J-term is a time when Bethany students get to participate in new experiences that help them learn and grow as people. A lot of J-terms are focused on service and experiencing life in a different way, like the Civil Rights trip to Texas or the trip to Koinonia Farm in Georgia. Some others are focused more on history, skill building, and academic learning, like the History of Baseball or Ukulele choir,
This year Bethany offered a completely new J-term course, called Disney Imagineering. It combined the history of Walt Disney with the technology behind how the Disney parks are operated. This was the J-term I participated in and I’m going to give some background on what our experiences were like in the classroom and at Disney World.
The first week of J-term was spent learning about the life of Walt Disney and his dreams for Walt Disney World. We watched multiple documentaries that outlined the highs and lows Walt experienced in his lifetime and it turns out that his life wasn’t as magical as people might think. Disney struggled with debt from overspending while trying to perfect projects for much of his career. His film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was the first full length hand drawn feature. His production team spent years making sure everything was perfectly realistic, from the facial expressions down to the tiniest hand movements. The time and money put into Snow White was worth it however, as it became one of the best movies Disney produced in his lifetime.
Walt never wanted his parks at Disney World to be finished. He believed that they could always be improved and wanted his team to keep making Disney World more magical. Walt never got to see his parks built before his death, but his brother, Roy, carried on Walt’s dream and began construction. Out of Walt’s dream came 4 parks: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and The Animal Kingdom.
The parks we visited during our second week were The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We had different assignments everyday, which ranged from finding the hidden Mickeys and hidden speakers that produce the ambient sounds found all around the parks, to interviewing cast members on what it was like to work at Disney World. We took pictures at different locations and on various rides throughout the parks. We had quite a bit of freedom to go where we wanted, as long as we stayed in groups of three or more and checked in with our chaperones at the designated times.
On our last day at the parks, we took a four hour class on sound and light wave energy. The purpose of the class was to teach us how engineers at Disney World uses light and sound to create the magical feelings in in the parks. The most interesting part was when we got to go behind the scenes of the Haunted Mansion ride and learn how they create the dancing ghosts in the ballroom scene through the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. From the ride, you see semi-solid spectral figures moving in the room below you. Really, this illusion is created by use of mirror reflection using lights and a large pane of glass placed at a 45 degree angle. Under the ride, there are multiple audio animatronics, Disney’s moving mannequins, that are reflected through the glass and up to the viewer through careful lighting and placement. The lower the lighting, the more ghostly the figures appear. Another interesting fact about the Haunted Mansion is that the female dancers in the ballroom are wearing recycled princess dresses that were too old for cast members to use any longer.
Overall, our J-term trip was very fun and educational. Our class learned a lot of facts and details about how Disney World was run and how much work went into its creation and its continued improvement. We also had a unique learning experience through the Disney Y.E.S. (Youth Education Series) program when we looked at the scientific aspects behind Disney magic. It was a very memorable experience and I hope that it will be offered again in the next few years so even more people can have a chance to experience the magic of Disney.