Magic Kingdom had WHAT in Tomorrowland?

 

I'm something of a late comer to Disney World attendance. My home park was Disneyland. I did go when I was little, but my memories are pretty vague. So going back as an adult has been fun, because a lot of the attractions seem new. But, I've been going back through some of the old attractions, trying to get a feeling for what I missed and how the parks have changed.

Gran Fiesta Tour is an interesting one for me. I rode it, not knowing that the Three Caballeros were a relatively new addition. I thought it was a cute way to use some old characters. But I was surprised that those characters were there, because the Three Caballeros had always seemed so obscure to me. Don't get me wrong I thought the characters were great, I just didn't think anyone know who they were.

Then I found out that the ride had originally been called Rio del Tiempo, I was just about cruise through Mexico. That made sense to me. It's a right showing off the country, which is something that belongs in World Showcase. And it made sense that they would want to add the characters to make it a little more interesting later. But I wasn't surprised to see a tourist-themed attraction in a park that was made to showcase different countries and cultures.

So how does this relate to Tomorrowland? Well, I've heard people talk about some Tomorrowland attractions like If You Had Wings and Delta Dream Flight for a few years. They never seemed like major attractions to me, but there was some nostalgia for them. And I recently looked up a POV of If You Had Wings for the first time. If you haven't watched it before, I recommend you start with this one. It's just a simulation, but the graphics are high enough fidelity you can tell what's going on. And the shaky-cam is a lot better. Not all of the sets have the animation of the real ride. But you can find other POVs to get a sense for that after you've seen this.

WOW. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely not a tourism attraction. Again, that sort of thing makes sense in Epcot, but it had nothing to do with Tomorrowland. I tried to squint my eyes and tilt my head (figuratively), and tell myself that it fit here because planes were invented in the 20th century. That's futuristic at this point, right?

I'm used to seeing ride sponsors at Disney Parks: Dole sponsors the Tiki Room, Energizer Sponsored Star Tours, Pepsi sponsored Small World... But these sponsorships arent' overbearing. Test Track is a little more out there with the chance to buy a new car at the exit. But at least the attraction is something that fits into future world thematically. Whereas If You Had Wings... It just feels like the entire attraction is an ad for Eastern Airlines. The song is catchy (it's been stuck in my head for a week now). You get to see vignettes from Easter Airlines's major destinations. And there are travel agents at the end. The fact that it's not futuristic for Tomorrowland just makes the advertising feel more blatant.

Tomorrowland has always been a week point in Disney's parks, and fans are always clamoring for a redo. If You Had Wings was redone(the first time) in 1989 to remove the sponsorship. The ride was largely unchanged other than the audio. And sponsorship was updated. Overall, it would go through 3 referbishments over that decade. If You Had Wings became If You Could Fly, which changed to Delta Dreamflight and then to Disney's Take Flight. The attraction somehow survived until 1998, for a total of 26 years. At that point it was updated to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This ride was a definite upgrade, and the use of Buzz Lightyear as a futuristic/space property took the theming lightyears ahead of where it was.