Disney World is a bit smaller now

CTXRover

CTXRover

Well-Known Member
I suppose the concern with selling any "unusable" land is the potential loss of the large buffer the parks now enjoy from the outside world. Then again, AK already seems to be sitting on the edge of property where outside hotels/ gas stations can be seen from certain angles on the top floors of the AK Lodge and power lines are visible from the AK parking lot.

However, I imagine these pieces of land that are being sold off right now contribute little to this buffer zone and nothing of any value to the WDW resort was really lost with the sale. Probably a pretty good business move though. The only danger I see is if they start going hog-wild selling chunks all over just to make a buck, but I truly believe they aren't that stupid/greedy.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Up until this announcement, here was the RCID land distribution plan:
 

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DonaldD23

New Member
The land they sold is not going to interfere with the parks!

I wish people would investigate things before they post comments. I understand that no one wants WDW to look like Disneyland with Motel 6 within sight distance, but if you knew anything about the land that was sold you wouldn't have a problem with it.

The land near Animal Kingdom that was sold is on Sherberth Road, a back entrance to Disney that only cast members and locals use to enter property. The empty plot of land that they sold off is right behind the Animal Kingdom Cast Services building and RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM A CURRENT HOTEL!! Sherberth Road is mainly Disney on one side and non-Disney on the other side. Originally Disney was going to build college program housing on this piece of land, but they decided against it and leased out a complex near Little Lake Bryan. That decision left this land empty and useless. A resort cannot be built there because it is across the street from a competitors hotel and it is about 3 minutes from 192! A park cannot be built there because there isn't enough land...and to build anything that is for the guests on this land is impossible without improving greatly the road system to Sherberth Road.

For those that do not know, Sherberth Rd is the road that you would be on if you turned right when you were at the exit to Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. Most people go straight to enter the rest of WDW, while a left hand turn would get you to the back stage entrance to DAK. A right hand turn brings you onto Sherberth Road and quick access to 192.

As for the land that was sold on Reams Road, this is behind the Magic Kingdom...well behind it as there is a HUGE cast member area there with storage and training facilities as well as the Magic Kingdom Cast Parking lot. Reams Road is the raod that gains backstage access to that area. There is a ton of construction going on there right now on land that was never Disney's. Homes and Condos are popping up all along Reams Road. The land that Disney just sold off is right next to that current construction. If you drove past it right now you would never even know that is was Disney property. Any constuction done on it would not be felt by anyone at the Magic Kingdom or surrounding resorts. It is too far away.

And, the remaining land that they are looking to sell is off of 192...again, nothing Disney will ever be built on it as it is too far away from the rest of what is already built and too close to the tourist section of 192. If you want to know where it is, just drive by 192 and you will notice a HUGE section that has nothing built on it. Coming from Kissimmee going towards CR27, there is a ton of tourist spots...then a lot of empty land...then more tourist spots. The land that is not developed currently is Disney's. So, if they sold it off it has no impact on current Disney because Disney hides itself from 192 right now!

Do not be concerned with the current sell-off...it is land that has no bearing on the property and no matter what is built on it, it will not have an impact on the feel of being at Disney!

Joe
 
WeLComeHomE OKW

WeLComeHomE OKW

Active Member
peter11435 said:
Walt Disney did not want to use the land for preservation. The only reason that was part of the deal was to make it sound good to Florida legislators. Walt bought all of that land so that he could build everything they could possibly come up with not so they could preserve nature.

If you look at the map posted by napnet you can see that there are many small parcels of land around the perimeter of the property that could not be used for anything by Disney. Essentially all they are doing is smoothing out the edges of the property. And to be honest this is nothing new. Disney has always bought and sold small parcels around the property to straighten out the property lines. The Orlando Sentinel must have needed an extra story today.
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Heres the deal. I would like you to find the quoted material where it shows evidence that Disney "bought all of that land so that he could build everything they could possibly come up with not so they could preserve nature." Rather than opinion, my personal opinion (and i have read countless biographies on Walt Disney's life as well as read books where it displayed all of his famous quotes) and from that I learned that he bought much of the land inorder to preserve most of it and if i remember correctly he was quoted on giving an exact percentage of the land he planned to use for the future.

