Outside The Kingdom - The World Beyond Disney 

I can feel the humidity in this video

Seeing one of those small warn down gazebos with the words ＣＨＥＡＰ ＤＩＳＮＥＹ ＴＩＣＫＥＴＳ around the Florida area is practically part of the Disney world experience

you get this strange feeling when your driving on the strip at night and you see all the sketchy stores and everything feels so empty but you can see the fire works in the background

There's a movie called the Florida Project that kind of shines a light on this problem too. It's fictional but based on real life. It's an interesting watch.

Hey, the only cellphone camera recording of fireworks that people actually watched.

I always liked how, whenever you encounter homeless citizens you treat them with respect and give money.

It’s extremely haunting. This is the hotel I used to stay at when visiting Disney with my family and it’s now only an empty shell . Looking at pictures now, you would think it wasn’t the best choice around, but for a 5-8 year old, this was the best place around. With the giant indoor pool, I still remember the mosaics of turtles and other sea creatures that filled the pool floor. I remember the cool art oceanic work that lined the walls. The best memories I had were here. I remember doing karaoke with my older sister, playing in the arcade with my brother and my parents gifting my a hot pink dolphin necklace from the gift shop. Everything was so special. Many of you may have never gone here and may think it’s just another low grade hotel, but to those who went as kids, this place will always be a jewel of a memory.

“it’s just liquor stores and sketchy businesses” yup,, that’s orlando

When you said you were about to tour an abandoned hotel, I joked that it would be the one I stayed at on my honeymoon 5 years ago. Sure enough, it was the same! We went there because it had free transportation and looked unique. However, it wasn't well kept. Our room faced the indoor pool. I thought that was cool at the time, but when you are so used to using the sun as a way of telling time when you're asleep, it was quite weird. Also, the light in the bathroom completely shut off and when we went to complain, they thought it was weird we wanted it fixed so we could actually see in the bathroom. Plus the food was awful. We bought a breakfast buffet, saw the options was just bread and lunchmeat, then asked for our money back. Ahhhhh memories

Oh look Florida

Its so bizarre to think one day everyone went home from work and just never went back.

I live in FL, and drive down 192 often enough. Almost everything you showed in this video, I've seen plenty of times and tbh it's pretty weird for it to be in this light. In the 5 years I've lived here now, I don't think I've ever questioned some of this weird/abandoned stuff. For a lot of us they're really just ways to give directions. Ya know, the place across from the wizard with the lazy eye, or the street behind the weirdly flat mermaid. I went back to my hometown a few months ago, and even though i didn't think much of it then, seeing the weird tourist trap stuff from the perspective of someone who isn't completely desensitized to it kinda makes me realize how plain my old town is. Or probably more accurately, how mf extra the areas around Orlando are.

“the florida project” illustrates this very well

My old stomping grounds . 192 started my RU-vid career

This is why the Florida project is so freaking dark.

Me: I want to go to Disney World Mom: We have Disney World at home The Disney World at home:

Have you seen The Florida Project? Its a fantastic film that focuses on people that live within the shadow of Disney.

Loved the hard cut from the magical fireworks show to the dingey billboard. Very nice

"2 free seaworld with meal deal (tour)" What does this even mean

As someone born, raised, and still in Kissimmee, finding videos like this is so interesting. Seeing how people who think of our city/state as just Disney and then seeing how we really live on the outskirts lol Only the wealthy tourists and retirees live in the nice parts of Kissimmee surrounding Disney i.e. Celebration which is like Disney's housing development

It's abandoned but not to a point of complete ruin, everything is on and relatively neat.It's fascinatingly erie.

Central Florida sure is a strange place. I love the way you were able to so easily capture the overall dilapidated and somewhat-eerie-ness of the land outside of major theme parks. As usual, this film is beyond well-made and interesting.

Thank you for respecting the history and the land, and even the homeless guy living there, its why i keep coming back

A shot of a "Mickey's Stuff for kids" sign, followed by a naked woman on a beach towel.

