When we were teenagers, my brothers and I loved riding Tower of Terror when it was a pull-down bar, not a seatbelt. We’d strategically place ourselves in a row so the bar wouldn’t touch us, and we’d literally fly up out of our seats.
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Well, aside from Teeny Tiny Bloggers and Young Fogeys born after Communicore went away, but still rank the removal of refrigerator-sized, laserdisc-based games that likely cost more than the down payment on an average house of the time, alongside human history’s greatest betrayals, I doubt anyone thinks much about those displays in detail.
RCA was the original sponsor of Space Mountain, and their most visible consumer products were televisions and “hi-fi” equipment. They also made, among many other things, midrange computers and point-to-point radios. As part of sponsoring Space Mountain, they pitched Disney on using RCA for all of WDW’s information and control systems. Read more than you ever thought possible about it.
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Petting zoo at Fort Wilderness
And even more so, storks at Fort Wilderness.
I remember when we had time to eat 3 table service meals a day, see every ride/attraction/store we desired, return to our resort for swimming, napping, horseback riding, or water skiing and then return to a park in the evening. All without rushing. Or even being exhausted.
But that last might not be WDW changing . . .
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Oh, oh – I remember when you could take a boat to Discovery Island in Bay Lake and dodge the birds trying to eat your lunch… or poop on your head. 
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Things I fondly remember are:
Characters wandering the streets in MK, including random appearances near take-out food stands to interact with people while they waited in line
The skyway, and using it to see where the lines were short!
Reservation screens in Cinderella Castle
Body Wars, and the whole medical-themed Epcot pavilion
Early computer voice recognition at Communicore (guiding a mouse through a maze with up, down, left, right)
Mission to Mars
Main Street Electrical Parade
Mickey’s House & Birthday Parties
A live-ish Muppet Show
Honey I shrunk the kids playground
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…watch the actual animators work at HS. We watched them put the finishing touches on Aladdin in 1992 before we were married and it made that movie super special for us. (“A Whole New World” was our first dance at our wedding.)
I found HS a lot more intriguing with real “working studio” aspects.
And the Sorcerer’s Hat will always be the proper HS icon in my mind. ToT just doesn’t represent the park as a whole to me at all.
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Original Dreamfinder and Figment
Body Wars
Horizons
Tapestry of Nations Parade …goes to find & listen to EPCOT CD
RIding in the front of the Monorail and getting a “license” as a souvenier (my 20yo dd did this on her 7th birthday trip but due to the multiple Monorail crashes they stopped it before 15yo ds could get to 
)
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Gosh, my kids miss this! They really should have just moved/redone it. Is there even a playground at HS now?
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Ahhh…all of this!!
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I’m waiting for Disney to announce yet another name change for the park. Personally, I think “Disney’s Hollywood Adventures” makes the most sense, given the current content. In which case, the ToT would make much more sense as an icon.
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I remember seeing them work on the 3 musketeers as part of the backlot studio tour. That was great!
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Yes we did the monorail license too with the older kids and really miss it with the youngest.
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OK we rode in the front once but I have no memory of any license.
What did I miss?
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Is that the same beaver who was in Lady & the Tramp?
This thread is super fascinating to me because I am learning about much of this for the first time. I only went to WDW once when I was 5, barely remember any of the trip, and then didn’t go back or even pay any attention to it again until 2014.
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2014 was my first adult trip too. Prior to that, I only visited once as a kid in 1991 when I was 10.
I remember Figment being my number 1 favourite attraction then, and was so disappointed when I took my kids to it 
It wasn’t until a while later when I learned it had changed significantly. I had thought that I must’ve just had really poor taste as a kid.
I’m really glad my kids got a shot in the HISTK playground before it was removed because I remember playing in that myself.
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Maybe they only gave them to kids?
Dd got a “license” card from the driver of the Monorail after we rode in the front.
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Same.
Wasn’t there some kind of license for the Speedway too?
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