Disneyland Resort Wrap Up

So yesterday, I gave you the last part of my plan for the existing Disneyland Resort expansion.

Today is a recap and my personal analysis of my results. I would love to hear your opinion in the comments too.

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So first, the recap of the plans.

I know that because I split all the work between 4 phases, each phase was a little lighter on content than you are used to.in my opinion each phase was still more than is probably realistic for the real life development of the parks, at least at the pace they have been at for the last few years. But now that it is all done, I present the park plans to you with all the changes noted, as if it was all to happen at once, like my previous plans.

Presented this way, it really is alot of change happening to the two parks.

Disneyland majorly renovates or replaces 8 rides, adds 10 brand new attractions, 1 restaurant, and makes significant changes to 3 lands.

Disney's California Adventure gets an all new theme and organization that defines the experience of the lands, adds 19 new attractions, 4 restaurants, renovates basically every land, and  adds 3 completely new themed areas.

If you break it down on a Ticket scale, based on my personal value judgement, Disneyland gets 6 E and D Tickets and 11 C and B tickets. And California Adventure gets 8 E and D Tickets, and 11 C and B Tickets. Both pretty balanced.

A lot of change in a relatively small and already built out resort.

I also have the additions diagrammed by the phases, which I think is really interesting to look at. Red is Phase 1, Orange is 2, Light Blue is 3, Dark Blue is 4.

There's some interesting geographical organization that was not entirely intentional but makes sense.

It is much harder to close down large potions of Disneyland for renovation, so the phases and projects jump around to keep a whole land from closing down. It also spreads the capacity around the existing park.

The phases at California Adventure on the other hand are focused on completely renovating a specific land, which is necessary because in nearly every case, the exterior land is heavily renovated. So it makes sense to rework a whole land at a time to fit the new structure. Plus, the last two phase focus on expanding into new land, so makes sense for it to all happen at once.

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As for the analysis of the results, there is one clear fault that I fought with the whole time but I think many successes.

The problem I discovered is just how improbable it is to claim the ability to predict what would be built a whole 20 years from now. I found it comical to be proposing an Incredibles attraction to be built in 2035, or 31 years after the movie came out. It is easy to give a list of Disney films right now that should go in the parks, but hard to know if those same films have the longevity to be built long term. Its even more challenging to know that there will definitely be many films in the next 15-20 years that are popular enough to go in the parks, maybe even a dozen or two based on their recent success. Facing this challenge makes me understand why some times we wait years for attractions, or never see an attraction for a specific popular movie. Investing resources but most importantly real estate to a new attraction requires faith that it is going to be popular and worthwhile.

So that fault caused a little bit of second guessing and alot of acceptance of the fact that this plan really isn't that realistic in that regard.

Additionally, I never managed to fit in a a few of my original goals.

First, I had originally thought that I could fit at least one more dark ride into Fantasyland and had some thoughts about that, but that didn't work out. I decided to go large on the relocated Peter Pan to justify the move instead of trying to fit one more attraction.

Second, it slightly disappoints me that I didnt really touch the left side of Disneyland at all. Thats because there is not alot of room and the existing attractions are all pretty great. I see now that I could have done a lot to Critter Country, but I just completely ignored it. Its the forgotten land. In real life too. Spent 4 days at Disneyland and never made it into Critter Country.

And last, the big planning move that I tried very hard to implement was a bridge and underpass in Fantasyland, at the parade route, so that guest traffic flow could continue under the parade. This was the most unpleasent, crowded, and likely dangerous place in the parks in my experience, as guests pile into the narrow path by the Tea Cups, waiting to cross the route. I worked on this for days, but the space just isn't there.

Still, even with these faults that I can see, I think I was relatively successful at implementing the main goals. Adding capacity to both parks, adding more Disney films represented, adding more variety of themed environments, and adding a real theme and organization to California Adventure.

Personally, I think my additions to Disneyland are good and in the spirit of the park, but I am more proud of my proposals for California Adventure. The theme and organization was a tough challenge to crack, but I am happy with my result.

Plus, I have some favorite attraction concepts in these two parks. I really like my development of Tomorrowland and the northern expansion for Fantasyland at Disneyland. And frankly, just about everything at California Adventure. I will definitely be revisiting many of these attractions soon.

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So now that I have shared my thoughts, what do you think?

What attraction or land is your favorite that you want to see more?

What would you have done differently in your plan for the parks?

What do you want to see next, from this park or any park I have designed before?



Thanks for reading, and I would love to respond to your comments, so leave one below!

Disneyland Resort Phased Expansion Plan Part 8 - Phase 4 of the Parks

This post presents the fourth and final phase of expansion for the Disneyland Resort.

It's a relatively small phase, because in the overall plan, the 3rd gate is now open and would be getting its first big additions during this phase. The original two parks are mostly built out and the focus has moved on. But I've still got a few ideas.

For Disneyland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are finally completed.

Tomorrowland gets its last attraction in the Carousel building. Horizons: Living in the Future is a modern reimagining of the original and completes the mature, scientific, and optimistic tone of the land. The attraction is a multilevel suspended dark ride that follows a trip across the universe, starting in a futuristic earth society, traveling to a space station, and then through the stars to visit an outpost on an alien planet. The structure of the plot is that we follow members of an extended family as we jump from location to location (calling back a little to the single family idea of Carousel of Progress).

The PeopleMover also finally returns in this phase, now that the track has been adjusted in the previous phase. It loads and unloads in the second floor of the SpacePort area, or the Starcade. It follows the old path from here, but includes passing through the new showscene built for the Autopia.


Fantasyland fills the final expansion plot opened up by the rerouting of the Autopia and the Monorail and also replaces Peter Pan's Flight with a new dark ride.

To replace Peter Pan, which moved to a new larger showbuilding, there is a new Cinderella dark ride. My reasoning for this is that it is one of the very few classic films that has no representation, but it is also is not a huge story that would need a huge attraction, which is important because this is such a small space. The dark ride would be a very traditional small scale ride through the events of the film.

On the east side of Fantasyland, the new land is filled with two attractions: a new theater for Fantasyland, and a Mary Poppins dark ride.

First, the theater. This might be an unexpected move, but I really like the idea and the implementation of high quality Fantasyland shows. The current Mickey and the Magical Map and its sister shows in Paris and Hong Kong are impressive quality for a theme park, add some diversity of experience to a ride heavy park and land, and allow for even more films and properties to be represented in the park. Those are all pluses for me. The downside of theater's in the parks is their capacity, because at most they serve maybe a third of the guests that an attraction would. But I don't think that is a problem in a park so full of rides and capacity.

This specific theater is a copy of the theater in Disney Studios Paris, so I know that it is of sufficient size for a good quality show. The exterior theming is similar to Small World, creating a defined area with the colorful geometric style.

Next to this theater is a dark ride for Mary Poppins. So I know that last week I mentioned that Mary Poppins would go in the 3rd gate, but the situation of the site forced my decision. Originally, this was going to be an attraction for Gigantic. But I quickly found two issues. First, I thought that Gigantic was Western Europe in setting, so would fit Fantasyland well. I was wrong, it is set in Spain, which has totally different architectural possibilities. Second, the Monorail has to travel over the showbuilding for this attraction, and it is pretty low, so it will have to limit the height of some scenes. That limitation didn't make sense for a story about literal giants. So the switch was made, and this became Mary Poppins.

