Backstage Shuttle

Sometimes it is fun to look back on our personal histories with Walt Disney World and sometimes you stumble onto that history, such as when I found a handful of pictures from the Disney-MGM Studios in 2003 this past week. I was clearly in my angsty black and white phase, which even though I shoot in color now doesn’t mean the draw isn’t there. While many of the photos showed things that haven’t changed, there were some that highlighted corners of the park that are no longer there.

Full disclosure, there were some other photos in this set, but they have been withheld to protect the identities of those in them and to also shield my embarrassment for what I thought was a great look in my late teens/early twenties.

We’ll start with Star Tours and a close-up of R2-D2 in the queue. While Artoo is still present in the queue and attraction today, during the first two decades of this attraction the starspeeders were a little more worn. The Starspeeder 3000 was the alter version of the current attraction’s Starspeeder 1000. I know, timelines, right? And it has clearly been through the ringer with the damage from blaster fire right next to Artoo.

For the remainder of our brief jaunt back 15 years, we’ll be boarding a tram for The Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour. We’ll pick it up just as the floodwaters have crested into Catastrophe Canyon and have begun to overtake the flaming tanker truck and oil rig. Next, we’re moving on to the boneyard where we have a great view of a snowspeeeder from Empire Strikes Back, one of Jabba the Hutt’s desert skiffs from Return of the Jedi, and a Trimaxion Drone Ship from Flight of the Navigator. Also, to the far left of this photo, you can catch just a glimpse of the ninth wonder of the world the backside of the Dip Mobile from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

As our short, but bittersweet tour comes to a close, and while we’re still passing through the boneyard, we take time to glance back and catch a moment with the original park icon, yet always a beauty, the Earffel Tower.