Disney Name Changes

What’s in a name?

My name is Ted, though bizarrely it really isn’t; my real name is Theodore. I was named something that no one ever uses; my name is a lie.

When we started Parkeology we wanted the name to convey our interests so we named it: 

Parks, Attractions, Resorts, Knowledge, Enchantment, Observations, Laughs, Obnoxiousness, Games, Young-at-heart

Jimmy didn’t like it… FOOL!

It seemed pretty good to me, it really rolled off the tongue but Shane (whose real name is Jimmy by the way) stepped in. He felt we needed something catchier so PARKEOLOGY was born.

As we often do Jimmy and I were discussing arcane park facts the other night when we realized that there was a name in the Disney-verse that offered some interesting clues to a fact that may have eluded us.

Now stick with me here:

Leota Toombs was a famed Imagineer who is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion. Miss Toombs worked on many famous Disney attractions including Pirates and Small World.  Leota’s daughter is Kim Irvine. Kim has been an Imagineer since 1970 and even fills her mother’s shoes by playing Madame Leota in the Disneyland holiday makeover of the Haunted Mansion.

Leota Toombs and the remains of who we think might be RIchard Irvine.
Credit: Courtesy Disney

Meanwhile a guy named Richard Irvine worked for Imagineering from its very inception. Richard is well known in his own right having a hand in the creation of Disneyland and Walt Disney World as well as Disney’s 1964 Worlds Fair attractions.

So Jimmy and I started thinking: “Hey, wait a minute, could Kim Irvine be the love child (legitimate or otherwise) of Leota Toombs and Richard Irvine?” The timeline made sense, the ages worked… how did we not know this? Two famous Imagineers giving birth to another famous Imagineer! 

Kim Irvine seen here pretending to be her mother pretending to be a ghost pretending to know the future.
Credit: Courtesy Disney

It gets event better: Kim Irvine’s own daughter Ali is also an Imagineer. That’s THREE generations of women doing all sorts of cool stuff at Disney and somehow we did not even realize that Richard Irvine was the husband, father and grandfather.

As it turns out there was a logical reason for our ignorance; Richard Irvine was not part of this legacy, at least not how we thought. Richard Irvine’s daughter did end up working at Imagineering but she was not Kim. Kim however married Richard’s son, so Richard Irvine was Kim Irvine’s father-in-law and by extension part of Leota’s family.  

NAMES! They are crazy, who can keep all this stuff straight.

Apparently names are just as confusing for Disney as they are for Jimmy and me. Disney keeps changing the names of things like they are contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race changing tiaras. Lets take a look at some of the more notable switch-ups:

Richard F. Irvine Riverboat

The Richard F. Irvine, not the guy, the boat. They guy is unfortunately dead and the boat has been re-named to the Liberty Belle. Unlike Richard Liberty Belle did not help create the Disney theme parks and probably does not deserve such an honor.

We should start with the Richard F. Irvine riverboat. Yes, that’s right, our old friend Dick, who caused all the confusion with Leota in the first place, had an attraction named after him. 

In the early days of the Magic Kingdom there were TWO Riverboats. One was named the Richard F. Irvine and the other the Admiral Joe Fowler

Joe Fowler supervised construction of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Sadly the Fowler was destroyed in 1980 when it was accidentally dropped from a crane! Meanwhile the Irvine was renamed the Liberty Belle in 1996 after a major refurbishment. Disney gave up on tributes to those who built the place, opting instead for a nice generic name no one would inquire about.

If you still want a ride on the Joe Fowler some of the mechanics of it were salvaged and re-used on the Mark Twain Riverboat in Tokyo Disneyland. However when you ride the Liberty Belle today (and hang out in the secret Parkeology Challenge room) make sure you pay your respects to Richard Irvine, it really is HIS boat after all. 

EPCOT CENTER

The original name and logo, you are not going to ever do better than this.

In 1982 when the park opened it was EPCOT CENTER, all caps. Not only was it cool sounding but it actually meant something. The famous acronym stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and was an earnest attempt to build a park that retained the spirit of Walt’s original dream of a functional futuristic city. It was a “center” because in theory this represented the heart of a community that was yet to come. Visitors in the early 1980’s may or may not have understood what any of that meant but it sounded cool, futuristic and evocative of something larger.