This attraction would be similar to the one I proposed for Magic Kingdom and would be based on a Carousel ride vehicle that unravels and passes through a series of musical scenes. In this case, it is actually able to load and unload under an outdoor Victorian Garden Carousel canopy. The carousel then passes through a tunnel and into the magical park, where we first meet Mary and Bert in a shorter scene under the Monorail track. Then into the larger and higher portion of the building, built inside the loop of the track, where the main show scenes occur.

That completes Disneyland, or at least for now.

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Over at Disney's California Adventure, there are only two more additions.

First, in Hollywood, the Animation Tour building is replaced with a huge trackless dark ride about Mickey and his journey through Disney animation. Basically Philharmagic as an attraction. This is a huge building, so could make a great ride while maintaining the retail that fronts the street. I know that a trackless Mickey ride is rumored and probably coming soon, and I think this would be a cool concept.

Last, Pixar Studios is completed with the area based on the Incredibles. Placed at the end of the two streets in the subland is the downtown square of Metroville. To the left is the city hall, a classically Greek Revival building, but the real icon is at the center, where the recently downed Omnidroid sits crashed in a small pond, occasionally smoking. We have entered the city just after the events of the first movie, on the day that the family is being celebrated with a ceremony in City Hall, which we are attending. But before the ceremony, the Incredibles are called into action and we are invited to join them for the day.

I have previously developed this attraction as a trackless dark ride, but since I just put that in for the Mickey ride, I wanted to try something different. Therefore, I decided to call back to one of the original Incredibles concepts, a Kuka dark ride. I thought that would bring some variety to the experiences of the park and create cool possibilites for this story. We can fly through the city, be lifted in the air by Mr. Incredible, caught by Mrs. Incredible, run with Dash, and float with Violet.

The Incredibles are called into battle when the Underminer and Bomb Voyage team up to take down the city. It all escalates however when they find out that a second Omnidroid is headed to the city, sent by Syndrome as an insurance policy.

The exterior of the land is completed with some additional retail, and the Incredibles family would meet out in front of the downed Omnidroid.

And that's it for California Adventure, which I hope I made a more cohesive park with the addition of the ideological structure.

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But of course this is not the end.

First, tomorrow (hopefully) I will be back with a part two to this, a recap and analysis of the changes I proposed for the resort. This is going to be very interesting for me and I hope you because this was developed in real time. I had no idea what the next phase would bring each week, so I now want to look back and evaluate what I designed.

And then the third gate is still in progress. I will be trying to give occasional updates about that as we go until the final plan is done later this year.

In the mean time, I am going to start developing a few of the the attractions I proposed in this plan in more detail. That means full attraction plans and designs, maybe some elevations and perspectives, maybe even some more videos!

Let me know in the comments below what attractions you want to see more about soon!

Disneyland Resort Phased Expansion Plan Part 7 - Phase 3 of California Adventure

As promised, I now have the other half of my phase 3 expansion plan for California Adventure.

In the previous phase for this park, I proposed the addition of a Marvel backlot area in Hollywood, developed a Route 66 themed area that leads from Buena Vista Street to Paradise Pier, and replaced Pacific Wharf with a Beach town aquarium area. All these moves were to solidify the new thematic concept of the park, that it celebrates the ideals of California: Adventure, Life, and Creation.

At this point, Adventure is fully developed in Grizzly Peak National Park, and Life is developed with the series of areas that follow Route 66 across the state, from the desert to the beach. So this third (and the next fourth) phase continues to develop Creation, specifically with the development of a Pixar Place land to the south of Tower of Terror.

I have strong feelings about the placement of Pixar in this park and this specific location. First, I definitely believe that many Pixar films are of high enough quality to be in the parks. And should be in the parks as soon as possible, so even waiting until my 3rd phase might have been a mistake.

But the placement of these films in the parks is usually difficult because Pixar films create diverse, unusual, and detailed worlds that are difficult to shoehorn into existing spaces. A few films could fit other places, but many are so unique that there needs to be a different solution. Therefore, I agree that the best solution for Pixar is to create a Pixar specific land that can bring together these diverse worlds.

Next, in order to create this kind of combined land, it seems like the overall land needs to carry a Pixar Studios theme, relating it to the creative brand of the studio to relate the diverse worlds. That potentially fits in perfect with my designation of the Hollywood area as the spirit of Californian Creation. What better example of Californian Creation and Innovation than Pixar Studios.

Last, as for its placement in the park, I think it is obvious that it should go in this area in the south expansion plot because it would then be right next to both A Bugs Land and Carsland. That would allow both of these lands to be annexed into the new Pixar Studios subland of Hollywood. In my view, this works out so perfectly, that I am shocked it is not whats going to actually happen, at least if the rumors of this plot for Marvel are true.

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So, on to my plan for Pixar Studios. I analyzed the list of Pixar films to judge their popularity, the potential of the themed environment and attractions created from the property, the potential for it to be located somewhere else in the resort in the future, and if it is already present in the existing parks. After this analysis, I decided to add Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille to the existing Bugs Life and Cars areas. Toy Story and Finding Nemo are already present, The Good Dinosaur and Brave are not popular enough, and I have plans to fit WALL-E, UP, Inside Out, and Coco in other locations (3rd gate).

In this phase, I am adding Monsters Inc and Ratatouille, saving The Incredibles for the fourth phase.

I developed the new area with a roundabout in the center, with 5 streets branching off to the 5 properties in the land. At the center of the roundabout is a statue of the Pixar lamp and ball. The surrounding buildings use the Pixar brick and black steel, and then this style fades into the surrounding worlds of the films. The largest new world is Monstropolis, which is on the east side and accessible from the path by the Tower of Terror. This pathway would be the primary access from Hollywood land proper. The path would pass under a Pixar Studios gate and the Red Car Trolley backstage barn would be relocated across the path.

The Monstropolis area is highlighted by the Monsters Inc factory building with city facades forming the streets around it. Inside the factory building is the often rumored Door Coaster dark ride. The queue pases through the lobby, into a scare floor, and then loads in a door maintence bay. The first half is a dark ride as Mike and Sulley play hide and seek with Boo, and the second half is the low thrill suspended coaster through the door warehouse. The city street buildings outside in the land hold a counter service food location, retail, and a meet and greet with Mike and Sulley. The street would continue south to the Incredibles area in the future.

The Ratatouille area is much smaller and fits in where the current Luigi attraction is. The area is a single building with a Parisian courtyard and fountain. Inside on the left is a table service Remy's Restaurant on two floors. To the right, at an alley, is the entrance to the small attraction for this area, a cooking demonstration with Remy, similar to Turtle Talk and the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. The interactive digital show presents Remy teaching us how to cook and answering questions about Paris. The scale issue is solved by setting it up as Linguini filming Remy and projecting it on a big screen for us to see. Similar to Honey I Shrunk the Audience, the projected setting is true scale and is meant to be real life on stage, not on stage.

One of the spurs off the central round about connects to the road leading into Cars Land and another leads directly to A Bugs Land. A Bugs Land is slightly reconfigured with Heimlich's Chew Chew Train removed. the rear entrance from Hollywood completely removed, and the entrances on the Cars Land side slightly moved. The path from the Route 66 area also has a Pixar gate.

In the corner between the Cars Land and Bugs Land roads is a small meet and greet pavilion, formed of two semi circular covered pavilions. These would hold various Pixar characters that don't already have a place in the land.

As mentioned before, the south area of this expansion plot is to be used for an Incredibles area in the next phase.

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I'll be back with the last part of the current resort expansion in two weeks, and, at some point, a post detailing the start of my planning for the third gate.

Thanks for reading and leave a comment below if you liked this Pixar expansion. 

