When I read about the Yuletide Fantasy Tour in Mike Scopa’s WDW Holiday
column here on MousePlanet (link),
I knew my wife and I would have to check it out during our trip. Jennifer
had to talk to a couple of Disney reservation agents before she found
one who had even heard of the tour; hopefully this review will spread
the word a bit.
On the morning of the tour, we met at 8:45 in front of Epcot Guest Relations.
The Backstage Magic tour was also meeting there so there was a bit of
confusion, but the Disney Institute folks sorted it out. A photo ID was
required, as was noted in the tour booking materials, but two people didn’t
have theirs. They were driven back to their hotel and rejoined the tour
later.
Including the two late-comers, we had 39 people on this tour. This seemed
more than expected, and for this reason we had two tour hosts: Joel and
Mark. We would all ride on the same bus, but split into two groups when
walking. Jen and I were in Mark’s group.
Before we boarded, Mark passed around a clipboard with a sheet of paper
for people to write their e-mail addresses; let’s see if they send us
feedback surveys. Mark also told everyone that the tour would take us
both onstage (the public areas) and backstage, and warned us against photographing
anything backstage, or onstage before the parks opened.
We entered Epcot through the cast member gate at the far right of the
entrance plaza at 9:00 and walked past the lockers to a backstage gate.
As we left the onstage area I felt that little thrill I always get when
going backstage, even though we were doing so with permission.
We walked past the backstage area of the Living Seas—which I recognized
from past Backstage Magic tours—and boarded a luxurious Disney Cruise
Lines motor coach. Unlike Backstage Magic, however, the cooler of sodas
and water was absent. When everyone was on board and we had been introduced
to Anil, our driver, we left the Living Seas area and went through Epcot
backstage areas, around the back of World Showcase and stopped at Germany.
If you know your Epcot geography, you may be wondering how our bus made
it from behind the Living Seas to Germany on backstage roads, when the
International Gateway canal lies between the U.K. and France pavilions.
To tell the truth, it didn’t dawn on me until this very moment, writing
this review. The answer is that there is a backstage tunnel underneath
the International Gateway canal, similar to the one on the road from the
Ticket and Transportation Center to the Contemporary Resort but a bit
longer.
Our first stop was the Germany pavilion. We gathered in front of the
entrance to the restaurant. The history of the Christmas tree, as related
by Mark, was that it was started in Germany as a religious ceremony surrounding
the eating of the apple by Adam and Eve. The priests would cut down a
large tree to place in the church (evergreens were used since they were
the only tree still green in December) and they would hang apples from
its limbs to symbolize the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. To
reflect this heritage, the decorations in Germany consist of evergreen
boughs hung with red globes. The glass globes we use today are a relic
of this tradition, and were originally created by glassblowers taking
a break from their usual work of creating goblets and bottles.
One of the buildings in the Germany pavilion decorated for Christmas. Photo by Jennifer Rich.
At our next stop, the Italy pavilion, the decorations were much more
elaborate. The swags adorning the buildings had beautiful muted colors
of maroon, pink and green with accents of gold. Mark related the story
of Le Befana, the witch who brings gifts to children in Italy.
We then visited the American Adventure. The large tree in the center
square and the swags on the buildings were decorated with apples, pears
and pineapple to represent the style of Andrea della Robbia (nephew and
pupil to famous enamel sculptor Luca della Robbia from 15th Century Italy),
which emphasizes the use of fruit in decorations and furnishings. Since
fruit was scarce in winter months, to decorate your tree with fruit was
extravagant and proved you were wealthy enough to ‘waste’ the fruit for
decoration.
Inside the American Adventure lobby are small presentations on Hanukkah
and Kwanzaa. Mark briefly went over the history of each of these holidays.
In the Japan pavilion, we learned about Oshogatsu, the Japanese New Year
and the country’s biggest holiday. At this time of year, Japanese families
clean not only their houses but spiritually cleanse themselves, similar
to the Jewish day of atonement Yom Kippur. A broom made of rice straw
is used for the final sweep of the home, and then the straw is woven into
a kind of rope that is hung over the door. Mark also described Hotei Osho,
the god of good fortune and one of Japan’s seven gods of happiness, who
is considered a gift giver, and whose round belly reminds the Japanese
of Santa Claus.
