I find that a little insulting. Just because I didn't "sense Walt's presence" doesn't mean I can't appreciate his influences. But his influences are ALL OVER Magic Kingdom.
While WDW did not come out the way Walt envisioned, everything I've indicated he was planning on starting with a theme park, and then using the income from that to establish his "city of the future" in Epcot as a Phase II, though this WAS the part that interested him more. Walt had some initial input on the concepts for the park, and Roy and company wanted to honor those concepts. Much is really a mimic of DL, of course, but with improvements, again many of which came from Walt. (The Utilidors for example, which Walt couldn't stand that the CM would be visible in other lands of the park.)
Understand that once Walt died, the company was no longer as financially stable as it had been in the fifties/sixties. The seventies/eighties were a scary time, with the theatrical movies mostly being not the moneymakers they were under Walt. There was no way they were going to invest in a "City of the Future". I think what they came up with is a wonderful park that has since been poorly maintained/updated.
And there's a lot of
DisneyLand that's not directly of Walt's Vision...BTMRR, Splash Mountain, Indiand Jones, Winnie the Pooh, Star Tours, Toon Town, even Haunted Mansion was really completed without Walt's over-riding vision.
Anyways, nothing personal. We can agree to disagree. The man is a visionary that nearly 50 years after his death has the influence to have his company continue to make the arguably the best theme parks in the world.