Instead of creating the future Disney actually created a problem; EPCOT CENTER was constantly becoming dated. By the 1990’s Disney was struggling with how to market the park and maintain its freshness. I’m not sure who had this idea but rather than update and evolve the park they changed the name, in the most awkward way imaginable. Welcome to Epcot 94!

I have to admit I would wear this, stupid name and all. Also, how did Nike not sue them?

Epcot 94 was just EPCOT CENTER but no longer an acronym… it was just a meaningless made-up word followed by the year. This of course created the issue of what to do when it was no longer 1994 and thus the following year the park changed its name again to (of course) Epcot 95.  It did not take long before someone realized how much money was being wasted on new signage, maps and collateral materials so in 1996 it was time for yet another name change.

Loud and meaningless

Now the park was known simply as Epcot (lowercase) and kept that neutered name for the next 22 years. Finally in 2019, with a nod to the past, it was again re-named EPCOT (all in caps) though no “center” and no reference to it being an acronym. 

Disney-MGM Studios

Simple clean design… are things no one would ever say about this train wreck.

Sometimes name changes actually make sense and have reasons to happen, such is the case here.

In 1989 Michael Eisner rushed to open a movie studio park before Universal could lay claim to the concept they in fact originated. Eisner wanted guests to experience movie and TV productions as well as attractions based on the most beloved and famous movies in the world. The only issue was Disney had made none of those movies. 

At this stage Disney had not yet kicked off the animation renascence and its live action movies were still small-scale rom-coms and the like. They needed larger event movies to build the park around so they struck a deal with MGM. MGM licensed Disney the rights to their library of films and the park was christened “Disney-MGM Studios”.

Over time Disney produced larger and more successful movies of its own and also acquired Pixar and Marvel and Lucasfilm. Soon Disney movies dwarfed those of MGM and most everyone else. With no more need for a partner the park was re-named Disney-Hollywood Studios.

In recent years the park has expanded and shifted focus and there have been rumors that another name change may be in the works. “Cinemagine Park” is the most commonly heard new name, lets hope that this lunacy has past and they leave well enough alone.

Euro-Disney Resort

For all your banking and investment needs.

Not to be left out the Parisian Park has also gone through a series of name changes, but for very different reasons.

After the disastrous launch of the Euro Disney Resort in 1992 Disney scrambled to re-brand the resort. Wanting a stronger connection to the city of lights Disney re-named the complex: “Euro Disney Resort Paris” in 1994.

This was better yet failed to address the most troublesome part of the name.

When Americans hear “Euro” they think of culture and history, art and cuisine, travel and glamour. Europeans however reserve this term for financial, governmental and otherwise mundane institutions. The “Euro” is the collective currency of the European Union, European banks often incorporate “Euro” in their names and while we have bureaucrats in government Europeans have “Eurocrats”. It was not at all a name Europeans would associate with a magical theme park built on dreams and imagination.

Only six month later Disney once again changed the name, now simply to “Disneyland Paris”. Finally the name connected the park to the famed city and avoided the drag of the generic and misplaced term “Euro”. The two things visitors cared about “Disney” and “Paris” were plainly in the name, it is stunning to think that this was ever not the name.

And so this was the end of the name change drama for this park…wait, no it was not! Despite having arrived at the perfect title Disney amazingly decided to change names yet again. 

Use this helpful guide to track the many unnecessary and inane changes to Disneyland Paris.

In 2002, with the opening of the dreadful Disney Studios Paris, Disney thought a new name was in order. The project was re-branded “Disneyland Resort Paris”. That may not sound like a meaningful change but this assumes that you are an American. For Americans a “resort” is simply a place to take a vacation or even a single hotel. To Europeans however “resort” specifically means a vacation town, usually located by beaches or mountains. It is closer to what Americans may consider a “tropical resort” like Hawaii for instance. In essence Disney took a couple theme parks built on old farm fields hundreds of miles from the coast and categorized them as a beach town.

