When Walt Disney announced his plans for the enigmatic “Florida Project,” one of the things that excited him most was the sheer size of his plot of land in Central Florida. While Disneyland has always been and will always be one of the great theme parks on the planet, its relatively small size will always limit the Imagineers’ creativity when designing new and exciting attractions. They often look for ways to improve or replace old attractions in such a way that each one earns its spot in the park – there’s no room for a waste of space.
This is not the case in Orlando.
The size of Walt Disney World allows its attractions to be reviewed to a slightly lesser standard. That doesn’t mean that Disney World’s attractions are worse in any way – it simply means that Imagineers are less aggressive about replacing attractions, because there’s less of a premium on real estate.
The result of this is that there are a few attractions at Walt Disney World that, despite taking up a relatively large footprint, simply fail to make good use of it for entertaining and accommodating guests. And, even in this failure, don’t seem to be in any imminent danger of being replaced.
Let’s take a look at five attractions and locations whose square footage vastly outweigh their true quality.
(Note: You’ll notice that not one of Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ attractions appears on this list. That’s not because they’re above criticism, but rather, that park is currently in the process of undergoing an overhaul. The attractions that do waste space there are, for the most part, disappearing.)
1. Odyssey Restaurant
I’m listing this first for a few reasons, but most notably, this is the location that Disney could simply tear down tomorrow without anyone really being upset about it.
The Odyssey Restaurant opened in 1982 and technically falls in Future World if you like to get technical about these things. When it was open, it served your usual Disney fast food fare, and even offered a Chuck-E-Cheese-style character meal of sorts in the late ’80s and early ’90s. There was first aid, restrooms, and other such services on site – all before the restaurant closed in 1994.
And, ever since, it’s just kind of … stood there. Occasionally, Disney puts it to use as a location for seminars at one of their festivals or for corporate rentals and things like that, but on the whole, the Odyssey Restaurant has, since 1994, mostly been a big ol’ waste of space.
Think about it: That spot between Test Track and Mexico is one of the more highly-trafficked areas in Epcot. It serves as a transition between Future World and the World Showcase, and it provides an awesome storytelling opportunity. Even architecturally, the building remains interesting after all these years – even though its mostly dormant.
Disney could put this spot to use as either a fine dining location or as another attraction, and it would be far less frustrating to see. Or, perhaps, they could have put an Arendelle pavilion there and spared all of the Malestrom angst. But I digress.
2. Tomorrowland Speedway
For such a simple attraction, the idea of Tomorrowland Speedway is kind of hard to wrap your head around. It’s not a bad ride, per se, but it isn’t the greatest ride – and, notably, the draw of it wears off somewhere around the age of 10. At that point, it simply becomes a confusing site: “We’re in the future, and yet the future is powered by gasoline and rubber tires?”
However, for those under the age of 10, the Tomorrowland Speedway offers the rare chance to get behind the wheel of a car and experience a facsimile of the freedom of the road.
And so, perhaps more than any other attraction on this list, the problem with Tomorrowland Speedway isn’t so much the attraction itself as it is the amount of space that it takes up. If you eyeball it on Google Maps (a fantastic pastime for any Disney fan), you’ll see that it takes up an area only slightly smaller than the New Fantasyland expansion. That’s a lot of space – space that could be used for any number of other attractions, giving Disney the ability to expand an otherwise small land.
Yes, there’s a grand tradition of these types of rides at Disney’s parks, going all the way back to Autopia at Disneyland. However, we’re now living in a time where cars like these seem not only anachronistic, but downright destructive to the planet. Disney can do better with that space – especially for an area ostensibly about “Tomorrow.”
3. The Outpost
Much like with Tomorrowland Speedway, I don’t actually have much of an issue with the Outpost as an attraction. In fact, I quite like it. I think it breaks up the pace of the World Showcase nicely, and, I think its African motif is different enough from the mostly-European backdrop of the Showcase that it provides a cool visual break.
