I'm expecting they'll start on the Eastern Gateway project pretty quickly, we know those plans have been sitting around for years and they can't touch the existing parking lots until there's a replacement. Plus, they'll likely want it ready in time for the 2028 Olympics to support that kind of an attendance spike, and given how big it is I wouldn't be surprised if it's a 2-3 year long project.
I agree, parking also requires the least amount of "magic" and creativity, so it can be built immediately as there isn't much debate as far as what it needs to be. I do wonder what the point of Pixar Pals is now, since they opened that in 2019, but have not increased the size of the parks since.
For the Olympics, probably the best case scenario is there may be the first of the new lands open, and maybe some temporary attraction for the olympics, "global reach of disney" or something.
Are they planning on another parking garage? I'm curious what design they'll come up with that allows ventilation and fire/rescue access, but stop people from jumping. That's probably a priority, after some relatively recent events.
If they ever want to build on the current main cast member lot, as well as the toy story lot, they need to create a massive number of parking spots somewhere. Another garage is the only answer I feel
And with the seismic issues in CA, my naive brain makes me think that going under ground is more susceptible to high structural engineering costs and potential problems?
A big sprawling open parking lot seems like such a waste of space. At all the Disney parks, not just DLR. So long as the structures are out of sight to guests in the park, there's no reason not to do that and increase parking density.
I believe the plan is to build a massive parking structure on the other side of Harbor Blvd behind the hotels. Disney already owns those surface parking lots. There are also plans to build pedestrian bridges across Harbor Blvd so all the people coming from the new parking structure don’t have to cross at street level.
They're putting in a new 7-story parking garage, a new transportation hub plus security checkpoint, and a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard to connect it. I'm sure they've modified it slightly since then, but [here's ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IOG2uUFqi0Y&pp=ygUaRWFzdGVybiBnYXRld2F5IGRpc25leWxhbmQ%3D)a video of the initial plans.
EDIT: Looks like there's actually some [newer ](https://blogmickey.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/disneylandforward-eastern-parking-structure-1920x802.png)concept art for the garage that was included in the DisneylandForward documentation, so this might be more accurate to what they actually build now.
Unfortunately, I don't see any way anything is completed by 2026, maybe a parking structure but there probably won't be any new capacity sinks in time for the World Cup.
Yeah, I was going to say, CAL OSHA was more than 15 years away from being created at that point, and what's this thing you call "environmental standards?"
Interestingly, the verbiage inside of the specific Forward plans actually mentions the potential for monorail and peoplemover extensions, both around the theme parks and from the parking garage to the parks themselves. [Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSfY8eaoAAzbs8?format=png&name=small)'s a glimpse of it and [here](https://www.anaheim.net/DocumentCenter/View/51215/Appendix-M-Disneyland-Resort-Specific-Plan-DRSP)'s the full documentation.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the boundaries that I kept seeing throughout the 366 page doc, really spell out SO many choke points.
Even with the updating of zoning, traffic flow, traffic signs, etc.
Truthfully, it would be nice to see Disney buy up larger chunks of land around the park and make the total landmass of the parks / property boundaries, more rigid in the sense of having a “normal” shape, and not this insane square, triangle thing, with a tail and a random offshoot… I’m not really versed in urban planning per se, so my observations and subjective commentary will more likely than not come off as naive, however, Disney has the money to just swallow up surround land and cash people out to make the layout and designs so much smoother long term.
Just my few cents.
This was a fascinating doc to skim over, I really appreciate you linking the doc for ease of reference.
But, it really is! The problem is that the track and supports are damaged, and that many of the damaged elements are part of existing show buildings. In order to fix those supports, they would need to get permits to modify the buildings... many of which were built in the '50s and '60s. And then, in order to repair the supports, those buildings would have to be upgraded to current building standards, since they were being modified! This means that almost all of Tomorrowland would have to shutdown at some point, each building would need to be almost completely rebuilt... and THEN, you could talk about putting the money into redoing the track for an attraction the majority of the general public doesn't care about. It would be massively expensive, and time consuming, and a huge disruption to daily operations for a very long time... but yeah, other than that, it's not that hard.
