Legendary Kingdom - Park Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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


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

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


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

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

Disney's Worlds of Exploration - Version 2

After a much longer than expected hiatus, I am back for a new post. I needed to take a break for a couple reasons: I was majorly burned out after so many new posts and projects in a row, I got busy at work because I was finishing the work to get licensed as an architect, and I decided that I needed to refocus on longer term and higher quality projects that I could use in a professional portfolio. I decided that monthly new projects were not what I needed to be working on right now, so that led to my long break. And monthly projects are unlikely to return. I will just be occasionally posting some of the things I am working on when I feel like they are good enough to post.

About half of the projects I am putting a lot of time into are updated versions of some of my favorite and most successful old projects. That is where this post comes from.

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This post in an updated version of my plan for a Disneyland 3rd Gate, named Worlds of Exploration.

After completing the first version of that plan and taking some time away from it, I reviewed what I thought worked well and what didn't so that I could make an improved Version 2. This park still has the same concept, the same organization, and the same overall story, but the layout was nearly completely overhauled and a couple lands were removed and replaced.

I would look back at the original post first if you are not familiar with it. I am just going to go over what is different this time. Here's the overall plan. Attractions are named, TS means table service, CS means counter service, and SS means snack service.

The biggest change in the layout is that I removed the road running through the middle of the property. It was a fun idea for a design exercise challenge, but proved to be too impractical and constricting. I decided it would be a much better park without it. That allowed me to regularize the layout into a very clean hub and spoke with a loop connecting the lands. I was also able to enlarge many of the lands that were a little too compressed and fill them out with fully immersive environments. Much better.

For the lands, I also decided to abandon the IP lands that I had forced into the park but didn't really fit into the overall scheme. Those were TRON, Marvel, and Star Wars. It made some sense to have them in, and I still believe that if a third gate were to happen, it is highly likely that Marvel and Star Wars will be included, but I decided to refocus on the concept and remove these lands for this exercise. Here is a land plan that shows the new layout clearly.

I decided to substitute the Greece land that featured Hercules for an England land that features Mary Poppins. The main reason was that I thought Mary Poppins would be a more interesting property to include at this time.

The other new land for the park is an Arctic land that actually has no IP tie in. I decided for this so that all the continents were represented in the park. I've also always wanted to do an Arctic themed land and this was a great opportunity.

So I am going to do a very brief walk through the whole park, pointing out some differences from the last plan and focusing on the new attractions and lands.

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Outside of the park, the big change is the removal of the on-site parking deck. I decided to assume that a centralized parking facility will be built eventually and introduced a peoplemover line to transport people from that parking to this park. The general transportation hub building also includes a line of bus stops that could service the other parks and hotels, guest services, and security.

The park adjacent hotel sits to the side of the entrance with one leg of rooms spanning over the front entrance. It sits over a parking deck at the north east corner of the lot.

The entrance land is The Explorer's Village, modeled on the Greenwich Village area of New York. This is where the explorers live between trips, so all the businesses, retail, and restaurants are themed to the members of the group. There is an elevated train that loops through the park, starting at the front square of the park. The Explorer's Clubhouse sits at the end of the street, inspired by the Jackson Market Library. It holds a table service restaurant that overlooks the park, the start of a park-wide SEA game, and a new version of Mystic Manor that fits the theme and setting.

The Middle East is the first land from the Hub and is modeled on a Middle Eastern square and a covered marketplace/souq. The attractions include a 1,001 Nights dark ride and an Aladdin indoor family coaster.

Next is China, set in the gardens and traditional streets of Old City Shanghai. It includes an animatronics show based on the legend of the Chinese Dragon, a dark ride through the story of Mulan, a traditional Chinese garden for exploration, and a double level carousel sitting over a small lagoon.

The new Arctic land is next along the path. It includes a large indoor coaster through the ice caves and a simulator ride that takes guests on large multi-passenger snow-rovers for a trip to the pole. There is also a indoor kids play station set in the research labs and a counter service restaurant.

Brazil comes next. It features UP in a suspended dark ride and adjacent spinner. The land also includes a kids coaster, a large explorable treehouse, and the second stop for the train.

Then come Polynesia, taking inspiration from the Samoan Islands. The main attraction is a coaster that winds through and around a large volcano. The mountain sits at the direct back of the park and forms a backdrop to the park icon. The other attraction is a musical boat ride through the story of Moana.

Africa is the next land. The entrance from the hub is through a village setting with a wildlife preserve just beyond. The land includes three attractions: a Festival of the Lion King musical show, a balloon simulator attraction that takes guests over the savanna, and an EMV safari ride through the preserve where we encounter a variety of animals.

Next is Mexico, which includes a large town square and a colorful graveyard during Dia de los Muertos. The attractions include a teacups style spinner with large skull vehicles, a boat ride through Coco, an outdoor theater for a musical fiesta, and a spinning dark ride through a lively day of the dead celebration. There is also the third and final train stop in the land.

Last is England. From the Hub, the path leads down Cherry Tree Lane, past the houses straight from Mary Poppins. The rest of the land is set in urban London. The attractions include a hedge maze, a dark ride set in a museum that is based on the legend of King Arthur, and a 4D 360 degree movie based on Mary Poppins.

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I think there is a ton of improvement here and am happy with the results. Bigger lands, more cohesive concept, and a better layout.

Let me know what you think and thanks for still sticking around after my long break. Not sure what or when will be next, so follow along on twitter for updates.

Thanks for reading!

WDW Parks Expansion Plans Recap and Wrap Up

Over the last half year, I posted here a series of expansion plans for the Walt Disney World Resort parks with my hypothetical takes at how I would grow and improve the parks. This was a big project for me with some really good results I think.

This post is a recap and wrap up, plus a closer look into a couple of my favorite lands. First, the look back at the posts.

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We started with two plans for the Magic Kingdom back in October.

Magic Kingdom Plan A - This was my attempt at a realistic plan, incorporating the real additions coming soon and a couple of other small but impactful additions to the park, mostly in Tomorrowland and Adventureland. Of course, this was made before the Main Street Theater was cancelled, so it still remains in this park.

Magic Kingdom Plan B - This is the crazy ambitious dream plan that goes a little overboard with new additions to the park. Major additions come to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, but every land sees something new and exciting, including expansions to Fantasyland and Frontierland in the northern undeveloped area of the park.

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EPCOT was the focus in January with 3 versions of the park with 3 different goals.

EPCOT Plan A - This is another realistic plan, though it is on the ambitious side. The focus was to redefine the central spine of Future World, add new relevant characters to pavilions in both halves of the park, and add a new country to World Showcase. I defied expectations and instead of Brazil or Spain, I went with Saudi Arabia because I was interested in how some Middle Eastern representation would look in World Showcase. Plus, I followed the strong rumor and placed a new hotel outside the park gates.

EPCOT Plan B - This plan is the ambitious plan if the park were to go all in on characters and IP. It includes many of the additions from Plan A, plus new Future World pavilions for space featuring WALL-E, the seasons featuring Bambi, and a new take on Horizons at the center of the park. New World Showcase countries include Peru featuring the Emperors New Groove and Equatorial Africa featuring Tarzan, plus all other countries get a character based attraction.

EPCOT Plan C - This big plan is an alternate take on Plan B, where instead there are no characters anywhere in the park and actually assumes that some current additions didn;t actually happen. New Future World pavilions are created for Imagination, Weather, Health, and Computers plus Horizons from the last plan. New World Showcase countries featuring all original attractions are Ethiopia, India, South Africa, and Malaysia, plus Peru and Saudi Arabia from past plans.

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Hollywood Studios had just one plan posted back in April, because I decided that so much was already happening to the park that a realistic plan was redundant.

