The real reasons for this perceived shift are hard to single out; there’s certainly not a lack of artistic talent or technical wizardry at Imagineering, even after several waves of layoff and attrition. There are a variety of opinions out there as to why things are the way they are, and at what level the responsibility lies. And the blame doesn’t all fall squarely on Imagineering’s shoulders either; after all, they can only build what they are asked by the parks division to build, and only with the budget they’re allotted by Disney corporate.

It’s a complicated issue, and the subject for another post. But even for those of us who sense these changes it’s occasionally difficult to put into words just what is different. It’s easier, though, when a situation presents itself where you can compare apples to apples and the difference between the two ages of Imagineering crystallize. These are “one to one” comparisons; the aforementioned Journey into YOUR Imagination is a perfect example. It’s predecessor, Journey into Imagination, was an omnimover-based darkride about imagination. Subsequent versions were also omnimover-based darkrides about imagination, both of which used parts of the original ride’s track and one of which featured a character from the original. Yet the original Imagination attraction was an artfully-created favorite that is still considered a masterpiece, while its followups are considered two of the most loathed attractions in Disney history.

Another one of these easy comparisons came to light recently with some negative press coverage of an new exhibit at Epcot’s Innoventions pavilion. The new exhibit, Habit Heroes, is ostensibly intended to encourage better eating habits and exercise in young people. But according to the Calgary Herald, it has come under criticism from anti-obesity advocates and public health groups for its rather clumsy and clueless lessons about the epidemiology of obesity and the negative messages it conveys to young visitors. Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, calls it a “gross oversimplification”, while George Washington University professor Rebecca Scritchfield simply said, “I would love to know what sickos thought this up.”

While it could be said I have more than a passing interest in Epcot, I rarely bother to pay attention when new exhibits open in Innoventions. This is, of course, mostly because Innoventions is terrible. It’s improved somewhat since its early days, when it felt cobbled together from cast-off industry trade show displays; at least now its exhibits feel custom designed and represent some level of investment. But as we’ve discussed with Carsland, just because a project is well-funded doesn’t mean that it’s well thought out. Innoventions still feels like a dark, dark box where all the leftover pieces of string and rubber bands have been swept.

When I scrolled up the video of Habit Heroes to see what the fuss was about, my opinion of Innovations was not changed. As seems to be par for the course these days, it’s really loud and really dumb. Basically, the message is that fat people are supervillains that can be reformed by peer pressure… and also you can shoot broccoli at fast food, or something. It’s truly insightful stuff. Take a look:

Of course, Epcot used to have an entire pavilion dedicated to good health. The fields of health and medicine were considered a key element of Epcot’s mandate, and work on a “Life & Health” pavilion began back in the 1970s. And this is where the difference between WED and WDI begins to become clear.

To assist in the crafting of Life & Health’s content, Disney assembled a team of medical professionals and academics from a number of fields. The chief adviser for the pavilion was Dr. Charles Lewis, a UCLA professor and expert in the fields of preventative medicine and health education. According to Rolly Crump, who led the pavilion’s design team, Lewis (who Crump called “Dr. Chuck”) was intent on incorporating positive messages into the attraction and keeping things entertaining. Lewis’s opinion, says Crump, was “If it’s a ton of fun, and an ounce of information, you’ll reach a teachable moment.” Continues Crump, “Now it doesn’t get any better than that. And that’s exactly what we used as our motto for all the different parts that we designed for EPCOT.” Lewis would later say that such a pavilion could only work “only to the extent that it primarily provides entertainment and enjoyment.”

Lewis was insistent on this point. Part of his mandate which is relevant to this discussion was that:

Thou shalt not increase fear or anxiety, send put-down messages to any group related to their “health habits”, or increase the dependency of individuals on others.

Lewis felt that, unique among Epcot’s pavilions, Life & Health faced the dilemma of not only having to be inspirational but also motivational. It had to help encourage visitors to take specific action, whether that be exercise, improving habits, or quitting smoking. To achieve this end the pavilion’s messages should be clear and simple, and the tone positive. The information received was less important to Lewis than the emotion experienced, for that is what would encourage guests to seek out more information and take meaningful action once they returned to life outside the theme park. This required information presented in the pavilion to be free of ethical judgments.

The difference between the tone of the Life & Health pavilion and something like Habit Heroes is clear. But there was even a more direct comparison to be made from among Life & Health’s offerings. One of the key elements of the pavilion was to be an interactive arcade called – amazingly – the “You Bet Your Life” Gambling Hall and Shooting Gallery. Now, if that name alone isn’t testament enough to how awesome WED was, nothing is.

No seriously, this was a thing.