It doesn't make sense to me why the electricity is still on, who would still be paying for it? What's stopping someone from living there..

While my mom was a Cast Member @ the Magic Kingdom In 2014, I lived in Kissamee on that same road with the Wizard and the animal gift shop. There was even a giant mermaid that I passed everyday going to school. I thought it was wonderful then when in reality I was living in one of those delapitated motels in the smallest room they offered with 3 other family members living off of only my moms measly Disney wage. My school in the Disney owned Celebration neighborhood would send me home with packs of food every Friday for the weekend. The contrast from living everyday in the surrounding area that I did to the wonder of visiting the parks every week made Disney extra magical for me and is the reason I retain such an emotional connection with the experience of the parks to this day. It makes my memory of those times 100% positive

Seeing Florida Project makes this video even more cool. It’s almost like a bonus doc that you can watch after watching the movie which I highly recommend seeing.

The scary thing about Disney is how they managed to create the feeling of being in actual other planet. The amount of things that they do from the lighting, animatronics, characters, the parks architecture and layout is insane.

I never ever thought I would be infatuated by the economy and business that thrive off of Disney World. Only Jake and BSF could make me interested in this

Jake, my brother, you have done it again. You have entertained and educated at the same time. I have not been to the LBV-Kissimee/St. Cloud area of Florida since before I joined the army in 1988. It is so depressing to see the way US-192 has deteriorated. I remember the Wilson World Resort, the hotel you highlighted in this video. I went to Disney as a high school graduation present/pre shipping off to the army present. It was a beautiful resort, it had a good breakfast and free shuttle service to Disney and Epcot complex. It almost hurts to see such a happy memory reduced to this. As usual your voice leads us in and hooks us and keeps us as you take us along on a ride down memory lane. Keep it up Jake, love your work.

Jake mentioned at one point how weird it was that there was mold in the hotel rooms but not water damage - this is actually super common in hotels in humid areas. The water in the air just kind of seeps into everything, and it takes a lot of upkeep for hotels to prevent mold problems. When the hotel is no longer being regulated by an ac/humidity controller, the battle has been lost and drywall is very quickly overtaken by mold.

What’s really ironic is that this video is a pretty accurate depiction of what a lot of the hotel areas in Orlando are like right now with the quarantine in effect. That said, I think these filmmakers only wanted to focus on the little small sliver of area directly around Disney as opposed to the major city of Orlando that Disney helped foster and create. It would be interesting to see a documentary about the city of Orlando that kind of lives in the shadow of Disney but is actually thriving for the most part. Or, was thriving before the COVID crisis forced everything to close. Also, if you go anywhere at 2 AM it’s going to look creepy.

This dudes the only youtuber that I watch regardless of the subject, every video is interesting and so well made

i really appreciate this video wasn't titled *_"disney (EXPOSEEDDD!!! GONE WRONG!!!)"_* like other youtubers would title it to get more clicks...

I stayed in the abandoned hotel in 2013 and I remember the service there being bad and the indoor pool giving us rashes

This deserves way more views than it has. The sketchiness of 192 really is something when you see it for yourself.

I actually stayed at that abandoned hotel. I can tell you from experience that it was not good at all. From dude staff members that couldn’t find my reservation to sleeping on top of the sheets because it didn’t feel safe to sleep between them. That 1.5 rating is really accurate. The Ramada right across the street is way cleaner and great hotel to stay at.

I was a Florida Destination Specialist for Eastern Air Lines in the early To mid 90s and am familiar with most of the 192 hotels/motels. The one you explored was originally built as the Wilson World Resort circa 1988-89. It was a small chain started by Kemmons Wilson (the founder of Holiday Inns) after his retirement. There were other locations in Jackson TN and Memphis TN, as well as a couple of others, I believe. I sold it when it was still the Wilson World, though it was sold in probably 1995 or so. The times I led travel agent tours through the properties we sold (think package deals sold by air lines to travel agents), the place always reeked of chlorine due to the indoor pool. One unusual thing was that they had Mickey Mouse phones in all the rooms. It was not too common back then for a property to provide breakfast of any kind. This was one of two hotels we had on our lists that did. So it at one time was a top level value property (a kind way of saying it was a luxury property at a not-too-bad rate). I never stayed there myself, but booked a lot of groups into it and never had any complaints. The travel agents I took to tour the property all seemed to like it, too, in spite of the chlorine smell. It was bad enough to make your eyes watery, too. They also offered free transportation to all the parks. All you had to do was give them a call and they would send their van to pick you up.