Disneyland Resort Phased Expansion Plan Part 5 - Phase 2 of the Parks

The second phase of my expansion for the Disneyland Resort brings a lot of exciting change to both parks.

This phase, set to be completed by 2025, features big additions to both parks to add more capacity and fix some thematic issues. The phase looks ahead to the opening of the third gate in the third phase, five years later.

Also, some cool real life news as Disneyland announced the Eastern Gateway parking and transportation hub yesterday, just like in my plan. Even fits the timeline almost exactly. It will be interesting to see how the final product ends up. I feel confident that I resolved a pretty good solution, so it will be fun for me to see how close I was. Maybe the rest of my long term expansion plan will magically come true also! Now back to this weeks post.

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I'll once again start with Disneyland.

As a quick reminder, in the first phase, Disneyland added Star Wars land, created a Main Street bypass, moved the Astro Orbiter, added the Skipper's Terrace, widened the New Orleans Square pathway. and renovated the train tunnel show scenes. 

In this phase, the focus is on two lands: Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Fantasyland to add more, and Tomorrowland to fix whats there.

I'll start with the first Fantasyland expansion, which will actually continue to grow in each of the remaining phases. I decided to spread additions out instead of closing down the whole land for a few years. In this phase, Toontown is replaced. I also want to mention that I am likely going to develop this area in more detail with attraction plans in the near future.

My strategy for this expansion is to fix one of the problems of the current Toontown, that it has to close early because of fireworks. Therefore, I decided first that this expansion is to be predominately indoors to be open as much as possible. It is a large site, so can hold at least two attractions plus public space in one large building.

That indoor requirement also influenced the selection of the attractions since I could imagine a few settings that would best work indoors. Ultimately, I decided on Frozen so that I could create some kind of highly immersive indoor snow scene for the indoor public space. I've heard rumor that this may be happening soon in real life too, at least the Frozen replacing Toontown part. For the other attraction, I decided on a Tangled dark ride, because I think it is one of the more deserving recent movies and definitely has the current fanbase. Plus it has a similar design style to Frozen, so could fit together pretty well. 

The addition is structured as a forest path coming from the train bridge underpass, splitting left for Frozen and straight ahead for Tangled. Each have architectural icons. To the right, through the trees, guests can see a forced perspective Rapunzel's Tower in a distant cleaning, surrounded by a rockwork wall with a waterfall behind. Guests cannot get all that close to it, so it should be able to stay in perspective as being far away. The entrance to attraction is straight ahead and the queues lead into the rockwork wall and then into an interior simulated exterior forest. There, guests board royal carriages for a retelling of the story of the lost princess, told by Rapunzel herself as part of the yearly Festival of Lights. This could potentially be trackless, but I need to work with that some more when I get to making an attraction plan. 

The Frozen side of the forest path, the left side, features a stone tower with a wide eight sided roof as the icon, beckoning guests to the cave path to Arendelle. The tower is covered in snow and displays banners for the kingdom, welcoming us to the newly opened city. The train station is also rebuilt with Arendelle inspired architecture to further tie the area together. The train station remains on the second floor while the ground floor below becomes a gift shop that opens to the north side. 

Inside, the cave path leads through to the town square of Arendelle, covered in snow. The public space inside includes a small snack cart selling hot and cold specialty beverages, a retail location owned by Oaken, and an ice skating rink among the frozen trees, where the are occasional real snow flurries. Olaf greets guests in the square, and the princesses meet inside a meet and greet in the palace building. Passing by the ice skating rink is the flume path for the main attraction, which is similar to Frozen Ever After, but much longer with more show scenes. This would include a multi scene version of Let it Go where the castle physically grows and crystalizes around the boat flume. Again, more detail in the future when I develop an attraction plan.

The next phase of Fantasyland expansions will replace the Fantasyland theater area and add a path on the west side of Fantasyland to connect this new area with the main land. 

For Tomorrowland, the work is replacement of IPs and clarification of theme. This is part one and there will be major placemaking work in the next phase as well as a few new attractions. 

Tomorrowland is the least clear of theme at Disneyland and does not have a clear ideology right now. That's because of the over use of IP's, which each bring their own style and meaning. Plus the Season's of the Force, while cool, has made it even worse. I assume that will be here until Star Wars Land opens, and then it should be removed as soon as possible. 

I decided to develop my version of Tomorrowland as a realistic scientific research station, focusing on space travel. This goes back to the core fantasies that defined the original lands. I see Tomorrowland as the place to fulfill the fantasy of going to space, so that, not super heroes, Star Wars, or Nemo, should be the focus. This is the land where we look to the future and to the stars, always optimistic for a better tomorrow. There is no obvious connection or inclusion of the Tomorrowland movie, but I have to admit the tone is an inspiration here.

The other inspiration for the subject, the tone, and the style of the land comes from a series of posters released by NASA (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/) which show our universe as a series of travel destinations. These are so incredible beautiful and optimistic, suggesting a time where the universe is accessible and a part of human society. I like that idea for Tomorrowland. Specifically, I am using the first poster, The Grand Tour, to suggest the setting of the land. This Tomorrowland is a space travel research station on Earth that is celebrating the alignment of the planets for the Grand Tour and inviting us guests to learn about and ultimately travel to space. It is firmly set on Earth but looking to the stars. 

This refreshed land is has almost an EPCOT philosophy, but specifically focused on a fantasy based but realistic future of life in space. It therefore borrows a few attractions from EPCOT. More on that later and next phase. 

In this phase, there are three changes to set some ground work, with the rest happening in the next phase. First, Nemo is removed from the Subs. This specifically happens now because Nemo is moved to a new attraction in California Adventure in this phase. The new attraction retains the subs and infrastructure, but now is dressed as high tech research vessels that explores life underwater while on a trip to SeaBase Pacific, an underwater futuristic community. The trip includes exotic fish, encounters with a whale and a giant squid, and ultimately a trip through the futuristic world of civilization underwater, passing by other high tech water crafts and divers. It utilizes the same screen technology as the existing version, plus more sets and limited real figures in SeaBase Pacific. Back outside, there is also a bridge built over the corner of the lagoon to resolve another bottleneck and allow for cool visual connections into the lagoon.

This starts to define an area of Tomorrowland that focuses on the future of life on Earth, showing a high tech civilization that better lives on and with the natural world. So this is step one, showing life under the water. (Any guesses as to what attraction is coming for the next phase of this idea?)

Next, Star Tours is replaced. It should close as soon as Star Wars Land opens and the new attraction will retain the simulator system. This attraction is in an area that focuses on the future of technology, so I tentatively decided that this attraction shows the future of transportation in the form of an ultra high speed public transport train that gives a tour of the future world of Tomorrowland. The trip take us through first the immediate area of Tomorrowland, expanding the scope of the land, and then high speed jumps across the country and world, showing us what could be the world of Tomorrow, like a version of London where a rocket dwarfs Big Ben. This is a little inspired by the dynamic train trip in the Tomorrowland movie and therefore passes some similar sites.

Last, the 3D theater at the base of Space Mountain is removed and replaced with a better entrance way to Space Mountain, a new attraction, and a new post show area for the two attractions. Anchored by a giant modern 45' rocket (reminiscent of the original one from Tomorrowland), guests enter a new space flight concourse, where they can turn left to enter the existing queue system of Space Mountain, or go straight to enter the new attraction, Mission: Mars. The right leads to the post show from both attractions, which expands into the Starcade.