Hollywood Studios Plan A - The goal of this big plan was to follow the lead of Toy Story Land and Galaxys Edge by creating more fully immersive single universe lands that represent the other studio brands of the Company. So that led to the creation of new lands for Marvel, Cars, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, and Toontown, plus some additions to Sunset Boulevard to represent live action films.

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Lastly, two plans for Animal Kingdom were posted early this summer.

Animal Kingdom Plan A - This is a step above a realistic plan, but with this being my favorite park, I got a little carried away. I added one all new land, North America, with attractions and an animal trail. I rethemed one land, changing Planet Watch to Zootopia with a new attraction. And I made major additions to Dinoland with a new coaster and a heavily reworked version of Mystic Manor. Plus a couple small additions to other lands.

Animal Kingdom Plan B - This might be the largest and craziest of my dream plans because it basically doubles the park in one move. There are new lands for Europe, North America, Australia, and South America, all with many attractions, both original and IP.

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Some stats for these plans.

Across all the plans, there are approximately 20 new lands, approximately 30 new IPs represented, and approximately 80 new attractions. That's a lot.

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To conclude this wrap up, I decided to share enlarged plans of my favorite land from each park. This was a bit of a difficult decision for some of the parks, but I was able to decide on just 4.


In the Magic Kingdom, I choose Tomorrowland from Plan B.

I took inspiration from the organic canopy of the future TRON attraction to create a new sweeping element that crosses the east side of the land, incorporating the entrance to Space Mountain, a new elevated table service restaurant, and a permanent outdoor stage. The other big move for the land is the redesign of the Autopia into a very organic and winding track that includes a flyover above the public walkway and around a large freestanding rocket. The concept of the land is that the setting is an intergalactic science showcase of the future. All the new attractions support this idea by showing various fantasy science/technology topics. Time travel, alien technology, robotics are featured in the additions.


For EPCOT, I decided on Future World Central from Plan C.

The big change here is a complete rethinking of the spine through the center of the park in geometry and logic. The goal was to open up the center of the park, make it greener and more organic, and add new attractions that make sense in the core of the park. The two new attractions are new versions of Imagination and Horizons which along with Spaceship Earth form the thesis statement of the park. These are three attractions about the bigger picture of human progress and the topics of the rest of Future World support them. The center of the land is redeveloped with a new high tech fountain, a permanent stage and viewing area, and a new counter service restaurant that serves healthy Earth based food and features a 360 degree outdoor view of Future World. Also visible in this plan are a pair of new outdoor attractions for Future World East and West with the intention of adding kinetics to the area. A trackless water based teacups style ride sits in the west side and a jetpack spinner is placed in the east side.



In the Hollywood Studios Plan, I picked Toontown.


This is an urban take on Toontown, set in the downtown of the city featured in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The entrance it through a pair of tunnels from Sunset Boulevard and lead to a cartoony and exagerated city street. First is the downtown area, which includes a Ducktales suspended dark ride in the McDuck Bank, a large spinning dark ride taxi tour of the city, an apartment themed meet and greet location, and many very themed retail locations. The other end of the land is Toontown Gardens Park, which includes a carousel of animated animals and the Toontown Amphitheater, playing Fantasmic. The highlight attraction is a boat ride through the Sorcerers Workshop, where magic lets us travel right into the animated classics.


And for Animal Kingdom, I choose Europe from Plan B.

This land takes over more than half of Dinoland and serves as the mythological animal land in my version of this park. It is set in a Greek village adjacent to a mountain and the ruins of an ancient temple. The town square includes a restaurant and a new version of Mystic Manor that focuses just on mythological animals from history. The mountain, which is topped by a giant ruined statue head, holds a flume dark ride based on Hercules and focusing on his trials that feature animals of mythology. The rest of the land holds an outdoor spinning coaster around and through the ruins and an adjacent spring that is guarded by a dragon.

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And that's the conclusion to this huge project, for now at least. At least a couple of attractions from this project are likely to be future posts.

But I also want to be able to move on to other original projects. In fact, I have tentatively decided to retire from doing these expansion plans for existing parks and really just do original projects from now on. That means new parks with new themes, and new attractions for both existing parks and new parks. That's way more fun and more challenging for me, so that's what I want to do from now on.

So there will be another post this month, an analysis essay project that I have been wanting to do for a long time about theme park layout form. And then likely an attraction the month after that.

Disney's Animal Kingdom: The Dream Plan

And the end is here, the last post in this series of plans for the current Walt Disney World Resort parks, ending with a dream plan for the Animal Kingdom.

This follows up my plans for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and the first plan for Animal Kingdom posted over the last year. These are my for fun, hypothetical plans for how I would expand and improve the 4 parks of the Resort. I last published plans for these parks 3 years ago, and a lot has changed. New attractions have opened and are coming soon to the parks, and I think I have improved as a designer as well.

This is a big plan and maybe my favorite of all the ones I have done in this series because this is my favorite current park and I was able to fit in a lot of cool ideas. Animal Kingdom is a special park so I really felt the need to maintain its message and style through these additions. My goals were to add the rest of the continents if possible, add more live animal trails, make sure each land has a basis in a real setting and concept, and to fit logically fit in IP only when it serves the overall land.

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Let's start with a diagram of the new lands in the park. There are 5 new lands in this plan, doubling what is existing and now every continent (except Antarctica) is represented. As you can see, the plan maximizes the open land in the northeast of the park for most of this expansion.

And here's the plan with the labels. Definitely zoom in, there is a lot of detail.

There are only a couple elements from the previous plan that remain in this plan. We start at the front of the park, where there are less changes and work towards the all new back half.

The Discovery Island Riverboats return and now make a full one stop loop that loads at the Discovery Island dock. A large indoor section is added to the trip to add some unique sights.

A third attraction is added to Pandora, a trackless exploration dark ride through the forest in search of animals. The dark ride vehicles are ACE all-terrain jeeps that can go anywhere in the jungle to find even the most rare creatures. The queue leads into an indoor bioluminescent cave, like the one featured in Flight of Passage, where guests load and start to explore. The unique element of the trackless system is that guests can make choices along the way as to which direction they will actually go. A "nightvision" system on the jeep gives a look at what animals are ahead at a few splits in the path, and guests can chose which animals they would more like to see. The animals themselves would be a mix of practical figures and screen elements, and the climax of the attraction would be the discovery of a full size sleeping banshee in its cave, forcing us to make a quick escape before waking it up.


In this plan, Dinoland goes a different direction than the last plan. I decided to use the expansion space next to Dinoland for a brand new land, so the existing land was shrunk down to a minimum of the Boneyard, Restaurantosaurus, Dinosaur, and two small new attractions.

The first is a Dinosaur rehabilitation enclosure where guests can get up close with a couple real life dinosaurs, created as highly detailed animatronics that can interactively react to guests.

The other is a whip style spinner, the same as Alien Spinning Saucers, themed to excavation equipment. The rocky wall behind the spinner has exposed dinosaur bones forming an interesting backdrop.


The land that takes over the rest of Dinoland is Europe. This land is set in a Greek village adjacent to ancient ruins and serves as the mythical animal land of the park. The mythological history of Europe gives a lot of potential. The new land contains 3 attractions and a small counter service location. To make room for this land, the backstage dock is relocated to the space just behind Expedition Everest. That space is nearly unusable for public space because of the backside of the Everest showbuilding, so make sense to make it backstage space.

The land starts after guests take the path around Dinoland and enter the Greek village (Image 2). The left is a Mediterranean counter service restaurant with a seating courtyard, the right is retail, and straight ahead is a Greek artifact museum, which is another unique take on Mystic Manor (Image 4).

Instead of being set in a house, it is set in a museum with a huge and diverse collection of artifacts and art of Greek mythological animals. Similar to the original version of the ride, events cause the artifacts to come to life while we tour. Animals on the trip include Unicorns, Mermaids, Gryphons, a Dragon, and more.

