Guide to WDW Pages 24 & 25

We are now in the downstretch of looking through the Walt Disney World guide from 1979. Two more resorts are on pages 24 and 25. The first is a resort geared towards sports and relaxation--Golf Resort Hotel. Two courses are available for guests to play, the Palm and the Magnolia.

The following page has you staying out in the wilderness with deer, opossums, armadillos, and other creatures at the Fort Wilderness Resort. This place is ideal for kids to run around and explore the outdoors. There is River Country, canoeing, campfires, and the Wilderness Line steam train. The activities continue at night with the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue and Disney movies outside around the campfire while roasting marshmallows. Yum! I must admit, this place is still my favorite resort, even without the railroad.

Dining Around The World Brochure Late 1980s

The tenth and final item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet is an undated brochure for Dining Around The World. From a visual standpoint, this item is very bland and is much smaller than the other brochures. But, what makes it interesting from a theme park enthusiast perspective is what is inside. Here, you will find all the full service restaurants at Walt Disney World in the late 1980s. Many still exist, but, several of them have changed their names. Take a look. Have you been to any of these defunct restaurants? If so, do you remember what you had to eat there? And, do you have any pictures?

Sony Rear Vision Sweepstakes Fort Wilderness 1989 Brochure

We are getting close to the end of the contents of the Fort Wilderness welcome packet. This ninth item is a 1989 brochure for the Sony Rear Vision Sweepstakes to "Win a Walt Disney World Resort family vacation, including a 5-day/4-night stay at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground". There are some nice pictures inside of some activities around the resort including carriage rides at the Settlement, horseback riding, and the petting farm. Also, there is a nice picture of some some tubing at River Country, complete with the logo on the tube.

Fort Wilderness Fleetwood Booklet 1988

The eighth item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet is an October 1988 (10/88) edition of an advertising booklet for Fleetwood. This booklet has 24 pages, but, only the first four pages are of interest to Walt Disney World. The first page, which is the cover, has a nice photograph of Chip N' Dale posing with the campground entrance sign for Fort Wilderness. The second and third pages are a spread for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue with a few nice pictures. The fourth page has a picture of the Fort Wilderness Fleetwood Trailer Home Rental as well as a floor plan for the six sleeper model. The other pages of the booklet, which I did not take pictures of, are pictures of various Fleetwood trailer models.

Breakfast with Chip 'N Dale

We are now at the seventh item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet. It is a two-sided brochure from 1989 featuring our de facto ambassodors of Fort Wilderness, Chip 'N Dale. They want the whole family to attend their Chip & Dale's Country Morning Jamboree at Pioneer Hall. This is a fun breakfast show to get young campers all geared up for the day. Melvin the Moose will be there, some specially invited Disney characters, along with a couple of their human friends, Cindy Lou and Alabam. The breakfast features a good old fashioned country cooking of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and biscuits and gravy along with some chocolate chip muffins. And, by Disney standards, the prices are reasonable at $9 for kids and $12 for adults. Sounds like just the thing to get everyone excited about getting up and at 'em in the morning at Walt Disney World.

Pirates Point Excursion 1989

If you haven't noticed yet, except for a couple of pieces, all the inserts in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet have been on brown recycled paper. Dated 1989, this sixth item is no exception. What is interesting about this single-sided brochure is it isn't for anything at Fort Wilderness or a park. Instead, it is for an activity at another resort--Disney's Polynesian Resort to be precise. Before the Pirates and Pricesses Parade, Captain Jack Sparrow, and The Pirates League, there was the Pirates Point Excursion. Here, you can sail the Seven Seas Lagoon, hunt for buried treasure, enjoy refreshments...even have a marshmallow roast and sing-a-long with your Pirate Hosts! Yo-ho, yo-ho, a Pirate's life for me! Geez, wish I had done that as a kid.

Fort Wilderness and Fleetwood Brochure 1989

We are now half way through the Fort Wilderness welcome packet. This fifth item is by far the most colorful insert thus far. It is a brochure of Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground fro 1989.

The back is a nice advertisement for The Official Recreational Vehicles of Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort, Fleetwood, and includes a handful of pictures of families roughing it Disney-style at Fort Wilderness.


As you open the brochure, you see a generalized map of Fort Wilderness and its proximity to River Country, Discovery Island, and the Magic Kingdom.


The inside is a layout informing guests to Discover the Fun of Camping and that there is Entertainment All Day Long. Included are several pictures of activities at Fort Wilderness, River Country, Discovery Island, the Magic Kingdom, and Epcot Center. Noticeably missing from this guide is the Disney-MGM Studios which suggests this pamplet came out earlier in 1989.

Disney's Fort Wilderness Guest Questionnaire 1988

With the fourth item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet, we again finally have an item that is not related to Discovery Island. Instead, we have a Fort Wilderness questionnaire for guests to fill out upon completion of their stay at this frontier inspired resort. The outside back of the questionnaire has a note from then Executive Vice President of the Walt Disney Resorts, Robert I. Small, which reads:

Welcome...

It is a pleasure to have you as a guest at our
resort. My staff and I want your visit to be a dream
come true. All of us believe that Disney Resort
Experiences Are Magic and we are here to ensure
that all your expectations are met. To help keep
the DREAM and the Magic, we need your
thoughts.
It is important to us that you continue to
select the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort as your
vacation destination. The comments of concerned
guests, like you, help us maintain the standards of
quality that are synonymous with the Disney name.

Thank you for helping us keep the Magic.

