The Official 1971-1999 Picture Thread

[marni1971]

It was ugly. Each to their own.

 

[Goofyernmost]

It was ugly. Each to their own.

Martin, I know that you know more about Disney than I do...but I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Was it something that would have fit in St. Peters Basilica or perhaps the Parliament Building in London, no, it would not. It was bright, cheery, very well done, creative and was in a freaking theme park with a reputation for fun and fantasy. Ugly is a personal determination not a reality situation. What may have been ugly would be if one didn't like cake or bright colors or something different in the holiest of holy lands known as WDW.

 

[Master Yoda]

Martin, I know that you know more about Disney than I do...but I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Was it something that would have fit in St. Peters Basilica or perhaps the Parliament Building in London, no, it would not. It was bright, cheery, very well done, creative and was in a freaking theme park with a reputation for fun and fantasy. Ugly is a personal determination not a reality situation. What may have been ugly would be if one didn't like cake or bright colors or something different in the holiest of holy lands known as WDW.

You are correct that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, but the majority of guests had that opinion. Scores of people canceled weddings due to the Castle Cake. Disney can deal with a miss or bad press, but if you hit their wallet, they will respond.

 

[Goofyernmost]

You are correct that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, but the majority of guests had that opinion. Scores of people canceled weddings due to the Castle Cake. Disney can deal with a miss or bad press, but if you hit their wallet, they will respond.

I doubt that the majority of guests felt that way. I have never personally spoken to a single person I know that thought that it was ugly. Surprising, yes! What did happen was that the loudest people had that opinion. The fact of the matter is that it was for one occasion, it has not been there for 15 years and the world didn't fall off it's axis. Yet, we are still talking about it as if it were there as we speak. I don't expect to ever see anything like it again, but popularity no longer has anything to do with it. Money is the deciding factor now. Disney will never again spend that kind of money to showcase one season. Even on something that is considered pretty!

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I loved that 25th castle. Wish they would do that sort of thing more often. (But tear it down, for Pete's sake tear it down after the party is over * eyes hat and wand *)

DLP too used to dress up the castle for anniversaries. It's fun!

For the sake of broader perspective. Party Cake Castle au Parisienne:

For the fifth anniversary in 1997 they dressed up the castle in a Hunchback garb to coincide with the movie:

For the tenth just a cake parade float. For the twentieth there is lots of decoration, which looks great, without any one truly spectacular make-over.

Bonus! Check out this slightly enhanced but rather splendid picture of the fifteenth. DLP may be falling apart at the seams the further you go or deeper you dig, but its MS always looks like a charm, still a perfectly well presented introduction and outward appearance. All very much a sublime nod to its host France then.

 

[tare]

I love seeing these pictures. Brings back alot if great memories.

 

[Minnie1976]

1987

 

[soccerstud652]

1987

Cool - wheres that?

 

[Sped2424]

My brother on the top and me on the bottom I believe this was in November of 1993! Don't judge my mother for bringing in a infant lol I asked her recently why she did it and she said "Idk we thought it was cute, looking back it was not worth the hassle! " which is why they waited after that till I was about 5

 

[willtravel]

Here is a place to post your classic WDW pictures! Don't forget to let us know the year it was taken!

These are two of the same pics I had posted on a thread earlier but they're good ones to start it off.

1991 WDW

I don't remember that restaurant in second picture where was that and how long did it last? Look at the size of the movie camera on person's shoulder?...

 

[willtravel]

I don't remember King Louie. Too much pixie dust....memory lost

 

[Goofyernmost]

1983

I thought that I might add something to this picture to help put things in perspective. We were eating something that at the time was a choice inside Pinocchio's. Prepackaged hero sandwiches and chips and, of course, a drink. Also the young lady on the left is currently pushing the heck out of 40 years old and has 3 kids that she home schools, a 13 year old boy, 11 year old girl and a 2 year old girl. The young lady on the right is, as she puts it, an incredibly vivacious 37 year old, and had the traumatic experience today of sending her 12 year old son to Middle School. The handsome guy in the middle, well, by some miracle has managed to stay exactly the same as depicted in this photo. Amazing but true. Kinda!

 

[vonpluto]

I don't remember that restaurant in second picture where was that and how long did it last? Look at the size of the movie camera on person's shoulder?...

That was the Soundstage Restaurant (1989-1998), a buffet featuring a ever-changing roster of characters:
Big Business 1989-1990, Beauty & the Beast 1991-92, Aladdin 1992 -95, Disney Characters 1996 - 98, Hunchback 1997 - 98.
It became the site of Playhouse Disney.

 

[Otamin]

I keep saying it, but the lack of trees in the parks nowadays is sad.

The castle sat so much better on the horizon with trees.

 

[willtravel]

That was the Soundstage Restaurant (1989-1998), a buffet featuring a ever-changing roster of characters:
Big Business 1989-1990, Beauty & the Beast 1991-92, Aladdin 1992 -95, Disney Characters 1996 - 98, Hunchback 1997 - 98.
It became the site of Playhouse Disney.

Thanks. Never was in there.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

and some more... 1988


Love this one with the camcorder ...it's easy to laugh and say "back then" until you see all the people running around these days with their tablets that are almost as big. Can't figure out what people did/do with either when they go on rides.

 

[muteki]

Sadly, the complainers have won and in the process we have all lost something. We lost Disney's motivation to do something spectacular. This one must have cost Disney 100's of thousands of dollars just for the 25th Anniversary. I thought it was incredible. What a creative design, what a jaw dropper.

The argument was that people have come here and were disappointed that they didn't see the actual castle. These are the same people that are all breathless about those cardboard overlays on HM and Small World for seasonal changes. Well, I say the same thing that they do when justifying changing it. If someone wants to see the original all they have to do is come back at another time. In the mean time there are plenty of pictures of it to look at. We wonder why there is no more imagination and creativity coming out of Disney. Somebody was very excited about the castle cake and rightly so...it was stupendous. All they got out of it was grief. They want the parks to be fresh and vigorous just as long as they don't change anything to achieve that goal. Can't be done.

I loved the cake when we happened to catch it there. This was before I really followed such things on the internet and it really took me by surprise. Thought it was a cool, original idea. And it was a special event structure that unlike others (hat, wand) actually left when it was supposed to!

 

[IWantMyMagicBand]

Me and my brother in a restaurant in Epcot., 1988. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, it was huge, had tiered seating and a stage. we had no idea, but during eating, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald all came on stage, did a show then came into the crowd for pics. I can't remember this picture being taken, nor can I remember anything much about Epcot other than Figment, the smell of Oranges on Horizons, Martin Short on Body wars, and Walter Kronkite's For eons....) BUT I can remember the song they came out to sing:
Clap your hands!!!
Everybody have a ball!
Clap your hands!!!
Now it's time for everyone to clap your hands!
Let's freak out off the wall, Clap your hands!
We're gonna have a ball.
Mickey's here and Minnies here to dance the night away
It's a partytime on Main Street USA
??????
New and discovering you can fly, you can fly you can fly!!!!
Have a party, full of wonder, there is such a world to see!
Party! from 3 to 93, put your hands together, come on everybody!
Clap your hands!! etc etc.

Or I think it went like that!

 

[The Mighty Tim]

My brother on the top and me on the bottom I believe this was in November of 2013! Don't judge my mother for bringing in a infant lol I asked her recently why she did it and she said "Idk we thought it was cute, looking back it was not worth the hassle! " which is why they waited after that till I was about 5

Are you from the future??

 

[redpill101]

Here are some park tickets I have from when I went in 93/94