Disney, Epcot and Oklahoma

[bombermwc]

Yeah, I don't really see it happening, but it would make geographical sense...right smack dab between FL and CA. But really, I don't see a park coming here....although it would be incredible awesome....as long as it's not a Jr. version like we have with craptastic Frontier City.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Disney will never build here until we stop insisting on having a 14' tall buffalo in front of the park.

[animeGhost]

No. The state cannot legally take land they don't own and sell it (or give it) to a private corporation. To do so would require a change in the Constitution, or at least a Supreme Court Opinion overruling a Supreme Court Opinion from last year (ain't gonna happen).

The law would also have to be a general law, not a special one.. so it couldn't be the 'Disney Land Seizure Act of 2009" or whatever.

I'm certain that if a company such as Disney were to wish to purchase land in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, Disney would probably in fairly short order be able to purchase the land needed for their new park.

This just seems all ridiculously unlikely to me though. Our airport infrastructure would require BILLIONS in upgrades, not to mention our highways. Where is all of that money going to come from?

it would be very possible even with the current airport... of course they'd have to build a new terminal or two (WRWA does have plenty of land for this) but if u look back at orlando when the original disney world was built it was nothing more than a small city with lots of land and if they could do it so could we... i often feel this "we probably couldn't do it anyway" attitude we get often around here is why oklahoma has progressed so little when compared to other cities or states. imho.

[ETL]

What about the world’s largest indoor theme park. It could be open all year long and maybe have a retractable roof. The ceiling could be glass or be painted to look like the Milky Way. Thoughts?

[Karried]

Just returned from Cedar Point, Ohio..... (what a blast! My favorite? The Dragster... 0-120 in 4 seconds! 420 feet high, corkscrew up and then down.. shaped like a huge paperclip ).

It was crazy busy though (long lines - tons of visitors) and I couldn't help but think about all the tourism and business we are missing out here in OKC due to the fact that we don't have anything like a huge amusement park.

Anyway, we stayed at Castaway Bay and thankfully we did. The weather was more sporadic than Oklahoma's and when it rained, we just headed to the Indoor Water Park at the hotel .. kids loved in and we did as well. The 90 person Hot Tub didn't hurt either! So, I think an indoor park is a great idea especially with the weather.

[metro]

I don't want to even fathom the expense of building the worlds largest indoor theme park. The cost for building a "dome" especially if it is a retractable roof would be in the billions.

[ETL]

Um…did you forget that we’re talking about Disney? I’m sure they would be more than happy to just ponder that idea. Like stated before, over 16 million people visited Animal Kingdom alone last year. I’m willing to bet it would be a worth while investment, and I’d also be willing to bet that most of the people would drive to Disney Universe, incase you thought our airport was too small.

[venture]

Karried...glad you enjoyed CP - definitely the place to go for coaster nuts. However you did bring up one point, the indoor park thing. There are so many going up there, its crazy. Even your typical hotel chains are opening up new hotels with water rides inside.

As far as an Oklahoma park...i think we can easily function with a mix. Look at Disney World - a good number of their rides are inside already. Instead of one single structure though...it would be various buildings. Could take it a step further and offer the "people mover" ride between each building. This would be enclosed and can offer additional exhibits and such along the way.

[traxx]

As far as indoor waterparks go, I think something like this would work great in OKC: Great Wolf Lodge - Welcome to America's Largest Family of Indoor Waterparks

Especially in the downtown entertainment district - maybe East of Bricktown.

[ETL]

How is BassPro doing? If they move then ^^^they^^^ could move in.

[jbrown84]

I'm going in a couple weeks. I'll make sure to take pictures.

[Karried]

Jbrown, Where are you going?

We almost stayed at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky but wanted a Cedar Point Resort Park for the disocounts and perks ..like early admission.

But, hotels with Indoor water parks are so expensive! All the ones we checked into were $300 plus a night.... and the rooms weren't fancy at all!

We ended up at Castaway Bay and even though it was super expensive, being able to go to that Indoor Water Park with slides and wave pools was worth it.

At Cedar Point, ONE drop of rain, only one I swear ( I asked) closes all the rides.

It happened to us over and over. And after waiting forever in the rain for it to stop, they have to check/test the ride for at least 30-45 min. I'm not joking. That part was horrible.

But the Dragster was worth all the inconvenience.. what a ride that was! Loved the Millenium and the Maverick too... they were all great, the lines were so long though.

