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. 

Beastly Kingdom

Every time I have asked for suggestions on what to work on for future posts, I inevitably get the suggestion from multiple readers for Beastly Kingdom.

I always have said that I am putting it on the list, and I'll get to it when some inspiration comes to me. The truth is that I wasn't all that sure if I would ever really get to it because I was hesitant to make an attempt at something so iconic and frankly I wasn't sure how to do it and not seem like I was just copying the original design. I didn't have the mental strategy for how to design my own Beastly Kingdom instead of just redesigning the unbuilt plans. That was always a much less interesting challenge for me, so I wasn't sure how or if I would ever get to it.

But recently, I decided that this would be a good time for it now that Pandora is open, so I sat down to really think about what I wanted out of this land to see if I could make progress.

And, as you can see by this post, I figured something out. The key for me was when I thought about the hypothetical lands relationship to the core values of Animal Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom may be essentially a park about animals, but the deeper message is one of conservation by way of animals. This is emphasized in all the original lands and even more in Pandora, where they could have gone in a completely different direction but doubled down on what makes Animal Kingdom. That was something I knew I needed to do here as well.

So now I faced the question of how to make mythical creatures fit the idea of conservation. Its not a clear solution at first, but when looking at lists of mythical creatures, I realized there was a path by what animals I included. I decided to exclusively focus on mythical animals that were thought to be real but were actually based on misunderstandings of real animals. That way, the land can tie into how we understand and mythologize the animals we have, and how the animals we fail to protect become a part of legend.

That list of legendary creatures helped me figure out a design strategy that made sense to me, and the land quickly came together. Ironically, its still a little similar to the original design, but I reached that point by way of my own process, so I see that as ok, and maybe a sign that the original would have followed a similar concept.

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The land developed into two halves, though not the light vs dark concept of the original, but a geographic split between Medieval Europe and Ancient Greece, two of the common mythical settings.

Some thoughts about the attraction mix before I start. Because of the huge variety of subjects I could use, I wanted to do multiple attractions for each area. I also wanted to include an animal trail to complement the existing ones in other lands. I don't know if they would still build new animal trails now, but I like them and wanted to try to make them work. And I also wanted to try to include an IP in the same way as Lion King in Africa: in theme and with realistic detail on the outside, and true to the IP on the inside. And most of all, I wanted to make sure I didn't just do exactly what the original plan had.

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The land begins with the bridge crossing the river, the existing dragon rocks to the right, foreshadowing whats coming. Through the trees, we can see a medieval castle straight ahead, up on a rocky base. We walk along a raised stone pathway through the forest, and if we look down, there is a moat of crocodiles below to the left. As we come closer to the castle though, we notice that is it not intact. Sections are crumbling and burnt away and constantly smoking, and most startlingly, there is an occasional small blast of flame and smoke coming out of an upper cave opening below the castle. The stone castle walls continue beyond, built up into the mountain side, which grows to be a small range in the distance. This is the central icon of the land and the main element of the medieval area, which has the bulk of the attractions.

First, just after crossing the main bridge, on the right is the entrance to the animal trail. The path slopes down and runs along the river, down to a lower level below the main path. The idea for the animals in this trail is to focus on animals that were either once thought to be a myth, animals that were the inspiration for mythical creatures, or animals that are just bizarre. Each exhibit includes educational information about the history of the animal and its mythical relationship plus conservation information. First is a Reptile house, themed as a stone lodge in the forest, which has a collection of odd snakes and reptiles. Next is a small habitat for the Platypus, which was thought to be a myth for many years. Following that is a large pool for a small group of Manatees, the original mermaids, which spills over into the river beyond. The adjacent stone building is used for animal care for the Manatees. The path then leads under the main walkway of the land and finds the pool of Crocodiles, a possible dragon inspiration. Next is a small grove of Okapi, another once mythical real animal. Finally, there is a habitat for Komodo Dragons along the rocky cliff side by the castle. The path leads out at the base of the castle after passing through the dragons cave.

The entrance to the main ride of the land is also just next to this, and enters into the north side of the castle mountain. The queue leads through the dungeons and caves of the destroyed castle and leads to a castle dock where we board large boats for a trip through the forest and caves. This is the same system as Pirates in Shanghai. The large and long ride takes us through a dark and mysterious but magical forest, passing unicorns (inspired by rhinoceros horns), centaurs (based on horses), and griffins (inspired by dinosaur bones), and eventually leading back into the castle caves where we meet the huge dragon who has destroyed and then taken over the castle. This would be a large figure that would shoot flames at us for daring to approach it, sending us back over a waterfall drop and the conclusion of the ride.

The ride exits on the south side of the castle, where there is also an entrance to an interior counter service restaurant, set in the burnt away great hall of the castle. Logically, this should serve grilled and roasted meats, right?

