News Disney Has Purchased Approximately 235 Acres of Land

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
I'll be honest, I think expanding Magic Kingdom should be the priority. The problem with Magic Kingdom is that it does not have enough rides. I know that sounds crazy given that it has more rides than any other park but Disneyland Park in California is so much more pleasant due to the fact that it has substantially more attractions and can spread the crowds out. I know adding two more E tickets beyond Tron will naturally bring in more people BUT when the hype of new attractions dies down and in off seasons, it will be more manageable.

Another big issue it would solve: refurbishments! If Disney added Tron, a roller coaster in Adventureland and another big E ticket in the back of the park behind Fantasyland (Yea yea utilidors. There's a way) Disney would (hopefully) be more comfortable giving many Magic Kingdom attractions long needed refurbishments. In Disneyland, if Indiana Jones is down as it will be later this year, and you want to go on a thrill ride, you got Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Star Tours and Splash Mountain for thrill rides and soon Rise of the Resistance. There's still a fantastic line up for thrill rides if one is down for refurbishment. In Magic Kingdom, when Big Thunder Mountain is down, you just have Splash and Space Mountain and arguably Mine Train... and soon Tron. Which is a fantastic step in the right direction. But it shouldn't stop there.

If you take one of the E tickets out in Florida...by next year you’ll have a very similar slate of thrills left.

The problem in MK is that the customers are placking the place while lowering their own expectations...allowing Disney to “upsell” what really shouhd be in the base ticket. Like all over WDW

It’s been going on for awhile and the consequences for experience are noting but bad.
 

easyrowrdw

Well-Known Member
I’m not saying I disagree with your assessment...but I find that one reference a bit problematic in principle...

So the day is blasted If you want to go at 10...or 11...or 1?

I just think their ride rationing system and overall lack of investment has lower our expectations/demands to the point where it is “work”...it’s a shame.

That’s not a “good” thing...though it’s often portrayed as such

I gotcha. Waits are shortest in the morning so it's easier to do more rides then. We've done later arrivals and still done well through fastpasses. It definitely requires a plan, but my point was that you can use a "default" plan like Easy (who has plans for afternoon arrivals or visiting characters and other variations) and be good to go.

I'm not saying it's ideal or that they don't need more rides. But "despite" the current system I've had numerous enjoyable days at Magic Kingdom.
 

UpAllNight

Well-Known Member
It’s about the same to be honest. Coming home always kicks since it’s a through the night flight and we’re flying east so we loose time. It must be an age thing but it takes longer to recover than it used to! I usually need a week back home to feel right again now. Or maybe it’s the 18 hours a day every day that we tend to do when on holiday!

This year we did find flying to the west coast tiring. Up at 6am our time, an 8 hour flight at 11am to Atlanta, then a 5 hour flight after a 2 hour layover to San Francisco. Got to the hotel about 10pm Pacific time which was 6am the next day according to our bodies. We collapsed onto bed, only to be wide awake at 430am pacific time since our bodies thought it was the afternoon. We packed 5 days worth of sightseeing into 3 days and then flew to Orange County when the long days really began. Disneyland’s regular hours were insane if you’re used to Orlando. Opens for everyone at 8am. Open until 10pm or later for everyone. And we sustained that for another 10 days. I’d imagine that, plus the jet lag inducing 11 hour flight east coming home is what did me in!

Kind of makes our usual 3 weeks in Orlando seem like a walk in the park 😂

We found our L.A. / California Trip a lot more relaxing than our usual Florida trips. We did the touristy thing, but felt like there was a lot more beyond the parks in California (I appreciate there’s so much to do beyond the parks in Florida but none of it seemed to appeal like Los Angeles)

So in Florida we pretty much do 3 weeks of parks. Up early, out late. Rinse and repeat. We treat ourselves to water park days to relax, before realising, climbing stairs to get to the slides is anything but! We do the usual...Disney, Uni, Seaworld, a day at Busch, the malls. Last trip we did Discovery Cove and loved it.

California felt like such a relaxing trip in comparison. We did 2 weeks, including 5 days at Disney, a day Universal and a day at Knotts. This felt like enough time in the parks for the trip. For the other days we paid for a private tour of L.A. Which ticked off a lot of the sites like Beverley Hills, the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica etc. On other days we did the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Venice Beach...so broke up the parks with more chilled days, so we should have in theory came back more refreshed

...but it gave me holiday blues like nowhere else. Took me 2 months I think to not dream about being there all the time. Exhausted for about 2 weeks too. Maybe it’s age.
 