Just past the village is the iconic sight of the land, a mountain side with a huge wrecked statue head perched near the top, with water falling from its mouth and flowing down the mountain to the river stream below (Image 3). Flume boats fall down the mountainside and splash down between a equally huge pair of crumbling statue feet. This is a Hercules themed flume dark ride along the animal based trials of Hercules, including the Hydra as the final climax before dropping down the flume. Like the use of Lion King in Africa, I think IP can work well in the lands of Animal Kingdom if the setting makes sense and if the exterior is treated with the same level of realism and detail as the rest of the park. So it is hyper-real on the exterior and animated on the inside.

The other attraction is a spinning coaster based on the story of the Ismenian Dragon which guarded a spring near Thebes and was defeated by Cadmus (Image 1). The coaster uses small cars that have controlled spin through segments of the ride. It starts with an outdoor segment but quickly moves into a substantial indoor segment of coaster track and showscenes featuring the dragon. Then there is a high speed launch that leads into a high banked turn up and over the rocky mountain side that is visible throughout the land and then concludes with a lot of banked turns through the landscape as the car is spinning.


The next change is in Asia and the space between Asia and Africa. This area is redeveloped to include a pathway north to the expansion plot and the new lands. The current Up bird show theater is removed and in its place is a Jungle Book omnimover dark ride with the classic animated characters.

The path leading north leads under a train trestle and then through a tunnel under the existing backstage road. Adjacent to this path is a new smaller theater space for animal shows that are not necessarily Asia or bird specific. The small theater could have hourly rotating shows with a closer look at various types of animals.

Also of note is that the train is expanded from being just a two stop loop with not much to see into a large 3 stop loop that winds through these new lands. It includes a unique showscene out behind the new lands that is half outside, looking into a canyon, and half inside a cave. The train seats are reconfigured to face forward like a normal train instead of facing out so guests can see both sides of the track.


The first new land to the north is North America. After passing through the tunnel, the path opens up into a Redwood Forest style setting with a large wooden National Park style lodge ahead and the train running along an elevated trestle to the right through the woods. The path first goes past a log cabin counter service location and along a stream.

Just past that is the entrance to the animal trail for the land. I am unsure if in reality there will ever be any more animal trails built, but I felt the need to include it. The Red Creek Trail winds through the forest, first passing a raccoon habitat, then going through a bird enclosure, followed by environments for elk, beavers, and foxes. The feature animal of the trail are bears, who have a very large habitat to look into (Image 1). The trail then concludes with otters before exiting back to the land.

Inside the main Lodge building is the majority of the retail for the land and the main attraction, a balloon simulator that flies guests through the wonders of many National Parks (Image 3). Guests fly over a variety of settings including canyons, deserts, forests, and mountain ranges (Image 2). Native animals are featured elements in many of the settings. This is a ride system that I detailed in a post earlier this year.

The last attraction of this land is a Pocohantas boat dark ride. Guests ride in 8 person canoe boats down the river and around the bend into the story of the movie. Animals and our connection with nature are featured elements of the story.


Past that last attraction and through a section of transition forest is a split to two more lands, South America to the left and Australia to the right. Straight ahead is a transition attraction, a large treehouse, that in a way occupies all 3 of these lands. The treehouse looks over this northern expansion and is themed to the Society of Explorers and Adventurers who have explored all these locations.


Australia is the smallest of the new lands and also does not have an IP tie in. Finding Nemo would have been the only real choice but this is meant to exists at the same time as the dream plan with IP from EPCOT and Finding Nemo is already well represented there. Through the transition jungle, we enter into a rustic Village with a train station that is the second stop on the enlarged loop (Image 1 and 4).

The animal trail is entered through the village and leads under the railroad to the forest on the other side of the tracks. It starts with Koalas and then Emus before entering a large reptile and bug house, showing many of the exotic and dangerous animals of the continent. The main animal of the trail is kangaroos, which have a large habitat that takes up most of this trail. It concludes with Sugargliders and Tiger Quolls, then leading back to the village.

At the end of the village street is small gorge with a stream running down from it and forming a small river that runs through the land (Image 2). A dock and a large boat sit next to this stream, marking the entrance to the main attraction for the land, a submersible boat trip down the river and to the great barrier reef (Image 3). This is a dry for wet suspended dark ride, like 20,000 Leagues in Tokyo Disney Sea, that simulates a trip underwater. The queue takes us through a research aquarium before we load into our boats. On the trip, we start by seeing freshwater fish before exploring the open ocean, created with a mix of real coral reef sets, animatronic fish, and projections.


The third and largest land of this expansion is South America and has two areas, a village on the west side of the land and an abandoned factory city on the east side, based on Fordlandia, a real abandoned rubber processing city in Brazil.

From the split in the path by the treehouse and North America, the first attraction on the left is marked by Carl Fredricksen's house sitting in the jungle. The attraction is a "trackless" suspended dark ride that tours guests through the jungle, led by the Wildernes Explorers. Next to the area with the house is a huge waterfall and lagoon that connects into the small river. The village area is nearby and includes retail and a table service Brazilian restaurant. 

Across the river is the animal trail for the land, the third and final new one for the park. This includes the most amount of animals in any of the new trails. It starts with Holwer Monkeys and Capybaras before entering a frog and reptile house. After that is a bird enclosure that also features owls. Then guests pass Llamas and Sloths before the main animal habitat for Jaguars. 

A path through the jungle leads to the other half of the land with a tall rusting water tower leading guests towards it. The factory town has been reclaimed by an environmental group that tracks endangered animals in the region. This area includes a counter service restaurant that overlooks the river and one large attraction that begins in the abandoned factory building. 

The ride uses the Radiator Springs/Test Track ride system to create a high speed jeep exploration through the jungle, searching for an animal that has gone missing. The first half is indoors with a lot of showscenes and animatronic animals, and the second half is a outdoors, starting with a launch and then running through the jungle below the path above. 

The last changed area in this plan is a reimagining of Rafiki's Planet Watch as the city of Zootopia. The path from South America leads into Bunny Burrow, a suburb area of Zootopia where there is also a train station. The path leads past a couple local produce stands and a Bunny Burrow themed carousel on the way to the main city. Guests enter the Zootopia central Train Station, where there is a large retail space and then pass into the central plaza of the city. Straight ahead is the Zootopia Police Department where the main attraction is, to the left is a counter service restaurant, and to the right is the Hospital, which is the existing animal care building, rethemed to be in story for the city.

The attraction is an indoor family coaster dark ride where guests join a ride along with ZPD for a trip through the different districts of Zootopia.

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And that completes my ideas for this dream plan for Animal Kingdom. I really love this park a lot, so I was really excited to put some ideas together to add to it. I hope that the additions would be able to expand the style and message of the park while increasing the diversity of animals and experiences.

Like I said, this concludes the series of new plans for the Walt Disney World parks. I am not sure what is next, but I'll be sticking with the one post a month plan, so come back in July to see what I end up making. Before then, I will probably do a wrap up summary post of this series to look at the overall plan, but that will be a bonus post in the next few weeks. 

Thanks for reading!

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Image Credits

Europe
1. https://akhsmonsters2b.wikispaces.com/Drakon+Shrishail
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mmm-yoso/16654103659/
3. Hercules
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andyhay/28226806320/

North America
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/blacktigersdream/26126991224/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/anitagould/8433712377/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_miley/5943734608/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjmagnuson/35003863925/

Australia
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gouldy/5384257558/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/28127145@N06/2901147552/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/farbenfrohewunderwelt/8030811530/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulcarmona/13689150105/

South America
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/duda_arraes/8237251935/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dagget2/11595715453/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/guido_otero/3960059797/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tucotuti/34373719685/

Disney's Animal Kingdom: The Realistic Plan

Last in my series of new plans for the Walt Disney World parks are two plans for Disney's Animal Kingdom: this realistic plan posted today and a dream plan that will follow in a couple of weeks.

