I was referring the attractions 3 year construction timeline being half of 6 years.
There you go with more arbitrary timelines. WDW was announced in 1965 and groundbreaking took place in 1967. Over 4 years before the property would open.
You’re conveniently ignoring the years of planning and development that took place before any of those parks started construction. And misrepresenting the comparison between building a park and building an attraction/land.
WDW was announced in (late) 1965
ONLY b/c Disney was just "outed" to be the "Mystery Buyer." It was part spin, part "damage control."
The plan was no announcement until sometime
after they secured the rest of the land they wanted.
Which may have been a blessing in disguise..... because if the public didn't know it
was Disney before Walt's death the next year, the company may had simply "cut their losses."
BECAUSE
The company realized it was mostly swamp with no infrastructure.
For example (I always bring receipts
)
Walt EXPLODED at Joe Fowler when he was told just one of the needed canals would cost $1 million (1966 dollars; over $10 million today's $s). Walt didn't give a d*mn for cost at that point, he just wanted his city
ASAP.
(nb: they "made up" before he died...he also reached out to several people he had rifts with right before his passing b/c he knew his death was immanent...Ken Anderson and Bill Peet were two other examples)
Disney needed 3 years to just make the land "buildable."
That's why there's frustration
today. I'm not saying that justifies it, but frustration is indeed based on perception. For current AK & HS projects (like it was for most recently EPCOT) land was, for the most part, already buildable...at least it was no longer swamp.
I understand/understood that the "land prep" was/is more daunting for "Frontireland"/Villians site.
But, conversely, the perception has also been exasperated because it seems that Disney's arch-rival keeps plowing-through its construction projects at warp speed.
www.wdwmagic.com
