Река Кантри: История заброшенного аквапарка Disney

Former water park at Walt Disney World Resort

Disney's River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World Resort, Florida. River Country, located along the shores of Bay Lake and near Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, was themed as a rustic, old fashioned swimming hole. Opening on June 20, 1976, the park closed indefinitely on November 2, 2001. On January 20, 2005, after roughly three years of closure, The Walt Disney Company announced that the park would remain closed, permanently.

In 1989, Disney opened a second themed water park, Typhoon Lagoon; it had more parking, slides, amenities, and was significantly larger. Six years later, in 1995, Disney opened a third themed water park, Blizzard Beach, which was bigger than both and featured more thrilling attractions. River Country is the second Disney park to permanently close. The first was Discovery Island which was located parallel to the water park. Both parks closed permanently within two years of each other, and were originally abandoned instead of demolished. The themed water park closed on November 2, 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in the spring of 2002. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported that "Walt Disney World's first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen" and that Disney World spokesman Bill Warren stated "River Country could be reopened if there's enough guest demand". In 2005, Disney officially announced that River Country would remain closed permanently, and removed the entrance water tower. For the next 17 years, River Country sat abandoned, rotting and gradually being reclaimed by nature. During this time, the water park was fenced off with signs up reading "Sorry, River Country is closed." The park was a popular site amongst urban explorers who climbed over the green fence or walked in through the backstage driveway. The River Country Closing Theme still played in the abandoned park, while the lights automatically turned off and on; since Disney did not cut off the power to the water park. The closure made River Country the second (of only two) Disney park in the company's history to close its doors permanently, with nearby Discovery Island on the lake closing previously, in 1999. On August 25, 2016, Disney announced that it would drain and fill in Upstream Plunge, the 330,000 gallon pool, though there were no immediate plans to tear down any other part of the park.

On March 5, 2018, Disney filed permits for a new mystery development labeled "Project 89" to be built along Bay Lake and over the former River Country site. A week later, it was rumored that "Project 89" would most likely be another themed Hotel Resort or DVC timeshare property. The resort hotel was confirmed on May 31, 2018, and most remaining structures at the park, including the remnants of the Upstream Plunge pool, were demolished on April 20, 2019, to make way for the development of the new hotel. Disney later officially announced that the new deluxe resort would be nature themed and called "Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge." The new resort was slated to have 900 hotel rooms and was set to open in 2022. The new hotel would also feature several Disney characters for each of the rooms including Bambi, Brother Bear, The Fox and the Hound, and Pocahontas among others. A lakeside restaurant featuring the characters from The Princess and the Frog was also slated to open along with the new resort in 2022. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Parks division halted all major construction on the Walt Disney World Resort property, including Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge. On March 15, 2022, Disney announced that the project was scrapped for a Disney Vacation Club tower at the site.