3. Disney had a lot of crazy plans for DisneySea

Seriously, Michael Eisner and the Disney Imagineers must have been at least a little bit nuts to do what they wanted to do at Port Disney. Here are a few of the planned features, courtesy of the always-helpful Jim Hill Media:

• An entrance plaza with huge sculptures of dolphins and sea horses

• Oceania, the icon of the theme park and a giant-sized aquarium which would have tidal exchange with the ocean, meaning that the tides would have constantly risen and fallen, exposing guests to all the undersea nature

• A “Shark Cage Encounter” that is exactly what it sounds like. Apparently Walt Disney Imagineering was even able to convince Disney lawyers that this was a sensible idea!

• Mysterious Island, where you could board Nemo’s Lava Cruiser, an advanced simulator-based attraction that would take you on a journey that included an encounter with a giant squid

• Pirate Island, which sounded like Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland on speed. When Disney was trying to bring The Pirates of the Caribbean to the big screen, the people involved in the movie adaption showed schematics of Pirate island to demonstrate all that the Pirates of the Caribbean movie could be.

4. The demise of Port Disney was partly for the same reason as the demise of other Disney parks

There were two major factors that led to the downfall of Port Disney and a DisneySea in California. One might be obvious after the plans for the property I just shared: money. The whole Port Disney resort complex was expected to cost $3 billion. Even with this high figure in mind, Disney was still excited about the project. However, opposition from the local area, mainly the California Coastal Commission, was its death knell. Luckily, parts of this massive project would see new life at the DisneySea park in Tokyo.

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