Mission: Mars is new iteration of the space flight simulator attraction, combing elements of Mission: Space and the original Mission to Mars. The attraction is based in a theater in the round underneath a spherical projection dome, but the theater is not stationary. The attraction uses the Circu-motion system by Falcons Creative or a similar custom system and has two identical theaters. The round theater seating platform is on a full motion base and can rotate and pitch in both directions under the seamless projection dome. The seats also recline to about degrees so that you have a great view looking up into the dome. This motion would allow for some slightly realistic show action to coordinate with the rocket flight and trip through space. Guests launch from the Tomorrowland Spaceport, stop off at a massive Space Station, showing life in space, and then rocket on to Mars and land on the red planet. The spinning motion of the theater during launch would simulate the g forces of launch and flight, and the pitch would be able to simulate some interesting floating through space, disorienting your true gravity. This attraction is heavily inspired by the original space pavilion concept from EPCOT.

The post show from both attractions would be set in a Space Station and feature astronaut games and panoramas looking out to the alien world. Rocket Rods Pizza Port next door is slightly redressed to fit in with the Space Port look and theme.


There is one additional attraction added to Frontierland, but it is not extremely exciting because it is a relocated attraction from California Adventure. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree is removed and the system is moved here and now themed as a gold mining machine-turned-ride.


The next phase continues to add to both of these lands.

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Over at California Adventure, the majority of the additions are to clarify the theme.

Last time, I discussed my new structure for the theme of the park. The park is centered on the three Spirits of California: Adventure, Fun, and Creation. Last time, I solidified The Spirit of Adventure with additions to Grizzly Peak National Park. I also added multiple attractions to the Paradise Pier area and defined a subland that celebrates the international identity of the state.

In this phase, more work is done to develop the Spirit of Life section, which runs through the heart of the park. There is also the first big addition to Hollywood in the first Marvel attractions for the resort.

One concept that I developed that adds to the three part theme is that each of the Spirits also has a road that branches off from the circle at Buena Vista Street. Hollywood is already on Hollywood Boulevard, the road of creation. I added a road into Grizzly Peak National Park, which would be labeled as State Route 120 or Tioga Pass, which leads to Yosemite National Park. And naturally the road leading to Paradise Pier is Route 66, which in real life actually ends at the Santa Monica Pier, one of the sources for Paradise Pier. Seemed like a perfect fit.

So the redevelopment during this phase stretches from the Carthay Theater to the entrance to Paradise Pier to create the realistic world of Route 66. Coincidentally, Cars Land is also the world of Route 66, but more fantasy based and less specific to California because the geographic and architectural inspiration is actually more Arizona than California. My strategy is to allow that to be firmly in a future Pixar land in the Spirit of Creation, while this area is firmly real life in the Spirit of Life, creating an easy transition between lands.

The new Route 66 starts with a California desert town, based on Needles CA, the first city on the California section of Route 66 and the hottest city in the country. This area is highlighted by a large train station on the left side of the path. Inside is a Route 66 museum and a train simulator attraction across the hot deserts, through the green forests, and into the busy cities of California. I am not completely set on this, so subject to change. Further along, there are three buildings on three sides on the intersection, which all have retail. They area all traditional small town stores, nothing fancy but reflecting the unique desert town way of life. The street transitions to Cars Land as Route 66 heads into Arizona. Cars Land is intact from Sarge's and on.

The next section of the path is to other end Route 66: a beach town based on Santa Monica and Venice Beach. This replaces Pacific Wharf and the Winery area. Though both of these areas are very well done as they currently are, their geographic jumps do not really make sense in my location strategy. So the right side, the Winery side, is replaced with a beach boardwalk building, which has retail and a second floor high class restaurant. The tide pool basin area is reworked into an artificial sandy beach, set below the boardwalk, with a life guard stand or two, towels, and beach umbrellas.

The Pacific Wharf area becomes a beach side village and Aquarium to incorporate the impact of the ocean on the Californian way of life. The only building that remains is the Ghirardelli building, which has a small retail addition. The main addition is the actual Aquarium building, themed to the finctional Pacific Ocean Aquarium, which has a very small portion of actual aquarium for the queue and entrance and then a new dark ride that uses the Finding Nemo characters to talk about the life and power of the ocean. The Nemo characters would encounter and talk about curious divers and adventurous surfers and more while explaining the significance of the Pacific. Turtle Talk is also relocated here.

Last, and slightly unrelated, that single restroom building across from The Little Mermaid that still looks like a cartoony San Francisco is rethemed to fit as a transition between lands.

The goal is that this area is a little more cohesive extending from Buena Vista Street all the way to Paradise Pier at the back of the park by having a consistent theme and geographic strategy, all showing the challenges, the diversity, the influences, and the fun of Californian Life.


Over in Hollywood Pictures Backlot, there are two changes. First Playhouse Disney is replaced with a large dark ride that is similar to Great Movie Ride but more modern and interactive. In this attraction, guests are discovered in the queue and sent on a trip through the backlot, passing the filming of many famous movies, like Mary Poppins, Indiana Jones, and the Wizard of Oz, before finally attending a big Hollywood premier and becoming a true Star.

The north backlot area, where the Mad Tea Party was is completely replaced with the first Marvel land of the resort. There is alot of thought and strategy here that I want to detail, especially since Marvel in DCA is controversial right now. Also, notice that I am not including the Guardians Tower because I had this plan in development before that announcement.

So Marvel needs to be in the parks as soon as possible. It can't wait until the third gate, and it absolutely should not go in Disneyland, and Hollywood is the only land that it could possibly fit in, so this is where it goes. But it still needs to respect the identity of the the land, which is about Hollywood and about the creation of film, not superheroes. Therefore, I think the best way to incorporate Marvel is to portray it as an active film set on a Hollywood Backlot.

This addition is a film set for the Stark Expo and today they are filming second unit crowd shots at the Expo, allowing us to come into the set. The decision for Stark Expo over other settings is that its futuristic architecture would allow it to obviously look like a set while still looking good, instead of looking incomplete and disappointing. Also, the monorail passing through would fit really well with the theme. My strategy is that the north and east faces of the land are the fully realized sets while the south and west faces would be the supporting studio stages architecture.

The central icon is a reimagining of the Uni-Sphere, with the Monorail passing through it. It sits on a pedestal, with fountains and stairs on the front side and the entrance to the attraction directly behind it. The building is sleek and metallic, and the monorail passes under a canopy across the building. To the left is a copy of the jet pack spinner from Shanghai. The building to the right, which builds on the existing sound stage building has a sweeping organic canopy that builds up to a geometric facade. The building to the south is just a simple studio warehouse building and holds retail and a counter service location. The west building keeps the existing soundstage facade. In the center of the land are four lighting scaffold towers, illuminating the facades with theatrical lighting.

These studio facades need to be highly detailed and filled with props and signage to make it a believable and real life studio. The fault of many studio style parks is that they look too utilitarian and plain, without the kind of life and activity that we imagine a studio having. So propping is important. Camera cranes and lighting towers and boxes of props and costumes are all over.

The main attraction of the land is a large scale multimedia dark ride for the Avengers, who have gathered at the Stark Expo to once again save the world. The attractions uses an EMV attraction system and both physical and projection environments. The attraction in the current 3D theater is a 4D live stunt show, similar to the Terminator show, incorporating film, live actors, and theater effects, but staged as a stunt shoot for the a movie. So a little bit of behind the scenes framing to set up the situation and then a full on sensory live experience of an Avengers battle.

The last attraction in the building on the east side is one of the more ambitious and unusual things I have proposed. This week, I heard an report on the Season Pass Podcast about Ghost Train, a new attraction in Thorpe Park, that uses VR, and many say it is the future of theme parks. I wanted to try to propose something. I think if it could work anywhere, VR could work in this Stark futurism setting.