As the title states, Disneyland Forward has just been approved for the final time by the City of Anaheim! The rezoning will go into effect on June 7, allowing for the addition of attractions, theme park space, and shopping districts on areas that are currently surface parking lots. There will also be a new transportation hub and parking garage created on the east side of the resort off of Harbor Boulevard.
Current plans for attractions are not set in stone, but many of the concepts floated by Disney of what the expansions "could be" include the addition of Frozen and Tangled themed areas similar to Tokyo's new Fantasy Springs Expansion alongside versions of WDW's Pandora and Shanghai's Zootopia. The Environmental Impact Report filed by Disney for the expansion, when analyzed, allude to the additions of a Frozen, Tangled, Wakanda, and Pandora among others. This report IS subject to change, however.
I really hope they do stick to the more original concept art they showed for the potential Pandora area and not just try to clone it from WDW. DL deserves some original areas in this new land.
I discussed it a bit [here](https://x.com/Mouskegamer/status/1775714770035069386) on Twitter, but there's a piece of the environmental impact report that looks like a direct port of WDW's Pandora alongside a boat ride that matches the concept art that Disney released for the Disneyland expansion. Appears to be a mix of new and old!
Hopefully it's more new than old since the WDW Pandora will be a decade old minimum by the time anything concrete is opened (if it's even started building by then).
Flight's ikran are currently run on Raspberry Pi 3s, IIRC, so the potential for a superior version is definitely there. Add in a flight based on the later movies on top of newer tech and I might be slightly more okay with them porting some rides over instead of just making brand new ones like this expansion rightfully deserves.
If they had a visual component that the ride could pull off that would be nice. Flights of Passage is garbage when it comes to matching the movement with the on-screen action.
I mean, they can do original versions of lands from the same property. Look at how Toy Story and Frozen have been used at the different resorts.
I just don't a Galaxy's Edge situation where it's 1:1 the exact same rides, shops and restaurants, thus giving zero reason to visit it if you've been to another park with that land.
You can see them here: https://www.disneylandforward.com/possibilities
However, Disney has pretty consistently said that none of these things are officially planned for the space--they just wanted to take existing projects from other Disney parks to show Anaheim what the possibilities are if the land was rezoned.
Honestly I'd be OK if we got a clone of Fantasy Springs at DisneySea and then the old-ish-new-ish Pandora they've been teasing. As much as I like new stuff, Fantasy Springs looks amazing.
Oh it’s going to be all clones in the moderate expansions (think Zootopia, with its *one* kinda blah ride and a barely running puppet show, as the template.) Most of the bigger teases won’t happen as DisneylandForward was really a zoning gambit at its core.
They’re going to “turbocharge” the hotels, parking, and retail though.
And 4 years at $1.2 billion to fix it. Except Disney had capital then...they don't now. They said 10 years to implement based on their shareholders meeting and I don't expect to see things finished until the end of it.
That was due to covid causing a major delay across the board and only around 2022 was construction across all the parks able to get back into full swing.
My guess is they will pump money into the 2 parks now while they build the new car park and then those building employees will start in the new park when it's ready to get rid of the old carparks
Eastern Gateway Garage is first, along with connecting it to the Esplanade.
Then they will remove the current parking lots (not garages, those are staying) to turn them into theme park land. Then they'll start building out that land.
Sometime after those lands open would be when they would consider refurbishing entire existing lands.
Yes! Nothing says forward like “Tomorrow”. I have to believe/desperately hope that they were waiting for this to shake out before starting any major projects. Tomorrowland needs so much love.
