[Chat] What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

[Barbaraann]

Would anybody like to speculate what Disneyland would be like today, if Walt Disney hadn't traveled to Florida and purchased land for the building of Walt Disney World?

[TONY THE BEAT]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Most likely the same with more parks other than DCA and DL.

[Disneymike]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Would anybody like to speculate what Disneyland would be like today, if Walt Disney hadn't traveled to Florida and purchased land for the building of Walt Disney World?

Really crowded....

[Barbaraann]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Did Walt Disney ever try and buy more land around Disneyland, or was that an impossibility after the success of Disneyland? I understand he gobbled up a whole lot of land inexpensively under assumed names before they figured out that he was the purchaser.

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

There would be no additional parks.

The classics would still be there but things like Tomorrowland when it was refurbed in 98 would have been amazing, without the cost of building DCA to deter them, the new Tomorrowland would have been phenomenal.

[dfan07]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

There would be no DCA. Another park might have been built, but not necessarily. There would not be a Big Thunder, and possibly no Space Mountain or Country Bear Jamboree. Carousel of Progress would have stayed, meaning no America Sings or Splash Mountain.

[ShelbyH]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

It's kind of a false question. Opening a Disneyland in Florida was Walt's idea through and through. No he didn't make it to the opening, and his wacky vision for EPCOT was not at all what Epcot is today, but it's like asking "What would Disneyland be like if Walt hadn't decided he wanted to build a theme park?" WDW was built because Walt had the ambition to expand. I think that there are some issues with having multiple Disney resorts but I do think that both WDW and DLR have benefited from having each other.

[TTN]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

You'd be looking at a whole different company. One could even question if the Disney company (and Disneyland for that matter) would even still be owed by the Walt Disney Company, or even if the company existed. It could be owed by one of several other companies.

After Walt Disney's death, the Magic Kingdom was one of the things that united the company, Roy completed it to follow his brother's wishes. At the same time it was also a financial strain on the company for many years, not being as financially successful as Disneyland until after the opening of Epcot in the 80s (although to be clear Epcot was not the catalyst of the financial success). Basically, it would be very hard to tell what Disneyland would be like because it would be just as hard to tell what the Disney company would look like, and that would of course be a major contributing factor to the state of the park.

[G24T]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

There would be no additional parks.

Not only that but there probably wouldn't be the Disney Vacation Club or the cruise line either as WDW resorts paved the way for all future resort destination ventures.

[orbitalpunk]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

We probably would have gotten WestCot.

[swampymarsh]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

You'd be looking at a whole different company. One could even question if the Disney company (and Disneyland for that matter) would even still be owed by the Walt Disney Company, or even if the company existed. It could be owed by one of several other companies.

I agree. Disney went down this road anyway and would of done so sooner if it was a cheaper company.

Usually when companies are broken up the owners of the pieces syphon the income off to thier pockets, not to build up the companies.

[FredSimmons]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Would anybody like to speculate what Disneyland would be like today, if Walt Disney hadn't traveled to Florida and purchased land for the building of Walt Disney World?

Walt Disney desperately wanted to expand the size of Disneyland. My guess is that if he had stayed in Anaheim, he would have eventually used the parking lot (where DCA and Downtown Disney are today) to simply expand the size of Disneyland into a much larger park. He might also have been able to persuade Anaheim officials to use eminent domain to acquire surrounding parcels to increase the size of the resort. Failing that, he probably would have built new parks in nearby locales, such as Long Beach.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Walt Disney desperately wanted to expand the size of Disneyland.

Where did you read that?

[jasmineray]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Walt Disney didn't want another Disneyland in Florida, he wanted EPCOT.

I think Disneyland would have been bigger, but not huge, had Walt Disney never gone to Florida. It's kind of weird to think about WDW never showing up. It'd be seriously crowded at Disneyland!

[Slappypunk]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Extremely crowded.

[TodAZ1]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

Where did you read that?

