Disney's America was not set to just be a new theme park, but an entire mini Disney resort in Virginia to surround the new park.
Welcome to Never Built Disney's America, where we explore Disney's never built but fully planned patriotic theme park. Be sure to check out the entire series so far here. Today we are exploring what would have been in the resort beyond the park.
This park was not set to be a vacation destination in itself as Walt Disney World is and as Disneyland was transforming itself into at the time. It was supposed to be a regional park and one destination as part of a larger trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Washington D. C.
But Disney would need to build a certain amount of infrastructure in order to properly operate the park and ensure its profitability. This meant a collection of places for guests to stay before and after a visit to the theme park.
This would have included a few hotels as well as a place for RVs to set up, given its location in an area where larger road trips were common.
But this would not be the only development outside the park, with a Disney supported shopping district along the lines of Disney Springs being developed in connection with the park, ideally bringing in not only guests to the park, but also locals to the new shopping district.
This was a smart idea, the park was a distance from bigger tourist destinations, meaning overnights would not be unheard of. While this was not to be a destination in itself, it would have certainly attracted enough people to warrant limited hotel rooms.
This would have brought significant development to the area in a way that respected the sightlines of nearby historic sights, but it would not happen.
Be sure to come back next week as we explore the berm of Disney's America. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the series to this point here.
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