Legendary Kingdom - Park Plan

Disney's Legendary Kingdom is my conceptual plan for a second gate at the Hong Kong Disney Resort. This idea for a new park is based on the concept of myths and legends come to life.

When starting the idea process for this concept, I first considered designing this park as an evolution on the DisneySea park model. It is obviously a successful design with a very effective layout and organization, so it would have been logical to attempt to follow it up. Eventually though, I decided that I wanted to explore a different conceptual organization while using a similar park layout. That led to this concept of a park that celebrates the idea of "legends." There are many ideas to draw from for this theme, both original ideas and Disney stories.

---

The park is organized into 9 lands in a similar compound loop park arrangement as Tokyo DisneySea.

Seven of the lands ring the outside of the park, bordered by a continuous body of water, with the final two lands on an island at the center of the park. Follow along on the plan below.

Starting at the existing entrance plaza at the center of the resort, the first land is a fantastic modern port city. This is the entry point to this park where legendary things that shouldn't exist have become real, so this acts as a thematic transition from the real world to the amazing park inside. The port city, loosely acting as the Port of Hong Kong, features references, elements, and characters from the stories inside the park, similarly to how Port of Entry at Islands of Adventure functions, but with a realistic city style.

The view down the street directs guests to the central icon of the park, a giant mountain, ringed by clouds. At the end of the street is a terraced park along the water, set up as a viewing area for park events. There are the standard variety of shops and restaurants along this main street of the park.


Starting to the left, the first major land is the Scottish Highlands, where Knights and Kings live in constant battle with Dragons and the other mythical beasts of the forest. The land has two halves, one on either side of the river. The village and castle are on the left and the forest is on the right at the base of the mountain. The small village square includes retail and a Magic Tavern, while the castle area father along marks the entrance to the major attraction and a dining experience. The castle is in ruins and is still smoking, as if fresh from an attack. The attraction is a large boat dark ride adventure, using the trackless boat ride system, taking guests into an epic battle between the knights of the realm and the dragons of the forest. The dining experience is a tournament style show in the dining hall of the castle, looking out into the forest of the attraction where boats continuously pass by.

Across the river, in the wild forest, is a pair of attractions: a kids coaster that weaves through the dense vegetation and rock work, and a interactive shooting dark ride themed to Brave. Guests go out for target practice with Merida in the forest and use a practice bow to shoot a variety of real and digital targets.


Continuing the ring around the park, next comes the Egyptian Desert, where a recently discovered mystical King's tomb has drawn in explorers and one particular archaeologist, all searching for a valued lost treasure. The tomb of the Scarab, marked by a half buried pyramid, has recently been uncovered for the first time. The pyramid and ruins sit across the river from a small Egyptian village. In the village is a counter service market, retail, a dock for the boat that loops around the park, and a small traditional dark ride about Egyptian Fables, set in a town history museum.

The temple complex across the water holds two attractions. The main attraction follows Indiana Jones as he treks into the temple in search of a fabled scarab statue that is said to be able to control the forces of the sacred scarab. The queue takes guests through the various chambers and caves of the pyramid, leading us to the deep expedition base, where we board jeeps for a motion dark ride coaster. The other attraction is a 360 degree dome 4d movie, set in the unearthed grand atrium of a tomb. We are there to witness the first lighting of the central torch, but as soon as it is lit, the ancient traps and spirits of the temple come to life all around us.


The next land along the path is the hidden Kingdom of Wakanda, the legendary African country that is home to the Black Panther and many other Avengers. The path leads us along the river and into the city center area of the capital, while a rocky cliff side is across the water, with cascading waterfalls and pools falling into the river. This is the vibranium mine and we can see high tech mine trains running through and around it. The entrance to this coaster takes us across a bridge over the river and into the control center of the mine for a high speed tour.

Back in the city center area are two attractions plus a pair of restaurants and retail. One attraction is a dark ride through the mythology and history of the Black Panther, taking guests to the Astral Plane. The other attraction is set inside Shuri's lab and is a EMV style dark ride through a major Avengers battle. Guests board one of Shuri's remote car control systems with the instructions to run interference for the Avengers while they are on an emergency mission. The concept is that we never leave the lab, but go on a very realistic and intense chase through the city streets around the world while we ride through the attraction.

The path to the next land on this side of Wakanda leads right through a massive waterfall, right along the mine mountain. This entrance to the land frames a perfect view of the city center.