The Gambling Hall and Shooting Gallery was to feature a number of custom-created games emphasizing different aspects of health and fitness. Apropos to this discussion was this shooting gallery game:

In this game, various foodstuffs would pop up at the bottom of the display and guests would shoot at them a la a shooting gallery. The animated cyclist at the top of the game would race against other players like a midway steeplechase game. His speed would be determined by which food items players shot out; higher-calorie items would require him to cycle longer to burn them off and would delay his arrival at the finish line.

It seems so simple, but you can see how this game – from around 1978! – compares to the shoot-em-up action in Habit Heroes. The Life & Health version is aspirational, not punitive. People are trying to achieve something, not prevent something. It illustrates, in a fun way, how one can make choices and affect change. And it educates, providing information about the caloric value of different foods, and what is required in order to work those calories off. And all while being fun.

This game, sadly, never came to be; Disney struggled to find a sponsor for Life & Health and by the time Wonders of Life opened in 1989 the company had new leadership and the pavilion had been handed off to another creative team. But even Wonders of Life had a few examples of fun-motivated health exhibits – who remembers fondly riding through Disneyland while burning calories on the Wonder Cycles?

These kinds of analysis seem esoteric and nitpicky, but it is these small shades of tone and meaning that separate an effective attraction from preachy unpleasantness. And, unfortunately, it is increasingly this level of subtlety and finesse that separates EPCOT from Epcot.

UPDATE: Word is on the Disney travel planning sites that “Habit Heroes” has closed today pending changes. Some are berating Walt Disney World for giving in to pressure, but I obviously feel this is a good decision on their part and hopefully motivated not merely by bad publicity but by realizing that it is a flawed attraction. But whatever it takes, I guess.

There’s also been a weird backlash against the closure, most of which reads like “fatties should suck it up and stop whining” and “THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICAZ!!1!”. To this I would counter that obviously this is a huge epidemiological issue which is precisely why it should be tackled with finesse. People don’t respond well to scolding or shaming, which is what this entire post is about – earlier attempts at addressing the theme went out of their way to consult health professionals who stressed this point.

And ultimately this isn’t a “free to be you and me” issue of feelings anyway – it’s a matter of information. I’ve seen some refer to Habit Heroes as “edutainment”, which is beyond laughable. There is nothing remotely educational about it. Do you really think “junk food is bad” is a huge moment of enlightenment and education for most people? Even children? As I mentioned, this is a major societal issue which is why people need to be informed and inspired, and merely parroting “you should get some exercise” is not cutting it. It’s window dressing for just another flat-screen videogame; an attempt to cloak the fact that they’re just re-using the Toy Story Midway Mania technology with a veneer of respectability because the show is now about “health.” There is an enormous difference between having a message that is “simple” and a message that is “facile”. This is facile.

It’s facile, and a microcosm of what plagues modern Epcot. Mission:SPACE isn’t really about the promise of colonizing space, it’s just a thrill ride. Test Track isn’t about… anything, really, it’s just a thrill ride. Energy is based on Exxon-approved information from twenty years ago. And the Seas is about selling Nemo merchandise. I’ll ask you this – would it have cost them any more to have used the exact same show scenes currently in the Nemo ride, but made the plot about “Mr. Ray” taking Nemo’s class through the ocean and talking about all the cool stuff out there? Probably not, but instead they just repeated the plot of the film. This is my problem – I’m not talking about building California Adventure because it cost less than Westcot, I’m talking about not taking the time to think about what you’re doing and make it relevant to Epcot’s mission. These are cases in which good taste literally does not cost any more. And in Habit Heroes it would cost less, since they wouldn’t have to retool it.

One more thing – I’ve had some folks interpret my lead-in as a blanket criticism of WDI, which was not the case. As I’ve said, there are a lot of very talented people at Imagineering working very, very hard to keep the old ways alive. But somehow, that effort on the bottom doesn’t always filter its way through the system and into the parks. While WDI’s output has seen a marked decline over the years, I honestly do not place the majority of the blame at Imagineering’s doorstep – at least, at the sub-managerial level of Imagineering. There are so many places along the project pipeline where things can go awry. As I said: Imagineering can only build what the parks request, and with the budget they are given. And at every step in the process there are managers and meddlers trying to foul things up. It’s a miracle anything makes it though at all, so we should cherish those triumphs when they do.

There are many Imagineers who agree wholeheartedly with you and I about all the things we grouse about. And they have my respect (and sympathy) as they work extremely hard to right the ship and push through projects worthy of the Disney legacy. However in this specific instance the fault has to be placed with the content creators. The exhibit doesn’t appear overtly cheap, and the mandate – a show about health and exercise – is sound. I did not mean to say that every problem in the Disney parks is the fault of WDI, however, and if it reads that way I apologize.

