EPCOT Center Tips on Your Visit - 1983

While visiting EPCOT Center in March, 1983, Disney offered these tips for enjoying your visit to the newly opened park. They were helpful for us, as Future World attractions had long lines during the day, but weren't nearly as crowded in the evenings.

Also included was a list of all of the original dining options in EPCOT Center. It's not quite as extensive a list as we see now!

Walt Disney World Resort Guide - 1979

Disney used to publish very thorough guidebooks, not just for the parks, but for the entire resort. Your Complete Guide to Walt Disney World, published in 1978, included short descriptions of each Disney resort in addition to details about the Magic Kingdom. However, the Resort Guide showed far more detail about each hotel (and the Fort Wilderness campground), detailing dining, shopping, entertainment, recreation, and other services at each property, and even included a full resort map for the three Disney hotels, Fort Wilderness, and the Lake Buena Vista Villas.

Walt Disney World 15th Anniversary Magazine Insert - 1987

Here's a title of a brochure you won't see anymore, as Disney used a popular song from Song of the South and Splash Mountain to promote the park's fifteenth anniversary. I don't recall where this particular item came from, but it appears to have been a magazine insert, from a time when "special pullouts" were popular. I've dated this as 1987, because while the actual fifteenth anniversary of Disney World was on October 1, 1986, the actual celebration lasted through the following year, and a couple of the advertisements show 1987 copyrights.

The publication promotes new attractions, like the Living Seas and Captain EO, while also highlight the giveaways for the 15th Anniversary celebration. Also prominent are ads for Sea World, Eastern Airlines, and Premier Cruise Lines, from a time when Disney was more inclined to partner with other companies and when they were happy to find someone else to pay for their promotions!

Here's the combined center of the insert, fully unfolded.

Your Guide to the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom - Early 1980

I visited Walt Disney World in March, 1981, and by that time Disney had separated the single all-encompassing guidebook that they offered during my first visit (in 1979) into different guides for the Magic Kingdom (still the only park open in Disney World at that time) and for the resorts and other activities on property. There's a brief mention of the rest of the "World" in this guide, but it focuses on the park.

The structure of the guide changed a bit, too, as "Tips for Your Magic Kingdom Visit" now appears right in the front of the book, but it is otherwise similar to what older guides.

Here is the full version of Your Guide to the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom from my 1981 visit.

[NOTE: This guide was actually published in early 1980, before the Mickey Mouse Revue closed and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened. We also had another guide from later in 1980 during the same 1981 visit.]

[ALSO NOTE: Apologies to the collectors out there for the markings inside the book. We actually used this guide back while in Florida!]