This follows up my plans for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios posted over the last half year. These are my for fun, hypothetical plans for how I would expand and improve the 4 parks of the Resort. I last published plans for these parks 3 years ago, and a lot has changed. New attractions have opened and are coming soon to the parks, and I think I have improved as a designer as well. Plus the maps are a jump in quality.

This realistic plan is maybe a little ambitious, but because this is my favorite park, I had a lot of ideas and had a lot of fun putting this plan together. My goals were to add at least one new land and new attractions across the park, add some properly placed IP, and reinforce the animal concept of the park.

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Here's the map with all the text labels and a second image with some enlarged areas with more detail and description.

Starting at the front of the park, I added one more major attraction to finish out Pandora. I wanted to reinforce the animal element of the land and the park, so the attraction is a trackless dark ride where guests explore the forest searching for the variety of exotic animals of Pandora. The dark ride vehicles are ACE all-terrain jeeps that can go anywhere in the jungle to find even the most rare creatures. The queue leads into an indoor bioluminescent cave, like the one featured in Flight of Passage, where guests load and start to explore. The unique element of the trackless system is that guests can make choices along the way as to which direction they will actually go. A "nightvision" system on the jeep gives a look at what animals are ahead at a few splits in the path, and guests can chose which animals they would more like to see. The animals themselves would be a mix of practical figures and screen elements, and the climax of the attraction would be the discovery of a full size sleeping banshee in its cave, forcing us to make a quick escape before waking it up.


Across the park, I made some significant changes to Dinoland, including an update to its backstory. The Dino Institute half remains but the Dinorama half is gone. The new story:

A world renowned conservationist/explorer/collector has seen every kind of animal and been to the most remote corners of the world, but he realizes that there is one major group of animals he has never been able to see: those that are extinct. He decides with his wealth and connections, he is going to do whatever he can to fix that problem. He moves to the middle of nowhere, founds the city of Dinoland USA, and funds both an excavation operation to find fossils and the Dino Institute research operation to find actual living dinosaurs. His house sits above the excavated dig site, filled with his worldwide collection including plenty of extinct animal artifacts. Once the time travel tech is perfected, the dig site is abandoned, but on the day of the Dino Institute Open House, he decides to open both the dig site and his house for tours. That day is today. Dinoland USA is open for exploration. 

So this new story allows me to introduce two new attractions to the land and some smaller changes as well. The first change is to the pathways of the land. A new direct path is cut through the existing vegetation to lead to Dinosaur so that it is easier to find and more visible.

The rest of the land is redeveloped as a dig site with an excavation themed "wooden" rollercoaster running through it. The dig site and coaster is set down below grade, running below the wooden boardwalk style pathways through the land. The entrance and load to the coaster is set in dig site tent structures. The coaster starts with a lift hill and a short segment of banked turns before entering a fossil filled cave for some quick dark ride scenes. The coaster the launches out of the cave for a speed run through the excavation site in the center of the land, with a lot of banked turns and straightaways.

In the excavation area, there is also a classic spinner themed to excavation equipment.

The last attraction for the land is a variation on Mystic Manor that is very rethemed for its new home. The facade is different, the style is different, and the scenes are different, all changed to fit the Dinoland story and style. The scenes focus on the conservationists collection of art, artifacts, and fossils of extinct animals from around the world, all of which begin to mysteriously come to life because of the power of an idol. It includes a huge dinosaur skeleton come to life, woolly mammoths, dodo birds, and other weird extinct animals.


The next change is in Asia and the space between Asia and Africa. This area is redeveloped to include a pathway north to the expansion plot and a new land. The current Up bird show theater is removed and in its place is a Jungle Book omnimover dark ride with the classic animated characters. Like the use of Lion King in Africa, I think IP can work well in the lands of Animal Kingdom if the setting makes sense and if the exterior is treated with the same level of realism and detail as the rest of the park. So it is hyper-real on the exterior and animated on the inside.

The path leading north leads under a train trestle and then through a tunnel under the existing backstage road. Adjacent to this path is a new smaller theater space for animal shows that are not necessarily Asia or bird specific. The small theater could have hourly rotating shows with a closer look at various types of animals.


The new land to the north is another continent for the park, North America. Of the 4 viable continents left (North America, South America, Europe, and Australia), I decided on this option because I wanted to highlight the animals and natural environments of the continent that are so often overlooked in favor of more exotic options. After passing through the tunnel, the path passes under the trail again and opens up into a Redwood Forest style setting with a large wooden National Park style lodge ahead. The path first goes past a log cabin counter service location and along a stream that we then cross.

Just past that is the entrance to the animal trail for the land. I am unsure if in reality there will ever be any more animal trails built, but I felt the need to include it. The Red Creek Trail winds through the forest, first passing a raccoon habitat, then going through a bird enclosure, followed by environments for elk, beavers, and foxes. The feature animal of the trail are bears, who have a very large habitat to look into. The trail then concludes with otters before exiting back to the land.

Inside the main Lodge building is the majority of the retail for the land and the main attraction, a balloon simulator that flies guests through the wonders of many National Parks. Guests fly over a variety of settings including canyons, deserts, forests, and mountain ranges. Native animals are featured elements in many of the settings. This is a ride system that I detailed in a post earlier this year.

The last attraction of this land is a Pocohantas boat dark ride. Guests ride in 8 person canoe boats down the river and around the bend into the story of the movie. Again animals and our connection with nature are featured elements of the story.


The last changed area in this plan is a reimagining of Rafiki's Planet Watch as the city of Zootopia. The train takes guests from Africa but now unloads in Bunny Burrow, a suburb area of Zootopia. The path leads past a couple local produce stands and a Bunny Burrow themed carousel on the way to the main city. Guests enter the Zootopia central Train Station, where there is a large retail space and then pass into the central plaza of the city. Straight ahead is the Zootopia Police Department where the main attraction is, to the left is a counter service restaurant, and to the right is the Hospital, which is the existing animal care building, rethemed to be in story for the city.

The attraction is an indoor family coaster dark ride where guests join a ride along with ZPD for a trip through the different districts of Zootopia.

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That completes this "realistic" plan for Animal Kingdom and its a plan that I really like.

A much more ambitious dream plan will be following in a couple of weeks. For the past parks, I've had all versions done at the same time, but wasn't able to do that this time and didn't want to make you wait.

So follow me on twitter for updates about when that next plan will be up, and let me know with a comment what you think about this version. 

Disney's Hollywood Studios 2018 Plan

Next up in the series of plans for the current Walt Disney World Parks is a dream plan for the park currently known as Hollywood Studios.

This follows up my pair of plans for the Magic Kingdom and a trio of plans for EPCOT, posted in January. These are my for fun, hypothetical plans for how I would expand and improve the 4 parks of the Resort. I last published plans for these parks 2 and a half years ago, and a lot has changed. New attractions have opened and are coming soon to the parks, and I think I have improved as a designer as well. Plus the maps are a jump in quality.

While I have done multiple versions of plans with the last two parks, this park just gets one dream version. The reason I am not doing a realistic plan like I have typically done is because I feel like the projects that are already happening, Galaxy's Edge, Toy Story Land, and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, are likely enough for the next couple years. I don't imagine any other large additions in the immediate future after all this is done. Unless of course Galaxy's Edge causes such crowd control problems that they immediately need more interesting capacity in the park to draw guests away. But I'm going with the assumption that the real life plans are enough for a realistic plan.

So that means that I am just going to be presenting my dream plan for the park, what I would like to happen in the years after the current phase of expansion, even if its a bit ambitious and unlikely.

Though I will say that because of the nature of the studios park model and the fact that I really entirely focused on IPs and franchises, I think this is far less unlikely than my all original EPCOT dream plan. I really tried to look at properties and concepts that would actually be popular enough to lead to being included in an expanded park.