Robert I. Small
Executive Vice President
WALT DISNEY WORLD Resorts

The fairly exhaustive questionnaire, which appears on the inside and covers all three pages, reflects Mr. Small's honest invitation to you, the guest, to provide both positive and negative feedback. Your positive responses will help to continue to exceed the guest's expectations of a Disney resort. Likewise, your negative responses, or suggested improvements, will help facilitate in improving any deficiencies in the current guest experience. And, to show Disney truly does value and desire its guests' feedback, the postage is prepaid and addressed directly to Mr. Small.

This type of questionnaire is definitely refreshing compared to the ubiquitous please praise us type of card seen in most establishments today. Typically, five simple items are listed, such as cleanliness, quality of food, friendliness of employees, followed by a couple of lines for comments. Then, to prevent any negative comments from filtering to top management, there is a comment card drop box, where the local manager conveniently has access to dispose of any cards not meeting his/her approval. And to further discourage and feedback, if you want to mail it in, you get to pay for postage. So, even with a simple questionnaire, Disney exceeds guest expectations.

Walt Disney World Discovery Island Brochure 1989

The third item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet is another guide map for Discovery Island. This one, however, is dated 1989. The first difference you notice with this one from the previous one is the title. Instead of Disney's DI, it is Walt Disney World DI. I haven't had the chance to research this, but, I'm wondering if maybe DI changed the name in 1989. More on this theory in a second.


The next thing you immediately notice is the addition of more color. You now have various shades of red and pink. Third, the back has a nice illustration of a female cast member with a couple of monkeys on her shoulder presumably for some sort of demonstration for the guests.

Now, back to the date issue. Some more supporting material for believing today's item was used prior to yesterday's is what is missing from this brochure. This has no show times schedule, no Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers Discovery Club, and no Mickey Mouse Recycled Paper icon. If anyone knows when the official name change, if any, of DI occurred, I'd really like to know. What are your theories?

Disney's Discovery Island Brochure Undated

The second item in the Fort Wilderness welcome packet is a brochure for Disney's Discovery Island. I am sorry to say that I only went to Discovery Island one time, I was very young, and I don't remember a thing about it. I always said I would go some day. Unfortunately, it closed before that day came. Lesson learned--don't put off doing something until tomorrow, you might be too late.


Anyway, this particular brochure is undated, but, we know it is from 1988 or 1989 thanks to the packet and the other paper items inside. The front and back form a nice mural of some ducks, a deer, adn a hawk with its prey. On the back is a times schedule for the Feathered Friends and the Birds of Prey shows.


When you first open the guide, you see a nice yet simple map of the entire island for easy navigating. Then, when you open the guide up fully, you get a four panel layout with pictures of some of the various wildlife found on the island as well as some facts about each one.


Lastly, one little item to note...in the bottom right corner on the fourth panel is a small illustration of our favorite chipmunks soaring on an eagle under a banner that says, Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers Discovery Club. Now there's something for the young nature explorers to look into!

WDW Bus Transportation Routes 1989

Yesterday I wrote about the Fort Wilderness welcome packet and mentioned ten brochures were included in this packet. So, lets start looking at those items.

The first item is a card from 1989 displaying the Walt Disney World Bus Transportation Routes. The card, once folded, measures 3.5" x 6" and is on heavy stock paper. The front has a nice black and white sketch of a bus leaving the Magic Kingdom with Cinderella Castle in the background.


The inside and back display the individual routes. Each route informs guests of the properties a particular bus will stop. Then, beside these routes a colorful flag is displayed to distinguish that bus route. Each bus will have this particular flag emblazoned on its side so guests know which bus they need to hop aboard and reach their destination.

Fort Wilderness Welcome Packet 1989

Every vacation I have taken to Walt Disney World with my parents, whether the summer of 1973 to the fall of 2008, we have always camped at Fort Wilderness. I have many fond memories of this much under-appreciated and overlooked resort, but, I'll save those stories for future posts. What I want to show here is a Fort Wilderness piece from my Disneyphemera collection. This is a welcome packet from 1989. However, it should be noted that the folder itself is dated 1988. The folder is 6" x 10" which is actually a smaller version than one I also have from a vacations a couple years earlier. This packet came with 10 brochures showcasing the various activities in and around Fort Wilderness. The dates on the brochures are from 1988 and 1989, which means this packet was obviously given to guests in 1989. I'll be posting each one of these individual items over the next couple of weeks.


Now, what I love the most about this packet is the detail in the artwork on the cover. This was back when each resort had its own customized welcome packet as opposed to the generic blue one we've become accustomed the last few years. The artwork appears to be a simple pencil sketch, but very detailed. This single cover tells new guests everything available at this one resort. The background is of the Settlement Trading Post including Pioneer Hall. In the foreground, you see a cowboy mounted on a horse. This image is simple and immediately informs guests that horseback riding can be on the agenda at this resort. Various water activities are displayed including fishing, swimming/tubing, and canoing. Another activity shown is the Petting Farm. And lastly, the night time activities including performers from the Hoop-De-Doo Musical Revue and roasting marshmellows and singing around a campfire. Before you even had a chance to open up this packet, your heart was already racing and your mind jumping back and forth on which activity to do first. And, this is just the place you are staying!


On the back of the folder is a map of the entire resort including the bus routes. Back in 1988 & 1989, there were only two bus routes--the Silver Flag Route and the Brown Flag Route. Now, I will admit, the routes on this map are a little hard to follow, as you can see. The map itself doesn't have the actual route, but instead, a little side box has the routes. But, it is just the routes...no map. So, you have to use your imagination and overlay the routes onto the actual map.

Disney has definitely lost some of the magic when it comes to the theming of the welcome packets. Here's hoping, or more aptly, wishing, that we'll see these customized packets return in some form in the coming years.