My idea for this attraction is that this is Tony's personal Iron Man showcase and we are invited to witness a demonstration of his suit technology. The theater is a large in the round room with a small stage in the center. Once seated, the presentation begins and a Iron Man suit and four glass hologram projection screens rise up from the stage. On the hologram screens, we see Tony speaking to us from a control room, talking about his amazing suit technology. The animatonic Iron Man suit then begins to perform for us, showing off its lasers, cannons, and hovering ability. Then Tony says for the finale, he prepared a surprise, a real life battle to test the suit's offensive skills. He tells us that we need to put on our safety glasses just in case of stray scrap metal, prompting us to put on the headset next to our seat. This is the VR headset, themed as large goggles, complete with what looks like glasses on the front. Guests put on the headset and then see the digital recreation of the same scene. The suit takes off from the stage and hovers above us, the ceiling opens up to a large dome, and then dozens of other robotic figures fly in, attacking the suit and indirectly us. Water spray effects and shaking seats add to the experience. The battle ends when Tony calls in the entire Iron Man fleet, who quickly destroy the attack. The suits then all land on platforms on the upper ring of the theater. The theater is partially destroyed during the battle, and the actual set transforms during the VR segment to reflect this as well as revealing the additional Iron Man suits on the wall. When the battle ends, Tony tells us to take off our goggles, we witness the real life results of the battle, and then we exit back to the Stark Expo.

One more cool placemaking idea I have for the exterior land is for there to be hourly staged film shoots. Since the premise is that it is an active set, a second unit director leads a shoot every hour. He appears on one of the scaffolding towers, gives us some direction on how to act like a crowd, and then starts the shot. At this point, the set comes to life with even more theatrical lighting, projection mapping effects on the building to show a huge digital logo and map, and audio announcements for the Expo. Additionally, the last shot of the night, just after sunset, is a larger scale show that also features a few stunt actors staging a small fight on the main building of the land, ending with a blast of low level pyro.

The next phase continues to expand the Hollywood section of the park to the south with Pixar.

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Additionally, the third phase is when I target the opening of the third gate for the resort. I will not have that next week for you. That is a much bigger project and will take more time than these phases, so it will come at a later date. For now, we push through with the stages of the main resort. 

Next week, I will try to be back with another discussion post, or at least something for you! I really want to keep to this schedule, even when I have to push back a few days like this. Thanks for understanding and reading!

Leave a comment below if you have any of your own ideas for the Disneyland Resort!

Disneyland Resort Phased Expansion Plan Part 4 - Phase 1 of the Parks

This week I bring you the first phase of my expansion plan for the parks of the Disneyland Resort.

If you missed it or forgot, this first phase is targeted to be completed in 2020, and includes both things that Disney has already announced and smaller scale projects that can be completed in the shorter time frame. Obviously Star Wars is the focus for Disneyland park, but there are some good additions to California Adventure that build up the placemaking and organization of the park.

Disneyland Park

This is the least impressive phase of expansion for either park just because of the sheer scale of Star Wars Land and the fact that most resources in the next 4 years will be focused there.

The only other widespread project in the park is located at the front of the park, where a real bypass is built for Main Street. On the east side, a fully themed and detailed street corridor is built. What this includes are additions onto the rear of the two existing buildings to form the west side and a combination of a real building and empty facades on the east. The additions on the west side hold the relocated lockers and guest services while the new building on the east side holds the first aid. The reason for the empty facades that make up the rest of this side is to leave room for parade float parking. The new public area can be closed down by gates at all 3 entrances if needed for daytime deliveries or access to the primary Main Street buildings, though I imagine this would rarely be needed. The bypass could be used as a permanently open side street or have controlled access during rush hours on Main Street. Either way, this would be a better themed and more appropriate solution than the tunnel they have now.

Next project is at the Hub, or actually Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is going to get alot of work in Phase two and three, but there is one first move that happens as soon as possible. The Astro Orbiter is moved back to its perch at the center of the land immediately fixing one traffic issue. In its place is a sleek modern fountain, maybe reminiscent of the original Tomorrowland World Clock. Behind it, the central People Mover track is removed, opening up the ground path and improving traffic. Though the People Mover is not brought back yet, the track is filled in to cross from building to building. Again, this is the first move for Tomorrowland, alot more will be coming in future posts. This land gets the most change in the entire park over the extent of the whole plan.

Back to Adventureland, the empty restaurant location next to the Jungle Cruise becomes the Skippers Terrace, based on the Magic Kingdom location. Honestly, it feels like it should have been here all along. It is directly adjacent to the Jungle Cruise and is even visible from the ride, so the story of it being run by off duty Skippers makes much more sense.

Next, while the Rivers of America is closed and under renovation, Tom Sawyers Island is refreshed and the Pirates elements are removed. I think and hope that this s actually in progress right now. Also while the river is down, the pathway on the New Orleans Square side is widened about 12' into the river. When visiting, this was the worst pinch point of the park, so I believe this is needed. The additional 12' helps relieves the strain while not drastically changing the character or flow of the space.

Also, while the train is closed down, I have included a refurbishment of the train and the show scenes behind Tomorrowland. Maybe controversially, I propose the complete removal of the Grand Canyon Scene, to be replaced with a scene that shows a diorama of a vista over an expansive and active Tomorrowland. Showing a large and busy city, the view would include ships and Monorails and cars flying by, both physically and projected. The style would be clean, bright, and optimistic, previewing the style Tomorrowland will take in future expansions. The transition between this scene and the next has the train pass through a series of strobing laser fields, to suggest some kind of teleportation into the past of the next scene. The Primeval World show scene would get a thorough refurbishment to update the figures and effects to act as a fitting and thrilling finale to the Grand Tour.

Last, Star Wars Land is built to the north of the River. This drawing is based on the MiceChat drawing, descriptions from WDWMagic, and alot of analysis of the concept art aerials. I think this is roughly accurate. The main mixed media trackless dark ride is located to the left while the Millennium Falcon simulator is at the rear, adjacent to the Millennium Falcon is dock. An expansion pad is to the right. The two buildings to the front are the retail and dining market place areas, which look to be very immersive. I'm still not super clear about what happens on the left half in front of the main showbuilding, but this is close enough. The rockwork separation hides a large storage area for Fantasmic and the train tracks which pass through a crystallized tunnel.

The next phases bring major additions to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, which need capacity and clarity.


Disney's California Adventure

This phase includes a few mid sized additions and is the start of a reorganization of the structure of the park. Thought it will not be fully realized until later phases, I feel that I need to describe the extent of the new structure now so you can understand where the moves are leading.

After a lot of thought about how to incorporate the existing elements of the park into a more complete and unique identity, I decided on structuring the park around a trio of California ideals, which I call the three Spirits of California: Adventure, Life, and Creation. These similarly reflect to the past, present, and future of California and each reflect a specific way of life. I try to move away from a park built on a variety of real locations of California, because that is less interesting to a local crowd and more limiting, instead choosing to work with these big picture ideas that define lands.

These three Spirits roughly correlate to the existing main lands of the park. The Spirit of Adventure includes Buena Vista Street and Grizzly Peak National Park, is set in the past, and celebrate the adventure of exploration and of the unknown. The Spirit of Life includes Paradise Pier, Pacific Wharf, and part of Cars Land, is set in the present, and celebrates relaxation, fun, and the international identity of California. The Spirit of Creativity includes Hollywood Pictures Backlot and the rest of Cars Land, focuses on the creation of the future, and celebrates innovation and film making.

