Sydney Summer: Fireworks and The End

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland
Part 7: New York Harbor
Part 8: Hollywood Boulevard
Part 9: Disney Animation Studios
Part 10: Marvel City
Part 11: Star Wars Spaceport

The final and possibly shortest part of the Sydney Resort Series: the night time fireworks entertainment. This post will cover more infrastructure and less story. 

When planning both parks, I constantly kept in mind how a night time show would work and how my design choices impacted those shows, such as square footage of the viewing areas. This post presents a diagrammatic plan of the infrastructure and viewing areas for both shows. 

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For Disneyland Sydney Park, the main show occurs in front of the castle, like all others. I imagined it as a show in the Disney Dreams style, so heavily mixing fountains, projections, and fireworks to tell a complete story in multiple dimensions.

I'll start with the projection system. I have includes four long throw projectors on the rooftops of the Main Street buildings. They are spread to cover the castle from all four angles as well as the side walls on either side of the castle so that projections can move the full width of the hub. Additionally, there are smaller projectors in the small turrets in front of the large wall end turrets. These are directed at the front of these large turrets. 

Next, fountains. The system is symmetrical on either side of the castle. Each side has a large mist screen with a rear projector, hidden in the castle walls. A network of fountains in the moat wrap the front of the hub. A smaller system is in the rear ring of the hub. 

Fireworks are the next major element of the show. There are five low level firework launch platforms on the rooftops behind each side of the castle. One on each side flanks the edge of the hub for special shots. These would all fire low level pyro, like the fireworks used in Disney Dreams. Additionally, there is a major launch point on top of the ship at the rear of the park, capable of firing large shell fireworks. The circles on the map show the approximate fall out zone for each type of firework. Limited areas of Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Discoveryland are closed before each show as they are in the fall out zone, noted as crowd control lines on the map. 

The last element of the show is drones, something I know is being considered for future fireworks shows and has also been used before on small scales. The two raised building sections marked in green, which are also the access towers to the rooftop for fireworks loading, are the launch point for various drones during the show, most specifically a fleet of floating lanterns for a Tangled segment. They would strictly fly over the fireworks fall out zones and closed pathways, never over guests, and could be grounded in event of wind. 

As for the story, I believe it should be a series of scenes connected with a main story. Since it is Rapunzel's castle, the main story could be Rapunzel telling some of her favorite stories in some kind of Festival of Lights.

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Over to Hollywood Adventure, the nightly show is a new version of Fantasmic based at the Chinese Theater. It uses basically the same setup of infrastructure in a different way. 

For projections, there are two projectors on the Hollywood rooftops, aimed at the Theater, primarily to project on the front legs of the theater as well as the main pinnacle. 

The body of water in front of the theater also has a full system of fountains including an extra wide mist screen wall. Because it has to cross the solid ground of the stage, a series of pop up misters rise out of the ground to create the solid wall. Rear projectors in the theater facade are aimed at the wall. The wall and projectors are split so that either the full wall or just the sides of the stage can operate at any time. 

The fireworks include six low level launch points fanned out behind the theater and a large shell launch platform centered behind the theater. 

The main element of this show is live performance. The central stage is accessed by ramps on the side and stairs at the back. Two retractable light towers sit behind the stage and raise and lower throughout the show. To the left of the theater is the garage and entertainment building for the show. Set pieces, props, and characters roll out from here and either enter into the inner courtyard of the theater through a large door or around to the front and to the stage. Additionally, there is an access point for Mickey to appear at the top of the theater to end the show. 

The story here would be like the other incarnations of Fantasmic, but with different scenes. The basic premise would be that during a grand Hollywood premier at the theater, Mickey falls into the world of film come to life, so properties from the park are featured as well as other modern and classic Disney films. The finale would be the same, with a Malificent dragon that appears in the theater courtyard, threatening to bring down the premier. Mickey defeats her, allowing the show to go on and a big firework finale. 

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And I think that will be the end. This is a park that I have been contemplating for a year or two and I have put a lot of thought into it, but I think its time to move on to something else. 

I'm prepping a few posts to finish out the year and I think it's some really good material. 

However, I am also getting busier and busier with school work and some freelance design work, so to keep quality up, I think I need to reduce the post frequency. I know, you probably don't want that, but I need to do it just to keep up with new content. But I promise it is going to be good stuff, and back to expansions to parks you know. 

So from now on, we are going to one post a month, probably mid to late month. 

Thanks for reading!

Sydney Summer: Star Wars Spaceport

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland
Part 7: New York Harbor
Part 8: Hollywood Boulevard
Part 9: Disney Animation Studios
Part 10: Marvel City

Sorry for the few weeks of silence! Now I'm back for a new post to finish up the Sydney Resort. This post will cover Star Wars Spaceport.

Its also going to be a little shorter than past posts because of the topic.

I had planned to give a full description of the Star Wars land I had designed here, but since the unveiling of Disney's plans, I have decided to rethink a lot of things. However, I am still presenting the old version here, hence less descriptive text.

The pathway from Marvel City leads under a pair of enclosed bridges to block further views and transition architecturally from the New York style city to the Coruscant style city. Basically the transition is a progression of materials from stone and brick to metal and concrete. 

Straight ahead is the Millennium Falcon, which is fully explorable. To the right of the entrance path is retail on the ground floor and a table service restaurant on the upper floor, looking over the Star Wars city. Past that is an X Wing fighter in dock, as the entrance to an X Wing spinner attraction. It is not a standard kid spinner however. The central axis rises up into a projection dome and tilts 45 degrees off axis. The slightly faster spinning vehicles rise high into the dome and swiftly fall back as they cycle. 

Next is the Jedi Training Academy theater, which presents a version of the show much like the existing show, but with an animatronic Yoda figure. 

Back across by the Millennium Falcon is a two story complex of retail and dining. A snack location and large retail space is on the ground floor. The Cantina counter service restaurant is on the top floor. 

Also on the ground floor is the entrance to a theater based attraction that is mostly on the upper floor. This is a 4D movie with live actors and effects, like Terminator, that tells the story of the history of the Jedi. It enters on the ground floor and exits on the upper floor. 

Last, the main attraction of the land is Star Wars: Flight of the Force, which is a modified Kuka arm attraction. Guests ride in X Wings and join the Rebel Alliance as they attack the Death Star. It ends with an encounter with Darth Vader and a run through the iconic trench. This is an attraction I have been working on for another location, so it will probably show up again later on. 

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So since seeing the concept art of what Disney is building, I have started to reconsider a lot of my choices. Such as my decision for an existing planet (Coruscant) vs original plant, my decision for basing the land on the original trilogy vs the new films, and my attraction lineup. 

I really like the Disney concept art, and look forward to seeing what actually gets built. In the mean time, I will probably try another version or two. Maybe. 

The last post will cover the nightime shows for the two parks, and will be another short one, so should be up next week. Then things are going to change. Thanks for reading!

Sydney Summer: Marvel City

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland
Part 7: New York Harbor
Part 8: Hollywood Boulevard
Part 9: Disney Animation Studios

This week we cover the next land of Hollywood Adventure: Marvel City.

