“Project Florida”
The planning for an east coast Disneyland began after the
success of Disneyland in California. For his Disney World, he hoped to make it
a fully immersive environment for his guests. The thing what Walt struggled
with in California was the build-up of
hotels and restaurants right across the street of his park, due to him
not buying enough land for his park.
For his Disneyland of the east, he hoped to avoid this
problem. In Florida, land was cheaper to buy. He accomplished keeping the
prices lower buy using fake company names. Once the news broke of Walt Disney was
buying the swamplands, the prices sky rocked.
The project was more than a just a theme park. An
experimental prototype city of tomorrow was also planned for his Florida
property. Also planned, were hotels, industrial parks, and even an airport on the property.
Plans shifted gears in 1966 when the death of Walt Disney. Ground
broke not long after, with the plans to build the magic kingdom, and hotels.
In October 1971, Walt
Disney World opened with The Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Contemporary resort
and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” - Walt Disney
No comments:
Post a Comment