These Real World Events Caused Disney to Change Their Theme Parks

When we visit a Disney theme park, we’re transported to a whole new world. We go on a journey that blurs the lines between fact, fiction, fantasy, and make believe. This is exactly what Walt had envisioned when he created Disneyland. He wanted to create a safe space for his Guests where they could enjoy dreamlike lands and forget about realities of day-to-day life.

Unfortunately, even though Disney provides an escape where our dreams and imagination can soar, the real world does still exist. Sometimes the reality of life hits so hard that even the magic of Disney can’t completely shield us from it.

There have been multiple instances, throughout the years, where the real world and real life events have resulted in changes at the Disney theme parks. Some of these changes were very public and apparent, while others have happened behind the scenes. Today, we’re going to explore four of these real world events and take a look at how the Disney theme parks were affected by them.

1. The European Recession Led to Changes in California Park Plans

Today, Disney California Adventure is a park that’s very well-liked by Disney park goers. With immersive lands like Avengers Campus, Cars Land, and Pixar Pier, Disney provides opportunities for visitors to go on a variety of adventures within fan-favorite movies and franchises.

While Disney California Adventure is popular today, it hasn’t always been. When the park first opened, it was a disappointing flop. This, however, wasn’t exactly due to poor planning. When Disney first announced its plans for a second theme park in California, the park that was discussed was much different from the one that came to be.

Initially, the second California park was going to be a West Coast version of EPCOT, appropriately known as WestCOT. However, there were going to be differences between the two parks. Rather than giving Guests a look into the future and all of the possibilities of tomorrow, WestCOT was going to take Guests there.

WestCOT Plans

Upon entering, Guests would first see the focal point of the park – Spacestation Earth. This giant golden sphere would be almost two times the size of Spaceship Earth and hold an upgraded version of the popular EPCOT ride.

Within the park, there would be seven Wonders of WestCOT that Guests could explore – Wonders of Living, Wonders of Earth, Wonders of Space, World Showcase, Old World, World of Asia, and World of Africa. Each of these areas would hold innovative rides and attractions.

The whole park would be connected by one attraction – River of Time. This boat ride served as both a method of transportation and an attraction, making it very similar to the Disneyland Railroad. As you ventured down the river, you would travel through a variety of scenes, all of which would provide educational experiences of the land you were traveling through. The boat would stop at each land, where Guests could choose to get off or choose to remain on the boat for the more of the ride. If you continuously chose to stay, the entire ride would last 45 minutes, making it the longest attraction ever built by Disney.

It was also planned that WestCOT would be the first ever Disney Park to house hotels inside of the park. This was an idea that had previously been visited by Disney in plans prior, but had yet to be done.

Why Plans for WestCOT Were Shelved

Unfortunately, WestCOT never came to be. One reason for this was location. Unlike the large amount of land that’s available for Walt Disney World expansion in Florida, it’s much more difficult to acquire land in Anaheim. Especially considering the amount of land that would be necessary to build such a park.

The biggest setback though was price. WestCOT was going to cost an estimated $3-billion to build. This was an extremely unfeasible price tag after the money problems that Disney recently acquired with the expensive build and failed opening of Euro Disney in Paris.

Money was no question during the design and build of Euro Disney. Since Tokyo Disneyland was so successful, it was anticipated that Euro Disney would be just as profitable. With rose-colored glasses, Disney moved forward with plans to build a theme park, shopping and dining district, six hotels, and a campground.

Euro Disney opened its doors in April of 1992. Unfortunately, at this time, Europe was experiencing a recession and Euro Disney did not perform nearly as well as Disney needed it to. The hotels alone were losing money at an excessive rate. Rather than staying on property, many Guests opted to find lodging within the city of Paris and take a short train ride to the park. Many Guests were also only visiting the park for a couple days as opposed to the 4-5 days that Disney expected.

