Land of the Rising Mickey
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Bon Voyage

Marc: What projects at the Tokyo Disney Resort did you have a hand in?

Eddie: There were many minor enhancements and still more on the boards. The most noteworthy ones are the "Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall", "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" (includes redoing the Tea Cups and area development), the new "Get the Fever" show in the Tiki Room, and "Bon Voyage", a 15,000 sq. ft. retail store outside the park.

Marc: I didn't know you were involved in Queen of Hearts... It's beautifully themed and it's so psychedelic! I'm heading over there right now... Ok, I'm there. Really. I made it past the playing card guards, walked in through the doorknob's gaping mouth, and now I'm sitting in one of the two person booths to the left side of the entrance...

 
Just inside the entrance of Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall

I love the games with scale, like the giant tulips lamps sprouting from giant sugar bowls and the oversized pillars that seem as if their melting (they add a weird drama to the place). There's so much stained glass, and the elaborate metal work ceiling lights, and the "two dimensional" clouds that hang from the ceiling and draw the eye to the forced perspective of the back wall and... I really could go on. EVERYTHING is so stylish. It's like sitting in the movie... or in an Alice in Wonderland dark ride... a really nice Alice in Wonderland dark ride. And I haven't even talked about the outside of the building with all it's stone work and three dimensional forced perspective hedge maze roof! I can't help but think it must be gratifying to have your ideas realized with such quality.

 
The exterior of Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall

Eddie: Yes, it is. The forced perspective hedge maze was fun, as it was the response to the problem of "what do you put between the Haunted Mansion and Small World?" Any new architectural statement would be a "train wreck". I thought that doing an "un building" of hedges would be a "green" answer to the
problem. Imagineers Kelley Ford and Ron Esposito made the hedges look very real. I was relieved to stand there and see that the effect actually works!

Marc: Which of your accomplishments at TDL especially stand out in your mind?

Eddie: They all stand out for one reason or another. "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" is the project that has had the most impact both on the guest, and I feel on the future of dark rides as a whole. It is the first "wireless" dark ride where the vehicles can "dance" with each other finding their own pathways through the spaces. It truly reinvents what you can do in this genre and I hope will be the first of many new rides that take advantage of this type of idea. I'm proud to have been able to bring about a significant change in the way we see this medium. It has been called a breakthrough in attraction design and called "magic' by those who have ridden it. That is when technology is used well..when it is only known as magic!