The Three Caballeros star in the modern update of the first ride that ever opened in EPCOT's World Showcase! From El Rio Del Tiempo to Gran Fiesta Tour to cover ups for Broken Animatronics!

#GranFiestaTour #HistoryInPiMinutes #ElRioDelTiempo #EPCOT #Donald Duck #WorldShowcase

History in Pi Minutes is a series where I look at some popular topics in Disney or Theme Park History and cover them in a bite size format.

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When Epcot first opened, there was only one ride in the entire World Showcase. El Rio Del Tiempo, the River of Time, located inside the Mexico Pavilion.

While I can’t confirm this, supposedly Disney reached out to Mexico’s Tourism Board to try and work together when designing the ride. The only response Disney received was some old travelogue videos and a note saying “We love Small World”

So, old videos from Mexico and a love of Small World is what Disney built the ride around.

Guests boarded their boats and sailed past an ancient Aztec pyramid before travelling through a tunnel and back in time.

The first act uses screens and sets to showcase Aztec myths and stories. The second act is based on a Dia De Los Muertos Celebration in Mexico’s Colonial era as depicted by Small World style dolls. And The third act is basically all video screens showing life in present day Mexico! Mostly tourist and recreational activities.

All leading to the grand finale featuring a carousel of life size marionettes as fireworks shine up above!

It wasn’t the most exciting ride at Epcot. And it felt pretty disjointed with each section of the ride being almost entirely distinct from the rest of it. But there were some stand out moments.

And after the much more impressive Maelstrom Boat Ride opened in the Norway Pavilion, it made El Rio Del Tiempo feel even more lackluster by comparison.

So, in 2007, it closed to be turned into The Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros!

The band has a big concert tonight, but they can’t go on without Donald Duck! So, Jose and Panchito fly through Mexico on their magical Snappy Serape searching for their missing fine feathered friend

The ride stayed mostly the same. The biggest change is that tv screens now showed the Three Caballeros exploring Mexico. Some even reused the old Travelogue videos from the original version of the ride and just added Donald to them.

Aside from some minor touches here and there, the only other major change was the finale.

The exciting carousel and fireworks ending was replaced with a TV screen showing the band performing.

It was a really anti-climactic ending. But originally there was more planned.

The Mickey Mouse Revue was a show where animatronics of different Disney characters sang some of their most iconic songs! Including the Three Cabelleros. It was popular, but closed in 1980 so all the animatronics could be moved to Tokyo Disneyland so they could have the show to round out the park's opening day line up. There, it stayed open until 2009

The Donald, Jose, and Panchito figures were planned to be added to the Gran Fiesta Tour for the grand finale.

But after travelling across the globe twice, the figures needed a lot of work. And that wasn't really in the budget at the time.

So, the plans were cut and a screen was used instead.

It wasn't until 2015 that the animatronics were finally refurbished and the Gran Fiesta Tour was completed!

Recently, the animatronics have been having some issues. It got so bad Disney decided to take drastic measures and took all three figures away for a few months of extensive refurbishment. While they were gone, the ride got it's most underwhelming finale yet.

Non-Moving cut outs of the three characters.

Luckily, it was only temporary and now the Three Cabelleros animatronics are back and better than ever!

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B-Roll and Reference Videos:

The Original Mexico Pavilion Boat Ride
El Rio Del Tiempo - Ride Through - May 29, 1992 Restored Footage
Courtesy of RetroWDW
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Gran Fiesta Tour at Epcot - 4K Ultra Low Light - Walt Disney World
El Rio Del Tiempo | Full Ride Audio (Master) | Mexico | Epcot Center
Courtesy of ResortTV1
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Original Screen Ending
Gran Fiesta Tour POV Ride-Through
Courtesy of The Dis
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Cut Out Attraction Malfunction Ending
Three Caballeros Animatronics Removed, Replaced by Cut-Outs on Gran Fiesta Tour
Courtesy of Blog Mickey
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Mickey Mouse Revue: Full Show & Queue Film at Tokyo Disneyland, 2000 (Formerly at Walt Disney World)
Courtesy of MouseSteps / JWL Media
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This Video was made by Zach (AKA Pi the Disney Guy).

Donald Duck LOST in Mexico! The History of GRAN FIESTA TOUR in Pi Minutes!

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