What WDW could have been

[JLW11Hi]

I completly agree with the person who earlier posted that WDW would have been much different had Walt been alive to see it built.

As most of you probably know, Epcot was planned to be an entire city, that never came into being after Walt passed away. Had the city actually come into being, it would have showed guests future technologies and new ideas in a way that Future World currently attempts to do.

Actually, if you think about it, (I will probably repeat myself in more posts by saying this), had Walt been alive through WDW's development, I doubt that ANY new parks would have been built. When it first opened, Epcot was partially theme park and partially showcasing the original ideas of Epcot, but it is basically a normal theme park nowadays. The Disney Studios came into being from a pavillion idea for Epcot, and also turned into a normal theme park. By then, all Disney could basically come up with (and was expected to come up with) were more parks. And, as seen in many posts on these boards, fans are still expecting Disney to come out with more parks in the future. The whole idea of adding parks all came about because they just couldn't get Walt's concept of EPCOT to work out. Walt would haev probably seen to it that the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland would be the places to add rides and attractions and such, but would have encourgaed more ideas for things to add to WDW, such as the Wide World of Sports complex and the Disney Institute. You know, places besides theme parks. And without the worry of putting so much more money into building more theme parks, which is obviously the center of expectation for Disney and Universal now, they probably could have put more into places like the Disney Institute and made them just as big of destinations as the theme parks.

Each theme park, however, still has much more meaning behind it than most people think. Epcot still revolves around the ideas of the future of our world and displaying these ideas, Animal Kingdom hopes to showcase the influence of nature on our lives, and The Studios IS an actual working movie and animation studio. Whether or not these meanings win over the interests of the resort-goers as opposed to just going to the rides and attractions is something for the Disney company to decide for the future.

I am not saying that either the way it COULD have turned out or the way it HAS turned out would have been the better way to go, I just thought that this would be an interesting subject to discuss. I personally, think that it would be cool to build more things than just theme parks, but I do realize that most of you love the rides and attractions the most, and you have every right to I still think that the way WDW turned out is really awesome. Sorry if I have bored any of you with my incredibly long post. Have a nice day.

 

[Justin]

Its ok, It didn't bore me at all, I am always interested to c what others have to say and/or tell everyone. :animwink:

I dont really get what your saying about all this but if your bringing up the saying that Walt Could have made Disney different if he was alive when Epcot was being made then i dont know, I think thats pretty much how he had it in mind, He was dreaming of the future or something like that... If u can remember on The TTA at MK they take u through a pavilion that has something about the future..... But i cant quite ever pick that all up. :brick:

Walt Had a dream and it all started off. But when he was making Epcot he passed away in the middle of construction i think. yes, people dont realize the meaning of Disney at all, All the generation parks in Florida r better than the others cause they actually mean things,Not to mention u forgot MK, yeah and that park is made to bring familys and magic moments together.. :king:

R u serious about MGM? I never actually knew about that, I thought that was Michael Izner's idea, not a pavillion from Epcot. Thats interesting in a way... I was watching something on Travel Channel once and it said something about 2guys arguing over what Epcot was going to be a World Showcase and a Future Generation and they ended up melting the ideas together to creat. and now it stands the biggest theme park in the world.

Sorry if i wasn't answering anything u were saying or just tottally bored u to death lol.

 

[RobVanDam]

Originally posted by JLW11Hi
I completly agree with the person who earlier posted that WDW would have been much different had Walt been alive to see it built.

As much as i enjoyed your "long post" i have to disagree with you.... If iam correct, (and not to be obnoxious i know i am) but Walt was alive to see disneyland... And i went to disneyland last year in july and then to wdw in august.. WDW was so much better.. why? because it has better attractions.. such as TT, RnR, Good ol' Spaceship Earth... DCA kept... breaking down.. i mean it actually broke... they kept losing power there.. but walt wasnt around to see that.. but disneyland is just as bad.. the magic kingdom is much better.. the magic kingdom in DL is horrible.. they replaced CBJ with Pooh................. now im not gonna start the whole anti-pooh again but just to let you all know i am anti-pooh... they also have matterhorn whic might i say is overrated...... and they have the 2 people in one seat cars.. very cheap and very uncomfortable..

Ok to Sum it up... Walt was around to see the opening of disneyland.. And California has much nicer weather then florida.. NIce 80 degree weather... It doesnt rain that often... But somehow it draws less crowds then WDW... So if im correct WDW is better even though walt didnt see it open..

Oh ya 1 more thing, the whole futuristic city thing wouldnt have worked.. look at the old future house in DL... that was a flop..


=-RVD-=

 

[CmdrTostada]

Yes, walt was around for Disneyland, but that was over 30 years ago. A lot can change in 30 years, walt actually did plan MK, but he wanted to build EPCOT. EPCOT was the reason he wanted to build WDW. It would have been the city of tomorrow, back in the sixties. Walt also built WDW because he hated the state that Disneyland was in. He hated that it was in the middle of the city and there were hookers standing right outside the gates. I think WDW would be a lot different if Walt was alive for about ten years longer.