The existing elements of the park do not have to change much to align with this new organization, and additions would be carefully structured to create and strengthen this three part statement about the ideals of California.

So in this first phase of expansion, I focused on the two Spirits that need the least work, Adventure and Life. Creation will have a lot of additions in the following phases.

The projects in Grizzly Peak National Park are all about adding capacity and variety of experiences since this is currently a very limited land. The recent refurbishment of the land already reaffirmed its National Park setting and the period setting, so those already align well with the final plan. I think this is currently a very strong land and reminds me alot of parts of Disneyland.

Biggest, the Redwood Creek Trail area is removed and replaced with a large dark ride. The building is built right up to the hotel wing and has the same architectural style. This is a Park lodge where we set off on a tour of the National Park environment, featuring the return of the Country Bears, who are our guides. This would be a musical adventure through a world of animals and plants, reflecting the adventure of the great outdoors.

Nearby, the existing White Water Snacks in the hotel is expanded into the park to become a new counter service and snack location. There would be a new ordering and small indoor dining room split from the existing snack location and would also have an outdoor patio in the trees.

Back behind the Grizzly River Run main building is a new parachute drop ride, reclaiming some forested area between the flume and the mountain. Jumpin Jellyfish is removed, so this is somewhat a replacement, but on a bigger scale more appropriate for a land of adventure. There would be three towers, each of a different height, so different thrills. Grizzly Peak itself is 110', so I image the three towers could be 100', 75', and 50', the current height of Jumpin Jellyfish. This would allow for the taller two towers to have some real drop. Obviously, this would be themed to parachuting and the towers would be themed as converted fire lookout towers.

Next, the area by the hotel to the north of the land is the new location of the adventure trails. I think these are a valuable and interesting element to a land like this, so I wanted to replace what I took and make it better. I actually managed to make two trails here. The monorail is enclosed in this area in a wood trestle bridge to allow for the attractions to work around it safely. The first trail, the Rocks Adventure Trail, is like the one I removed. It is ground based, includes a small climbing wall area, a campfire meeting area, pathways through caves and by waterfalls, and a few rope bridge type paths to add to the adventure. The second trail, the Ropes Challenge Trail, is more high thrill, and is a controlled ropes course like the attraction that just opened in Shanghai Disneyland. I think this is a super cool idea if done with a high level of themeing. There are two parallel tracks with different obstacles. The trail begins on the south side of the path, crosses over the path, and then follows a series of bridges and other challenges, all elevated about the lower trail. It includes a walk around a waterfall inside one of the caves, which looks down to the other trail.

To finish out the changes to the land, I am undoing a recent change. the Soarin over California film will return (maybe one theater for each film?). This film perfectly shows the Adventurous Spirit of the state. Finally, the Monorail is also enclosed in front of this building, just to maintain the theme a little better.

Moving on to Paradise Pier, I decided to redevelop the area around Paradise Garden Grill into a subland that focuses on the international identity of the California way of life. California's diversity is a major defining characteristic, so I felt like it needed representation, and this was the perfect place to put it since this is where the cultural festival special events are already held. The redevelopment of this area includes two new attractions and an expansion of the food service to represent more cultures. This is a very EPCOT like area.

First, the main attraction replaces Goofy's Sky School but keeps the basic premise of the Goofy How to shorts. I've always loved the idea of a dark ride based on these classic shorts, so that is what I did here. The attraction would be in a This ride would show us Goofy traveling through and experiencing the different cultures of the state in fun and lighthearted scenes. I thought that using an animated and more family friendly style would be a more successful approach to a more serious topic of cultural diversity.

The second attraction is across the path and replaced Jumpin Jellyfish. The International Showcase Theater is a modern version of a Circle Vision 360 attraction, now a completely seamless 360 degree theater that places you right in the middle of the action. The theater would show a short film that explores the real life cultures of California. It would include scenes from the different International districts in the big cities, like San Francisco's Chinatown, and special cultural events like Oktoberfest. In addition to the film, there would be in theater effects, like suspended Chinese lanterns, twinkling stars, and smells. The idea is to bring exposure to and immersion in the unique cultural identities of the state.

Last, the food. The existing two buildings can serve as four separate stations and a fifth can be built into a new gazebo building on the north side adjacent to the new dark ride show building. I quickly decided that the five stations should serve Italian, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, and German food, but I would imagine it would be possible to sub out the menu from each individual station for special events of celebrations.

Moving south from this area, there are two more additions at the boardwalk area. The smaller addition is a meet and greet facility in the vacant west loop of the coaster, extending into a backstage building behind the track. Themed as a Magic Sideshow, guests can meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald in unique sideshow settings, like they do in the Magic Kingdom. Mickey would have multiple private rooms while the other characters would be in the open space of the sideshow. In the building by the pathway, there would also be a small Magic performance area and shop, drawing pedestrians in.

The main addition to the area is a massive boat dark ride behind the coaster track that takes guests through the history of California. This is a very classic style dark ride, with slow moving boats going through large detailed scenes, accompanied by a musical score. The entrance and queue would be in an addition in front of the current Game of the Boardwalk area, themed as a classic boardwalk dark ride, with a grand marquee. The load would be in the existing building space, though one level below ground level, so that the boats can pass underneath the boardwalk for a quick loop through the lagoon to start the ride. The boats then pass through a tunnel under the coaster tracks and into the main building. The boat would pass through scenes that roughly correlate to the history of the state as well as a tour of some major landmarks, like floating through the Missions of San Diego, along the cliffs of La Jolla, passing surfers, drifting through the Redwood Forest, passing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog, and finally floating along the Santa Monica Pier before returning back to Paradise Pier. This may be a high concept dark ride that would never actually get built, but I think it is a necessary keystone attraction to explain the identity of a park that celebrates California.

The next phases of expansion for the park work on the east side, where there are many more projects needed to define this new organization.

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And that is my plan for the next 3.5 years of the Disneyland Resort. I think this is all possible in this time frame. It may not happen, but it could.

The next phase will focus on adding capacity to both parks, specifically an expansion for Fantasyland and major additions to Hollywood Pictures Backlot. Check back soon for that post!

Disneyland Trip Report and Ideas!

This time, were going to talk Disneyland.

Last week, I made my first trip to Disneyland and spent nearly 5 days at the parks. I knew going in that it was widely considered to be the best resort but I was still a little surprised at just how amazing and superior it was to any other theme park I’ve visited.

In general terms, almost every attraction, land and restaurant at Disneyland is better than its Disney World counterpart. There are exceptions, which I will note along with the true highlights of the resort. I also know a lot of readers here are most familiar with Disneyland Paris, so I’ll give comparisons there too when appropriate. So Ill go through each park land by land with some thoughts that are part trip report, part design ideas, and wrap up with some overall comments.

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Disneyland is just about the perfect park. The history is all around you and its age has allowed it to evolve and improve into a practically flawless park. I don’t think that is a crazy or unheard of statement. If there is any major problem with the park, it is predominately not the attractions or design, but the crowd flow and infrastructure, which is being stressed by the ever growing crowds. I’ll come back to this issue as we go.

Main Street is smaller in total proportion, but really doesn’t seem like it. The scale seems natural. That’s going to be a common observation of this park. The proportions and scales all seem innately correct and perfect, making a much more naturally charming park. The castle is smaller, but now that I have seen it in person, suddenly Cinderella’s Castle in Orlando looks too big. Same with the Main Street Buildings. The scale feels like it is what it was always meant to be. I also very much appreciate that this Main Street still has divided shops that sell unique-ish items. So much better than the endless Emporiums of Orlando and Paris.

