How much land left?

[mitros]

Without just guessing, does anyone know exactly how much more land Disney still has that can be built on, not counting the conservation area? Either acerage or percentage wise.

 

[Safari Steve]

7,100 acres developed in January of 1998.
+
500 acres of DAK
+
8,300 acres of wildlife refuge
=
15,900 acres spoken for (slightly more with DAK lodge and Pop Century added... so let's say 16,000...)

Out of 30,500 acres

= 14,500 acres left, nearly half -That's 48%- (and from the information I'm using, I may have counted the wildlife refuge twice... I'll see if I can check that.)


Short answer: Plenty.

 

[wdwguide]

Are the 9,600 acres for Celebration included in that figure?

I always get confused because Celebration was de-annexed from Walt Disney World property, but the stated figures for total acreage never seem to have changed - 28,000 to 30,500 depending on who you ask... They did buy the additional 8500 acres of wetlands that is now the Disney Wilderness Preserve, but that I believe has been transferred to the Nature Conservancy.

 

[Safari Steve]

I did not include Celebration b/c the information I have (c. 1998) doesn't mention it.
I also didn't include the '92 ranch purchase b/c none of it is developable, so including it in the original total would not have changed the final total of undeveloped land.

 

[OhMari]

When I was at Epcot, I chatted with a CM selling Disney Time Shares.

I asked him why doesn't Disney buy or buy back Main Gate South.
We had to stay off property, because our Highschool band couldn't afford to stay on property, (I'm lobbying for more fund raisers to get on property.)

He told me Disney wants to, but they can't afford the property any more. I'm sorry, but Main Gate South is so shabby looking. I think this should seriously be looked into. You have to go through all the yuk to find Disney. Our bus driver used all back roads to get into Disney from Main Gate South and I felt if Disney owned this all, half that cheap crap wouldn't be there, but I suppose there has to be an edge to Disney somewhere.

 

[Safari Steve]

The same could be said for 535 along the NorthEastern edge of property, but at what point would you stop buying land? The "cheap crap" is where it is because that's the closest it can possibly be to WDW, which is where it draws its business.

 

[seashoreCM]

Is a chronology of WDW land acquisitions and de-acquisitions available to the public?

I am interested in how WDW has grown (or shrunk) over the years from the mid 1960's to the present.

Also, prior to the opening of Epcot, was there a public entrace to MK (e.g. Vista Blvd) other than World Drive? My first visit to WDW was about 1975 and I remember staying in a hotel near the I-4/535 interchange east of WDWand driving all the way down to 192 to enter WDW. Was there a shortcut to the northeast?

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Tulip]

So are there any more plans to build more theme parks on the remaining non-reserve land?

 

[InstImpres]

When we were there 3 years ago a bus driver told us that there was a thrill park in the making (similar to Cali. Adv.) and would open within 5 years but who really knows. If you check out the rumors board there is always speculation.

 

[Safari Steve]

No, a 5th park is not under construction. It has been made quite clear by the people in charge (Al Weiss, Lee Cockerell, Greg Emmer, etc) that the priority for the next few years will be improving the existing parks. In any event, the average length of time between the opening of parks on WDW property has been around 9 years. With DAK only 5 and still with much room for improvement attendance wise, it would be silly to build another park any time soon. Patience, patience, patience.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Hey Safari Steve - Can you give us an idea of how large each park is? I'm trying to explain just how huge WDW is and need help comparing it to something. I'm trying to get my friends we are going with to start walking in preparation of our September trip....I have told them you can easily walk 5 miles a day but I am thinking they still need convincing.

 

[wdwguide]

Originally posted by Tulip
So are there any more plans to build more theme parks on the remaining non-reserve land?

They certainly have plans to do so (and WDWMagic.com has even pics of an old master plan for the property that designated the location of some), but it is extremely unlikely that this will happen in the near future. Anything before 2008 would probably require a miracle!

The only safe bets for future Disney parks right now are Hong Kong's second gate and Disneyland Paris' third (which, the way I understand it, they HAVE to build by 2017, at which point their development contract with the French government expires).

 

[AKASnowWhite]

Originally posted by WDWorBUST
Hey Safari Steve - Can you give us an idea of how large each park is? I'm trying to explain just how huge WDW is and need help comparing it to something.

While I don't recall the exact acerage figure that we used (we had researched it somewhere....) my son converted that number to square miles and discovered that area-wise, WDW is roughly the size of our entire TOWN! That put things into persepective for a then 8 year old!

It's a lot of walking! And anyone who isn't used to so much walking, ON PAVEMENT no less, will be VERY sore and tired! I recommend to everyone to walk a bit more than usual to *train* for their vacation! I even give my kids advil/motrin at the end of the day to relieve any impending muscle soreness!

 

[PatriciaH]

WDW is the size of Boston or Manhattan times 2!

 

[mudhen]

I believe the entire property is about is about 43 square miles (think San Francisco).

Magic Kingdom is around 100-150 acres, Epcot is
about 500 acres, MGM ?? similar in size to the
MK, Animal Kingdom is even larger than Epcot
(the Kilimanjaro Safari area is about as big as
the MK by itself).

Don't hold me to the fire that these numbers are
exact, but they should be in the ballpark.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Thanks - that should help convince them!

 

[Kaycee]

I really enjoyed reading this thread. It's fun to learn some of the facts and figures, and hear what speculations are out there for the future.

Thanks!

Kaycee

 

[Safari Steve]

WDW- 47 sq miles (San-Fran x 1 / Manhattan x 2)
Epcot- 300 acres
MK- 107 acres
MGM- 154 acres
DAK- 500 acres
Wide World of Sports- 200 acres

~Epcot has the largest walkable area, MGM Studios has the smallest. MK's w.a. is closer in size to MGM's and DAK's w.a. is closer to Epcot's.

~Epcot has the largest parking lot at 162 acres, while DAK's is the smallest (don't have the exact figures, but it's slightly smaller than MGM's 77 acre lot)

~Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort has 2,112 guest rooms, more than any other WDW resort hotel.

~Disney's Coronado Springs Resort represents Mexico and South America, where Walt and Lillian took their first major vacation. The resort has 1,967 guest rooms... coincidence? (Walt passed away in 1967) NOTE: that's not a real fun fact. The numbers are accurate, but I'm sure it was intentional... I'm just crazy...

 

[mitros]

Walt actually passed away on december 16, 1966.

 

[mitros]

Sorry, the 15th.