Set after the movie, guests are given the opportunity to take a tour of the jungles around Paradise Falls, led by the Wilderness Explorers group. As a project to gain a badge, the group of explorers has constructed a fleet of balloon vehicles for our adventure filled trip.
The queue begins in the jungle near the house and leads to a meandering switchback queue through the brush where the Wilderness Explorers have set up camp, passing seemingly occupied tents. Interactive noises and shadows in the tents lend to the illusion of life. Both the Fastpass+ and Standby queues then lead into the rockwork caves. The queues pass through their workshops where they have been building exploration balloons, which we will be riding on our journey through the jungle. We pass boxes of parts, spools of rope, and tanks of helium along the way. We find their work table with the blueprints for the vehicle and then a finished vehicle prototype before we round the corner and reach the load area. There is a projection effect of an opening in the rockwork where we can see the balloon periodically sail by, filled with Wilderness Explorers.
The wicker and metal exploration balloons are two rows seating 2 or 3 in each row and are suspended from a large clump of “balloons” which cover the track above. I wanted to make this more than a traditional suspended dark ride, so I attempted to emulate a “trackless” ride in a suspended dark ride form. To create that effect, the darkride has two separate tracks that pass through the scenes in completely different ways. The vehicles on each track are identical but mirrored, cantilevering out from each track by 1’ towards the center. At load and unload, the two tracks sit parallel and 2’ apart so that the vehicles suspended from each track form a straight line. The tracks also come together for two track switches, where large overhead turntables send the vehicles to the backstage maintenance bays.
Guests load on their exploration balloon vehicle and float out into the jungle. We start out in search of Kevin, but first find Doug and the rest of the dogs that live in the Jungle. Doug sits up on a rock perch to the right of the two tracks, talking to us as we float by, while the other dogs are at ground level around the track. Farther ahead, we discover Kevin standing on his own rock formation, squawking at us. We float past and into a cave, which is where the first track switch is located. This is the remnants of Muntz’s cave, evident by a perpective projection of Muntz’s dirigible to the right side of the track, making the cave seem much larger than it is. On the ground, Muntz’s equipment and furniture are scattered. We float out of the cave and right over a lagoon, with gushing waterfalls to our left and right, threatening to splash us but just missing. We turn and pass through a rocky opening, and see another floating balloon ahead of us, with Carl and Russell inside. We float around it, while they wave goodbye to us and wish us a good trip back to the camp. We float ahead, passing Kevin and Doug again, and enter another cave, where the second track switch is located. We turn left, and arrive at the unload station. Guests exit the vehicle and walk through the small gift shop before making it back out to the house.
Guests are able to freely explore the house before or after their ride. Russell and Carl could also do meet and greets outside the house during the day.
This would be similar to the attraction I am currently proposing in my third gate design for the Disneyland Resort, set in a similar South America rainforest.
That's actually a really clever ride system idea! Super simple but effective.
ReplyDelete