This blog is for YOU. If you found it you are welcomed to enjoy it because you found it for a reason. You love Horizons and you miss it!
Chief and I aren't the "masters" of this attraction like many disney fan sites claim (or want) to be. We just did what we had to do for our own memories and now we want to share it all with you. All of it.
Comment if you have the time. We like it and we want to hear from you.
I can't explain how much I depend on this blog; as someone who has never actually ridden Horizons (well, I have, but I was three at the time) I have no other way to experience such a classic EPCOT attraction
ReplyDeleteThanks for being nuts enough to disregard the ride safety message!
I rode Horizons for the first and last time in 1988. I was still a youngster.
ReplyDeleteMy dad took some cool videos of the ride. He didn't shoot the whole thing unfortunatly. But I spent the next few years constantly watching that footage.
Then, i went to high school and for some reason i stopped watching the home movies. Then, 2 years after i graduated i fell back in love with disney and my home movies. But, i didn't know which ride it was in the home movies. So after some googling, i found out that the ride was called Horizons and that it was torn down 2 years before.
So, i spend tons of time researching the attraction, watching Martins Videos, frequently visiting Epcot, etc... But i could never the "right" photos and information.
Until Now. :)
Thank you Hoot And Chief.
Let me also thank you guys again for doing this. I too went through some kind of spiritual shock when I heard Horizons closed. When it reopened in '98 I was absolutely beside myself. Although I doubt I've ever had the balls to jump out of the vehicle, I tried my hardest to get as much Horizons as I could in that year. Considering the fact that I was 17 at the time with no money and lived hours away, that was only a few rides that year. Thanks for doing what most of us couldn't...even if we did have the balls ;)
ReplyDeleteI'll jump in with a quick "thanks," as well.
ReplyDeleteI've been a once a year visitor to WDW since 1985. I can still remember (vividly) the day I saw the news of Horizons demise.
I was attending college in Arizona getting a second art degree and living with my parents. At that time, my only source of Disney news had been self discovered on my personal visits to the World. On this particular day, I stumbled upon wdwmagic.com. I was blown away by the amount of information about my favorite place in the universe.
Unfortunately, after a few minutes of looking around the site, my joy turned to sadness. I saw THE pictures. I was speechless. My heart dropped to my stomach. I had no words. It was something like seeing a close friend lying dead on the ground. Until that moment, I hadn't known that Horizons was gone.
I suppose in hindsight that it was better to see it in a picture on the internet than in person. I've spent a lot of time looking around the internet, and I've found some great tributes, pictures, and videos. Then came Mesa Verde Times.
I'm not sure the two of you realize the insight and overall satisfaction you give to those of us who truly felt at home in this attraction.
Thanks again.
My adoration of all things Epcot has been around since the mid 80s. Figment (JII) was always my favorite and Horizons was #2 on my list. I'll never forget the day I heard Figment was being removed. As sad as I was, I still had Horizons to fall back on. But oh wait...what's this!? Horizon's fate was declaired only a few short months after I lost Figgie!?? This simply cannot be!! What is happening to my favorite place!?
ReplyDeleteI never it made it back for one last ride on either attraction. The emptiness I felt was unlike any other. Just like Ztredway said, it was though I had lost a best friend. And not one, but TWO! You guys have literally filled a void in my life with Mesa Verde Times! Now it feels as though it is still there, standing like "a grand a miraculous spaceship!" (oops, wrong attraction...lol)
The daily anticipation of what's been added to this blog is something I now look forward to. Like the morning coffee, my day doesn't start without Mesa Verde! Now if you guys reveal afterwards that you've got JII back stage footage, I will follow you to the end of time!! :D Luv U guys for doing this!!!
~Sarah~
Hey Hoot and Chief,
ReplyDeleteI find your site fascinating! When I first heard of it (on Micecast) it sounded like the "Disneyland Locals" and their videos (where they vandalize Disneyland rides and ruin the park for everyone around them.)
I wanted to hate you guys.
But, after reading some of your posts and watching your videos it became clear that you did this out of a love for this attraction (not contempt.)
Heck, as a kid I always wanted to jump on stage at the Carousel of Progress and to see Little Egypt dance the hoochi coochi. So I understand the desire to jump out of the vehicle.
Anyway, I am so glad you have shared this footage and hope you continue to do so. I liked Horizons a lot, and seeing the videos of you two walking on the sets really brings me back (much more than any of the ride videos I have seen.)
Watching your videos has led to lots of daydreaming about what it must have felt like to be IN the ride. The adrenaline rush, the unique look at a familiar subject and the fun you must have had are priceless.
Thanks for having the courage to get these images, and thanks for not vandalizing the ride or ruining it for those who were riding.
I just want to say I have really enjoyed your blog as someone who remember Horizons very fondly but not super clearly as I was relatively young. (I was nine when it was closed) My family as a whole loved this ride and would often reminisce about it, but your site has given us something new to talk to about, and brought the ride back to life for us.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are my heroes!
