The State & Future of the Monorails (WDW)

[Scott W.]

One has to wonder what Walt would do in this situation.

Surely if we're to lose the Epcot rail, something new should take it's place. I wouldn't mind the Skyliner on the same path.

Screw the shareholders and spend spend spend!

 

[WAJAS]

Screw the shareholders and spend spend spend!

Nah Nah Nah! I'm one of those shareholders. (Making bank btw. The price is expected to climb more once the Fox merger is approved.)

 

[SeventyOne]

EDIT: Just read the article and if it's the Epcot line they want to see them take down... I sadly could see that. Bouncing off of what Alicia said, I wouldn't mind the Skyliner doing the exact path that the Epcot monorail traverses.

Yeah, not sure if you can edit the link in the OP but it's misleading. Cutting service to the hotels seems a no-go. But, sadly, I can see them cutting EPCOT, especially if, as suggested on Twitter, it's sold as a temporary halt while they re-do Future World.

 

[s8film40]

One has to wonder what Walt would do in this situation.

Surely if we're to lose the Epcot rail, something new should take it's place. I wouldn't mind the Skyliner on the same path.

Walt would have never allowed a theme park resort to be built on his Florida site to begin with. He never really wanted one park let alone multiple parks.

WDW relies too much on the monorail both for moving people from the TTC to MK and also to sell expensive hotel rooms along the monorail line. The Epcot monorail is highly used as well.

I don't think they CAN discontinue the monorail. They can do a slow replacement of the 12 monorail trains though over, say, a two year period of time - exactly like they did from 1989-91 when the went from using the Mark IV's to the current fleet of Mark VI's.

EDIT: Just read the article and if it's the Epcot line they want to see them take down... I sadly could see that. Bouncing off of what Alicia said, I wouldn't mind the Skyliner doing the exact path that the Epcot monorail traverses.

I've always thought they should build a parking garage by the MK. Then they could combine the Express and Epcot line to shuttle people directly from park to park while the resort monorail services the hotels. That would greatly reduce the strain on the system and would allow them to keep the monorail as an iconic yet not as vital form of transportation. They really should also start a program of cycling trains out of service for a full teardown and rebuild refurbishment.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Walt would have never allowed a theme park resort to be built on his Florida site to begin with. He never really wanted one park let alone multiple parks.

This is completely false.

PracticalWDW: Transcript of Walt Disney's EPCOT Film

 

[Scott W.]

I can understand buying the land around the Magic Kingdom since he didn’t want the same issues that have plagued DL since it’s inception but the volume of land bought, he must have had a resort in mind.

 

[s8film40]

This is completely false.

Walt was totally focused on building Epcot he had no interest in theme parks. Most insiders at the time claim that he was pressured into adding a theme park to keep the board of directors and investors happy. He spent half an hour explaining his concept in his final film appearance and basically said "oh we'll have a theme park up here, but that's not important" with no other real mention of the park. To put it simply if the original plans would have gone through there wouldn't even be room for more parks. It would've been one park overshadowed by the Epcot complex.

 

[Nick]

The truth is we'll never know what Walt "truly" would've done because old dead guy Walt died not long after he actually bought the land himself.

 

[s8film40]

I can understand buying the land around the Magic Kingdom since he didn’t want the same issues that have plagued DL since it’s inception but the volume of land bought, he must have had a resort in mind.

Well not to sidetrack this discussion too much, but he made his plans very clear. For anyone who hasn't watched the film I highly recommend watching it in full. Yes you certainly wouldn't need that much land for a theme park or even a large multi-park resort like we have now could've been accomplished with less than half the land.

 

[Nick]

Walt was totally focused on building Epcot he had no interest in theme parks. Most insiders at the time claim that he was pressured into adding a theme park to keep the board of directors and investors happy. He spent half an hour explaining his concept in his final film appearance and basically said "oh we'll have a theme park up here, but that's not important" with no other real mention of the park. To put it simply if the original plans would have gone through there wouldn't even be room for more parks. It would've been one park overshadowed by the Epcot complex.

And building E.P.C.O.T., as Walt wanted it was explored... and deemed not feasible.

 

[s8film40]

And building E.P.C.O.T., as Walt wanted it was explored... and deemed not feasible.