Next to the castle is a second walking trail attraction, but without real animals. This would be pretty similar to the unicorn trail from the original plan, just not as a maze. The idea is a exploration area where guests can learn about and find some real mythical creatures. The path includes a look into the show building forest, a close up encounter with a unicorn that you can greet and touch, a herd of centaurs in a clearing, and a finale exploration of the cave of a pair of griffins.

The next area and attraction is a bit of a transition between the two stylistic areas. From the path by the castle and the bridge over the lagoon, guests attention is drawn to a focal waterfall along he opposite side of the water. In front of this waterfall is an occasional eruption of splashes and bubbles, as if something large is swimming just underneath. The entrance to the attraction is just by the castle, by a small boathouse, and leads down to the waters edge and behind the waterfall. The attraction inside is a dry for wet suspended dark ride through the world of the sea, just like the attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea. Guests board primitive submersible vehicles, made of wood and leather, and journey underwater, passing mermaids (based on manatees), a fleet of hippocampuses (literally seahorses), many other exotic plants and fish, and finally the kraken (based on the giant squid). The ride exits on the Greek side of the lagoon.

The Ancient Greece area is smaller and has two attractions. Standing at the base of the castle and looking west, the most visible thing is two large stone feet, ruins of a an even larger statue that has fallen away. Behind is a low range of rock, water flowing down to a small pool that feeds into the main lagoon and river. But more iconically, right behind is the huge head of the statue, crashed into the stone. This is the home of Philoctetes, the trainer of Hercules, and the entrance to a Hercules dark ride. Like I said, the exterior and queue is fully real and in theme to this mythic world while the actual attraction has the more lighthearted cartoon style. This would be a classic dark ride through the trials of the hero, narrated by the Muses, and focusing on his interactions with mythical creatures, such as Pegasus, Phil, and the Hydra.

The rest of the area holds one final original attraction. This is a coaster on the scale of Big Thunder Mountain that explores a mountain inhabited by a cyclops group (which were inspired by dwarf elephant skulls). Very loosely based on the story of the Greek Hero Odysseus and his encounter with a cyclops, the coaster winds through the Greek hills before first encountering and then escaping from the huge creature. After an interior portion where this happens, the cars are launched straight out of the cave towards the river beyond and then wind their way back through the rockwork.

Beyond the attraction, along the river, is a large Greek boat, docked along the path. Also nearby is a Greek ruins shack that is a snack and drink location.

As for retail overall in the land, the main location is at the exit of the castle ride, plus a very small area in the caves of the underwater attraction and fully themed retail carts outside of the exits for Hercules and the Cyclops coaster.

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The land would be able to transform a bit at night, focusing on the ruined castle. At night, by way of special lighting and other effects, it could be permanently ignited, glowing from the remaining embers of the fire created by the dragon inside. The water effects in the lagoon could also be joined by a variety of moving light sources under the water, showing creatures moving about.

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This version of Beastly Kingdom is definitely different that what we know of the original, but I hope it has the same spirit and style plus a compatible tone with the rest of the park. After a year of not thinking I would be able to make something that I was happy with, this quite suddenly came to being and I think it is a success. 

That's not to say that what we got instead isn't also great for the park. Can't wait to see Pandora as it looks incredible and appears to fit in the park so well. So either way, I think Animal Kingdom is doing all right. 

So. Let me know your thoughts about Beastly Kingdom, this version and the original. What attractions from the original do you still wish I had included? Leave a comment and lets discuss what could have been great about the original, what you like about this concept, and even your thoughts about the land we got instead. 

UP UP and AWAY Attraction Plan

This week I have an attraction plan that was actually completed a few years ago and that I have been holding in reserve. This is my design for a suspended dark ride based on UP to be located in a new South America land in Animal Kingdom. The post for that park is here.

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Set after the movie, guests are given the opportunity to take a tour of the jungles around Paradise Falls, led by the Wilderness Explorers group. As a project to gain a badge, the group of explorers has constructed a fleet of balloon vehicles for our adventure filled trip.

The queue begins in the jungle near the house and leads to a meandering switchback queue through the brush where the Wilderness Explorers have set up camp, passing seemingly occupied tents. Interactive noises and shadows in the tents lend to the illusion of life. Both the Fastpass+ and Standby queues then lead into the rockwork caves. The queues pass through their workshops where they have been building exploration balloons, which we will be riding on our journey through the jungle. We pass boxes of parts, spools of rope, and tanks of helium along the way. We find their work table with the blueprints for the vehicle and then a finished vehicle prototype before we round the corner and reach the load area. There is a projection effect of an opening in the rockwork where we can see the balloon periodically sail by, filled with Wilderness Explorers.

