Google Maps Street View of Walt Disney World coming soon?

Feb 17, 2016 in "EPCOT"

Posted: Wednesday February 17, 2016 11:!2am EST by WDWMAGIC Staff

It looks like Google Maps Street View will soon be coming to Walt Disney World.

Various sightings of the Google Trekker walking through the parks have been reported on Twitter, both at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.

Similar to the version that is mounted to vehicles for providing Street View along roads, the man-mounted Trekker takes Street View to places where driving through is not possible.

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insaneshadowFeb 24, 2016

This is neat. Google Street View of WDW with some park music on Youtube and it'll be like I'm there. Except, you know, they people, stuff to buy and rides to ride.

BaconFeb 23, 2016

Cool

WhatJaneSaysFeb 23, 2016

The Google crew must be staying near where I live! They were at my favorite breakfast spot and I chatted with one fellow that does the backpack camera rig thing. Apparently they're going to do Disney Springs with the backpack too.

WhatJaneSaysFeb 18, 2016

Semi-related: I saw a one of the regular Street View car rigs driving south on Avalon RD toward 192 about 11:45 AM-ish today.

bakntimeFeb 18, 2016

Google Earth (maps) currently already has 3D versions of all American Disney parks. They're not "street view" worthy (the graphics quality breaks down at the ground level, but check out the screen shots I attached), but it's actually pretty accurate and fun to fly around the properties. In fact, most of the country has this 3D feature, where it's not just a flat image, but actual 3D texture mapped buildings, landscape, and landmarks. The Google Maps website lets you see this if you click on the "tilt view" icon, but It works much better if you have the actual Google Earth software rather than just going to the Google Maps website, as the PC software allows you to pan, tilt, rotate at will with the mouse. You can even go into a rudimentary flight simulator mode (controllable by keyboard, mouse, or even gamepad), and fly anywhere you want. The flight sim mode has some drawbacks (sometimes the detail is still loading while you're moving around), but the regular free-view mode is amazing. You'll often feel like you're actually flying over the Earth rather than looking at a graphical reproduction, and if you have a 3D monitor and 3D capable software (like nvidia 3D or tri-def) you can actually view it all in 3D. As for street view, several other tourist attractions (the ones already mentioned, along with some of the Six Flags parks) already have it available, so it wouldn't surprise me to see it for WDW.

montyz81Feb 18, 2016

How cool would it be if you could pick the year that you wanted to walk through. I'd pick March 1972 and March 1983.

danlb_2000Feb 17, 2016

I think this would fall under the heading of "professional photographers"... "Professional photographers with professional cameras or recording equipment, who are visiting Walt Disney World Resort with the intent to take photographs or recordings of people, Walt Disney World Resort properties or icons for professional purposes must make prior arrangements with Walt Disney World Resort Media Relations."

StevekFeb 17, 2016

And Disney will find a way to charge you $49.99 for this "Magical" virtual visit : )

Biff215Feb 17, 2016

Honest question...does Google need special permission to take it into the park? Couldn't help but think of all the selfie sticks being confiscated at security (which I'm thankful for by the way).

OliveMcFlyFeb 17, 2016

Exactly! I play with Google Maps at work all the time.

wsmith1978Feb 17, 2016

Oh man, I would love this. Take a walk through Epcot anytime I want, especially when I'm really, really missing it.

danlb_2000Feb 17, 2016

They have also had it for Univresal and SeaWorld for quite some time.

the.dreamfinderFeb 17, 2016

Google did this a number of years back with Disneyland Parc.

BoarderPhreakFeb 17, 2016

This would be pretty cool. It would certainly help the jones between visits. Honestly, I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened already (granted, it's private property).