And yes, I changed the title of the article. Epcot Explorer name-checked the old “Goofy About Health” show and I was so angry at myself for not thinking of that as a title.

Now get out there and do some jumping jacks before I have to throw broccoli at you!

This is apparent as far back as the public’s first glimpse of the Florida Project, with Walt’s “EPCOT film” from 1966. The large map of property, which Walt famously stands in front of during the film, depicts a Bay Lake that has been artificially expanded so that it reaches all the way to where EPCOT Center now stands. Had this plan come to fruition, it could possibly have covered the area now occupied by Fort Wilderness, Port Orleans and Dixie Landings.

Over the years, other plans were hatched to enlarge and link the small natural bodies of water on property. At one point, what is now the Sassagoula River was to be widened so as to link a series of recreational areas north of the Lake Buena Vista village; even EPCOT Center’s World Showcase Lagoon was once designed to extend beyond the current row of pavilions into a larger lagoon beyond.

So while it’s fascinating, it’s not completely jarring to take a look at early plans for the Disney project…

To find obscure, forgotten zoning details like this:

The “lagoon” labeled here is what is now the Seven Seas Lagoon; you can also see the site of the Polynesian resort hotel. Of the two sites labeled “future hotel site”, the rightmost was once earmarked for the Venetian resort and the square site to the left, where the Grand Floridian resort sits today, was intended for the planned Asian resort.

What’s of interest is the area behind the Asian site, labeled as “future lagoon extension.” It’s odd to think that the Seven Seas Lagoon could have theoretically been extended to wrap around the Asian resort, north of what is now the Grand Floridian’s parking lots and covering what is now the site of the Floridian’s convention center. Of course there are many zoning and land-use provisions hidden in the depths of the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s many master plans from years past, and I’ve never seen any suggestion that Disney had seriously considered extending the lagoon.

Until now, that is.

This model of the Vacation Kingdom comes from January of 1968 and represents one of the earliest models that I can recall ever seeing of Walt Disney World in a form similar to how it was finally realized. In the first publicly-revealed version of Disney World’s theme park area, the resort hotels were located in front of the Magic Kingdom and there was no lagoon in between. This model, which actually predates the blueprint discussed earlier, shows a theme park area featuring a lagoon and a number of resort hotels. The difference is that unlike in the blueprints, the hotel configuration seen on the model is completely different from any with which we were previously familiar. Let’s take a look.

First, here’s a familiar face to get our bearings. The Contemporary hotel is located much where we expect it to be, although its environs have been altered. Located between Bay Lake and the still-unnamed lagoon, the Contemporary is connected by monorail (the yellow tape) and roadway – although the famous “water bridge” has yet to appear and the road southward merely crosses a conventional causeway.

The core of the hotel itself looks much like it would continue to be depicted during the construction process. The octagonal dock seen here would continue to appear on Imagineering models, although the extensive garden wings shown winding around the building would soon vanish.

Three wings, no circus-tent convention center, no Bay Lake Tower.

The next resort is also a familiar name, but with a different face.

This is the Polynesian hotel, as originally conceived. Unlike the current “longhouse” design, this resort was originally envisioned as a high-rise hotel very indicative of the era in which it was created. This concept would last another year or so, before evolving into the hotel we know today.

As you can see, a much larger area would have been carved out of the lagoon to provide water-facing views and marina space. Multiple docks would have allowed access to a variety of watercraft and – who knows? – maybe that top floor would have featured a themed venue just as swanky as the Contemporary’s Top of the World! You can bet your bottom dollar that, at the very least, there would have been glass-walled elevators in abundance.

The last resort on this model which can be identified is in an unexpected place; the Venetian hotel, which would eventually occupy the “future hotel site” on the aforementioned blueprint, appears here where I’ve never seen it before.

The Venetian is shown here to the right, on a site facing Bay Lake which would be given a year later to the Persian theme hotel. The design shown here seems familiar, though, and changed very little when it is moved to the Seven Seas Lagoon.

The Venetian, themed to northern Italy, was composed of a central building with outlying wings, a marina, and two campanile “belltowers”.

The biggest surprise of this model, however are two resort hotels that we’ve never seen before. These two anonymous hotels would be replaced over the next year or so with the Asian and Persian hotels, but they appear here and their themes remain, for now, a mystery.

The two mystery hotels both face the Seven Seas Lagoon. One, shown here in the foreground, is located on the expansion site where the Venetian would eventually be moved in 1969. The other is sited on a spit of land somewhere between where the Grand Floridian exists today and the Magic Kingdom.

