WestCOT – An Epcot for the West Coast

WestCOT was Disney’s plan for a second theme park in LA back in the 90s. It would’ve stood where California Adventure is today. They essentially took the World’s Fair idea of Epcot and transferred it across the country, however it would’ve been scaled down due to lack of available space in Anaheim (Epcot itself is bigger than Disneyland and California Adventure combined).

The central area was called Ventureport and it featured a golden sphere almost twice the size of Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. Inside the sphere would’ve been an updated version of the Spaceship Earth ride. Instead of a World Showcase focusing on individual countries, here they had the Four Corners of the World (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America) and they were connected by a long boat ride that cruised through all four regions. Future World would’ve been three pavilions containing new versions of the Epcot rides like Horizons, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, etc.

The WestCOT plan also included developing the rest of the Anaheim resort — at the time there was just Disneyland and the Disneyland Hotel. It included an amphitheater, new hotels, a shopping district, updated local infrastructure, and three massive parking structures that were connected by people movers to the central plaza. The monorail would be extended to go around the sphere, and the new route also included stops at the new hotels.

Unfortunately the plan was scrapped. The failure of Euro Disney led to big financial problems, so Disney had to reconsider spending so much money on a second Anaheim park (it was estimated to cost up to $3 billion) and they ended up building California Adventure on a much smaller budget.

I loved Epcot when I went there as a kid, so having a similar version locally would’ve been awesome. I remember reading about it in the LA Times and getting really excited. This was after they cancelled the Port Disney idea in Long Beach, parts of which would later be incorporated into Tokyo DisneySea. SamLand’s Disney Adventures has a great series of posts about WestCOT.