As we’ve seen in the first three articles of this series, in the early 1990’s Disney planned to undertake massive expansion in California. Firstly, in 1990, came the announcement that the company was to build Port Disney and DisneySea. Then the following year they went public on plans for the WESTCOT park and expansion of Disneyland. The company made it clear that, while they intended to eventually develop both sets of plans, there was only cash available to build one of them initially.

Whichever site was chosen might be expected to ease Disney’s financial burden by providing better roads, utilities and sewerage if the company invested further in that area. , More police and firefighters would also be required to ensure the safety of guests. Disney CEO Michael Eisner spelled this out quite clearly when he suggested to the press that the first development would go to whichever city “wants us more”.

The city of Anaheim would have been expected to build the parking facilities if WESTCOT went ahead. Conversely, if Long Beach were to win then it would have to foot the bill for at least some of the horrific landfill costs, because the major downside of Port Disney was that it would have required approximately 250 acres of Los Angeles’ San Pedro Bay to be filled in. There was even talk of using the land excavated from the Anaheim site to partly fill the bay in as part of the Long Island development.

Whether or not the company was deliberately playing the two local governments against each other, the mayors of Long Beach and Anaheim were both making the right noises. Long Beach’s Ernie Kell attacked Anaheim’s “horrendous traffic problem” and asked “If you had a day to spend out on the water - on the ocean or on an island – or inland in the smog, which would you choose?” At the other proposed location Fred Hunter, the Anaheim mayor put his side of the argument more succinctly, simply stating that “Long Beach is of no concern to me”.

Disney tried its best to keep both parties interested. It opened a Port Disney visitor’s centre, while at the same time it bought up an additional 23 acres of land in Anaheim. But the price of land was becoming a further complication at both sites. Unlike in Florida, where Walt had his staff quietly buy much of the property that would eventually make up Walt Disney World before making any announcement to the public, both WESTCOT and Port Disney would require land purchases to be made after the proposals were out in the open. If the landowners knew how desperate Disney were for their property then the likelihood was that they would hold out for higher prices.

Both sets of designs underwent literally hundreds of changes in an effort to keep everyone happy. The WESTCOT Plans were amended after objections were raised about the effect that the increased number of visitors and employees would have on the area, and of the noise from concerts at the open-air Arena. Disney made the mistake of trying to ignore the protesters as insignificant and unrepresentative of the local residents, but was dismayed to find an organised picket line at Disneyland’s entrance during the busy and lucrative Christmas 1993 period. Also, the magnificent golden globe of Spacestation Earth was completely scrapped after complaints that it would dominate the skyline, to be replaced by a 300 foot tall Spire.

The Long Beach project experienced problems with the locals as well. Environmental groups complained that the landfill required would contravene the state Coastal Act. A year after DisneySea was initially announced, a second set of plans for were released in October 1991. These designs greatly reduced the amount of landfill that would be needed.

However, it wasn’t to be. In late 1991, Disney pulled the plug on the entire Port Disney idea and the company gave up its lease on the Queen Mary and The Spruce Goose in 1992. Howard Hughes’ great plane was moved to Oregon. Even though Anaheim seemed to have beaten off the competition for Disney’s park development money, that didn’t mean that WESTCOT was actually going to be built.

In his autobiography “Work In Progress” Michael Eisner explained “Enthusiastic as we were about the concept of WESTCOT, the projected cost of building it simply grew too high.” On July 17, 1995 Disneyland Resort President, Paul Pressler announced the official cancellation of the WESTCOT project and in 1996 its replacement, Disney’s California Adventure, was announced.

So the dreams of Port Disney and WESTCOT died.

Didn’t they?

Well yes, certainly in their original forms they did. But over the years bits and pieces have come to life in other ways. In February 2001 Disneyland opened it’s second gate – Disney's California Adventure. It was located exactly where WESTCOT would have been, directly across a central plaza from the Disneyland main gate. This plaza also leads to a shopping and entertainment district including a new, spectacular hotel. The WESTCOT plans called for this too.

The Paradise Pier section of Disney's California Adventure contains much of the Boardwalk design originally planned for Port Disney. Of course the entire concept of DisneySea was resurrected for the expansion of Tokyo Disneyland. Mysterious Island appears, from the outside at least, almost exactly as it was designed for Long Beach, as does the Sinbad’s Seven Voyages ride. And the American Waterfront section of Tokyo DisneySea resembles a greatly condensed version of Port Disney’s planned waterfront.

Then there’s Tokyo DisneySea’s Hotel MiraCosta. Constructed like a small Italian pavilion, this beautiful resort allows guests for the first time to actually stay within the boundaries of a Disney theme park, just as the WESTCOT World Showcase designs had initially intended.

If you add to this the persistent but unsubstantiated rumours that the company is looking into the possibilities of building a Florida DisneySea park, you’ll see that WESTCOT and Port Disney have never really gone away; they’ve just been incorporated into other parks.

Incidentally, in May 2001 the company lodged an application for planning permission to build a third park at the Anaheim site…

Disney’s California Adventure is a fine park. There’s nothing wrong with it. It has some fun attractions and makes a great addition to the nearby original Disneyland.

But just imagine what might have been….