Epcot updates salute to U.S.

Christopher Boyd | Beth Kassab and Scott Powers, Sentinel Staff Writers

Epcot's American Adventure has entered the 21st century, adding Michelle Kwan, Tiger Woods and the firefighters who raised the flag at the World Trade Center's ground zero to Walt Disney World's show of American history and inspiration.

The update, which adds images from America's most recent 14 years of history, was completed and debuted a couple of weeks ago. This is the second time that American Adventure has been updated since the show, in the World Showcase American Adventure Pavilion, premiered when Epcot opened in 1982.

The 30-minute show runs several times a day. It combines numerous robotic figures performing skits and commentaries -- Ben Franklin and Mark Twain are the hosts -- with music and slide shows of paintings, photographs, movie clips and animation of historic scenes. The theme is the evolution of American spirit from the Pilgrims to contemporary times.

As always with sensitive material, the update was tricky, particularly dealing tactfully with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Historians are included in the process, said Rick Rothschild, the executive show director. Rothschild, who's also a senior vice president with Walt Disney Imagineering, helped develop the original show and the first update. In dealing with 9-11, he and planners focused on how Americans came together afterward to cope and recover, he said.

"What we've placed in our new sequence has to do with paying tribute to all those who were involved," Rothschild said. "This is the sequence that has to do with the spirit of Americans helping each other."

The updates can be found in the last American Adventure segment, a slide show set to a song called "Golden Dreams," which progresses without commentary from post-World War II to the present.

The song remains the same. The durations of the old images were reduced to make time for more images during the song. Previously, the song featured 85 slides. Now there are 110, adding, among other details, Muhammad Ali carrying a torch at the 1996 Olympics, scenes from the destroyed World Trade Center, and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton working together on tsunami relief.

Engineering a record

The American Society of Safety Engineers 2007 exposition at the Orange County Convention Center set a record for the number of exhibitors and the amount of space sold, exceeding records set at the group's previous gatherings in Seattle, New Orleans and Las Vegas.

The event, which ran June 24-26, sold 57,950 square feet of exhibit space, surpassing the 52,780 square feet sold for the 2006 ASSE convention in Seattle. About 400 companies exhibited.

Resort is growing

Marriott Vacation Club International, the Orlando-based time-share division of Marriott International Inc., announced last week the opening of a second phase of units at its Frenchman's Cove project in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

The new phase includes 30 two-bedroom villas. The new phase brings the development to 50 units in what is planned to be a 220-villa resort. Frenchman's Cove is also adding a full-service restaurant, a convenience store and a fitness center.

Christopher Boyd can be reached at 407-420-5723 or cboyd@orlandosentinel.com. Beth Kassab can be reached at bkassab@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5448. Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.

source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business ... 1067.story