From Hollywood Gardens, the Marvel City land is composed of two separate areas, the Stark Industries Expo to the south of the main road, and the urban city to the north. Before walking through the land, I wanted to comment on the contents. There are three major attractions in this area, each probably capable of being a headliner, and each high thrill. I decided to take a "Universal Studios" approach to this land because of the demographics of the property and focus on more thrilling high impact attractions.

Starting from the hub area, a highly manicured garden leads toward the Stark Industries area. This is modeled on a sleek utopian World's Fair, like the architectural style of Stark featured in the movies. The main entrance to the indoor pavilion is under a sweeping circular arcade and through a large metallic sphere, into a highly modern technology expo that serves as the entrance to two attractions. The main attraction is Stark Expo, which is a Dynamic Attractions SFX coaster, a highly unusual coaster system that has yet to be built as far as I know. The coaster/dark ride hybrid is a set up as a tour of Tony Stark's experimental projects lab, including a demonstration of his new high speed urban transportation system. The other attraction, which is on the second floor, is an Iron Man animatronic show, like what I have proposed for other parks. Both attractions exit to large retail spaces that lead back out to the street.

The urban half of the land begins as the facades of Hollywood transition to New York. The facades are slightly taller, creating a more enclosed land. It is a much more stylized New York than the version in the Disneyland Park, with less real world detail and more cinematic stylization. We turn right down the main street into the land, which is on axis with the Stark Expo facade behind. We pass under a lowered bridge that reveals a view of the glistening force perspective tower at the end of the street, which is the SHIELD headquarters.

The building to the right contains a large counter service location sandwiched by retail. The left building is retail and a meet and greet facility. The retail spaces are all subdivided into individual but connected stores, like Main Street, and all have unique themes and unique products to create a diverse city. The counter service restaurant is split between the first and second floors of the building and has an urban diner theme. The meet and greet is themed as a SHIELD recruiting facility where a rotating group of Avengers and heroes are found through the day.

The headquarters building at the end of the street holds the main attraction of the land: Avengers Assemble, a thrilling trip that follows the Avengers into battle. The SHIELD building's main element is a force perspective tower that is 100' tall in total. It rises above a class curtain wall facade with a semicircular sloped metal canopy with a fountain at the very center. We are here today as part of a SHIELD initiative to be more transparent to the public after their recent major mishaps.

The queues for the attraction begin on the right side of the plaza, and lead into the main entry hall, where guests find a large marble statue of the Avengers team.  The queues lead around the hall and then into the back hallways of the building, through the Avengers artifact gallery and towards the informational presentation. As we make our way through the queue however, we are informed by periodic overhead monitors that the Avengers have suddenly been called into action for a minor event, forcing a change in schedule. Nick Fury suggests cancelling, but Tony Stark decides that this is the perfect time to test out his new high capacity troop transits, so he invites us along on the trip. We pass a briefing station where an animatronic of Fury stands before a projected wall of information, including Stark's schematics for the vehicle. To get to the vehicle, we are being routed through the experimental lab section and towards the loading docks.

The queues move into the next space, the labs, which is the interior of that 100' tower piece, though the clearspan of the room is probably only about 75' In the room are four large industrial cylinders running all the way to the ceiling, dressed as large vehicle test chambers. These four cylinders are actually the show elevators for the attraction. Pipes and industrial set dressings cover the walls and the open floor space is filled with scientific equipment. The queues turn into the loading bay, which is a more industrial but still sleek and modern space. The fastpass and standby queues merge and turn left towards the digital info glass (3D) distribution station before a few more switchbacks and then the loading dock.

The Stark designed vehicle resembles a large all terrain vehicle with an Iron Man paint job. It is a tracked motion base vehicle that seats 5 per row with 4 rows, making it significantly larger than other similar ride systems. Each row also features a large touch screen dashboard that features a OS like that of Iron Man. Guests are given the opportunity to interact with the screen during certain scenes of the attraction.

After loading is complete, we slowly move forward and a video message from Tony pops up on our dashboard. He tells us that Jarvis is in complete control of the vehicle we are in, but this is the first major test run, so hold on. Also that if flies. As we pick up speed and round the corner we see the first large format 3D screen, showing the Avengers Quinjet preparing to take off. Iron Man flies into frame and tells us some about the mission, and that we are here to follow and observe as they investigate an unusual cosmic event. He sends us on to the launch bay and we turn the corner and take a track switch to one of the two elevator tubes. Inside the tube is a a 240 degree projection surface, enclosing our whole view as we face forward. The elevator tube also extends upward 85' as one continuous show space. This is the main element that makes the attraction unique: the inclusion of vertical launch and freefall elements into the middle of a dark ride.

The dim launch bay comes to life with flashing lights and a quick countdown and we are launched vertically upward. The launch is at a medium thrill speed, but the synchronization with the projected surface simulates a much swifter launch into the sky. We shoot up, past the second floor, and then slowly descend back to the second floor as the projection shows us soaring through the clouds. A commbination of smoke, lighting, and movement disguises our vehicle reversing out of the elevator and into the first scene of this floor. We rotate to a scene of the Avengers landing and surveying a city in the midst of battle. The general premise is the same as every other Avengers battle: a big bad has led an army of minion soldiers to destroy a city, and the Avengers must work together to stop it. Ideally, this would tie into a villain character from an Avengers film, possibly Thanos from the movies that will be coming out in a few years.

The next few scenes move us from screen environment to environment as the battle continues. Each is closely integrated with physical sets and effects to create a 4D experience.  Jarvis is able to keep us out of the way with only minimal damage and we are able to watch as the Avengers tag team battle through the city.  After a few of these similar scenes, we emerge into another unique scene: a large physical ruined city show scene, with just a few integrated screens. Effects throughout the city scene, including fire, smoke, and moving set pieces simulating destruction, add depth and chaos to the battle. The Avengers are mostly seen on the screens integrated into the city sets, but some of them also appear in physical form. An animatronic Iron Man swoops up from behind a pile of rubble and hovers in the smoke, telling us to watch out behind us, causing us to speed around a corner. Then we see Captain America and Thor together in battle, recreating the pose with Thor striking Captain's shield, forming a shock wave that pushes us away. Finally, we see the largest figure, an animatronic of the Hulk standing atop rubble and roaring and holding up a minion soldier. We swoop away and out of this large scene and stop in front of another large screen.

Iron Man and Thor land before us, telling us that the battle is under control, but that maybe we should get out of here because we might get in the way. Suddenly, some kind of missile shoots past the Avengers and right at us, hitting us with a blast of smoke and light. We fly out of control after getting hit and swerve wildly around the dark corner as lights flash all over the car. Iron Man appears on our dashboard to tell us that the missile took out the wireless connection to Jarvis, so we have lost our autopilot. He tells us that he can take over to get us out safely, but that he may need our help. When our dashboard lights up with a warning message, we must press the reset button so that Stark can keep control.

We fly into one of the second set of elevators and shoot upwards through the projected city as Stark wildly controls us. This elevator acts much more like a mid thrill drop tower. We go up and down in coordination with our projected flight through the skyline. We swoop up and down to dodge flying objects and finally descend down and land in front of the SHIELD headquarters. We emerge out of the elevator tube and drive through the loading dock area. Stark appears on the screen and apologizes for his driving, saying that they will be back to meet us soon. We pass one screen where Nick Fury welcomes us back from the battle and gives us an update on the battle. Around the corner is the last scene, where we see the Avengers finally gathered again, sending us off. We turn the corner and are back to the unload area.

