo with Donald.

Once inside, Nicole and I had a shot of Tequila at La Cava Del Tequila and then took a Gran Fiesta Tour.

We headed into Future World, and rode Nemo. We'd intended on riding Imagination, but it was closed at 8pm, apparently.

We got one last photo, before Barbie and I called it a night, while Nicole, Jill and Josh stayed to watch Illuminations.

You can find the first three parts of the Trip Report Here(1), Here(2), and Here(3)

The Land You May Not Know

By Beth Skarp

I always enjoy going into the Land Pavilion. If nothing else, the ability to get in out of the sweltering summer heat and humidity is enough to make a vist to this building something everyone has done a time or two. Add in the benefits of visiting woderful eateries like The Garden Grille or Sunshine Seasons or taking a ride over California in Soarin, well, the Land Pavilion gets its fair share of visitors each year.

Did you know that the Land Pavilion as we know it today had a whole other idea behind its conception? Back when the Pavilion was on the drawing board, the original idea ws to make an Ecology and Mineral Pavilion?

With anything that comes to Disney, Disney looks for a sponsor—someone to help defray the cost of building an attraction. When the Ecology and Mineral Pavilion was the focus, a logging company was willing to sponsor this attraction. The idea was to showcase natural habitats and the environment. 

The original plans for a ride through the Ecology section was to be called Blueprints in Nature. Guests were to board a balloon that would run along a track, similar to the Peter Pan in Flight ride. The balloons would then take you high up into the clouds, showing you a simple snowflake and the importance or value that this frozen piece of water could bring to the land and its environment. With Frozen being as popular as it is today, can you just imagine what such a ride would be like if it had come to fruition? But I digress.  

The ride would follow the life of a simple snowflake that was formed, how it floats to Earth and is melted. The water from this simple snowflake would have a profound effect as it flowed through various ecosystems. The point was to educate and enlighten the guests on the value of water, and how to protect our land and resources from pollutants or contaminants that would alter or harm the water. As you well know, this particular attraction never did come about. 

In 1978, the logging company, for whatever reason, decided not to sponsor this Pavilion. Oh dear...now what does Disney do? Thankfully, Kraft Food Company said they would be willing to step in and take over sponsorship of the Pavilion. The emphasis was still to be on the Land since the outside structure had already begun construction along with the mural that I spoke about in my last article.

Instead, the emphasis was to be on agriculture, the environment, and innovative ways of cultivating food from a variety of sources.

 Disney never wastes anything. The balloons that were to be used for Blueprints in Nature were used, just in a different fashion. Ever notice the balloons that are hanging over your heads in Sunshine Seasons? Yep, these were the prototypes for Blueprints in Nature.