River Country

[jderoche5]

I am sure you all have seen these photos, but I am still shocked Disney has yet to do anything with this land. I spent a lot of time here growing up and it is just depressing to me that it is all still sitting there untouched 13 years later…….

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2344523

[jderoche5]

Video Too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Awn9XFql8I

[Amy]

That is sad. I don't think I have ever seen those photos before. It is actually surprising that the Florida vegetation and heat hasn't taken more of a toll on the equipment. It is strange that they haven't removed it though. Seems like it would be a liability if someone ventured there and got hurt, even if they were technically trespassing.

[jderoche5]

There were rumored plans that they were going to use this area for a pool area for Fort Wilderness, but that never happened. It's just so unDisneylike to me. They hold themselves at such a high standard that this is just unacceptable. I would imagine that they would have to do something with the land….right?

[Amy]

There were rumored plans that they were going to use this area for a pool area for Fort Wilderness, but that never happened. It's just so unDisneylike to me. They hold themselves at such a high standard that this is just unacceptable. I would imagine that they would have to do something with the land….right?

You would think. I scrolled through just a few of the comments and one of them mentioned something about the land being unstable. Although you would think that would make them even more likely to at least tear everything down.

[Wizzard419]

There is also the issue of part of the land using lake water, which has become risky due to the rising temps that allow the deadly "brain eating amoeba" to thrive.

The main reason is still, most likely, that it falls far behind the other two parks in terms of theme and the only thing they could do would be to knock it down and start over. If the demand were high enough they might try it.

[jderoche5]

That water is full of bacteria and unfortunately I saw first hand what it can do to you. I had a bad rash/open sore wounds on my legs about 2-3 after being in the water. It was the grossest and most painful thing I have ever has. The Dr said it was attributed to the fresh stagnant water and the birds that resided there. We had rented a catamaran our last day and the water had splashed up onto my legs through the netting.....needless to say I will never do that again. When I see parents letting their kids play in the water directly by the signs that say to stay out of the water it makes me cringe.

You would think they would want to knock the structures down at least to get some water movement going on. Who knows. With the amount of $$ Disney makes they should be able to come up with some sort of solution. Filtration system or sorts?

[Wizzard419]

In this case, movement won't do anything, it's all about water temps and the apparent droughts that have plagued the region, causing lower water levels in the lakes that push the temperature into the danger zone.

[cousininmiami]

Well it actually doesn't surprise me that Disney has it sitting there doing nothing.... look at Wonders of Life and the Odyssey at EPCOT. The emptiness of those locations are in your face every time you walk around EPCOT. I think they hope we won't notice

[jderoche5]

Epcot has be given the short end of the stick for quite sometime. We got Soarin, Mission Space, Nemo and a refurbed Test Track. We need more love!!! I'd take a new country, a character dinner inside The Odyssey, and a new Imagination Pavilion.

[Wizzard419]

I would say getting E tickets to replace lesser attractions is a pretty good trade off, though to say they get the short end of the stick isn't accurate either. They get the amount of resources they merit.

[cy1229]

I don't think it will be long before the trees and brush completely consume the wooden structures in this area. The slide is made of something not biodegradable (presumably) and will likely remain for a rather long time.

If I recall correctly, and someone else more knowledgeable can chime in and correct me if I don't, Bay Lake was created to drain the rest of the swampy land that is now the MK and MK resort areas. As such, it wouldn't have a natural outflow like other naturally-occurring lakes would, and therefore would be a dead-end for whatever collects on land, in parking lots, in storm sewers, etc. If you think about runoff from cars, sidewalks, and whatever is lying around on the ground (animals are so gross, let's just leave it at that) the water isn't clean at all and would be pretty dangerous. Maybe when River Country was opened, and there were far fewer visitors and less traffic, the water was fine to swim in, but not now. Disney could work on the quality of the water if they wanted to literally dump millions of dollars' worth of sand into the lake to create a bottom that would promote the growth of beneficial plants, sure, the water quality could be improved. They wouldn't have to introduce anything because the water birds and wind would carry eggs, seeds, and such to the lake (and already do). The point of all this ranting is that bringing River Country back to life would mean completely isolating everything from the lake water, having a pumping and purifying system such as is present at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, requiring uprooting everything to install. It's just not worth it. It would be nice to see Disney go in and take out the garbage they left lying around, though, so the land can return to its natural state.

