Horizons Week: Part 1

Welcome to the first themed week here at Manifesting the Magic. What better way to start then with a long lost love to millions, Horizons. For the next five days we are going to dive deep into one of Epcot Center's prize jewels.We're going to follow Horizons history from constructions up to it's closer in 1999. And with the help of your friends at Mesa Verde Times we are going to get a special behind the scenes look also. so without further ado it's time to discover new horizons.

One very common misconception is that Horizons opened with the rest of Epcot Center. In fact it opened a year to the day later on October 1st 1983. The construction took 21 months and was begun all the way back in January of 1982. In that time Horizons saw several name changes including Century 3, Future probe, and then landing on Horizons in September of 1981.One reason for the name change was that the Imagineers had to get the name just right to fit this special pavilion. Why was this pavilion so special? It was because it encompassed the themes and ideas of all the other pavilions in EPCOT. Communications, the land, the seas, imagination, energy they were all represented inside Horizons. 

Over the next few days we are going to dive deep inside this attraction but right now I want to take a look at the structure that housed it. Below are some amazing facts about the Building itself.

• The building was over 3 acres large.
• The Peak of the building stood at 78 ft
• The shape was designed to look very futuristic and also jeweled shape to stick out in it's guests memories and inspire them to think toward the future.
• The structure used more steel to build then Spaceship Earth. 3,700 tons.
• It also housed 137,000 square feet of show space on two floors

If that wasn't impressive enough lets take a look at some fun facts from inside the building.

• The ride time was 15 minutes 
• 184 ride vehicles traveled on 1346 feet of track and were loaded every 4.8 seconds.
• Horizons had 30 human Audio Animatronics
• 10 Animal Audio Animatronics
• 2 robots
• Horizons also housed 770 props
• 177 miles of fiber optic cable with 932,425 individual points of light
• 24 sets
• 11 painted backdrops
• 23 films and projections
• 51 special effects

So with just a few of the interesting facts you can see why Horzions was one of the largest undertakings Disney had ever challenged themselves with to this date. Over the next few days we are going to see what all those facts can create when you put them all together in a seamless show and then put guest past it at a comfortable 1.5 feet a second.