The first hotel, which I’ve taken to referring to as “Fontainebleau Jr.”, is very reminiscent of other luxury hotels of its era. It’s semicircular tower overlooks a circular pool and arcade, and several outbuildings provide added guest rooms. Note that it is also on the monorail line.

The second mystery hotel also features a “modern” design but might actually be a precursor to the Asian hotel which would replace it on the master plan.

Note the odd shape of the central tower, as well as the somewhat traditional-looking pyramidal roof on the marina structure and the outbuildings. The size of the cabanas, and something about the slope of their roofs, make me think that this was an early attempt to give a vaguely oriental flair to a standard luxury hotel. This is pure speculation on my part, but it would explain the somewhat unconventional structure of the hotel tower.

This, too, is on the monorail line.

There’s one more mystery resort element on this model, and it sits on the south shore of the never-dredged lagoon expansion. You can see it in the far left-hand corner of this image:

This distant area is frustratingly vague, even in closeup – you can’t make out any features aside from the boat dock and the fact that it is on the monorail line. My guess – and it is a guess – is that this is either the first location of the Walt Disney World campground or the first location of the golf clubhouse and facilities. If I had to wager, I’d guess it’s a campground, which means that the Vacation Kingdom’s camping area would have to move twice before taking up residence on the south shore of Bay Lake.

A campground? Or something more?

So that’s the Walt Disney Resort, as conceived in early 1968. It’s a world of endless recreational opportunities, but let’s not forget what’s sitting across that vast lagoon…

It is, of course, the Magic Kingdom.

A Magic Kingdom that is, perhaps unsurprisingly, as alien as it is familiar.

There are many major differences. Note the large, winding waterways both to the left of Frontierland and to the right of Tomorrowland. Space Mountain is the original, larger, quadrilateral design seen during the 1960s and known as “Space Port”, and the black line of the Skyway can be seen extending from one of the Space Mountain spires, making a ninety-degree turn, and passing over Fantasyland.

Note the large show building one would see directly ahead after passing through Cinderella Castle, and check out that enormous show building guests would actually pass under upon entrance into Tomorrowland.

A prominent feature of this model is the legendary unbuilt attraction in Frontierland called Thunder Mesa, home of the Western River Expedition. Occupying a huge show building on the west side of the park, it was to be located where Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain currently sit. You can see the Walt Disney World Railroad, denoted by the red tape, passing through the Frontierland station and entering the mountain.

The hulking mass of Thunder Mesa would loom over the area, facing the Rivers of America on the right, and the mysterious river area to the left. Look out, though – the steamboat is driving in the wrong direction!

Looking across Adventureland and Liberty Square towards Frontierland and Thunder Mesa

Other large changes can be found on the eastern side of the park, where the model depicts a Tomorrowland far different from that we know today, much less the one that would open in 1971.

Obviously, Space Port is quite different from Space Mountain, but looking closer one can see many other alterations.

The yellow tape, representing the monorail line, enters the park and passes between Space Port and the show building which straddles the entrance to Tomorrowland. It travels northeast where you see the station which would have allowed guests to exit the monorail inside the park itself. Passing over an Autopia area, this monorail line would leave the park before looping around to service the Venetian and Contemporary hotels.

This model, from 1969, shows a more dimensional and detailed version of this track as well as the odd-looking Space Port:

Back in 1968, you can see how the Magic Kingdom’s version of Autopia was once planned to be much more elaborate – as well as water-laced. There’s another one of those mysterious water ride areas to the east of the Autopia, and along the red tape which designates the path of the Walt Disney World Railroad you can see a planned Tomorrowland railroad station. This was never built, but twenty years after this model was built a station was finally erected in that spot to service the new Mickey’s Birthdayland.

So that’s a glimpse at Walt Disney World in its earliest recognizable days. Within a year, the design would have evolved into this:

In this 1969 rendering, you can see that the additional lagoon has been abandoned and the resorts have taken their traditional locations. The Polynesian remains the funky, 1960s tower, but is correctly sited, and the Asian hotel sits on the square piece of land which would – again, 20 years later – play host to the Grand Floridian Beach Resort. Note that the campground has also come along for the ride, at the very bottom of the rendering where the Wilderness Lodge sits today.

Here’s a rough attempt to show how that original model matches up with the reality of today…

What a difference forty years and a few hundred million dollars make…

Images of the EPCOT Center model from 1978 are fairly common. It was the year that Disney re-announced their commitment to the project, and their intention to proceed with planning and design. It was the year that the park really started to resemble the facility that we know today, with a single row of themed international showcases around the lagoon and the core Future World pavilions decided on. But most images of this model are from a single angle, obscuring World Showcase, and they’re rarely reprinted in an adequate size. It would be so helpful to have a new angle on the situation…

Oh look! It’s a new angle on the situation:

The 21st century begins!