Creathir

Premium Member
It’s about the same to be honest. Coming home always kicks since it’s a through the night flight and we’re flying east so we loose time. It must be an age thing but it takes longer to recover than it used to! I usually need a week back home to feel right again now. Or maybe it’s the 18 hours a day every day that we tend to do when on holiday!

This year we did find flying to the west coast tiring. Up at 6am our time, an 8 hour flight at 11am to Atlanta, then a 5 hour flight after a 2 hour layover to San Francisco. Got to the hotel about 10pm Pacific time which was 6am the next day according to our bodies. We collapsed onto bed, only to be wide awake at 430am pacific time since our bodies thought it was the afternoon. We packed 5 days worth of sightseeing into 3 days and then flew to Orange County when the long days really began. Disneyland’s regular hours were insane if you’re used to Orlando. Opens for everyone at 8am. Open until 10pm or later for everyone. And we sustained that for another 10 days. I’d imagine that, plus the jet lag inducing 11 hour flight east coming home is what did me in!

Kind of makes our usual 3 weeks in Orlando seem like a walk in the park 😂
I cannot imagine 3 weeks straight of vacation...

You English chaps sure know how to holiday...

Interesting that the additional 3 hours don’t usually bother you, but I guess once you get adjusted it’s like anywhere else.
At my former employer we had an office in Chennai which my boss would have to visit on a semi-annual basis. He always described the time difference as being quite the adjustment for the first day or so, particularly heading west like you described. Being wide awake at 3:30 in the morning, etc.

Glad you guys had a good trip though!!!
 

dennis-in-ct

Well-Known Member
  1. Disney's Animal Kingdom - 580 acres (Also reported as 403 acres)
  2. Epcot - 300 acres
  3. Tokyo DisneySea - 176 acres
  4. Disney's Hollywood Studios - 135 acres
  5. Disneyland Paris - 126 acres
  6. Tokyo Disneyland - 115 acres
  7. Magic Kingdom - 105 acres
  8. Disneyland - 85 acres
  9. Disney California Adventure - 72 acres
  10. Hong Kong Disneyland - 68 acres
  11. Walt Disney Studios, Paris - 62 acres

I love how almost all four Florida parks can fit inside NYC’s Central Park
 

dennis-in-ct

Well-Known Member
We found our L.A. / California Trip a lot more relaxing than our usual Florida trips. We did the touristy thing, but felt like there was a lot more beyond the parks in California (I appreciate there’s so much to do beyond the parks in Florida but none of it seemed to appeal like Los Angeles)

So in Florida we pretty much do 3 weeks of parks. Up early, out late. Rinse and repeat. We treat ourselves to water park days to relax, before realising, climbing stairs to get to the slides is anything but! We do the usual...Disney, Uni, Seaworld, a day at Busch, the malls. Last trip we did Discovery Cove and loved it.

California felt like such a relaxing trip in comparison. We did 2 weeks, including 5 days at Disney, a day Universal and a day at Knotts. This felt like enough time in the parks for the trip. For the other days we paid for a private tour of L.A. Which ticked off a lot of the sites like Beverley Hills, the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica etc. On other days we did the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Venice Beach...so broke up the parks with more chilled days, so we should have in theory came back more refreshed

...but it gave me holiday blues like nowhere else. Took me 2 months I think to not dream about being there all the time. Exhausted for about 2 weeks too. Maybe it’s age.

Disneyland has such a mellow laid back vibe as compared to WDW. Love it.
 

LiterallyNobody

Well-Known Member
Hate to burst everyone's big dream bubble, it's not exciting.

That area that has been purchased is largely in part of Orange County designated as Horizon West. Specifically it is located in Village F. There have been talks going on for a small Disney owned shopping center, not really associated with the resort, more for the neighboring areas, coming to Village F for a while. If the land is buildable, that looks like a good place to fit it. It will be right next to a proposed area park and the new high school being built there.

1577417306636.png


If you want to dig deeper into the plans, look here.

 
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Soluna16

Well-Known Member
Hate to burst everyone's big dream bubble, it's not exciting.

