It's time for another pair of photos taken from a trip on the Peoplemover, circa 1975! Put on your VR goggles and haptic gloves for a real "you are there" experience.
Here's an unusual angle looking across the farthest edge of the Motor Boat Cruise waterway - I'm not sure I have any other pictures from this angle. Notice the barrier between the Motor Boats in the "dark water", and the Submarine Voyage with its "clear water". If even a drop of dark water accidentally touched the clear water, it would result in an explosion equal to 1,000,000 tons of TNT. We get a nice look at a few empty Autopia vehicles - would you rather have the green one, the blue one, or the yellow one? I assume the color denotes various stages of ripeness. The red one (not seen here) is the ripest and spiciest!
Now it appears that our Peoplemover train was on the length of track visible in the previous photo (just above the red boat, more or less). I wonder if the Submarine attraction was not operating? You can see lots of subs snoozing in the safety of their berths, with the Monorail station's zig-zag roof above. I wonder what the guy in that boat is up to? Perhaps he is cleaning the lagoon; he has a bag full of false teeth, sunglasses, a toupée, a cursed tiki idol, and a Fabergé Easter egg. Also something shaped like a trapezoid.
Yep, there's more photos from this group, just stay tuned!
Major-
ReplyDeleteBeware the 'dark water'-! I believe the guy is actually trolling for some mackerel, as it was quite plentiful in the Submarine lagoon.
Drat - another trapezoid reference-!!
Thanks, Major.
Hurray for trapezoids! And zig-zags! That guy in the boat better be careful if he takes a hula lesson, while in possession of that cursed tiki. His back just might go out on him!
ReplyDeleteI always thought that thin wall between the Sub lagoon and the Motor Boat water was odd, even as a kid. When you got close to it while riding in a Motor Boat, you could see that the wall was kind of a mildew-y or mossy green. I just always thought that there should have been a more substantial partition between the two waters (like maybe a little strip of land), rather than just that thin wall. Maybe I'm the only one who ever thought that.
The first picture is quite a unique view - a real "World on the Move!"
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that the man is collecting all of the coins thrown from the Peoplemover into the Sub Lagoon, which will be used to fuel "plussing" expansion projects. It's a tough job, so he gets to keep 20%.
Wonderful image illustrating the multi-layering of Tomorrowland's "transportation" attractions. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteIn that second photo, you can see the dangerous, underwater canyon that the subs had to navigate. Sub skippers had to have nerves of steel (stainless steel, of course; they did spend most of their time underwater, after all). I think that canyon has since been subsumed by the Nemo Annex.
ReplyDeleteTM!, yes - you are the only one who ever thought that. ;-)
Never even noticed the separation as a kid, but then I never rode the Motor Boats, either. By the time I noticed that they were different water bodies as an adult, the Motor Boats were no more, and there was no way to get up close to them. My life somehow feels incomplete. I shall spend the day despondent at my misspent youth.
Fun fact! The water on the motorboat side was dark because a black hole resided right next to that wall! the substantial strip of land that used to be there was sucked in years ago, as were the original Phantom Boats. Eventually maintenance was able to relocate it to the newly built Space Mountain.
ReplyDeleteTOKYOMAGIC: that dividing wall was non-substantial but I think it’s purpose was to give the effect that the MOTORBOAT waterway was connected to the Sun Lagoon.... from the Motorboat viewpoint it always looked like you were headed right into the Sun Lagoon , but then there was a quick U-turn back.
ReplyDeleteI have a very early memory of piloting the MOTORBOAT CRUISE with my grandma as a passenger - I really thought I was controlling the boat and was so afraid that I was gonna crash and that my grandma would drown and it would be my fault! I was probably the only kid traumatized by the MOTORBOAT CRUISE.
SUN LAGOON = SUB LAGOON
ReplyDeleteThe SUN LAGOON collapsed and became the black hole!
