Pop Century Legendary Years - 03/2007 & Updated 06/2008!

[darkroom]

Buck Rodgers?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quasarsglow/510727762/

 

[nomeus]

Buck Rodgers?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quasarsglow/510727762/

pretty close! bet they used that for inspiration

 

[CanadianGuy]

So almost two years and three months after the pictures at the start of this thread... I was back at Pop Century last week for a visit. I wasn't going to bother taking new pictures of the Legendary side of things because not much looked different.. But then I took a closer look.

Before I get to those pics however, first off.. I was walking around the lake to take these pics, when the typo on this sign jumped out at me.. Had to take a picture...

Now, it pretty much goes without saying, that ALL the following pictures were taking from the public paths, walkways or parking lots of Pop Century ... most of 'em with a zoom lens. No animals were harmed in taking these pictures. A Canadian was however, slightly sunburned.

From a distance - Not Much Looks Different

First thing that caught my eye was something in the hallway on the third floor of this picture...

You can see it a little better here..

And even better in this shot..

It looks weathered so I would say it has been there for a while.. But it doesn't show up in the pictures I took back in March of 2007.

The second thing I noticed was that a number of the pieces of 'temporary work' railings had been replaced. In reviewing my earlier pictures, it is obvious that a number of spots where the railings had been falling apart are now fixed with new wood.

You can see the differences in the wood colors most notably in this picture:

I saw some wires protruding for a light fixture at the end of one of the second stories... but those are NOT new.. I see those wires were present in March of 2007.

Those wires are show here.. again NOT new..

What was new as I got up close to the fence.. was the fence itself. When I was there in 2007, the material that was attached to the fence and blocked your view was old and faded, very worn and had a number of holes in it. The fencing cover now in place appeared quite new and had no holes. There was however a 'seam' where two pieces met together that had a small gap which was roughly in the same spot where I took pictures before.

In looking thru that gap, you could see a couple of things..

First of all, the rooms with doors left open/ajar ... those doors have now been closed. AND the grass around the exterior of the building had been mowed recently. That was interesting.. and altho it's hard to tell in these pictures, there tire tracks in the grass.

You can see the tire tracks a little better in this shot..

I'm no CSI investigator, but since the railings had been fixed and this particular building has no elevators or stairs built on to it yet, it seems reasonable to assume that the tire tracks might belong to this beast..

That's a cherry picker type bucket affair usually used to replace lights in the parking lots and the sides of the buildings on the operating side of the resort. It was parked just outside the 'gate' in the fence which leads thru to the Legendary Years side.

Just inside that gate there were three or four large construction style dumpsters. At least two of them had clearly been parked there for a while and the stuff inside looked weathered etc. Two others tho did not have marks on the pavement around them indicating they'd been there a while, and the stuff inside looked fresh.

Unfortunately, I don't have pics of those, because I could only see them briefly while standing on a bus driving into Pop Century.

So.. no MAJOR differences.. but there were some small things to see which were clearly different from March of 2007 and that may mean something.. or it may mean nothing.

The Latest Rumor That I'm Hearing : I heard from at least two different sources while in Florida that Iger wants something done with Pop Century and that *something* will probably involve retheming of the Legendary Years side. Concerns apparently remain about having a decade for the Depression and the War Years. One idea I heard floated was repeating 1950 to 1990 again.. another was going from 2000 to 2050 on the Legendary Years side... obviously some 'futuristic intent' would be behind that notion.

 

[safetymom]

Thanks for the update Canadian Guy.

 

[safetymom]

Just a reminder, we don't promote trespassing to take pictures at WDW. If the pictures were taken from an area that everyone is welcome please share them.

Canadian Guy followed the rules. Thank you.

 

[eeyoresnr]

thanks for the update and pics Canadian Guy!

 

[TexasTodds]

Of course as I read through this thread and ponder the idea of this being turned into Family suites, I wonder if those could be done where the "kitchenette side" is with the living room ( a pull out sofa) and the bedroom area actually has 2 beds in it. I know this is slightly off topic, but I wonder what other's opinions would be as to this idea.

