Originally Posted By gaston lives Does anybody know how much it cost to build the Magic Kingdom? how about wdw as a whole?
Originally Posted By mickey_ring According to the book Walt Disney World: The First Decade, 750 million as of 1981-ish. The Epcot Center price tag as of the book's writing was 800 mill. Whew! No wonder there are so many character shops.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss One of the famous stories about acquiring the land for WDW is where Walt wanted to buy more land in Florida, even though the company had thousands of acres. The cost for this new parcel would be about $100 per acre. Walt said, "Buy It!" Roy questioned Walt, "But Walt, we already own 12,000 acres. Do we have the money?" Walt replied, “Roy, how would you like to own 7,000 acres around Disneyland right now?†Roy said, “Buy it!â€
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> 750 million as of 1981-ish. The Epcot Center price tag as of the book's writing was 800 mill. << Are these original 1971 and 1982 dollars? Or are they adjusted for inflation over the years?
Originally Posted By mickey_ring <<Are these original 1971 and 1982 dollars? Or are they adjusted for inflation over the years?>> Here be the sentence right from the book, referring to the construction of Epcot Center: "The $800 million project will more than double the current $750 million investment in Walt Disney World, offering guests shows and adventures never before possible on such a grand scale." Looks like the 750 beans is a rolling total for the first 10 years.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Looks like the 750 beans is a rolling total for the first 10 years. << Thanks for the clarify. Sounds like the dollars are expressed "as of 1980ish" when Epcot was coming up new. I wonder what they would be in 2006 dollars?
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I thought I had remembered reading that Back in the early 90s Disney was exploring where to invest money in WDW. And instead of expanding the monorail. Management opted to Build DAK and reveral resorts. I thought the price tag was 1-4 Billion. Not all that astounding when you consider that Atlanta right now as I write has 1 Billion dollars worth of new construction going on. 300 Million of which is the aquirium ( well thats completed ).
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>300 Million of which is the aquirium<< I wish the aquarium luck. They built something similar in Denver (Ocean Journey), which eventually went bankrupt. Sometimes I have to wonder about how market research is done for these sort of things (super expensive local attractions). I can't help but feel that they just pull the numbers out of a hat. Ocean Journey severely overestimated the number of people who would pay the full entrance fee (I forget how much it was, but it wasn't trivial). Denver has an excellent Natural History Museium, and its much cheaper (they have AP's).
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^I recall that Ocean Journey was bought out by Landry's restaurants (for pennies on the dollar). The basically turned it into a (pricey) restauarant/fun center that is built around the aquarium. Think RainForest Cafe.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd ^^Landry's did buy out Ocean Journey. They turned part of it into a restaurant, but the aquarium is still there. When they bought it out they promised to turn it into a big attraction, but none of that has surfaced and it still costs $14.00 for an aquarium that only takes about an hour to go through (Plus $6.00 parking). Ocean Journey is the failed product of a policital game. There were two aquarium projects on the map, one in the Confluence Park area and another down south in an existing building. The project in the existing building down south would have been a much larger aquarium and had the benefit of the structure already existing to help offset cost, but Mayor Webb wanted to promote the Confluence Park area as a new tourism area and gave a bunch of free land and tax benefits to Ocean Journey's inept mgmt to build there. What they built was nice, but it is so limited in size and had little room for future expansion and then to cover the large amount of debt they took out, they slapped a high cost of admission to get in. So the inevitable bankruptcy. When Landry's bought it out, the city took back a lot of the land, so the project is now even further limited for future expansion. The project down south probably would have been a much better aquarium and was more soundly financed, but it was killed by bad politics.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom The Atlanta aquirium was built by Arthur Blank (sp). He's one of the co-founders of Home Depot. Its all paid for! He built it as a gift to Atlanta ( and Georgia ). They sold out of annual passes in under two months. Its a huge success. Of course my point being that Disney had to decide where to spend money on property. They opted to expand the parks and increase resorts. In leu of making improvement to intra park/ resort transportation and restoring aging e ticket rides in their preexisting parks.
Originally Posted By Labuda $750,000,000 million in 1980 dollars would be $1,833,740,831.30 in 2006 dollars per a conversion chart located here: oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/cv2006.xls. So, nearly $2 billion in today's dollars. WOW.
Originally Posted By avromark ^^^ Marineland Niagara Falls seems to be doing ok, although we did loose Kendu, the killer whale (not sure on spelling) a year or so ago. So they're down to 3 killer whales in Friendship Cove. They're spending 160 million in expansion right now, when completed Marineland will be the world's largest aquarium. And for those who don't like Beluga's they can always ride one of the roller coasters or something. Although the total money spent seems like a lot, think of how much is coming in with the Resorts, etc. as well. As well we have to remember even stadiums can cost a fortune. But can a stadium enthroll a kid the way Pirates of the Caribbean can?
Originally Posted By Lake Nona >>Denver has an excellent Natural History Museium, and its much cheaper (they have AP's).<< I remember going on a field trip there in 1978.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe KT--Is Atlanta still in the booming stage or more or less leveled off?
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Lake Nona--Please let me know your itins for the Opens? thanks joe Blake---Are you still alive and playing? I guess NO news is GOOD news?