[Amy]

Epcot has be given the short end of the stick for quite sometime. We got Soarin, Mission Space, Nemo and a refurbed Test Track. We need more love!!! I'd take a new country, a character dinner inside The Odyssey, and a new Imagination Pavilion.

I would say getting E tickets to replace lesser attractions is a pretty good trade off, though to say they get the short end of the stick isn't accurate either. They get the amount of resources they merit.

Yeah, Mission Space was a pretty huge addition to Future World. But it would be nice to have something added to the World Showcase

I don't think it will be long before the trees and brush completely consume the wooden structures in this area. The slide is made of something not biodegradable (presumably) and will likely remain for a rather long time.

If I recall correctly, and someone else more knowledgeable can chime in and correct me if I don't, Bay Lake was created to drain the rest of the swampy land that is now the MK and MK resort areas. As such, it wouldn't have a natural outflow like other naturally-occurring lakes would, and therefore would be a dead-end for whatever collects on land, in parking lots, in storm sewers, etc. If you think about runoff from cars, sidewalks, and whatever is lying around on the ground (animals are so gross, let's just leave it at that) the water isn't clean at all and would be pretty dangerous. Maybe when River Country was opened, and there were far fewer visitors and less traffic, the water was fine to swim in, but not now. Disney could work on the quality of the water if they wanted to literally dump millions of dollars' worth of sand into the lake to create a bottom that would promote the growth of beneficial plants, sure, the water quality could be improved. They wouldn't have to introduce anything because the water birds and wind would carry eggs, seeds, and such to the lake (and already do). The point of all this ranting is that bringing River Country back to life would mean completely isolating everything from the lake water, having a pumping and purifying system such as is present at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, requiring uprooting everything to install. It's just not worth it. It would be nice to see Disney go in and take out the garbage they left lying around, though, so the land can return to its natural state.

Good points. I agree that it would probably not be cost effective to try to do something with the area, but it would be nice, as you say, if they cleaned it up at the very least. That wouldn't take very much time or resources I wouldn't think...and it would remove the temptation of people to explore the area and possibly endanger themselves.

[jderoche5]

I don't think it will be long before the trees and brush completely consume the wooden structures in this area. The slide is made of something not biodegradable (presumably) and will likely remain for a rather long time.

If I recall correctly, and someone else more knowledgeable can chime in and correct me if I don't, Bay Lake was created to drain the rest of the swampy land that is now the MK and MK resort areas. As such, it wouldn't have a natural outflow like other naturally-occurring lakes would, and therefore would be a dead-end for whatever collects on land, in parking lots, in storm sewers, etc. If you think about runoff from cars, sidewalks, and whatever is lying around on the ground (animals are so gross, let's just leave it at that) the water isn't clean at all and would be pretty dangerous. Maybe when River Country was opened, and there were far fewer visitors and less traffic, the water was fine to swim in, but not now. Disney could work on the quality of the water if they wanted to literally dump millions of dollars' worth of sand into the lake to create a bottom that would promote the growth of beneficial plants, sure, the water quality could be improved. They wouldn't have to introduce anything because the water birds and wind would carry eggs, seeds, and such to the lake (and already do). The point of all this ranting is that bringing River Country back to life would mean completely isolating everything from the lake water, having a pumping and purifying system such as is present at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, requiring uprooting everything to install. It's just not worth it. It would be nice to see Disney go in and take out the garbage they left lying around, though, so the land can return to its natural state.

Agree 100% with everything you said. At the end of the day they just need to clean up after themselves because it's so unDisneylike to just leave the area as it to rot. Same thing with Discovery Island, but I can see them utilizing this area in the future.

[Wizzard419]

It is actually exactly Disney-like to leave stuff to rot, if nothing is planned and there is no building code demand they take it down, it stays up until they have a use for the space.

With the river country thing, if I recall most of the park was on an isolated/chlorinated system, but the big lake part of it, while divided from the main lake so that they could keep plants and animals from coming in, used water from it which would allow pathogens to flourish.

I actually don't think the water is that dead, in terms of motion/activity. If it were the bodies of water would smell horrible. There is a body of water in Newport Beach called "Back Bay", surrounded by multi-million dollar homes, and for many years it smelled like a sewer because the water was stagnant. They finally got so fed up with it they demanded the county pay to have machines come through regularly and move the water/mud to make the smell go away.