Theme Park Thursdays feature photos from one of our theme park adventures in the past.
Vintage WDW Logo on SpectroMagic (2009)
Did you know that Walt Disney World celebrates its 40th Anniversary this year? Probably not, given that Disney doesn't seem to care about individual park milestones these days, instead favoring global "Disney Parks" marketing campaigns usually promoting some derivative of "Wishes/Dreams/Magic blah blah."
Today's photo is one of the opening units for the SpectroMagic Parade, a long running nighttime experience at the Magic Kingdom. It debuted in 1991 as a replacement for the Main Street Electrical Parade, and aside from a few hiatuses, has lit up for almost 2 decades now. It was mothballed last year when Walt Disney World's Summer Nightastic campaign brought back the Main Street Electrical Parade once again… which continues to run.
Original 1971 Walt Disney World Logo
Current Walt Disney World typeface, circa 1996
While I will always prefer the MSEP over SpectroMagic for sentimental reasons, one thing I love about Spectro is the hat tip it makes to the past. You see, the "Walt Disney World presents…" type on the parade unit features the old "D" logo that the resort used from 1971 through 1996. Nowadays, Walt Disney World uses a bland corporate typeface identity. But, thanks to the cheapness of WDW management, they never changed the logo for SpectroMagic!
I don't mind the old one, it has a 70s-ish feel to it but I like the new one. I assume it's Walt's signature and that makes it seem more like a person (or family) is in charge rather than some block letters. Even though I know it's more corporate now that it ever was, the signature has a nice feel to it for me.