How do you think Disneyland would look if Walt had lived 5 more years?

MK-fan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
How do you think Disneyland would look if Walt had lived 5-10 more years?

I don’t think much would happen between 1968 and 1971 because of Walt Disney World.

I think we would have still gotten The Haunted Mansion as a ride regardless because the imagineers would have have convinced Walt about the capacity issues.

Space Mountain may have been built sooner and would be more stylized I think.

There would be no Country Bear Jamboree at the park because the Mineral King project would go through.

I think Walt would have seen a New Fantasyland in his lifetime because he had always wanted to improve on the medieval theme.

We may have even seen a Hall of Presidents at the park as well because it’s something that Walt wanted earlier on.

How do you think the park would be different?
 
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Sailor310

Well-Known Member
From the bios I've read and watched, he seemed to get bored of the old thing and fixated on the new thing.
Have you heard to story of him on his hospital bed using the ceiling tiles to explain to Roy the layout for Florida?
I think he would have gone great guns on Florida and delegated most of DL to underlings, holding final approval and making suggestions, but stepping away from the details.
As I'm typing this, I was thinking there'd be some really sharp, creative people working DL, but no, he'd take the brightest and best to Florida.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Hot take incoming:

Walt would’ve stopped really caring about the place. His attention was so heavily focused on EPCOT. Heck, he had no real interest in building a version of Disneyland over there, which is just wild in hindsight. To him, it was the typical investor lack of confidence and looking to the past. But Walt was always looking to the future, and I think even if Epcot were successful, he’d get consumed by the next big idea. And if he failed then he’d be broke and Disneyland would’ve gotten shut down or sold off. I see no timeline where he circles back to Disneyland.
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
Hot take incoming:

Walt would’ve stopped really caring about the place. His attention was so heavily focused on EPCOT. Heck, he had no real interest in building a version of Disneyland over there, which is just wild in hindsight. To him, it was the typical investor lack of confidence and looking to the past. But Walt was always looking to the future, and I think even if Epcot were successful, he’d get consumed by the next big idea. And if he failed then he’d be broke and Disneyland would’ve gotten shut down or sold off. I see no timeline where he circles back to Disneyland.
he never would have stopped caring about Disneyland. sorry.
 

VJ

Well-Known Member
From the bios I've read and watched, he seemed to get bored of the old thing and fixated on the new thing.
Have you heard to story of him on his hospital bed using the ceiling tiles to explain to Roy the layout for Florida?
I think he would have gone great guns on Florida and delegated most of DL to underlings, holding final approval and making suggestions, but stepping away from the details.
As I'm typing this, I was thinking there'd be some really sharp, creative people working DL, but no, he'd take the brightest and best to Florida.
this. walt was known for getting bored of one toy and moving to the next after a while and you can see that - how he moved from animation, to live-action, to television, to theme parks, you can always see where his attention is
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Hot take incoming:

Walt would’ve stopped really caring about the place. His attention was so heavily focused on EPCOT. Heck, he had no real interest in building a version of Disneyland over there, which is just wild in hindsight. To him, it was the typical investor lack of confidence and looking to the past. But Walt was always looking to the future, and I think even if Epcot were successful, he’d get consumed by the next big idea. And if he failed then he’d be broke and Disneyland would’ve gotten shut down or sold off. I see no timeline where he circles back to Disneyland.
This. There might have been a new attraction that really grabbed him the way Mary Poppins brought him back to a level of engagement in movie making he had not had in years, but he was already very focused on EPCOT and other ventures.
Walt was very fixated on his plan of Epcot. IMO would be a complete failure.
Why?
 

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
I think Disneyland would still be more unique. Walt was more likely to change round the plans in Florida and Mineral King to be something new. I suspect a lot of Disneyland wouldn’t have been duplicated and Magic Kingdom would have more unique attractions (each park having different fantasyland dark rides, a different themed tiki room in florida etc).

Disneyland would likely have seen some new additions to counter Florida and mineral king. I think something inspired by the moon landings in tomorrowland- maybe replacing autopia with a moon buggy ride, walt would have loved the promise of the landings I’m sure there would have been episodes of his show about lunar landings and geology etc

When WDW opens a lot if the new tech walt would have used would be redeployed in Disneyland in different ways - trying to add the utilitors and trash systems for example.

Disney would probably have tried to move into west coast hotels earlier after their success in florida and would probably have been diversified into other leisure areas if Mineral King went ahead. I could have seen something like Aulani or a California beach resort much earlier as well as a European Disneyland in the 70s before an asian park was built.

if Walt lived long enough for a successful version of his EPCOT I could see him planning a mark two city out west, maybe somewhere like arizona or nevada and there would have been a bigger push to build monorail and peoplemover systems in urban areas
 

el_super

Well-Known Member

Generally speaking of course, I don't think Walt's EPCOT would have worked either. Some of the core concepts in urban planning were pretty sound, but once you start meddling in the way people live, and trying to control their lives to the degree he controlled Disneyland, he would have found stiff resistance. I'd always imagine that EPCOT would have been the world's worst HOA.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
I think Disneyland would still be more unique. Walt was more likely to change round the plans in Florida and Mineral King to be something new. I suspect a lot of Disneyland wouldn’t have been duplicated and Magic Kingdom would have more unique attractions (each park having different fantasyland dark rides, a different themed tiki room in florida etc).

I really disagree with this. It's pretty well documented how disconnected from the studio he was once Disneyland was open, and I'd have to think that the same would be true if he moved to Florida to oversee EPCOT. Things that happened at Disneyland would be of little concern to him.

Which means that Disneyland probably would have followed the same basic trajectory it ended up following after he passed.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Generally speaking of course, I don't think Walt's EPCOT would have worked either. Some of the core concepts in urban planning were pretty sound, but once you start meddling in the way people live, and trying to control their lives to the degree he controlled Disneyland, he would have found stiff resistance. I'd always imagine that EPCOT would have been the world's worst HOA.
Florida isn’t exactly a place known for its disdain of home owners associations. They already exercise immense control and places like Seaside, Celebration and The Villages are popular places. The control of the interior, such as appliances, is already common in apartment complexes.
 

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