The Unofficial Guide to Things They Hope You Don't Notice

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 3:53 am

This is an idea born to a few of us ornery types out of the discussion of the ruins of River Country. Why does Disney leave River Country there where people can see it? Why is half of Pop Century unfinished (and scary looking) in plain view?

Either they really believe that "nobody will look", or they figure once they drop something off the map and out of the guidebook, not enough people will realize there's anything still there to notice.

The idea behind this thread, then, is:

napastoy wrote:Maybe calling unwanted attention to the areas so that people DO LOOK would cause them to re-think the "leave and neglect" method.

with the theory being that people who are interested in Disney enough to look up internet forums like this one might just be interested enough to see some of the vestiges of the past. The idea, I might add, is not to encourage anyone to get cited for trespassing, so we're not looking for maps to 'offstage' or ways to circumvent security. Ideally, we're looking to 'out' bad show. The four tenets for cast members in the parks (so I've been told) are Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency - in that order. Maybe leaving River Country to rot is 'efficient' (maybe), but shouldn't the Show still be more important?

This discussion is open to anyone - feel free to contribute if you can think of something in or around the parks that you know isn't "neat and pretty" but the powers that be leave lying in plain view anyway. Pictures are welcome; I know there are a lot of them out there. Perhaps the more we can call attention to - the more people on the boats between Fort Wilderness and the Magic Kingdom who ask "Hey, what's that heap of rubble over there?" - the more likely we are to compel them to change.

If not, then at least we'll have an interesting collection of park-eology.

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I figure I'll get things started with a link back to the Creepy Pop Century video I posted a while back. This is in plain view of anyone staying at the finished side of Pop Century. I wonder if anyone ever asks at the front desk "What the heck is that bombed-out looking building over there??"

Peerless83 · Post by **Peerless83** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 6:47 am

how about why they keep Stich's great escape around...YIKES!!!

Post by **rdeacon** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 8:59 am

The Pop Century ghost town is one of the worst eyesores on Disney property. Its horrendous and should have never happened. I am surprised they didn't it down and left it in such a dilapidated state. Its really an eyesore.

Here are a couple that fall under this topic:

Skyway loading areas in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
Wonders of Life pavilion: when its not used for Flower and Food and Wine Festivals
Journey to Imagination: Um 2nd floor..hello

Rich

wdwannabe · Post by **wdwannabe** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 9:18 am

Those are great examples.

Something that turned out to be good, was the Treehouse Villas........ they will be opening soon, and they were just sitting there not in use.

MW1218 · Post by **MW1218** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 9:29 am

Is it too snarky of me to say the sides of the ride vehicle on the Spaceship Earth backwards descent?

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 9:30 am

Good topic DisBeamer!

rdeacon already took mine...every time we go to MK, I always look at the loading/unloading areas for the Skyway and I say "I can't believe they've left those vacant all these years!!!" You can also see where the posts used to be in the pavement, not an eye sore, but you can tell it was used for something else at one point.

Until the creepy Pop Century video was posted in here, I didn't know that existed, definately an eye sore! And of course River Country, I remember going then when I was a child. I can't believe Disney has done nothing with that, just letting it rot.

Peerless83 · Post by **Peerless83** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 10:06 am

So, is the unfinished version of pop century kind of like Disney's version of Area 51? We all know it exists, they hope we don't ask questions, and if we go explore for ourselves...cast members dressed in while suits will come and throw us into some underground Disney detention center?

Mark86 · Post by **Mark86** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 11:20 am

In rides like POCT and IASW, they keep it dark so you don't see how dirty the water is.

Peerless83 · Post by **Peerless83** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 11:43 am

You mean its not clean drinking water? Explains the typhoid I recently recovered from.

Atomic · Post by **Atomic** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 12:43 pm

I know this is about WDW, but these are the things that make me sad when I visit Disneyland:

People Mover/Rocket Rods tracks
Motor boat cruise lagoon

I'm glad they finally did something with the submarine area.

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 1:17 pm

wdwannabe wrote:Those are great examples.

Something that turned out to be good, was the Treehouse Villas........ they will be opening soon, and they were just sitting there not in use.

To be fair, they were in use until recently. They housed the International College Program interns. They were then torn down, and now rebuilt to reopen this summer.

And I agree about the descent of Spaceship Earth even though your eyes are supposed to be glued to the screen

Peerless83 · Post by **Peerless83** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 2:06 pm

Im not a big judy dench or however you spell her name..fan...bring back Scar!

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 2:57 pm

As much as it is terribly depressing, I get a perverse enjoyment out of seeing the rotting corpse of River Country. At least it's still there, in some form, and I can go look at it and relive some great memories...even if it does give me nightmares of zombies having a good time, splashing around in their own filth, little kid zombies throwing their limbs playfully at each other, pouring lemonade on their open wounds, etc.

Um, anyway.

I'd nominate the nature walk at Fort Wilderness, which is still listed as an attraction on the maps (which are now photocopied instead of printed for budget reasons). It used to feature a nice walk through the wetlands on a boardwalk, but after a hurricane trashed it, it was never rebuilt.

When I last visited, the obviously-truncated trail ended unceremoniously in a mud puddle, but if you follow the old path for just a few yards into the woods, you can see the purposely demolished (with power tools) beginning of the boardwalk.

If you keep going, however, you'll see that most of the decaying remains of the old boardwalk were not removed. I walked along the creepy, creaking structure for a while before my foot almost went right through a hole created by a broken plank. I realized that it was probably more dangerous to walk on the rotting wood than on the ground, and eventually I turned back when I hit swamp.

Surely a nice excursion for the modern outdoorsy zombie. Or maybe Swamp Thing.

As a bonus, there's an unusable rotting cabin with moss growing over all the shingles, which would be perfect for an Evil Dead movie, assuming it's larger inside than out.

I'd also nominate the space station at the top of Spaceship Earth which has been painted black (or papered over). The cloaking device can be penetrated by the deployment of flash bulb technology. I would link in the pictures someone posted here on subsonic, but I don't remember where they are.

yodiwan1 · Post by **yodiwan1** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 10:33 pm

One thing I cant stand is when you are in any attraction, such as Soarin', where they use a video...and there is a fly or something in the way and you see it!!!

Admiral01 · Post by **Admiral01** » Apr Thu 30, 2009 11:23 pm

I may be in the minority here, but I think the Mission: SPACE pavilion is poorly designed to fit in EPCOT. Each pavilion has/had such a cool distinct shape. Then they went and tore down Horizons and built a boring rectangular building with a facade on the front. Its a couple globes with a space ship...looks more like it would fit at DHS or MK. I always notice how much it stands out when I am at EPCOT.