Boddah1994 and I were talking about abandoned amusement and water parks last night. As some of you know, I tend to like those things. In Greater-Cincinnati we had a few of our own:

Surf Cincinnati

LeSourdsville Lake/Americana

A few years back though, while researching some of this stuff, I came across a peculiar abandoned amusement park find. In the middle of one of the world's "greatest" amusement parks is an abandoned water park from their past. Until its demolition, Disney's River Country sat idle since its closure in 2001:

Image via: This Excellent Thread

I was telling Boddah1994 about the River Country story and he mentioned to me that Disney had an abandoned resort "somewhere in the Caribbean" that was disused due to ships having a problem reaching it. I've been searching all day trying to find something about this, but can't seem to come up with anything. Anyone have any idea what he was talking about or know more about abandoned Disney?

Oh I know what you're talking about. I saw pics of it before (I thought they were on your site, but I guess since you don't know about it then It wasn't on your site) But I do remember seeing pictures of the island a while ago...

PS I love your site! I just read your CVG Stuff I can't agree more! It might as well just go under.

Yes. He was probably talking about Discovery Island, the small park at Disney World that closed when the Animal Kingdom resort opened. It was included free in multi-day Park Hopper tickets in the 90s, so some people took a trip over to the island for a break from the much more crowded theme parks.

If I recall correctly, most of the buildings and animal enclosures on this island are still there, rotting away. I remember seeing an unauthorized photo tour of this at one point; I'll edit this post and link to it if I can find it again.

EDIT: It's not in the Caribbean, but it's the only Disney "park" that I'm aware of that's closed without being demolished. Here's the link to the unauthorized "exploration" of the island: http://shaneperez.bl...ery-island.html . Wikipedia also has a lot of information on it now.

There could be a port of call once visited by Disney ships that is now unused, but calling such a destination a Disney resort may be a stretch.

I read something about an abandoned Disney Resort a few months ago but I don't remember what it was.....

River Country at disney world was sitting for a while. But disney was going to build a park in Virginia too right?

Wasn't river country abandoned .

First post:

A few years back though, while researching some of this stuff, I came across a peculiar abandoned amusement park find. In the middle of one of the world's "greatest" amusement parks is an abandoned water park from their past. Until its demolition, Disney's River Country sat idle since its closure in 2001:

Image via: This Excellent Thread

I find it amazing what a place can look like when people leave things abandoned... The overgrowth through this park is just crazy!

IIRC, River Country had a bit of an issue with brain eating parasites in the water. Good reason to close it, I suppose.

IIRC, River Country had a bit of an issue with brain eating parasites in the water. Good reason to close it, I suppose.

Well whats wrong with that? lolololol

The Disney Island was "Treasure Island" - Which never was owned by Disney. It was developed by Treasure Cay Limited - a subsidiary of Premier Cruise Lines. Premier was the "Big Red Boat" that had licensed to be the Official Disney Cruise Line.

If you wasnt to find any info on it Google Keywords : Great Guana Cay, Bakers Bay, Disney, Premier Cruise, Treasure Island

There are some good as built pics on an Architects page - http://www.danduckham.com/treasure_island_project.htm

Here is a good abandoned pic - http://coconuttelegraph.net/forums/showthread.php?1291-Abandoned-Disney-site-location

Dont forget about this one...

http://illicitohio.illicitohio.com/illicitohio/disneypop.html

River Country's demise was multifold - Guest had to travel through Fort Wilderness Campground - thus having to park at the campground day visitor gate and bus into the water park - not very easy for familys.

It closed in 2001 - 6 years after Blizzard Beach opened in 1995, and 2 years after Typhoon Lagoon opened in 1989.

These 2 modern waterparks had multiple slides - easy access and could handle the huge crowds that often caused River Country to reach capacity in its heyday.

The water quality was also an issue - the park used the lake water for many of the water attractions - the need to filter that water to only let it flow back into the lake was costly, because they were aware of issues with the water quality.

The park was never demolished because they did have ideas to use it as a seasonal relief to the 2 big waterparks - or develop as a waterpark for the campground. Once a cost analysis was done it was determined that to build it correctly would be too costly for a resort pool. The demolition cost is also an issue - any disturbance of the soil would require a lot of environmental controls.

The same envrionmental issues also exist for Discovery Island in the lake.

Will River Country be demolished - Yes.. When - Who knows outside of Disney's inner circle. - Sonny has stood SBNO for 1/3 of its 12 year life, and as of 9/1/12 is still standing abandoned.

Will River Country be demolished - Yes.. When - Who knows outside of Disney's inner circle. - Sonny has stood SBNO for 1/3 of its 12 year life, and as of 9/1/12 is still standing abandoned.

Bolded for emphasis

But We can agree, the main difference is that SOB has been officially announced to be demolished this year.

I remember that place as a kid, I always wondered what happened to it as I was pretty sure that the 2 new waterparks weren't just expansions, the pictures I've seen of them just didn't fit in w/ my memories of River County as a kid. That and Thunder Mountain are my 2 strongest memories of my visit to Disney World as a child.

Is that wooden coaster still standing at Americana? I stopped by for a look at it a few weeks ago and didn't see any coasters.

Is that wooden coaster still standing at Americana? I stopped by for a look at it a few weeks ago and didn't see any coasters.

It has been torn down.