Memory 069 – Journey Into Imagination With Figment

Come and join us for another installment of the WDW-Memories podcast, where I try to make it possible for you relive your Walt Disney World Memories when you can’t actually be there.

** Binaural Audio, Stereo Audio **
Time: 30:57

Wow, my trip is almost here. A week from the release of this podcast I’ll be packing up and heading to Orlando for my convention. That first week I’ll be tied up there, but like I said I hope to slip over to the parks in the evenings or before the convention begins. I have a friend who works for Disney and with his help, I hope to see some things at the parks. At the end of the convention, my wife and kids and extended family will arrive and we’re planning to do a day together at the Magic Kingdom. This should be a blast as we’ll have a couple of the group who have never been to Walt Disney World including two little ones under two. I’m so looking forward to this. Maybe you have some ideas of what we should do to help keep the kids happy and cool throughout the day, just email me or post on one of our many social media sites. After that, we’re all going to head to the beach for an extended vacation. I’m still trying to convince the wife, but we may come back over to the parks for one more day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which I think the kids will love, but that ones not set in stone yet. I’ve made dining reservations just in case though, a good Junior Woodchuck is always prepared. So as you can tell, I’m pretty excited. I’m going to try and utilize my social media accounts while in the parks, so keep an eye on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook between June 10 and 24. And as for the podcast that should be released on the 15th, I’ll have something. Who knows, maybe I’ll record it live in the park and just release that. You’ll just have to wait and see.

Now on to our regularly scheduled podcast. Our request for today’s podcast came from Amanda in Barcelona, Spain. She originally just wrote in saying she wanted to hear Imagination, plus some of the other great Epcot attractions. I’ll just sum up her emails as saying, she has many memories of spending time there at Epcot as she grew up in the Orlando area, everything from eating in World Showcase before Prom, to drinks in the UK every Friday after turning 21. The requests for Imagination though was just a nostalgic one.

As always I tossed the idea out to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ and got the following responses:

On Twitter, Steve wrote:

not a big fan of figment.

And on Facebook the sentiments were many and similar to Steves. But here are my favorites:

Laura Said:

i was about to ask about that one!!! i can’t completely remember the old one, but i know i liked it better. mostly because of the first time we rode the new one i think. when i was younger i hated loud noises and when figment turns into a skunk there is definitely a loud noise, no matter what my family says. so while everyone else on the ride covered their nose, i put my hands over my ears. i will never live that one down… regardless, i like this choice 🙂

And Dennis said:

I can remember as a kid my parents along me then EPCOT Center and me being bored with almost everything except journey into Imagination. I’d go around of the day singing the song.

So sadly I don’t have the original ride recording available today, which is what everyone wants. I know I have some video clips somewhere that I can maybe work into a useable podcast someday, but that will have to wait for now. Today though, I do have the Second and Third incarnations of the Imagination attraction.

So let’s start off by traveling back to December of 2000. My family and I have made our annual pilgramage to Florida for the Christmas Holiday, and have taken a day to slip over to Walt Disney World for some fun in the parks. We started off in Animal Kingdom, jumped to the Disney MGM Studios and now are in Epcot for a bit before we finish up in the Magic Kingdom. It’s a long day for sure, but if you only do it once in a while, you have to make the most of it right? Anyways, it’s late afternoon and we’re looking for a relaxing ride with no line, and this attraction fits that description perfectly. We’ll join up with this memory as the cars begin to pull away from the loading area and we’re off to Joney Into YOUR Imagination With Figment.

Our second memory is from December of 2006, the Anniversary trip. It’s the last hours of our trip. We’ve got a little bit of time before our flight in the afternoon so we decide to spend it in Epcot since there are still things we haven’t seen, even after almost 2 full days in that park. We didn’t get there very early, but as most of this trip has been, there are still no crowds. We head straight over to the Journey Into Imagination With Figment, and of course there’s no wait. This is where we’ll join our second memory, as we walk down the queue, taking a bit of time to look at some of the details and doors as we walk. Then we’re loaded in and off on another adventure.

Our first Memory is in stereo, but the second one is actually in Binaural, so I’d suggest putting those headphones on now.