Progress City, U.S.A.

For the start of the new year, I had hoped to do one of those “top ten” lists of things I’d like to see happen in the Disney parks – and especially Walt Disney World – in 2009. Not that I would deem any of my wishes likely to be fulfilled, and in many cases it’s obvious that they’re complete non-starters as far as management is concerned, but I’m a fan of lists and unsolicited criticism so why not?

So let’s pretend that it’s not already February, and that I’ve done this in a remotely timely fashion. Here’s the first of ten things that I’d like to see at the Disney parks in 2009:

#10 – New Attractions

Might this DisneySea attraction actually make its way to Animal Kingdom?

Now, I know that a theme park fan listing “new attractions” among their wishes is like someone naming “food” or “oxygen” as something they’d like to see in the new year. But we’re picky here at the Progress City Bureau of Land Management, and we don’t just drop rides into the parks willy-nilly. In fact, despite a fairly continuous “drip-drip” of attractions over the last several years, many areas of the parks are still in need of additions and revitalization.

Our top nominee for this dubious honor is World Showcase at EPCOT Center, which hasn’t seen a new pavilion for – wait for it – 21 years. Yes, you are old and so am I. There are people who voted in the last election who have never seen an addition to World Showcase in their lifetime. There are soldiers serving in Iraq now who are three years younger than the Maelstrom. That’s how static Showcase has become.

Now, personally I love Showcase. Since the demise of the great Future World pavilions it’s become my favorite half of the park. And, to be fair, they’ve kept it fairly fresh over the years by adding some quality live entertainment and a variety of seasonal festivals. But there’s been no actual new construction in that time, and when you consider that there have been at least seven new national pavilions “officially” announced since the park’s opening that have never seen the light of day (I count Equatorial Africa, Israel, Spain, Venezuela, Russia, Denmark, and Switzerland), it all starts to seem like an anti-climax.

Coming soon – Equatorial Africa! Opening 1983!

A great deal of this has to do with Disney’s rather harsh sponsorship requirements for the national pavilions. Finding an interested party willing to sign a long term contract with Disney to pony up the cash for building, staffing and maintaining a pavilion is dicey even in the best of economic times. Even then, there are political and ethical concerns – Equatorial Africa fell through when the only willing sponsors Disney could find were based in then-apartheid South Africa.

No? How about an Israel pavilion? Coming soon in 1983!

Yet even when Disney finds willing parties, plans often fall through. Negotiations with various Soviet and Russian governments have taken place on and off since at least 1978. A deal was actually signed with Spain in 1981, and those negotiations continued to take place as recently as 2002. Around that same time, South Korean investors approached Disney in the hopes of sponsoring a pavilion and were publicly rebuffed.

So that’s a no on the Russia thing?

So after decades of stagnation, what can be done to revitalize World Showcase? Well, for one thing it’s obvious that Disney should find ways to amend their sponsorship agreements to be less demanding on the host nations. The pavilion sponsorships are real sweetheart deals for Disney, and while I don’t suggest they give away the shop for free, it might spur development to find ways to reduce the startup cost for sponsors.

But… we signed this deal for the Spain pavilion! Coming soon!

More importantly, there needs to be someone at Disney who is excited about the potential of World Showcase, and who can get out there and really sell it to the host nations and their various corporations. Perhaps they should hire some sort of goodwill ambassador, who can travel the world to help drum up support for their efforts. Or, as it was suggested last year when Disney entered the Russian television market, pavilion sponsorships can be rolled into larger, cross-corporate negotiations.

And then Eisner promised us Switzerland…

In any case, something most be done. While the rumors persist that Disney has in fact found a sponsor for a new attraction to fill the perpetually empty show building behind the Japan pavilion, nothing has been announced. Even a new attraction there would do nothing to fill the empty expansion pads in the rest of World Showcase, or do anything to help hide the fact that several significant nations are still missing from EPCOT’s international lineup.

And Venezuela is long forgotten.

There are other sites that also require new attractions. A glaring case is the former Wonders of Life pavilion, which now sits completely empty. While I have my own pet project that I would put here, in general I believe that something is preferable to nothing and this space should be filled by something new, exciting and visionary.

The Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland needs new attractions, but then again so do the Tomorrowlands in Anaheim, Paris and Tokyo. No clones, please. And although the 17-year span since the Kingdom last received an E-ticket might end if the Little Mermaid attraction rumors prove true, they still have to announce and build it before the drought is officially over. Paris’s park has been long dormant as well, and could use – at last – that Splash Mountain or Indiana Jones attraction to fill those empty expansion pads.

Empty chairs at empty tables: A plot of Disneyland Paris’s currently-empty Adventureland expansion pad, originally intended for an Indiana Jones dark ride.

Hollywood Studios needs a great deal of attention and expansion – start by dumping Aladdin’s Flying Carpets and the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor there, and then build some real attractions. Go ahead and announce the Monsters, Inc. coaster – you can find a sponsor for it later. And the park’s ugly cousin, the Disney Studios Paris, needs far more new expansion than a few fun-fair rides dolled up in Toy Story theming – it needs an overhaul far vaster than that planned for California Adventure. These parks need atmosphere – that indescribable sense of place that is so potent in Disneyland yet so missing from the tarmac and prefab design of the later parks. Sometimes a well-themed area is an attraction in and of itself. And more than anything, these third-generation half-parks need the lavish, animatronic-heavy dark ride spectaculars that Disney used to be known for.

