Before there was a DCA - There was a WESTCOT!!

[DVC-Landbaron]

Just thought I'd throw this out there. Discuss it or just look at it. It certainly is something that everyone who is a Disney nut should at least be aware of.

Ladies and Gentlemen!! I give you "The Original DCA."

WESTCOT

Ahhhh. What could have been!!

 

[JeffH]

3 new hotels and a convention center & Wescot (mini-Epcot) featuring the Wonders of Life, the Land, and no thrill rides...it would have been ripped to shreds on this discussion board. There are active 'discussions' right now bashing Disney for building too many hotels, too small of theme parks and how boring the Wonders of Life is. Instead Disney gave in to what everyone says they really want more of, (and can get at any other theme park) thrills, so they built the more 'fun' and thrill oriented DCA. I've always liked WDW because of the 20+ minute shows and rides, not the 3 minute thrill rides.
From what I've read about DCA and the development done in the area, I think the DCA idea would have been better than the described WestCOT. But as I think about it, though, I think that it might have been better if they combined MGM and World Showcase together instead into an Art's and Culture park. This is based on what I like at WDW, the live shows at MGM and WS, the variety of experiences (food and people) at WS, and the Disney tie ins at MGM. Then DCA would instead stand for Disney's Culture and Art theme park. This would have been a "broad" park like the others and not the "California" themed park that doesn't seem to appeal to people like Disney gambled it would.

It would have given new life to the dearly departed Horizons.

 

[lrodk]

I visited the preview center for Westcot in 1995 before the idea was killed. Aside from the large scale model and artwork on display in a discrete little office space next to the Disneyland Hotel, they were handing out programs of what the place would look like, which I know I have stored somewhere. To say the least, this expansion was VERY ambitious. What actually killed the project however was the inability of Euro Disney to turn a profit.
In 1992, France's park was supposed to represent the best of what Disney had to offer at the time, learning from what had worked and failed at the Disney parks in Florida, Tokyo and California. Euro Disney was to be Eisner's mark on Disney's creative legacy, fully displaying current management's talent with loads of detail, innovative and unique rides, complete with a row of windows down main street honoring the big wigs of the day(Eisner and Wells included). The park is absolutely stunning, probably the best "Magic Kingdom"-style park in the Disney fold. Unfortunately however, Euro Disney's initial failure put the "kiss of death" on Westcot. After the ED debacle, it has been said that Eisner would never make the same mistake twice. In that I mean that he would never put too much money into a project. In other words, he would never flex the company's financial might when it came to building a new park, especially if the company was footing a large chunk of the bill.

Up until the point that ED opened, Disney was riding high from several huge animated and live action hits. Their aggresive expansion in Florida in 1988/89 proved to be a resounding success. There was a general feeling of invincibility within upper management which lead them to build another park abroad in much the same way they did in Tokyo, except this time they would retain a large ownership stake in the property. Tokyo had been, and still remains, the most successful theme park in the world, yet Disney gets paid cents on the dollar for their part in it. I'd have to think that when DisneySea opens it's doors in September, Eisner will literally be kicking himself for not being around to put a stop to the deal that Card Walker and Ron Miller brokered with the Oriental Land Co. Tokyo Disney will always be the thorn on the company's side. I'm sure Eisner would give anything to get an ownership stake in that property. Just think of what it would do to their bottom line. Tokyo is definitely the golden goose that got away.

Anyway, it's my contention that Eisner's rather traumatic experience over ED is what set the tone for what we see today. As such, I don't think the man will ever be brought back to the other side, the ambitious & creative side that he once displayed. It hardly seems fair that his under-estimation of the French market may have been the cause that lead to the lack-luster performance that we see throughout many parts of the company today. Mr Eisner has lost his dynamic and ambitious edge, and unless he has a miracle up his sleeve, i don't see the point in continuing to head down the same downward uninspiring direction. I still say his days are numbered.

 

[Wes]

Originally posted by lrodk
Anyway, it's my contention that Eisner's rather traumatic experience over ED is what set the tone for what we see today. As such, I don't think the man will ever be brought back to the other side, the ambitious & creative side that he once displayed. It hardly seems fair that his under-estimation of the French market may have been the cause that lead to the lack-luster performance that we see throughout many parts of the company today. Mr Eisner has lost his dynamic and ambitious edge, and unless he has a miracle up his sleeve, i don't see the point in continuing to head down the same downward uninspiring direction. I still say his days are numbered.

I think this is the best summary of the Micheal Eisner issue I have seen so far. I am not saying it is true or false -- I don't know enough to make that call. But it is a nice tight summary, and to me it does ring essentially true.

What worries me is that ME is in full control of the board, and so if his days are numbered, it is Disney's days that are numbered too ... and if it does come to that, Disney will fall before ME will.

