thanks for the insight. as someone who’s been on various disney forums since the early ‘00s i was wondering if anyone else thought this outweighed the impacts of 9/11 and the economic downturn of ‘08. glad i’m not alone in thinking this is unprecedented but still very concerned for the impacts this will have over the next decade
While the 9/11 attacks were the darkest and scariest days for our country since World War II, they appeared to have a much smaller impact on Disney theme park expansion. Looking back, it's quite impressive to think Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss pushed forward with DCA expansion in the immediate weeks and months after 9/11. Both Flik's Fun Fair and Tower of Terror began construction within two months after 9/11, when it would have been easy to stop them cold. At WDW they continued with Dinoland construction and got Primeval Whirl open and a revamped Imagination pavilion open later in 2002, while Mission Space continued its massive construction and opened in 2003.
It's terrifying to think Paul Pressler seems more rational and smarter than Mr. Chapek in this situation.
The only casualty I can think of from 9/11 were some unused hotel wings at WDW closed for "refurbishment", and the construction stoppage and eventual cancellation of the Pop Century motel expansion. That actually may not be a good omen, because Pop Century expansion was stopped in the fall of 2001 and took another decade to restart.
The bank panic and crash of 2008? A negligible impact, as plans for DCA's Billion dollar makeover steamed ahead and began opening in 2009 and 2010 and 2011.
The gas crisis of 1973-74 and hard recession it caused, when people literally couldn't get to the parks? A negligible impact, as major Tomorrowland expansion and Space Mountain construction continued at WDW for 1974 and 1975, and more modest construction continued at Disneyland with the expensive America Sings opening in the summer of '74.
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