dznygirl64
New Member
Thought everyone knew about discovery island never heard about Walt building a house there.I think the castle appartment was the only thing planned.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Walt Disney's Secret Island in WDW
- Thread starter SMRT-1Michael
- Start date
JamboJohn
New Member
they had to shut down discovery island because of all the snakes... there used to be a "water park" there years ago with walking trails and such. lots of birds (which they still feed and care for) and even a wave maker that turned out to be completely disfunctional!
Let me try to clear up a few things for you as it looks like you stumbled into a bad information sticker bush (Disney is full of them:lol
Discover Island was essentially a miniature Animal Kingdom. Here is a video of the tour. Discovery Island. When Animal Kingdom opened in 1998 DI became obsolete and was shut down. Snakes had nothing to do with the closure. All of the animals were transferred to AK.
It was never a Water park but there was a water park located across the lake from it called River country. It was permanently closed quite some time ago.
The wave machine was never on Discovery Island. It was located on the island in the 7 seas lagoon (DI is in Bay lake) and was quite functional but the wave were rapidly eroding the beach at the Poly and it was quickly shut off in the early 70's.
JamboJohn
New Member
Let me try to clear up a few things for you as it looks like you stumbled into a bad information sticker bush (Disney is full of them:lol
Discover Island was essentially a miniature Animal Kingdom. Here is a video of the tour. Discovery Island. When Animal Kingdom opened in 1998 DI became obsolete and was shut down. Snakes had nothing to do with the closure. All of the animals were transferred to AK.
It was never a Water park but there was a water park located across the lake from it called River country. It was permanently closed quite some time ago.
The wave machine was never on Discovery Island. It was located on the island in the 7 seas lagoon (DI is in Bay lake) and was quite functional but the wave were rapidly eroding the beach at the Poly and it was quickly shut off in the early 70's.
thank you, it's been a while and i guess i merged the two. river country was shut down due to snakes. and yes i said the wave machine was disfunctional, not nonfunctional...
River Country was not shut down due to snakes. There were a myriad of reasons for it's closure which included, capacity, location, staffing, heath concerns due to it using lake water, and profitability. In a nut shell it was too small, too hard to get to, too antiquated, and there were some health concerns concerning a nastily little amoeba called Naegleria fowleri. With two other very profitable and considerably larger water parks on property RC was a liability and it got the axe.thank you, it's been a while and i guess i merged the two. river country was shut down due to snakes. and yes i said the wave machine was disfunctional, not nonfunctional...
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Thank you.
SOMETHING got shut down due to snakes. I believe it may have been 20K....or the original Tiki Room. Yeah ... that's the ticket. :lol:
dznygirl64
New Member
Sorry but Discovery island was never a water park and didnt have a wave machine.You have this mixed up with River country at the camp ground and the wave machine was just off the other island accrost from the Poly.
dznygirl64
New Member
Discovery island was basicly shut down because Animal Kingdom was built and Discovery island was no longer needed.They still use the island for the kids pirate adventure.
jedimaster1227
Active Member
SonicRuin
New Member
Walt died pretty early on the WDW planning side of things, didn't he? So it seems kind of odd that he would have planned for his house on an island while still planning the park. He seems the type of guy that once all was running and the main building had begun, then he may have scouted for a place to have a house.
Mr.EPCOT
Active Member
Since this thread has become all about correcting misinformation, I would like to join the party and point out that The Happiest Place on Earth is Disneyland, not Walt Disney World.
If you are referring to Walt's room in the castle it is now the Cinderella suite. Before that it was everything from a dressing room to storage. It also housed the phone switch board for a while.Thats so cool. Slightly creepy as well though
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
Wilt Dasney
Well-Known Member
This...seems like something they should have foreseen before building a giant(?), expensive(?) wave machine. :veryconfu
No one bats 1000
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Thinking about this, there is a part of me that has some doubts about whether or not Walt ever actually planned to have an apartment within Cinderella Castle. Walt's focus was EPCOT and I think it would make a lot more sense for him to have a residence there. In the "EPCOT film" Walt makes nary a mention of the theme park and the image we do get is a roof plan of Disneyland pasted in about where the Magic Kingdom was eventually built. Biographies all relate Walt's obsession with EPCOT, and the second theme park is often described as a concession on Walt's part to help fund the building of EPCOT. Why then would Cinderella Castle be that far along in its design process?
Tigerace81
New Member
Thats not really a secret. Its Discovery Island. It closed in 1999 when all the operations and animals were moved to AK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Island_(Florida)
It looks kind of creepy off Bing maps. You can make out a long building on the east side of the island that's just overrun by trees and vines it looks like.
Have your doubts but they built an Apartment in the castle there's no denying it.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
No, they built a room in Cinderella Castle that they claimed was supposed to be an apartment. Its use as lodging did not happen until very recently. The story is that Walt never got to use the apartment because he died before the opening of the Magic Kingdom, but Walt Disney died almost five years before the opening of the Magic Kingdom. The story makes it sound like the park was already being constructed when he passed away, but in fact ground had yet to be broken anywhere on property and would not be until 1969. It also means that Cinderella Castle was significantly along in its design process at the end of 1966 and that it was not significantly changed since then. For the story to be correct then Cinderella Castle has a much more storied history.
Why has Walt's involvement in Cinderella Castle not been discussed further? Why has he always been described as being engrossed in EPCOT? Was Cinderella Castle and the Magic Kingdom's design process ramped up between October 1966 (when the "EPCOT film" was made) and December 1966? If so why? There are a lot of questions that come up if this story is true.