When I got hired to work on MIB next door, IoA’s Executive Art Director Dale Mason took me and MIB art directors Jimmy Pickering & Desireé Soto on an extensive, hour-plus golf-cart hardhat tour of the entire park under construction to see the kind of incredible detail and craftsmanship that was happening.
I shot this footage in Oct 1998, about 6mo before opening. It’s been sitting in a closet on a DV tape for 25yrs, so I dug it out & uploaded it on the park’s 25th Anniversary, 5/28/24.
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Outstanding, such a cool look at my favorite park under construction
Dude this is amazing! Love it! Thanks for sharing 😮🤩
This is absolutely incredible footage. Thank you so much for sharing this!!
This is AMAZING!
I can't believe this was only 6 months before opening, still looks like there was so much to do! This was such an incredible treasure trove of insight for a theme park nerd like me. Thanks Dave!
So many questions
1) what ride was the. airborne autopia? Seus Trolley?
2) how were you allowed to take this footage?
3) do you expect this to stay up in YouTube?
4) why didn’t I know this was a job 25 years ago when I was the right age?
Seriously, thank you. This is awesome.
Wow. You have always had the coolest of jobs, dude. I’ve always envied you, but it’s views like this that really remind me how lucky you have been, sir. Big love!!!
18:05 seeing this part it’s like the scene of the year 2017 when the ride will end 😢
Wow and 25 years later EPIC here we go again
I can smell this video
I remember those days! Was on opening crew and my supervisor would take us out in IOA to see the park before it opened.
Oh wow. This is monumental footage, i feel lucky to have it recommended the day you uploaded. Here before millions of views gang!
Do you remember the camera you were using?
Crazy how we have actual youtube channels dedicated to documenting weekly updates with Epic universe, and here we get a one in maybe dozens of insider archival footage of IoA development. Just different times man
“Moose juice, goose juice, its a healthy drink stand” lol oh the 90’s
A fond memory is staying at a hotel on International Drive (Rodeway Inn?) and sitting out on the balcony area watching a storm rip through (including tornadoes), with the outline of the part-built Hulk coaster silhouetted with lightning.
This is amazing. Thank you for sharing 😊
amazing stuff
What an awesome experience this was to watch! Thanks so much for sharing it 🙂
Seeing Cat in the Hat in it's prime was amazing. Truly a solid ride ruined by the unfunny hellhole of TikTok and poor maintainence
This has to be in 1997'. No way was this 6 months out. Impossible.
Oh wow, thank you so much for this!!!
25 years later I proposed to my now fiance on the Bench at the entrance of IOA
Thank you so much for this, it's sick. And to know this is what people are experiencing at Epic gives me chills.
Incredible
I was an attendant at Doctor Doom's Fearfall from 2010 to 2012 so I could immediately recognize the sounds that ride makes all throughout the video. That ride is really loud.
WOW. Seriously incredible stuff!
how convenient that this was uploaded the day the park opened. now i can see what islands of adventure looked like way before i existed.
YOOOOOO THIS IS GOLD.
2:22 probably one of the first times the word “confiscos” has been said on camera 🤣🤣
Thank you so much for this! Amazing!
Wow, what a gift this is! Thank you so so much for digging out and uploading such a treat for us all to enjoy! I was there the year after it opened, cant believe its been 25 years. Happy bday IOA!
Wow, this is so awesome. Amazing footage to share on IOA's 25th anniversary – thank you!
being someone that currently works in this park this is amazing