The exit path leads back through the lab area and into a large interactive Avengers Training area, which is like Innoventions for super hero skills. Digital games let you train skills like flight with Iron Man, archery with Hawkeye, and shield defense with Captain America. It also leads into a gift shop and then an exit back out to the public street.



Down the side street of the land is the final attraction, a Pandoras Box dark ride based on Spiderman. The Pandoras Box by Vekoma is another ride system with a long history that as far as I know was never actually built (and I see now that it isn't listed on their website anymore, so it may never be). The ride system was basically a dark ride in 3 dimensions, with a vehicle that could travel up as well as side to side. This seems like a perfect fit for Spiderman and maximized the potential of a rather small show building.

The attraction would be a swiftly moving dark ride that explores the rough streets of New York, featuring mainly Spiderman as well as other New York based heroes, like Daredevil. It would be less plot based and more a chance to explore the environment of New York and super powers of Spiderman, The vertical movement of the ride vehicle would allow us to follow Spiderman as he ascends through the city. The ride unloads on the second floor into a gift shop that is connected by way of sky bridge to the main retail building of the land.

Finally, at the south end of the street is one final retail and snack location building. The path continues on west into the Star Wars Spaceport.

The entertainment of the land includes a small group of New York City style busking musicians as well as the meet and greet characters.

Finally, behind the southern retail building is the entertainment building for the park, including a small parade float shelter. A bus stop and cast center is located at the north end of the Avengers building.


Two more posts for Sydney coming up soon: Star Wars Spaceport and a post about the night fireworks shows. Then on to some new stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Sydney Summer: Disney Animation Studios

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland
Part 7: New York Harbor
Part 8: Hollywood Boulevard

So based on the comments from last week and my opinion, we are going with option 2: a quicker look at the remaining areas with a little bit less content. So for the next 4 weeks, I will have a new post every Tuesday or so.

Today we focus on the northern half of the park: Disney Animation Studios.

Walking from Hollywood Gardens, guests pass through brick pillars on either side, one displaying the Disney Animation logo, the other the Pixar logo. This land equally represents both families of properties in a joined animation focused studio themed land. On the left, the architecture of golden age Hollywood slowly modernizes as it passes the logo pillar and begins to reflect the style of the Disney Animation building in Burbank.

A semicircular covered entry leads into the traditional animation space, which is centered around an interior animation courtyard. The two story atrium is formed of a hemispherical projection dome that holds a fanciful double decker carousel at its center, filled with animated characters. As the carousel spins, the projected environment constantly changes, featuring highlights from classic animated films. Portals from the atrium lead to a gift shop, a small Animator's Academy, a Turtle Talk with Crush theater, a meet and greet facility, and the entrance to a dark ride. These spaces are distributed over the two floors and all look back into the main atrium, adding to the kaleidoscopic kinetics of the space.

The ride is a classic slow moving dark ride through the world of Disney Animation, structured on the basic plot of Mickey's Philharmagic, though more directly tied into the Silly Symphony property. Guests follow Donald and Mickey as they travel through a series of animated world in search of the missing Sorcerer's Hat. The idea is to feature properties not already seen in the resort, so good choices would be Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, etc. This dark ride is also two stories.

The rest of the outdoor land is primarily Pixar, divided into two zones: the fantasy Toy Story Land and the urban Metropolis. The Toy Story Land is hidden behind dense vegetation and trees so as not to intrude on Hollywood Gardens. This was placed here because I needed this vegetation transition from the Garden. Also, I find the general aesthetic of the shrunken down Toy Story Lands very interesting and with alot of potential with the right attraction lineup. This small miniland includes a Slinky Dog spinner, a snack location set in a giant overturned snack box, and a brand new Toy Story dark ride. Like I have discussed before, I think the Toy Story environment would make a great ride if realized physically with animatronic figures and detailed sets in combination with digital effects. We enter into a opened toy box and board toy cars built of oversized Tinker Toys for a trip through the world of the toys. We travel through their outdoor camp before eventually making it into Andy's room.

The urban area of the land includes two more properties. Anchored by Carl's house, which is exploreable, is the Wilderness Explorer's Adventure Center. The building mixes rustic wood detailing with the modern brick building style of the area. Inside is a large two floor counter service location that serves world adventure inspired foods. The building also holds the entrance to Russel and Doug's Balloon Adventure, which is a Circumotion attraction from Falcons Treehouse. The attraction is a circular motion base theater inside of a large hemispherical projection dome. It is basically a full theater simulator in a fully immersive 3D digital projection space. Here, Russel guides us on a balloon adventure that includes more turbulence and adventure than expected.

The last major attraction of the land is The Incredibles Adventure, an LPS dark ride that follows the super family on a night out fighting crime. I have more fully developed the version of this attraction that is in my Hollywood Studios plan, and I will be showing you that soon. The ride sets us up as heroes in training to the family and we have been invited out on our first night of observation in specially designed Incredi-cars. We meet Mr. and Mrs. Incredible in animatronic form first, who brief us about our mission. Then we head out to the dark streets to save the world. Along the way, we encounter either the Underminer or Bomb Voyage in two alternate scenes, a massive building on fire, and an unexpected return of the Omnidroid, who threatens the entire city. We must team up the whole family to take down the full sized Omnidroid and save Metropolis.

Across the street is a small gazebo used for rotating meet and greets through the day. The entertainment for the land includes the characters and a small brass band that plays the iconic music from animated films.

Sydney Summer: Hollywood Boulevard

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland
Part 7: New York Harbor

Today, we look at the second park of the resort: Disney's Hollywood Adventure (aka what Hollywood Studios will probably become in the coming years.) Our walk through begins as we walk through the tunnel from the main Disney District area. This will cover the small entry land of the park. 

We emerge from the large tunnel pathway into a different time and place, right in the middle of the golden age of Hollywood. The streamline modern  buildings flanking the tunnel hold the guest relations spaces. The very sleek and minimal entry turnstile ahead reveal a direct view through the park and into the first land, Hollywood Boulevard.

Just inside is the Crossroads of the World, just like in DHS. Because of the dimensions of the available land, there is not really an entry street like nearly all other parks. It is minimized and flattened into a facade on either side of a 40' wide street. This street is only about 60' long and then opens up to Hollywood Gardens, the Hub of the park. These two buildings hold all the entry retail and food of the park, so they utilize both floors for public space. The north building holds retail, a counter service location on the ground floor, and a table service location on the top floor. The south building holds retail and a bar on the top floor as well as a theater based attraction.

The architecture here is an idealized take on golden age Hollywood so is a mix of sleek mid century modern, Spanish Mission revival, and beautiful Art Deco. Like Main Street in the other park, it is meant to be highly detailed and lived in, though here the facades reflect that the public space extends to the second floor. Windows show guest movement on both floors to explain the scale of the public space.

The ground floor counter service location, Hollywood and Vine, is themed as an modern lunch counter where the guests may be able to mingle with the stars of cinema. It is an extremely large location and serves a selection of American classics. The upstairs Brown Derby is an upscale luxury dining room for the elite of Hollywood. It is also oversized because it is one of only two sit down locations in the park. It also has the best views of the night time show, so would be popular for dinner and extra price events. Each have a separate kitchen because of their scale. The Overlook Bar on the other building is a secret hangout of the Hollywood insiders, so also has a great view of Hollywood Gardens and the show.

