The Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
The attraction that would one day be known as The Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros began as a planned attraction for the Mexico pavilion known as "Las Tres Culturas de Mexico" (The Three Cultures of Mexico). The ride was going to be an indoor/outdoor boat ride, which took guests through the history of Mexico. Las Tes Culturas de Mexico took its ride structure from “it’s a small world, and even used a similar, repetitive theme song. The attraction’s storyline came from a Mayan myth which told about the Gods taking the gift of music from the jealous sun, and giving it to the songless Earth. The myth concludes with the idea that "Life was all music from that time on”.
Although El Rio Del Teimpo was fully designed in time for Epcot's opening day, Disney initially wanted to push the attractions construction back until December 1, 1982. The plans were for the lagoon and load area to be built, with space left open for the attraction itself. When other World Showcase attractions were put on hold, including the of the planned Japan attraction and Germany's Rhine River cruise, Disney realized that they did not have enough attractions for the parks capacity. Eventually, they decided that they would need to construct the Mexico attraction, which was now known as El Rio Del Tiempo, due to the ride’s high guest capacity.
With both time and money running out, various cuts were made to the original designs for El Rio Del Tiempo. The whole attraction was moved indoors, and it was decided that the ride’s track would need to be shortened. In fact, if Imagineers had created El Rio Del Tiempo according to its original design, the ride would have been 40% larger than the final version.
El Rio Del Tiempo opened with the rest of Epcot on October 1, 1981. Although the attraction had been quite popular at the time of it’s opening, its attendance began to drop during the 1990s. During this time, rumors were prevalent that the attraction would be replaced by a new Donald Duck attraction. When El Rio Del Tiempo closed for refurbishment in 1999 however, no such change took place. Instead, the attraction was cleaned up and given new paint, just in time for Epcot’s Millennium Celebration.
On January 2, 2007, El Rio Del Tiempo was closed for a major refurbishment. When the ride reopened on April 6, 2007, it featured a brand new storyline. The Disney characters Jose, Panchito, and Donald Duck, from the 1944 Disney movie The Three Caballeros were added to the attraction. Large screens located within each scene in the attraction, now told the story of Jose and Panchito as they searched all over Mexico for Donald. Since it’s the inclusion of the Three Caballeros, the attraction has seen no major changes.
