Is the intimacy of Walt Disney World evaporating?
When the project was originally laid out, consisting of a
land parcel equal to island of Manhattan twice over, it was under the auspice
that the land would give Walt Disney and his cohorts all the space they needed
to create their wildest dreams. Chief among these were an East Coast theme
park, innovative production facilities (furnishings, technology, etc.), and a
continually evolving city. After the passing of Walt in 1966, no one within the
Disney community quite knew how to bring his ambitious visions to life. In the
end, a pair of resorts, a campground, and a west coast kingdom was constructed
as a foundation for the Vacation Kingdom in one small corner of the vast
Florida wilderness.
For the first decade and a half, over a third of Walt Disney’s
World life, the sprawl of resort was confined to a shopping and dining district,
water park, animal sanctuary a golf resort and a second theme park. While EPCOT
Center was a fair distance away from the resorts, it was attached to the hub of
activity, including the aforementioned animal sanctuary and water park, taking
place among the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. The selection of shops,
destined to be known as Downtown Disney, however, was a bit further out.
This centralization of activity, including the main parking
and transport facility, the Transportation and Ticket Center, gave the Vacation
Kingdom a greater sense of community amongst its guests and visitors. Even if
you weren’t staying at the Contemporary, you knew about the Fiesta Fun Center
or Top of the World, the same could be said for dining, entertainment and
recreation all throughout Walt Disney World. A guest had the ability to meet
and converse with any other guest about the happenings on an educated level, if
only because of the nature of how small a bubble they were living and
vacationing in.
As the years have continued on, however, resorts have
continued to pop up all throughout the area, more shopping and dining,
additional golf courses, miniature golf courses, two additional parks and a
pair of water parks. Like any small town or city, the plight of urban sprawl
has taken over Walt Disney World until the spirit of those early years is
hardly recognizable to those who grew up and loved that incarnation of it.
This shift may not stand up to the ideals of those early
days, and in all honesty, it also is not a move towards the continually
progressive hamlet that Walt Disney wanted to create. Of course, as time and development
would have continued, no one can be positive of what Walt would have done and
how he would have continued to mold the swampland turned playground. Whether we
like it or not, those who made the decisions did so with the best of intentions
and, in some way, shape, or form, with the notion of ‘what would Walt do?’
Obviously all of this history and random thoughts don’t
answer the question we started with, “Is the intimacy of Walt Disney World
evaporating?”
Of course the answer is yes. That small story and small
spaces approach wasn’t lost solely for expansion for expansion’s sake.
Competition from other theme attractions and entertainment enterprises are factors,
as are a booming population and the ability to vacation being within the grasps
of more individuals. Parks would have to be added solely to handle the capacity
crowds, and those guests would also need a place to rest their weary heads. In short, growth was inevitable.
We’ve reached a point where the vast number of experiences
found at Walt Disney World, from parks to resort activities, from tours to
stores, where the average guest will never find enough time to see and do
everything Walt Disney World has to offer, not even with repeated trips. There
is, however, something for every guest to enjoy and make memories doing. Guests
who love lounging by the pool, guests who enjoy the games of DisneyQuest, guests
who shop until they drop, guests who look for the tastiest dishes in World
Showcase, no matter the niche, Walt Disney World has found a way to cater to it.
Have we lost the intimate nature of the earliest Vacation
Kingdom? Absolutely. What we’ve gained is a bevy of personal experiences and,
with technology to connect with others around the world, the ability to find and
reach out to our own intimate communities. Oh, and there are still those small
scale stories scattered throughout Walt Disney World if you’re willing to
invest the time in looking for them.
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This jolly little fellow, who is pulling a cart to sell his wares in
the shop, is Burrito, sometimes known as Flying Burrito or Little Burrito. He comes from the
second scene of The Three Caballeros, which is entitled The Flying Gauchito. A little
boy from Uruguay, known as Little Gauchito, dreams of being a big, tough hunter
and goes out in search of ostriches. On his journey, he comes across the flying
donkey, Burrito. Comedic antics are combined with cultural details while Little
Gauchito attempts to tame his new friend. In the end, the pair enter the fiesta
day race. Burrito’s wings are discovered after the duo had won the race and,
facing an angry mob, they fly away. So the story goes, they were never seen or
heard from again.
Stuffing food into other types of food, a la the turducken,
is almost always a great idea! At Disney’s Hollywood Studios they’ve taken this
food fad to most basic of lunch staples, the sandwich. Min & Bill’s
Dockside Diner has a trio of stuffed sandwiches available for consumption, and
today we’re taste testing the Chicken Caesar Sandwich.
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