What would Walt do different?

[Jack Frost]

This is a question that has been asked quite often. It's generally opinion-based and I don't think we'll ever really know what Walt would say about Disney in general if he were to see the company now. But to keep things simple, what do you think Walt Disney would have done differently if he had lived to construct Disney World? I think Epcot plays a big role in this question, as it seemed to be planned very delicately by Walt and was definitely of high importance to him.

Would he have developed plans for additional parks, would the concept become smaller or even larger than it currently is?

Again, this is entirely opinion-based and I think it would be great to hear everyone's thoughts on how the park would have turned out, I'm sure there would have been some key differences if he had lived longer. This topic has always interested me and I'm sure it does the same for others too. Just something fun to discuss.

 

[BrianL]

I think he definitely would have wanted to develop different parks. That was the whole point of buying so much land in Florida, to have room for anything they could dream up. Now, what those parks would be, I really have no idea. He was really thinking of Epcot as more of a city than a theme park. Still I think he would have approved of the original Worlds Fair style of Epcot, maybe not so much of what it is today, though he always supported growth and change and knew the parks could never remain stagnant.

 

[Jack Frost]

I think he definitely would have wanted to develop different parks. That was the whole point of buying so much land in Florida, to have room for anything they could dream up. Now, what those parks would be, I really have no idea. He was really thinking of Epcot as more of a city than a theme park. Still I think he would have approved of the original Worlds Fair style of Epcot, maybe not so much of what it is today, though he always supported growth and change and knew the parks could never remain stagnant.

I agree, especially with his support of change. Walt loved progress, that can easily be seen with the Carousel of Progress. And I agree with what you said about the additional parks and the advantage of more space, though I believe he would have the same mindset as Disney present-day which is to perfect what is already built and have peace of mind knowing that there's always available space for more creations.

 

[BalooPA]

I think those who complain about the encroachment of technology in the parks (see: FP+) would be sorely disappointed, because I think Walt, being the forward thinker that he is, would have invested even more heavily in the latest technology and dreamed up a lot of very creative ways to use it. New technologies would probably be adopted even faster, since Walt was more interested in getting things into the parks as quickly as possible, and never worried about the cost.

 

[eyehartdisney]

He probably would have put the parks into bankruptcy by now, and we wouldn't have a disney world.

 

[amylevan]

TBH, I think he would have moved on from theme parks - he already was working on his city, his "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow". It was supposed to be a city that would never be completed – a place where people could live and work – to demonstrate and introduce new ideas and systems. It wasn't supposed to be a theme park.

 

[grimley1968]

If he had stuck with theme parks (and the previous poster could well be right in that he might have lost all interest in them in a few more years in favor of EPCOT as originally intended), I think as a general rule he would have favored the approach of adding capacity to attractions or adding attractions rather than the general policy of replacement and attraction-rationing that has gone on for several years now. I don't think he was all that sentimental about keeping attractions that weren't popular (indeed there were some attractions in DL he replaced that just weren't popular), but I do think he would have seen the wisdom of as much expansion as possible on all that land in Florida.

He was, unfortunately, not a very wise company head in re financing. He may have expanded like I'd want him to, only to end up up to his neck in loans again like he was from the 20's through the 40's (if the board let him).