This dragged on until 2009 when Disney seemingly FINALLY got a grasp on things once again and changed the name back to “Disneyland Paris”. Who knows what is up their sleeves, they seem to enjoy sabotaging this property. Maybe “Disneyland Paris: Alpine Lodge and Banking Center” is next. Lets hope they stay out of their own way moving forward.

Horizons

Horizons, the sadly former EPCOT attraction, never changed its name while in operation but went through a series of name changes prior to opening. Originally Horizons was known as “Century 3” a kind of cool nod to the third century of the United States; the time frame which the attraction was set. Disney realized that it was very U.S-centric and changed the name to “Future Probe” which sounded like some sort of rectal device from the Omega Quadrant. Fortunately looking forward to future “Horizons” won out in the end. 

Splash Mountain

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da!

Name changes are common during an attractions development. One of the best known name switch-ups happened to Splash Mountain. The uninitiated may think it is called “Splash” because the logs make a big splash going down the final drop. While that is true the original name for the attraction was “The Zip-A-Dee River Run”. This name makes sense as it ties into the famous song heard in the finale of the ride. However Michael Eisner wanted “synergy” with the recently released Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah movie “Splash” about a mermaid falling in love with a human. As bizarre as it sounds Splash Mountain was named after an unrelated (and not even current by the time the attraction opened) live-action mermaid movie. Eisner even asked for an animatronic mermaid to be included on the ride, a request the Imagineers wisely avoided. 

In this case the craziness seems to have paid off. Splash Mountain is easy to remember, surprisingly descriptive and generic enough that we hope the name survives the upcoming changes to the ride itself.

Disney World 

Disney brothers, plural.

There are many additional instances of rides, resorts or parks changing names for one reason or another but perhaps the most notable of all is Walt Disney World.

“Disney” does not simply refer to Walt but also his brother Roy. Roy was vital in the creation of the studios and the growth of the entire company. While there would be no Disney without Walt it is safe to say that the company would not exist if not also for Roy.

Disneyland was named after BOTH Walt and Roy Disney and the Florida project also was to be named after them both. The new project was much larger than the original development so Disney World was chosen to represent the new grander scale. 

After Walt’s death in 1966 Roy became the driving force behind Disney World, guiding it to completion. With a great magnanimous gesture Roy changed the name to “Walt Disney World” giving his brother the spotlight and making sure that his name would live on in the public’s mind. Somewhat ironically people often refer to the east coast property as simply “Disney World” inadvertently giving credit back to both brothers. It’s a sweet story and made even more poignant when one considers Roy died just months after the opening of the resort he named after his little brother.

Names are Generational

Great Grandma, get out of there!

If you are old enough to remember EPCOT CENTER that will always be the park’s name for you. If you recall Disney-MGM Studios you may find yourself slipping and accidentally calling it that even today; each generation embraces their names. As such Kim Irvine’s daughter Ali has a young daughter of her own, she is named Leota after her great grandmother! How cool is that? Imagine that your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother all worked at Walt Disney Imagineering on some of the greatest attractions ever. When you ride the Haunted Mansion you get to see Great Grandma (or sometimes normal Grandma) floating around in a crystal ball. Want to take bets of what Little Leota career will be?

What are the craziest name changes or nutty attraction names that you recall and what name do you refuse to stop using, even if it is no longer the official title?

Comments (15)

  1. I still tell people not to miss “Spectromagic” – I guess it’s time for another visit.

  2. This is so interesting to reflect on and the additions in the comments are great too! Peoplemover is the one I’m always getting wrong now. I’ve mostly adapted to Hollywood Studios but I find that when I’m talking to my family or others sometimes I have to say “you know, MGM” for them to know what I’m talking about.

    The other one that comes to mind for me is Disney Springs/Downtown Disney/Lake Buena Vista Village.

    • Yes! Disney Springs has not stuck at all for me at all!

  3. Honestly surprised they haven’t attempted Disney’s Walt Disney World Resort

    • Funny.
      They seem to be off the whole “Disney’s” thing a little bit but really, you just never know.

      • Yeah, it seems that way. They even went through the trouble of changing California Adventure’s name during its huge transition period.
        Now, instead of Disney’s California Adventure, it’s… Disney California Adventure.

