“Hey—it’s the 90’s!”
There’s something wonderful about remembering good times. Disney parks are built on the magic of memory, a hidden power which draws fans back year after year. We kicked off our series on the best memories from The Most Magical Place on Earth last week with an exploration of the 9 Things Every 80’s Kid Loved at Walt Disney World— a decade that ended with the opening of Disney-MGM Studios.
The 90’s was a great time to be alive, especially if you were a kid. Roller skates became roller blades, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Lite Brites were all the rage, frost-tipped boy bands became a thing, and the internet arrived in homes. It was a time where both grunge and Punky Brewster simultaneously became popular, and where every week, Zack was once again Saved by the Bell.
At Walt Disney World, the 90’s was smack in the middle of the Eisner era, and both the parks and the company went through significant changes, particularly after the death of Frank Wells in 1994. A lot shifted during that decade, both good and bad. The average 90’s kid visiting Walt Disney World wouldn’t have known about any of that— they would have just known it was a pretty exciting time to be a kid at the Most Magical Place on Earth.
What were some of 90’s kids favorite memories of Walt Disney World? Here’s a few that come to mind…
1. Honey, I Shrunk Walt Disney World
Video: YouTube, User: MouseSteps / JWL Media
The early 90’s was a time of massive expansion for Walt Disney World, particularly for Disney-MGM Studios which was still finding its feet as Disney’s third gate (there was no Disney’s Animal Kingdom yet—more on that later). These echoes were also felt somewhat at Epcot which still had its feet planted firmly in the 80’s.
Two of the best attractions from this time came thanks to the popularity of one of Disney’s most unexpectedly-successful film series. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids opened as a sleeper hit in 1989 which led to two sequels, a TV series, and two amazing Walt Disney World attractions.
The first of these was the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure which arrived in 1990. Many a 90’s Disney kid spent countless hours here under the shade of giant blades of grass, climbing giant cookies, sliding down giant Kodak film, and riding on a giant Ant-y (he lives!!!). This place had everything a rambunctious kid could want in a playground, from a webbing course to massive slides. The best part of it was the way that kids who didn’t know each other all jumped into the adventure together—you formed friends fast and everyone dove into the same game of pretend without reservation. It’s honestly a shame Disney didn’t repurpose the playground decades later with an Ant-Man theme!
Epcot got a great attraction of its own out of the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids mania. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience replaced the much-loved Captain EO (another favorite of 80’s kids) and introduced Disney fans into a whole new level of ultra-immersive 4D entertainment. 3D films were a big deal back then, and the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience Theater had dozens of unexpected gags to wow guests, including the introduction of that dreaded eeh-gad-something-is-crawling-on-my-legs effect Disney fans have come to hate.
2. Disney-MGM Studios becomes EXCELLENT!
Disney-MGM Studios was only a year old when 1990 arrived, and it was one tiny, tiny park. Michael Eisner came from the film industry and had originally intended the park to function as a working studio with an emphasis on its backlot tour. While this vision would fizzle out over the course of the decade, the park came into its own in the 90’s as a premiere destination at Walt Disney World for thrills and spectacle.
Muppet*Vision 3D arrived in 1991 as a total game changer to the 3D film game. Beauty and the Beast-Live on Stage brought Broadway to the park the same year, followed by the stunning Voyage of the Little Mermaid in 1992 (which remains one of Disney’s most incredible shows for theatrical effects to this day). The park also offered live entertainment and parades based on movies out in theaters, and character greets and a stunt show starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These were all big hits with kids, but the one thing Disney-MGM needed the most was rides.
Boy, did Disney give us some rides.
During the 90’s Eisner became determined to make Walt Disney World a more attractive destination for teenagers. Disney Imagineers rose to this challenge by giving us the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The original attraction featured a single dramatic drop faster than the speed of gravity. I’ve yet to have anyone correct me on this, but I swear I still remember the spine-chilling sound of a cable snapping before the fall on that original version. While guests loved the ride, it was deemed too short to be fully satisfying, so in 1996, Disney rolled out “The Tower of Terror II” which added a second drop. Later, a third drop was added (the randomized sequence we have now didn’t come about until 2003).
The Tower of Terror was great, but the park needed something else if they wanted to draw teenagers—a roller coaster. Fans finally got their wish in 1999 with the arrival of The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, Disney’s first indoor roller coaster complete with barrel rolls, dynamic turns, and a speed launch from 0 to 57 mph. It was a coaster as only Disney could do it and quickly became a favorite among younger guests.
