We are Jr. Imagineers, working together as a family to Imagineer our own rides and attractions in the garage that we hope to someday, somehow, present to the real Disney Imagineers.
Our family consists of Mom, Lindsey; head Imagineer, main idea maker, story expert, boss and yay-nah sayer. She set most of the projects that we kids take on, expand or make our own. We give Mom our ideas and she can work them into something we can turn into a working attraction/model.
Sister is head of storyboarding, art, color design, model making/sculpting, musical score and interior design. Sister is also main blogger and tweeter. She is gifted in all things art and music and is learning the craft of story from Mommy who is actually an experienced writer/story person. When Sister grows-up, she wants to be an artist and a police officer.
Brother is head of animatronics, electronics, mechanics and engineering. Brother is in charge of coaster design while Sister is in charge of designing the scene surrounding the coaster. Brother is gifted in all things mechanical and engineering. He won his first try at Lego building contests and has built bigger, more detailed things ever since. He is also handy with a hammer and screwdriver set since 5 when he got his first real tool set from Great-Grandpa, a master craftsmen and woodworker. When Brother was young, he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew-up, but now he wants to be in the Air Force.
Mom started this project to help build science and problem solving skills, along with writing and reading comprehension. It was the perfect family project and hobby, everyone in the family has something to offer and own without taking away from someone else. The Imagineering project is not only developing problem solving skills, but research skills and communication skills. It has really brought the family together too, everyone gets excited at each little development, and we love to sit together to plan our next step or development. Before this, we were kind of miserable really sad. Now we've got something that perks us right up! We're happy being us!
Our Rides:
Main Street
Ode to Walt Disney
We can't think of a real good name for this yet, but it is dedicated to Walt Disney and his love of railroading and trains. Ride a scale of the Lily Belle to learn the history of Walt Disney and his love of railroading. Watch Walt work on his train the Lily Belle, view the Carolwood Pacific and then take a short trip through every Disney Park's railroad around the world. Exit at the depot, where guests can drive remote control trains through every Disney Park in the world, play with the trains in a Frontierland Shooting Gallery style play area or just look at the model trains ride through select stories and attractions.
Fantasyland
Jr. Imagineer's version of Snow White's Seven Dwarfs Mine Cart Coaster:
We started with this ride first from the whole project and developed our own story line. This hosts a brand new mountain for Disneyland, with two rides in one for the Mine, and another ride on the opposite side of the mountain for Frontierland. We planted it right between Fantasyland and Frontierland, with a Pecos Bill/Cry of the Coyote ride on the opposite side, though we plan the Mine Coaster to actually reside in half of Pecos Bill's side of the mountain. We gave Mom our dreams for this ride, and she worked it all into a story so everyone gets their ideas built in. The story is told in line as well as in the ride, and even extends out to the exits for this.
The Story:
The Dwarfs are preparing for Snow White's wedding, picking out the best gems and jewels for her from the mine's Mother Lode. While the rest of the Dwarfs were washing up and getting ready to rehearse their music for the wedding, Dopey was sent off with the one and only map of the mine to retrieve these very special jewels. Of course, Dopey looses the map, and now the Dwarfs have to split up and try and find the Mother Lode on their own. Guests enter the mine for the slow ride, treated to the scenes of the Dwarfs washing and rehearsing outside the mountain and rehearsing in line, setting the story, and enter the mine to ride individual cars through a dark ride, driven by a real dwarf (okay, animatronic dwarf), to search for the Mother Lode. Each car drives as its dwarf would drive, with two lines leading either Sleepy, Dopey and Bashful or Doc, Sneezy, Happy and Grumpy. The first line is slower paced than the other. At the end of the ride, each guests finds the Mother Lode just in time, but while they exit the area, Doc asks if anyone happened to write down the directions. Guests leaving the dark ride have an option to walk straight into the coaster queue.
Now the Dwarfs are pressed for time, their clock is striking, one hour til the wedding and the Dwarfs need to get ready themselves while they get the Prince going in time. They ask their animal friends to tie together some mine cars and race through the mine, looking for the Mother Lode so they can finish the jewels and hand it off to the Prince in time for the wedding. In the coaster line, the guests watch the animals create the trains that they will be riding in. Buck, a strong, silent buck, drives the train while guests load up to race through the entire mine. In and out of the mine guests go, and right as the clock starts to mark the hour, the animal friends find the Mother Lode and parachute down to pass the jewels to birds that will pass it off to the Prince. To get the guests back in time to see off the Prince, Buck veers off course and takes the train off the track into a flume to fly down the side of the mountain, catching up with the rest of the track at the bottom of the hill before the clock stops chiming. While guests exit this line, they get to walk through the end of Snow White's wedding, and see them live happily ever after.
Frontierland:
The Ballad of Pecos Bill
Modeled after Roy Roger's Ballad of Pecos Bill, this ride shares a mountain with the Mine Car Coaster, though perspective and transition makes it nearly impossible for guests to tell.
New Orlean's Square:
The Frog & The Princess
Venture down the Bayou to Tiana and Prince Laveen's wedding on a raft with Louis by your side, guided by Ray and his firefly family for a singing good time...just watch out for frog catchers and guns!
Critter Country:
The Many Tails of Chip & Dale:
Ride an acorn through this adventure about Chip and Dale's.
Well, that's it for now on our Imagineering project in a nutshell. Every week we develop some part of it or add something to it, and hopefully in a year we will have a working model of our rides going in our garage. This is the most fun we can have without visiting the park itself! We're loving it!