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What Happened to WestCOT

Since Disney acquired large financial losses from Euro Disney, the plans for WestCOT had to be shelved. Disney could not afford to build such another extravagant park and risk another possible failure. 

However, the idea for a second California park was not completely scrapped. Instead, Disney came up with the idea for a new, much smaller and more attainable park. The new idea was Disney’s California Adventure – a park that showcased California.

The idea was that the park would keep Guests within the “Disney bubble”, giving them no need to leave and go explore the rest of the state. Instead, they could have their whole California adventure right on Disney property.

Unfortunately, the park wasn’t very well received by Guests for the exact same reason. Since Guests were already visiting California or residents of the state, it didn’t interest them to come to Disney and experience a knock-off version of what they already have or can experience outside of the park.

2. Attraction Changes Took Place After the Death of Princess Diana

One of the opening day attractions at Disney’s California Adventure was also one of Disney’s worst. Superstar Limo was the only dark ride at the park and therefore highly anticipated. Due to the successful and impressive dark rides at Disneyland park, Guests were very eager to experience Superstar Limo. Unfortunately, most of them were met with disappointment.

The intent of the ride was to give Guests the experience of being Hollywood’s newest rising star. Your journey began at Los Angeles International Airport, where a limousine was outside waiting for you. After climbing into the limousine, you then make your way through Hollywood. As you pass familiar sites and faces, your agent makes repeated calls to you, urging you to get to Grauman’s Chinese Theater as quickly as possible for your movie premiere. The attraction was filled with caricature-like animatronics of celebrities, cartoon-y sets of various Hollywood locations, a noticeable lack of Disney theming, and confusion.

Superstar Limo had an extremely short run at Disney’s California Adventure, shutting down for good less than one year after it opened. Even though it’s not surprising that this displeasing version of the ride didn’t last long, one can wonder if the ride would have lasted longer had they had used the original ride concept.

The Original Plans for Superstar Limo

While the ride didn’t have a completely different vision before, the original concept would have made it much more exciting. Initially, the attraction was designed to give you the experience of being caught up in a high-speed paparazzi chase. The ride would start with Michael Eisner tasking Guests with the mission to get across L.A. without being caught by the paps. If done so successfully, they would be rewarded with fame and stardom.

This version of the ride, having fast speeds and an exciting goal, could have easily been more accepted by the masses. However, after Princess Diana died as a result of a tragic paparazzi-induced car crash, Disney made immediate changes to Superstar Limo. It was decided that it would be insensitive to continue on with the ride that was themed around paparazzi chases.

3. How 9/11 Affected Disney Theme Parks

The terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001 affected our entire nation, including the Disney theme parks. While it may seem silly to bring up theme parks in regard to a nationwide attack, the fact of the matter is that Disney had to think and act extremely quickly for the safety of all of the Guests and Cast Members.

Some of the most iconic American locations were targeted with the intention to kill a large number of American citizens. It was not out of the question that theme parks on American soil, especially the Disney Parks, could be an extremely real target. The parks are home to global icons with hundreds of thousands of Guests on property at any given time. It was imperative that the parks close down after the attacks.

Due to the time difference between the West Coast and East Coast, Disneyland had not yet opened for the day when the attacks happened. Therefore, there was no need for Guest evacuation. Instead, the park remained closed for the day.

At Walt Disney World, however, Magic Kingdom was already up and running. An announcement was made throughout the park stating that it would be closing due to unforeseen circumstances. To avoid causing a mass panic, it was not publicly disclosed to the Guests why the park was shutting down. The main goal was to get everyone out as quickly and as safely as possible. To usher Guests out of the park, Cast Members were instructed to make a human chain by holding hands and guide Guests out of the park. They were instructed to do this also without explanation to the Guests, unless they were directly asked what was going on.