Main Street also has some great attractions that don’t get a lot of mention. I specifically mean Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Main Street Vehicles. Lincoln’s actual show is well put together and impressive, but the better part is the preshow rooms filled with Disneyland art, a large model of opening day Disneyland, and the adjacent Disney Gallery store, filled with incredible art for sale. I liked these spaces because they demonstrated the real history and evolution of the parks, something that Disneyland is much more willing to acknowledge than the other resorts. The Main Street Vehicles were also fantastic for their kinetic contributions. There were always multiple vehicles on the street throughout the day, and it really made it feel like a real lively city. I’m a fan of any transportation based ride, and these are among the best, even if often overlooked. These are the kinds of little un-obvious attractions that separate an amusement parks from a themed space like Disneyland.

I was never able to see the Main Street Bypasses that were opened earlier this year, but I can see how they are needed. Main Street was a little narrow and was difficult to travel at peak times. As crowds grow, those bypasses may become more important, and maybe a permanent arcade like Paris one at least one side might be a better solution.

Last for Main Street, I’ve got to say that big trees are a nice change. The tree density throughout the park adds more than you could ever expect, especially in Fantasyland, where both Orlando and Paris are lacking in full grown forest.

Adventureland was probably my favorite land and I don’t feel the need to change much of anything because it is complete as it is. Classic Tiki Room with a Dole Whip, the Jungle (or Jingle) Cruise, and the Treehouse, even if with Tarzan, are all great attractions. The jungle vegetation was incredibly dense and convincing and really made you forget you were in a city.

I found new appreciation for the Tiki Room while watching others during the show. To me and other knowledgeable in theme parks, the Tiki Room may be a little basic and unexciting compared to more modern attractions. But to the average guest, the singing birds and plants were something they had never seen and captured their interest. Kids and adults sat amazed at the songs above. Maybe everything doesn’t need to be exciting and technological. Also, I had the pleasure of having Tiki Maynard as the Cast Member host, and that was quite a show (look him up if you don’t know who he is).

The Tarzan overlay to the Treehouse also wasn’t as bad as expected. Even though it was an animated property outside of Fantasyland, which I normally oppose on principle, it perfectly fit into the tone of the land and was not a thematic contradiction or distraction from the environment. Maybe my animated property philosophy needs reconsideration.

And now I get to the Indiana Jones Adventure. This is the best theme park attraction I have ever experienced. Spiderman at IOA is a close second. Indiana Jones is a total attraction from queue to end. One of the best queues I have seen, a fully themed environment (even the disabled elevators were fully themed), an innovative ride system, and a super detailed attraction interior. The main room filled with flames was the highlight, and I especially liked it because of the visibility of multiple vehicles at the same time and the kinetic action all around. Even with the last third of the attraction in weird darkness and flat blacklight paint, this attraction was an incredibly fun ride. I rode it three times, and could do for even more. A refurb to reimagine those last dark rooms could really elevate this even higher.

Next, Frontierland was good but lighter on content that the other comparable parks, and it will only get smaller with Star Wars. Big Thunder is the same as Orlando and lesser than Paris, but still good as the primary element of this land. 

The best part of Frontierland though is the river and all its traffic. Just like in every other case that I have already mentioned, moving elements make this land feel alive and much larger than it is. I hope that this is not too affected when the changes come next year. 

New Orleans Square is next, and another land that could never need any changes. Pirates is a classic, the land is immersive, the food is great, and it has fantastic atmosphere. I only had two problems. First, I wish I could have seen the original Haunted Mansion, not Haunted Mansion Holiday, even though this is one of the attractions that many consider to be better at Disney World. The Holiday version was entertaining, but I think I would have enjoyed the original more.

The other problem with this land is crowd flow. This land appeared to have the narrowest walkways and the most bottleneck points, so it became chaotic to get through the land. Specifically, the path past Haunted Mansion towards Critter Country was nearly impossible. This might be a challenge to fix, but I think it needs to happen. Crowds are growing, and it’s becoming miserable and nearly dangerous to move through some of these areas. The intersections with Adventureland and New Orleans Square was also bad because of the entrance to Pirates.

So therefore, I never made it to Critter Country, so I don’t have much a comment. I wasn’t upset by this, because it was too cold to ride Splash Mountain and I wasn’t interested in Winnie the Pooh. I passed it by train at least. I do hope that pathways can be reconfigured so that this area is no longer as isolated.

Going back to Fantasyland. This was a large land with a lot of good and classic attractions. I didn’t anticipate how lush and spread out this land was compared to the other Fantasylands I have seen. It was as sprawling as Paris but a fully grown forest, which made so big of an environmental difference. It also meant each little area couldn’t see the rest of the land, which kept the reveal of a sight like the Small World façade really controlled and more effective.

I got to ride some classic dark rides that I had never seen before, such as Toad, and ride familiar favorites like Snow White. My favorite of the five however was Alice in Wonderland, just because of how unique it was with the outdoor section. It was also fascinating to see the evolution of the dark ride, from the painted flats in Toad, to full sets in Pinnochio, and then new projection aided environments in Alice. I only wish that the projection face figures had actually made their way into the dark rides.

The problem with Fantasyland is just like those before. Its pathways cause a lot of congestion, but specifically at Parade time. The main cross path from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland intersects the parade path and causes traffic chaos with people trying to get from the left to the right side of the park. This might be a place to look into a traffic flow solution. I also think Fantasyland could do with an expansion of one or two more rides, possibly in place of the Fantasyland Theater or into Toontown.

Toontown is another land I did not spend much time in because of crowds and cold. Plus I wasn’t interested in the Meet and Greets or houses, so I just made a quick walk through the land to see the architecture. It seems to be a perfectly nice and well themed land that fulfills its purpose. If needed for expansion, I don’t think it would be a big loss, but if it survives, it works as a solid land in the park.

Last, we move onto the land with the most problems, but the currently most popular attraction of the resort. Tomorrowland has some good parts, but a lot of things that need adjustment and the potential for three or four or more new attractions. Whereas the rest of the lands in the park seem to have this innate history and resolved masterplan and organization, Tomorrowland feels messy and temporary. I don’t want to be harsh, it is a good land at times, but is far behind Paris, the best version of this type of land, and Orlando, where there is a bit more organization. So I’m going to try to do a lot to this land.

I should also talk about the Star Wars stuff too, specifically Hyperspace Mountain. Wow that was cool and is a great example for the draw of a Star Wars attraction. It consistently had the longest lines and I never heard someone come off it disappointed. A permanent, well themed Star Wars land is needed fast. And now that I have seen The Force Awakens, I see a lot of potential and am very excited for where the these lands are going. I’m also very glad for the decision to let Star Wars create its own land and not overlay Tomorrowland.

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Now across the Resort, we come to California Adventure. I followed the expansions closely and was excited to see what exactly this park had become. I was happily surprised by the total park experience and really enjoyed my short time there. I say short because even with the additions, I still could feel that this park hasn’t reached its potential. The new additions were noticeably great but revealed just how much more work is needed to the unchanged areas. Paradise Pier and parts of Hollywood need help next. Still, a relatively solid park that is far better than Disney Studios Paris and a bit ahead of Hollywood Studios. Also, I should say that there are much less traffic flow issues here, likely because it was designed as a modern park with wide pathways and no real bottlenecks.

Buena Vista Street is a very well designed entrance to the park and a good companion to Main Street. I really enjoy the architecture and tone of this time period, so I always knew I would like this street. Again, it was nice to have the kinetics of the working Red Car Trolley and the various performing groups. Somehow my entrances were timed so that I saw Five and Dime perform about 6 times over a day and a half.