The tree lined street of Hollywood Gardens is beyond these facades. Planters are on either side of the road but tall Hollywood palm trees are only on the outer ring to not block views. In the gardens are statues of Disney and Hollywood icons. The center of the garden is a pool in front of the Chinese Theater with a central raised stage. Stairs and ramps on the sides lead up to the stage, which is accessible to guests during the day. Recessed lighting towers are on either side, hidden below ornamental statues.Inside the Chinese Theater is Cinemagic, based on the version in Paris. However, the film is made of multiple sections that can be changed so that several versions of the show can be shown each day. Repeatability is a big goal of every attraction in this park, so this strategy is going to be used multiple times.

The other attraction of the land, in the south building, is a live production stage where guests can participate in an interactive recording of a Hollywood production. It features a few segments, including the Foley recording of radio drama, a light comedy TV show scene, and a high action Hollywood finale. Again, scenes are partially randomized through the day so guests can participate in a variety of situations.

The street through the Garden connects all of the lands. Disney Animation Studios is to the north and Marvel City and Star Wars Spaceport are to the south. Each of these three lands will get another post.

The entertainment of the land is obviously Streetmosphere characters like DHS. Likely the most successful attempt at integrating entertainment into placemaking, this is an obvious choice for the park. The land also holds the night time show based on the stage in front of the Chinese Theater. To the south of the Theater is storage and dressing rooms for the show.

Sydney Summer: New York Harbor

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland
Part 6: Discoveryland

Now to the last land of the park, one that is new to the Disneyland model but heavily based in the style of the urban lands of Tokyo Disney Sea. 

First, I am going to bring up why this land and why here. The short answer is that I needed a new land for the Haunted Mansion since its always in a different land. Just kidding. 

I decided to introduce a new urban based land to the park so as to increase the diversity of settings to the small park and allow for some attractions types that wouldn't fit as well in the other lands. An urban setting worked perfectly. Visually, it also works out because the buildings can be taller and larger here, acting as a visual "berm" to the water and city just beyond. Lastly, the icon of a steamship at dock has always been a favorite, and I imagined that it would be a strong visual draw to the park because it would be highly visible to all passing by the site by road and water. 

The American Waterfront land of Tokyo Disney Sea is an extremely strong variation on this idea already. This is very similar, but different formally because it is not based around the waterfront. It is instead a self contained city square and system of streets set in the 1920s.

There are two access points into the land, from the Wonderland area and from the Pirates area of Fantasyland. Both paths transition from fantasy-rustic urban architecture to American urban architecture by passing under a lowered bridge, compressing and restricting vision into the next space as it changes time and style. The streets lead directly to a main public square of the land. The Pirates side street has retail locations on both sides and a snack location farther down on the left. The buildings grow in height and detail down the street, from the 30'-35' height average of Fantasyland to a 45'-50' height average of the city. 

At the intersection of the streets, most of the land is visible. The steamship sits looming above the harbor square, next to the decrepit colonial mansion of the ships owner. To the north, an elevated train track winds through the narrow and darkened street, signaling the darker crime noir area of the land.

There is a consistent backstory in the land that guides most of the attractions and is tied into the mythology of SEA, one of my all time favorite theme park concepts. Set in an industrial harbor neighborhood of the late 1920's, the land is a bustling city shrouded in mystery and crime. The harbor industry had been dependent on the shipping activities of the mysterious SEA organization, but that economy had disappeared in recent years, especially after the disappearance of the local SEA representative, who lived in the largest house on the square. After returning from a foreign port with a ship full of goods, he vanished, leaving his house and his ship to the city. Because of the loss of economy, the city had to find ways to take advantage of what he left, so the house, the ship, and the local SEA office have recently been opened for tours. Parts of the city have also fallen to crime as a result. Today we visit of the 6th anniversary of his disappearance. 

Time to walk through the land, starting at the first intersection. By the intersection is a covered outdoor market, selling fresh items and drinks. The East Egg mansion sits beyond, with a covered pavilion queue to the right of the private pathway leading to the porch. This Haunted Mansion uses the same track, though the entire building is mirrored. The scenes and story inside are adapted to reflect the SEA background story, but it is fundamentally the same attraction. Instead of a graveyard however is an interior warehouse scene, where the doombuggies travel through the haunted treasures of SEA. The attraction exits into a large warehouse giftshop, themed as the receiving area of the harbor complex.

Next around the square is the ship itself. The steamship sits behind a grand brick entrance building, with large glass windows revealing the stairs and escalators inside that lead up to the second floor. The second floor path leads over the backstage road and into the ship. It is a predominately industrial ship, but with high class finishes and international details, fitting the SEA mentality. To the right is the entrance to the attraction in the ship while straight down the corridor is the grand hall of the ship, with a circular staircase up the next floor. Behind the staircase is the first lounge/bar of the ship while the second floor has a high class restaurant and a second bar, the Captains's Lounge. All have views out of the park towards downtown Sydney.

The attraction is the shooter ride of the park and is a hybrid of both Toy Story based rides, so features both screens and physical sets. We have been invited to tour the treasurers of the ship at our own risk, possibly leading to us discovering the mysterious reason behind the backstory of the land. The entrance to the attraction takes us deeper into the industrial storage areas of the ship, as the queue takes us through crates and boxes and under a ceiling of creaking and steaming pipes. The queues make it to a nook where a large map is displayed, recounting the recent trips around the world and displaying pictures of the most recent acquisitions. They then lead around a corner to a large staircase up to the next level. There is also a break off for both an elevator and a side path directly to the exit area for disabled loading. Upstairs, the queues immediately lead out into the upper level balcony of the main loading hall. Guests see the vehicles cycling through load and unload below and then begin down a long ramp to the loading dock, where they are distributed to one of the three loading vehicles, or the separated disabled loading dock. The fastpass queue is 660' long and the standby queue is 1025' long. The vehicles are almost the same as those on Toy Story Midway Mania, except both rows face the same way instead of back to back. The vehicles leave loading and pass by a projected set extension, creating the illusion of a much larger warehouse bay in the ship.

Around the corner, the vehicles wait for the elevator down to the basement level, which is next to a dedicated service elevator to the maintenance bay. The dark and rickety elevator opens into the abandoned storage level of the ship, filled with the treasures found just before the disappearance. We stop and turn to the right to face the first screen. Each of the screens in the attraction are disguised in stacks of boxes and realistically extend the scene in accurate perspective based on the movement of the vehicle. So not a flat cartoon like Toy Story. At this first screen, we are greeted by the timid guide, eager to send us off so he can leave the dark warehouse. He instructs us on how to use our flashlights that are built into the car. We are to use them to illuminate the objects along our path and to scare away the mysterious forces. Around the corner is the first large scene, filed with practical sets and effects that activate when we illuminate them. So this is a shoter attraction with less of a focus on score and more on finding hidden effects. To make it repeatable, many of the objects have special reactions for different patterns of illuminations, such as a special effect if every light of the car is focused on it. The big element of the room is a large crate that is lowering to the floor on a rope pulley system. The crate is actually just an L shaped flat so that it doesn't take up as much space on the floor above. At the end of this scene, each car discovers a golden idol hidden away that comes to life, spurring the plot of the second half of the attraction.

