Originally Posted By DlandDug >>Wasn't it true tha the Disney people really weren't sure the Magic Kingdom would be a huge success?<< Disney did a great deal of study and research before opening WDW. They were fairly certain that it would attract a lot of people. The main reason they chose central Florida was because of the historic traffic pattern linking the eastern seaboard with Miami. That's why the World is located conveniently close to the freeway and turnpike.
Originally Posted By dshyates Disney didn't pull any punches when building WDW. It was the most expensive construction project in the history of the planet when they were building it.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom And Disney had some serious contenders building it. The guy incharge of construction was the guy in charge of building the Panama Cannel. US Steel behind building the Contemporary. It was a pretty massive undertaking.
Originally Posted By CDF1 But without the proximity to a large urban area (like LA to Disneyland) I believe there was still some concern that WDW might not reach the level of attendance of Disneyland. And, as others have pointed out, the cost of construction was so high that Disney folks simply could not afford to build any more without seeing some income come in from the park. Witness the fact that Disney gave out franchises for several hotel chains to build properties near the current Downtown Disney area so there might be additional hotels close by (but not requiring Disney investment). The same practice of getting the doors opened on the park first before getting all of the possible planned attractions going happened at DLP and at DLHK did it not? DLP has no Space Mountain, DLHK had very few of the bigger "E" attractions outside of Space Mountain, IASW and Jungle Cruise (although in the case of the latter there seemed to be a lot of debate about what attractions might be appropriate such as Hauntem Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain or POTC).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros By the time MK opened, was EPCOT still under consideration? I know that the park was originally envisioned as a fundraiser to bring in the income to build an entire city (as expensive as the initial investment to open MK may have been, it would have been nothing in comparison to the City of the Future). By the late 70's, plans for the city had been scrapped and they were working on the permanent World's Fair that we have now, but when did that switch actually occur? Walt was a huge driving force behind the city, so I wonder how much of that concept died when he did. If they were still planning on building the city, it would make sense to try to skimp on the park a little; if there really wasn't intent to do it, I wonder why TL was so empty at opening day.
Originally Posted By CDF1 From what I have read it seems like much of the momentum for EPCOT "The City" was lost when Walt died - there were lots of plans and designs still around but it sounds like that without Walt as the driving force the company decided to compromise on a theme park which would present many of Walt's hope and dreams about the future (book entitled "Since the World Began" by Jeff Kurtti has some discussion of this topic). If you look at all of the work that Disney put into the Reedy Creek Planning District they pretty much took many of the steps in the direction of building their own city. And it certainly seems like there was an intention to make EPCOT "The City" a reality given the amount of land they bought and the controls they founght for. But again, it seems like the passing of Walt and then Roy left the vision of EPCOT in the hands of people at Disney that felt more comfortable with the theme park business as opposed to wanting to be urban visionaries (although Disney did eventually build Celebration across the street from WDW!)
Originally Posted By danyoung >Also, Peter Pan's flight opened on October 3 because there was a problem in final assembly. An air-conditioning duct was installed in the path of the ride-vehicle track.< I find this very interesting. Just this week I watched an online video about the new Fantasyland construction. It was all about how they're using new visualization software, and it's all available out in the field on IPads. One of the Imagineers said that one of the great things about this new software was that it was great for the integration between companies. He pointed to the Little Mermaid attraction, and said that now they can avoid having for example an air conditioner duct land right in the vehicle path by mistake. I guess he was referring back to this incident in 1971!
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 "The guy incharge of construction was the guy in charge of building the Panama Cannel" Steven J. Cannel? Really?
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 I always liked how his paper flew out of the typewriter and became animated.
Originally Posted By RobinsonCrusoeEsq Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers by Robert R. Reynolds (Sorry for the two posts) Robert Reynolds is the nephew of either Ed Morgan or Karl Bacon, the two guys who made up Arrow Development. Arrow designed ride vehicles for Disneyland and then Disney World. In the book, they describe a lot of technical mishaps that went down on the WDW site.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It's been a very long time since I read Roller Coasters, Flumes, and Flying Saucers (at least a decade), but I don't remember too much technical discussion of WDW. The things that it did talk about, however, it did a really great job of including technical detail on an approachable level. If there are any WDW sections (I seem to vaguely recall stuff on Space Mountain and the PeopleMover), I'm sure it's well explained. Also, David Koenig's Realityland does a really good job of explaining the construction for WDW, including the parks that were added through the years. It's far less technical, but spent a long time talking about what the problems were and how they were (or weren't) resolved.
Originally Posted By CDF1 Would have been funny to look in some parking lot in Mountain View and see Walt Disney and a bunch of his suited friends riding a boat down a small ramp which would later be found in POTC. Also liked the story about the Flying Saucers, one of the most unique and technically interesting attractions of its time.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> Steven J. Cannel? I always liked how his paper flew out of the typewriter and became animated. << Dunno how I missed that joke. I enjoyed it, Bob!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Geez! It's a very interesting read, but I would never pay anywhere near that for it. I guess it must have gone out of print before many people got a chance to check it out.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Yeah, a much lower attraction count they still haven't fixed at Magic Kingdom 40 years later.<<< See, while I do wish the MK had more in it, I really take exception to this. DL has two parks. WDW has 4. Lots of our attractions are spread out, and done in a different way than yours. I mean, that is NOT an excuse for mediocrity, and accepting that WDW hasn't gotten a E Tic since 1992, and still isn't... but just to throw out blanket statements like that feels like you care short changing something that doesn't have a dime to spare! LOL
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 And I have to admit, EE - I MUCH prefer ITtbaB in its proper place, in the Tree of Life, at DAK, even though I actually saw it first, at DCA! Likewise, the Muppets are much better placed in MGM, rather than the awkward shoehorning at DCA. Similarly Florida's ToT is superior to DLR's in EVER way. Yep, while DLR and especially DCA has some WDW attractions, I'd rather see a couple of them in their original and much better thematically placed positions at WDW than the hodge podge way in which they are just plonked down in DCA! Makes DCA kinda feel like a "best of" version of WDW.