it's weird seeing places i've seen my whole life depicted this way

6:55 - Pretty much sums up every family vacation ever. Kids: "Mooooom!" Mom: "I'm gunna kill you!"

Your editing is SO great. That cut from the fireworks to the billboard? Outatanding, man. Love the vids!

The writing was on the wall. Part of Walt's reasoning for buying up so much land in Florida was because he didn't like how all of the cheap, tacky businesses that sprang up around Disneyland leeched off of the tourists coming to the area. Now if all of the businesses in Florida had worked together and presented a unified vision for a tourist destination then maybe Disney would not have been so quick to exercise their land options and provide that vision for themselves. Maybe they would even have been happy to partner with them and produce a flourishing economy for the businesses there. But we'll never know. The businesses that sprang up around Walt Disney World followed the same model of those that sprang up around Disneyland and they suffered in the long-term for short-term profit.

This video is the main idea of the florida project without characters in less than 20 minutes

When I saw the elevator come up I was just like ohh my lord it works that is sooo freaky and scetchy

I got irrationally excited seeing the wizard shop in Florida Project :To add, there is a shit ton of construction all over Orlando it just baffles me that no one has bought up (that I'm aware of anyways) those older crappier bits and made something new. And I don't mean another olive garden. something without parking lots in the way that keeps people out and about walking.

Used to work in hotels and yes, they all have bedbug identification posters. Even the cleanest, newest hotels can be infested if someone comes in with them, or if a frequent traveler picks up a single bug while in transit.

When my father retired feom the Army he was the assistant manager at the shoney's shown in the video.

Loved seeing the Ramada. My family used to go there all the time in the early 2000’s when it was still a reasonably nice hotel. Spent a lot of good time in that indoor pool. Thank you for this.

There needs to be a Fallout game that takes place here.

Dude when I moved down here, and I do live near this road, about 20 minutes from it all, I was so taken back by what this area had become. You see some startling things. Many big chain companies (Target, Panda Express, Joes Crab Shack, Publix, etc.) and some beautiful condos have emerged here, but there is still a major, desolate corridor you pass through to get to Disney. I use to think, in decades to come, as Disney keeps expanding, they would consider growing their resort out this way, and will likely get the property extremely cheap, but realistically, nope. It's just become a disaster area. The cheap motels were the feature of the critically acclaimed film, The Florida Project. But it's alarming how gross and unnerving the businesses along the road have become, if still in existence. Hoping a development firm realizes the value of this area and decides to build proper establishments and housing at some point. Sad to think that it has become what it is.

That hotel you explored, I used to go there as a kid, went at least 15 times. A big childhood memory for me. It actually used to be pretty decent until Ramada took over, then it just started falling apart and we quit going. Seeing you visit took me by surprise, I heard rumors it had closed but I never knew for sure. Thanks for showing! Have a lot of fond memories of that place, sort of sad to see its current state.

I'm surprised more people aren't speculating about what could be running on the sketchy ass server.

As someone who has grown up and lived his life in that area, specifically 5 minutes from 192, and worked on 192 for five years, glad to see lazy eye wizard getting love.