Yeah, the same people probably would've deemed building Disneyland not feasible. It was a pretty crazy out there idea at the time. Almost all of the best things in this world were "not feasible" until some crazy person did it.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Walt was totally focused on building Epcot he had no interest in theme parks. Most insiders at the time claim that he was pressured into adding a theme park to keep the board of directors and investors happy. He spent half an hour explaining his concept in his final film appearance and basically said "oh we'll have a theme park up here, but that's not important" with no other real mention of the park. To put it simply if the original plans would have gone through there wouldn't even be room for more parks. It would've been one park overshadowed by the Epcot complex.

Dude, stop. This is complete garbage and you’re back peddling on your post.

 

[Alicia]

So sorry I started us down this path...

We should probably go back to talking about monorails.

 

[s8film40]

Dude, stop. This is complete garbage and you’re back peddling on your post.

What?! This is well known, well documented history. Go do some research. Everyone who's barely scratched the surface of the history of Disney knows the Florida land was purchased for the primary purpose of building EPCOT.

 

[s8film40]

So sorry I started us down this path...

We should probably go back to talking about monorails.

Totally agree, didn't realize there were people so unaware of the initial plans of Disney World. Sorry. There's plenty of other avenues for that discussion as well as books films etc. It is quite fascinating though!

 

[OLSinFLA]

Well not to sidetrack this discussion too much, but he made his plans very clear. For anyone who hasn't watched the film I highly recommend watching it in full. Yes you certainly wouldn't need that much land for a theme park or even a large multi-park resort like we have now could've been accomplished with less than half the land.

Do not ever mention that film to the Imagineers.... what you are seeing is less than 3 days worth of planning. The film wasn't designed for the public - it was to sell the state on giving Disney its own rules. Once they actually started looking into it, they realized if you have permeant or even semi-permanent resident, the E, P and T would go away. After all, you can't experiment with people's lives (Imagine getting a bathroom that doesnt work right. Or a trash system like AVAC that turned out to be a dud).
The only reason we ever saw that film was it was the last thing Walt filmed, and someone decided to put it on the TV show. I don't remember which imagineer it was but when asked about the city, he replied "we're all haunted by that f****** painting".

 

[Nick]

Do not ever mention that film to the Imagineers.... what you are seeing is less than 3 days worth of planning. The film wasn't designed for the public - it was to sell the state on giving Disney its own rules. Once they actually started looking into it, they realized if you have permeant or even semi-permanent resident, the E, P and T would go away. After all, you can't experiment with people's lives (Imagine getting a bathroom that doesnt work right. Or a trash system like AVAC that turned out to be a dud).
The only reason we ever saw that film was it was the last thing Walt filmed, and someone decided to put it on the TV show. I don't remember which imagineer it was but when asked about the city, he replied "we're all haunted by that f****** painting".

And honestly, Disney has built multiple neighborhoods on the purchased land (Celebration, Golden Oaks). Celebration has a great downtown area, but other than that, a neighborhood (community) is a neighborhood.

Universal Orlando Resort doesn't exist if E.P.C.O.T. gets built over EPCOT Center.

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

Universal Orlando Resort doesn't exist if E.P.C.O.T. gets built over EPCOT Center.

As much as I love Universal, I would have preferred to have seen Orlando develop as a technological and cultural mecca and make large, meaningful contributions to the advancement of humanity rather than just being a giant tourist trap.

 

[Nick]

As much as I love Universal, I would have preferred to have seen Orlando develop as a technological and cultural mecca and make large, meaningful contributions to the advancement of humanity rather than just being a giant tourist trap.

We have plenty of cities doing that currently. Just because E.P.C.O.T. would've been directly tied to Walt wouldn't have made it any better. It just would've been another Silicon Valley, Seattle, Cleveland, Kansas City, etc.

Walt may have had a great vision for a city, yes, but I really don't think money wise it would've been worth it. Especially during that time in the companies history. Had they built Walt's EPCOT and they not made any money or even worse - LOST money - the company may have gone under.

Let's not forget it was EPCOT Center that saved the Walt Disney Company financially in the 1980's, when the movie studio was suffering majorly.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

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