Music Loops

Fortunately, nobody can yell at you for listening to the music at home, either.

Theme park soundtracks are a strange art form. They’re made to be moving, but inobtrusive. Even the music loops designed for films and television shows with immediately iconic music may be more than just simple compilations. That’s to say nothing of the loops without source material curated to thematic consistency from dozens of disparate artists and ages.

It’s a delicate thing and, done well, one of the most memorable parts of any day at a park.

Good thing just about every piece of theme park music ever composed or collated is available for your listening pleasure online.

Missing Halloween Horror Nights? Spotify users have organized playlists for just about every possible permuation of recent years and songs. Just the music from HHN 29’s haunted houses? Got you covered. Over a full day of tracks from the event’s entire history? Got that, too.

Disney’s a tougher nut to crack, given the bespoke nature of their soundtracks, although Spotify does have the complete 1972 Walt Disney World Band album available for brass fans.

Luckily YouTube comes to the rescue again.

Need a beat you can clean the house to? Try a 10-hour loop of the Innoventions soundtrack. Need new white noise to help you fall asleep? Try a 10-hour loop of rain, thunder, and the distant dirge of a Haunted Mansion organ.

Anyone dedicated enough to read a website named Theme Park Tourist already knows the music is out there, but the breadth and variety of it may be surprising.

Consider some highlights.

Universal Studios Florida seems like second fiddle to Islands of Adventure when it comes to music, but listen to the original 1990 entrance music and you’ll change your tune. Before it relied on instrumental scores to provide its own sense of place and personality, Doris Day hipped “Hooray for Hollywood” ahead of a scattershot medley from the park’s attractions. Where and when else could you hear Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” right next to Jan Hammer’s theme to Miami Vice?

As Tomorrowland regularly updates its vision of the future, the sound of the future changes with it. In the ‘70s, stock music gave it the strange flavor of sci-fi film scores meant for Kmart clearance sales. In the ‘80s, a line-up of Mannheim Steamroller songs turned tomorrow into a funky space opera. In the ‘90s, new age was in, matching the jazz-fusion utopia already playing over at the Wonders of Life pavilion. Not long past the millennium came another reimagining - raygun chic - that guests can still hear today. All of these loops are available thanks to the tireless and thankless work of park historians on YouTube.

Amusement park enthusiasts north of Florida and east of California should also take note. Even though there are fewer resources for parks that don’t double as lifestyle brands, you never know what’s waiting for rediscovery. After all, more than a few Kings Island fans must be jonesing for a reprise of the Enchanted Voyage theme.

E-Book Travel Guides

The internet has done a number on travel guides. There used to be dozens of annually updated series, each with its own unique take on the minutia of Disney, Sweden, or whatever its topic. Though the biggest names in the game, like Fodors and Unofficial Guide, persevere, many have fallen. Econoguide, with its welcome editorializing. Passporter, with its interactive design. Both the Complete Idiot’s Guide and For Dummies franchises, with their welcome honesty.

It’s easy to toss these books aside when most travelers have a supercomputer in their pocket capable of loading three-dozen takes on a turkey leg stand in under ten seconds. But they’re not without value, even the outdated ones.

Most local library systems have an e-book program. Most modern travelogues have e-book options. The Disney-approved Birnbaum’s series is always quick with a Kindle edition. But if selection is slim, there’s always the Internet Archive.

Acting as the World Wide Web’s universal library, the Internet Archive is a non-profit compendium with millions of collected books, videos, webpages, and programs. All of it can be readily accessed with a free account that works like an ordinary library card. Each scanned piece of printed material is the only copy on-hand, available to borrow for an hour at a time if nobody else is already borrowing it.

Not that the treasure trove of old travel guides gets too much circulation.

 According to the Archive’s data, the 2014 edition of PassPorter’s Walt Disney World has only been borrowed once. Somehow, the delightfully niche Brit’s Guide to Orlando & Disney World ’97 is four times as popular.

But that’s just the tip of this convenient iceberg. The books on offer get dizzyingly specific on time, place, and perspective.

Devoted time travelers should get a kick out of 1982’s Steve Birnbaum Brings You the Best of Walt Disney World, the first-ever Birnbaum guide to the vacation kingdom. Although Kelly Monaghan’s series on the other Florida vacation kingdom didn’t last as long, Universal Studios Escape: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure remains an essential artifact from the resort’s briefest, bleakest rebranding. There’s still no better way to get young ones hyped for the next trip while also tricking them into reading than the Walt Disney World For Kids series. Pay special attention to the early ‘90s entries, some of which included input from Taran Noah Smith of Home Improvement fame.

There are also plenty of rare, official publications from the parks. Walt Disney World: The First Decade is a lavish spread of early photos tough to find anywhere else. From the same vintage, the Walt Disney World Vacation Guide is a 40-page history lesson in what early ‘80s hotel guests needed to know about the place. Any Busch Gardens Williamsburg regulars will enjoy an especially deep cut and, if they’re committed enough, dinner with the 1979 Busch Gardens Festhaus Cookbook.

The digital rabbit hole goes as deep as you’re prepared to dive, but there’s more than one way to work up that vacation feeling.