 

[JLW11Hi]

As for what I was trying to say out of all of this, this was actually going to be a reply to a different thread, but I went off topic and I made a new thread. Just a little rant of mine

I never meant to say that Disneyland was better that WDW. Actually, Disneyland would have also probably been much different had Walt been around to update it. He seemed very focused on the Epcot idea, though, and would have made it a heck of a lot different than the future house in Tomorrowland. Remeber, DIsney learns from mistakes and I doubt Walt would have based a multi million dollar project on a failed attraction in Tomorrowland.

Have a nice day

 

[JLW11Hi]

Oh and I almost forgot,

Where you said that WDW is much better than Walt's Dineyland, remember that people's tastes change. People loved Disneyland for what it was through the 50's and 60's when Walt was around to see it built. Although I have never been around to see it way back when, and I'm sure most of you wern't there either, attractions like Carousel of Progress and Matterhorn were probably as big of attractions to people as ToT and RnR are to people nowadays. You have to take in the time differences and tthe changes in technology. I am still sure that had Walt been around, attractrions like ToT and RnR still would have been built.

"R u serious about MGM? I never actually knew about that, I thought that was Michael Izner's idea, not a pavillion from Epcot"

Eisner was planning MGM to be a pavillion at Epcot, but it grew much to large to be limited to a single attraction, so they made it a whole park.
I learned about all this stuff from "When the World Began", a very interesting book on WDW. It talks about how Epcot gradually developed from a futuristic city to the Epcot of today.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Given Walts love of technology I shudder to imagine what they would have created with AI and Virtuall Reality concepts. The man was always ahead of the game.

 

[TinkerBell9988]

RobVanDam, Walt never really planned to build another "Disneyland". The purpose of WDW was mainly EPCOT, not the Magic Kingdom.

Once Walt died, he never really left them a definite "plan", and they figured that if they started building EPCOT, they would be lost without him. So, they built another "Magic Kingdom", to compare with the one in Cali.

Hope that clears that up....

And I did not mind reading your post, JLW11hi, I actually agree with you 100%. :animwink: :wave:

 

[Justin]

Sorry u all got me confused :lol: :lol: :lol:

:veryconfu

I dont even know what were talking about anymore im stupid.... :hammer:

:brick: :brick:

 

[JLW11Hi]

Thanks, Tink!

Once again, "When the World Began" explains all about how Epcot came into being. Because of problems that would come when controling the Epcot city, Epcot actually may have never worked. I think one problem they were having was that the citizens of Epcot would be able to control what was built around them, or something like that.

It could have, however, developed into a town like Celebration, which is currently attempting to accomplish the original idea of Epcot. I don't know much about how it is doing or what Disney is entirely planning to do with it. It seems to me that when finished, it will be just another company controlled town (yes, there are other towns out there like it). Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just don't think that it will really be showcasing its developments to the public. Well, who would really want to live somewhere where close by vacationers come in and watch you all the time? I am sure that originally, Epcot would have had specific areas where the visiting public could go to learn about the city, and, of course, the main city where people live, which would somehow be closed off to the public.

mabey Disney will still let the public in on some of it when it is fully completed? Mabey they won't have it in the actual town, but mabey they will have a place in Epcot that gives people an overview of the Celebration project. I just think peopel should be let in on it. I mean, wasn't that the whole idea of a planned city in the first place? To showcase the town to the visitors?

 

[jaimjaim25]

Disney world has tons more hotels, tons more atractions, and lots of more room! They just keep expanding and they wont stop! I personally like disney world better (because I LOVE EPCOT!!!) But everyone has their different tastes.

 

[Talsonic]

Celebration and EPCOT!

It is the first planned community developed by The Walt Disney Company. While EPCOT Center was originally planned as an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow", we all know that financial as well as other considerations dictated that the dream of Walt Disney be changed from a city to a new gated attraction. Celebration will be a true planned community including a downtown, health center, school, post office, town hall, golf course, single family homes, townhouses and apartments. Disney used the services of top-name architects in developing the plans for Celebration. The master plan architects were Cooper, Robertson & Partners and Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

Unfortunately, Celebration has not worked well either. I was very serious about purchasing a house there a few years ago. I looked over the various houses for sale and I was close to making an offer. I had a real estate attorney review all the contracts and everything looked very good. I also had a building inspector look at the property I was about to buy and his report was a shock. I suppose the best way to explain this is to compare these houses to the houses at the MGM Backlot Tour. The facades are very nice but the buildings are inferior. I checked this out and found that the original homes built for Celebration, FL are very well constructed. However, most (it not all) of the other homes were built by outside developers and these houses are generally not well built. I should have known something was wrong when I saw all those "For Sale" ads. I have a friend that owns one and he wants out.

 

[JLW11Hi]

Mabey they would be better off if poeple just came to live there for a short period of time. That would probably cause problems some way or another, but it seems that unless you work directly with Disney (and I am guessing most of the people who live there do) you wouldn't be staying long. Many people would probably want to be there just to say they are living next to WDW. Still, it seems that the community as a whole (disregarding the houses and the look of the place) could turn out just fine. I think it really encourages local activities to bring everyone there closer together. I think that is a big priority of the town, to promote neighborlyness. Is that a word?