3. Thousands of sparkling lights
Video: YouTube, User: Attractions Magazine
Disney has always had a certain panache for spectacles of light, color, and sound. While mainstays like the Magic Kingdom fireworks, The Main Street Electrical Parade, and the Electrical Water Pageant remained popular throughout the 80’s, 90’s kids may have some particularly strong memories of Disney’s insane light shows.
In 1991, The Main Street Electrical Parade moved to Disneyland and was replaced at Magic Kingdom with Spectromagic—a parade that many fans feel remains one of Disney’s best to this day. The show featured Disney’s first mass use of fiber-optics, featuring over 600,000 lights and 100 miles of fiber optic cable (WOW). It was incredible to behold (enough to distract from the dead eyes of those weird doll-people), and every night it concluded with the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks.
This trend of better-brighter-louder carried over to Epcot. The original Illuminations (which premiered in 1988) featured lasers, light barges, fountains, and Pichel light effects set to thundering classical music like The William Tell Overture, Ode to Joy, and Rhapsody in Blue. The show remained relatively the same until 1996, which kicked off yearly changes to the show, adding new elements almost annually like original music and new effects. I seriously can’t hear the William Tell Overture and not think of Illuminations.
No exploration of Disney’s light shows in the 90’s, however, is complete, however, without a brief trip across the country.
In 1992, Disneyland premiered one of Disney’s greatest achievements in entertainment-storytelling to date. Fantasmic! was a show unlike guests had ever seen—an epic battle between good and evil that somehow combined fireworks, water and fire effects, animatronics, projections, and characters into a gripping story. Guests would camp out seats along the Rivers of America hours before the show premiere or skip early morning rope-drops to line up for a chance to get VIP dessert party tickets for balcony seating above New Orleans Square. The show was an absolute winner, and it finally made the migration to Disney-MGM Studios in 1998.
For fans who have seen both, it’s hard to ignore the differences between the Disneyland and Walt Disney World version of Fantasmic—we’ve explored them in-depth before, and in most cases, Disneyland’s version comes out the clear winner. For 90’s kids at Walt Disney World, they couldn’t care less—Disney kids loved Fantasmic, and the studio setting just made it all the more epic at Disney-MGM Studios.
4. Tomorrowland grows up
Tomorrowland has always faced a fundamental problem as a themed-land— what happens when yesterday’s future becomes today?
We mentioned in our exploration of Walt Disney World in the 80’s, Tomorrowland used to be a steely-grey place, calling to mind themes of space shuttles and hard science fiction. It was a future that arrived too quickly, and by the mid-90’s, Tomorrowland was starting to feel drab and dated.
In 1994, Tomorrowland underwent a total renovation. The land was given a complete facelift straight out of early pulp science fiction. Endless grey was replaced with a cacophony of bronze, chrome, and vibrant colors. The land became a city of the future-that-never-was, complete with a spaceport, public transportation, mail carrier (thanks to Fed-Ex), and a creepy corporate overlord manipulating the masses. The Star Jets became the Astro Orbiter, Robin Williams’ Timekeeper replaced American Journeys, and in a bid to draw those coveted teens, Disney introduced their scariest attraction ever, The EXTRATerrorestrial Alien Encounter (I cannot describe how much this 90’s kid hated that horror-fest of a ride, even as I came to appreciate it in later years).
5. The Toons take over
New Tomorrowland wasn’t the only Magic Kingdom upgrade for 90’s kids.
Splash Mountain had only been open a few years in Disneyland when it rolled into Magic Kingdom bigger and better than before. In 1992, Splash Mountain arrived at Walt Disney World with additional scenes and comfy double-wide seating. The attraction quickly became one of the most popular in the park, regularly drawing multi-hour waits. There was no Fastpass back then, so smart guests waited to catch it during the parades and fireworks. In the off-season, you could even marathon ride it!
The other big winner for kids at Magic Kingdom was the arrival of Mickey’s Toontown Fair—previously Mickey’s Birthdayland, Toyland, and Starland. Mickey’s Toontown Fair acted as sort of a vacation-home counterpart to Disneyland’s Toontown. Kids could explore Mickey and Minnie’s country homes, splash about at Donald’s Boat, and of course, ride the Barnstormer. How many of you remember standing in line to meet Mickey at the Judge’s Tent?
6. Epcot races with the future
Video: YouTube, User: Attractions Magazine
Epcot went through its own series of changes in the 90’s. World Showcase gained a“secret” entrance in 1990, fiber optics were added to the concrete surrounding Spaceship Earth plaza, and Spaceship Earth received a much-needed upgrade in 1994 with the addition of new scenes, improved imagery, and a new voiceover with Jeremy Irons.