That area that has been purchased is largely in part of Orange County designated as Horizon West. Specifically it is located in Village F. There have been talks going on for a small Disney owned shopping center, not really associated with the resort, more for the neighboring areas, coming to Village F for a while. If the land is buildable, that looks like a good place to fit it. It will be right next to a proposed area park and the new high school being built there.

View attachment 436579

If you want to dig deeper into the plans, look here.


This isn't correct. I work as a Geologist in Orange County and frequently work in the planning area. You can see the area is only partially overlapping with Village F. The section that Disney has purchased will be withdrawn from that parcel, none of the improvements run through it.

I do a lot of work with wetland parcel mitigation and based on the wetland maps I have of that area I'm like 95% sure this parcel was purchased for mitigation rights somewhere else on property. I was looking through it on Google Earth and based on my assessment of the wetland quality these 250 acres should make up for the development of about 30-45 acres of high quality or 50-70 acres of medium quality wetland. This makes me think it's almost certainly for a resort.
 

LiterallyNobody

Well-Known Member
This isn't correct. I work as a Geologist in Orange County and frequently work in the planning area. You can see the area is only partially overlapping with Village F. The section that Disney has purchased will be withdrawn from that parcel, none of the improvements run through it.

I do a lot of work with wetland parcel mitigation and based on the wetland maps I have of that area I'm like 95% sure this parcel was purchased for mitigation rights somewhere else on property. I was looking through it on Google Earth and based on my assessment of the wetland quality these 250 acres should make up for the development of about 30-45 acres of high quality or 50-70 acres of medium quality wetland. This makes me think it's almost certainly for a resort.

Curious what part isn't correct. Did you even read what I wrote?

Let me refresh.

That area that has been purchased is largely in part of Orange County designated as Horizon West. Specifically it is located in Village F.

I think we can agree that is true. Look at the maps, there is a lot of overlap.

There have been talks going on for a small Disney owned shopping center, not really associated with the resort, more for the neighboring areas, coming to Village F for a while.

Drive to any of the local businesses there that are part of the Horizon West business association and pick up a copy of the most recent, or perhaps second most recent copy of Horizon West Happenings magazine. There is a mention in an article that of talks with Disney to bring a Disney owned shopping center to Village F. If I were at home, I would scan the page and send it to you now.

*If* the land is buildable, that looks like a good place to fit it.

I never said the land was buildable. Just that if it was, that would be a good place for it. It's going to be right by a community park and a new high school.

It will be right next to a proposed area park and the new high school being built there.

Prep work on the school land right to the north (edit - This is what was wrong I guess. High school is right to west also) of that location has begun. You can see it from Seidel Rd. The park is a few years out, but it is in the planning page, these are both public record.

Right now that lot is part of unincorporated Winter Garden. As of yet I have not seen anything saying it will be annexed to Reedy Creek. Not saying it won't, but it will have to be brought up in public meetings for that to occur.

I will actually site my sources for all of this information. Me. I live in Village H am active in the community. Both Horizon West and Winter Garden in general. I attend the public meetings because I to know what is going on. As it stands right now, Disney has bought property that resides in Village F and has also been in talks to build a retail center for the Horizon West community in Village F.
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
Curious what part isn't correct. Did you even read what I wrote?

Let me refresh.

That area that has been purchased is largely in part of Orange County designated as Horizon West. Specifically it is located in Village F.

I think we can agree that is true. Look at the maps, there is a lot of overlap.

There have been talks going on for a small Disney owned shopping center, not really associated with the resort, more for the neighboring areas, coming to Village F for a while.

Drive to any of the local businesses there that are part of the Horizon West business association and pick up a copy of the most recent, or perhaps second most recent copy of Horizon West Happenings magazine. There is a mention in an article that of talks with Disney to bring a Disney owned shopping center to Village F. If I were at home, I would scan the page and send it to you now.

*If* the land is buildable, that looks like a good place to fit it.

I never said the land was buildable. Just that if it was, that would be a good place for it. It's going to be right by a community park and a new high school.

It will be right next to a proposed area park and the new high school being built there.

Prep work on the school land right to the north (edit - This is what was wrong I guess. High school is right to west also) of that location has begun. You can see it from Seidel Rd. The park is a few years out, but it is in the planning page, these are both public record.