My problem with The Outpost is actually that it is covering up a secret: Behind the Outpost is one of the largest undeveloped pieces of property in Epcot.
You see, when Epcot was first built, Disney made sure to leave enough space in World Showcase to allow for other countries to have pavilions built in their honor as the park’s life went on. Most of these, however, have gone unused – the most recently built pavilion was Norway in 1988.
And so, instead of having an epic Russian-themed pavilion, or a grand Spain pavilion, or a faithfully-recreated Brazil pavilion, we get a relatively half-hearted and ambiguous African outpost. And, that outpost is rendered all the less impressive if one visits Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
In all, the Outpost is just one representative of Disney’s failed use of space in the World Showcase. The World ShowPlace event space – an area originally intended as a temporary event space for the Millenium Village – similarly uses one of those planned plot of land in a way that doesn’t entirely make sense. If Disney’s ever going to fix Epcot, which they need to do, a quick and unobtrusive way to do it would be to make better use of this space.
4. Chester and Hester’s DinoRama
Unlike the other attractions on this list, I actually do have a great deal of disdain for Chester and Hester’s DinoRama at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I think that it’s visually unappealing, cynical, and is a black mark on what is one of the most beautiful theme parks in the world.
But, my personal feelings aside, it’s hard not to look at it and conclude that its space could be better used on another area or attraction.
It’s size is really not that much smaller than the footprint of its neighbor, Dinosaur – if Disney wanted to add another dinosaur-themed attraction on that level, but maybe a bit more kid-friendly, there’s no way that wouldn’t be better than the off-the-shelf rides Disney currently has there. Or, if you look at the beautiful work done in the Harambe Village in the African section of the park, it’s a wonder the tacky tourist trap aesthetic of DinoRama is allowed to stick around.
Ultimately, people love dinosaurs. People will always love dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are cool, and the more attractions you can have that share how cool dinosaurs are with guests, the happier those guests will be. As it stands now, DinoRama doesn’t do that, and so, really, it’s wasting its space and its opportunity to connect with guests.
5. Wonders of Life
Image: Disney
You could make an argument that there’s no bigger metaphor for wasted space on Disney property than the Wonders of Life pavilion. This pavilion used to house an E-Ticket attraction in Body Wars, a beloved animatronic show called Cranium Command, and countless other films and exhibits that taught guests about health, fitness, and life.
Now, it’s basically a convention center.
Disney uses the Wonders of Life pavilion as a festival hub for their Food and Wine Festival and Flower and Garden Festival. They use it to host workshops and sell merchandise, and, for the most part, that’s all well and good. Both of those festivals are wonderful events, and anything that can be done to make them more amazing is welcome.
But, it’s hard not to look at the beautiful exterior of the old Wonders of Life pavilion and feel like it’s a missed opportunity. Disney could host those seminars anywhere – they could even purpose-build a festival hub somewhere else in the parks – but instead, they choose to do it in a pavilion built for twice the capacity. It doesn’t make sense beyond its cost-effectiveness.
When you look at how far we as a country have come in terms of our interest in health and fitness, and when you look at what currently is housed in the Wonders of Life pavilion, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that Disney is simply being wasteful.
Yes, Walt Disney World has a ton of space, and that space is one of the greatest things about it. It gives Disney the ability to wow us with the scale of their attractions. It gives them the room to expand and grow in a way that their nearby competitors at Universal can only dream of. It makes us all feel more immersed in the magical world when we stay there on our vacations.
But, the size of Walt Disney World has given Disney a bit more laziness when master-planning its use of space. At Disneyland, they have to manically ensure that every inch of space is being used well, but at Disney World, the vast space removes any urgency with which Disney feels the need to operate. Hopefully, at some point, they’ll realize they can’t simply leave these empty or poorly used spaces as they are. They’ve remedied similar issues in Fantasyland, and they’re working on them at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Who knows – hopefully one of these attractions is next on the list.
