Walt Disney to come to...Alabama?!

[Princess_Nikki]

I don't know if many of you had heard this rumor, but I heard it today from a lady here in town. Country Crossing is/was a huge deal here in Dothan, Alabama. Originally opened as a family fun venue, it was going to have restaurants, a few bingo halls, a water park, and a huge concert field. It has been shut down for now, while the state of Alabama decides what it will allow and what it won't. It was shut down for attempting to pass gambling (the owners put in slot machines instead of bingo games).

All that aside, supposedly, Disney has a contract with Country Crossing to open some sort of park here. My pastor at church mentioned it too.

Anybody ever hear of this??

 

[Cheshire Figment]

It is righ on the list following the parks Disney will be opening in Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Virginia and Louisiana.

 

[Damien2213]

Ugh...Virginia was very real compared to any other place you mentioned. Unfortunately they tried to put it in a place where people didn't welcome the idea. To bad they didn't come down south because there were plenty that would have welcomed it there.

Since Virginia was very much a place that was going to get a theme park I still think that idea is open at Disney just on the table with Beastly Kingdomme and a few other ideas...

 

[Bstanley]

Although Baldwin County Alabama was in the running way back when as a potential spot for Disney World (it lost out because of being a hurricane magnet and for being relatively isolated highway-wise) I suspect this rumor is someone's hopeful dream about what to do with an abandoned facility.

 

[OldsDr]

I highly doubt any new Theme parks will be comming anywhere in North America (South America too for that matter) while they are concentrating on the Asian Market. People are willing to travel to Fl and CA to visit Disney Theme Parks. Additionally, If this started they would be venturing into the regional theme park buisness, which most of the regional operators are struggling to make a profit.

 

[CanadianGuy]

We get these threads a lot on this board..

DISNEY COMING TO (Texas, West Texas, East Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Montana, Maine, Vermont, Colorado.. __insert state name here____ ) ...

The only one that has ever proven to hold any water was a couple of DVC announcements.. and the expansion of Disneyland in Anaheim.

There are no plans currently to open parks in other parts of the United States or Canada... certainly nothing that can be verified in an SEC filing.

In some cases, people throw out the name "Disney" in hopes of selling land at a premium to a few suckers who happen down the road or whatever.

It's really almost as bad as the "I have a bridge I can sell you" scam.

In other cases someone says "You know what would be good there, a THEME PARK, like Six Flags.. Or Disney" and then someone else repeats that and eventually that gets spun around into "DISNEY IS COMING FOR SURE"

Disney does a lot of things in secret.. but one thing they haven't done in secret for a good many years is acquire land in other states for themeparks. Not since the ill-fated Virginia area themepark ... (nod to Damien)

Most importantly, don't forget Disney DOES acquire land for very non-sexy, non-themepark uses like warehousing merchandise, radio and television transmitter land, etc.

And that COULD be happening in your area.



k

 

[bgohre]

I certainly hope its not true. That would make it more difficult for them to open the park up here in Waconia, MN that I keep hearing about.

 

[soccermomof3]

A new park in Louisiana???? wooohooo ha ha ha

 

[WDW_lover_in_SC]

Could've been confused or twisted around from someone orginally saying that a Contructions firm from Birmingham will be in the process of renovating Fantasy Land...

 

[Disco]

Even if Alabama did have a new Disney park built in it, that wouldn't be enough to convince me to set foot in that state.

 

[mgpan]

We have, in our state, at least realized that Disco went out several decades ago. By the way, I know Nevada has more too it than casinos and desert, it's just that some would incorrectly say that is all the state has going for it. Try Alabama sometime, especially the beaches. I can guaran<a href="http://distickers.com/ticker/"><img src="http://distickers.com/ticker/tickers/ubnx2mxihkqmxzoq.png" alt="DIStickers.com Ticker" border="0"/></a>tee you won't be running for your life to the tune of banjos!

 

[Disco]

I can guarantee you won't be running for your life to the tune of banjos!

LOL,
I don't think you can promise that! When Hillbillies comment on what a pretty mouth I have, I tend to get pretty flighty. It's just natural for them to start chasing me at that point.
I don't know why interstate slamming is so much fun but it just is...

 

[superminnie]

Texas was true too. But that was about 15 years ago. The two towns that it would have been placed between (which are about 15 miles apart) could not come to an agreement on who would share what expenses, revenues, etc... It would have been perfect since it is right in the middle of WDW and DL. My mothers cousin was City Manager of one of the towns at the time and it was very real at the time but no longer is.

 

[daybreaker]

I've always thought it would be cool if Disney would do something like mini-parks. Go into a big city, find a large vacant building, and just open up something like "Disney presents: Space Mountain" One big ride, maybe a small ride, some shopping, and a restaurant.

 

[ConcKahuna]

I've always thought it would be cool if Disney would do something like mini-parks. Go into a big city, find a large vacant building, and just open up something like "Disney presents: Space Mountain" One big ride, maybe a small ride, some shopping, and a restaurant.

I think that was the concept of DisneyQuest.

 

[Princess_Nikki]

Yeah, well the problem with DisneyQuest is that it is in the middle of Florida along with all of the rest of their parks.

Well, it would be nice if something Disney came this way. Here's hoping!

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

I do remember reading a couple of years back, that when quizzed about future expansion plans for Florida, Disney apparently replied that in their opinion, there would only be one more park ever built at WDW. Their reasoning was that the average family would struggle to fit in anymore than 5 parks in an average weeks stay.
With it having been 12 odd years since the last "new" park opening (AK), has anyone heard anymore as to future WDW expansion?

Just curious...

 

[chartle]

I've always thought it would be cool if Disney would do something like mini-parks. Go into a big city, find a large vacant building, and just open up something like "Disney presents: Space Mountain" One big ride, maybe a small ride, some shopping, and a restaurant.

I think that was the concept of DisneyQuest.

This is exactly what Disney Quest was supposed to be. A way to expand the WDW experience through out the world. The plan was to have 20 of them scattered across the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisneyQuest#Background

They built one in Chicago and broke ground in Philly. The concept never worked mainly because it never became a destination attraction where it would draw people in from the around the region. Mostly just locals showed up on the weekends. So on the weekend people where lined up around the building and on week days the CM's probably outnumbered the guests.

When they first opened you bought a base pass that you could add credits to. All the attractions had a credit cost to it. If it you ran out of credits you could load more.

For some they could go through $40 worth of credits in a few hours and not seem to get their monies worth. So thats when they went to pay one price, but now people were complaining it cost too much.

The one in Chicago lasted 2 years with poor results and they never got past digging a hole in Philly.