A look at the last 10 years of growth at Disney World — and the next 10
Featured, Jason Garcia, News — By Jason Garcia on November 19, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Disney's Pop Century Resort accounts for most of the 3,252 new hotel rooms that have been added at Walt Disney World over the last 10 years. (Courtesy of Walt Disney World)
Walt Disney World may one day add a fifth theme park. But it won’t happen in the next five years.
At least, that’s according to projections by planners at the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the semi-autonomous government that oversees Disney World.
Reedy Creek is in the midst of updating its 10-year growth plan for state regulators, which includes “projected maximums” in various categories. Reedy Creek’s new projections show no major theme park being added between 2009 and 2013.
On the other hand, Reedy Creek’s new maximums do allow for one major new theme park to be added during the following five years, through 2018. But Reedy Creek officials stress the projections are essentially long-term guess work and not based on Disney’s internal development plans. (It’s also worth noting that Reedy Creek’s previous 10-year forecast, submitted in 1998, also allowed for a fifth theme park to be built; obviously, none ever was.)
The updated projections offer a few other interesting glimpses at how Disney World has grown over the last 10 years and how it might grow over the next 10. For instance:
– The figures underscore how much Disney has emphasized the time-share business in recent years.
Over the last 10 years, the number of hotel rooms at Disney World has grown 13 percent, with 3,252 new rooms (mostly via Disney’s Pop Century Resort) pushing the resort’s overall total to 28,267 rooms. During the same period, the number of Disney Vacation Club at the resort has soared 141 percent, with 2,927 new units (primarily in Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas and the Bay Lake Tower) more than doubling the overall total to 5,000 units.
Looking ahead to the next 10 years, Reedy Creek projects a maximum of 11,300 new hotel rooms — which would be an increase of 40 percent. It projects a maximum of 8,900 new time shares — a 178 percent increase.
– Flamingo Crossings is supposed to be an awfully big driver of Disney World’s growth. Reedy Creek says plans for the “value-oriented” lodging-and-retail district at the western edge of Disney’s property account for 42 percent of the projected hotel rooms, 19 percent of the projected time shares (which would be built by third-party developers, rather than Disney Vacation Club) and 74 percent of projected retail and restaurant space.
Of course, Flamingo Crossings has to get off the ground at all first. (More on that here.)
– While Reedy Creek is once again allowing for one major new theme park to be built over the next 10 years, it estimates only two new minor theme parks (Disney’s two water parks and the Wide World of Sports complex are classified as minor parks).
That’s down from the three new minor parks that Reedy Creek projected 10 years ago. Then again, during that period, the total number actually dropped, from 4 to 3, with the closing of the Disney’s River Country water park.
– As big as Disney World is — and it’s roughly 40 square miles — even it has limits. Reedy Creek says if all of its maximum projections come true, the development would consume an estimated 2,688 acres. That’s almost all of the 2,721 acres of untouched, developable land that Reedy Creek says it has today.
But it’s highly unlikely that all of the maximums will be reached. There’s quite a bit of room for in-fill development on Disney World’s already-developed land, too.
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32 Comments
Interesting. A fifth park would be great, although it’s already hard to accomplish everything there is to do at WDW in one trip. Juggling five parks would make it even harder.
Then go twice . . .
No need for a 5th park. Fix and expand the existing parks that are there now. More projects like the Fantasyland expansion are needed, not another small 3/4 day park like Animal Kingdom.
Another monorail hotel might be nice. Bay Lake Tower needs a restaurant and the Poly needs an upscale eating establishment. In my opinion of course.
3/4 park? more like 1/2 day at AK…
They just did that park to compete with Busch, but really, it’s more wimpy than anything else.
I do agree, skip the new park and focus on refurbing the current parks..
AK is not a wimpy park. It is my favorite park by far. I see so many people running through the oasis to get to a “ride” AK does so much to educate people about animals and how they interact wiht the rest of the world. I can spend two days at AK if I want to see all of the animals and do everything. it is so sad so many people ignore the animals and just go for the rides. AK is a beautiful park. Please stop cutting it down.
Seriously, they need to add another country or two in Epcot. Epcot is my favorite park but it’s getting stale. They need to update what they already have. I have to mention that the American Pavilion in Epcot is by far the worst of all. They need to do something with that and add a decent restaurant to it.
Good for you, Sue. I completely agree. Animal Kingdom is my favorite park too, and I can easily spend days there. It is so beautiful.
I would be very surprised to see a new park in the next 10 years. Why not just add more into the existing parks?