Disney Immediately Took Action

After Guests were safely removed from Magic Kingdom, Disney jumped into action in order to make sure that everyone was being well taken care of. Due to the attacks, the airlines were understandably shut down, leaving many Guests stranded on property. There are multiple reports that these Guests were given additional night stays free of charge at their Disney hotels and would often receive additional, sometimes upgraded, park tickets. On top of that, the hotel restaurants went to work making sure that they had enough food prepared for the influx of Guests that would be needing food during the park closure.

While Disney went out of their way to establish peace and comfort for the adults during this troubling time, they also made sure to try to keep the experience as magical as possible for the little ones. Many characters, including pals like Mickey, Minnie, and Donald, were sent out to the hotels to help keep children entertained and unbothered by the events that were going on around them.

The actions that Disney took on this tragic day are very reminiscent of how Disney World still responds during emergency closures. Over the past couple years, Disney World has been forced to close its doors due to hurricanes. When this happens, Disney immediately starts helping Guests with their lodging and tickets, puts in extra work to meet the inflated demands for items such as food, and continues to make the whole experience as magical as they possibly can, especially for little ones.

Changes That Were Made After the Attacks

Immediately after the attacks, both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort received a temporary safety status that put a no-fly zone into effect within the airspace above the properties. This flight restriction was later made permanent and is still in effect to this day. The no-fly zone restricts planes and all other flying objects from flying below 3,000 feet and within three miles of the resorts.

Besides the newly implemented safety protocols in the sky, new security measures began on the ground as well. When the parks opened back up on September 12th, Guests were met with bag checks that were much lengthier and more intense than the ones we know today. There were also uniformed police both inside and outside of the parks, which was very uncommon at the time. 

Security is something that Disney takes very seriously. Different protocols and measures have been implemented over the years and are now a regular part of a park day. At Disney, there are bag checks, metal detectors, uniformed police officers, hazard detection dogs, and undercover security in place.

Decline in Travel

Due to a new renowned fear of flying, and travel in general, the Disney Parks saw a major decline in attendance. This led to very low attendance and extremely short wait times. Disney ran very generous promotions during this time, trying to draw in crowds and increase ticket sales.

The lack of attendance not only affected the theme parks, but the hotels as well – specifically Pop Century Resort. The resort, which was under construction in the early 2000s, was never completed due to the low number of Guests that were vacationing to Walt Disney World. Pop Century was initially supposed to have two sections – The Classic Years (1950-1999) and the Legendary Years (1900-1949). The Classic Years was built and is the Pop Century Resort that we know today. However, The Legendary Years portion of the resort was in the process of being built across Hourglass Lake, where Art of Animation is now located. Due to the lack of need for additional lodging, The Legendary Years portion of the resort was never completed and sat abandoned for over a decade.

4. COVID-19 Brought a Variety of Changes to the Parks

In 2020, all of the Disney Parks across the globe closed due to the pandemic. These were the longest closures that any of the parks have ever faced. Upon reopening, the parks were much different than how Guests remembered them prior to the closures.

Of course, like most locations across the world, COVID-19 protocols were put into place. This included things such as fever screenings, face mask requirements, and social distancing. It was also heavily encouraged for Guests to use the Disney park apps in order to create less crowds and help avoid contact with others. Things such as Online Check-In, Direct-to-Room Service, Mobile Food Ordering, and Merchandise Mobile Checkout were all strongly pushed.

Guests were also required to make advanced theme park reservations. This meant that Guests needed select what park they would be visiting and on which day, prior to their trip. Reservations like this were required in order to help monitor capacity limits for each park.

When the parks first opened back up, some experiences, such as nighttime spectaculars and character meet and greets, did not return immediately. Even when these experiences started to return, they were still different. Character meet and greets took place at a distance, which resulted in a new type of interaction. While it was exciting to see our pals again, there was something missing since you weren’t able to hug them.

As threats of the virus started to lessen, the parks started to drop safety protocols and return back to their “new normal”. Things such as fever screenings, mask requirements, and social distancing are no more. However, some changes, such as Park Pass Reservations are still in effect at some locations.

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