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Before getting to the specifics, I'll start with the structure of the park, both physically and logically.

Many think the existing park is confusing. The layout is irregular because it was not meant to all be a public theme park. It does not follow the standard hub and spoke style, or really any other style.

It seems to me that the park is in the process of changing that with the two big lands that are being added. Instead of fitting into the spiderweb structure of the current park, the new lands fit into a clear loop. One entrance on either side, lands connected end to end. If that was expanded to the rest of the park, which I think it can, the park layout could end up being a bit clearer. It's still not a perfect path, but closer, so I followed this concept with the lands I added.

For the logical structure of the park, I also followed the system the new lands are setting up. These are highly immersive single setting lands, which is the new style for theme parks. Whether or not you think that is a good idea in general, it definitely works in a studio park setting, so I went with it. But I also wanted to explore how these diverse single setting lands could tie together into a bigger setting and transition across the park, so that became a goal.

Also, I should mention that I decided to approach this with reality with respect to the Marvel situation. I only wanted to use properties and characters that Disney can actually use right now. That was of course limiting, but I wanted to lean into it.

And last, with respect to the types and amounts of attractions, I decided to go for fewer attractions overall but attractions that are of bigger scale instead of going for more attractions that are smaller scale. The movie theme for the park and the comparison to the two mega Star Wars attractions means that I think it would be more important to do big and exciting and really immersive attractions instead of doing more lesser quality attractions. So in my plan, the total count for the park is still below the other park totals even though it definitely is jump up from the current park.

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I will start with a diagram map of the lands so you can understand the loop pattern that I talked about.

And here's the map with all the text labels. For reference, CS means counter service, TS means table service.

The entrance are core of the park remain the same in this plan, with the addition of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. This is the ideal view of golden age Hollywood, leading towards the Chinese Theater at the center of the park. At this center point, the park experience branches in opposite directions, left and right from the center, beginning the formal loop that makes up most of the park. Technically, the area of Echo Lake is absorbed into this land, no longer standing as its own area. The path branch from the hub towards the current ABC Commisary is closed as as backstage area to clarify the main pathway into the land on that side, forcing guests to take the path on along the lake.

In addition to the Mickey ride, there is one other attraction in this central area. Replacing the Frozen sing along is a new version of the Cinemagic film from Paris, filling the need in the park to represent the history and importance of cinema. Since The Great Movie Ride is gone, I think the park needs something like this to reinforce the core concept at the heart of the park.


Moving on to the left of this entry/hub land and passing Echo Lake, guests enter the first big new land of the park: Marvel City. We also leave Hollywood and enter a newly defined New York area, the natural setting for this land. The background trees of Echo Lake become a Central Park like area, bounded on all sides by the facades of the city. The land extends all the way back to where Grand Avenue starts, including the former ABC Commissary. The new construction also means that the 50's Prime Time Cafe and Tune in Lounge is removed, but I think that is a concept that should be recreated at Disney Springs.

Starting on the left side of the land and the central park, the first big attraction is marked by Dr. Strange's iconic Sanctum Sanctorum. The attraction inside is a kuka arm motion dark ride across space and time. I feel like the motion and the disorientation possible with the ride system could play into the theme really well and create a mind bending experience. The queue takes you through the entry hall and the gallery space of the sanctum before you step right through a portal ring in a preshow room and travel to another dimension for your training session.

Next, at the rear of the land is an attraction that is a bit undefined at this point, because the movie for the character has not come out yet. Captain Marvel is one of the few characters that can be used in the resort, and I am making an assumption that it will be a big success, so I have called out a space for this character in this land. My vision for the attraction is a coaster/shooting dark ride hybrid, which I think could work for the character since the story is apparently about the Kree-Skull War. Sounds like something with a lot of fighting that our ride could join in on. 

The last attraction of the land is a rethemed Star Tours, now set as a downtown SHIELD base. The exterior is built up as a modern and high tech building, fitting the style of SHIELD, and is topped with a hangar and landing platform with a full size Quinjet. The attraction inside is a flight on a SHIELD jet through the city, featuring Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Falcon. This is where the inability to use many of the more high profile characters is a disappointment, because this could be much more with the main characters involved. But with so few that are available to Disney, this is the best I could do. 

On the right of the land is a side street that leads towards the Commissary and the path towards Grand Avenue. The buildings here hold retail and the Commissary is rethemed as a classic New York City diner with a super hero twist. Pictures and news clippings and memorabilia on the walls document the various Marvel characters of the city, including as many as Disney can include and many that are just comic characters, not movie characters. The Sci Fi Dine In is rethemed to be a restaurant in an old New York City Broadway house, showing movie clips that feature the city. Same concept, new setting.


The streets of Marvel New York transition to Grand Avenue, which is also rethemed to now be set in New York. The idea is that this half of the park is all set in New York City so there is some continuity. That shouldn't be that difficult since the facades were meant to be New York anyway. This street serves the purpose of primary entrance and waiting area for Galaxy's Edge. Muppet Studios sits just off the street and is expanded with one more attraction at the rear of the courtyard. Now that the Great Movie Ride is gone, there's no problem to build its Muppet themed parody. This would be a classic omnimover dark ride through the active Muppet Studio where plenty will go wrong. Elsewhere in the land, Mama Melrose is rethemed with a Muppets concept and live entertainment is added in the windows adjacent to Pizzarizzo, like the current show in Liberty Square. The tour bus for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem is parked below in the courtyard to provide some musical accompaniment for the entertainment. The Muppet Labs show is also relocated here to centralize this land as the hub for Muppet activity.

Galaxy's Edge follows this land, and is presented as my best guess of how it will end up. It sure is a big land, but I have to assume it will be great and worth the space and the wait for it. I also didn't even attempt to represent the adjacent hotel or how that will be connected. I will update in the future as more information comes out.

For the transition to Toy Story Land, I have added a tunnel element, themed to an abandoned structure on the Star Wars side, and a cardboard toybox on the Toy Story side. Is it too on point to make it a Star Wars playset box? The land remains as is, except for the entrance on the other side. Instead of leading towards the path along the side of Midway Mania, it now leads into the expanded Pixar Place land. The transition is also through a large cardboard box tunnel that is wedged through an opening in the fence that borders the land.


To describe the rest of Pixar Place, I am going to start back at the hub by the Chinese Theater. This larger Pixar land takes up all the space that was formerly Animation Courtyard, the Animation building, and the backstage parking deck. Space is a premium in the park, so all those backstage functions needed to be relocated to make room for this land. I wanted to make sure that this Pixar land had real variety, not just Toy Story, which I feel is a little big for the limited space of the park. I ended up deciding on adding 3 more smaller areas to the existing largerToy Story Land: Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, and Cars. These were the properties that I felt deserved to be in parks but were not included somewhere else in my complete set of dream plans.

The path from the hub leads straight towards what was Animation Courtyard and the large archway and walls are completely removed. City street facades that could blend into the Hollywood style form the edge of the land, but the street branches in two directions into the different themed areas. The current Playhouse Disney theater is rethemed as Pixar Studio, where inside there is an interactive exhibit type space about making animated films and a theater showing the shorts, plus meet and greets for other characters aside from the 4 properties selected here.

The street continuing straight ahead leads into Monstropolis. The city is formed of a couple intersecting streets and the Monsters Inc factory beyond. The streets include a variety of themed retail, a snack location with monster frozen drinks, and two small counter service locations. One is a monsters farmers market with monster themed traditional meals and the other is Harryhausen's, serving sushi and Asian specialties. 

Inside the factory building is a large suspended family coaster dark ride. This would be a large and heavily themed E ticket ride through the world of the factory, ending with the door vault scene.