For me living in central Florida my whole life Disney was the fantasy land I wanted to spend all my time in to get away from the reality that is 192. Kissimmee as a whole is just out of control, 192 is so sketchy, rent is astronomical and infrastructure within the city limits is falling apart. Roads littered with potholes, traffic is insane. Tourism is everything for us and while is helps our economy it’s not something your regular local is seeing any real benefits from

Seeing that hotel in that state breaks my heart. I had so many good memories at that hotel before it went downhill. The larger room that you explored was the room I stayed in after my father passed and I took a motorcycle ride around Florida to clear my head.

okay but most towns near tourist attractions have these same style giftshops with almost the same merch. its like a culture

The "server room" I believe was just telecommunications switches. If they were real servers, they wouldn't have been green circuit boards sitting in the open vertically like that. The car batteries are the back up so that phone services don't go down with the power is out. It's also why it was a crt monitor and a 90s keyboard because there's no reason to upgrade the phone service, especially when you're a broke hotel.

Great work. Went down in October 2015 and was overcome by sadness of how despicable everything looked. Computer area in the hotel was a little creepy. The elevator bit was hilarious.

Honestly, working at Disney World for several months put a lot of this stuff into perspective for me (I'm a Florida local, but not from Orlando). Even Universal and Sea World aren't as ultra-sterile as the face we present to guests is. Obv. I can't really say too much about the behind the scenes magic, but a significant amount of the infrastructure at EPCOT and MK is unable to ever be updated due to the construction around and above it... When I was a PAC (parade assistance communicator/parade audience control) friend on Main Street, we were told not to lean on the walls, touch the ceilings, etc. due to materials used in the 70's. The laminate floor and concrete are all original, too. My roommate worked full-time in MK so I'm sure she'd have more information about all of it, but I ended up transferring over to working in one of the newer hotels.

The part at 17:08!! I currently live there!!!!!! (but I'm moving in a few weeks!) That apartment complex (Cane Island Loop) was originally a Condo Resort (called Cane Island Resort) And they never bothered to change the name on the sign! And that shopping area that you explored has been abandoned for YEARS! Because of my apartment and the abandoned shopping center, I just knew something about 192 is insanely creepy/sketchy and you really see abandoned stuff all over the place! I got so invested in it all, that I looked up other abandoned places and that's how I found your channel a year ago!!!! Thank you SO MUCH for making this video!!!! If you have a chance, you need to make a Part 2 to this because there's so much more to discover! There's the old housing that Interns from Disney used to work at and you can see that on the map, it's still called "Seven Dwarfs Lane." Creepy. Also, if you ever have a chance, you HAVE to HAVEEE to check out Celebration Fl which is that little town on 192 that Disney created. It's still gorgeous, but the history of it is incredibly sketchy and there's abandoned things from Disney in Celebration that are still around!

bsf has been my favorite since the first few abandoned episodes , keep up the good work jake

I grew up in the area and spent most of my life here. Got away a few years, looking to get away again. It's really depressing to see how bad it's gotten. 3:52 - I can't remember what it was originally built for, but the castle facade was put up when it was converted to a haunted house for a while, eventually became the nightclub you mentioned, and now this. 4:38 - Worth noting they had a damn lion escape from Jungleland at some point and there used to be a giant gator sculpture in the parking lot. I noticed year or two back they had a circus tent in the parking lot and had an elephant and pony there accepting 'donations' and said they were raising funds to reopen it, but I guess it was a scam? 7:00 - Not sure what happened with this Shoney's location, but one day it just closed up for 'renovations' promising to reopen soon, and a green construction fence was erected around it for a while and taken down. 17:06 - There was another plaza in this location that they demolished to build what you see there. MOST of that plaza has NEVER been occupied and it's probably been up like.... 12 years? 18:20 - That wizard's scepter used to hold like a giant metal/glass ball on top of it until a hurricane (can't remember which) blew it off. Good video though, I was able to pick up on just about every shooting location in about 2 seconds and felt you really pieced together a good narrative of how it's really run down, especially in the wake of 9/11. In all actuality, it really wouldn't surprise me to find that most of those knockoff gift shops are money laundering fronts or tax havens for illicit activities either.

"it's really eriee out here. It's 2 in the morning and no one's here." Lol thats literally how every city is in the US at 2AM!