That same year, Epcot gained a new attraction that proved a surprising hit with 90’s kids—Innoventions. Over the course of a walk through Innoventions, you could try dozens of new technologies (I distinctly remember trying “video phones” for the first time there), learn how they might change life in the future, try sodas from around the world (Beverly was as awful back then as it is now), and best of all, play tons of video games.
Let’s face it—while Innoventions was pretty cool when it arrived (though adults picked up on the heavy-handed sponsorship and product placements), kids and teens flocked straight to the attraction’s Sega exhibition. Guests could try dozens of new games for the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn, with a special focus on Sonic the Hedgehog. It was basically a free arcade right in the middle of Walt Disney World!
1999 also brought us Test Track, though it looked very different from the version we have today. The original Test Track had a charming sense of humor with a distinctly lighthearted take on crash testing. Clanging tools made music in the queue while guests observed safety robotics at work. A cheeky pre-show prepared guests for their part in Chevrolet’s safety testing protocol—including a bit of hilarious dark humor. This playful theme carried throughout the ride, concluding with Disney’s best timed joke on an attraction ever: launching nervous guests at a barrier test wall only to open it at the last second. Good times!
7. Epcot’s Canada became unexpectedly awesome
Video: YouTube, User: UndercoverTourist.com
While all of World Showcase’s pavilions have their own charm, kids in the 90’s probably didn’t think of the Canada pavilion as a must-visit destination. Indeed, 80’s and 90’s kids commonly reported finding World Showcase a little dull compared to Future World.
The Canada pavilion won two unexpected sources of awesomeness in the 90’s. First, Disney introduced guests to the Canadian wonder pastry that is Beaver Tails. Beaver Tails are a popular treat in Canada similar to Navajo fry bread—a warm, thick flatbread topped with whatever you like. You could get everything from cinnamon sugar, to fruit, to a full spread of s’mores on your Beaver Tails at Epcot. I especially liked the Killaloe Sunrise flavor (cinnamon-sugar with a hint of lemon).
The other exciting addition to the pavilion was the arrival of Off-Kilter— Epcot’s most bangin’ kilt-wearing rock band. There was just something about Off-Kilter’s foot stomping music that made even the most bored kid want to stop and grin. The band became so beloved over the years that fans protested their replacement decades later!
8. The Neverland Club
This is one you may not be familiar with, but during the 90’s, Disney introduced their first children’s activity centers—one night play camps where parents could take an evening off while Disney watched the kids. The absolute best of these was The Polynesian Resort’s Neverland Club.
The Neverland Club was an absolutely genius concept for a kid’s care center. Many small children often get upset when dropped off for school or day care. Disney brilliantly hacked their way around this. Kids that at the Neverland Club weren’t checked in at a boring desk—they were welcomed into Wendy Darling’s bedroom, sprinkled with pixie dust, and sent gleefully through the window into Neverland.
This club seriously had everything. During free time, kids could play in an enchanted forest, take over a pirate ship, compete on the classic video games, or explore Skull Island. Regular activities and crafts were organized to keep kids busy, and on some nights, kids even got to meet animals from Discovery Island. My parents seriously couldn’t get me to leave.
On the subject of Discovery Island…
9. The opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom!
The opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom was undoubtedly the single most significant event of the 90’s at Walt Disney World, though it didn’t happen until 1998. Guests could hardly wrap their minds around what Disney was promising—an animal park that didn’t feel like a zoo, a sort of Discovery Island on steroids that seamlessly blended Disney attractions with expansive wildlife exhibits.
The opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a fascinating story in and of itself, but for 90’s kids, it was like nothing anyone had ever seen. Kilimanjaro Safaris took the concept of the Jungle Cruise and made it real with an ever-changing tour of the African savannah (a hit despite its weirdly dark poacher story). It’s Tough to Be a Bug capped off Disney’s 4D movie line-up, Festival of the Lion King brought Disney Renaissance magic to life with stunning acrobatics, and Countdown to Extinction both delighted and scared the pants off young guests eager for thrills. The Discovery Island and Pangani Forest exploration trails gave guests even more chances to get up close to wildlife, and in 1999, the Asia expansion arrived with the mysterious Maharajah Jungle Trek and the drenching Kali River Rapids.
While the park ran into its share of hiccups early on (including the shelfing of the Beastly Kingdom expansion concept), Disney’s Animal Kingdom grew into one of Disney’s most beautiful parks ever. If you had the pleasure of experiencing it during those opening two years, you were one lucky 90’s kid (or kid at heart!).
What is your favorite memory of Disney parks in the 90’s? Join us next week when we explore the best Walt Disney World memories for 2000’s kids!
Enjoy this article? Keep reading to learn 8 Mouth Watering Savory Dishes from Disney Parks You Can Make at Home… or 8 Sweet Treats!