Back by Pixar Studio, the road to the left leads into Metroville from the world of the Incredibles, specifically the Metroville History Museum and an adjacent city park. This isn't a setting from the film, but I am expanding the world by suggesting that the Incredibles are being honored with an exhibit about their superhero feats after they saved the city from the Omnidroid. The logic here may change after the upcoming sequel is released. I wanted to do something besides another generic city though and include some greenery, so this plan made sense to me.

The main attraction in this area is a large mini-kuka dark ride where we are lucky enough to get the chance to follow the Incredibles out on a night of crime fighting. Across the road is a second attraction, a spinner themed to the remains of the Omnidroid. After the Incredibles defeated it, the city repurposed it as an art piece in the park.

Paths from both Metroville and Monstropolis lead into the third and final area of the addition, Radiator Springs. Because there is less space, this is not a full recreation like in DCA. It is instead just the four buildings at the main intersection, plus the town hall, which is the entrance to the main attraction, and a much smaller rockwork landscape behind. The main attraction is a dark ride similar to Radiator Springs Racers, but without the racing element. The ride starts with an outdoor section behind the town hall, then inside the building for a drive through the town, meeting all the locals.

Flo's V8 Cafe is a similar counter service restaurant to the California version and the rest of the buildings are retail.

From Radiator Springs, the path to Toy Story Land leads into a rockwork cave and then out in the oversized lawn.

The path structure through Pixar Place therefore takes you though either Monstropolis or Metroville, then by Radiator Springs, and then into Toy Story Land and on to Galaxy's Edge, maintaining a rough loop layout.


The last additions to the park are down Sunset Boulevard, which remains set in Los Angeles. Structurally, that means that the right side of the hub is Los Angeles, the left side is New York, and the back of the park is fantasy settings.

The big addition here is a brand new land replacing the Beauty and the Beast theater and all the land behind it. This is Toontown, based on the version from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and is meant to be set adjacent to golden age Hollywood. This is where every animated character can live in this park, no matter the theme or setting, because by definition of being a toon, it works here. This is the perfect conceit for this park and really should have been done already.

Toontown is accessed through a pair of tunnels off of Sunset, transitioning to the fantasy toon city where everything is exaggerated and comical. The land is formed of a main street that branches and rejoins at the far end, where the entrance to the Fantasmic theater is located. This is the densest land with attractions in this park, partly because I think of this as the parks Fantasyland, so it has some smaller scale dark rides. It also has a variety of themed retail and plenty of spaces for meet and greets with literally any animated character.

The first attraction on the right as you enter is set in Scrooge McDuck's Bank and is a classic suspended dark ride themed to Ducktales, featuring Donald and his nephews on an adventure. Across the street is a Toontown apartment building, which is the primary permanent meet and greet facility for the park. Mickey, Minnie, and a rotation of a couple other most popular characters could have multiple rooms in this building, all well themed to the toontown style.

The next attraction down on the right is a toontown taxi tour attraction that is kind of a overview trip through the city on a wild taxi dark ride. It features a lot of cameos from all kinds of characters as we race through different settings, like the streets, a toon comedy club, a theater, an apartment building, and a market, all filled with gags.

Farther down at the end of the street is a small toon park, which includes a carousel with a variety of animated animals, and a garden area for meet and greets. Next to it is the entrance to Fantasmic, which is now the Toontown Amphitheater. This seems like a natural relationship to set the events of Fantasmic inside toontown, explaining all the variety of characters and events. It would make sense to do a major refurb and rewrite of the show with this new setting to modernize it.

The last attraction is the largest, and set inside the Sorcerers Workshop. This is a boat dark ride using the Shanghai Pirates system and takes us through the Sorcerers Apprentice Fantasia scene and then uses that to lead us into a couple of scenes from other animated films. Similar to Philharmagic, but without the music concept.


The last additions to the park are back out on Sunset Boulevard, and in a way represent the very last major Disney studio that has not been included so far. That is live action that is not Star Wars or Marvel or Animated remakes. To be honest though, there is not a ton of options left. Original live action movies have really struggled in the last many years, so not many great choices for the park. So that means that the remainder of Sunset Boulevard is speculative for future films in the live action studio.

First, I think it makes total sense for Disney to eventually attempt a live action Tower of Terror inspired movie that the attraction could then relate to. I know they want to lose the Twilight Zone attachment so they do not have to license it anymore. I think it could be the perfect property to try to turn into a successful movie, especially if they went a little more PG-13 and scary with it to match the tone of the ride. So I am hypothetically assuming that happens and that it is able to work in theme of golden age Hollywood.

And then for Rockin Roller Coaster, I decided to retheme it to another potential film that is also set in golden age Hollywood: The Rocketeer. I know this is a reboot that has been in the works for a while, so I am hoping it will happen and that this retheme could work, just because it would fit the setting so well. The attraction could be set in some kind of workshop where we take a ride with the Rocketeer as he or she learns how to fly.

Next to The Rocketeer, the current Sunset Showcase is rethemed on the exterior to the South Seas Club from the original movie, and is now used as a table service club style restaurant and for special events. This ties the area together well to end Sunset Boulevard.

Last, back on Sunset Boulevard, half of the existing outdoor counter service is replaced with a new building that holds retail and an indoor counter service location.

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And that completes the additions to the park in this hypothetical dream plan. But that is not all that I have for this post.

I'm going to do something I haven't done before and mention a couple of ideas that I had that I almost included in this plan but decided against for various reasons. I am doing this because I think they are actually pretty cool ideas and I was seriously tempted to do them.

First, while I was thinking about how much space Toy Story Land takes up, I strongly considered retheming part of the land to another Pixar property so that I could fit more characters into the Pixar Place land I defined. What I almost did was retheme the new coaster to a Bugs Life, making it into Flik's Flying Machine traversing through the overgrown grass of a Bugs Life themed area. The track would be hidden as best as possible with built up rockwork and vegetation. I thought it could blend well up against the oversized Toy Story Land. But I decided against this just because it made more sense to leave the brand new land alone for now and just add more Pixar to the available land next to it. 

Second, I strongly considered making a drastic move for the Marvel land and building it all inside a giant to-scale helicarrier that would replace basically all of Echo Lake. I just thought it would be super cool and impressive to make up for the fact that the characters available for use would not be. But it became a scale and sightline issue. To make it seem "realistic" it would have to be massive, and if it was massive it would overtake the view from Hollywood Boulevard. And if I made it small enough to not stand out, it would be comically small. So it ended up being just an idea. 

Next, I had a different idea to retheme Rockin Roller Coaster: Wreck it Ralph. The vehicles could be rethemed as the train between the games and the queue and load would be inside Game Central Station. Guests would then be launched into the worlds of the game, flying through a variety of super colorful game worlds and transitioning through portal tunnels. I thought it would work perfectly. But I decided against it just because it would end up sort of standing alone and out of theme on a street themed to Hollywood. And I wanted to try to define a bit of a live action area, so decided to go with the Rocketeer. 

And last, the big one that I was most tempted to go with. A retheme of Tower of Terror to something Marvel, but not Mission Breakout. Instead, I seriously considered retheming the tower as Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. So much made sense. Dr. Strange is master of space and time, so it made sense in a way to be in golden age Hollywood. The exterior of the Sanctum is elegant and photogenic, so would not be an eye sore at the end of the street. The up/down/forward/backward makes perfect sense in the space and time bending story. It would be something new and exciting for the park, and it would be all Disney, not an outside property. But it would be at the sake of the Tower of Terror, which was just honestly something I wasn't willing to do. I like the existing attraction too much. But I thought it was a cool idea, so that is why I am talking about it.

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So that is what I have for this post, which although is being posted in April, was meant to be the post for March. Sticking to my goal of one post a month, that means that I'm planning to have another post up later this month, and it is likely going to be a follow up to my "How I Make My Posts" instructions, this time going over the things I think about when designing these plans, using this park as an example. 

So check back soon and follow me on Twitter if you don't already to keep up with what is coming next. 