At a brief stop outside the Morocco pavilion, Mark gave an overview of
the Islamic holiday month of Ramadan. We then reboarded the bus backstage
behind Morocco.
Back on board, Mark and Joel recounted the Norse legend of how mistletoe
came to signal kissing. I’m afraid I didn’t take very good notes of this
section, as I was more interested in the backstage workings of Epcot’s
World Showcase. For example, as we passed behind the Mexico pavilion,
it was impossible not to notice that the back and sides of the huge building
were completely covered in tarps and scaffolding, perhaps as part of a
painting or siding project.
Next up was a walk through the Disney-MGM Studios. We drove through Studio
backroads familiar to anyone who has taken the (now sadly truncated) Studio
Backlot Tour, and emerged onstage near the Who Wants to be a Millionaire
stage. Here on Mickey Avenue, Mark pointed out the low-key decorations
and contrasted them with the bright, extravagant décor on Hollywood
Boulevard; this represents the history of small towns expending their
decorating efforts where it will be most appreciated: on the main street.
We then walked to the new Big City Street area where Mark recounted the
now-familiar history of the Osborne lights. This has been well gone over,
but a couple of new-to-me highlights were that the Osborne lights first
appeared at the Studios on November 24, 1995, and now consist of approximately
five million individual lights. Also, Disney custom-manufactures most
of the long strands seen wrapped around the buildings, but the large set
pieces are those originally used in Osborne’s home display. Then it was
backstage again near the Backlot Tour entrance and back on the bus for
a trip to the Wilderness Lodge.
This stop lasted just long enough for us to see the largely outdoor-themed
décor at the Lodge, and for Mark to mention that Walt Disney World
as a whole uses over 300,000 yards of ribbon in its holiday decorations,
much of it made on-site. The Wilderness Lodge tree includes quite a bit
of ribbon, mostly in bows. We also learned that when the Lodge was still
in the design stages, special provision was made (and has been in all
new resort construction since) for holiday decorations—accessible
electrical outlets in the middle of the floor and the like. Older resorts,
such as the Grand Floridian, had no such provisions and so until recently
had large electrical power cables running across the floor to the trees.
We found out more about this a bit later. Finally, Mark noted that the
concept of lights in Christmas trees was originally the result of Martin
Luther’s attempt to re-create seeing a starlight night sky through a forest.
We boarded the bus and were off to the Magic Kingdom. While en route,
Mark expanded on his earlier mention of the electrical infrastructure
behind resort decorations. The Grand Floridian, for example, had until
two years ago run two 30-Amp lines across the lobby floor to power the
lights on its tree. This changed when the lights were changed from incandescent
to LED (light emitting diode; look at the CAPS LOCK light on your keyboard
for an example). LEDs burn cooler and use a fraction of the power. Now,
the Grand Floridian’s tree is powered by one 110-Volt electrical outlet.
As our bus entered the backstage area of the Magic Kingdom, we were stopped
at a security checkpoint. A security officer boarded the bus and checked
everyone’s ID, including Mark, Joel, and Anil’s. It wasn’t clear what
she was checking for, since she had no master list to verify against,
but it didn’t take too long and then we were on our way. We parked behind
the Main Street Exposition Hall and emerged on stage next to Tony’s Restaurant.
Here, Mark recounted how, until 1996, Walt Disney World had used real
Mount Shasta trees for each park. In fact, each resort Christmas tree
required three trees: one chosen for its height and shape, and two others
stripped and used as fill-in on the first. The problem was that the trees
had to be shipped by rail from California to Florida, arrived in September,
and were quite brown and dead by November. So they were painted green
and coated in a thick layer of fire-retardant before being decorated,
after which it was very difficult to tell that they were ever real trees.
