Coral Reef Restaurant 1987

In June 1987, my family visited Walt Disney World. This was our first trip to the WDW since it added a second theme park, EPCOT Center. One of the places we ate at was the Coral Reef Restaurant which was located at The Living Seas pavilion in Future World. The restaurant opened on January 15, 1986, so, it had only been open roughly a year and a half when we visited.


What was so unique about this restaurant was the huge glass windows which allowed guests to view the underwater world as they dined. I remember when we first sat down at our table, I thought of the scene in Jaws 3-D where the people were eating, drinking, and socializing oblivious to the behemoth shark that was about to change their experience. Of course, this had no giant fish, but, it did have many sharks for my brothers and I to gasp over, especially the bull sharks. The above picture is one we took of the bull shark, but, as you can tell, ya can't really see the shark. But, you can get an idea of the decor and the size of the windows for viewing the aquarium.


We did get a couple of Disneyphemera items from this lunch. The first item we received was the host card stating our name, party size, and time we arrived. This also doubled as an identification guide for the different sea life that we could observe while we dined.


The next item is a foil wrapper from one of the after dinner chocolate dessert mints we received. The mints were actually round coins, about the size of those you can find today at the various Disney shops with Mickey, Minnie, and others on them. I have three of these, but, this one has been flattened the best to show the design which includes EPCOT Center's Spaceship Earth.


Now, if I could just remember what I had? I wonder if my parents kept that receipt?!