This image is undated, but I believe it to date, roughly, to mid 1978. While this is the model pictured when Card Walker re-announced the project in October of that year, other pictures of the model from 1978 show more evolved versions of the Space and Health pavilions so I believe that this model precedes those. One can see the familiar pavilions of Future World, as they were planned at that time. Spaceship Earth isn’t yet a full geosphere, and the CommuniCore buildings were still giant, looming, V-shaped spaceframes. Zooming in to the picture, one can see the various exhibits sitting in the open air.

Universe of Energy shows, once again, that it was the first pavilion to reach its final design; you’ll notice, however, that there was no fountain in front of the building – instead, Future World East was to have large, shallow lagoons much like Future World West. These would never appear in the final design, and Future World East became the “dry” side of the park. Clockwise from Energy, we find Tony Baxter’s first take on The Land – the “ecology” pavilion that was later scuttled when Kraft signed on as sponsor and demanded a more farming-focused attraction. Then comes the Transportation pavilion, which would soon get rounded out and become the World of Motion. In the area between Future World and World Showcase is the American Adventure, in its elevated, modern structure. Sitting where Journey into Imagination would later emerge is an early version of the Life and Health pavilion, and where The Land would later reside is an early and more elaborate take on The Seas. In the last spot, partially cut off in this picture, is what I believe to be an early, placeholder version of the Space pavilion. Other EPCOT models from 1978 show the more familiar, detailed Space pavilion sitting in this spot.

The great appeal of this photograph, however, is that it provides us a rather rare look at the pavilions lining World Showcase. The model dates from a time when Disney anticipated between twenty and thirty national showcases, and so the shores of the model lagoon are far more bustling than they are in real life. It can be difficult to make out the identities of the individual pavilions without obvious landmarks or flags, but we can take a few cues from this site plan, which also dates to 1978 and shows a layout for the area very similar to what we see in the model:

Proposed layout for World Showcase from 1978

The model and the diagram don’t match exactly, but the site plan does give us an idea as to what Disney had in mind for its client nations, and we can match the pavilion footprints in the illustration to the building shapes in the model.

From left to right: Scandinavia, Israel, South Korea, Canada and Mexico

Starting where we find Canada in the park today, we see the familiar greenery-draped pyramid of Mexico. This early version features an aqueduct that extends to the lagoon, and there appears to also be a canal on the far side of the pavilion that extends inwards under the promenade.

Nestled amongst the trees is an early concept for the Canada pavilion, which features a wooden tower and pathways amongst the tall pines. You can see the top of the French Canadian hotel, with its Québécois flag, and a Circlevision show building.

Traveling onwards, we encounter what seems to be a South Korea pavilion, with its shallow show building and temple situated on the lagoon. This is followed by what appears to be the Israel pavilion, and then what is labeled on the site plan as a Scandinavia pavilion. The Scandinavia pavilion has a long and tortured history, being at times themed to Denmark or Scandinavia in general before finally evolving into today’s Norway pavilion. I find it interesting, though, that in this picture it’s flying only the flag of Sweden.

From left to right: Italy, United Kingdom, Africa, Saudi Arabia, France

The France showcase finds itself relatively close to its real-world location, although today’s Eiffel Tower has been replaced in the model by the bohemian cityscape of Monmartre and the spires of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, complete with its iconic stairs. Next door is a pavilion that I believe to be Saudi Arabia, although at the time Disney was in negotiations with a variety of Arab nations (including the United Arab Emirates) and the possibility of an “Arabic Nations” pavilion was occasionally invoked.

Tucked away in the trees is an early attempt at an Africa pavilion, which would later evolve into the designed-but-not-built Equatorial Africa showcase. I’m unsure whether, at this point, this was intended to represent a single African nation or, like its successors, it was to be sponsored by a coalition of sub-Saharan governments.

Continuing on, we find what seems to be the United Kingdom pavilion, although it differs greatly from the concept that was eventually built. Instead of a meandering high street, we have a large castle looming in the forest, concealing a large show building. There’s a low-slung building – possibly a pub? – and some sort of turret of Tudor design.

Finally, there’s Italy, which appears to draw from similar northern Italian traditions as the actual pavilion does today.