You totally should have taken the elevator. Down would have gotten you to the main atrium, and up could have gotten you to some part of Silent Hill.

This is your most interesting, most well-produced, and overall best video yet, I’ve loved watching you grow as an artist

The Elevator Moment at 16:02 was amazing

This is actually one of the coolest videos I've seen in recent memory. It's fascinating and eerie. I was disappointed when it was over. Keep up the good work!

I stayed at that abandoned Ramada back in 2011 for my senior class trip to Disney! The indoor pool atrium was a lot of fun back then.

I moved form Chicago to Kissimmee back and forth twice now and I always found myself confused at 192. I never understood how lost in time it is considering the money that Disney brings in and what a better alternative cheaper stay can bring as well as different attractions. It’s sad because you can tell a lot of places are on their last leg and over the past 8 years I have seen many businesses close. Disney does overshadow everything.

Fantastic video Jake!! Love all things Disney-centric, and yes, I definitely consider this to be so. As a former WDW Cast Member, on their college program, it's surreal seeing these shops and stretches of road. Ive been to these places, or driven by them with friends. Love the walk down memory lane, no matter how macabre. PS: Love the recent cameo on Defunctland.

I’m from Orlando / Kissimmee and recognize so many of these places you showed. At the very end 17:20 you show a place with empty shops/store fronts but in the 90s it use to be a dinner theatre show it was called fort liberty and it had wild bills Wild West dinner show (and it was really fun at the time) . Please look it up , it would have been great to show this as it was when it was in its glory.

This just reminds me of Florida in general haha! I lived in the outskirts of Pensacola for a short time and this video brings back memories. Sketchy discount stores, abandoned hotels and overall eerie vibe.

As per usual, great work Jake! I recently decided to check out the film, "The Florida Project", and I'm so happy I decided to give it a watch. I love that this video took a deeper look into the area. What a fascinating history this area has.

I've always been interested in looking into the ideological/philosophical meanings and effects of Walt Disney World on regular culture. Both Sean Baker's The Florida Project and this perfectly capture this subtopic within our continuing discussion of those idealisims. Thank you. This is very well made!

Used to go to Orlando every year to go to Disney. The place became so familiar to me, but the vibe it gave off was always unique. The “innocents” of Disney paired with the feel of the town and the many motels and bars creates such a weird sensation that literally cant be explained. It’s like walking into another dimension. Orlando is its own world.

That castle facade building used to be a haunted attraction :) also i used to work at that super sketchy hotel back in the day. Good times lol

All of your editing, design, narration, and directorial choices have grown exponentially from your early videos, I look forward to your uploads and I hope you're proud of how far you've come, it's really impressive.

this is AWESOME and such a great representation of the stark contrast of Disney World and Lake Buena Vista where it resides. I used to live in LBV when I interned at Disney and it was not a place you wanted to be unless it was for WDW lol. can't wait to see more like this if that's the plan?? ;)

Welcome to my home state of Florida. I wish all the state could be Disney World.

Ending with "out there" was brilliant.

Remember going to Disney back in early 90s and 192 was packed. Took you forever to drive down it. Went to Disney with my son's family and went down 192 and was shocked on how run down it was. Y'all guys do great work!

Orlando isn't that different from say New Orleans Las Vegas or Atlantic City. All you have to do in New Orleans Las Vegas or Atlantic City is go about five miles in any direction from the immaculate well kept tourist areas and you'll find poverty crime and violence. One of biggest reasons why Atlantic City failed was that the city government didn't do enough to protect and nurture their tourist image, all one had to do was walk 1/4 mile away from the immediate boardwalk area and the city was filled with decapitated tenements abandoned buildings and so very much crime that it actually became dangerous to go there in the late 90's. In vegas they actually don't recommend that tourists go more than three miles from the strip because there is a lot of street crime around those areas, the pawn shop from pawn stars is actually located in a dangerous neighborhood just off the strip that is infamous for its criminal activity to the point that when the show got popular and people started going there to see it the LVPD had to build a temporary detachment near the shop to keep the idiots who went to see the run down dump of a store that it was safe. New Orleans was once the most dangerous city in the united states and was infamous for its spectacularly corrupt police force, it actually got to a point in the early 90's that the louisiana state tourist board recommended that tourists in new orleans not pull over for police traffic stops unless they were in a well lit well traveled public area because some officers would actually rob tourists at gunpoint.

