WestCOT

WestCOT
	Illustration of the built property
Location	Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California, U.S.
Status	Cancelled
Owner	The Walt Disney Company
Operated by	Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Theme	Technological innovation and international culture

Last updated July 12, 2023

WestCOT was a planned second theme park for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was essentially a replica of EPCOT Center at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and was dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely technological innovation and international culture. The park was represented by SpaceStation Earth, a larger version of the geodesic sphere Spaceship Earth featured at EPCOT Center.

In the 1990s, The Walt Disney Company expanded the original Disneyland Park into a multi-park, multi-resort business model. Intended to be the centerpiece of the revamping, WestCOT was announced in 1991, though financial restraints contributed to its cancellation in 1995. Its planned site later housed the complex's second theme park Disney California Adventure Park, opened in 2001.

History

In 1991, Disney announced plans to build WestCOT on the site of the Disneyland parking lot.^[1] It was themed around a utopian vision of the future, similar to EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World, and it was planned to be the first Disney theme park to contain hotels within the park.

Several issues arose that would ultimately lead to the project's cancellation. It required a significant land acquisition, though residential areas built around Disneyland caused land prices to skyrocket, and thousands of residents wanted to be relocated. Residents claimed that the park's light pollution was too much to bear at night, and that the replica of Spaceship Earth would have become an eyesore. With estimates hovering close to $3 billion and the company's significant financial problems with the recently opened Disneyland Resort Paris, the project was scrapped in 1995.^[1] CEO Michael Eisner held a three-day executive retreat in Aspen, Colorado to come up with a new idea, and from that meeting of about thirty executives came the idea for a California-themed park.^[1] That project became Disney California Adventure, which opened in 2001 on the property that WestCOT was to occupy.

The idea of building a resort hotel within a theme park was later realized with Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which opened in 2001. Hotel guests are able to access Disney California Adventure through an entrance at the northwest corner of the park.

Areas

Future World

A shuttle system was going to be planned to transport guests from the parking lot to the center of WestCOT, which would have been dubbed the "Center Court". In Future World, a 300-foot replica of the 180-foot Spaceship Earth from EPCOT Center, named SpaceStation Earth (it was supposed to be golden instead of white), was going to be built. Although plans were made for a giant white spire to be at the center of Future World, residents of the surrounding neighborhoods complained of the proposed size of the structure. An attraction similar to Adventure Thru Inner Space was cloned to WestCOT as Cosmic Journeys. Improved clones of EPCOT Center attractions were also planned for Future World, including Horizons, World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination, Universe of Energy, The Living Seas, Wonders of Life, and The Land.

World Showcase

World Showcase was cloned, though countries were grouped by regions rather than individual nations. The first pavilion that guests saw upon entering WestCOT’S World Showcase was the Americas Pavilion, with an area representing the early 20th century United States at the park's entrance. The theme of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland was continued, as the parks’ gateways were facing each other across a central plaza. The American Adventure in EPCOT Center had been cloned and updated. A First Nations Spirit Lodge show was shown in the Canadian section and an indoor Mexican area included a fiesta show and restaurant. There was another spirit show, featuring the Inca and Aztec cultures.

One of the centerpiece attractions was the World Cruise, which was intended to be a boat cruise around the World Showcase. Audio animatronics scenes were used to depict many of the events shown, including Leonardo da Vinci working on the Mona Lisa, the burning of Rome, and Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. After the show's conclusion, guests could board the next boat to continue the cruise or explore the rest of the area on foot. A clone of the attraction The Timekeeper was made to be built in the European section.

In Asia, Ride the Dragon, a steel roller coaster running through the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains had cars designed like Chinese lion-dragons seen in festival dances. At the point where the coaster was at its peak height, enabling riders to see out of the park, the moving cars would be engulfed in billowing red and gold silks to hide the outside world. For smaller children, there was a carousel in this area of mythical Asian animals. Architecturally, the Asian Corner was composed of Japanese and Chinese elements and a white marble Indian palace which housed the dining and entertainment sections of this particular Corner of the World.

The African Corner featured a white water river raft ride down the fictional Congobezi River, as well as an exhibit on basic farming culture. There was outdoor entertainment in the form of African drummers. There were also designs to build a grand Egyptian Palace; the latter was agreed for the park’s first expansion.

Based on the concept image, there was a hotel inspired by the Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in Walt Disney World.

Regions names and brief designs

London – Was an iconic showing of the famous city in England featuring "Big Ben".
New York – Went with the American City Pavilion
Africa
Asia
Paris – Housed the Eiffel Tower
Tokyo
China
Toronto

Related Research Articles

The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, or simply abbreviated WDW, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly 25,000 acres, of which half has been used. The resort comprises four theme parks, two water parks, 31 themed resort hotels, nine non-Disney hotels, several golf courses, a camping resort, and other entertainment venues, including the outdoor shopping center Disney Springs.

Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unrealized concept of the same name developed by Walt Disney, the park opened on October 1, 1982, as EPCOT Center, and was the second of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. The park spans 305 acres, more than twice the size of Magic Kingdom. Often referred to as a "permanent world's fair", Epcot is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, particularly technological innovation and international culture.

The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, shortened to EPCOT or E.P.C.O.T., is an unfinished concept for a planned community, intended to sit on a massive swath of undeveloped land near Orlando, Florida, that was developed by Walt Disney in collaboration with the designers at Walt Disney Imagineering in the 1960s. Based on ideas stemming from modernism and futurism, and inspired by architectural literature about city planning, Disney intended EPCOT to be a utopian autocratic company town. One of the primary stated aims of EPCOT was to replace urban sprawl as the organizing force of community planning in the United States in the 1960s. Disney intended EPCOT to be a real city, and it was planned to feature commercial, residential, industrial and recreational centers, connected by a mass multimodal transportation system, that would, he said, "Never cease to be a living blueprint of the future."

Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. The 72-acre (29 ha) park is themed after Disney's interpretation of California, which is manifested through the use of various Disney, Pixar and Marvel Studios properties. The park opened on February 8, 2001, as Disney's California Adventure Park and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland Park.

Soarin', also known as Soarin' Over California, Soarin' Around The World, Soaring Over the Horizon and Soaring: Fantastic Flight, is a flight motion simulator attraction at Disney California Adventure, Epcot, Shanghai Disneyland, and Tokyo DisneySea. It employs a mechanical lift system, a projected presentation on an 80 ft (24 m) concave 180-degree dome screen, and artificial scents and wind to simulate a hang gliding flight over locations in six of the world's continents. Many consider it the first flying theater.

The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels, and a shopping, dining, and entertainment district known as Downtown Disney.

Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, the park opened on October 1, 1971, as "Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom", the first of four theme parks at the resort. The park was initialized by Walt Disney and designed by WED Enterprises. Its layout and attractions are based on Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, and are dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.

Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Inc., formerly Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's three major business segments and a division of that company. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, just outside of Orlando.

Tomorrowland is one of the many "themed lands" featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions that depict views of the future. Disneyland Park in Paris includes a similar area called Discoveryland, which shares some elements with other Tomorrowlands but emphasizes visions of the future inspired by Jules Verne.

Spaceship Earth is a dark ride attraction at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. The geodesic sphere in which the attraction is housed has served as the symbolic structure of Epcot since the park opened in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happiest Homecoming on Earth</span>

The Happiest Homecoming on Earth or the Happiest Celebration on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park, which opened on July 17, 1955. It commemorated fifty years of Disney theme parks and celebrated Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks all over the globe. The "Homecoming" name was only used for Disneyland Resort; all the other Disney Parks resorts used the "Celebration" name.

This program has been replaced by Disney Imagination Campus which includes all performing groups and field trip ticket-only youth groups.

The Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration was an event at the Walt Disney World Resort as part of millennium celebrations held around the world. Running from October 1, 1999 to January 1, 2001, the celebration was primarily based at Epcot, with its emphasis on human potential and the possibilities of the future.

The France Pavilion is a French-themed pavilion that is part of the World Showcase within Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Its location is between the Morocco and United Kingdom pavilions.

The United Kingdom Pavilion is a British-themed pavilion that is part of the World Showcase, within Epcot at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States. The pavilion represents the four countries of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is located between the France and Canada pavilions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japan Pavilion at Epcot</span> Pavilion of World Showcase in Epcot

The Japan Pavilion is a Japanese-themed pavilion that is part of the World Showcase, within Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, United States. Its location is between The American Adventure and Morocco pavilions.

Disney Sea was an aquatic-themed amusement park proposed by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney Sea, California was unveiled on July 31,1990 as one part of the Disney Decade Expansion. This part of the expansion would be focused on the development of Disney Port, as part of the canceled resort complex, Port Disney, in Long Beach, California.

Remy's Ratatouille Adventure also known as Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy is a motion-based trackless 3D dark ride, based on the 2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille, located at Disneyland Paris's Walt Disney Studios Park in France and at Walt Disney World's France Pavilion at Epcot.

References

1 2 3 Merissa Marr, Disney's $1 Billion Adventure (Page B1), The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2007.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[WSJ101707-1] 1 2 3 Merissa Marr, Disney's $1 Billion Adventure (Page B1), The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2007.

[1]