In the 9 years since Disney World closed its River Country water park for the last time there has been off-and-on speculation about whether the park would ever return. Based on this series of photos over at The DISboards, I think we can safely say that Disney has written off River Country and it’s never coming back.
WDW has two superior water parks now, but it’s really sad to see the state of disrepair River Country has been allowed to fall into. A little maintenance or care and this area would be available for private parties and the like today.
I wonder if this is what Pleasure Island will look like 9 years from now.
It really is heartbreaking to see. I find myself astonished that WDW management is content to let it sit and deteriorate, rather than budget even a small amount for proper demolition.
Am I the only one wondering what he was doing there, what rules he had to violate, and how he wasn’t caught?
I actually like that they left it. It’s cool in it’s own “living monument” kind of way. Neat to see how the land reclaims what humans leave alone! I learned to scuba dive in the big pool. Good memories, great pics! Thanks!
I agree with Mike. Its really cool to see how the earth takes something back. I dont think they need to do anything with that land until they come up with a new park idea. Just leave it and learn from it. I had some really great early childhood memories from River Country but was happy to have a new water park years later.
Those pics are amazing. Thanks for sharing!!
Pretty depressing. I’m shocked that Disney would allow something to deteriorate like that. I wonder if they would be embarrassed to see these pictures made public. They aren’t used to us seeing things in disarray. I never visited the park, but it looked like it was pretty cool. It’s sad that they didn’t maintain it. It’s way better than the Valencia, CA, waterpark I worked for one summer, which was definitely not as elaborately themed.
great pics , i was there with my daughter in 1982 , when i came back years later i could not find it , i then thought they made it into typhoon lagoon its a shame it was a great park for kids and adults, i’m sure you should not have been there taking pictures , but thanks .
just my bit of input. the reason that river country is sitting there in disrepair is because it was found to have been infested with ameba bacteria. Approx 30,000 acres have been designated conservation land. River Country is part of this acreage. Legally that cannot do ANY construction of ANY kind. Up too, and including, the ameba problem as well as tearing it down. So, it will forever sit there overgrown and creepy. Sad, but true.
In addition to renee’s comment…
Not only by it being protected as conservation land therefore prohibiting any (de)construction, it was also surveyed when it first closed and found that the ground was too unsafe to justifiably send crews in for deconstruction with demolition technology at the time. The materials that had been used in construction were evaluated and determined not to have a significant negative impact on the environment. Thus, it was decided to let nature take her course.
Also, it was not just closed because of the bacteria, which were easily neutralizable, but because of a law passed in FL in 2001 that banned “natural bodies of water” from being used in such a manner due to the inability to control each aspect of the water’s chemicals and PH levels.