Walt Disney World's 15-year Development Plan Approved

2 days ago, the Central Florida Tourism District officially granted Walt Disney World permission for expansion over the next 10-20 years. The politics behind the permission finally going through is interesting, but we want to focus on what this might mean to tourists at Walt Disney World. That's right.... We're going to speculate.

You may remember a while back, Disney's Theme Parks division, which includes the Cruise Line, released a very large 10-year budget. With that budget came lots of speculation about what Disney would do with the money. The development plan that was recently approved gives us a better indication of how that money will be used specifically at Walt Disney World.

Here's what's in the plan:

• 1 major theme park

• 2 minor theme parks (such as water parks)

• 14,000 additional hotel rooms

Let's break it down, shall we?

1 major theme park

I think we knew this was coming when the budget was released. It's simply so. much. money. But the fact that 1 major theme park shows up in the development plan means that Disney is truly potentially considering a 5th park for Walt Disney World. Here's the catch: While the plan has been approved to include one, that doesn't mean Disney HAS to build one, or that they even have plans for one right now. And let's not forget that Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park took 9 years from idea to the park's opening day.

2 minor theme parks

Now, this is what we find both interesting and predictable. What's interesting is that most people reading this are thinking water parks or mini golf. I'm going to speculate something different: Lands. Are Lands in a theme park not basically minor theme parks? Here's why:

First of all, Disney World doesn't seem to NEED more water parks or mini golf. They used to have three water parks and closed one down. And you don't hear about people clamoring to get in to water parks or mini-golf or these things reaching capacity.

Secondly, I think we may already know what Lands Disney plans to make, based on dropped hints. Disney's been hinting a while at "What's Beyond Big Thunder". I tend to take them seriously when they hint at something. I don't think they're going to ask this teaser of a question and leave us with an answer like "the railroad tracks and canal". We've also seen concept art for something to take the place of Dinoland U.S.A. at Animal Kingdom. While we might not know exactly what these things will be, we know Imagineers have played with the concepts. And I think that means something. I think those are the "two minor parks" we're going to get.

14,000 Hotel Rooms

If anything has Orlando residents mad, it's this. 14,000 hotel rooms means a lot more tourists and a lot more traffic. Right now, Walt Disney World has around 40,000 hotel rooms, so this means we could be looking at about 54,000 hotel rooms in the next 10-20 years. That's a big difference. That's a 20% increase in people at Walt Disney World. And you thought it was crowded now.

BUT, to break it down another way, 40,000 hotel rooms right now means there are about 10,000 rooms per theme park (4 theme parks). A 5th park would need another 10,000 hotel rooms at least. To me, this lends credence to the idea of the 5th park. Why upwards of 10,000 rooms? Because that's how many a 5th park needs.

Of course, with all this, Disney is going to need a lot more restaurants, shops, etc. to support all those additional tourists, and that appears to be part of the budget too.

As a bonus, we're going to leave you with what we'd like to see with this development. We're not even going to ask for a specific type of 5th park - I trust Disney will do something great. But we do want:

• Less tarmac. This has been mentioned other places. Walt Disney World seems to know no other method of making parking spaces aside from paving large, large, areas of land. At Disneyland, there's a ramp. At Universal, there's a ramp (a very efficient ramp with moving sidewalks, might we add). So why, Disney, do we want to cut down trees and leave people in bright, sunny, meltingly hot parking lots in Florida? Please, with the 5th park, create a parking ramp to take less of a footprint and allow the cars some shade!

• Another shopping district. Disney Springs is great, and huge, but it gets crowded in the evening. Really, really, crowded. With the drone show this summer, that's only getting worse. I would cherish the idea of another shopping district. Am I a big shopper? No. But if I do go, I don't want to be bucking crowds that are worse than the theme park crowds at night. And I really like the idea of giving another place for those 20% more tourists to go aside from the 5th park.

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What do you think is going to happen with Disney's 15-year development plan for Walt Disney World? Will we get a Villains theme park? Will we get Avenger's Campus or Cars Land? Is there something other than water parks and mini golf that would warrant minor parks? Come on over to our Facebook page and tell us what you think. You can also follow us there to see when new articles are posted each week. Until next time...