On another note, I understand that these particular pieces of land do not matter and have no effect on Disney World whatsoever. But, what I care about is the principle of the matter. I do not want to see any more of Disney World's land given away, even if it means the Disney Company would make a trillion dollars from the thousands of acres land.
No one can say what Walt Disney wanted because he is dead. The only way we can even consider what he wanted/would want for this company is from what he told us when he was alive. I think all this news story says is that the Disney Company is willing to sell land (that they do not want to use for themselves in the future) if it has a high enough price tag on it...and that is enough to cause concern, for me at least.
 
WeLComeHomE OKW

WeLComeHomE OKW

Active Member
DonaldD23 said:
I wish people would investigate things before they post comments. I understand that no one wants WDW to look like Disneyland with Motel 6 within sight distance, but if you knew anything about the land that was sold you wouldn't have a problem with it.
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I don't think anyone is worried about this specific land being sold. I think people, including me, are concerned that in the future this means Disney could be willing to sell land that does have importance if it has a high enough price tag.

I have faith in the Disney Company and hope that it will never come to that, but business is business and crazy circumstances lead people to crazy decisions.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
WeLComeHomE OKW said:
Heres the deal. I would like you to find the quoted material where it shows evidence that Disney "bought all of that land so that he could build everything they could possibly come up with not so they could preserve nature." Rather than opinion, my personal opinion (and i have read countless biographies on Walt Disney's life as well as read books where it displayed all of his famous quotes) and from that I learned that he bought much of the land inorder to preserve most of it and if i remember correctly he was quoted on giving an exact percentage of the land he planned to use for the future.
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Walt Disney is quoted as saying "Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland...the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine."

If you look at Walt’s own sketch for WDW's master plan (seen in the book Walt Disney Imagineering A Behind the Creams Look) you will see that the vast majority of the land was to be developed. And nowhere on his map does it say preserve. To give you a quick run down his sketch showed the resort area (MK, hotels, and convention facilities) in roughly the same areas as the MK resort area today. The entire center section of the property was earmarked to become EPCOT (a massive city of the future). This would have taken up the majority of land that is now Epcot, MGM, the Epcot resort area, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach and much more. The area that is now home to Fort Wilderness, Osprey Ridge, Eagle Pines, and Port Orleans was to become a campground and motels. Where Downtown Disney and the Downtown Disney resort area is Walt planned for the entire area to be a massive golf resort. The area that is now the Wide World of Sports, the All-Stars and much of the surrounding area was to become Disney Worlds own airport. The land that is now AK was to become a Tourist trailer camp. And finally the only thing that was even remotely supposed to be preserved was the land that is now the water treatment plant. Here Walt wanted to have air boat rides. As you can see Walt had plans for the majority of the property and very little of that was for preservation.

If you read the book "Married to the Mouse" you will see that the only reason Disney agreed to leave a percentage of land to be preserved was to make it sound better to the Florida Legislator and so they could get the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Walt loved nature and Walt supported preservation but that was never his intention with the Florida property.
 
WeLComeHomE OKW

WeLComeHomE OKW

Active Member
peter11435 said:
Walt Disney is quoted as saying "Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland...the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine."

If you look at Walt’s own sketch for WDW's master plan (seen in the book Walt Disney Imagineering A Behind the Creams Look) you will see that the vast majority of the land was to be developed. And nowhere on his map does it say preserve. To give you a quick run down his sketch showed the resort area (MK, hotels, and convention facilities) in roughly the same areas as the MK resort area today. The entire center section of the property was earmarked to become EPCOT (a massive city of the future). This would have taken up the majority of land that is now Epcot, MGM, the Epcot resort area, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach and much more. The area that is now home to Fort Wilderness, Osprey Ridge, Eagle Pines, and Port Orleans was to become a campground and motels. Where Downtown Disney and the Downtown Disney resort area is Walt planned for the entire area to be a massive golf resort. The area that is now the Wide World of Sports, the All-Stars and much of the surrounding area was to become Disney Worlds own airport. The land that is now AK was to become a Tourist trailer camp. And finally the only thing that was even remotely supposed to be preserved was the land that is now the water treatment plant. Here Walt wanted to have air boat rides. As you can see Walt had plans for the majority of the property and very little of that was for preservation.

