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Credit: DisneyWhen Walt Disney went looking for new land to build his next theme park, he didn’t want to make the same mistake that he’d made at Disneyland. He wanted unlimited space for future expansion, and Florida gave him just that.
So, Walt purchased 43 square miles of Central Florida orange groves and swamps and turned them into the Walt Disney World Resort. Sadly, he did not live to see his dreams come true, but deep down, he knew that he had created something that would stand the test of time.
Walt Disney World has since expanded to include four theme parks, two water parks, dozens of hotels, and hundreds of shops and restaurants. However, even with all of the development completed at Disney World, there is still more room to grow.
According to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the Board that oversees the Walt Disney World Resort, approximately 38 percent of Disney’s land is developed. That leaves an additional 62 percent that is still undeveloped and ready for a new park or hotel or anything for that matter.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District, which oversaw Disney World before the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, pledged to keep 20 percent of the land undeveloped as a natural preserve. Even that untouchable land still leaves 42 percent, or 18 square miles, available for building.
With so much land available, it begs the question: why isn’t Disney World expanding its parks to increase capacity rather than replacing iconic rides?
Everyone agrees that Disney World parks need more capacity. The only way to do that is to expand the parks to create new areas to disperse the crowds.
Disney has announced that it will do this at Magic Kingdom, sort of, with the expansion of Cars Land and Villains Land. However, those new lands will replace Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. So, why not have both?
At Hollywood Studios, Disney is replacing Muppet Vision 3D with a new Monsters, Inc. Land, and at Animal Kingdom, they are replacing DinoLand U.S.A. with an Encanto-theme land. Again, why not have both?
The answer to all those questions is, of course, money. It is much cheaper and easier to replace existing rides with new ones in the same building/area than to build an entire new park.
Back in the late 1990s, when Disney built Animal Kingdom, it was estimated that it would cost between $600-$800 million. It ended up costing around $1 billion. It would cost double that today.
Universal Orlando is paying around $1 billion for Epic Universe, which appears to be better than anything Disney has created in the last decade.
Estimates suggest that Disney is spending $1.9 billion for its Encanto-themed land at Animal Kingdom. So, why didn’t they just use that money for a fifth gate?
And the answer to that is time. Disney kept holding off on building anything new at Disney World until it finally saw what Epic Universe was becoming. Now, Disney is desperate to play catch-up against its biggest rival.
Despite what Disney’s management says, Epic Universe will not benefit both parks. It will benefit Universal Orlando.
So, the reality is that mismanagement and being cheap have kept Disney from expanding its parks to add more capacity. Instead, Disney will replace its existing rides with something lesser. It’s the new Disney way.