It just seems to me that you wouldn't have wall to wall pull outs then, and maybe just have the pull out sofa with a regular chair (where it would still sleep 6.



The whole thing does seem just sad to me, but I agree with a PP that it just serves as a reminder of what happened to our country after 9/11... a shifting of priorities?

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We were at Pop from June 7 thru 10th, but I just couldn't bring myself to go look at the abandon buildings. Well that and I didn't take time to either. We did see a portion of them from the bus on Monday, but that was the extent of my looking.

Suzanne

 

[dfarner]

The buildings are kind of spooky looking

 

[iHEARTflorida]

interesting...

 

[nataliela]

Is that an elevator shaft in the hall? And am I right when I say it wasn't there before?

 

[spiceycat]

hey history is always good.

trying to predict the future - well remember the original tomorrowland - the only thing that is left is TTA

disney is not good at that.

but history - especially if they do it like the 50's - can be learning and fun.

can definitely understand not wanting to tell little ones about the depression or WWII - but hey they happened they are facts.

and if something isn't done we may get another depression....

 

[CanadianGuy]

Is that an elevator shaft in the hall? And am I right when I say it wasn't there before?

There are two buildings that would house hotel rooms which are essentially exterior complete -- that is to say walls, doors, windows.

One of these buildings has the elevator and stairways section completed. The other does not. This is not a change from 2007.

It's counterintuitive but the elevator and stairways at the center of the three 'wings' of each building.. is actually built separately from the three wings.

As for the depression and war years.. nobody, least of all Disney, denies these things occurred, but that doesn't necessarily make them great candidates for theming a resort.. kwim?



Knox

 

[suzimar57]

great new recent photos, canadian guy - thanks!

 

[ears4all!]

I was on a certain website a couple of minutes ago.....one that starts with "wiki" and ends in "pedia" and that said that the legendary years were going to be demolished and they didn't know what was going to be put there. I think they should just tear it down. All it is doing is taking up space......but since the land they own is so big, they have no worries about space, so who knows. Again this is "wiki" and "pedia" so take it with a grain of salt!

EDITED:
here is the link to the article I was talking about: Click Here!
again, a note that this is taking you out of the disboards, and I have no control on what is on this site.
I believe the article is about 2/3 of the way down, and at the bottom of the article

 

[Takodacaleb]

This is sort of off topic but with all those locks on the doors how do you think you can get hotel keys if they do fix them up which I would love to see

 

[CanadianGuy]

This is sort of off topic but with all those locks on the doors how do you think you can get hotel keys if they do fix them up which I would love to see

Sorry - I don't understand what you're asking.. can you rephrase?

 

[I Love Pluto]

Thanks for the great pics, Canadian Guy!

I would love to see family suites on the Legendary side of Pop. But if I made the decisions - I would put 2 beds in each of the rooms. Adults would love to share a family suite, but we don't want to deal with the pull-outs.

 

[ConcKahuna]

This is sort of off topic but with all those locks on the doors how do you think you can get hotel keys if they do fix them up which I would love to see

The ving locks are battery operated, so they would be functional even if the buildings had no power (as long as batteries were good that is LOL). A resort master key used by cast members would work for the doors, and the ving locks do also have a master "hard key" that works like any manual lock.

Of course if they open the resort you would be issued a standard room key.


As for Wikipedia, that site is actually all user-submitted info. That means it tends to have just as many rumors as actual facts.

 

[Gina]

As for the depression and war years.. nobody, least of all Disney, denies these things occurred, but that doesn't necessarily make them great candidates for theming a resort.. kwim?



Knox

Awesome photos! Thanks for sharing them. And ITA on re-thinking the theming... I love the nostalgia of Classic Years, but don't think the Depression Era makes for a fun resort. I wish they would go way back beyond that, maybe a pioneer or old west themed resort. Kind of Fort Wilderness-y, but as an actual resort and not a campground. I would really like the old west theme, too.

Of course, one of my favorite movies EVER is still "West World," and to this day I have never been able to choose between Medieval World, Roman World, or West World as where I would go if that movie concept were real.