Disney filling in pool in abandoned River Country at Walt Disney World

It's really strange that they've left the remnants of that park sit there and decay for so long, especially in close proximity to currently used stuff.

I saw a video on YouTube of an abandoned Disney resort hotel project. I'm not sure where it is, but there's a long bridge to the site. It looks like a lot of the structure was up, then nothing more.
Out of sight out of mind, I guess even at Disney.

Maybe they had left it up for the gators to enjoy.

[too soon?]

^ No, I don't think Bill was allowed in there either.

They can deny it if they want, but I am sure at least part of the reasoning is to try and limit chances of mosquitos and Zika concerns. After almost 15 years of not worrying about it, the timing seems more than just "well it was time."

And RCMAC, the abandoned resort was what was originally to be the second half of Pop Century. It finally was completed and opened as Art of Animation in I believe 2012.

Oh, thanks. Lord knows how old that vid was and that's what I get for paying attention to YouTube.
Now that I recall, it did look like a Pop resort of some kind.

It was kind of cool, because you could go to the bridge from Pop Century and see the other central building at the other end. It had the other half of the decades (10, 20, etc.) but the entire structure and the numbers were only painted with primer. At the north end of the property they had started two the new room buildings as well. In fact, if you look at them today, those two buildings access the rooms from the outside, like those at Pop Century, while the rest are accessed from inside the buildings. The pivot for Art of Animation was to make suite rooms.

I never realized River Country has a Proslide Water Coaster hidden in there! ;-)

I'm old enough to remember when River Country opened, and I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I never got to visit it, so I'm a little sad to read this. But I also thought, once the bigger and better waterparks were built, it could have just become the pool for Fort Wilderness. Obviously, there would have been costs to maintain and operate, but it would have been a nice feature.

I agree. I went to River Country back when it was the only game in town and it was very cool.
I remember the water was pretty cold, though. And it seemed way out of the way, you had to walk through the ranch or something to get there, and that was after a bus ride.
It does seem like a good idea for the campgrounds though, I've wondered about that myself. We may be the only two.

I think the whole brain-eating amoeba thing was enough to make them shy away from that one.

What?!? I went there! Did I catch it? Do I have it?!?
Is that what happened?

birdhombre said:

^ No, I don't think Bill was allowed in there either.

Standing fresh water in FL is dangerous. If the gators don't get ya, the mosquitoes will.

Watching the Zika map in FL, it's not hard to connect this action to that potentially emerging public health crisis.

Raven-Phile said:

I think the whole brain-eating amoeba thing was enough to make them shy away from that one.

Interestingly...or not: zika + amoeba = aka, a zombie. Just can't resist the power of anagrams...

RCMAC said:
What?!? I went there! Did I catch it? Do I have it?!?
Is that what happened?

Probably. It makes sense. Were you there in 1980?

1980 is the only confirmed case, but an 11 year old boy died from it. I guess it lives in fresh water in places like Florida and somehow even though that water was filtered and separated, it made it in or he was in the lake.

There's been a couple cases in recent years in NC and AR...

So it is actually possible for a large park chain to clean up an old eyesore of a closed amusement or water park? Here I thought there must be some sort of law of physics that would be violated by the attempt...