River Country/discovery island & treasure island?

[Bertnie20]

What's their stories? I know they are all abandoned but why? And when did they close?

Any other myths rumors or stories, would love to hear em

 

[thefriendlyfloridian]

I've heard mostly that there was a brain eating amoeba in Bay Lake that fed into River Country and that WDW didn't seem it reasonable to continue service at River Country since it had become outdated already.

 

[Robo]

Discovery Island's tenure as a walk-through wildlife sanctuary (and, specifically, aviary) ended after DAK opened and many of the island's former non-human inhabitants were moved to the new theme park.

 

[jco_direwolf]

What's their stories? I know they are all abandoned but why? And when did they close? Any other myths rumors or stories, would love to hear em

The reason they abandon them is simple they have a ton of space. Why pay to demo something and build new when you can just build new.

For almost 10 years AoA sat abandoned. That is why the little mermaid section is more like PopC than the rest of AoA.

 

[Fivesacharm]

For almost 10 years AoA sat abandoned. That is why the little mermaid section is more like PopC than the rest of AoA.

When AoA was abandoned it wasn't AoA yet. Originally those mermaid suites were going to be a further expansion of Pop Century.

 

[JimmyV]

IIRC, the website WaltDatedWorld has thorough write-ups on both Discovery Island and River Country. I would supply the link, but their server seems to be down for about a day now according to their twitter feed.

(aproposo of nothing.....had the above sentence been written 20 years ago, it would have looked like a foreign language.)

 

[Tomh]

The last post on their facebook page appears to have been 5 years ago . . . I think they may be officially mia.

 

[JimmyV]

The last post on their facebook page appears to have been 5 years ago . . . I think they may be officially mia.

Their twitter feed is current as of today. (Even mentions the monorail issue). And they even reference the server issue. I read an article on that site as recently as a month ago, so I think it is still viable. No way to be sure though.

 

[hakepb]

I think River Country was running in 2001. It was shut down in the fall of 2011 for renovations, but 9/11 occurred and the renovations were delayed and never started.

A few years ago, a blogger swam to Discovery Island at night, wrote about it, and is now banned from WDW. It sounded like there are still papers on desks in backstage areas, a bit like it was abandoned more than moved out.

 

[jco_direwolf]

When AoA was abandoned it wasn't AoA yet. Originally those mermaid suites were going to be a further expansion of Pop Century.

Yes I only used those names so people would know. If I had called it PopC the golden years no one would know what I was talking about.

That is my point they started to build them on the PopC plans and abandoned them then when the economy got better they started them again.

 

[hakepb]

Yesterland has info about old stuff
http://www.yesterland.com/rivercountry.html

 

[Bertnie20]

Thanks for the ideas and links. I knew about pop being abandoned after 9-11 happened and the treasure island I'm talking about is the one by the Bahamas not the previous name of DI

 

[Liljo22]

I've heard mostly that there was a brain eating amoeba in Bay Lake that fed into River Country and that WDW didn't seem it reasonable to continue service at River Country since it had become outdated already.

Reading the yesteryear link, there was a death from a brain eating amoeba but it was in 1980. The park did not close until 2001. It looks like after 9/11, Disney like other entertainment venues went into cost cutting mode to make up for people not traveling as much. With Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, River Country's demand was not enough to offset the costs of running it.

 

[aristocatz]

A few years ago, a blogger swam to Discovery Island at night, wrote about it, and is now banned from WDW. It sounded like there are still papers on desks in backstage areas, a bit like it was abandoned more than moved out.

Do you have the link or name of the blog post?

 

[AladdinRapunzelTink]

Do you have the link or name of the blog post?

http://shaneperez.blogspot.com/2009/12/discovery-island.html?m=1

 

[rock_doctor]

River Country was very small. Every time we went we were falling over everybody else that was there add to that there were issues with the water. RC used the water from the lake so it was not really clean. A law was put in that you could only swim in purified (cleaned?) water so you could no longer legally swim in the lake. Plus they found an amoeba (as said) that could be problematic... All of the monorail resorts (Fort Wilderness Campground also) had beaches that you could swim in the lake but now you can't and this is why.


Discovery Island had similar issues. Too many people plus it was a very small space. They had a pretty serious issues with the animals that were trapped there being attacked by Vultures. In fact, if you look i bet you can find old news reports of Disney employees shooting at the Vultures to protect the park animals. I remember seeing the news reports on tv back when i lived in Florida... Of course the environmentalists started screaming about that so they strung up fishing string and metalized plastic streamers to keep the vultures away... Did not work well so they ended up just keeping CMs there with the animals to drive the Vultures way. Read all of this to mean...way too much trouble for something that they were not really making any money from. They opened AK so what was there (mostly birds and snakes) were moved to AK. It only took about half hour to walk though Discovery Island so it was not really a major attraction...

Don't know anything about Treasure Island.

 

[Bertnie20]

http://shaneperez.blogspot.com/2009/12/discovery-island.html?m=1

thank you! I was looking for this

 

[aristocatz]

http://shaneperez.blogspot.com/2009/12/discovery-island.html?m=1

Thank you!

 

[chartle]

I first wrote this years ago

Here is my take on the closing of River Country coming from someone who
visited it first as a teenager and then as a parent of a 6 and 7 year old.

1. It used water from the lake. Unless they did some special coloring,
it had the same brownish green color as Bay Lake. I heard they "treated it"
and heated it a little in the fall and spring.

2. It was hard to get to. From the old WDWIG.com web site:

* By Car - Enter through the Magic Kingdom toll booths (stay to the
right as you approach them) and then follow the signs for River Country.
Buses take guests from the parking lot to the River Country entrance.

* By Bus - Buses bound for Fort Wilderness depart from the
Transportation & Ticket Center regularly throughout the day. These buses
will drop guests off at the Pioneer Hall bus stop in Fort Wilderness. From
here it is a short walk to the River Country entrance. After exiting the bus
guests should follow the path to their left. The River Country entrance will
be just after the Pioneer Hall Restaurant complex on the left.

* By Boat - Guests who are at the Magic Kingdom or the Contemporary
Resort can take motor launches directly to the Fort Wilderness docks. The
entrance to River Country will be straight ahead and to your right.\

3. It was small. If Typhoon Lagoon holds 20,000 (a pure guess) River
Country could hold maybe 5,000 (another pure guess)

4. River Country was a first gen "themed" water park. I don't remember
there being many water parks in the late 70's. The design would be
considered an insurance nightmare today. I remember the main slides dumping
you into 8 feet of water. Not just the shotgun slides but all the slides.
You would have to go first and then tread water to catch your kid and
push him to the side. At the main pool, they had rocks you could dive
from. Yes at one point in the USA they would let you dive into a pool.
What were they thinking?

With the opening of the two other water parks and what others have said
about rehab, I can see why it closed.

The rumors at the time of closing were that they were going to rebuild it as
a special pool for Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness guests.

Here is Deb's old web site
http://web.archive.org/web/19991010031401/wdwig.com/faq_rc.htm

 

[asmit4]

There is something about abandoned parks that I really LOVE! So interesting!