The idol chases us forward with flashes of light and smoke, leading to a series of three screen scenes. In these, we encounter more objects and idols that are now coming for us, trying to chase us away. Our flashlights push them back. During the third screen, we hear the guide we met before yelling for us to get back to the elevator. We see him up on a balcony in the projected extension just around the corner. There are additional physical props in front of and below this screen. We turn to one more screen scene, where it seems like we are almost through the danger before turning into a dark tunnel. This blackout tunnel features projections on both sides and above us. The force of the idol surrounds us but the guide yells to us to focus our lights on the center of the idol. It moves around from side to side, our vehicle turning to follow it as we illuminate it. At the end of the tunnel, the vehicle escapes out of the darkness and from the idol to pass one more screen where the guide frantically ushers us towards the elevator. We make it into the elevator and have finally escaped.

Back up on the main floor, we emerge from the elevator to find a final screen where the guide greets us and congratulates us for escaping. Around the corner is unload. We exit into a gift shop and then to the main hall of the ship. The track is 1360' long with 2 elevators.

Back outside, the next thing visible from the square is the Broadway Theater at the end of the street, complete with a large marquee towering over the sidewalk. An outdoor covered queue sits to the right of the theater. Not really sure what goes inside, I have decided that is not one of my strengths. Thematically, it should not be based on Disney characters so that makes it a little difficult.

The last building on the square is split between retail and the SEA offices. The offices are the last interactive explorable attraction of the park and includes game based exhibits on the history and members of SEA.

The north of the land holds the darker crime ridden subarea of the city. The elevated train tracks are a major element and provide cover and shade to the area. Coming from that first intersection, the first element of the land is a speakeasy on the left. Accessed through a darkened alley, the large counter service location is broken up into many rooms of different character as if assembled into one underground complex. The restaurant serves a limited menu of international New York standards like Italian and Chinese food. It shares a kitchen with the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall.

Down the street, under the train tracks, is the entrance to the first major attraction of the area. The attraction was originally conceived as a way to add the visual kinetic of the moving train through the street. Guests load into the full sized train cars on the second floor for a leisurely trip across town. Each train includes a live guide. The train passes through the enclosed backstage elevated tunnel between the main show buildings and then into a large simulated outdoor streetscape. This streetscape is also the queue and ride track of the large EMV attraction, so there is a layering of experiences here. As we go by, we are able to look both into the scenes of the attraction and into second floor spaces, showing the life of the city. The guide points things out and includes the info that this isnt the greatest part of the neighborhood. The train then goes outside along the exterior track. After returning into the first building, the train turns left into a tunnel and stops between two street facades. The guide says it is just a temporary stop until the previous train leaves the station. But then a live gangster performer on one of the facades notices us and gives us trouble, saying that we better get out of here now. Suddenly we hear cars skid in below us and the beginnings of a shoot out. We become trapped in the middle of a gangster battle, only to escape in reverse and back to the loading and unloading dock.

The other large showbuilding holds the largest attraction of the park, an EMV dark ride through the crime filled streets. The queue leads us through the office of a private detective and then back out into the simulated street. As the train passes overhead, we load into a slick black car for a night out with the detective. The motion based attraction includes both physical and projected scenes of gangster shootouts, car chases, and daring escapes.

The entertainment in the land includes a jazz trio that regularly plays in the square and gangster streetsmosphere characters as well as the show in the Broadway Theater.

The backstage elements of the land include the large dock for receiving goods for the resort as well as two warehouses on the north side. There is also a helipad in this area.

Ok so that covers each of the lands for this park. Still to be covered is the infrastructure and design for the night time fireworks show, but I believe I will be covering that very last, after we go over the Hollywood Adventure park. That way I can combine both park's fireworks into one post.

I am going to take an extra week break between parks, so the start of Hollywood Adventure will be in three Tuesdays. I need to do this because of a week of travel to a conference in California plus time in San Francisco, which is going to include the Walt Disney Family Museum. Can't wait!

Thanks for reading! 

Sydney Summer: Discoveryland

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland
Part 5: Adventureland

This post is a little lighter on drawings than last weeks unfortunately, but just as interesting I hope. I had planned on an elevation, but didn't have time to finish it up in time.

To the north of the Hub is Discoveryland, which is a relatively new stylistic version of the Tomorrowland model. Though it shares a name and source material with the Paris land, it does not share the style or story. Discoveryland depicts a hyper futuristic city of scientists and inventors that are pushing the boundaries of their known world. So less scifi space-and-aliens, more fantasy-science Future World. 

The land's attractions are loosely based on the classic stories of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and the Time Machine, all stories of innovation and exploration. However only the rough concepts are used in this land, not the settings, times, or details, so that these stories can be brought into a modern land. There are no preconceived styles that come with the stories. The land treats these stories as if now is the first time they have ever happened. Based on those stories, transportation is the key theme of the attractions through the land. 

The land's architecture is closely inspired by the Tomorrowland movie style, specifically the work of Santiago Calatrava (his City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia was an actual filming location for the film). The style is organic and almost skeletal and features predominate use of white concrete, glass, water, and organic material. Honestly, this description reminds me alot of the early years of Disneyland's Tomorrowland. The overly clean and stylistic design strategy is fairly contradictory to the Buck Rogers neon of the current Magic Kingdom and the Vern based Paris Discoveryland. This is the predominate style for the main buildings on either side of the land entrance, but the style devolves towards the volcano and the buildings by the water. These buildings are less organic and more utilitarian as well as starting to add a more materials to the palate because they begin to reflect the character of each scientist and story. For instance, the 20,000 Leagues building incorporates more dark metallics and industrial-nautical detailing.

From the Hub, guests walk between two mirrored buildings toward the spinning Astro Orbiter upon a rockwork plinth. The buildings of the land radiate out from this central plaza, highlighted by the steaming volcano to the left and the water to the right. The buildings on the left and right have a ground floor colonnade of organic white columnal forms supporting a second floor balcony. The building on the right holds a double level retail location and Space Flight, an attraction based on the original Rocket to the Moon from Disneyland. This new version incorporates 3D video effects and motion base seats to tell an original story about a rapid trip to the moon.

The left building holds a number of pieces of program grouped into a single complex called the Tomorrow Institute. The Institute is a large double story interior space with The Hall of Science, an Innoventions type space on the ground floor, a counter service location on both floors, and small retail locations on the edges. The Hall of Science has interactive exhibits on both real science topics and fantasy elements that support the storyline of the land. The Hall also includes a time travel demonstration, which leads into the Timekeeper at the rear of the building. This is a 360 degree Sphereon theater movie where the audience is led on a exciting trip across time as a demonstration of the new technology.

This building dies into the rough rockwork of the volcano base, which overtakes the rest of the land. At its peak, the volcano is 95' and has three separate levels of activity, so this is a pretty complicated structure to describe. At ground level, a path leads around the small caldera rim. The entrance and exit retail spaces for Journey to the Center of the Earth is on the left side of caldera. The attraction portrays a modern mining adventure through the volcano. After loading, the vehicle enters the drilling shaft where high powered lasers blast a new tunnel to be explored. The test drill today leads deeper than ever explored before, leading to a beautifully unexpected world of magma deep in the earth. However, the danger of the depth forces us back to the surface, ending with a high speed escape from the oncoming lava eruption. Instead of the Test Track style ride system of the original, this is a more conventional roller coaster/dark ride hybrid.