California Adventure’s extreme thematic makeover – a good start

Animal Kingdom, though redolent in atmosphere, needs dark rides as well, DisneySea needs to expand without selling out, and Hong Kong Disneyland… well, finish it first and then we’ll talk.

You’ll notice that all of my suggestions are for “in-fill” attractions – we don’t need new gates at any of the resorts right now. There’s so much unfinished business in each and every Disney park that it would be unfortunate to spend huge sums on new developments when expansion pads and shuttered attractions still sit empty.

Like the Adventurer’s Club. Shame, oh shame on you, Jay Rasulo.

While even a fourth of my suggestions probably prices me way out of the Mouse’s spending targets, there are a number of expansion rumors out there which, if true, suggest that they are at least somewhat willing to take out their checkbook. Think of it as economic stimulus, Team Disney – ask not what your countries can do for you, but what you can do to build more countries.

In early 1982, Walt Disney Productions was working full bore on the construction of EPCOT Center. Behind schedule and over budget, construction crews toiled around the clock to try and have the park ready for the October 1st opening date. In the meantime, Disney management scrambled to prepare both cast members and the public for what would be a very different type of theme park.

EPCOT Center under construction in early 1982. Click to enlarge.

When Walt Disney announced his plans for EPCOT in 1966, he described a vision for a city of the future to be built in Florida. The EPCOT Center that Walt Disney Productions began to promote in 1978 looked nothing like these original plans, scrapping the idea of a working city and replacing it with plans for a permanent World’s Fair. Many people at the time were confused by the shift; what happened to those fantastic futuristic vistas that Walt had promised us? And what will this new theme park actually be?

In May of 1982, Eyes & Ears, Walt Disney World’s internal Cast Member publication, attempted to answer those questions by reprinting a number of questions and answers drawn from a series of EPCOT Center Updates that had been held that March. Disney’s President of Outdoor Recreation, Dick Nunis, hosted the updates and gave the responses printed below. There’s a lot of interesting material here; not only Nunis’s transparent attempts to spin away the fact that EPCOT Center bears no resemblance to Walt’s EPCOT city, but also several mentions of impending projects at Walt Disney World that were never built.

Dick Nunis sez “HOWAREYA?”

A Milestone In Dreaming And Doing

Q: Dick, there’s been a lot of discussion over a very important question: Have we deviated from Walt’s original concept of Epcot Center? How do you feel about this?

A: I can’t honestly say what we’d be doing now if Walt were here, but I don’t think we’ve deviated from his original concept. The thing that has haunted us for many years is the rendering done back in 1966. Walt believed very strongly that to sell a concept, a picture says a thousand words. So he had someone come up with this idea with a tower and the domed city, and what Walt was trying to do was sell a concept. He didn’t want to come to Florida and burden the local taxpayers with everything he knew he had to do. He wanted to show how, though the free enterprise system, a corporation could take virgin land and develop it without government subsidy.

The first thing we started out with was what we knew how to do … the Magic Kingdom, which is the Disneyland people know.

But what he really wanted to do was develop an area where all types of corporations, governments, and academia could come together to really try and solve some of the problems that exist in the world today. We started with the recreation area, and then began the community, which is Walt Disney World Village, and now we’re building the center … Epcot Center, and we’re going to connect it all with the monorail system.

I don’t think Walt ever intended to have a permanent resident population. I think he wanted to have a large tourist population and an area where people from all walks of life could come and learn.

I can remember when we got the final big parcel of our land which included Bay Lake. It was in the summer of 1966, and Walt called me up to his apartment in Disneyland, and he was really happy. He said, “Just think Dick, we own 43 square miles. That’s like getting on top of the Matterhorn and looking 7 miles one way and 11 miles the other. We’re going to be able to have our own Disneyland, our own Knott’s Berry Farm, our own Marineland and a couple of cities to boot.”

Well Walt, we’re almost there.

Q: What kind of attendance do we anticipate at Epcot Center?

A: When we open Epcot Center, we’ll release a combined attendance figure for both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom … a Walt Disney World attendance. Current attendance runs about 13 to 14 million people. We project 20 million people to visit Walt Disney World, per year. I think that’s conservative … I’ll tell you why. Right now we only penetrate 25 percent of Florida visitors. That leaves a lot of room for growth. We know for a fact that people are going down I-4 and passing by because they think we run a carousel.

I figure that Epcot Center will take on the magnitude of a World’s Fair because of the size … people are going to come to Epcot Center and they’re going to talk to other guests who have been in the Magic Kingdom, and I believe they are going to convince the others to visit the Magic Kingdom also.

We also believe that the European market will be very big for us. Last year 23 million foreign tourists visited the United States, and we only penetrated four percent of that. We believe that gives us great growth potential.

