I hear the question from time to time, "What Would Walt Do?"
How different do you think the Disney empire would be today if someone went back in a time machine and convinced Walt to not take up smoking, and therefore not getting cancer and passing away in 1966?

The Florida Park(s) would still be here as they originated with Walt. Would there be as many there as there is now or would they be one GIANT park? Would EPCOT be as it is today or more aligned with Walt's vision of tommorrow?

What do you all think?
Let's daydream on this one.

I would (thankfully) have no clue who Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss were.

Walt's surviving daughter, Diane, reports that the question most often asked of her is "What would your dad think of..." To which, she usually replies, "I have no idea what my dad would have thought."

So if Walt's own closest living relative won't speculate on what he might have done, I doubt that any of us can feel confident in our predictions.

(But I do like the thought of not knowing who Paul and Cynthia are. And, hopefully, DCA would just mean Department of Consumer Affairs to me!)

Having said that, I suspect that Walt would have found a way to open Epcot as originally envisioned: an actual city. There would have been some serious cultural bumps -- the restriction that all single ladies entertaining gentlemen callers would need to leave their front doors open would have run afoul of the free-spirited 1970's -- but, eventually, it would have been a success.

I further suspect that Walt would have focused heavily on technology, initially as a way to tell better stories in films and in the Parks, but eventually as an on-line community. He seemed to believe that the more that people communicate with, and understand, each other, the better their chances of getting along with one another. It would not have surprised me to see Disney create an Compuserve/AOL-type entity.

(You may scoff at this idea, but Walt repeatedly demonstrated that he could see the potential in unexploited mediums: there had been cartoons before Snow White, but no one had believed that animation could move an audience to tears; similarly, there had been "amusement parks" for decades before Disneyland, but Walt saw the potential to actually take people through a 3D story in the form of a "theme park". So, in the fledgling days of the ARPANET, who's to say that he wouldn't have created a "safe haven" for on-line experiences?)

Of course, this is just pure speculation. The only thing that is absolutely certain is that Walt deserved more time.

As member (and often antagonist) on on-line Disney boards, I must say your interpretation--to me--smacks about as close as I imagine Walt Disney would want. Nice job, CP 173.

As I was walking through Fantasyland at WDW yesterday, I was thinking about how much of the original Florida park was a copy of Disneyland. I've read most of the (reputable) biographies of Walt and lots of interviews with people who worked directly with him and I strongly believe that had Walt lived until opening day, it would have been a lot different.

Almost five years passed from Walt's death until WDW opened. Look at how much Walt changed in the first 5 years of Disneyland... look at all that Walt did for the World's Fair in less than 2 years... I just can't imagine Walt agreeing to build a copy of an existing park and not wanting to 'plus' it along the way.

I know that some say that he would have put all of his attention into building the EPCOT that he wanted, but was there ever a time in Walt's life when he focused on just one thing at a time? Was there ever a situation when he said "we could make that better, but let's not bother"?

I agree that we will never know what Walt would have done, but we have a pretty good idea of what he wouldn't have done... left things as they were when they could have been improved!

just my $0.02

Good points, SteamFan. Walt disliked sequels; there were too many new stories that needed telling. Also, he believed that it was very difficult to top a hit: as he famously said when the sequel to the Three Little Pigs failed, "You can't top pigs with pigs." The reason that there's a Magic Kingdom in Florida at all is because Roy convinced Walt that one was needed to help pay for EPCOT.

Although much of the detail design work was done after Walt's passing, the Magic Kingdom still has some of his fingerprints on it. The castle is where it is because Walt marked the spot for it. He also wanted to avoid the crowded feeling of Disneyland and especially the tacky strip malls and hotels that had sprung up around the Anaheim Park. That's why you don't drive your car right up to the Magic Kingdom: he wanted every visitor to feel like it was a special destination and not just another stop on the road, which is why the only ways to approach it were by ferry or monorail (the bus stop was added later).

So, even though Walt agreed to a theme park similar in concept to Disneyland, I suspect that very little of it would have been an exact duplicate of Anaheim had Walt been able to guide it through opening day. He might have even eliminated Tomorrowland, for two primary reasons: 1) it was always Disneyland's problem child in that it was too difficult to keep it ahead of the technology curve; and, 2) EPCOT, as originally envisioned, would have rendered it somewhat redundant (PeopleMovers were the primary mode of transport in EPCOT, so why have a small-scale version of them in the Magic Kingdom?)

Even though the thoughts of what might have been are intriguing, I feel grateful that Walt lived long enough to achieve what he did. Had that polo injury he suffered been more serious, we might have never known the Mousketeers, the Wonderful World of Color, Mary Poppins or Disneyland.

These are some great responses to my post.
Thanks for all the thought and heart you guys put into your replies.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Take care,
Todd

I have some questions to go along with these posts.

First of all did Walt specify anything on the gauge of the WDWRR. Maybe he would have built it as a standard gauge to include service to other areas planned in his head. This way he could use bigger equipment and avoid the loading/unloading headache that happened with the RETLAW cars.

My other question is this. Where is the Matterhorn in the MK? In my opion it is the only ride I missed when visiting WDW. I understand the talk about WDW's MK not being an exact copy, but it still has to be one of my DL favorites. (BTMRR, POC, HM, & Matterhorn for the record)

Next of all do you think that Walt would have his own apartment built in EPCOT, instead of in the castle?

Just some of the ramblings from my head.

I'll have to check with Michael Broggie, but I don't believe that Walt specified anything about the WDWRR other than that there was to be one. Walt died in 1966, and Roger Broggie didn't acquire the locomotives in Mexico until 1969. I do know that Roger suggested using larger narrow gauge engines because of the 2% grades they'd face.

It doesn't seem likely that Walt would have specified standard gauge. Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom are built on a variety of scales, but most of it employs forced perspective. This was something of a necessity in Anaheim because there's wasn't enough room for full-size structures. But, even if there was an abundance of land, Walt wanted an intimate feel for the Parks; something that wouldn't intimidate children. The Magic Kingdom does have the luxury of space, and it's reasonable to assume that Walt would have utilized some of that to avoid the crowding experienced at Disneyland. But it's hard to imagine that he'd allow too many "real world" dimensions in the Park, and standard gauge trains might have felt too big, and therefore too ordinary, for his Park.

For example, the C. K. Holliday, if it were built to standard gauge size, would be 19' to the top of the stack. That's a fairly big engine and -- while pretty -- wouldn't feel quite as "magical". Cinderella's Castle dwarfs Sleeping Beauty's castle, but is still much smaller than a "real life" castle such as Neuschwanstein.

As for the Matterhorn, I'm sure there's a story behind its obvious omission from the Magic Kingdom. While Florida attractions such as POTC and the Haunted Mansion are not carbon copies of their West Coast counterparts, the fact remains that they are there. The Matterhorn opened in 1959 and was very popular at the time they designed the Magic Kingdom. So, why isn't there a large bobsled-style attraction at that Park? That would be a good question for someone like Marty Sklar or Bob Gurr.

Personally, I don't doubt Walt would have had a place to sleep at each of the Parks he built. This would have been more a matter of practicality than privilege: his apartment at Disneyland wasn't built to entertain guests, but as a place for him to sleep when he'd put in 18+ hour days at the Park. The Royal Apartments above POTC would have been better suited for entertaining guests, but the primary driver continued to be a sleeping place for the man who was always working. In that EPCOT was intended to be a residential community, it stands to reason that he'd have a residence there. But, this would have likely been in addition to the Castle suite, not instead of it, because EPCOT would have opened years after the Magic Kingdom debuted.

Thanks for the reply! I had to ask to get other's thoughts.