The TL;DW? Disney Springs is a town in Florida, and now it's gentrified. "What if there were a beautiful natural springs in Florida that a whole town was built on, and, over time, that town was converted into a retail, dining and entertainment venue?" Skees said in the video.
Disney Springs is supposed to thematically unify the three areas of the now-Downtown Disney: The Marketplace, Pleasure Island, and the West Side. But this isn't Disney's first attempt to create a theme for this area.
Who remembers Merriweather Pleasure? Okay, put your hands down — we're all geeks here. Let's rephrase: What percentage of Walt Disney World Resort guests over the past 25 years ever realized that there was a backstory to Pleasure Island and that it involved a guy named Merriweather Pleasure?
If anyone recognized "Pleasure Island" from Disney canon, they likely thought it was that place where Pinocchio and his buddies got turned into donkeys after a night of booze, cigars and fighting. Disney tried to retcon the name with the Merriweather Pleasure stuff, but the negative association with the more well-known Pinocchio reference never helped. Not that many people cared — Pleasure Island lived and died by the quality and selection of its clubs. (And this is where we pour one out for the Adventurers' Club.)
Which is a long way of getting to the point that, ultimately, the backstory of Disney Springs doesn't matter as much as Disney's ability to create a coherent design for the entire area that helps make it a place people want to visit. Downtown Disney suffers from parking and capacity problems exacerbated by its design and placement within the Walt Disney World Resort. Ideally, Disney Springs will transforms this area into a more welcoming public space that can accommodate not just a better variety of shops and restaurants that people want to visit, but also the physical demands of those crowds.
New parking, access roads and other infrastructure improvements provide a foundation for the Disney Springs project. If creating a backstory for the place (as slight as this one appears to be, from the video) allows Disney's Imagineers to designate a specific visual style for the area, that can help in creating a more appealing and welcoming design on top of all that new infrastructure. The idea is to make people more likely to look forward to a visit to Disney Springs than they have to a visit to Downtown Disney — whether they know any of this new backstory or not.
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The statement that at WDI "story comes first" is still good to hear. I hope it holds true throughout the project and that the bean counters fund whatever it is the Imagineers think they need to do to make Disney Springs into something that is thematically state of the art.
Some terrific changes and additions are coming from the talented people at WDI. I am very much looking forward to the next seven years at WDW as they build up to the 40th anniversary of the resort.
Walt's theme parks were never about "story." They were about immersing you in a transportive experience. Movies, TV shows & Books are about story. The best theme park attractions (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, even the Harry Potter *lands*) are not about story in the narrative sense.
I wish WDI spent less money on pointless backstory, and more time doing decent work: no ruining the scale of New Orleans Square with oversize windows that add little to the inside, no dollhouses posing as "forced perspective" architecture, no blank walls on "premium" supposedly Victorian-era time shares that may be beautiful within but look like any other nice Radisson on the outside.
What a waste...
The guy seem so animated, but at the same time, trying very hard to sell it. It was a hard sell. I'm not convinced the backstory makes sense, but the design is nice yet a little too sedated. For instance, when I take the boat ride from Disney's Old Key West Resort to Downtown Disney, I expect Excitement, not more of the sleepy style from where I came from. Will people call it Disney Springs or Downtown Disney? Or people can call it Disney Springs Resort.
Not sure why there is such negative feelings about this plan. DTD needed major rehab and it has happened. If it is going to compete with Citywalk, it needs to upgrade. Heck, even Citywalk has upgraded this year.
Just spent the day at Epcot. Place was packed but I don't know why. I'm kinda done with Disney until they start putting "story" into new attractions.
As far as the tracks: Miami-Dade (County) Transit runs an elevated rapid transit system with cars and tracks just like NYC and Chicago.
I have always thought that with some effort, Downtown Disney could really be a neat area, but it has never quite been 100% there. Maybe this full-on commitment to the area will make it more of a can't-miss destination.
To me, the current iteration of Downtown Disney is sub-par in the area of good restaurants when compared to Universal's Citywalk (minus NBA City, why does this place still exist??). Disney really needs to bring in some better, quality choices for dining.
The TRex Cafe atmosphere is neat to see, but do I really want to pay $15 for a very average burger?
The one spot of D-Disney that impressed me during my trip this last January was the Irish pub. I walked by it at night and there was a great Irish-Celtic band playing outside. I probably stood there for a good 10-15 minutes listening to them play. I probably would have stayed and had a few drinks there if I wasn't driving by myself. If D-Disney could have more spots with talented bands playing various genres outside, it would be a lot better in my opinion.
I do like walking over to the area where the old paddle boat is because it reminds me when I was a wee young lad in the 80's and the place was called Walt Disney World Village. It has definitely grown since then.
The high-line style converted elevated thing is very big right now. In NY the project was a true conversion from an old elevated rail line, but if you've walked on it, you know that it's a great way to add a sense of place. I think the highline aspect of this Disney Springs project is the most interesting and potentially game-changing to the feel of the space. They were also competing with Citywalk, which is more compact and vertical than DTD. Even the new Diagon Alley adds a (non-functional) elevated train track, which is an essential feature to framing Gringott's, and providing a dense urban feel in the middle of a Florida theme park.
Disney took that idea with the original PI, "let's make it look like old industrial warehouses--what a fun night club setting!" and came up with the Merriweather Pleasure backstory. While convoluted, at least it was a fun explanation for a bunch of warehouses, especially for those Dads standing outside a store reading a plaque while his wife shopped.
Yesterworld's faux warehouses are today's faux High Line.
But a "story"? Please. It's still a freaking shopping mall/restaurant row. It doesn't need a "story". Stop it Disney- you're trying too hard.
There once was a duck paddling in the pound. He envisioned a huge outdoor shopping and dining complex with overpriced made in china souvenirs and mediocre food for high prices for their hostages on WDW property. His name was Scrooge McDuck.
My grandkids are more and more Universal fans and even skipped Disney on the last trip. Why? Because Universal creates the old fashioned experience for your money. Disney seems to be just in it for the money--another gift shop where a ride used to be. I know let's imagine a whole mall....maybe like EPCOT they will even pay to eat.
Ever notice the wait time apps now show that the Universal lines are getting longer and Disney ones shorter.
Disney Springs...What a joke!
Sounds like a bunch of Universal employees. You do realize that families with small children don't go out and party at night at Margaritaville at City Walk, right?
Get a little perspective people.
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