It's not so much that he necessarily wanted to expand Disneyland, per se, but he desperately wanted ownership of the land around Disneyland so you wouldn't have the cheap motels and restaurants just over the berm from the Happiest Place on Earth!

I think one could rightly assume, with no WDW in Florida and Disney ownership of the surrounding land in Anaheim, Disneyland could have expected an expansion relatively quickly.

---------- Post added 09-26-2012 at 02:21 PM ----------

Walt Disney didn't want another Disneyland in Florida, he wanted EPCOT.

But Walt also knew that EPCOT was such an unknown idea to the general public that he needed a draw to get people "on property." Thus, an east coast Disneyland was needed.
That's why he agreed to do the New York World's Fair in the '60's. To see if the Disney brand of theme park/attraction would work on the east coast as it worked on the west coast.
So, in a sense (while Walt was the one who said he never wanted to repeat himself), Walt DID want a Disneyland in Florida. But, really, only as an means to an end.

---------- Post added 09-26-2012 at 02:24 PM ----------

We probably would have gotten WestCot.

Wouldn't it just have been EPCOT since there would be no EPCOT in Florida?

[Steve DeGaetano]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

He might also have been able to persuade Anaheim officials to use eminent domain to acquire surrounding parcels to increase the size of the resort.

The government can't take property from private citizens and give it to another private citizen (well, at least not in Walt's day. :lol

[thomaslw]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

to reiterate what some people have already said, if WDW wasn't built, i really think disney would have been taken over and split off. disney came close in the 80s to being raided barbarians-at-the-gate-style and basically the only bright spot was the theme park business, thanks in large part by then to the success of WDW (animation at that point was terrible, and their movie division was near last among the studios). it took roy to revolt against his cousin-in-law and get in eisner/wells that helped save the company. interestingly, in the early 2000s, comcast wanted to take over disney too, but the one thing they didn't want was the theme parks since they would have no clue on what to do with those, which i think made their bid way too low. w/o WDW, the value of disney (already low at that point) would have been lower (since theme park revenue was keeping them afloat in the turbulent last eisner years), and comcast might have paid a much higher premium for the company that the shareholders would have had to have at least consider.

so in short, WDW might have very well saved disney!

[darkamor]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

I can't fathom there not being another Walt Disney Co Resort / Theme Park, because the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland both influenced each other via innovation and continued updating of technology within a Ride (or Attraction) ....

Would I want to see what Walt Disney truly envisioned for an Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow become an actual theme park? Absolutely (& I still think a WestCot can be that Utopian City of the Future) ....

C J

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: What Would Disneyland Be Like Today If WDW Was Never Built?

to reiterate what some people have already said, if WDW wasn't built, i really think disney would have been taken over and split off. disney came close in the 80s to being raided barbarians-at-the-gate-style and basically the only bright spot was the theme park business, thanks in large part by then to the success of WDW (animation at that point was terrible, and their movie division was near last among the studios). it took roy to revolt against his cousin-in-law and get in eisner/wells that helped save the company. interestingly, in the early 2000s, comcast wanted to take over disney too, but the one thing they didn't want was the theme parks since they would have no clue on what to do with those, which i think made their bid way too low. w/o WDW, the value of disney (already low at that point) would have been lower (since theme park revenue was keeping them afloat in the turbulent last eisner years), and comcast might have paid a much higher premium for the company that the shareholders would have had to have at least consider.

so in short, WDW might have very well saved disney!

You may be correct in the situation regarding the Comcast take-over, but it also could be argued that the astronomical operational and maintenance costs of running a behemoth such as WDW took a huge drain on the company and led to the state that it was in during the 80s. It was Michael Eisner who came in and transformed the studio that saved TWDC from being sold, and once the studios started bringing in money, everything fell into place with the theme parks.

If there was never WDW these things might never have happened, since the cost of running the DLR is a lot less than the cost of running WDW.