Competing for the leftover scraps of Disney: great analysis.

This is literally what Florida looks like on the outskirts of any tourist city.

The car batteries in the server room are a battery backup for the servers when the power goes down. Its called an uninterruptible power supply. It's mostly there just to shut down gracefully when the power goes out.

Reminds me a bit of The Florida Project and that is not a bad thing ❤️

Walt Disney World opened with several on-site hotels. Walt Disney expressly wanted to avoid letting his second Magic Kingdom attract any seedy business establishments, so the company bought 48 square miles of land in the middle of nowhere, controlled everything, and designed the resort destination to be fully self-contained and oriented to visitors flying into Walt Disney World. Disneyland, in California, did not enjoy that same opportunity, so, for a very long time, Walt Disney's original Magic Kingdom was surrounded by several seedy business establishments.

I stay at a hotel at 192 when i went to Disney world in July, and let me tell you, in the night i was SO scared about this place.

So weird this video was uploaded today. Wife and I just drove down 192 today and we are from Wisconsin. Not only did we see the buildings featured in the video, I commented that this area exists in "the shadow of Disney." Another excellent video Jake.

This is probably one of your best videos! Really informative, and also kinda chilling wow. Really strange to see what Disney can create and the damage it can do. At 12:35 the lighting makes it look like something’s watching you.

That crackhead was friendly. Perhaps he’s a great wizard

I love this channel so much !!!! It helps me find out how many things I haven’t seen in life & how these places bring people to feelings looking forward to seeing you and this page on to better !

Hope you're fully recovered from your ADR adventures with Dan. Like your content. Keep up the fantastic work.

I used to live right on 192 it's not nearly as depressing and sketchy as they are making it seem. It is much more local and much less "magical" but that's normal for any place. What they are calling desolate and sketchy is just a normal tourist town when you get to the more local areas, there's nothing weird or creepy about it; it's home ❤ The editing and shooting of this video is amazing though! I just get a little defensive because it made it look so sad when that's where I lived and I loved it lol

You have an amazing way to grip me and make me feel emotions watching your videos! I stumbled today over your channel (watched the Queen Mary Bankrupt one) and i haven't stopped watching it for 7 hours straight (started at the beginning and binge through your abandoned and cancelled videos) Oh boy this one pierced right through my heart, i'm Swiss and also watch Adam the Woo alot, showing me a different, sad but also melancholic America in all it's beauty! WOW you def have a new subscriber, your editing skills, the visuals, sometimes combined with the past or the fading music in the background all this makes me want more and more... thank you for dedication Jake!

when he booted up that pc that was some fallout 3 shit

Central Florida resident here! That Ramada used to be poppin when my family and I would come for vacations before I moved lol, and the 192 is so suspect lmao I refuse to drive down that way 😂

Holy crap jake you killed it again! Awesome freaking video!! I always am so entranced anytime you do the disney related videos because i have visited these areas multiple times and love learning about all the abandoned areas whether its parks or outside the parks like this. Keep up the great work and YES MORE DISNEY/ FLORIDA VIDEOS!

I love when stuff like this from my childhood pops up... I remember going to Miller's in Orlando just to get out of Disney World and see what it looked like out of Disney Property, and seeing all of the knockoff Disney shops always made me scratch my head. You'd think with the power Disney has that they would not allow this to exist outside of their property, but knowing the story is truly upsetting.

Whenever me and my friends would go to Florida, we would always sneak out at night and take photos of the gift shops, tourist traps, etc. Its great to see some of this stuff again! I distinctly remember going into that jungle themed shop that you showed for something or other, and consistently passing that Shoneys at least once every time I went down 192!