[jbrown84]

Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm going to EPCOT in a couple weeks, so I'll be sure to take pics of the Oklahoma Centennial exhibition.

[Karried]

Oh cool! I have roller coasters on the brain apparently! Yes, pics would be wonderful.. I wanted to go to Disneyworld over the holidays.. can you imagine? It was about 4K for the week! With Flights, Hotels, Tickets, Food, and Misc for 4 people! Yikes!

We're not going..ha.ha

[Dark Jedi]

It ain't cheap. We took the kids to DIsney Land and World consecutive years, and it was expensive as heck.

Now we just rent a ski in-out condo at a ski resort for a week, cheaper and more fun.

[traxx]

Jbrown, Where are you going?

We almost stayed at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky but wanted a Cedar Point Resort Park for the disocounts and perks ..like early admission.

But, hotels with Indoor water parks are so expensive! All the ones we checked into were $300 plus a night.... and the rooms weren't fancy at all!

I think we stayed at Great Wolf for $200 a night this summer (our second trip there in the last few years) if memory serves. My wife thought it was expensive too, but I reminded her that it included access to the park as well and the rooms do have themes for the kiddos. So instead of spending $70-100/night and also buying tickets for entrance into a park we just put it all in Great Wolf. It comes out about the same. The area around the one in KC is a pretty good area with lots of restaurants and a lifestyle mall just down the street. The area is a little like Memorial & May/Penn or Ed Noble Pkwy as far as restaurants.

We had fun and the kids loved it. I just think something like that in Bricktown or downtown would give the area that killer app (to borrow a software term) it needs.

[Taggart]

Great Wolf parks are great for the fact that they paid attention to classic Disney values.

[jbrown84]

I was at Epcot last Thursday and here are some pics of the really great Oklahoma exhibit they had there. It was staffed by Oklahomans who were doing a lot of good at dispelling the stereotypes. I have a few more pictures I will add later. They had Centennial merchandise and M.I.O. products like Frankoma pottery in a kiosk shaped like Price Tower.

[Taggart]

Disney is having way too many problems with the US parks to even consider another location. They just recently announced that their second park in Anaheim, California Adventure, was a failure and released details about the unprecedented 1.1 billion dollar fix for it. They're also hard at work for the third Anaheim park which should be announced sometime around 2015 or 2016 when the California Adventure re-build phase two is complete. Disney World over in Florida is having its own problems and Disney is looking to sell to an outside company who will license the parks back to Disney if oil rises above $160 a barrel in which the resort would then start losing money. I know the theme park industry better than anything and a full fledged Disney park in Oklahoma is as close to impossible as it can be. What's more likely is land developers spreading rumors to increase land value. Instances of this rumor have been happening all over the mid and southwest for the very same reason.

What is more likely in Oklahoma is Disney's new plan of "Location Based Entertainment." In this plan, they're going to build stand-alone themed hotels in tourist areas which will include a small, indoor water park and one or two rides exclusive to patrons of the hotel. The first LBE hotel was announced for Hawaii a few weeks ago.

[Littleville]

I just heard that Disney had bought a substantial amount of land in the Edmond area. This was from a pretty good source of mine, but I was wondering if anyone else had heard about this to confirm it.

[JLCinOKC]

In my 41 years I've heard that Disney is buying "huge" amounts of land in and around the Chandler, Shawnee and Stroud areas and surprisingly enough never a Disney park.

[Jesseda]

thas funny about 5 years ago, rumor was they bought land from I-240 and eastern all the way to sunnylane and 88th street, then all around he sooner road area from 89th street to 149th street..to many rumors, i believe there is as disney rumor of large amount of land bought in every state in this country lol joplin mo is a big rumor, katy texas was another, sanger texas another, it goes on and on lol

[Karried]

Cool Epcot pics- will that exhibit be there this summer or was it a one time thing? We will be there in August.

[FRISKY]

I heard Disney will be moving all its operations into the old GM plant.............

[DelCamino]

In my 41 years I've heard that Disney is buying "huge" amounts of land in and around the Chandler, Shawnee and Stroud areas and surprisingly enough never a Disney park.

Chuckling at this. The same thought came to me when reading this thread. I remember in the late 70's all the talk about a Disney park in Stroud. Later, it was eastern Oklahoma County, toward Shawnee. Such a park would be spectacular, but until I see the bulldozers cutting and shaping our red land behind some big 'Coming Soon' billboard, I'll keep chuckling.