If they just add onto the existing parks they won’t get to charge you another &70 for entrance to another park…
whatever happened to “night kingdom…”
I would like to see a 5th park. I HOPE thy build a 5th park!
I was thinking something along the lines of a “DisneySea” park, like the one in Tokyo. It could be comprised of attractions from Tokyo DisneySea and have a lot of thrill rides and also include concepts of “beastly kingdom”.
That way they can tap into the Universal thrill-ride demographic (aka – teens/young adults).
Does anyone know why the closed River Country? I assume low attendance, but one never knows with Disney. I figured the Fort Wilderness could keep it a float.
I believe it used water from the lake. I think there have been
regulations regarding using fresh water added after people got
sick at another park. Most water parks use self contained
filtered & clorinated water. So I think Disney scraped it and
built a new park to replace it. If you go on google maps you
can still see it, it is kind of overgrown now.
RIVER COUNTRY CLOSED DUE TO THE WARMING WATERS DURING JUNE – SEPTEMBER IN FLORIDA. THIS WARM WATER ALLOWS THE FAMOUS BRAIN EATING AMOEBAS TO BECOME A REAL AND EVER PRESENT DANGER IN THE LAKE FED WATERS OF RIVER COUNTRY.
Dear God don’t tell me they have those brain eating Amoebas in Florida too! I thought they all lived in DC.
Why was my comment deleted? The one about the fifth park being a for-sure coaster park?? Is the Sentinel sleeping with the Mouse again???
I would LOVE a fifth park. Please do it, Disney. I know alot of others that would too!!!!!
I’d like to see Epcot’s World Showcase expanded to include at least a dozen new countries. And, a lot more long, slow boat rides with animatronics & scenery.
A 5th park would likely be a Disney Sea.
I totally agree about the World Showcase. It would be great to get some new countried in there, but would the original rules still apply, that the country that wants to be represented in WS would have to help fund the constuction of it? Does anyone know?
Mike, I think it was a water quality/contaminant issue. Since it was from the lake, they didn’t have any way to treat the water.
Honestly, I only skimmed the article. Curious about the other half of the Pop Century. I know a couple buildings, or “shells” have been on the other side of the property since the opening but haven’t been there in a while. Will they still be used or will they have to be torn down as building codes change?
Originally they were going to be more decades for the Pop’s timeline…then it was thought that due to the success of the family suites experiment at All Star Music that those buildings would become all family suite style…but of course nothing’s happened in eons, and guests still ask…
Pop Century Resort by code has to tear those empty buildings and rebuild…. It is not likely they will rebuild there…
A villian park would be very cool. I hope they build it, if they do then they will come……..
What has changed code-wise that would require a complete tear down of the unused Pop buildings? If they are just shells wouldn’t a retrofit be less expensive, if needed at all? I could maybe see guest rooms or a roofing change…
I spoke with an employee about 3-4 years ago who told me about the possible development of “Shadow Kingdom” and said there were projections and some plan ideas drawn up, but no timeline or thoughts as to when or if it would ever come about. But I guess when the bottom dropped out of the economy it was a little hard to announce plans for a possible new park when you are firing over 600 employees. And I agree about the fifth park, a lot to fit into a trip, but I would be willing to sacrifice Animal Kingdom.
I agree that there needs to be a 5th park to capture the teen/thrill (Universal and Busch Garden) crowd. But of course it needs to be family oriented to maintain the Disney tradition. So I’m thinking something along the lines of a Villain themed with roller coasters and thrill rides to compete. It makes perfect since each Disney movie contains those scary moments.
I live in Ohio and as long as Disney continues to build/update I will be coming down. It would be awesome to see a DisneySEA park (Like in Tokyo) here in the states somewhere. It’s the best Disney park ever!
As much as I would love to see a fifth gate, I would rather they beef up DHS and AK before begining construction. Also, they need to continue to “plus” attractions to keep more people going back on a regular basis. The more people they can get to return as repeate customers the better financial basis they will have to make more improvements.
Maybe if Disney would stop building knock off parks in China, they would be able to invest in their U.S. parks. It is nice to see the Fantasyland remake. Although it does seem to be much like they did when Pooh was hot. It runs the risk of running the Disney Princess thing into the ground. Maybe Harry Potter in IOA will up the ante and force Disney to come up with something good in a few years to compete. A new gate would not be the answer though. Just not mismanaging what they have and coming up with something good. The Space Mountain rehab was a major let down.