by Josh Taylor
This particular article is one I’ve been wanting to write and one I’ve been fearing for a while now. Epcot is such a unique and wonderful idea that it just seemed like quite the task to take on. I mean, this was Walt Disney’s pet project towards the end of his life. It was the Utopian city that never came to be. Come on, Walt Disney had the plans hanging above his hospital bed before he died just so he could imagine the place. How could I not be a little terrified? It’s scary to think how big this project was, but how great it could have been. So here I am, slightly afraid and slightly excited, to talk about Walt Disney’s big vision for the future, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or Epcot.
When Walt Disney had reached his 60s, he had already done so much. He created iconic characters for his animated shorts, popularized and practically created the feature length animated film, brought new technology to the film industry, revolutionized movies with color, jumped on board the new medium of television, and did what many said would never work, built the first theme park in Disneyland. With all of that credibility and knowledge, he decided to move on to something that had been bugging him.
As a grandparent, he was worried about the world his grandchildren were going to grow up in. With crime and economic problems on the rise, Walt Disney decided his next venture wouldn’t just be an escape from the world like Disneyland, but a way to show the world how we can live. He decided this next project would take place on the east coast. He had already had east coasters excited about Disney projects after his showing at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and he eventually found his perfect lot of land in the middle of Florida. With various fake corporation names, Disney bought nearly 28,000 acres of swamp land that would be the start of the Disney World project and Epcot.
Walt Disney knew, with all of the knowledge in construction and technology that his Imagineers had at WED, they could construct
a whole city, not just a theme park that allows people in, but a place where people could live, eat, work, shop, etc… This was to be what the Florida project was. He gave a presentation to the Board of Directors about his new plan, but they were skeptical of it. They thought if this was going to attract visitors it needed to have it’s own “Disneyland”. Walt was reluctant but finally caved and decided to use the new “Magic Kingdom” park in Florida to his advantage by placing it in the northern-most part of the property (where it is now) so that guests of Disney World would have to see everything else before they got to the park. Guests would have to see everything at several monorail stops before finally be let off at the last monorail stop which was the Magic Kingdom.
In fact, the whole Florida project was based upon a single monorail track that would travel form the south end of the property to the north end. As Walt was planning his new city of tomorrow, he knew several things had to come together and they would all be linked upon one single strip of monorail track. He understood that people wanted to see some of the same things that they were familiar with from Disneyland, so the monorail worked as a great way of transportation and a familiar attraction that would help guests move from one area of Disney World to the other.
Walt also knew that not everyone would be driving to Disney World, so of course, there would be a Disney World airport where people could either fly into or park their cars. The airport would be in the southern most part of the Disney property and would be the departure point for the monorail. Nothing much more is known of what the airport would be like, but much like most Disney transportation, I’m sure the airport and airplanes, coming in and out of Disney World, would be state of the art and full of Disney magic.
Guests arriving at Disney World would board the monorail to visit the first stop, the Welcome Center. Guests would be welcomed, of course, in their native tongue as cast members would be trained in several languages. At the Welcome Center, guests would be briefed on what they would see on the next several stops along the monorail track, what they could access, their hotel room key, and tickets to the Magic Kingdom park. Because of cast members, people from around the world, no matter the language, would feel like they were at home here and would be able to reach someone who spoke their language from anywhere within Disney World.
As guests left the Welcome Center, the second stop would be Epcot’s industrial park. Here, major corporations would have a home to experiment and install the latest and greatest in Disney World’s city of tomorrow. It would be a tour-like area, seeing how things were made, who was creating these things, and what these things could do for the future of living. Imagine companies like Apple, General Electric, Sony, Kohler, and so many other home product companies, having a headquarters right in the middle of Disney World. Imagine yourself being able to walk through and see all of the new products and being able to test them out. It’s like Innoventions but much bigger and much more fun.
Your next stop after the Epcot industrial park is the city of tomorrow itself. The monorail, which would travel right through the middle of the city would give you a bird’s eye view of the whole area before stopping at the hotel in the center of the city. Here, much like other Disney resorts, you would enjoy the luxuries and accommodations we are used to. Spas along with world class pools and recreation areas would be a priority in the city of tomorrow’s grand hotel. As a guest of the hotel, you would be able to wander the city, seeing everything for yourself and enjoying the technology and luxuries that are provided within the city limits. Of course, there is much more to the city itself, but we will have to get to that in part 2 because there is just so much to cover.
The last stop and northern-most part of Disney World, like I had said previously, would be the Magic Kingdom. Much like the Magic Kingdom we have today, it would be a similar park to the West coast’s Disneyland. Here guests could enjoy everything about the park before getting back on the monorail going south and heading back to Epcot’s hotel. Of course, there would be plans over time to build new accommodations but when Disney World would open, this would be the main plan.
Stay tuned because we have much more to talk about. This subject deserves more time and that is what it will get. In my next post, we will cover the city of tomorrow in depth and learn what it would be like to live within Disney World.
Be sure to follow Josh Taylor on Twitter at @kidredo. You can read more from Josh at www.disneyparkhistory.wordpress.com
This always reminds me of Thomas More’s Utopia – a place in which I wouldn’t entirely hate to live.