Free Lecture - Jack Blitch, v.p. of Disney Imagineering

[MKCP 1985]

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast:

Join Jack Blitch, vice president of Disney Imagineering and developer of some of the most popular Disney attractions, resorts and Disney Studios products, as he explains the Disney Imagineering process, reviews some of Disney’s successes and offers a peek at Disney’s future. This free lecture is part of the Issues+Answers public lecture series, sponsored by the Sun Herald Newspaper and the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast.

That should be fun.

 

[MKCP 1985]

more info:

http://www.sunherald.com/business/story/1365349.html

Disney comes to the Coast
By MARY PEREZ - meperez@sunherald.com

He’s had a hand in “imagineering” Disney’s Tower of Terror and scores of other attractions, and Jack Blitch will be on the Coast on Tuesday to highlight his 21 years of Disney adventures for Issues + Answers.

The lecture series is sponsored by the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Sun Herald and held at the university’s Advanced Education Center auditorium in Long Beach.

New Orleans born and raised, Blitch is vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, Florida, home to the largest contingent of “imagineers” outside Glendale, Calif. He and his team design, develop and implement creative ideas for Disney’s Florida attractions, resorts and cruise ships to deliver experiences families will never forget.


Walt Disney Imagineering was chartered by Walt Disney to build Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. The group combines creativity, technology, innovation and storytelling to create Disney’s incomparable attractions.

“It’s fun and extremely rewarding,” said Blitch, who was project director for the Audubon Institute and collaborated with Disney to build the New Orleans Aquarium.

“I didn’t realize at the time they were interviewing me,” he said, and he went to work with Disney in 1988.

On Tuesday, he’ll tell the crowd about Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and how Walt Disney envisioned his theme parks appealing to all ages. Blitch said Walt’s visions still guide the company today. Using original clips and images of Disney attractions, he will describe how his team creates memorable experiences for the guests,

“I work with a really fantastic team of ‘imagineers,’ ” Blitch said, “who continue to do the impossible.” His team recently finished replacing all the Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa.

“These were original treehouses built in 1971,” he said of the three-bedroom units that combine a sense of childhood adventure with modern convenience. The treehouses were rebuilt without damaging the trees on the site.

Blitch said his team is constantly busy. They just opened the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure at Epcot and the Kidani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. Another new Disney Vacation Club project nearing completion is Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

Blitch and his wife still own a home in New Orleans. Their Bay St. Louis home was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. He serves on the board of the Infinity Science Center to help bring some of the magic he’s implemented at Disney Parks and Resorts home to Hancock County.

***

Any questions you want me to ask him?

 

[CaptainMichael]

Figures that I'd be stuck in Baton Rouge on the night that this is happening.

 

[maggiegrace1]

Awesome Doug..Just read the link you sent me on facebook....
Thanks..

I would love to go but have to be at Childrens for some things for Maggie since she gets her tube out Thursday..

You are going right?

 

[MKCP 1985]

Awesome Doug..Just read the link you sent me on facebook....
Thanks..

I would love to go but have to be at Childrens for some things for Maggie since she gets her tube out Thursday..

You are going right?

I am going to try and attend, unless things get too crazy around here this afternoon.

I'll be sure to let y'all know any good tidbits that he shares with us.

 

[MKCP 1985]

So he spent about an hour going through the history of Disney Imagineering, telling the 300-400 people in attendance that they learned a lot from the opening day of Disneyland when at the end of the day not a single car in the Autopia ride was still opertational. :lol:

Also, that Walt Disney's inspiration for the Tiki Room came from a talking bird he found in a shop on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. . .

That despite working on the Animal Kingdom park for 7 years, his personal favorite attraction is the Tower of Terror, over which he was the lead engineer.

He also brought slides of some of Disney's newest park attractions, including the newly opened Monsters Inc dark ride in Tokyo, the big water parade at Tokyo Disney Sea, Midway Mania at Disneyland and Walt Disney World . . .

He offered this little nugget: There are hidden targets at Toy Story Midway Mania, but if you find them on your next trip, don't be surprised if they are not still there on the trip after that - because the ride is set up such that it can be constantly reprogrammed to offer new secret targets so that it will never get stale.

He showed us some slides of the two Disney Cruise ships under construction at a shipyard in Germany. They are going to absolutely dwarf :lookaroun the current Disney cruise ships - being as much as 50% larger!

He took questions from the audience for about 20 minutes, and someone asked him what Disney's plans are for the newly acquired land in Washington, D.C. He said only that Disney has been in negotiations for years to acquire that property and that a final decision on what it will be used for is premature.

Here's a link to the local newspaper's more detailed report of his presentation:
http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/1369848.html

 

[MKCP 1985]

Oh, one other thing he said about Hidden Mickeys. Someone in the audience asked him about them and he said that if he'd been asked that question 5 or 6 years ago, his response would be that there are no hidden Mickeys, but since Disney has published a book detailing the Hidden Mickeys, that yes, they are all over the parks, everywhere.

Further, he says that no project manager tells his team, "We need 3 hidden Mickeys in this room and 4 in that room," but that the hidden Mickeys are designed by the artisans who work on the projects and are not submitted to management for approval. In fact, often times the project managers do not know the hidden Mickeys are there, and they get pointed out by front line cast members who first notice them.

So, there ya go. . .

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Sounds AWESOME. Glad you had fun.


....Now then, they need to get down to Miami...:lookaroun

 

[maggiegrace1]

Sounds great Doug..Glad you got to go..

Thanks for sharing..