20000 leagues eyesore

[ryley26]

does disney have any plans to do anything with this space. I understand that the old ride was outdated and in need of repair but are they going to do anything with this space.

 

[primax]

That is such an eyesore, I had no seen the ride in years and when I returned in 2001 - I knew exactly what the eye sore I was staring at used to be.

 

[grinningghost]

Next to the Living Seas, this, to me, is the saddest site at WDW. There's no reason for it either. Disney has an army of Imagineers that could do wonders with this long ignored area. Why they leave it to rot is beyond me? I guess we were supposed to accept Ariel's Grotto as an adequate replacement.

 

[bellefan2]

Just to throw in my $.02 - I recently took the Keys to the Kingdom tour (back in early July) and someone specifically asked about the 20,000 Leagues attraction. The cast member said that the water was never cleaned since the 1st day they put the attraction in so they would need to find a way to clean it or dispose of it properly. She also said that the walls supporting the water were weight bearing and if they drain it, there could be some substantial caving/structural problems in that area of the park. I can't imagine they don't have the brightest minds available to them, but seems to be an area just forgotten about for now.

 

[Cricket2]

That would explain why I heard they were adding water to it around a year and a half ago.

They must be treating it somehow or it would stink wouldn't it?

Can't you just hear that witch from the Simpsons yelling "You fool! That was a load bearing candy-cane!"

 

[Dznefreek]

The cast member said that the water was never cleaned since the 1st day they put the attraction in so they would need to find a way to clean it or dispose of it properly.

That's absurd. If the water was never cleaned it would have been pretty dirty after 23 years of operation.

 

[Lanshark]

Even if the wall were weight bearing one would think that if Disney really wanted to do something in that area they would find the expertise to help them get it done.

 

[Dznefreek]

I have heard of load bearing walls but never weight bearing walls.

Load bearing would be the walls that carry a structural load such as the roof trusses on your hose or interiror walls bearing the load of a second floor. They generally run perpendicular to the load above.

This is just another case of someone at WDW espousing on a subject they really know nothing about.

 

[Towncrier]

Perhaps the concern is that the area surrounding the lagoon would collapse into the space if the water were removed.

 

[ErikdaRed]

Or maybe the CM said "load bearing" and it was posted wrong as weight bearing. Way to use second hand information to make a conclusion.

Edited for homonym, I'm always doing that.

 

[Dznefreek]

lode

is a mining term.

 

[grinningghost]

Not to sound like a broken record, but this is one of those scenarios where it would be nice if Walt were still around. He would MAKE something get done there. If it required searching the world over for an engineering team that was capable of it, he would do it, whatever the cost.

Actually, if Walt were still here, it never would have languished for this long anyway.

 

[EUROPA]

http://www.netcot.com/Extinction/20k.Leagues/

This attraction was met with unscheduled refurbishing and mechanical problems in the early part of the 1990's, that eventually led to it's demise in 1994. Prior to 1994, the submarines in this attraction were all removed, the water drained, and the "tank" cleaned out and re-painted. The subs were also re-painted to a bright red color. After all of this work, they eventually decided to pull the plug and officially announce the discontinuing of this attraction in 1994. With that in mind, one must assume they had big plans for this ride, still involving submarines, and some unexpected problem must have surfaced (no pun intended) preventing this ride from returning to full capacity. People have speculated that the reasons for discontinuing this attraction have been slow loading and unloading, long lines, limited or no wheel chair access, and above all, high maintenance costs.

 

[MelissathePooh]

here is a thread where we talked about the walls of the lagoon before - jeez this was just a couple of months ago-

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=376437&highlight=+lagoon

I also remember Safari Steve explaining water movement through the park, but it may not have been on this forum. The jist of it, if I remember correctly, was that the jungle cruise water was connected to the castle moat water and the "swan boat" water by tomorrowland, as you can tell by looking. The rivers of america connect to the seven seas lagoon by the cannel that the electric water pagent comes out, between the grand floridian and the walk around the world. The water from the lagoon and the jungle cruise/moat can flow through the storm drains into seven seas lagoon. It is something like the watrer in the 20K lagoon is the highest water point, so it pushes the other water towards the seven seas lagoon as it overflows. Basically there is some movement and flow in the water and it isn't just a stagnant pond.

Did you know that you could theoretically float from the haunted mansion to the adventurer's club?

I think what the cm meant was that they don't regularly empty it or add water to it - it is a natural process of the rain filling it up and it evaporating or overflowing to the seven seas lagoon.

One of the tour guide cast members also told me that they have never added or changed the water in splash mountain, that it is the same water that it was built with, with the addition of new rain and the evaporation of old water, and they have never added water. I didn't believe it, really.


EDITED TO SAY: LOL. While I was writing this I opened another window and logged on to the dis under Melissa's ID to look for that information about the water flow - then when I posted this in this window it posted as Melissa, because of the cookie on the pc - even though the window said "d-r" when I wrote it!

Anyway, this was d-r not Melissa.

 

[ryley26]

I have to agree that if disney wanted to no amount of water or construction would make a difference. they carved disney world from swamp land that water was there from day one. if they have no plans for an attraction then fill it in. there always a need for room in fantasyland with all the traffic .

 

[grinningghost]

I've been reading the Imagineering book, and just came across a quote from Bruce Johnson, an Imagineer:

"Despite the tremendous odds against us, we always seem to figure out how to make it work. You just have to be optimistic by nature."

Does this statement apply to everything but 20K?

 

[OnWithTheShow]

Oh sure the imagineers can find ways to do anything. Its the finance people that kill the dreams.

(Its mostly Finance and not accountants that do that kind of work)

 

[Rikku]

I think it's reached a point with the lagoon that it's almost become the bane of Disney Imagineering's existance!

Everytime we've passed by it it almost feels as though a dark cloud looms high overhead. Sound doesn't enter the lagoon...and light seems to be swalowed up by it. It's just a big, wet void in the middle of Fantasyland...kind of like the Nothing from The Neverending Story!

Fantasyland in general just seems to have a stale feel to it the last free times there and that saddens my wife and I. Hopefully with attractions like Winnie the Pooh and Philharmagic things will liven up again as Fantasyland to me is the heart of the Magic Kingdom.

Back onto topic...imagineers just need to bite the bullet...ask for outside assistance...and drain that sucker and put it to Disney use!

 

[emmagata]

Pardon my ignorance, but where in MK is 20KL? I don't recall seeing it.

 

[Rikku]

If my memory serves me correctly, the lagoon is set just off and behind where Dumbo is located. If you're walking towards the Tea Cups in route to Tomorrowland it's on your...left. Of course I may be putting way out of place as my sense of the layout tends to skew extremely off from the reality!

Man we need to get back there sooner than next year!