Across a small bay is the Pirate Bay town of Barataria Bay, where the fabled Pirates of the Caribbean make base between their pillaging trips. This bay features an infinity edge that makes it seem that the water continues into the real ocean beyond. A service road and the public road beyond are set below the water edge so that they disappear. This is one of the smaller lands of the park, but still features multiple attractions. The village is somewhat ransacked and falling apart, but livable for a band of pirates. The Black Pearl is parked in dock and can be explored. Pirate shows and meet and greets occur on the boat and around the land throughout the day. There are also two small counter service locations in the land, one outside in a marketplace and one inside a Pirate pub. The rest of the town is Pirate retail.

The main attraction is a traditional Pirates of the Caribbean boat dark ride, telling a new story with new characters but in the same world. The other attraction is a animatronics show/4d movie/special effects show that is set in a Pirate Voodoo shop. The multi room experience features a preshow room full of animatronic birds overhead, followed by an introduction to Pirate Voodoo by a mysterious guide in a densely packed shop of bizarre objects. The main show scene occurs in the demonstration room, where the guide demonstrates her mystical powers by bringing the spirit of a pirate legend to life in front of us. However, Davy Jones brings with him the power of sea, creating hurricane winds and a full size waterspout tornado in the center of the room.


Coming up next along the path is Galaxy's Edge, where a story from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away comes to life in the smuggling city of Thistea. Of course Star Wars was going to be included in this park. I decided to use the same attraction lineup as our version of the land but to set it in a different planet. Thistea is a more modern smuggling outpost. The legend of Luke Skywalker is popular here with the locals, so it is a perfect place to hide and grow the fledgling Resistance.

The land would include many similar elements, including shops and restaurants of parallel theme to our version of the land. This park would also include the Star Wars hotel just behind the land and a spacepod shuttle between them.


Bringing us back to the front of the park, the next land is Sanfransokyo, where both superheroes fly walk and fly through the streets. The city features the distinct cross between east and west architecture and design. On the far edge of the land is a large pagoda structure that is raised up on a series of green terraces so it overlooks the land.

There are multiple attractions and restaurants here. On the water is the other dock for the boat that loops the park. Along the water is a table service restaurant set in an industrial fish market. A counter service cafe and retail takes up the rest of the center of the land. The three main attractions are along the back of the land. A large broadway style theater presents daily musical shows that feature a cross of Asian and Disney culture. Next is a suspended dark ride through a high tech robot lab where of course things start to go wrong. Last is the Big Hero 6 attraction for the land, using the Flight of Passage ride system for a flight with Baymax through the city. We enter into the high tech science center, where the superhero team has their base. We go out on a tour with the team, riding on the back of Baymax as we weave through the city and the skies above, but soon we are attacked by a new super villian, forcing us into a high speed race through the streets to get back to safety.


On the island at the center of the park are two lands. The first and smaller is the Land of the Dead, where a walk across the Marigold bridge takes us to the home of the ancestors. This is a half indoor/half outdoor land. The outside portion includes a small village at the edge of a large and colorful graveyard. A teacup style spinner formed of decorative skulls sits in the graveyard, celebrating Dia de los Muertos. There is a small counter service location out here as well. A main path leads into the central mausoleum, where we pass through a marigold gateway and enter the interior land of the dead. The inside space is set in the dead city square and features a carousel, a chain swing ride, and a large trackless dark ride through the music of Coco.


The last land, forming the center of the park and the main icon, is Olympus, The City of the Gods. Here the mythological Greek Gods live in a Greek temple garden at the base of the mountain. The Olympus mountain is proportioned with forced perspective to appear to be very tall and includes a ring of permanent "clouds" around its peak. At the front, on the park entrance side, there are ruins of a giant statue, with a pair of feet and a giant head crashed into the water. Boats crash down a flume between them every couple minutes.

The path leads through a large rocky framed opening on either side of the land, taking guests into a garden lined by Greek temples. The garden area includes a spinner attraction with Pegasus. The major flume dark ride entrance is inside the caves below Olympus. This is an original attraction through an epic story of the Gods and includes large scenes, special effects, and a final splashdown. The other attraction is set in the Temple of Hercules and is a family coaster through the legend of the hero.


The lagoon at the front of the park is set up to be used for daily and nightly shows on the water.

---

That covers this new park. Not sure what will come next, but check back here and on twitter for occasional updates.