Sherman is going to set the Wayback Machine to the year 2000 so that we can revisit the beginning of the Millennium where everyone was waiting for their computers to crash with the Y2K bug but Disney was more optimistic about the future and had planned a big celebration at Walt Disney World.

And we are going to learn all about it by means of this Walt Disney World 2000 Vacation Planner Guide DVD:

All you had to do to enjoy the vacation of a lifetime was enjoy the enclosed video, read the brochure, and then call the convenient toll-free phone number. Don’t forget your credit card!

I collect these obsolete DVDs primarily for the informational booklets. The videos are interesting as snapshots of the Parks, frozen in time, but usually tend to be a bit heavy on the Disney Pitch! Please enjoy the pages below for the skinny on all the doings at Walt Disney World in the year 2000:

You likely noticed that some of the Parks still had their old names and River Country was still in operation. What I didn’t realize was that the FastPass program started in 2000 for this promotion:

My first visit to WDW as a married man was in 2006 and I remember going to the kiosks outside certain attractions to get little pieces of paper with a time stamped on them. Sometimes you wouldn’t need them when you arrived as the regular line wasn’t long anyway and so you got to keep them as a souvenir. Things just aren’t the same without them!

I always love getting these booklets because of the maps. You can track the changes from one map to the next. Notice the little ‘2000’ atop Spaceship Earth!

Walt Disney World is so much more than just the Theme Parks. Below is a Calendar of Events for 1999-2000 featuring all of the things to do and when:

I wonder if the American Express Card is still the official card of WDW? They even had a Travel Desk! I think VISA and MasterCard have taken over in most wallets these days.

One of the biggest changes during this promotion was the addition of a big wand and the number ‘2000’ atop Spaceship Earth in EPCOT. And of course, copious amounts of merchandise! Please check out my WDW 2000 Collector’s Plate by clicking the link, and read a little about this controversial blemish upon the dimpled surface of the Golf Ball.

For more vintage DVD Planning Guide fun, check out the 100 Years of Magic video set from 2001.