If you read the book "Married to the Mouse" you will see that the only reason Disney agreed to leave a percentage of land to be preserved was to make it sound better to the Florida Legislator and so they could get the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Walt loved nature and Walt supported preservation but that was never his intention with the Florida property.
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I admit defeat, thank you for proving me wrong. I am kinda saddened to hear this...but at the same time its good to learn something new. :wave:
 
speck76

speck76

Well-Known Member
WeLComeHomE OKW said:
I admit defeat, thank you for proving me wrong. I am kinda saddened to hear this...but at the same time its good to learn something new. :wave:
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The area earmarked for preservation became Celebration, and Disney purchased an old ranch (the Walker Ranch) to become the new preservation area.

Upon purchase of The Walker Ranch, the land was turned over to The Nature Conservancy, it is now known at the Disney Wilderness Preserve

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/florida/preserves/art5523.html
 
DrWED

DrWED

New Member
Is it possible for anyone to drive down World Drive, around the MK and the Cast Parking lot and end up on Reams Road? Are all the roads public or is there a section that is cast members only?

Cheers,
DrWED
 
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DonaldD23

New Member
It's possible to drive around the MK and wind up on Reams Road...but not recommended. You might get lost, and it's just a road where people have homes on it...not too exciting. You can't see the MK from it...just the fireworks.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
DrWED said:
Is it possible for anyone to drive down World Drive, around the MK and the Cast Parking lot and end up on Reams Road? Are all the roads public or is there a section that is cast members only?

Cheers,
DrWED
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There are signs telling you that it is a restricted area and that it is for authorized personnel only. The road itself is private (like most of the roads in WDW). However there is nothing physically stopping you from driving down there.
 
MeTa

MeTa

Member
DisneyDellsDude said:
I personally do not like that they did this.
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Simple, well said, I feel the same....any change in Disney always scares me. Although the only thing about this that people bring up that is a good point is that the land could not be used for much. And they are only selling a drop in the bucket so to say. They still have 26000 acres.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
MeTa said:
Simple, well said, I feel the same....any change in Disney always scares me. Although the only thing about this that people bring up that is a good point is that the land could not be used for much. And they are only selling a drop in the bucket so to say. They still have 26000 acres.
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The other thing to remember is that this is nothing new. Disney has been buying and selling land in Orlando for 40 years. And like I pointed out earlier in this thread the reams road property was not even purchased by Walt. It wasn't purchased by Disney until 1991.

I am still researching but it looks like the property near AK was not part of the original purchase either.
 
W

WDWCP

New Member
I think there's one other point we all need to keep in mind.

Walt founded and ran this company while he was alive and had that personal investment in it's direction. He was there when it was a private company and I'm not sure, but I believe he was there to take it public.

Now we have the company as a public entity that is run by a hired businessman and a board of directors from the buisiness world. They do have a fiduciary duty to first do what's right for the shareholders.

They can justify their actions as their belief for whats best for the shareholders in either a short-term basis or a long-term basis.

If Disney mangement has decided that there is no viable use for this land in it's future plans and can't demonstrate some reason why it's better for the shareholders to hold onto the land, then they MUST sell it off if there's a market. To not sell without having any way to demonstrate how holding it is a benefit to shareholders (even long-term), then they are technically breaking their fiduciary duty and can be fired, or worse, sued for their actions.

While I personally would prefer to have them hold onto all land they can, they need to be real careful about things like that so they balance the needs of the shareholders, with their other desires.

Unfortunately, shareholders almost ALWAYS push for the short-term profits, so it makes it that much harder to defend not selling in this instance when there is a current hot market for it.
 

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