Journey Into Imagination Vintage Photos
This Figment topiary long ago disappeared from the Magic Garden. Behind the topiary, you’ll notice a camera shop, which featured, unsurprisingly, Kodak products.
Many EPCOT Center attractions featured gorgeous hand-painted murals in their queues. Journey into Imagination was one such attraction.
In this 1984 photo, a sign displaying the time until the next Magic Journeys show is visible in the upstairs ImageWorks.
Notice the Figment Topiary in the elevated flower bed above the Captain EO sign? Any idea why that’s there?
That concludes this set of Vintage EPCOT Center photos! Hopefully this set of photos was a nice stroll down memory lane or, if you never experienced the original Journey into Imagination, a nice glimpse of what all the fanfare is about. Journey into Imagination was truly an amazing attraction. Much like many other EPCOT Center attractions of the era, it was an attraction with which people connected on an emotional level, and its quality and legacy have left many fans with strong bonds and feelings toward the original EPCOT Center.
Please share your favorite Journey into Imagination stories and memories in the comments, and be sure to share this with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.!
33 Responses to “Journey Into Imagination Vintage Photos”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- World of Motion Vintage Photos - Disney Tourist Blog - [...] Journey into Imagination (check out the Journey into Imagination Vintage Photos post), I don’t have quite the same vivid ...
- EPCOT 30th Anniversary Guide - Disney Tourist Blog - [...] Journey into Imagination World of Motion Horizons Spaceship Earth (coming later today…) [...]
- Happy 30th Birthday, Epcot! | - [...] and counting), I miss a lot of the attractions of yesteryear. Most of all, I miss the original Journey ...
Leave a Reply
Follow Us!
We Recommend:
Awesome post Tom!
I loved the original Journey…But it is still a great ride and I love taking my kids on it.
Once again Great Job!
I almost cried looking at these pictures! That was my favorite place in all of WDW when I was growing up! My kids still love it, but I can’t imagine how much more they would have loved the original!
Thanks for this post. The original ride was one of my all time favorites. I really miss it and am disappointed I had to show my children something that was just a shadow or what I experienced.
Here’s hoping Disney rights the ship at some point. I suspect there are bright days ahead for Imagination.
I hope so. I would love to see the pavilion come back to life. : )
Me too!!! Thanks for letting us relive the memories. The video was a blast!
Thank you for the flashback. The original Imagination pavillion was my favorite WDW attraction as a child. I had to be dragged out of Image Works every time. What’s there now…. I’m barely even interested.
This blog made my day! I love the pics. Sure brings back so many fond memories of this truly magical journey into imagination !
Thank you! I loved the original ride (and the Image Works). These pictures are wonderful reminders — I have to go listen to the music, now!
What a glorious post! Thanks for pulling this together, Tom…
Glad YOU liked it!
In looking at these photos, it is interesting to see just how many people went ahead and took flash photos on the ride. And for once, I am rather glad they did.
Like many, i do miss the original Journey Into Imagination ride. Hopefully, someday, Disney will decide it’s worth revisiting and greatly improve this. It’s sad how it stands right now.
Great job with this Tom! Can’t wait to see the rest of the posts this week.
Wow, did that ever bring back some memories! I still remember seeing the rainbow tunnel for the first time back in 1983. As a 5-year-old girl, nothing made me happier than rainbows! But I’d forgotten the Figment topiary and the unique fountain until looking at these pictures. Thanks for a fantastic post, Tom! Great job, as usual!!
This is so cool! I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one nostalgic about Epcot in the early days …
Wonderful post! I caught your teaser on FB yesterday, so was eagerly anticipating it. The Imagination Pavilion has always held a dear spot in my heart. Being an artist and in the early stages of my art education, it completely captured me the first time I rode Journey Into Imagination in 1986. I could not get over the creativity of the ride and fell in love with the character Figment. The ride, the characters, the rainbow tunnel and all the ImageWorks activities in the upstairs still tug at my memory and make me wonder why they went away. I so miss the original ride, and these pictures helped to bring back some of those wonderful memories for me.
Thank you for this post!
Christi
Looking back at these photos, it’s amazing how well maintained they’ve kept Future World, the concrete, paint etc… look just like it did in the early 80s when it was all brand new.
As you know, I’m a huge fan. The pictures here are so beautiful and really took me down memory lane. It reminded me why I loved that original ride so much.
And I am so, so jealous of the people with Dreamfinder and Figment!
One part of ImageWorks that I didn’t see depicted above was the pin table. Funny how something so simple has stuck with me into my late twenties. Also, I really love the photo at the top of the last page with the looong outdoor line. I have high hopes that the next incarnation of the pavilion will inspire future Disney fans the way this original one inspired us…and that we are enjoying it by the time EPCOT40 arrives!
Yeah, I didn’t receive many ImageWorks photos; I remember that, too, though!
Amazing compilation! Thank you for this trip down memory lane
here’s hoping there are brighter days ahead for Journey!
*sniff*
What a trip. I went to EPCOT for the first time around age 7. Immediately fell in love with every aspect of this ride, and then came the ImageWorks which just rocked my mind at that age. Love, Love, Love every aspect of this post. Thank you so much! Two questions though:
-why is that child being suffocated by Dreamdinder?
-does anyone else have the theme song totally ingrained in their heads now?
YES!! The song is playing on repeat in my head
Tom, thanks so much for an amazing compilation. Glad I could be a part of it. This was my favorite pavilion when I was little. I sure do miss it. Can’t wait for more of your 30th anniversary coverage.-Amanda
Thanks for sharing!
This post touched me and brought such warm memories to mind. I loved Journey Into Imagination. It was my favorite ride. I spent all my souvenior money purchasing items from this ride… quite dedication for a tween girl. Thank you so much for helping me relive those moments in time.
Being a child of Disney obsessed parents allowed me to grow up going to Disney World at least once a year. Many of those memories fade, and since I was 15 in 1998 my memories of the original have faded. However, it was always a favorite growing up and looking at these amazing photos bring them back into sharp focus.
Thanks so much for the trip down memory lane and the salute to an iconic attraction!
Journey into Imagination 1.0 closed a few months before my first trip to Disney World so I never experienced it unfortunately. Looking at these photos the ride looks so… imaginative! So unlike the pavilion nowadays… such a shame! But thanks for posting this, I am really going to enjoy this series!
It broke my heart when I returned to EPCOT as an adult and Journey Into Imagination had changed so drastically. Imageworks was definitely a highlight for me and my family and I was excited to share with my own children and relive memories from my childhood. It’s truly a shame that they cannot use some or most of the “Future Playground” items. With today’s technology, they should be able to create activities 100 times cooler than they did in the 1980′s!
This was an absolutely fantastic post, thank you so much for sharing! I never got to see the original version of Journey Into Imagination, but having seen the photos and videos of the place, I really fell in love with it. I love both Figment and the Dreamfinder. If they come back in the future (Dreamfinder and Figment in its original form), I’ll be incredibly happy!
It was awesome seeing all those pics! I wish I still had that Figment stuffed animal in that photo!
I was on the security detail as they took down Journey into Imagination. It made me sad as I walked through it night after night. More and more was gone. The last night of the detail the building super gave me items to keep.
That would be a pretty sad job, especially for someone who was a fan of the attraction. Cool that you got some “souvenirs” from it, though!