On the other side of the caldera is the entrance to Aqua Cruisers, a LPS water ride through the land. The loading and entirety of the ride is one floor below ground level, at the level of the water, which matches the bay, as if it is one continuous body of water. This attraction is unique because it has 24 unique paths due to four different track splits. The aquatic vehicles randomly follow one of these paths. This is at its core a dark ride through the different labs and caverns of the volcano, but does feature an extended outdoor segment. We load and are then introduced to the creator of the vehicle and its self driving ability in the first dark ride scene. The vehicles then split for the first time and travel outside where they must avoid whirlpools and bubbling geysers in the small lagoon. Then back inside, we float through a series of environmental scenes of the activities in the volcano, but each path has a slightly different view of the scenes, promoting rerideability.

Also on this side of the caldera is an exploratory cave system, like the Adventureland attraction, a snack location, and the entrance to the Rocket Jets. This spinner is meant to be a step up in thrill from Dumbo, but still family friendly. It sits 15' up on a rock plinth, and then rises another 40' up into the air while it is spinning, giving a great view of the park.

Last, in the water across from the Volcano is the Nautilus, though slightly modernized to fit the land. The standalone building nearby is a copy of Stormrider from Tokyo Disney Sea, rethemed for 20,000 Leagues. The raised walkways around this area provides views out of the park to the bay.

The land is light on entertainment but the main draw is an small group of interactive robot street characters, guided by their lab technicians. This is like the Living Character Initiative attempts like Lucky or the Muppet Mobile lab, but with new original figures.

And that is the end of Discoveryland. I wish I had more time this week to get an elevation together, but your not missing anything significant.

In two weeks will be the last land of this park, New York Harbor, which comes with a new attraction plan!

Sydney Summer: Adventureland

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks
Part 4: Main Street and Fantasyland

Adventureland is a linear pathway land with a general rule that the pathway is the defined border between civilization and dense vegetation, just like the two American Adventurelands. Through linear, the path has a gentle curve so that you cannot see all the way down. Vegetation constantly obscures the view, so that you want to keep going and see more of the mysterious land. 

Not much is visible from the Hub. Large bamboo gates frame a view through the canopy towards a impressive thatched Tiki temple, the first real icon of Adventureland. This first area is predominately Polynesian in design. The icon temple is a close replica of the Magic Kingdom Tiki Room and holds a table service restaurant that revives the original concept of the attraction. Inside is a simulated exterior tropical terrace where guests dine among a musical flock of birds, tikis, and Polynesian spirits. It is a highly atmospheric restaurant with periodic restaurant wide entertainment segments and songs. The restaurant shares a kitchen with the Crystal Palace mentioned in the last post as well as the Cast Dining location. Retail buildings around the restaurant are less evidently Tiki and begin to show a blend of materials and styles that will progress across the land. They have a more assembled aesthetic, as if these buildings grew over time to support the temple/terrace.

Looking to the left, all that you see is the deepness of the jungle, highlighted by the 95’ tall treehouse. There are multiple layers of movement through the jungle, starting with guests walking on the ground along the explorer paths, guests walking through the treehouse, and the coaster car weaving through the brush in the back of the land. This movement is important to draw guests farther back in Adventureland. Now a descriptive walk along this path.

The left side of the path is built up, made of a series of facades hiding one continuous building. Continuing the Polynesian design, the first sets of buildings are small and hold retail and a shooting gallery. The shooting gallery is a highly interactive infrared shooting range with a tropical and tiki scene. Across in the jungle are entrance pathways to the Tropical Explorer Caves, which is the substitute for Tom Sawyer Island. The double level cave system ties into the treehouse and includes interactive scenes such as a lost treasure cave, an endless mine, and a mysterious tiki temple. Back out by the path are the Liki Tikis, which is a small water play area.

The next area transitions to a romanticized African village, though it much less realistic than the Animal Kingdom aesthetic. The much larger and urban buildings on the left hold retail and a large two level counter service location. The dining location serves Asian, Africa, and Caribbean staples and takes over the whole second floor of this African section to provide sweeping views into the jungle.

Across the path are two attractions that share a story, that of an exploration outpost in the deep jungle staffed by a inexperienced group of adventurers in training. The grand treehouse has multiple winding levels among the branches, including a kitchen on the ground floor, an apartment for the students midway up, and a lookout and office on the top. At the base of the treehouse is the Jungle Trek Steamtrain, a former transportation train which the explorers have turned into a thrilling trip through the jungle. 

The queues pass through the student’s storage and classroom areas on the ground floor and then lead up to the second floor for loading. Each faux steam vehicle seats 36. After loading, the train turns left and goes up an incline built into the rocky cliff, which acts as a visual berm. The medium thrill coaster weaves through the rockwork and vegetation and passes a series of scenes of animatronic animals, including an elephant pool where the train narrowly misses getting sprayed. The track is approximately 2400’ in length, putting it right between a Barnstormer level coaster and a Big Thunder style coaster. It has 3 brake runs, plus a lift hill and loading station, so it has 5 block zones, and 4 cars on the track at any time.

Past the African area, the architecture begins to transition to Caribbean as we near the fortress town. The showbuilding for Peter Pans Flight behind the Caribbean facades is hidden as a high stone fortress wall. These buildings continue the Adventureland specific retail. Around the corner of vegetation is the icon tower of the Caribbean fortress and the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. A unique element of the fortress façade is the flume drop and runout emerging from a large gated opening in the stone wall where boats periodically splash down.

This version of Pirates of the Caribbean features an original storyline and the absence of Jack Sparrow or any other film references but still heavily takes reference from the classic. It has a medium thrill outdoor flume drop finale, a unique element to the Pirates attraction lineup. We will now walk through the ride in plan.

The entrances to both queues are inside the main gate to the fortress. The standby queue winds through the halls of the dark building before rejoining the fastpass queue to travel down a darkened passage towards the loading area. The queues emerge under an archway to find themselves back outside the fortress at twilight, by the bay. Boats are being loaded just ahead, giving guests a first view at their journey, but the queues turn right and start up a gently sloping ramp. There is a split off from the queues just before this point for disabled guests to access the disabled loading area. It has a slide track switch that loads and unloads on the left side of the track. The two queues double back north and continue up a ramp, then crossing over the track to the right side of the water. They then slope back down to ground level, where a cast member distributes guests to a row. Three boats load at a time, with 4 rows in each. On average each boat holds 16 or more guests. The interior segment of the standby queue is 950’ long and the fastpass queue is 525’ long. The standby can be expanded outdoors with temporary stantions behind the fortress tower.