EPCOT 2018 Plan: The Dream Version

Today is the conclusion of my series of hypothetical expansion plans for EPCOT, this time with the full and ambitious dream plan. Unlike the last two, which featured a lot of characters and are pretty realistic takes on what could hypothetically happen in the future of the parks, this plan is all original and incredibly unlikely. I am even going as far in this plan as pretending some recent additions didn't actually happen. This is the true ideal situation in my opinion.

When trying to put together these plans, I tried to put together my overall concept of the park, its meaning, and its organization to help me understand what I wanted to do.

In my view, World Showcase should be a collection of independent spaces that first exemplify human diversity and cultural spirit, and second show where we come from. So it would be ideal to include a truly diverse collection of counties and include attractions that reflect somehow on what makes that country unique. There's no subdivisions of this larger land because each country should be of equal value to each other.

Future World however is a singular space that first demonstrates human achievement and technological progress, and second shows where we can go. Attractions and pavilions should show how and why we can make life better for the world. It is divided into Future World West, East, and Center, and each have a different concept. West focuses on natural sciences and looks at the beneficial relationship between man and earth. East focuses on technical sciences and explores how we have used technology to break boundaries and explore new worlds. And Center ties the elements of the whole park together to show how we synthesize who we are and what we have discovered to create a better future.

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As with last time, you should read the previous posts first, because this builds on them with some repeated ideas and elements.

First, the hotel is the same as the previous two plans, with the split concept that looks into the park and the connecting Peoplemover system.

The changes to the spine from the previous plans remain as well with the same buildings demolished and new buildings added. The undulating pathway through the center of the land connect the feature elements of the park concept to create the real core of the park experience. It connects the current thesis attraction of the park, Spaceship Earth, with the added fountain plaza, New Horizons, and World Showcase. The idea is that all of these elements represent the big concept of the park.

There is one additional new attraction placed on this core experience pathway, replacing what I noted as Innovations in the previous two plans. That space would hold a new version of Imagination, which, like Horizons, I always thought was more important to the park than its location suggested. Now at the very center of the park, I think it can better reflect the importance the power of imagination has to innovation and futurism. The three attractions on this path directly relate in concept. Communication allows us to dream and imagine, imagination allows us to create, and creation allows us to innovate a better future.

The attraction in its new location retains some of its whimsical water elements in its facade. A series of hopping water pads run in front of the building plus the entire facade acts as a giant digital water curtain. Water flows over the roof line, creating various patterns and images as it falls. It could show images ranging from futuristic patterns to Dreamfinder's Dream Catcher flying through the clouds (Image 4). Behind the water would be a full height glass wall, showing the load area and vehicles moving by beyond. The actual ride would be a mini-kuka family friendly dark ride. Not to be thrilling, but just to allow for a variety of motions as we travel along with the Dreamfinder and Figment on a flight through the power of imagination. The show building would be expanded east to hold the large attraction.

New Horizons is the same as last, a trackless, choose your own adventure dark ride through a variety of settings in the future. Like original Horizons, each car could choose how to alter their attraction experience with a couple alternate scenes along the main journey, focusing on different future settings and themes. The new building would hold some of the retail that was in the space formerly on the ground level, while the attraction takes up the rest of the ground and upper levels.

Future World East gets a new pavilion and one majorly changed pavilion. Also included are the Space Restaurant, the Jetpack spinner, the refurbished Mission:Space, and the enclosed Test Track rear track from the last plan (Image 2)

First on this side, the Energy Pavilion gets a new attraction. Here is where I am pretending that Guardians of the Galaxy is not happening. However, I have decided to keep the ride system and external showbuilding because I can understand the thought process and benefits of EPCOT getting a thrilling coaster. This would instead be a fusion reactor launched roller coaster, exploring the themes of alternate and experimental energy (Image 1).

Next is the new pavilion on this side, looking at Computer technology. The exterior of the pavilion is modeled on a chipset from a computer chip (Image 1). Inside is a high tech computer lab setting with a lot of interactive computer games and exhibits (Image 2). The main attraction of the pavilion is an EMV dark ride through a come-to-life digital world. The unique concept is that the setting and your experience is chosen and custom created before you ride and manipulated in real time by guests outside the ride. Imagine that your car chooses the setting and the mission you must undertake, while other guests control the elements of the world you explore, basically playing against you. Literally no way to have two rides twice.

There's two other additions to this area of the park. Instead of having one large Innovations like in my previous plans, this version has a smaller more specific version on each side of the park. In three small adjacent buildings by Mission: Space are a variety of technology showcase exhibits that relate to the pavilions of Future World East. The last addition is another Peoplemover for the park, this one starting by Test Track, running over the land and through the Innovations building, into New Horizons, interacting with many of the scenes of the attraction, and then making a large loop out over the edge of the lagoon before making the reverse trip (Image 3). I like the peoplemover and think every park could do with a peoplemover. Plus the added kinetics and futuristic transportation technology fit well in this side of the land.

The West side also gets a new pavilion and a couple altered attractions. The Aquatopia and counter service location from the last plans are included (Image 3). Also in this plan is a major refresh and modernization to the interiors of The Land Pavilion.

Also added, adjacent to the lagoon and New Horizons, is the House of the Future. If it should be anywhere, it should be in EPCOT. so I decided to add it in. It is the same design as the original, with modern interiors and technology (Image 4)

Starting at the north end, all Finding Nemo is removed from The Living Seas. Instead, the new dark ride explores the mystery of the deep by traveling through shipwrecks and shark infested waters before reaching Sea Base Alpha (Image 2). The interiors would be restored to the classic modern underwater research facility.

The all new pavilion is a Health Pavilion, which I think makes more sense on this natural science based side of the park. The exterior is modeled on a red blood cell, allowing for a glass enclosed main atrium space inside (Image 2). The attractions include a shooting dark ride where guests attack viruses in the body, and an animatronics show that hearkens back to Cranium Command with modern story, figures, and animation (Image 1).

The former Imaginations pavilion becomes something new since Imagination moved to the center of the park. Instead, this becomes the new Climate Pavilion of the park. The glass pyramids call back to the original Tony Baxter Land Pavilion concept, with the glass biodomes, and I think they could be effectively converted into simulated climate enclosures (Image 2). Imagine being able to see it snowing inside the front pyramid and fall trees in the other as you walk by. These simulated environments would be the post show to the main attraction, a suspended weather balloon dark ride through the climate extremes of the world, such as the polar icecaps, the Sahara, the rainforest, and the jungle (Image 1). On the left side of the pavilion, in front of the theater, there is a small explorable rainforest added and the upside down waterfall fountain is changed to something more organic (Image 3). The theater inside becomes a very 4D weather demonstration show, including real wind, rain, fog, and lightning effects.

The Innovations for this side of the land includes another smaller glass pyramid and focuses on earth sciences, such as health, ecology, and geology.

This version of the park, the one I prefer, covers a lot of really important scientific and technological topics while still adding some new fun and exciting attractions to Future World.

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World Showcase also has a lot of additions, including 6 new countries, maxing out the available land of the park. Most of the existing pavilions also get attractions or updates to their existing attraction.

Starting at Canada, the existing movie is replaced with a 360 degree dome film about the Northern Lights and Canadian culture. Similar to what I had with the IP plan, but without Brother Bear. The pavilion structure is well suited for a movie, but I wanted to update it and make it a little different than the China movie. I wanted there to be some variety of attraction systems across the park.

The World Showplace still gets an updated facade. I decided to keep this facility instead of replacing it with a pavilion because it has shown to be very useful for the many special events that the park holds. I think in general the festivals are good for the park and still fit in with what I have in this plan.