From left to right: Australia & New Zealand, Taiwan, and what is possibly Morocco and Costa Rica

The final pavilions appearing here are more difficult to identify, as we can see very little of their actual themed areas. The showcase representing Australia and New Zealand is easy to spy, with its replica of the Sydney Opera House sitting on the lagoon. Next is Taiwan, with its colorful shrines. The final two pavilions are less obvious; the site plan suggests that these are Morocco and Costa Rica. If so, this Costa Rica pavilion appears to differ greatly from the better-known proposal to represent this nation with a giant glass-enclosed botanical gardens.

What’s most amazing is that, as detailed as these models are, they represent only a brief moment in time at WED Enterprises. The only constant during Epcot’s development was change, and pavilions were getting shuffled in and out of these models on a continuous basis. Remember, also, that they were just as important for advertising purposes as they were for design needs – after all, Disney was hustling as much as they could to get corporations and foreign nations to sign on to this crazy new project. Design work was done on a daily basis, only to be completely discarded when sponsorship deals fell through, or the priorities of management shifted. It was a wild time!

Hopefully, some day we’ll be able to get a glimpse of the rest of this model…

Special thanks to John Donaldson for sharing the image!

Notes on the sketches indicate that the facility would seat 150 inside the “shell” and 100 on an outside terrace. The restaurant is labeled as “World Buffeteria” – perhaps that indicates that it was to feature a variety of cuisines? Buffeteria, of course, is one of those great old coined words that Disney used to create for their parks; this invented vernacular helped create a sense that you were truly in a unique place set apart from the regular world. Other buffeterias included the original incarnation of EPCOT’s Le Cellier as well as the beloved Trail’s End Buffeteria at Fort Wilderness.

Take a look at this progression of sketches:

While few will argue that this was Ryman’s most compelling assignment, and, in fact, details of the building itself are frustratingly vague, there’s one thing that’s really entertaining about these sketches – the people! Ryman’s art was famous for the cast of characters that circulated in the foreground, and it looks like Herb might have been more interested in the people in these sketches than in the buffeteria. I especially love the Edwardian gent in the bowler hat with his stogie, with what appears to be Carmen Sandiego on his arm. In that last sketch it even looks like Mr. Smee is in attendance, and, in a strangely prescient touch, Princess Jasmine. Some of these characters are so detailed, I wonder if they were based on real people.

Maybe the World Buffeteria won’t wind up being as lamented a lost attraction as Equatorial Africa, but the cast of characters there would have been really interesting!

Special thanks to John Donaldson for sharing these images

It’s almost hard to conceive of a time that Michael Eisner elected not to build a Disney Vacation Club resort, but that’s just what happened in 2001 when Disney’s Vacation Club And Resort At Eagle Pines was announced only to slowly vanish into the mists of history afterward.

Osprey Ridge (blue) and Eagle Pines (purple) in 2002. Sandwiched between Fort Wilderness (green) and Dixie Landings (red), the two courses were serviced by the clubhouse (yellow) which remains today.

The years 2000 and 2001 were a very active time for DVC expansion, with timeshare wings being grafted onto many of Disney’s existing resorts. On July 23rd, 2001, the company announced that its seventh DVC property would be built on a 61-acre site adjacent to the Eagle Pines golf course. Comprising 600 units, the resort would feature ten four-story villa buildings with 48 units apiece and a main six-story Inn building with 120 units as well as check-in and guest facilities. Amenities included a restaurant and lounge, a 600 square foot feature pool, shops, an arcade, a common living room area and a health club. The resort would also feature two “quiet” pools, basketball and tennis courts, a playground, and a wetland boardwalk. The 270,000 square foot Inn and 800,000 square feet of Villa buildings would have comprised the largest Vacation Club resort at the time, and represented an estimated investment of $170 million.

Site plan for Disney’s Vacation Club and Resort at Eagle Pines, laid over satellite imagery of the site from 2002

… And a closer look

Designed by Graham Gund and the Gund Partnership, architects for the Coronado Springs Resort and Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, and with site planning by Glover Smith Bode, the new resort would be based on the iconic works of architect Addison Mizner in the early 20th century. Mizner defined the look of Florida resorts in that era, drawing on Spanish, Moorish, Romanesque and Gothic design to create extravagant retreats for the wealthy in southeast Florida. Disney’s Vacation Club And Resort At Eagle Pines would have thus echoed the Spanish Revival look of West Palm Beach and Boca Raton in their heyday. As Mariska Elia, spokeswoman for Disney Vacation Club, said at the time, “It adds a different flavor, a different atmosphere to our portfolio.”¹ She sounded really excited!

