Today Walt Disney World is known for more than just its rides and hotels.
Over the years it has been home to everything from festivals to weddings to birthday parties
to tournaments to even sci-fi conventions.
Some of those ideas have lasted the test of time and others… not so much.
One of those ideas was the Tour D Fun.
Announced in June of 1994, the Tour D Fun would be a three day charity cycling event
that would take place in Tampa and Walt Disney World later that year in September.
Cyclists would be able to take part in a century ride that, at 101.5 miles long, would take
them from Harbour Island in Tampa all the way to the Magic Kingdom.
The route would be lined every 10 miles with rest stops for riders who needed it.
The event, benefitting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa, would begin the night before
with a check-in and reception party at the Wyndham Harbour Island Hotel.
For an initial entry fee of $40, all riders were given a t-shirt, a set of Mickey ears,
a map of the route, and a celebratory patch for those who finished the event.
However for an additional $242 riders would also get a two night stay at Disney’s Dixie
Landings resort, today known as Port Orleans Riverside, a buffet after the event, a viewing
party for Illuminations in Epcot, admission to Pleasure Island, and access to a morning
bike ride event through Disney-MGM Studios the following day.
The event would initially be capped at 2,500 cyclists but as it would turn out, that wouldn’t
really matter.
As the year went on and the event approached, that additional price for all of the extra benefits dropped.
By that August, just a month before the ride, the price for all of the extras was reduced
by 31%, signaling that perhaps Disney was having some trouble getting enough cyclists
on-board for the Tour D Fun.
When the morning of September 23rd rolled around, the day before the ride, it was reported
in the Tampa Bay Times that only 1,000 riders registered.
Now 1,000 isn’t a small number on its own, but that was less than half of what Disney
was hoping to cap the event at, and this was Disney during the “Disney Decade”.
They weren’t accustomed to a lack of interest when it came to events they held.
When the morning of the actual event finally arrive a reported 500 additional unregistered
riders showed up, bringing the estimated total up to 1,500.
It still wasn’t 2,500, but it was an improvement.
The ride itself went as smoothly as a 101 mile bike ride in 90 degree weather could go.
Money was raised for a good cause.
People had a fun time.
It looked good for everyone involved.
Sure, it wasn’t a smash hit, but it did well enough to justify plans for a 2nd annual
Tour D Fun in 1995.
Those plans progressed quietly throughout the following year, and then suddenly without
warning, just a month before the 2nd ride was set to take place, Disney pulled the plug.
A Disney marketing spokesperson at the time, when reached out about the abrupt cancellation,
cited a lack of interest in the event as the reason for their decision.
As it had turned out, only 400 cyclists had registered for the event up until that point.
While some cyclists argued that many riders would show up the morning of the event to
register, it’d be a stretch to think enough would do that to result in a total ridership
of over 1,500.
The odds were that the 2nd annual Tour D Fun would be smaller than the first.
Independently, that’d be enough of a reason for Disney to cancel the tour.
It doesn’t make for a good news blurb to see a charity event already shrinking after
just its first year.
However beyond that they had even more of a reason to abandon the event.
Because you see in 1994 another Disney event was tested and debuted, and it was the Walt
Disney World Marathon.
The inaugural Walt Disney World Marathon, held in January of 1994, drew in over 7,200
runners from across the country.
That’s nearly five times the number of participants that the Tour D Fun saw.
When the second marathon took place the following January, that number increased to 9,000.
So here’s Disney with a cycling event that required organization across multiple counties
and was seemly already on the decline on one hand, and a fairly successful and growing
running event that took place on their property on the other.
All things considered, it was a pretty easy decision.
The Tour D Fun was the product of a willingness to experiment with events and ideas in order
to take this idea of a theme park resort and turn it into something more.
It is not a well known slice of Disney World history but it was still an important part of it.
I want to give a special thanks to Kevin Perjerur of Defuntland for helping me find some of
the images used in this video. If you're a big fan of theme park history be sure to check out his channel.
And a special thanks to generic royalty-free b-roll because, quite frankly,
I couldn’t find any footage of this event anywhere.