Right now that lot is part of unincorporated Winter Garden. As of yet I have not seen anything saying it will be annexed to Reedy Creek. Not saying it won't, but it will have to be brought up in public meetings for that to occur.

I will actually site my sources for all of this information. Me. I live in Village H am active in the community. Both Horizon West and Winter Garden in general. I attend the public meetings because I to know what is going on. As it stands right now, Disney has bought property that resides in Village F and has also been in talks to build a retail center for the Horizon West community in Village F.
I’m reasonably confident flamingo crossings is the only shopping shopping development Disney is planning for that region.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Weird, because their section on this forum is the furthest thing from mellow or laid back.
Those are the angry types...zealots in many ways. But still huge, paying Disney fans...still good opinions and not to be discounted
I think the better question in all of this is why didn't they already own this land?
They overbought originally...there’s never been much of a reason to buy more until now when they have entered the “urban sprawl” era.

Ironic...isn’t it?
This isn't correct. I work as a Geologist in Orange County and frequently work in the planning area. You can see the area is only partially overlapping with Village F. The section that Disney has purchased will be withdrawn from that parcel, none of the improvements run through it.

I do a lot of work with wetland parcel mitigation and based on the wetland maps I have of that area I'm like 95% sure this parcel was purchased for mitigation rights somewhere else on property. I was looking through it on Google Earth and based on my assessment of the wetland quality these 250 acres should make up for the development of about 30-45 acres of high quality or 50-70 acres of medium quality wetland. This makes me think it's almost certainly for a resort.
A learned opinion. Thank you for this.
I think DVC planning is 10 years ahead...this land most likely offsets for one or more dvcs...my guess
I’m reasonably confident flamingo crossings is the only shopping shopping development Disney is planning for that region.

I would disagree...nobody here knows what they’re longterm planning...but the likelihood is more residential/retail/mixed uses development is something I’d think they’d hard consider. They built that ridiculous golden oak...they’re building a target 🙄...the gates are open and the TRex is out.

That is far more Likely than a park project. People don’t want to hear it...but that kinda investment is highly unlikely.
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
I would disagree...nobody here knows what they’re longterm planning...but the likelihood is more residential/retail/mixed uses development is something I’d think they’d hard consider. They built that ridiculous golden oak...they’re building a target 🙄...the gates are open and the TRex is out.

That is far more Likely than a park project. People don’t want to hear it...but that kinda investment is highly unlikely.
I should clarify. I’m not saying that I don’t think they will invest in additional real estate development. I think they absolutely will. I was saying that I don’t think they have any current/active plans for development except flamingo crossings.
 

LiterallyNobody

Well-Known Member
I should clarify. I’m not saying that I don’t think they will invest in additional real estate development. I think they absolutely will. I was saying that I don’t think they have any current/active plans for development except flamingo crossings.

Not Disney developed at all, simply owned by Disney. Also, not for the resort guests, but more for the surrounding community. Once I get home in a few days I will scan the article and post it here. Or as I said before, find a copy of Horizon West Happenings magazine, it is mentioned there.
 

Steph15251

Well-Known Member
Hate to burst everyone's big dream bubble, it's not exciting.

That area that has been purchased is largely in part of Orange County designated as Horizon West. Specifically it is located in Village F. There have been talks going on for a small Disney owned shopping center, not really associated with the resort, more for the neighboring areas, coming to Village F for a while. If the land is buildable, that looks like a good place to fit it. It will be right next to a proposed area park and the new high school being built there.

View attachment 436579

If you want to dig deeper into the plans, look here.

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure village F is land that Disney owned and sold to a thrid party ,I do not think the land Disney just brought is related .Unicorp I think is the one that brought that land a few months ago.
 

Steph15251

Well-Known Member
Not Disney developed at all, simply owned by Disney. Also, not for the resort guests, but more for the surrounding community. Once I get home in a few days I will scan the article and post it here. Or as I said before, find a copy of Horizon West Happenings magazine, it is mentioned there.
According to OBJ a few months ago ,Disney no longer owns the Village F land they sold it to unicorp.
 

SNS

Active Member
Hate to burst everyone's big dream bubble, it's not exciting.

It probably isn't. I recall them buying land west of the resort some years back. This was possibly 10 or more years ago? I don't remember the name of the property but people were speculating here on what would be done with it. As far as I know, nothing came of that.
 

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