We’d also like to extend our guests’ length of stay from an admissions point of view. We won’t offer a one-day admission ticket that will be good for both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center. The reason for that? First of all, we’d be selling something that people couldn’t get their value out of and secondly, we’re trying to extend their length of stay. We’re going to market a three-day ticket that will be a very, very good value.

Q: What hours will Epcot Center operate?

A: Well, they’re subject to change, but these are what we have planned: during the slow season, Future World will open at 9 a.m. and World Showcase at 2 p.m., and both will close at 10 p.m. During the peak seasons, Future World will open, depending on demand, at 8 or 9 a.m. and World Showcase at 11 a.m. Both will close at midnight. We’re not going to change the operating hours for the Magic Kingdom.

Q: How will we staff Epcot Center?

A: We outlined the staffing procedure in the EYES & EARS several months ago. We’re going to need a staff of 3,000 people for Opening Day and that will break down to roughly 300 salaried and the balance in hourly classifications. There is one exception to our transfer-from-within policy … World Showcase. We’re trying to give the people a feeling that they’re actually in the country, so we want to theme the pavilions with the people from the different countries. That’s where the World Showcase Fellowship program comes in. Basically, this enables us to bring university students from other countries for one year to represent their country in World Showcase and to go to school together. It’s going to be a fantastic thing. We might just wind up with the greatest United Nations that’s ever been created.

Wouldn’t it be nice someday if a major power called another to say, “Hey! What’s going on?” because they knew each other way back when they worked at World Showcase at Walt Disney World.

We’ve committed ourselves to 100 of these students, and we’re going to look internally for these ethnic groups as well. If we cant’ find them internally, we’ll reach outside because we truly want to have Germans in the German pavilion and Italians in the Italian pavilion. We think that’s an extremely important part of the overall show.

Q: Will we ever expand Epcot Center?

A: Very definitely. Epcot Center will never be complete. We want to go ahead with the Seas pavilion and we feel there is a need for a Life and Health pavilion. Beyond that, there should be a Space pavilion, but we’ve put that on hold for now because the space industry is changing so rapidly.

In World Showcase we have nine countries to begin with: Canada, Great Britain, France, Japan, the United States, China, Italy, Mexico, and Germany, and there are eight other spaces available. We think they will fill up rather rapidly. We’ve signed a contract with Spain, and we’re negotiating with Israel. We’ll have an African pavilion. We’ll probably have a Scandinavian pavilion someday and we’ve also been talking with Venezuela. Now you see why I think those eight sites will fill up very rapidly.

We also have a blue-sky dream. On both sides of the American Adventure there is enough room to make a cut through and create another lagoon on the south side of the World Showcase where there are about five good building sites. The concept involved building a hotel in Australia for instance. If you’re staying in the hotel then you’re in World Showcase already, if you’re a day guest, you could take a cruise down to Australia or to the South Seas or other parts of the world. I think it’s a good concept and would be another way to generate more hotel space.

Q: Let’s talk about our plans outside Epcot Center. Do we have any plans of expanding the Magic Kingdom?

A: Very definitely, the Magic Kingdom will continue to grow. It’s designed to expand to the north in Fantasyland, and I’d like to bring the Matterhorn to the Magic Kingdom. It’d be the tallest Mountain in Florida. Our concept would be to put the Matterhorn over the train, creating a blizzard scene with real snow. Can you imagine people in July and August riding the train to get cool?

Q: What about the Tokyo Disneyland project?

A: Tokyo Disneyland, quite honestly, will be a fantastic success. Just imagine a local audience of 35 million within a 15-mile radius. Right now, we’re providing as much creative help to support them and get it open next March.

Q: Do we plan to expand our hotels?

A: Estimates say that this area is between 15,000 and 19,000 hotel rooms short. We’re worried about it. Right now we plan to expand the Polynesian Village, Golf Resort, and the Walt Disney World Village resort area.

We also have in design three hotels. The Mediterranean will be located between TTC and the Contemporary. The Cypress Point Lodge will be west of River Country and be themed as a western hotel. It’ll include log cabins along Bay Lake.

The third one, the Grand Floridian, we’ll build on the old Asian site on Seven Seas Lagoon. It will be a replica of the great Florida hotels of the early 1900’s. Our creative people came up with an absolutely beautiful design.

In addition, we have some dreams for the Walt Disney World Village. From the Empress Lilly, we’re going into a New Orleans street, and you’ll walk right into a beautiful New Orleans hotel.

Those are the kinds of things we can continue to do in the future here at Walt Disney World … I think the sky is the limit.

Let me finish by saying that the great strength of our company is our name. It’s internationally known, and the reason it has maintained a reputation is because of the job that all of you people do. The greatest asset Walt Disney World has is its people, and right now, I’d like to thank you. We’ve been going through some very difficult times, and thanks to all of your efforts, I think we’ve done an outstanding job.

Yes; the reason I have so much confidence in our company is because of all of you. We’re going to be doing a lot of things beyond Epcot Center … we’re going to create dreams that we might not have thought of yet. And the reason is because of you.

I want you to know that wherever you are, whatever you’re doing you are important and I appreciate what you’ve done in the past. I appreciate what you’re doing now, and I appreciate the job you are going to do in the future.