Once loaded, the boats float forward and under the guest bridge towards a peaceful but empty Caribbean village scene. Turning right, the boat engages a ramp and begins a steady climb up though the darkness. On the ascent, the window in the wall to the left reveals a miniature diorama view over the bay at sunset. However peaceful, a storm is on the horizon and a menacing Pirate ship is on the town’s edge. We suddenly hear cannon fire after passing the opening and the scream of the pirates attack. We arrive in the Town Square at the top of the hill, in the early stages of battle. We turn and find the town well where we meet the first pirate: the captain. Atop the well edge, he is loudly interrogating a group of cowering citizens about the whereabouts of the fortress armory and its treasure. The highly articulated figure is one of the feature characters of the ride. Across the water in a projected window high up the building face, a housewife yells back at him while attempting to hide behind the interior shutter doors, just spurring on his interrogation. The boat floats through the rest of the town as the pirate attack grows. We pass scenes with both physical characters in the forefront and projected scenes in the background to increase the depth of the relatively small show space. Many of the classic pirate poses and situations are found here, though the town is not on fire. Finally, we see on a projected balcony that the Captain has gotten his information and directs his pirate crew to the right, so we follow, and splash down a gentle slope to the ground floor.

We settle in the lagoon and turn to see the full sized pirate ship in mid battle with the fortress, cannon fire coming from both directions. The projected crew on deck adds more life to the gently rocking ship. We float forward and through a large gated opening into the fortress. A left spur turn leads to maintenance, but we turn right and into the darkness of the fortress. A large projection on our left looks into the barracks, where we see soldiers frantically gearing up for battle, except for the animatronic solider who was supposed to be on guard, who is hunched over his rifle, thoroughly asleep. Straight ahead is one of the big special effects of the ride. As we near the solid stone wall, we hear canon fire and then suddenly the wall opens up in a cloud of smoke and fire, showing us the projection surface behind where we see the pirates rushing by. This is achieved with smoke and lighting effects concealing a quick slide panel, which resets in the darkness between boats. Around the corner, we discover that the pirates have indeed found the armory. We see pirates looting the mounds of treasure and weapons around the room, as well as the classic prisoner scene. The captain sits upon a throne of gold, ordering his crew to load the ship but be careful. Boats may backup here because of the next effect, so this figure is another very detailed and advanced animatronic. Ahead, we pass piles of weapons, specifically a stack of gun powder barrels. A clumsy pirate trying to load treasure knocks over a torch, lighting a trail of gunpowder. The projected spark trail leads across the waterway, which is the return from the maintenance bay, where a projection shows it headed right for a barrel of explosive gun powder. The captain yells for his crew to escape just as we turn the corner and find a dead end.

 This dead end is a high speed lift up to the highest point of the ride. We hear and sense the explosion behind us from lighting and smoke effects as well as a projection in front of us, propelling us up quickly into the darkness. At the top, we slowly float forward on flat water and sit for a moment. The lift quickly returns for the next boat. In the darkness, we softly hear “dead men tell no tales” repeated once or twice. Suddenly we slide forward and down the flume drop. The drop is 46’ tall and 130’ long for an approximate angle of 22 degree. This is almost the same as the drops in the existing Pirates rides, and much shallower that the 47 degrees of Splash Mountain. So it is a large drop, but not an overly thrilling drop. The splashdown and runout is 6’ below ground level and bordered by high stone walls, so most of the minimal splash is contained. The boat floats through the exterior jungle, through a cave and then back into the showbuilding through a dark cavern. Lining the shore of the water is a mountain of treasure and a pirate skeleton suggesting the worst happened to the pirate crew. However, as we turn out of the cave, we see the pirate ship again, though damaged and almost ghostly. Aboard the ship a projection of the ragged crew, led by the captain, who boldly exclaims “dead men tell no tales” before singing the chorus “yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me” to the crew. We float through a cave and find ourselves back in the town we began at and slowly continue back to unload. We unload to the left, and exit out a giftshop by the flume runout. The total track is approximately 2300’ long.

More retail and restrooms complete the north side of the building, leading into Fantasyland. Across the path is a snack location that has Dole Whips and Ice Cream.

The entertainment of the land includes a small group of drummers that perform near the Tiki area, a streetsmosphere Adventurers in Training interactive comedy show near the treehouse, and a Pirates Tutorial show by the Fortress. The Adventurers in Training show somewhat replaces the comedic Jungle Cruise element by letting the students at the outpost show off their other talents while they try to recruit new explorers. Character meet and greets are limited to what would thematically fit, such as Lilo and Stitch near the Polynesian area and Tarzan around the Africa area. This doesn’t contradict that character plan I stated last post, because this is just temporary presence in the land, not a permanent attraction.

The backstage elements include the bus stop mentioned last time that is shared with Main Street and the access tower for fireworks, which is just behind the counter service location and noted on the program diagram in green. There is a Coaster maintenance and storage building behind the rockwork by the treehouse. It sits above the caves and paths. The main Central Shops are just behind the land. The large building is the reason for the high rockwork berm around the coaster.

Whew that’s a lot to talk about for Adventureland. I really love the Adventureland concept and hope this is a suitable take for a new park. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks!

Next time we will cross the Hub and go to Discoveryland. Be back in two weeks. 

Sydney Summer: Main Street and Fantasyland

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews
Part 3: The Resort Outside the Parks

Now time for the interesting walk throughs to begin! At the end of the Disney District lies the premier park of the resort, Disneyland Park. We are going to walk through it land by land and I will be providing descriptive text on the content, detail, and architectural design as we go. Drawings will be interspersed. So we begin.

The District street opens up to a wide entrance plaza with two bag checks that lead to the main entry gate pavilions. To the far left and right are pitched roof guest service buildings that house the main guest relations desk, wheelchair and evc rentals, and lockers. The design aesthetic from the District begins to transform into midcentury modern vernacular. The classic floral Mickey greets guests and splits them left and right to the entry tunnels. Since there is no train, this is not a train station, but an equally iconic civic structure (maybe a library?) for the city of Main Street, featuring a clock tower. The poster lined tunnels compress and enclose your view, heightening the anticipation as guests enter Town Square and Main Street.

This Main Street is very similar to the existing model. Not much need to change a successful version of a entry corridor. This Main Street is based in the late 1920's, like in Paris and has a bit more of an urban feel. The building scale is similar to other versions, but everything is a little bit tighter and denser due to the compressed nature of the park. The street width is 25' gutter to gutter or about 50' average building to building. The Magic Kingdom is 32' and 62' respectively, so it is tight, but proportional to the scale of the park.

Town square includes a flag pole plaza at the center, City Hall to the right, and Exposition Hall and the Fire Station to the left. These are all grand civic structures of plaster and brick. City Hall holds the guest services of the park and the Fire Station is retail and Photopass. Inside the Exposition Hall is a meet and greet center, including a small outdoor garden for rotating characters. From here, a small fleet of Main Street Vehicles travel up and down the street to add movement and character to the land.

Down Main Street, the buildings begin to diversify in scale, represented program, and detail. This is the true city, so not all the buildings are as ornate as the Town Square. They are a mix of material and quality and include a wide variety of residents, from flower shops to magic shops, and of course private residences above, which can be heard and assumed from the street. Rich detail and the illusion of life is important to the believeability of this street (this is hyper true for this entire park). The building to the right is the main Emporium, hidden behind the series of individual facades and stores. The merchandise is mixed to reflect the character of the stores. There is an enclosed crowd control alley behind the stores for use during heavy traffic on Main Street that is lightly but convincingly themed.

