Possible WDW airport ?

Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
I dont see it happening....jet traffic taking off and landing that close to property would be, well, unmagical. As others have stated, Magical Express has accomplished what an airport on property would do. It keep more guests on property longer.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
A real concept...discarded because it wasn't really feasible.
I forget the code name...Project Alpha, Project Omega...something like that.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
They would never run an airport.. incredibly expensive and regulated. But the theme of the article is dead on.. how to get guests to Disney ONLY.. and that is EXACTLY why they started the Disney Magical Express.

The author is on in concept.. just execution is horribly off. That is why Disney figured out a better way of doing it.

Just look at any map.. you'll find MCO is probably just as big as the entire WDW property.

Airports take DECADES to get approved and built.
 
A

awalkinthepark

New Member
Doesn't seem realistic now...magical express fills that need...but I wonder where the state/counties would look to replace the lost toll income and the car rental taxes.....sure I don't pay state taxes...but my tolls alone run close to $800 per year....pay a good hunk in property taxes and sales taxes are a little higher in this state.
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
They would never run an airport.. incredibly expensive and regulated. But the theme of the article is dead on.. how to get guests to Disney ONLY.. and that is EXACTLY why they started the Disney Magical Express.

The author is on in concept.. just execution is horribly off. That is why Disney figured out a better way of doing it.

Just look at any map.. you'll find MCO is probably just as big as the entire WDW property.

Airports take DECADES to get approved and built.
Click to expand...
Yeah it is pretty enormous...there's not enough room for anything of MCO's size on WDW property (that is, there is no one available location of its size). Disney's Magical Express is the most reasonable way to go. The return on an airport is minimal. They replace a 30-minute bus ride with probably a 10-15 minute one. What's the point?
 
P

PBarton

Active Member
Wasn't there an "Airport of the Future" on the original EPCOT masterplan? I seem to remember it from one of the Walt Disney Treasures discs (Walt's EPCOT presentation).

Would be too expensive, noisy and a waste of land that could be put to much better use..
 
J

Jim Hill

Member
A little background info on that WDW Airport article

Hey, guys

Jim Hill here.

Yes, that Jim Hill.

Given that a number of people here at WDWMagic seem to be wondering about the origins of that WDW Airport article that unkadug posted yesterday ... Well, I thought that I should let you all know that I was one who actually wrote this piece back in 1999.

Mind you, that was back when I first started writing for the Web. Of course, back then, I used to work under the pseudonym of J. Thaddeus Weasel.

Anyway ... I wrote this story for Arlen Miller's old Dreamfinder website. With the hope that it might then drive a little more traffic Arlen's way. Over the year or so that I regularly contributed pieces to Miller's website, I also wrote articles about "Blue Sky" projects like Fire Mountain, Villain Mountain as well as those never ending rumors about Disney buying up land in Texas to build ... something.

Eventually, Arlen & I parted ways. I then started contributing articles to MousePlanet. Which then led to my gig at LaughingPlace, DCACentral and -- finally -- JimHillMedia.

Anywho ... Given that I don't seem to have all that many fans here at WDWMagic, I'm going to assume that -- now that I've actually owned up to being the author of this WDW Airport article -- that some people here are now going to automatically discount this piece. Given that if a story comes from Jim Hill, it then (All together now) " ... has to be taken with a huge grain of salt."

Which honestly is okay with me. After all, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. And I've long since resigned myself to the fact that -- no matter what how many outside sources that I link back to and/or how many stories that I publish on JHM that eventually turn out to be true -- that there are still going to people who I insist that I make stuff up.

As for this WDW Airport story ... All I can tell you is that -- back in 1998 -- I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with a senior Disney official who then walked me through all of the company's plans for "Project Omega." Which (back then, anyway) seemed like a "Go" project.

But then 9/11 happened. And -- as a direct result of the impact that that terrorist act had on on-property occupancy rates at WDW -- Disney executives lost their nerve. Which is why the company then radically scaled back its plans for "Project Omega." Dumbing the whole thing down until what we were eventually left with was "Disney's Magical Express." Which (you'll have to admit) has accomplished many of the same goals that the more ambitious version of this plan originally sought to achieve.

Anyhow ... That's a bit more background on the story that unkadug posted yesterday. Who wrote it. More importantly, who my original source was (And -- no -- I can't name the exec. Why For? Because he still works for the Mouse. Trust me. You'd know his name if I mentioned it.)

Please forgive my interruption. Given that I'm fairly certain that a Jim Hill bashing session is about to get underway, I should probably be on my way anyway.

Thanks for your time,

j
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Jim Hill said:
Which is why the company then radically scaled back its plans for "Project Omega." Dumbing the whole thing down until what we were eventually left with was "Disney's Magical Express." Which (you'll have to admit) has accomplished many of the same goals that the more ambitious version of this plan originally sought to achieve.
Click to expand...

Jim,

Of course Hindsight is 20/20 but you'd have to admit, that this sequence of events really is for the better. An airport includes so many aspects the Mouse can't control or influence.. airlines.. the FAA.. more unions.. thousands more workers.. tens of thousands of acres.. etc. Poor little RCID couldn't hide all that :)

The Magical Express tackles the problem head on.. and strives to achieve the same goal w/o controlling the aspects that Disney can't. Running a bus service 24/7 is infinitatly more controllable and predictable then trying to run a federally regulated government entity. To whomever came up with this 'alternative' within the Mouse.. should be given a set of Golden Ears for coming up with such a vastly simpler solution to the same problem.

Another alternative would be for Disney to co-brand flights with a larger carrier and effectively offer charter service to MCO. Start the Disney experience at the remote airport.. include priority security screening.. check-in.. luggage handling.. of course Disney 'handling' on the flight.. and then wrap it up with Magical Express at the local side. This 'end to end' Disney treatment could charge a premium and protect Disney from 'bleeding days' to the competition. Of course the same treatment could be applied to Disney Cruises as well, allowing two aspects of the business to contribute to hopefully reach a critical mass to sustain the initiative.

Thanks for posting and contributing info to the top Jim.
 
unkadug

unkadug

Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Original Poster
Thank you Jim.:wave:

To paraphrase a much quoted line about Imagineering:

It just shows that no good article ever dies, it just goes into hiding on the internet! :lol:
 
J

Jim Hill

Member
A Disney co-branded airline? Not likely

The way I hear it, every couple of years, there's a discussion at the senior executive level about Disney possibly lending its name to some airline. But that discussion invariably ends with some exec saying "How would you like to turn on CNN and see an airplane with the Disney name emblazoned on it sticking up out of some cornfield? Have our company's name associated with some horrific air tragedy?"

This is the same sort of argument that always gets trotted out whenever anyone talks about launching a national chain of Disney Day Care centers (I.E. "How would you like to turn on the six o'clock news and hear about 'Kids molested at a Disney-owned Day Care Center' "?).

Mind you, this hasn't stopped the company from occassionally lending out its characters to carriers like Alaskan Air. Who (Just a year or so ago) painted the exterior of one of their jets to help hype Disneyland's 50 anniversary.

But as for the Mouse going full force into the airline business ... I just don't see that happening. Given how hard the company works these days to keep the Disney name associated with only good things (EX: How Mickey deliberately stepped away from the fast food biz last year and then agressively moved to associate its characters with healthier snacks & food), the possible profits to be had aren't worth the long term risks
 
W

WDW Monorail

Well-Known Member
Great article Jim. The only problem with the idea is that it is comparable to changing a lightbulb by turning the house.
In other words, as you stated, this idea was scaled down and simplified by the DME.
 

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