The wicker and metal exploration balloons are two rows seating 2 or 3 in each row and are suspended from a large clump of “balloons” which cover the track above. I wanted to make this more than a traditional suspended dark ride, so I attempted to emulate a “trackless” ride in a suspended dark ride form. To create that effect, the darkride has two separate tracks that pass through the scenes in completely different ways. The vehicles on each track are identical but mirrored, cantilevering out from each track by 1’ towards the center. At load and unload, the two tracks sit parallel and 2’ apart so that the vehicles suspended from each track form a straight line. The tracks also come together for two track switches, where large overhead turntables send the vehicles to the backstage maintenance bays.

Guests load on their exploration balloon vehicle and float out into the jungle. We start out in search of Kevin, but first find Doug and the rest of the dogs that live in the Jungle. Doug sits up on a rock perch to the right of the two tracks, talking to us as we float by, while the other dogs are at ground level around the track. Farther ahead, we discover Kevin standing on his own rock formation, squawking at us. We float past and into a cave, which is where the first track switch is located. This is the remnants of Muntz’s cave, evident by a perpective projection of Muntz’s dirigible to the right side of the track, making the cave seem much larger than it is. On the ground, Muntz’s equipment and furniture are scattered. We float out of the cave and right over a lagoon, with gushing waterfalls to our left and right, threatening to splash us but just missing. We turn and pass through a rocky opening, and see another floating balloon ahead of us, with Carl and Russell inside. We float around it, while they wave goodbye to us and wish us a good trip back to the camp. We float ahead, passing Kevin and Doug again, and enter another cave, where the second track switch is located. We turn left, and arrive at the unload station. Guests exit the vehicle and walk through the small gift shop before making it back out to the house.

Guests are able to freely explore the house before or after their ride. Russell and Carl could also do meet and greets outside the house during the day.

This would be similar to the attraction I am currently proposing in my third gate design for the Disneyland Resort, set in a similar South America rainforest.

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So as I said, this is an older plan, about 4 years old actually, that I have saved back. I didn't want to make you wait another week without a new post, especially because I know that I will not have one next week, so now was the time to use it. I may have 1 or 2 more old attraction plans that I could share in future gaps, but I hope that will not happen soon. I'll be back in two weeks with something new, and hopefully soon, an update on the state and future of the blog. 

Disney's Animal Kingdom Park Plan

Preface: I've had a busy week filled with computer issues and school commitments, so I was unable to finish up a new content post. So this is the last of the WDW expansion plans that some of you may have seen before, though there are a few differences. I had hoped to save this for later, but I wanted to have something up this week. Also, as you'll see below, I did not develop part of the park but have plans to get back to that soon. So this plan will see another round of development over time.

I also just now realized that today is the birthday of Animal Kingdom. What a coincidence. Well good that this worked out like this then.


The Animal Kingdom is currently one of the most unique theme parks in the world, but one that is unfortunately lacking in content compared to the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort. It is quickly getting better. The additions of more continent based lands, more attractions, and most importantly more animals would make this a complete park.

Outside the park, the Rainforest Café is removed. It does not thematically or tonally fit the park, and the addition of new food locations in the park makes it unnecessary. Inside the park, a significant and unexpected addition is found at the end of the Oasis: a train station. Looking at the expansion possibilities for this park, the most viable option is to expanded north between Asia and Planet Watch. The issue with this expansion location is access and distance, as it would require walking the full distance of the park, which is about two Magic Kingdoms. This is a possible walk but a secondary movement method would help, so I propose rerouting the existing train so that it travels two ways on a single track from the existing station in Africa, around the park, and to a new station in the Oasis. It passes along an enclosed raised track through the backstage areas between the Oasis and the rear of the park. The cars are reconfigured so that all seats face inwards along the journey. The situation is not ideal, but a train between the top and bottom of the park solves a major functional problem of expansion. And more motion and kinetics are always welcome.

On Discovery Island, It’s Tough to be a Bug is removed and replaced by a new movie based on the Disney Nature franchise. This new movie would better represent the entire animal kingdom, not just the narrow view of bugs. Also on the island, an exclusive club is built, looking across the water to Expedition Everest, serving a mix of world cuisines.

There are many additions to Dinoland, including an overarching backstory change. In light of the Dino Institutes successful Time Rover technology, they have begun an ambitious plan to bring targeted animals to the present day to live in their research compound. In order to differentiate this area from Jurassic Park at Universal, the time unique travel element needs to be emphasized. Therefore, the entirety of Dinorama is removed and the plot of Countdown to Extinction receives some subtle changes to fit this new story. Three new attractions are also added.

Near the original Dino Institute building, guests can have a close encounter with recently time displaced dinosaurs in the rehabilitation building. Inside is a large grassy holding area, where two full sized, free roaming animatronic dinosaurs are grazing. Hidden by the grass, the dinos are supported by low profile wheeled bases similar to the designs of the Creature Technology Company. The figures are wire guided and are live puppeteered in order to be interactive. Guests watch from a raised walkway while listening to a guide before getting a closer look when one of the dinos approaches the group.

