Walt Disney World Resort & Google Earth Team-up To Launch 3-D Park Maps
It's a small world, thanks to Google Earth
By Kitty Bean Yancey
USA TODAY
May 15, 2008
Starting this month, you can tour realistic re-creations of Disney's Florida theme parks and resorts simply by clicking your computer mouse.
In a pioneering partnership aiming to go online Tuesday, Google Earth and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts will make it easy to take a virtual trip to Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios and 22 Disney hotels and resorts.
Computer users will click on maps that show about 1,500 rides, restaurants and attractions in 3-D.
The mega-map, with interactive features, will be available via disneyworld.com/3dparks or Google Earth (earth.google.com) for free.
"It's a virtual walk-through of the whole property … the most amazing virtual tour of any place in the world," Walt Disney Parks and Resorts chairman Jay Rasulo says.
While Google Earth offers a growing number of 3-D images and gives bird's-eye views of theme parks, with links to information about them, the Disney project is the most ambitious and detailed 3-D production yet. It's "truly innovative and unique," says Google Earth maps director John Hanke.
Disney's Rasulo expects the map to serve as a cutting-edge trip planner ("it's one small step from actually being there") and an armchair diversion for legions of Disney World fans. Up to three-quarters of Disney World visitors are repeaters, Rasulo says; about one-third are adults. Disney does not release attendance figures.
The map began with eight photographers who canvassed every inch of Disney World for 10 days. Then their images were rendered in 3-D.
Click on Space Mountain, for instance, and you can view a video of the ride and get information such as height requirements. Put your mouse on the Grand Floridian and a video of the resort pops up. You also can check availability and rates and make a reservation.
For now, the map shows only exteriors. In the future, Web visitors can stroll into Cinderella's Castle or walk into a room at a Disney resort. Photographers are at work to map Disneyland Resort Paris (Euro Disney); other Disney properties may be next.
Disney is just one of many traveler-friendly additions to fast-growing Google Earth in recent months.
In April, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the posting of its digital map of U.S. wetlands there. The information is useful to bird-watchers and fishermen, among others, says Fish & Wildlife Service spokesman Joshua Winchell.
"It's an attempt to make the data more available to (everyday) people," he says. Google Earth "is a figurative sandbox, and anyone can jump in" and play.
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Cool!! I just hope my poor old computer has enough OOMPH to keep up with all the clicking I am likely to do! I also hope they have enough computing power behind the whole thing so it can keep up with what I would expect to be a whole heck of a lot of use!
Anxiously awaiting the Disneyland Resort version. A very exciting addition to planning a Disney vacation or just a great source to relive times already spent at the parks.
Linda aka tinkwest
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Are we going to have to download a new version of Google Earth, or some sort of new software to get this? I already have Google Earth on my computer...
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This is one of the most exciting developments I've read about on here. May 20th can't come fast enough.
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I just downloaded the new version of Google Earth. It is totally cool!! I won't be going down to WDW until Aug, 82 more days , and this is a great fix. There has to be 100 pics of Cindy's Castle from every angle and every time of day!! My DS (6) and DD (4) are going to love this...yeah, I did it for my kids...
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Anxiously awaiting the Disneyland Resort version. A very exciting addition to planning a Disney vacation or just a great source to relive times already spent at the parks.
I can't wait for this! I've never been to DLR and this will be so cool to compare the two.
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