Elevation of the facade for the Inn at Disney’s Vacation Club and Resort at Eagle Pines

Site plan for the Inn building

Rooms were to feature pool, golf course or forest views; the resort itself would have nestled amongst the wetlands and existing Eagle Pines golf course. Resort buildings were designed to “step down” in height as they neared the links, allowing for minimal visual intrusion for golfers.

Rendering of the Inn building

Rendering of the Inn building from the courtyard by the feature pool

The resort was designed to open in phases, with phase one consisting of 360 units. The Inn building and one Villa building would be the first to open in spring or summer of 2004, with four additional Villa buildings coming on-line throughout the rest of that year. Phase two, consisting of five Villa buildings containing 240 units, would open in spring or summer of 2005.

Site plan for Disney’s Vacation Club and Resort at Eagle Pines from May 2001

So what happened? Well in the summer of 2001 DVC apparently needed room to breathe. Its membership was approaching 60,000, and as Elia said at the time, “We really need a big project. This is another anchor property with a lot of inventory.” But not long after the new resort was announced, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 occurred and the tourism market chilled considerably. It had already been a slow year for Disney; I remember that there had been a wave of extensive discounts throughout the year, which was unusual at the time. Disney spent the year reaping the bad publicity of California Adventure opening in Anaheim, and there wasn’t a lot new going into the Florida parks either. It was a slow period, and the terror attacks only made things worse for attendance. The Eagle Pines resort was never really spoken of again. By the time development picked back up, the company had given up on the Disney Institute and decided to redevelop that property instead of building at Eagle Pines. And so the Institute – formerly the Disney Village Resort – became the enormous Saratoga Springs DVC development.

The former Eagle Pines site in May of 2010

In 2007, Disney announced that a luxury housing development and a new Four Seasons resort hotel would be built on the site of its Eagle Pines golf course. This project – now known as Golden Oak – marked the definitive end for an abandoned resort project that few even remembered. Eagle Pines has been wiped off the map as land is cleared for the new hotel and several dozen McMansions for millionaires. Eventually slated to include 450 homes and the 445-rooms of the Four Seasons hotel, the development will slowly roll out over the next few years.

1. Disney Ready To Build 600-Unit Time Share, The Orlando Sentinel, July 24, 2001

We’ll start with some ideas dating back to Disneyland’s construction. Many concepts were thrown out in those early days, as WED Imagineers attempted to get a handle on what, exactly, this new park was going to be. No one had seen a Disneyland before, and these concepts show just how different things could have been.

This concept for a “Crocodile Aquarium” is reminiscent of some of the great old roadside attractions in Florida

Rendering of a proposed Ferris Wheel based on The Old Mill for Fantasyland. While never built in Disneyland, a similar attraction was installed at Disneyland Paris but it has been inoperational since 2002.

Here’s yet another member of the pantheon of abandoned circus attractions proposed for Disneyland; note the pink elephants, the Tweedles on the high wire, and the rather unsettling GIANT EAGLE on the left

While the spinning Teacups did make it into Disneyland on opening day, this early concept featured an animated centerpiece with the Mad Hatter and March Hare

The majority of the abandoned concepts seem to have been developed for Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. These two lands were hit hard by the financial constraints that overshadowed Disneyland’s construction; Walt at one point actually decided that Tomorrowland’s debut would be delayed until after the park’s opening. When he decided that the park should have a full roster of lands on opening day after all, there was a concerted rush to fill those show buildings with… something. Anything, actually. Disney, in an attempt to fill that empty space, contacted a number of American industries to see if they’d sponsor corporate displays and exhibits in the park. That’s why Tomorrowland in those early days was filled with oddities like Crane’s “Bathroom of Tomorrow”, the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame, Monsanto’s Hall of Chemistry, and, of course, the American Dairy Association’s “Dairy Bar.” There’s a reason why Tomorrowland had two major renovations in its first fifteen years. Still, though, there were some ideas that didn’t make the cut…

Western Union Intrafax Exhibit

This proposed display would showcase Western Union’s “Intrafax,” an early implementation of fax technology developed in the 1950s that could transmit documents within offices or over short distances.

Meteorite! Construction block of the universe! Behind the “pebble from outer space,” note the sign proclaiming “See The Moon Now – Special Vacation Rates.”

If these exhibits proved a bit too tame for your tastes, how about this rendering for a Tomorrowland Uranium Mine? Guests would surround the planter space and scan for uranium with their very own geiger counters!

Mining for uranium in Tomorrowland

This next one might be my favorite. Why don’t they have this today? Solar Nescafe – make it happen, Disney!

COFFEE MADE BY THE SUN!!

And here’s a swanky kiosk for Coppertone, which looks like it probably was developed during a later era:

Cancer made by the sun!!

