O Canada!

At first glance, this picture looks like it came from anywhere but Walt Disney World. I acutally took this at the back of the Canada pavilion on my son's first birthday trip. This was a great place to go to relax while he napped in his stroller as the peaceful sound of water cascades down the rocks. While others in the group took in the performance of Off Kilter, I wandered up to the area above the entrance to the O Canada movie while Dylan napped and I relaxed and was able to take this great shot. If you are ever in need of some relaxing down time for you or a little one, this is a great place to go. Get yourself a snack and maybe a Moosehead Lager or something from the Rose & Crown outdoor kiosk and enjoy some much needed relaxation.

Terry-san

This picture is a part of Spaceship Earth that no longer exists. In its place is the new garage scene depicting the invention of the personal computer. I loved this scene as I could really relate to the idea it was expressing. The main point of this scene was to show the advent of the internet and how it can span language borders as well as physical borders. This girl was supposed to be in Japan while the boy she was communicating with, Terry, was in the United States. Terry was sharing his karate skills and this girl was sharing her baseball game highlights. I have grown up with the internet and the fact that this type of communication could take place made for a perfect ending to the ascension portion of Spaceship Earth. Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the two characters are represented both by sculpted figures in the scene and as real life people on the computer screens. This was an interesting concept that also occurred in a scene from Horizons as well.

Spaceship Earth Foliage

In an eariler post about Spaceship Earth and our trip in early October I had mentioned the change in trees near the icon. I took this picture to show just what that change entailed. As you can see on the left there are some new palm trees that still have bracing around them. In the past there were tall skinny palms in this spot that I thought complemented SSE beautifully. I'm not sure if these are even the same species of tree or not. If anyone has any information regarding this subject I'd greatly appreciate it. As my favorite area and attraction in all of WDW, even landscaping is a huge deal for me.

Nova Cite

Nova Cite was the futuristic city in the Horizons attraction that is the first scene you go to after the historical look at the future. I loved this scene from the Star Trek inspired outfits to the holgram communication, but perhaps my favorite was the elaborate background painting of the futuristic city buildings. I was unaware of the fact that the choose your own ending was going to have a Nova Cite option until I listened to Lou Mongello's WDW Radio Show episode all about Horizons. Apparently the ending would have put riders on a mag-lev train through the city. That would have been outstanding and I would definitely have voted for this ending in my vehicle.

Glorious Spaceship Earth

I just returned from my first trip to WDW in over a year and got to see this wonderful sight. Of course, it's Spaceship Earth without the wand! Looking at it in person after having been years since seeing it last like this, one wonders why the decision to alter perfection such as this was ever made. Also, of note, I noticed that some of the tall palm trees around SSE had been removed and new smaller palms were there as well. My wife also noticed that some of the sqaure cut trees were missing. Now, if only we could get them to open up the entrance plaza by removing the sculptures and adding more water and greenery.