Taking up the space of Dinorama is the main dinosaur enclosure, evidenced by high walls and fences and the mountain looming beyond. According to the backstory, this area was originally an active dig site for the institute's original research purpose before the time traveling dinosaurs were brought in. The next attraction is a coaster through the former dig site, hevaily based on the Excavator coaster that was originally planned for Dinoland. The queue and load area are built behind the current Dig Site area, and the coaster passes above the walkway for a fast trip through the dig. The last attraction is a major flume that takes guests through the enclosure and mountain tracking a missing dinosaur before encountering an active geyser that propels the boat to the top of the mountain. The only way down is by plunging down the large waterfall. The large boats pass through extended outdoor segments and past many large dinosaur animatronics on the adventure.

In the expansion area next to Expedition Everest, an indoor Polar themed land is built. Inside the polar cave entrance is a large simulated outdoor icy clearing, with the aurora borealis projected above. In the clearing is a tea cups style ride, featuring large sliding ice blocks, and a small counter service location. Off the icy area is the animal trail area of the land, featuring Arctic Foxes, Penguins, Seals, and Polar Bears. There is also a family dark ride/spinning coaster that follows a polar bear family through the adventures of polar life.

The area between Africa and Asia is reconfigured to allow for the path to the north expansion area while also adding an attraction to Asia, a dark ride through the Jungle Book. Following the precedent of the new Harambe Theater, the park uses the philosophy of animated films placed into the appropriate geographic lands in realistically designed and detailed settings. The outside reflects the mature and realistic design of the appropriate land while the inside portrays the animated world. Set in an abandoned temple, this is a classic dark ride through the story and environments of the movie. The current Flight of Wonder Theater is removed but a new iteration is built across the path, this one built to present shows that feature more than just birds but all animals. The path north slopes up to pass over a backstage support road and then comes back down to level.

The first new land found is Adventurers Paradise, home to The Adventurers Society. The land holds a modified copy of Mystic Manor, now with a prominent animal appreciation theme, a table service Explorer’s Club, and a spinner themed to the flying inventions and artifacts that the adventures have collected.

The path splits to Australia on the right and South America on the left. Through the trees, we immediately see two large hot air balloons marking Australia and the entrance to the main attraction, a balloon flight simulator. A large “basket” filled with seated guests lifts into a 360 degree projection sphere for a balloon flight over the outback of Australia. In the land is also a new iteration of a Finding Nemo darkride, with emphasis on the Australian reefs. The animal trail of the land features koala, emus, and kangaroos.

South America represents a much less urban take on Brazil than the one in EPCOT. The land is mostly filled with vegetation with only small, almost temporary looking structures. In the land, there is a large counter service location and a realistic Jungle Cruise style boat ride through the jungle, passing real animal habitats before traveling through a series of indoor scenes. Carl Fredericksons house marks the entrance to UP UP and Away, a suspended dark ride utilizing a multitrack system to create the illusion of a trackless suspended ride through the jungles near Paradise Falls. The animal trail of the land features owls, howler monkeys, capybaras, frogs, llamas, sloths, and jaguars.

Last, North America is represented in a redwoods national park themed area, including a carousel, a counter service restaurant, and the animal trail featuring raccoons, beavers, otters, elk, and grizzly bears. A canoe dark ride takes guests just around the riverbend through the story of Pocahontas. Lastly, inside the great lodge of the national park, guests board a jeep for an adventurous trip through the park. Passing through active hot springs, rock slides, and encounters with the animal inhabitants of the park, the jeeps eventually make it back safely to the lodge. A new train station served both North America and Planet Watch.

This plan was designed during the development of the World of Avatar but before its opening, so the south west corner of the park is left vacant. I will likely work out one or two other proposals for this corner, including Beastly Kingdom, at some point in the future.

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I wanted to give an update on what is going to be happening with the blog soon.

Right now I am in the last weeks of the semester so am extremely busy. I had hoped to do a new project this week and save Animal Kingdom for later on but didn't have the time to write and edit the work for a new post. But soon I will be a little less busy and will be able to start something new. I have a list 20 or 30 projects deep of things in progress or that I want to work on to put up here so it becomes difficult to figure out what should come next. But I have tentatively set out the next few months of work, and I believe I have given myself realistic time frames to get it all done.

If all goes according to plan, over the summer and fall, I will be going in depth on an original resort plan, including attraction plans and elevations, as well as a few more WDW attraction plans that you have not seen before. I also want to try to get more into analyzing the architectural and cinematic tools that make a successful theme park design by writing a series of posts about significant design elements. That will be near the end of the year. I also plan on making some edits to my presentation drawing style soon, so all the existing plans will be replaced over time.

Leave a comment with thoughts or suggestions about the plan, and please share it with anyone who would be interested. Thanks!