Here’s an unusual concept for Tomorrowland from very early on; it looks like Fritz Lang meets The Wizard of Oz:

Off to see the Wizard!

It’s well known that a number of ideas were developed over the years to expand Main Street U.S.A. International Street and Liberty Street were proposed for the area off of town square next to the Opera House, while Edison Square would have connected to the Plaza between the former Red Wagon Inn and Main Street. Apparently a later proposal was to reimagine that concept as Gay Nineties Square, which was news to me.

A rendering of the “Hall of the Declaration of Independence,” one of the two shows intended for Liberty Street

A map of the proposed Edison Square expansion

Edison Square would have featured a series of dioramas depicting Thomas Edison’s laboratory and his great discoveries. It would also showcase a series of walk-through displays showing innovations in home appliances – an idea that would soon evolve into the Carousel of Progress.

One diorama from Edison Square would show Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park

One of the scenes in Edison Square would have been this “contemporary interior” – a penthouse apartment in New York City with a roof garden

The facades of Edison Square would resemble different turn-of-the-century cities, including Chicago (shown here). Other facades included San Francisco and New York City.

Gay Nineties Square, a concept developed from Edison Square. The exhibit buildings were themed to St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and New York.

Of course, aside from these major expansions, there were a number of other attractions proposed during the years. How about a ride that would make use of all those giant dinosaurs returning to Disneyland from Ford’s Magic Skyway at the 1964/65 World’s Fair?

This proposed boat ride would have used the prehistoric scenes from Magic Skyway

Or how about this crazy idea for a very early simulator attraction that would take guests into a swirling hurricane? Many, many years later this idea would resurface as StormRider at Tokyo DisneySea; its ride system even resembles that park’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea dark ride. Sometimes it’s scary how forward-thinking WED was.

Capsule for hurricane ride

Guests ride into the “hurricane”

View from the ride vehicle in the hurricane simulator

Then there were a number of proposals to transform Storybookland into something called “Garden of the Gods”:

Garden of the Gods ride vehicle

One can see how the layout of Garden of the Gods would have matched the current Storybookland; it would have always featured a lot of fountains!

A snowy village from Garden of the Gods

“Look kids, Hades!”

Even Chernabog made an appearance in Garden of the Gods!

As time went on, Imagineers sought to mine current Disney films for new attractions. After Walt’s death, they were almost never successful. When even hit films like The Love Bug couldn’t get an attraction greenlit…

Families leap between buildings in The Love Bug. Where exactly did WED think this attraction should go? On the other hand, it would have actually been appropriate for California Adventure as it took place in San Francisco.

Ride vehicles would split in half for the ride’s finale

… then what hope did a film like The Black Hole have? Expecting the movie to become a big hit, WED designed this ride-through shooting gallery based on the robots from the film. When The Black Hole flopped, the idea was adapted for another upcoming sci-fi film, TRON. When that didn’t become a hit either, the concept lay dormant until it was revived as Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

Concept for The Black Hole shooter ride

Um, where’s V.I.N.CENT?

There was even a boat ride proposed for the animated flop The Black Cauldron! One can see how the designs for this attraction influenced EPCOT’s Maelstrom.

“Thou art not the first to pass this way!”

Lastly, there were a number of concepts created in later years to fill the Carousel Theater in Tomorrowland (which I hope some of our resident super-geniuses will elaborate on). The one shown below would have re-themed the building as the “Star Palace” theater featuring an alien musical revue. One concept, developed in the Captain EO era, even included a moonwalking Michael Jackson animatronic.

Exterior of the remodeled theater

The alien show inside the Carousel Theater

P.T. Quantum was one of the proposed hosts for the show

Look, it’s Harmon Nee from the Star Palace! Don’t forget the “boyish freckles”…

And Mel O’Dee, the “Irish Micronaut!”

It’s time to discuss sexual dimorphism in Micronauts, as depicted by Mel O’Dee – the “Irish Micronaut.” Because, apparently, every planet has an Ireland. So you won’t have to squint, here are her features as described in the stylesheet: She has a smaller nose and softer features overall! She sports an aviator’s scarf and lambskin collar, and the back of her jacket has an alien war campaign insignia reminiscent of Disney’s WWII bomber nose art! She’s “fun and feisty” – a “Marion Ravenwood type,” as indicated by her “sexy pelvic tilt!” Note her “more delicate” “female fingers” and toes, and “higher waist, slimmer body!” Dimorphism! And if you couldn’t tell, “She plays the raucous stuff; he, the softer, prettier passages.”

And, if you weren’t sold on the concept, there’s this:

“Wild and Untamed Huge Hooters from Hoth”

Hey, not everything can be Western River Expedition!