ReplyDelete@Mike Cozart, I like SUN LAGOON just fine, it feels like you would be riding out into the sun from the shady boat river. Would this be the Rivers of Tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing about the thin barrier, it felt like a way to make the two bodies of water feel continuous. What a gas it would be to mix up the motorboats and subs in the same river, like the canoes and Mark Twain. My best memory of the motorboats was a trip while in high school, riding with my then-girlfriend. Just a nice quiet trip.
Judging from the shadows, these photos look to be taken in the AM, and a lot of rides look quiet, Autopia, subs are definitely down or boat guy wouldn't be fishing for mackerel, no one in the sub queue, and no one on the Monorail platform, no walkers on the upper deck of CoP. The only people in sight are motorboat pilots. I see we are riding in a red PM car, so there's that too.
Thank you, Major for these unusual angle views.
JG
Nanook, I wish that guy was hauling in some fish sticks. A little tartar sauce, some lemon juice… a meal fit for a king.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, I know how much you enjoy trapezoids! What you don’t know about the guy in the boat is that he headed over to the Tahitian Terrace, and was chosen to come up on stage for a laugh. He threw out his back BIG TIME. I wonder if that mossy green barrier is “go-away green”? Maybe people who weren’t paying much attention just read that barrier as bushes. They should have put a Star Wars Land between the dark water and clear water!
Andrew, people sure do love to throw money into water. I’m not sure I get it, but it is a fundamental human desire. So I wonder if they DO find lots of coins in the lagoon?
K. Martinez, I was pretty stoked to find this batch of slides, I’m glad you’re enjoying them.
Chuck, I hope that the sub skippers never had to do a “crazy Ivan” maneuver! I forget what that is exactly, but it was in “The Hunt For Red October”. I think the helmsman was blindfolded and eating soft serve ice cream? I’m sorry that your life feels incomplete, but on the other hand, I love being able to feel superior to somebody (ANYBODY) because I have been on the Motor Boats!
Stu29573, you know, this is why I love science. Your explanation makes complete sense, and it also explains why there are so many tachyons with reversed polarity everywhere. Those things are so annoying! Maybe the Phantom Boats caused the black hole?
Mike Cozart, yes, I think you are right, most people didn’t even notice that barrier. And you can see in that first photo that one boat (heading away from us) looks like it is going to crash right into the wall. Luckily it made a hairpin turn at the last moment. Also, I guess it just goes to show you that even the mild, slow Motor Boats can traumatize a child with an active imagination!
Mike Cozart, darn, I was all excited. “I never knew the lagoon was called the Sun Lagoon!”.
Stu29573, how did maintenance move that black hole, anyway? Oven mitts? Barbecue tongs?
JG, I was too young to have a girlfriend when the Motor Boats were still working (though admitted there were many years when I didn’t go on them at all), but it would have been pretty nice to be in one of those boats with your best girl. See, I’m all turned around, I thought it was later in the day instead of morning, but I’m probably wrong. I just figured it was one of those slow days that I dream about!
ReplyDeleteThese are some swell shots with lot's going on. The first looks like a mini-freeway stack in LA somewhere. Disney imagineers were pros at cross contamination prevention. Look at how they managed to keep all those glowing pools from mixing in Rainbow Caverns ;-).
ReplyDeleteI did hear a rumor that the zig-zag roof was quite the repair problem at first. That thin tissue like paper didn't hold up well in the rain.
Mike, I hear a Christmas carol coming on . . .
ReplyDeleteGrandma got run over by her grandson
Puttering round the lagoon Christmas Eve
You may say there's no such thing as Santa
But as for me and grandpa we believe
(Melissa, we really need you now!)
Sue
Major, as incomplete as my life feels, I know I've had it better than most. At least I got to ride the keelboats and eat at Captain Hook's Galley when I had the chance. ;-)
ReplyDelete@Chuck, no one need say more to have lived a full life.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing to make it better would be eating a tuna sandwich on top of the keelboat.
JG