Since 1996, artificial trees have been used as the centerpiece trees at
the parks; smaller real trees are still used as accents throughout WDW.
The Magic Kingdom’s tree, like the trees at Epcot, the Studios, and Animal
Kingdom, is actually composed of five parts. These are decorated separately
and then assembled on-site.
We also learned that the Main Street shops are decorated according to
the merchandise they carry, and each is different because they are supposed
to be small family operations. Finally, Mark recounted some of the story
of St. Nicolas and how he came to be known as Santa Claus. We went backstage
again through the large gates at the end of East Center Street.
What would turn out to be the last stop on our tour would also be, for
both Jennifer and me, the most interesting and exciting: the home of WDW’s
Holiday Services Team. This group of 25 to 30 dedicated people work in
a warehouse in the Magic Kingdom’s deep backstage area, back behind Mickey’s
ToonTown Fair and near the Central Shops (with which Jen and I were familiar
after several Backstage Magic tours).
It turns out that it can take up to two and a half years for the Holiday
Services Team, working with staff at the various resorts and parks, to
design and build the decorations for a particular area. This means that
decorations for the 2004 holiday season were planned and constructed starting
as early as mid-2002. The process by which themed decorations are planned
actually resembles that of making an animated feature, with extensive
use of storyboards and small mock-ups to demonstrate individual design
elements. When a design is finalized, it’s time to go shopping. Several
members of the team visit a trade show in Atlanta each year, and buy enough
pieces to last an average of five years at a time. You can imagine these
folks are pretty popular at the trade booths!
The huge, 68,000-square-foot building was previously the food preparation
center for the Magic Kingdom. All food served throughout the park was
prepared here and sent to the various locations. When the shift to local
kitchens occurred, the building was left vacant and the Holiday Services
Team—until then operating out of a set of trailers—moved in.
This department is now responsible for decorations not only at Walt Disney
World, but at the off-site Disney Vacation Club resorts, Castaway Cay,
and the two Disney Cruise Line ships. And because installing decorations
on the ships takes far longer than the few hours the ships are in home
port, some team members must bravely embark on a luxury cruise to get
the job done.
As Mark was telling us all of this, we were exploring the warehouse (in
a tightly-controlled tour-group environment, with safety glasses on).
Think Home Depot meets Michael’s, and you get the general idea. There
are floor-to-ceiling industrial shelving units loaded with artificial
trees and parts of trees, wreaths, huge ornaments and other decorations.
Crates, shelves, boxes, and stacks of hundreds and thousands of different
ornaments, lights, and various holiday bric-a-brac cover the entire span
of the building.
The former bakery is now the construction, decoration, and assembly room.
In this giant active workshop, we saw (among many other wonders) an almost-completed
scale train tunnel meant for the Main Street tree. Apparently the 1/8-scale
model of Walt Disney’s Carolwood Pacific (itself a 1/8 scale model, so
that makes the one at the Magic Kingdom a 1/64 scale model) is just a
bit too close to the rope at one point, inviting curious fingers. This
tunnel piece will protect the train through that section of track.
As we re-boarded the motor coach for the last time, Joel and Mark asked
if we had any questions. One of the other guests on the tour asked how
the decorations were transported from the warehouse to the various locations.
The answer is in 150 tractor-trailer loads. The sheer size of the job
of decorating Walt Disney World for the holidays had me speechless.
On the way back to Epcot’s Guest Relations where we started our day,
our kind hosts presented us with two gifts: a red jeweled Mickey-head
glass ornament, similar to those available in the parks but actually created
by the Holiday Services Team just for this program; and an exclusive Yuletide
Fantasy Tour pin.
With that, the tour was over. The three-hour tour ended up running about
45 minutes over—not that I was complaining—and we enjoyed it
immensely. If you plan a trip to Walt Disney World during the period this
tour is offered and you have any interest in how the parks and resorts
are decorated for the holidays, I strongly recommend taking the tour.
Note: You can get a discount of 10 or 15 percent if you book the tour
through AAA, but you must be an AAA member to do so.