On the other hand, I think it is possible for ME to reconnect with his own creative source and find a better long-term balance between the magic and the short-term demons than his recent bias has shown -- you cannot win by eating the seed corn forever.

 

[larworth]

I was never that entralled with the concept of Westcot. Maybe it just had the feel of too much replication. I'd much rather had them build the DisneySeas concept park. Would it have possible for them to build DisneySeas next to DL. Did they really need to be located on the bay or ocean to make this concept work? It doesn't seem to me that salt water access is that critical to the operation of ambiance of TDS.

Also curious about the dynamic between a Westcot WS and what has evolved into the Las Vegas world showcase. Would Westcot have preempted some of the Las Vegas themes (Paris, Venice...) or would they have found them co-existing and robbing some of their uniqueness from each?

Whether the park was a winner or not, I assume it is the grandeur of the plan that people now pine for.

***

It does make sense that the ED problem would have had a significant impact on the operating philosophy of management. Funny, that this event hasn't gotten that much mention when we talk about seminal events.

Irodk, I too thought your paragraph about the change in creative ambitiousness hit the mark. As Wes said, I don't know if ED was the key event or not, but it does falls around that timeframe that I think there was a noteable change in approach.

One question though. Some people use MGM as the first example of the half park approach. If true this would not have been influened by ED.

I have always cut them some slack on MGM being smaller when it opened as they were adding many other entertainment options in that same time period(PI, DQ, TL) that were adding to the vacation experience. Is that fair?

 

[Another Voice]

Actually, no one was thrilled with the WESTCOT concept when it was first brought up. For a lot of reasons, mainly the numerous other failed plans for Disneyland’s Second Gate, most of the creative talent was focusing the Port Disney complex. WESTCOT was really just kind of tossed out there to begin the bidding war between the cities of Anaheim and Long Beach. As more attention drifted to Anaheim, better concepts were developed that took WESTCOT away from simply being a copy of its eastern namesake. World Showcase was re-imagined as the best parts of all of the downtowns in the world’s greatest cities brought together on one street. The Future World section was completely changed, it was a much more interactive, hands-on place.

Euro Disney killed the plans in more ways than just the lack of cash flow. Specifically, it was two actions taken at Eisner’s direction that killed Euro Disney and that killed WESTCOT. First, Eisner though hotel rooms offered wonderful profit and he ordered more hotel rooms than had originally been justified. His reasoning – people would stay at a Euro Disney resort for their vacations and then travel into Paris as a side trip. He wasn’t just housing people to visit his theme park – he was competing with The City of Lights for visitors. He honestly believed that what he was creating would be a more popular destination, and that’s why he took Euro Disney’s failure so personally. Big bucks were spent on thousands of empty rooms.

The second cause, and I believe the most important reason for EDL’s problem, was Eisner’s Americanization of the place. The original plans were heavily European in every aspect. Fantasyland was not really about the Disney films, it was about Europe itself. Each of the area’s dark rides were to have been in the language of their country of origin: ‘Pinocchio’ in Italian, ‘Snow White’ in German, etc. A plan for Main Street called for it to be New York City at the turn of the twentieth century during the height of the European immigration (a kind of “Old World meets New World” neighborhood). Frontierland was straight out of a European “spaghetti western” instead of the “Little House on the Prairie” version in the U.S.

Eisner would have none of this. He decided that the French really wanted the American Disney Experience – just like the Japanese did. The European Fantasyland turned into the Anaheim Fantasyland; if Americans thought the old west meant pine trees, then that’s what the Euros wanted to (never mind they think of the old west as the Arizona desert). Changes were made where WDI could sneak them in (a Jazz theme to Main Street, a Ghost Town ‘Haunted Mansion’), but the damage was done. The hotels, never a big part of the original plan, suddenly became a place were Europeans could have an American vacation without the plane ride. High paid designers were brought in to recreate New York, Cape Cod and all those other American places – and to create hotels that would lure visitors away from Paris itself. Only problem, no one in Europe wanted a made-up version of America. Add to that the perceived cultural slap in the face – and Euro Disney bombed.

To this day, Eisner still believes that Euro Disney was a business failure (we spent too much money) instead of a creative failure (we built something our audience didn’t like). The surest sign of a hack is to blame the public for failing to notice one’s genius and to justify laziness as “I’m simply giving the public what they want”. After EDL, Eisner decided that he would only give the public what they wanted and not spend the money it takes to create genius. And we’re living with the results in California right now.

 

[Banzai]

Amazing that www.westcot.com is a link to Disneyland!

 

[SpaceMountain_uk]

Disneyland Paris is starting to do very well now. They are still in debt but there share price has risen to a new high and the Resorts are almost running at full capacity most of the year.

And next year see's the opening of the Walt Disney Studios, and soon after that the opening of 3 new hotels

Also the press release from DLP states that from 2003 they plan to build a major new attraction at either the MK or the WDS every 3 years!!