Disney Canceled 3 BIG Projects for Disney Springs

Whether known as the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, Downtown Disney, or Disney Springs, the shopping and dining complex on the edge of Disney World property has been a draw for visitors for 50 years.

Much like the resort’s theme parks, this area has a history of unbuilt attractions and expansions that are lost to history.

Monorail Expansion

To start, we’re going all the way back to the beginning. During the early planning phase of Walt Disney World, the area where Disney Springs currently sits — which was close to the Walt Disney World Preview Center — was originally planned to feature a permanent housing development.

While there were no permanent residences built in time for the Vacation Kingdom’s October 1971 opening, permanent housing was still planned for the area, and of course permanent residents would need somewhere to shop. Hence the 1975 opening of The Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village. As the shopping center was developed, there were initially plans to expand the Walt Disney World Monorail System from the Magic Kingdom loop down to the Shopping Village. In addition, a related plan called for a PeopleMover-style transportation system for the area.

Like many plans in the early years of Walt Disney World, the economic conditions of the 1970s brought on the oil crisis, combining with the changing plan for the resort led to the projected Monorail expansion and/or Poeplemover being scrapped.

Copperfield’s Magic Underground

During the 1990s, there was no bigger name in magic than David Copperfield, who became the genre’s biggest star thanks to several long-running Las Vegas shows and audacious television specials. The decade was also the heyday of theme restaurants, with chains like Hard Rock Cage, Planet Hollywood, and Rainforest Cafe flourishing and inspiring a legion of imitators like DIVE!, Fashion Cafe, and All-Star Cafe.

Can you see where we’re going with this?

Copperfield had his own theme restaurant: David Copperfield’s Magic Underground. After an initial location opened in New York, Copperfield and Disney began planning a location for Walt Disney World. Photo-ops with Michael Eisner and a billboard outside the then-MGM Studios theme park heralded that the restaurant was coming to either that park or Pleasure Island.

The only issue? The New York location tanked, and the Disney location never came to be.

Hyperion Wharf

In 2008, Disney closed Pleasure for good, launching a full-scale reinvention of the area then known as Downtown Disney. In 2010, the company announced that the area would be redeveloped into a new concept known as Hyperion Wharf. According to Disney, this new area would be a “nostalgic yet modern take on an early 20th-century port city and amusement pier”

They elaborated further at the time, saying “by day, the bustling port district will draw guests in with its stylish boutiques and innovative restaurants and by night, thousands of lights will transform the area into an electric wonderland. Taking its name from Hyperion, the Greek god of light, as well as the street on which Walt Disney built his first major animation studio, the wharf district also will feature a relaxing lakeside park and enhanced pedestrian walkways. Its diverse eateries will expand dining availability at Downtown Disney by more than 25 percent.”

The description, along with concept art realized at the time, seemed to indicate that the project was being fast-tracked. Then… nothing happened. The following year, Disney announced that the Hyperion Wharf plan was on hold. In 2013, the company announced that a new area – – The Landing – – would be built on the spot as part of larger transformation of Downtown Disney into Disney Springs.

Disney Springs remains one of Walt Disney World’s most popular areas, but it could have been VERY different had these projects been built. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Walt Disney World history.

What Was Pleasure Island In Downtown Disney? And What’s There Now?

Which of these unbuilt projects do you wish had come to the area now known as Disney Springs? Let us know in the comments below!

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