        Can’t wait for Disney Hollywood Studios and Disney Animal Kingdom.

  4. What a great article, really takes me back. “MGM” and “Hollywood” are perpetually arm-wrestling in my mind since I was born in the 70s. Can I ask you a question, was the boat ride in The Land pavilion ALWAYS called “Living With The Land,” or was it “Listen To The Land” (as the song implies) and got changed somewhere along the way? I also wonder if Animal Kingdom, the only WDW theme park to have the same name since its opening, will change one day as well. Some have been speculating that they may need to focus less on animals and have a broader theme such as “Disney’s Nature Kingdom” or something to that effect. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

    This is not related, but one of my most hated name changes is when they changed the title of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” to “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” just so it matched up with the sequels. Wasn’t Indy one of the titular raiders? Or is the movie title referring to the bad guys trying to get the ark?

    • Boy! Mel, you totally busted us for not thinking about Magic Kingdom’s name change! You are absolutely correct that Animal Kingdom in the only WDW park to retain its original moniker. Magic Kingdom used to be the rather unwieldy “Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom”, I guess just in case someone didn’t know which coast they were on this would help clarify it.

      YES! Listen to the Land used to be the attraction as well as its theme songs name. They both were great and we miss them. EPCOT should really try to get back to the days of each pavilion having an identifying theme song. Music in general has been lost on many attractions and its such a key component that it’s silly to allow this to happen.

      And we are 100% with you on Raiders. It will ALWAYS be Raiders of the Lost Arc to us just as Star Wars will always be simply that (no New Hope).

      I admit much of this is because of our age and each generation likes what it grew up knowing. There are people who actually miss the Big Hat in DHS or the wand over Spaceship Earth (God bless them). But this type of name change is almost always corporate driven to help build franchises and not creatively made by the actual film makers. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is interesting. The film makers did not want the subtitle but Disney insisted. At least they knew from the start that they were looking to create a franchise.

      • Oh… and to answer your question about when the Land changed the name. It would have been 93/94 when Nestle took over sponsorship of the pavilion from Kraft.

        We often see this type of thing happen with Sponsored attractions. A new sponsor means changes to better suit them. EPCOT saw a rash of this in the 90’s as most of the original sponsors contracts ended. It is part of the reason EPCOT got so unfocused during this time. The original park was a tightly focused and unified vision, parts working together to create a whole. As the sponsors changed so did the parks unity.

  5. Well, the WEDWay PeopleMover changed to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority but, although I like the change, it’s still the PeopleMover in my head.

    The Grand Prix Raceway has had a few name changes and is now the Tomorrowland Speedway. I find it amusing that the call it “Speedway” when the cars have gotten slower over the years. Pretty sure they were faster when I was a kid.

    Although not a park or ride name, one name change Disney made that I didn’t care for was when they changed “Star Wars: A New Hope” to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

    • Ahhhh I see what you did there Greg!

      Wedway is a perfect example! We should have included it. I exclusively call it Wedway or People Mover. It also tied back to the parks origins and history. Like the Riverboat names Disney has removed virtually all of that type of thing now.

  6. Still call it MGM studios in my head.
    Also have a shirt that says epcot center with original logo, though it’s fan made not vintage.

    I also sadly think no chance don’t rename splash mountain but hope I’m wrong

    • I dont think I call it anything other than MGM… once it locks in that way it stays that way in your head.

      As far as Splash goes I think there is a possibilty of it staying, or mostly staying. Like maybe it becomes Splash Mountain: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or some such thing. Splash has absolutely no connection whatsoever to Song of the South, which makes the oriignal name so nutty to begin with. It does however have a lot of name equity among fans. Plus people will call it Spash regardless so whyt not use that equity?

      Lastly… I have my original EPCOT CENTER wind breaker from 1982 or 1983…. I somehow still fit it, I really should start wearing it again… I think its somehow now cool, trust me, it was NOT cool to be wearing an EPCOT jacket in Jr High school!

  7. I have a friend who uses Spectromagic and the Main Street Electrical Parade interchangeably as if it was the same parade.

    • I would accpet Main Street Electrical Light Parade being used for ANY nightime parade. Its simply the best.

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