One strange comment about the land. I had the opportunity to talk to a design professional and brought up how nice this land was. He mentioned that the land actually looks a lot like many of the large outdoor malls in southern California, like the Grove. The owner of the malls was a fan of Disneyland and themed architecture, so his malls ended up being Main Street-esque with a turn of the century Hollywood theme. And now, Buena Vista Street was designed with the same theme, so consequently looks like a local mall. How odd.

On to Hollywoodland, which has some really great parts and some great potential for new additions. First, I love the architecture of the main street, even with the fake street end mural. Next, I love the Aladdin Musical and it is a crime that were losing it for more Frozen. Last, this version of the Animation building is by far the best, especially because of the central room with the projected montages.

Besides those things, this land has a lot of room for future change, mostly in the northern backlot style area. Monsters Inc. is a fairly good ride that can stay if thematically appropriate, but besides that, there is a lot of room here and three or four large soundstage showbuildings for additions. I think this half of the land is the prime spot for the next major addition to the resort.

A Bug’s Land, right between Hollywood and Carsland is another nicely themed but low substance land. I understand its purpose was a speedy addition of kid friendly rides to the thrill heavy park. I was actually surprised at how nice and thorough the theming was, especially at night when the land glows. Even so, this is a land that I would not have a problem with losing for the sake of expansion to another land.

Carsland was highly anticipated and is obviously the high point of the park, as it was always the most crowded. I’m not sure how I felt about the land though. I might have built it up too much and it couldn’t have delivered. That doesn’t mean its not good. The street was faithfully recreated from the movie and really detailed and clever. The rockwork was breathtaking and looked impossible. Radiator Springs Racers was fun, even if short, and had the most impressive and source accurate animatronic figures I have ever seen (specifically Mater – wow). But it still felt lacking as a total themed environment. Maybe my best comment is that I distinctly heard many say “wow, it looks just like the movie,” meaning its always going to just be a derivative from the source movie, not a land with its own life.

The exception here is when the neon comes on and the sun goes down. Then there is a whole new life to the land, and it is much more kinetic, engaging, and interesting. Again, I don’t want to be overly critical. It’s a good land and a great ride, but not a great headlining land that it is built up to be.

Paradise Pier is the other land that has some flaws and potential to grow. The only real problem here is that it is still mostly carnival style rides that are not as unique as the rest of the park. Toy Story is a good addition, and California Screamin is a fantastic coaster, but the land could use one or two more non-spinner attractions. Expansion may be possible underneath the coaster or on the west side, by the spinner rides.

Another interesting observation in this land is based on Toy Story Midway Mania and The Little Mermaid dark ride. Both of these are clones with attractions in Orlando and were both developed for both resorts at the same time. Interestingly, both attractions were far better in California and seemed to fit their surroundings infinitely better. Toy Story is themed as a Midway game and set right in the middle of a Midway. Mr. Potato Head is designed as a barker and here is actually placed as a barker. Little Mermaid was designed as a basic but charming C or D ticket dark ride with a façade and queue that doesn’t oversell it as the centerpiece of a huge expansion. It’s almost like these attractions were designed for Disneyland and then just cloned over to Orlando and stuck in where they fit the closest.

Last land, Grizzly Peak and the surrounding areas are a really cool and really environmental land, again because of the trees and landscaping. Trees and density are lacking in the rest of the park, but they make this land. One problem here is the lack of attractions since there are really only two of them, one when it is too cold for rafting, and then zero since Soarin is a direct clone. This could do with another attraction to flesh out the national park environment. However, I don’t believe there is much room.

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Now that I’ve talked through both parks quickly, I have some final comments comparing the resorts.

First, I have to mention the food. Disneyland food, from snacks and counter service to table service, blows Disney World and Paris food away. It is shocking how much better and how much more variety there is. Burgers and chicken are not required to be on every menu apparently. Standout meals were the sundried tomato and pesto chicken pasta at Paradise Pizza and Pasta, and the ribs in Flo’s V8 Café. Both were counter service, served on real plates, and reasonably priced. Table service was great too. I ate at Café Orleans and Carthay Circle and both were great food for a theme park setting.

Another interesting comparison is the crowd distribution in the resort. So I visited during a very busy time, not quite as bad as it will be at Christmas, but pretty bad. But the actual queue times were not as bad as an average day at Disney World. From what I can tell, this is both because there are significantly more attractions to spread crowds, and less attractions that use Fastpass, which usually always makes lines longer. This made a much better park experience and it really makes sense. More rides equals shorter lines, and this is one of Disneylands best strengths.

Last, the quality of the rides are almost universally better at Disneyland. The rides are usually longer, like Pirates and Small World, have more detailed sets and special effects, like Space Mountain and Buzz, and better maintained, like many of the classic dark rides. Also, like I mentioned, modern clones seem to make more sense there than at other resorts. The only exception to this rule is Tower of Terror, which lacks a 4^th dimension room, and Haunted Mansion, which is shorter and less maintained.

Shows, including both the nighttime entertainment and the traditional performances, are also much better. Part of this is just because many shows are relatively new for the 60^th and are often refreshed. Mickey and the Magical Map was superior to any Orlando or Paris show just because there was actually a cast of multiple live singers and a musician, instead of just one or two. Aladdin was full Broadway quality and overshadowed any other theme park performance. The street entertainment was varied and impressive. Both World of Colors were technically impressive and pretty good with content. Fantasmic had better scenes, was much closer and more intimate, and an overall more impressive experience. And last, Paint the Night was a truly modern response to the classic light parade typology. (I never saw Disneyland Forever, so no comment there. It was cancelled every night I tried to see it, or 4 of the 5 nights I was there.)

So in just about every way, Disneyland is a better resort.

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So I immensely enjoyed both parks and don’t think there is a huge amount of things that need to be changed. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. I will be starting on a site plan soon, and will work on it through the next weeks and months until I am happy with it.

For Disneyland, the main focuses are going to be infrastructure and traffic flow changes throughout the park, a complete reworking of Tomorrowland, and smaller additions in Fantasyland, Frontierland, and maybe Critter Country. For Tomorrowland, a new consistent story and theme will be an important first step. I would like to start it out original, without an IP basis, but there are one or two IPs that I think could have a place in this land, specifically Tron, one of my favorite fallbacks.

DCA needs more work, but doesn’t need any infrastructure changes. The main addition I want to bring to DCA is a more structured park identity that explains and supports the existing lands and suggests more additions. For instance, I want to restructure the existing lands as manifestations of the California spirits of adventure, creation, and fun (as in Grizzly Peak, Hollywood and Cars Land and Marvel, and Paradise Pier). So with this new identity, I am going to look into moderate additions in Grizzly Peak and Paradise Pier to flesh out their themes, and major additions of Marvel and Pixar and possibly more to the creation areas. This park has a lot of potential that I look forward to figuring out.

 

Im excited to start work on this resort and excited to share my ideas later this year. I’ll keep you updated as I put it together.

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In the meantime, I’m still working on a new post for an original attraction in EPCOT to be posted sometime in the next few weeks. And then next year, we will continue with a new post a month.

As I am putting together my schedule for posts, I want to hear what kinds of projects you want to see. I have a few posts started, including attractions based on Indiana Jones, UP, The Incredibles, and Tangled, but want your suggestions. Original attractions? Overlays? Park expansions? New Parks? Any particular properties? Let me know in the comments, and I will take your ideas into consideration.