Blessing of size... actually a blessing?

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We all know the famous Walt quote about the Florida perfect benefiting from the blessing of size, but as the years go on do you believe the Company still agrees? Do you think Disney should continue to sell off unused land or should more be bought? Do you agree with the sell off of certain tracts of land? Does Disney enjoy the responsibility of its 40 square miles?

Over the years large pieces of land has been developed and sold off, such as Little Lake Bryan, Celebration, and possibly Flamingo Crossing in the future. At the same time the Company buys up land near Reedy Lake and Celebration.

If Disney were to build the Resort now, do you think they would want as much land and the responsibility of running an improvement district? Or would they go with a small buffer and not worry as much about the outside world getting close.

basically this thread can be a catch all discussion for how Disney has managed and developed their property in Florida, thoughts on past decisions, and what you think should be in their future plans.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Truthfully, I cannot image WDW smaller. It could be because a lot of that land is swamp and will never be used for anything except an animal habitat. I would believe that most of the land that could be sold off, in a worthwhile manner, has already been or is mostly done. If they get to many commercial items too close, it will be hurtful to business and the concept of immersion in the Disney bubble. The very thing that allows them to charge criminal prices for a hotel room. It is well worth it to Disney to keep WDW strongly in it's own little sphere.
 

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Walt was smart in buying up all he could, and fortunate that he got what he wanted at decent prices. Expansion was in the plans but also protection from being hemmed in by others as happened in CA. I think because no one can tell how big Disney can get, or how the industry can warrant them to expand, that the powers that be should not look to sell off large portions that could be developed in the future. When one builds up and expands the comparison of profit/ loss is always looked at so the project can overcome the expense of existing. Disney has further potential as long as the guests are attracted to the new, can keep coming, are willing tp pay out their prices asked for and consistent in returning. Some property can be evaluated as being worthless and allowed to let go, but good real estate is always worth holding onto, even if its just sitting empty as future gold.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
The blessing of size comes with the ease of sprawl. This is what has really hurt the Walt Disney World experience. It’s a lot of empty space. So much time is consumed getting to places. Without Walt’s specific opposition to sprawl the convenience was too alluring and things have just been dropped down wherever. Walt Disney World is now the exact sort of suburban sprawl EPCOT was reacting against.
 
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Robbiem

Well-Known Member
The blessing of size comes with the ease of sprawl. This is what has really hurt the Walt Disney World experience. It’s a lot of empty space. So much time is consumed getting to places. Without Walt’s specific opposition to sprawl the convenience was too alluring and things have just been dropped down wherever. Walt Disney World is not the exact sort of suburban sprawl EPCOT was reacting against.

I completely agree in many ways WDW is a wasted opportunity. If you look at the original EPCOT film you can see walts original intention for the property was to be pretty much road vehicle free. The resort was planned in a linear fashion from an entrance complex where you would presumably leave your car to board the monorai, connecting to a wedway if necessary to reach your final destination.

While not exactly built like that phase 1 did try to follow these ideas shifting the entrance complex to the TTC and making the resort area pretty much vehicle free.

Once the village resort and marketplace opened and travel by bus became more used it was only time before WDW diverted from its original planning ideals and became an unplanned sprawl with hotels and parks plopped down in random locations served by an ever expanding bus network. Rather than integrating a city for residents and guests as per the original plans celebration was built effectively away from the main resort and eventually sold off

Its interesting to compare WDW to Paris, Disneys other large scale planned resort. Although not much is made of it this managed to be an interesting master planned area with the main resort facilities and a town incorporated. Lack of demand compared to the original plans has probably helped but the resort has stayed much closer to the original master plan than WDW.

I dont know too much about it but it would be interesting to learn more about the master planning for Shangha, Hong Kong in many ways was my favourite planned resort its layout was really efficient and if it had been built out it would have been a great resort really integrated into its surroundings with the ocean front hotels and a mountain backdrop shielding the resort from the real world
 

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The blessing of size comes with the ease of sprawl. This is what has really hurt the Walt Disney World experience. It’s a lot of empty space. So much time is consumed getting to places. Without Walt’s specific opposition to sprawl the convenience was too alluring and things have just been dropped down wherever. Walt Disney World is not the exact sort of suburban sprawl EPCOT was reacting against.
I agree, I hope they had some plan in mind when developing the property the way they did but sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. The MK area I really well planned, and they eventually somewhat try to copy it with the crescent lake area connecting Epcot and studios, but doesn’t work the same way as MK area as both parks are kinda hidden in this design. Long term it would have been great if they had built each park/hotel complex in the same design as seven seas lagoon layout, a large lagoon with the park and hotels spread around connected by transport other than just busses. AK and AK lodge will always boggle my mind at this lost opportunity. The only way to travel from a beautiful deluxe resort to a beautiful theme park is by a bus, though I think @marni1971 said that there was some sort of plan to change this.
 

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
I guess there is also size vs useable size. WDW is something like 28,000 acres but how much is suitable for building on. seven seas lagoon for example exists to enable the magic kingdom land to be built on

DLP is something like 4,500 acres but most if not all of the land is suitable for building so depending on where it is you could end up with a WDW sized resort facility wise for less surface area.

even with the above I doubt today disney would have such a large resort, they would probably have built a smaller resort near tampa or miami with room for two parks, hotels and a shopping area - basically Disneyland or universal Orlando
 

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