The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I doubt over here you would ever get away from opening a multi-storey parking garage opening up in phases - I think it has more to do with local laws.
They would not allow buildings to be expanded and remain open? Because that is essentially what is happening.

Here is a picture from the thread about the garage and one can clearly see how it is multiple structures.
DSCN1297.JPG
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Sure it is.. look at the photo lazyboy posted. Adjacent structures going up at different schedules/paces.

Or I could look to my left while I'm stopped at this light.

It's my understanding that is all one connected structure and it looks that way. Right now the doing a lot of down ramp construction.
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Well today is the day. Every two years we get to hear the lifestylers complain that D23 won't hold the expo on their back porch.

I have friends they got rid of D 23 because they were unable to get into any of the special events.

they do have a point in that this company appears to have a west coast bias. Orlando seems to get perpetually crapped on over and over again.
 

asianway

Well-Known Member
I got this one. It's apparently my lot in life...

The short answer is: Walt Disney World doesn't have enough space or the proper facilities to host a D23 Expo. But Anaheim does.

The long answer is: Walt Disney World's convention facilities are woefully inadequate compared to Anaheim, and what convention facilities WDW does have are split up and scattered across property so much that it would destroy any semblance of cohesion and energy and community.

The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest convention center on the West Coast. It's bigger than the convention centers in Los Angeles, or San Diego, or San Francisco, or Portland or Seattle. (And Anaheim just approved a major expansion to begin later this year, which will keep the facility the West Coast's largest for the long term, if not forever.)

They don't use all of the Anaheim Convention Center for D23 Expo, but they use a majority of the space across multiple levels and multiple exhibit halls, including the 10,000 seat Anaheim Arena for keynote addresses. Here's the square footage breakdown for the last two D23 Expo's at the Anaheim Convention Center, compared to all of the space available in every single convention hall and conference room at Walt Disney World...

Anaheim Arena (AKA the D23 Arena) - 10,000 seats, for D23 Expo keynote speeches
Exhibit Hall A - 145,000 Square Feet
Exhibit Hall B - 145,000 Square Feet
Half Exhibit Hall C - 75,000 Square Feet
Ticketing Lobby - 50,000 Square Feet
Second Floor D28 Theater/Exhibits - 50,000 Square Feet
Third Floor D23 Theater - 40,000 Square Feet

Total ACC Space Used for D23 Expo - 550,000 Square Feet
Total ACC Space Available - 1.1 Million Square Feet


D23 Arena at Anaheim Convention Center - Yes, that many people actually wanted to see Jay Rasulo!
4621.MON_2D00_1.jpg_2D00_500x0.jpg


Compare that to all the space available across the five main convention and conference facilities at WDW; Coronado Springs, Contemporary Resort, Grand Floridian, Boardwalk, Beach & Yacht Club. First, none of those spaces has an arena like the Anaheim Arena that can seat up to 10,000. Here's how the total space available at these five WDW properties breaks down;

Coronado Springs Resort Convention Center - 220,000 Square Feet
Contemporary Resort Conference Center - 115,000 Square Feet
Yacht & Beach Club Conference Center - 70,000 Square Feet
Grand Floridian Conference Center - 40,000 Square Feet
Boardwalk Conference Center - 20,000 Square Feet
Total WDW Convention Space Available - 465,000 Square Feet


But that 465,000 square feet number actually looks better than it is. Much of that square footage is redundant lobby space, or smaller meeting rooms or ballrooms un-useable for a D23 Expo type mega-event. The largest exhibit hall at WDW, and the only full-scale exhibit hall really, is the Veracruz Hall at Coronado Springs, and it's only 86,000 square feet.

By comparison, the Anaheim Convention Center has 725,000 square feet of continuous industry-standard exhibit hall space, of which D23 Expo used 365,000 square feet in 2013. The larger pavilions like the WDI Carousel of Projects or the Disney Living Pavilion would not even fit in the Veracruz Hall without scaling down, and then you've just maxed out almost all of the space at Coronado Springs with just that one element of the Expo floor.

2013 D23 Expo Exhibit Hall Floorplan - With more theaters, exhibits, archives & presentations up on the second and third floors
http://www./wp-content/uploads/2011/08/D23Expo2011_MainFloor.gif

Even if you convinced the various divisions of the Disney Company to radically scale down the size and scope of their Exhibit Hall presentations, and were then left with a dramatically smaller and decidedly less impressive show, you would still be faced with the logistics nightmare of expecting all the D23 Expo visitors to bus themselves around WDW property to take in the WDI pavilion at Coronado Springs, the Disney Living pavilion at the Contemporary (whose full exhibit space is actually a ballroom of only 44,000 square feet), the Disney Archives exhibit at the Grand Floridian, 1,000 seat theater at the Yacht Club, etc., etc.

And... any event planner worth their headset would never try to stage such an event broken up over a half dozen venues, none of them within walking distance of each other. There would be no buzz, no vibe, no excitement, no sense of community and spectacle under such a fractured WDW scenario.

And one last reason that can't be overlooked... D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center is right across the street from Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom of Disneyland! How cool is that?!?
I have friends they got rid of D 23 because they were unable to get into any of the special events.

they do have a point in that this company appears to have a west coast bias. Orlando seems to get perpetually crapped on over and over again.
In general yes, but there is a reason for the expo
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Well, consider it opened with an overbuild of hotel rooms and consider how much was spent on HKDL, that number is closer to DLP than HKDL. Remove the overbuilt hotels and Downtown Disney from that equation and we're closer...

OH! Disney had a much bigger financial interest ownership stake in EuroDisney than it does SDL! So, investment dollars per ownership stake comes out to about the same, if not greater for SDL!
Disneyland Parc alone was two billion in 1992.
 

SirLink

Well-Known Member
They would not allow buildings to be expanded and remain open? Because that is essentially what is happening.

Here is a picture from the thread about the garage and one can clearly see how it is multiple structures.

Slightly different construction projects a shopping mall could get an annex whilst still being open. Multi-storey car parking structure not so much.
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Think of in terms of a bridge reconstruction. They close one side of the bridge and do work but the other side is still open, drivable, and functional. This works in the same manner...

I seem to recall a bridge whose decks were overloaded with construction materials and a gusset plate failed and dropped the whole structure and traffic into a river. Being an engineer I tend to avoid bridges 'under construction'...

Just Saying
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Slightly different construction projects a shopping mall could get an annex whilst still being open. Multi-storey car parking structure not so much.
They're not all that different because the structure you occupy is complete and unaffected. That is why I mentioned the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure. It is not considered incomplete or unsafe but could still be expanded in a rather similar fashion.

No but in the absence of the mythical 'Skyhook' it's most likely the upper levels will be unfinshed as buildings are generally built from the foundation up...
Look at the picture. It is multiple structures in a single complex.

The way they drive in France and to a lesser extent Quebec - The accelerator pedal is to be kept on the floor at all times unless slamming on the brakes and turn signals don't exist.
And that relates to the Disneyland Resort how?
 

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