The building to the left is retail in the west half, dining in the east half. This retail is broken up into individual specialty stores, including an art gallery. The dining is a combination Bakery and Creamery and would sell a variety of items, including coffee, bakery goods, sandwiches, ice cream, and candy. This location covers all the food of Main Street. It also includes a second floor dining room with a porch looking out to the castle. A matching porch on the other side of the street is used for special events. The dining location shares a kitchen with the Plaza Inn just around the corner. This is a traditional counter service location and includes an outdoor umbrella filled seating area. On the other side of the Hub is the Crystal Palace, a buffet style restaurant under a glass greenhouse pavilion, transitioning to Adventureland. The kitchen for this location also serves an adjacent dining location in Adventureland (The Tiki Room) and a large cast cafeteria.

The Hub itself is very spacious and oversized in order to hold the majority of a day's guests. A grass lines moat splits the inner and outer rings on the west side. The east side instead has a pathway in place of the moat and a step down waterfall feature outside that, flowing into the main moat lagoon of the castle. Of course, Partners is at the center.

The iconic castle at the end of the hub is a new design for Rapunzel, based on the concept art for the castle and city in the film. This is the piece I was most inspired by; its a great piece but I was unable to find out who the artist is. This was the mood I was striving for for the castle and Fantasyland.

The castle is 123' - 6"tall from park level and is flanked by two 72' tall turret towers, connected to the castle by tall sweeping walls. The form is roughly reminiscent of the other castles, but has unique details like the cruciform plan, tall transcept, Rapunzel inspired highest turret, and its dark red and tan color scheme. It is original but of the same language and scale to the worldwide collection. The stage in front of the castle is simple and without permanent set. Smaller turrets to the far left and right hold lighting and show equipment, the control booth is in a Main Street facade, and there are retractable lighting towers build into the stage and surrounding Hub areas. No permanent visibility issues with ugly lighting equipment out all day. I wanted to avoid the problem of the castle being inaccessible during shows, so to either side of the stage are ramps going both up and down. The up ramp leads to the main door to the castle and would be closed during shows. The down ramps lead to a path along the edge of the water and access to the basement level of the castle.

Inside the castle is a grand hall and atrium dome with a mosaic of the story of Rapunzel. An open stairway from the basement level leads up into the banner filled hall. The heavy stone walls and wood buttressing defines a grand and regal space that is larger than any other castle interior, since this is the only program inside. The visible second floor balcony is inaccessible and is only used for shows but still adds depth and complexity to the space. The basement level includes a walk through attraction that features interactive multimedia mosaics and murals representing the various Disney princesses. Somewhat like the Sleeping Beauty walkthrough, this respectfully and gracefully depicts each princesses story in a gallery setting. Through the other side of the castle is Fantasyland.

The primary land specific entertainment on Main Street is the Dapper Dans singing quartet and a small group of Citizens of Main Street that perform like the Citizens of Hollywood at DHS. A daily parade and the nightly fireworks also take place here, but I will discuss those later in an entertainment specific post.

There are many backstage functions around Main Street. Behind City Hall is an office building and cast support center as well as a covered parking area for the Main Street Vehicles. There is a second office building on the north side, adjacent to the Exposition Hall, also housing the character break room. The large building south of the street is the entertainment center for the resort, which includes dressing rooms, storage, and rehearsal space for all the characters and shows of the park. A very small parade storage building is built adjacent to it, large enough for 5 or 6 floats total. Last, the previously mentioned bus stop is to the south of the cast cafeteria area and includes cast break rooms and support areas. There are also some backstage functions built into the castle for the fireworks show, but I will go over those later.

On to Fantasyland.

Entered primarily through the castle, Fantasyland is set in the quaint medieval village of Rapunzel's city. The village opens up towards the Regal Carousel, which features horses from all the medieval setting Princess movies. In front of the Carousel is the Sword in the Stone and retail fills the buildings on either side. The architecture throughout the land is much more rustic fantasy based, with strong use of stone, wood, and thatched roof. It starts closely tied to the world of Tangled near the castle but then fades and melds into a generic village setting for each other property. This is definitely more Disneyland Fantasyland than Magic Kingdom Fantasyland, including more trees and beds to break up the concrete wasteland and more attempted thematic variety.

The building on the right hold Peter Pan's Flight and is a transition to Adventureland. This is a modern update of the classic, featuring higher capacity vehicles, modern effects, and more animated figures. It enters on the Fantasyland side, just across from the Carousel but exits to the right, just between the two lands and in sight of Adventureland because the attraction ends with the escape from Hook and unloads in the pirate setting of Neverland. In-ride thematic transition.

The building straight ahead is anchored by the spinning Dumbo and the colorful circus inspired towers and awning. The Dumbos sit up on a pedestal surrounded by a hedge wall and spin above a water feature. This is the single attraction with a slightly different design aesthetic, but it is a much toned down from other deceptions of the circus, so it may be able to fit. The rest of this building is a large counter service location, the Snugly Duckling. This location features a second floor dining room to increase the capacity. and is richly detailed like its film namesake. It transitions east into New York Harbor, so its urban size is necessary to blend the transition.

The left building across from the Snugly Duckling holds a classic dark ride based on Tangled, like the one I have proposed for the Magic Kingdom. This is a two level dark ride through the story and songs of the movie. A snack location at the north corner of the building serves specialty items and drinks.

Farther north is a Wonderland mini land in Fantasyland that includes a glass roof covered Mad Tea Party ride. Around the spinner is a small garden that includes a Tea Party Table meet and greet. The high walls of the Queen of Hearts castle is just beyond. Inside the castle is a large retail area and an atrium leading into the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall buffet location. This shares a kitchen with a location in New York Harbor. Also in this building is a LPS dark ride based on the Alice story and another larger retail location.

I guess this is a good time to mention the character presence in the parks. I have mentioned it before, but I decided to limit IPs to only Fantasyland in this park to preserve the integrity of the other lands. Because each land is so small, I believe they must be richly detailed and themed to be as effective as a larger land, and the inclusion of characters that may or may not fit begins to weaken this. I want the DisneySea approach. Hyper realistic and themed lands that envelop you and transport you to another world. Throwing a Tarzan coaster in Adventureland and a Nemo simulator is Discoveryland would hurt that (poor Storm Rider at DisneySea....). So characters are only in Fantasyland. I choose the small set I did based on popularity and classicism. Peter Pan was always in because I see that as the perfect Fantasyland attraction. Tangled made sense because of the castle tie in and box office success. And Alice has alot of design potential.

Characters are the primary entertainment here in Fantasyland. Any Fantasyland style character would be appropriate here. Likely the most popular few princesses, the characters associated with the rides, and an assortment of other popular ones like Pooh would have regular hours. I would hope this could operate like Disneyland with roaming characters.

The backstage elements of the land include a bus stop adjacent to the Queen of Hearts Kitchen, and some infrastructure related to the fireworks show. There is a tunnel that travels underneath the land for transportation of fireworks and cast members. It is accessed at the north side of the Alice attraction building and leads under the three dark rides with access to the castle and to roof access towers for fireworks setup. I will talk about this more later.

And thats all for this week. Please ask any questions about these two lands in the comment section below and check back in two weeks for a post about Adventureland!