These cards were available at preview center that Disney built
located, according to D.M. Miller,
1on Buena Vista Boulevard, just off state road
535, The boulevard has been renamed Hotel Plaza and is now lined
with big Hotels. He also noted that "The preview center included
a small post office for the residents and businesses of Lake
Buena Vista and Bay Lake." On our honeymoon trip in October of
2002 I hoped to find it , if it still existed, and take a photo.
In addition to Mr Millers description I had an aerial photo of
the center that was in the "preview edition" of the Walt Disney
World soft cover souvenir guide.
the preview center as it appeared in the preview edition of
the Walt Disney World souvenir soft cover
With this in mind we got off the interstate at State Route 535
and turned left onto the wide divided road that runs through the
Lake Buena Vista hotels I figured it would not be all that far
in, and also that even if it did not still exist the lake behind
it would help me find the site. I started looking for somewhere
to turn in as I was afraid I would pass the area, as I found a
spot and turned in I suddenly realized...I was there!
 
The lot I chose to pull into was the one next to the Amateur
Athletic Union headquarters and it was immediately obvious that
it was indeed the building pictured I took a few pictures .
Me, holding the pre-opening book
Carlene said to me that she thought she could reproduce the
aerial shot in the book. How? I asked. she pointed out to me that
the high rise hotel across the street had the same view onto the
site as that in the book. We were wanting to get checked in so we
resolved to come back later on in the trip and try this. I have
to admit I had my doubts as I figured we would have to get
permission to go into one of the rooms on the upper floors and
take the picture from their balcony. When we did come back I
found out what Carlene had already noticed, that the elevator to
the upper floors was one of those glass sided models that let you
look out across the property. What a view!
there is a great picture of the preview center as it appeared in
it's heyday on the Widen Your World web site. at:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/omniluxe/prvwctr.htm
 
Dave Ensign sent me the following front and back scans of what
was probably the first WDW related postcard of all. The
promotional postcard promoting the preview
center!
 
If you check out the large scan of the postal (Addressee) side of
the card , (by clicking on the image shown , just as with most
other images on this site you will get the larger image) you will
see copyright Walt Disney Productions 1/70, this ties in nicely
with the information in Disney A to Z
3 , which notes that the Preview center was "open
from January 10,1970 to September 30, 1971." and that it had
"displays of models and drawings, there was a short filmed
presentation, along with a snack bar and merchandise shop. "
David Hooper,2 sent me a list of
some of the things he knows were sold there:
- Postcards of course
- Pre-opening Guide book
- Bumper sticker that says "Opening October 1"
- License plate frame similar to above
- License plate
another contributor listed these other items:
- a decal sheet
- a set of slides.yup!! pre-opening slides..... I have one
sealed pack listed as set 4 and they consist of models and
renderings...sadly faded. Walt Disney World set four F1-004 Five
slides $1.00
- D-1 cruising by excursion steamer (same as postcard
image)
- D-2 Exotic Adventureland (exterior concept of Tiki Long
House)
- D-3 Western River Expedition (model of plains thunder clouds
and mesas, buffalo, and calfs)
- D-4 Main Street Victorian restaurant (Concept Crystal Palace
and band stand)
- D-5 Golf on Championship Courses ( man swinging .early
"pyramid" Polynesian hotel in background.
This set of slides listed as set four with a merchandise
number of FL-004 solves another question about the pre-opening
postcards of Walt Disney World mainly why they started with
number FL-024 , obviously the lower numbers were taken up by
other types of merchandise like these slides.
Since these are labeled as set four I would assume that FL-001
through FL-003 are the first three sets of slides. The postcards
are labeled FL-024 through FL-032 , which leaves both the numbers
from FL-005 to FL-023 as currently still being a mystery to me
and also numbers from FL-033 up open to possibly being
merchandise numbers.
Rhett Wickham listed the following items:
- a preview book which is white with a dye-cut center revealing
the rendering of Epcot on the inside front page. It includes a
map It's a fold-out stapled to the center It measures about 18 x
22 and has no copy write date. With a schematic or pseudo
topographic layout and includes the footprint of the Magic
Kingdom and EPCOT as it was conceived originally, the lakes, and
hotels - including The Venetian and the Persian which were never
built. Each "footprint" i s in a color, the surrounding areas are
bright green, the monorail path is white, each hotel is a color,
the Lake is blue, Epcot is various pale blue, green, yellow and
white and black and areas like the hub, the hotel, the industrial
park, etc. are identified in type.
- a pen
- a ring
- a Mickey posable figure
- and a key ring
Gary A. Kecskes sent
me the following information about the preview center building "
After Disney used it as the Preview Center it became the WDW
Reservation Center and was used for about two decades for that
purpose. This is where Disney accepted hotel reservations for all
of the on-property hotels (that they owned and operated). It was
what is now known as a "call center". It served that purpose for
20+ years, until call center operations were moved (I believe to
Tampa).The call center moved just a few years back, and that's
when the AAU moved in. You may also have noted that the alignment
of Hotel Plaza Drive has changed as it moves toward Downtown
Disney. I'm sure that was done to provide a more intuitive exit
for Disney drivers wanting to leave the property via Hotel Plaza
Drive. It also helps to keep the number of people who mistakenly
drive east into the back-lot area of WDW where operations and
warehouses are located east of the old Disney Institute.
"
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