Our journey through Florida and Disney in the 2000’s

Last updated on January 26th, 2024 at 10:07 am

Hi all, I hope you are having a wonderful day, whatever you have been up to.

We recently found some old photo albums and came across a couple from Florida in the early 2000s. It’s amazing to think that even though it was a new century, it already looks so old-fashioned now.

Photos were still taken with 35mm cameras, and the smartphone was still yet to come. We first went to Florida in 2000 and then again several times throughout the decade.

Here, we will share some of our old Florida photos with you. See if any of them look familiar from your old albums.

Who remembers when you could go surfing the internet with IBM in Epcot? Sending a photo back home via an email was still a novelty back in those days which is why we all look like giddy kippers at the chance of doing it.

Also, note the vests on myself and Nick. Rocking that early 2000’s style.

Nick found it fascinating that they had chocolate boxes with Giant dollars on them in the confectionary store on main street.

Mickey & Minnie’s House in Magic Kingdom

We used to love a look around Mickey and Minnie’s house.

They were located in Mickey’s Toontown Fair, which opened as Mickey’s Birthdayland in 1988, and underwent several changes over the years.

It was closed permanently in February 2011 to make way for the expansion of Fantasyland. 

The land featured attractions such as Mickey’s House and Meet Mickey, Minnie’s House, Goofy’s How-To-Play Yard, Donald’s Duck Pond, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s GADGET coaster, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

How cute was Pluto’s kennel in the garden! 🐶 Poor Mickey was never as popular as Minnie’s house, there was always a long queue for Minnie’s pad so we used to skip it and just go around Mickey’s place.

The closure was part of the expansion of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom but we think it was a loss for the park and wish they had updated them and kept them somewhere (maybe get rid of small world for them. From Nick)

Seaworld

Seaworld, when you could go up the tower elevator without having to spend extra money on top of your entrance ticket (the good old days).

Two rides we still miss

No matter how good the Bourne stuntacular is, for those of us who lived through the Terminator 2 3D period, I think we will always miss it.

It was the first 3D-style show we had ever done and we were blown away by it. We came out thinking we had just seen the future of shows.

To top it off, look how stylish we were in the photo. Bum bags and sports shorts and tops. We were at the height of our style back in those days.

The Simpsons ride is good (if a little bone-shaking) but we still miss the Back to the Future overlay. A classic film series and a classic ride that is missed.

The Epcot 2000 Hand

When we first went to Disney in 2000, the Epcot ball had Mickey’s hand on it with the 2000 sign. It lit up in the evenings. We were so excited by it that we chose to wear vests.

I just googled the hand and the result was ” In 2000, a giant “2000” was added to the Epcot ball, also known as Spaceship Earth, to commemorate the new millennium.

The massive wand with the “2000” was not well-received by many Disney fans and was later replaced by the word “Epcot” in a scripted font.

The wand remained in place until 2007, when it was finally removed, allegedly at the request of Siemens, who took over the attraction’s sponsorship that year” That surprised me as we really liked the hand and was sad to see it go.

The Shamu Dining Experience

Also known to us as the day Nick got really ill from a caffeine overdose.

We went to Seaworld and enjoyed a day there including a huge rice crispy treat as you can see in the photo above.

We had booked the Shamu dining experience which involved a lovely lunch seated next to a pool where Shamu would swim around.

We tucked into the food and discovered a new drink (to us) called Mountain Dew. This was back around 2007 so we weren’t really aware of the drink back then or the fact it was full of caffeine.

Nick happily chugged a few pints of it down to help cool down in the blazing hot Florida heat. Loving the new drink we had found. He awoke the next day as if he had a hangover.

As the morning went on he got worse and started shaking and couldn’t warm up. He sat in the bath in the villa until we realised that the drink had caffeine in it and that was the cause of his fragile state.

He stayed in the villa the rest of the day while the rest of us ventured out. This is the reason Nick doesn’t like too much caffeine anymore

Kennedy Space Centre

If you haven’t ventured up the coast to the Kennedy Space Centre then we highly recommend it. We have done it a few times now and have loved it each time.

We leave a few years in between each visit so it seems fresh when we go. The latest viewing experience of the space shuttle (which wasn’t on when these photos were taken) takes your breath away when they unveil it in front of your eyes.

The Tropical Beauty Villa

In 2000 we, for the most part, stayed in villas. The first one was called The Tropical Beauty where we stayed with the family. We returned again another year with friends.

The pool was heated and it started our love of staying in villas. It was located close to Give Kids the World and a large Walmart (our first and probably still our favourite one)

A few random photos to finish with

We will leave you with a few random photos from various trips throughout the 2000’s. Let us know in the comments if any of the photos in this post remind you of the 2000s and things you got up to back in the good old days of the 2 to 1 dollar rate and 5-dollar parking fees at Disney

We hope you enjoyed our trip down the Florida memory lane. Let us know in the comments if the photos sparked any memories of your time in Florida.