Day 82: River Country

I wasn't going to do this post for a number of months, but I just have to do it now. There's too much Disney involved for me not to do it now.

Anyway, so if you haven't figured it out yet, I love Disney...as does much of my family. Ok, all of my immediate family. I tend to study various portions of Disney history, so that I know a little bit about everything. Granted, I do know quite a bit about Epcot, obviously or else my name wouldn't be EpcotExpert, but still. My brother, on the other hand, cares about three things:

The Peoplemover (Disneyland specifically)
Discovery (Riles) Island
and River Country.

Is it odd that he is unable to access any of these things? No, not really. That's just how he is.

But this honestly was starting to creep me out a little bit. The other day, while scrolling through my normal feed of everything Disney related news, I came across an article and set of 40 pictures from the Weather channel, although the pictures originally came from the Imagineering blog. Either way, it was River Country as it is seen today...and if I wasn't convinced before to never go there, I certainly am now.

Back in the day it looked like a fair place to go, right?

At least that pool was blue and the slides look fun, and it looks busy enough, so it must have been alright, right? 

Today...not so much. 

Ummm...no, just...no. 

So I show these pictures to my river country obsessed brother, who then launched into a 2 hour history lesson about the waterpark that looks like it was abandoned faster than one could say cannonball. Now, I know there is a lot going on with this old place, largely due to the water hazards that Bay Lake now offers, but still. This place is just weird. He also spent a good amount of time telling us about Discovery Island, and quite honestly  for someone who has never been to either of these places, he sure knows them pretty well. I may know the script to Spaceship Earth, but this was just an insane amount of knowledge about these abandoned places that closed when he was just a few years old. 

I'm sure I'll have more adventures of River Country in the future, but if you too want to be a bit freaked out that something like this does indeed exist at Disney...here you go.

Here's today's Disney History: 2011: A Day in the Life - John Lasseter, a documentary by Leslie Iwerks, is filmed. Shot during the end of production on Cars 2, the promotional video will be released in July. 

Have a magical day!