ReplyDeleteWe got our annual passes in 1982 when Epcot first opened (I was four back then), and I was fortunate enough to practically grow up in the parks. We were there for the Horizons opening in 1983. My parents took a couple of friends along with me to experience the new attraction to celebrate my birthday that weekend. Let's just say I've got of good memories of Horizons from childhood through adulthood during the years it was operational. It became my favorite ride and I'd guess I was able to experience it more than a hundred times... I wish I'd counted.
I stumbled across your blog over the weekend and have been gorking out on everything Horizons-related since (thanks for encouraging my OCD). I think I spent all Saturday reading through every post in this blog and found myself even more in love with this attraction than I was before!
The footage you've collected here is incredible, and just a testament to the Imagineers' eye for detail and obsession with quality back then. Even with things a normal rider would probably never notice or be able to see clearly. They just don't make 'em like they used to...
Thank you for risking everything to preserve this attraction and sharing it all with us! I can't wait to see the rest of the stuff up your sleeves.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI am a loyal follower from almost the beginning. I just don't have a google account to be one of the official "135."
Horizons was and is my all time favorite. I drove my wife crazy on our visits because we rode it so many times. She thought I was nuts when I would lean over and say, "Wouldn't it be neat to jump out and go check out the birthday party?" Or, "What do you think it looks like inside the underwater restaurant?" She thought Horizons was getting "dated", but I stayed with her anyway.
Two of my favorite things at Epcot, Horizons and the Odyssey restaurant are gone, but not forgotten.
Every morning, I start my day by checking two newspapers on line. The Boston Herald and The Mesa Verde Times!
My wife still thinks I'm nuts, but I always catch her peeking over my sholder to see what you guys are up to next.
Keep up the good work.
The blog F'n rocks...Horizons, Disney created you, Disney destroyed you, what a jip!
ReplyDeleteHorizons OCD smack for us E.P.C.O.T. junkies all day!
ReplyDeleteI watched (and read) enough in one sitting, that upon passing out, I had dreams as if I was there, takings orders and making decisions for the best extended footage.. waking from it was pretty trippy.. and sad. :(
All the best and thanks for the rest!
TampaJoe (idkw it's naming me as #'s..)
Looks like Tampa Joe is reading about a day ahead of me...
ReplyDeleteI continue to be astonished by the details in this blog and the subject covered. As a youth, I had the EPCOT poster that announced that the future would begin in 1982... I had been anticipating EPCOT since first seeing Unca' Walt talk about it in a segment rebroadcast on The Wonderful World of Disney as a small kid. I was obsessed with seeing the future and what it held. When I visited WDW as an early teen, I got the poster and couldn't wait for that date to arrive!
I was disappointed when the concept changed from city to park, but that wasn't going to stop me going. Disney in the 70's & 80's was at it's zenith. The Imagineering brilliance coming out of the company was beyond belief, with each new attraction and upgrade seeming to be better than the last.
FINALLY I got to Epcot in 1983. Horizons was brand new and I was going to get on it! It was AMAZING! The Carousel of Progress had been one of my favorites as a kid, and we'd just been on it at the Magic Kingdom the day before, so I was pretty happy... but then I got on Horizons. It was like Carousel on uppers with a steroid and crack cocaine chaser! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It was ALL so real, so lifelike with animatronics that actually moved in lifelike ways! It had a new type of ride system with a decision theatre concept built in and was all wrapped up in a shiny cool building that looked like a massive mothership had landed and brought the future to our pitiful time. I was floored.
I brought my bride back on our honeymoon years later and TRIED to prepare her for this attraction, but she too was just blown away by the lorange scented hallucinatory wonder that was Horizons... it remained our favorite ride for years. Then those Eisner power'd bastardés DESTROYED IT! WTF! UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!, but don't DESTROY our beloved Horizons!
I sucked it up as I downed a glass of vino in toast to its demise. I hoped and prayed that Mission: Space would be as cool and wonderful as the ride that proceeded it. But it wasn't. Where once your spirit was lifted, now only your lunch comes up.
DAMN YOU Mission: Space! Why couldn't you just shoehorn into the space between Horizons and Test Track? You could even have used a thin thread to the European Space Authority by calling yourself French Guyana and plopped down in that useless Africanized "outpost" waste of good attraction-less spot in next to China, in World Showcase.... but NOOOOOOOO! You had to be a vomit inducing, giant, fancy colored version of the carny-ride, Spaceship4000, smashing Horizons out of existence like a steel-toed construction boot smashing an ant. Your balls out front may look like polished brass, but inside you give adults heart-attacks and reek of children pissing themselves. You desecrate the hallowed ground where the future once stood.
Thank you Hoot & Cheif! We honor your brave yet excellent adventure into preserving and now resurrecting the memories of a future lost. I salute you and your site.
Darin~
I just found this blog and am fascinated! Wow, can't believe you guys did this! I only rode Horizons a handful of times but I wish these classic rides were still here like World of Motion too. Incredible. Thanks for doing this!
ReplyDeleteI just found this blog and am fascinated! Wow, can't believe you guys did this! I only rode Horizons a handful of times but I wish these classic rides were still here like World of Motion too. Incredible. Thanks for doing this!
ReplyDelete