A Modern Day Look at Walt Disney World’s (Abandoned) Discovery Island

10.3K

Between 1974 and 1999, Discovery Island was an island (duh!) that was open as a hard ticket attraction in Walt Disney World’s Bay Lake, located roughly between the Contemporary Resort Hotel and the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue at Fort Wilderness. The highlight of the island was that guests could observe its many species of animals and birds.  After 25 years of success, it closed to guests shortly after Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened and, a few months later, was virtually abandoned after all the resident animals has been transferred to Animal Kingdom.

I visited Discovery Island as a kid in the 1970s. My memories of it are pretty vague,
partially because it was more years ago than I care to think about, but also because, well,

I was a kid and thought it was kind of boring ;-). I’d probably enjoy it more now, but that’s not possible because it’s been sitting abandoned for nearly 20 years. I’m positive nature would have taken it over by now, but without visuals, who would know for sure?

Well, as it turns out, a local “urban explorer” (one who examines man-made structures, usually abandoned ruins or not usually seen components of the man-made environment. Thanks, Wikipedia!) somehow got to Discovery Island earlier this year and videotaped what he saw. So now we can know for sure what the former nature park looks like:

 

(Note: we do not condone this guy’s activities. He surely had to bypass WDW security to do this, as well as, of course, potentially could have been hurt or killed in the process of getting to or walking around the island. But the video is there on YouTube, so…)

Did you ever go to Discovery Island? Did you like it or were you like me and thought it was just plants and birds and rocks and things and not nearly as cool as Space Mountain? 😉

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top (if you’re on your computer) or the bottom (if you’re on your phone/tablet) of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just once or twice a day). Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel  articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!