For 25 years, Discovery Island was a key part of many Walt Disney World vacations. The island, one of the first parcels of land purchased by the company in Florida, wowed guests with its natural beauty and a menagerie of animals that stacked up with many larger zoos.
However, all that changed in 1999 when Disney shut it all down with little warning. So, why did Discover Island close and what has Disney done with the land since? Well, the answers are simple, yet complicated.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the island had several names, usually tied to whomever owned/was living there at a given time. When Disney purchased the island during the early stages of land acquisition for the Florida Project in 1965, they purchased it from a man named Delmar Nicholson, a radio pioneer who lived on the island and grew “exotic plants.”
After owning the island for nearly a decade — and opening the rest of the initial Walt Disney World around it — Disney finally opened up the island to guests as a wildlife preserve and zoological park known as Treasure Island on April 8th, 1974. The name was changed to Discovery Island some time later.
Over the next 25 years, a visit to the island — which required either a separate ticket or the use of a certain level of Walt Disney World package — allowed guests to see a large and diverse group of animals, including Macaws, Cockatoos, Capuchin monkeys, Trumpeter swans, lemurs, vultures, toucans, Demoiselle cranes, Sandhill cranes, Grey Crowned cranes, ibis. Muntjacs peacocks, Brown pelicans, flamingos, Galápagos tortoises, American alligators and Bald eagles.
Discovery Island continued operating as one of Walt Disney World’s offerings for exactly 25 years, before abruptly closing to the public on April 8, 1999. Similarly to the closure of Discovery Island’s Bay Lake neighbor River Country a few years later, Disney never gave an official reason for the closure. However, there are several major contributing factors.
The first was dwindling attendance. Despite Discovery Island remaining relatively affordable — tickets cost $12.67 for adults and $6.89 for children at the time of its closure — the island wasn’t able to compete with the ever-growing list of other experiences on Walt Disney World property. In addition, attendance and the overall reputation of Discovery Island was damaged by controversy.
In the late 1980s, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) accused Disney of having their employees mistreat vultures who’d landed on the island, including killing some of the birds while trying to capture them. Some of these allegations were eventually proven true, leading to 16 counts of animal cruelty charges against the company by Florida authorities, which in-turn left a black eye on Discovery Island to many.
Finally, perhaps the biggest reason for the closure of Discovery Island could be traced to the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park that same month. The new state of the art park had countless animal exhibits that arguably made Discovery Island redundant from both a guest experience standpoint and backstage, animal care standpoint.
Following the closure of Discovery Island, rumors abounded as to what Disney could do with the island. Allegedly the company contemplated several options over the years, including turning the island into a live-action RPG replica of the video game Myst, or an attraction based on the ABC hit Lost. However, as of 2023, nothing has been done with the island, and it’s simply been left to rot. However, that doesn’t mean it’s been left alone.
In the 25 years since its closure, Discovery Island has drawn the attention of numerous “urban explorers” who’ve documented the deteriorating conditions of the island’s infrastructure in photo essays and Youtube videos. One man took things further in 2020, when he camped on the island during the pandemic, referring to it as a “tropical paradise.” After being arrested, the man rather dubiously claimed he wasn’t aware the the island was closed to the public.
What do you think Disney should do with the remnants of Discovery Island? Let us know in the comments below.
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I’m so glad we had the opportunity to visit Discovery Island several times. We always had an enjoyable morning there, followed by swimming at River Country in the afternoon.
I was fortunate to have visited Discovery Island before it closed. It was well-named because getting the most out of your visit required you to be very observant. There was a boardwalk loop trail that took you past all the significant sites. One thing I noticed was that families with kids got more out of the visit than parties that were just adults. The kids were usually the ones who spotted the smaller fauna on the island. Adults were often oblivious–and complaining that there wasn’t much to see. I visited solo, but once I caught on I made sure I was in the vicinity of the parties with kids so that I could hear when they spotted something.
I’ve been to Walt Disney World several times since the island closed. I thought it was a nice way to spend part of the day when you wanted a break from the major parks.