3. Why are Disney World’s parks so spread out?

THE QUESTION: If there’s one thing people know about Disney World, it’s that it’s big. Its parks are all pretty much enormous, and they’re accompanied by more than two-dozen resort hotels famously spread around a property the size of San Francisco. And yes, Disney World’s massive size is part of its identity; its story; its experience! But for a first time guest visiting the resort, it might appear to be… well… entirely random.

To get from one park to another, your trip may include any combination of bus, ferry, Monorail, walking path, personal vehicle, and/or Skyliner, each meant to get you one step closer to theme parks separated from one another by literal highways. Just ask a first time guest who learns that the only way between Animal Kingdom Lodge and Animal Kingdom is a bus, and they’ll agree… sometimes, Disney World’s size (and the solutions that have developed around it) can be weird. 

It does make you wonder: if Disney World could be "reorganized" knowing what we know now, would Disney World planners do things any differently? Might there be a single plaza with four parks branching off from it? A main monorail loop around Bay Lake connecting parks rather than hotels? Why are Disney World’s parks so spread out?

THE ANSWER: Walt Disney World’s size is, of course, no accident! Walt and his team acquired their massive Floridian land-holdings intentionally so as not to deal with the urban sprawl that had hemmed in Disneyland (again, with the city of EPCOT as the centerpiece). Master plans for the property show a dedicated airport connected to EPCOT, then to a single theme park, via Monorail, with an extensive network of pollution-free Peoplemovers then radiating out to the finer points of the property - an elegant and thoughtful solution!

But the resort’s piecemeal construction since has seen the operation sprawl across its 40 square mile property, extending well beyond the initial Monorail loop and creating a situation where parks are connected by highways, oriented in different directions, and seemingly set randomly amidst lakes, hotels, sinkholes, swamps, and existing roads.

Disney World may have become the first “multi-park resort” when EPCOT Center opened in 1982, but it wouldn’t be the last. The only difference is that every other resort since has nestled its theme parks up against one another. So Disneyland, Universal Orlando, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disney Resort each centralizes parking; each connects its destinations via walking paths, water taxis, and trams; each gives resort guests an entirely vehicle-free vacation as they stroll wooded paths or walk through purposefully-placed shopping districts to the parks. 

While the compactness of other resorts is more a logistical necessity than a choice, it’s evolved into the de facto model for multi-park destinations, feeling fittingly modern, cozy, and pedestrian friendly versus Disney World’s gas-guzzling buses, blacktop parking lots, traffic backups, and inaccessible destinations. Could it be that Disney World’s greatest asset has also become its greatest guest liability? 

4. What does California Adventure have to do with California?

THE QUESTION: In the mid-90s, Disney World was prepping for its fourth theme park. Meanwhile, Disneyland looked almost exactly like it had in 1955: a single park and its gargantuan parking lot. Efforts to expand the historic park into a multi-day resort to rival its Floridian sister ebbed and flowed through the ‘90s until executives dreamed up a park that would give guests the chance to see all California had to offer… without leaving Disney property. The Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure walks through the pathetic park, which offered guests “attractions” like a tractor, a restaurant made of soap opera sets, and an unthemed drop tower you’d find at a local amusement park.

But California Adventure’s real problem that it was too much California, and not enough Disney. The park played as a spoof of the Golden State, blaring Beach Boys music as guests strolled a modern carnival boardwalk of circus freak posters and stucco walls, an “extreme sports” takeover of an old, rusty National Park, and a facade-lined “backlot” of modern Hollywood. In a rare mea culpa, Disney issued a never-before-seen white flag and committed more than a billion dollars to an all-at-once, intentionally-designed reimagining of the park… Which is why it’s so strange that any first-time visitor would ask, What does California Adventure have to do with California?

THE ANSWER: Increasingly, fans have been asking the same question. California Adventure’s famous five-year renovation from 2007 to 2012 systematically deconstructed each of the park’s lands and rebuilt them with a nod toward California’s rich history rather than as a modern spoof. The switch transformed the park into one of the most beautiful and cohesive Disney Parks on Earth, with wonderfully themed lands resembling a 1920s Los Angeles, a 1950s High Sierras National Park, a Pacific wharf, and a turn-of-the-century Victorian boardwalk.

Unfortunately, in the years since, the park has categorically lost its three distinctly-Californian E-Tickets (California Screamin’ and the Lost Legends: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Soarin’ Over California). Disney’s purposeful play is to turn California Adventure into the resort’s Pixar-and-Marvel park (versus Disneyland’s Disney-and-Star-Wars lineup). As part of its ambitious reimagining, Disney California Adventure did get a name change and new logo in 2010… And since the continued shifts since have essentially bulldozed any Californian stories, some fans suggest it may be time for another. 

But the truth is that Disneyland’s infamous second gate is still a park of beautifully themed Californian lands… it’s just that the rides inside those lands are exclusively themed to Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, Avengers, The Little Mermaid, Inside Out, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Cars. The park that was "too much California and not enough Disney" seems to have become "too much Disney and not enough California"! But at least its continuing transformation still positions it as a fitting complement to Disneyland - something fans could never have imagined two decades ago.

5. What does Tomorrowland have to do with the future?

THE QUESTION: Disneyland and Magic Kingdom both have Tomorrowlands, but they don’t look very similar. Magic Kingdom’s is a quasi-comic book pulp sci-fi “spaceport” whose metallic, alien embellishments are being piecemeal removed and replaced with 70s-inspired white simplicity.

Disneyland, meanwhile, feels less like a real “city” and more like a collection of showbuildings with Space Age fins, mis-matched murals, and competing white, silver, and gold architectural and stylistic elements representing a whole lot of eras and styles mashed together in a small space.

And if you thought their style was un-futuristic, just imagine a first-time guest examining their substance. It’s bad enough that the only semblance of “real” futurism present in each land is Space Mountain (and even then, based on futurism of five decades ago), but the rest of the land is populated by Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Lilo & Stitch, Star Wars, and Monsters Inc. A first-time visitor would probably wonder aloud, What does Tomorrowland have to do with tomorrow?

THE ANSWER: Very little, on purpose. Tomorrowland originated with Disneyland in 1955. By the ‘60s, it was already outdated. Thus, the Lost Legend: Walt’s Tomorrowland was born in 1967. Four years later, Magic Kingdom opened with its own Tomorrowland… also incomplete. It took until 1975 for Florida’s land to take shape. Both Tomorrowlands were gleaming, white, utopian Space Age-inspired mid-century lands.

Unfortunately, the grim futurism and dark, dystopian movies of the late ‘70s and ‘80s (like Alien, Star Wars, and Blade Runner) changed pop culture’s view of tomorrow yet again. California and Florida’s Tomorrowlands were “upgraded” in the ‘90s to fantasy and sci-fi futures in an effort to make them less prone to the passing of time. Unfortunately, both were quickly overrun by cartoon characters, resulting in today’s creatively confused lands where neither style nor substance feels very futuristic… Is going back to ‘60s retro-future the answer? Maybe… but that mid-century style will look pretty odd with Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and Toy Story inside…

Which might bring us to the weirdest and most inexplicably-named attraction in any Disney Park...