Has anyone heard of this behind the scenes tour or in fact been on it?
Lynne
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Has anyone heard of this behind the scenes tour or in fact been on it?
Lynne
Where is it a behind the scenes tour of?
It is supposedly a 3hr tour of how the 4 Disney parks are transformed into a winter wonderland
Lynne
Just found this on it
[b]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.
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