Want
to leave your mark on the Millennium at Disney? Months of Disney surveys
say you do. Surrounding Epcot's signature attraction, Spaceship Earth,
Disney has erected 35 huge monoliths of granite on which visitors can
leave their photo imprints for the world to see. Disney employees take
guests photos with a camera that imprints them onto huge sheets of metal.
When each metal sheet is full, they are pinned to the monoliths.
Each photo costs $35, and each guest is given an ID indicating where
his or her photo will be located. You can also find your spot on the
monolith at Disney Online. And don't worry if you can't get to Epcot
until next year. The monoliths have space for more than 750,000 photos.
Throughout history people have marked important events by dedicating
something meaningful to them. So what better way to remember a trip
to Walt Disney World forever than to have Walt Disney World Imagineering
create a unique image of you to be displayed within the landscaping
at the entrance to Epcot. Disney's Leave A Legacy Sculpture was the
focal point for Epcot's Millennium 2000 Celebration. It continues to
be a lasting record of this special time, a symbol of the past meeting
the present, with a bold look toward the future. Leave A Legacy creates
a new threshold for Epcot, with 35 sculpted and polished granite megaliths
appearing to emerge out of the ground like foothills, continuing to
grow as they point up toward Spaceship Earth. Each of the stones is
covered with engraved 1-inch-square images of guests who have visited
Epcot. Images will live on so guests can revisit them each time they
return.
At one of the five Photo Capture Stations near Spaceship Earth guests
can have their photos digitally taken, either individually or in pairs,
then etched onto a steel tile. The tile is usually attached to the stones
in less than 48 hours, so in most cases guests will be able to locate
their permanent places before the end of their Walt Disney World vacation.
Computers are at the site to show the locations where the images will
be displayed at time of purchase. Guests are also mailed certificates
indicating tile locations so they can come back in the future to see
how they looked during this historic milestone.
The megaliths range from 3 to 19 feet high, with the heaviest weighing
more than 50,000 pounds. The plaza was designed by veteran John Hench,
along with a team of Walt Disney Imagineering interns. Mr. Hench started
as an artist with The Walt Disney Company in 1939, and went on to help
design and build Disneyland. He was the original art director for Epcot,
and chief designer of Spaceship Earth.
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