In the UK, there are two attractions. The carousel that was load for the Mary Poppins attraction is now just a normal park carousel. Behind it is the other attraction, a theater for live British Literature comedy musicals. Rotating between 2 or 3 shows such as The Knights of the Round Table, Shakespeare's Greatest Hits, and The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, the shows would be full scale productions of comedic retellings of famous stories, similar to what the World Showcase Players used to do on the streets. I liked the idea of introducing a live performance venue in World Showcase somewhere, and this made a lot of sense because of the subject matter possibilities.

Next, France remains as is. I am again pretending that Ratatouille doesn't actually happen. Also adjacent to this area is the Skyliner. I am adding an enclosed tunnel for the section that passes behind World Showcase to prevent views of the backstage space. Maybe it could be a look out to a nighttime skyline of Paris.

Next is the first added country. My thought process behind the country selection was to try to represent cultures and continents currently left out of World Showcase. The existing park is very very European with some Asian countries added in. There's a lot more to the world than that. Africa, South America, and Asia were my focuses. I also wanted to try some options that are not always the constant rumors. I wanted to go unexpected.

The first added country in this plan is Ethiopia. Africa actually gets two counties added, and this one is meant to represent North Africa. I choose it because it is one of the largest countries of the continent and has a distinctive and popular cuisine. I really wanted to avoid the African hut style of the Equatorial Africa pavilion or the rustic village from Animal Kingdom, and Ethiopia gave some great options for that goal. The main icon of the pavilion is Fasilides Castle, a 17th century stone palace built by an Ethiopian emperor (Image 1). The pavilion is set in the city of Gondar, where the castle is really located. The interior of the castle is some explorable space and the table service restaurant. The castle grounds area is bounded by low stone walls, and across is a village style area that holds the retail (Image 2).

Beyond the castle ground is the second highlight element of the pavilion: a huge swiftly flowing waterfall, cascading down a cliff side, based on the Blue Nile Falls (Image 3). Wooden flume boats periodically emerge from these waterfalls, splashing down in the river below. This flume dark ride loads in the dock building of the castle and floats along the river into the showbuilding for an animal based African fable adventure.

The next country added is Peru, just like the last plan, but without the IP. The city is modeled on Cusco, specifically the old historic area of the city, and is the representative for South America. It is still the same design with the ancient Incan ruins, church courtyard, and force perspective never ending street. The coaster attraction is similar but instead is an mining and archaeological trip that discovers an authentic Incan lost city right underneath the town.

Japan next gets the Bullet Train Pass simulator attraction, where guests take a very fast trip through the Japanese landscape and cities in train car simulators. Guests enter the existing castle, but then exit it again and walk into an indoor nightime Tokyo city street. There is the train station and the start of the attraction.

The American pavilion gets the same added restaurants and the side street from the past two plans.

In Italy, this plan adds a dark ride on the west side of the piazza, in the same space I added a Pinocchio ride last time. In this plan, it is a Venetian Carnival spinning dark ride. A fun musical soundtrack moves us through the city in celebration.

The next new country follows, replacing the Germany train garden. This pavilion is India, representing the second largest county by population in the world. At the edge of the water, the first element is the Gateway of India from Mumbai, the setting of the pavilion (Image 1). One goal of mine in this plan was to add more elements on the water side of the path, so that the pavilion countries felt more enclosing. The pavilion has two main buildings, representing different elements of Indian history and architecture. The front of the pavilion is the Taj Mahal hotel, holding the table service on the second level, and representing the more modern and ornate part of Indian style (Image 3). On the other side of the public square is Crawford Market, a slightly older public market place that holds the retail and the counter service market (Image 2 and 4).

The attraction for the pavilion is a huge boat ride using the Shanghai Pirates system that takes guests through a lavish Bollywood style musical of Indian history and culture.

Saudi Arabia is added next and is the same pavilion as the last two plans. The attraction is instead a 1,001 Nights flying carpet dark ride.

The other half of the currently open lot is used for the other African country, South Africa. I decided to go a very different direction with this country and go both more modern and more ancient at the same time. On the edge of the water is a recreation of Umhlanga Lighthouse (Image 2). The front half of the pavilion is modeled on the Groot Constantia Manor House, a historic museum and winery that architecturally has Dutch influences (Image 1). The main building and its adjacent garden hold the table service restaurant and is surrounded by smaller winery buildings with retail (Image 4).

Just past the winery building is the other half of the pavilion, showing the literal start of man. A hill side rises up ahead with a series of cave entrances in front of us. In front of it are a couple of early African structures, modeled on the village of uMgungundlovu, which is the queue to lead inside. Inside is a explorable cave system modeled on the Cradle of Mankind, the real cave system where the earliest human remains have been found (Image 3).

Moving along, in Norway I am pretending that Frozen does not exist. Maelstrom would still exist and should be updated with more modern effects.

Finally, the last new country added is Malaysia, bringing Southeast Asia to World Showcase. The front of the pavilion is modeled on Xiang Lin Si Temple, a Buddhist temple in Malacca City, and holds the main restaurant of the pavilion (Image 1). Past the Temple is a palace garden style area with Melaka Sultanate Palace sitting on a hill at the end (Image 2). Inside is cultural space, and the buildings on either side of the garden hold the retail and a counter service location. This pavilion does not have an attraction because its one of the smallest plots in all of World Showcase.

The conclusion to the trip around the world is in Mexico, where the existing boat ride attraction is restored to El Rio del Tiempo.

That concludes the additions to World Showcase, bringing 6 new diverse countries and a lot of attractions to the land. The breakdown is 5 European countries, 4 from the Americas, 4 Asian countries, 3 countries from Africa, and one in the Middle East. I really enjoyed researching and learning more about all these cultures and all the amazing places to visit that I used as sources for the pavilions. I would hope that these selections would be as fun and interesting in real life if really brought to EPCOT as it was to design them.

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This is the kind of EPCOT I want to visit because I like science and technology and traveling and culture. I know that's not where EPCOT is going, but that is why this is the dream plan. I can only hope that however EPCOT ends up, it still keeps something like this no matter how many characters are added as well. Let me know what would be in your dream EPCOT. Maybe we have some overlap.

So this concludes my series with plans for EPCOT. That means that Hollywood Studios will be the next major part of this series! That is going to take some time though, just as this series took some time. However, I plan to have some other posts to fill in until them, with a plan to get back to one post a month.

Also, I am in Walt Disney World this week, so follow me on twitter if you don't already so you can follow along with all the pictures and thoughts I plan on posting!

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Image Credits

Hotel
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lohasteru/35272794493/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/111748974@N02/12478329015/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lohasteru/35947759581/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/8348282333/

Future World East
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cizauskas/15329609917/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/frikitiki/28144160170/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/expressmonorail/2532371437/
4. http://www.chinamusicalfountain.com/digital-water-curtaingraphic-waterfall-20.html

Computers Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/3536246838/
2. https://wallpapersafari.com/w/KhsIdT

Future World East
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/brettkiger/10797911266/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/12197724146/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/8602271723/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/38344127551/

Health Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/8147364035/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hinkelstone/34146253130/

Climate Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8759445992/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurt-b/15010592305/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/marlenemanto/9261273260/

World Showcase
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericparker/16362622471/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_vosburgh/6731471513/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jboyes/4106514184/
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/55267995@N04/9488873507/

Ethiopia Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/2415087928/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/alandmarie/12451872274/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/2210456091/

Peru Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/anlopelope/1254239266/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/micahmacallen/70655841/
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rod_waddington/7034974831/
4. Google Maps

India Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/creativepooh/5003952602
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/string_bass_dave/15282337115
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/arawatclicks/8275032118
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhecking/3979083485

Saudi Arabia Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/michael-anncerniglia/19266433709/
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nassif_house_Jeddah.jpg
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pedronet/3975135102/

South Africa Pavilion
1. Google Maps
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jossthorp/605526412
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tsaorick/18617176969
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/16756300815

Malaysia Pavilion
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-meng/16870401737
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/timlam18/2685111666