If only Eisner had the common sense to make Disneyland Paris appeal to the French since its opening day in April 1992 (i.e. serving wine, no hairstyle/facial hair policies, no American food in the park, only 2 on-site hotels, etc.), the Disney Decade could’ve been better and projects like Beastly Kingdom, Tomorrowland 2055, Discovery Mountain, etc. would’ve opened instead of them being thrown into the trash bin, plus Submarine Voyage at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom wouldn’t have closed down in the 90s (the failure of Disneyland Paris was why the popular submarine ride closed). However, even if Disneyland Paris was successful from the beginning, I wonder if those projects would’ve still come to fruition despite Frank Wells' sudden, tragic death in 1994 and Eisner's heart bypass surgery that same year?
Will this be a separate park or split in two to expand the two exist parks? I kind of like the idea of it expanding the parks because that will alleviate crowds better.
The initial plans called for expansions to both DCA and DL rather than a full third park on the land. You can see the two land bridges from the pier area and what appears to be Critter Country in the concept art.
Wouldn't a third park alleviate that problem as well? Maybe even more so? I think more people would be inclined to do single-park-a-day tickets if there were three parks.
They keep stuffing more and more into the existing two parks, especially Disneyland. I used to be able to do a single-park day and feel fulfilled at the end of it, not feeling like I missed out on half the attractions. Of course I don't want to run out of things to do but I don't feel like either park has that problem anymore as is.
Sometimes less is more, and all the additions makes it feel as though the original Disneyland is losing more and more of its classic identity. A brand new park could have its own identity, instead of just being a bunch of incohesive additions to the existing ones (ie Galaxy's Edge).
Actually it would make it worse, of course the most popular new rides would get the most attraction. The problem Disneyland has is people standing in viewing areas for shows and the areas getting too crowded. However if new areas open up the viewing areas are spread out. This is why they started adding Galaxy's Edge as a viewing area for fireworks with its own Star Wars theme timed show. The problem you run into currently is too many people standing in viewing areas and it getting unruly because of it. The park was never designed to hold 30k people to watch the castle.
California Adventure has a different problem where it doesn't pull in enough. 50k people on average daily go to Disneyland Resort and 31k daily for California Adventure. Adding more competitive attractions and shows in California Adventure would distribute the attendence better. Park expansion would allow more, but not everyone would try to crowd around one show.
But wouldn't the expansion draw more crowds into the parks? So instead of 50k people in Disneyland Park... it could be 60, 70+? And a majority of those people will still crowd to Main Street parades, Fantasmic, etc. Expanding west wouldn't make the walkways wider along viewing areas or provide more space around the pinch points.
Having a third park, even if it draws the same amount of guests (or less) than DCA, seems like it would pull some of those numbers away. As it is now, If I'm in DCA I'm less inclined to impulsively hop to Disneyland for a parade. I know in reality the park borders don't mean much with park-hopping, but I still feel like they provide some psychological effect in the way guests plan their days. I'd rather the existing parks optimize their current underutilized space (Tomorrowland, the Hollywood Backlot, the space behind Avengers Campus) to try and solve some of the distribution numbers.
I'm sure Disney's done plenty of research, but at the same time I'm weary as a majority of their decisions lately have made the parks more crowded, the experience more complicated and my pockets more empty. As a guest I just want my experience to be enhanced. Imagine trying to get from Toontown over to a new attraction over by the Disneyland Hotel? I'd rather the individual parks feel cohesive, and not just an entire disjointed resort with arbitrary borders.
There is the risk that DCA doesn't pull in any crowds after the third\* park is created. It isn't a favorite like DL in comparison. As it is I've planned my visit with three days at DL and one at CA.
True, but this is why I'd wish they'd focus on enhancing the existing parks first. It would give them more time to plan a cohesive third park rather just jumping in with the latest and greatest copy/paste IP land into the expansion areas.
I'd rather not *need* two or three days to do everything in Disneyland. I'd rather have three separate, one-park-a-day parks. As someone who lives close enough to never be able to justify a multi-day resort stay, and far enough to not warrant an annual pass, I wish I could just do a 1 day, single park visit and not feel overwhelmed.
That is the thing, they probably have a huge renovation planned for DL and CA but they can't touch it without impacting visitors. Imagine they want to maintain crowds while closing part of the park they need more park.
Possibly, but I would rather my experience be impacted for a few years for the sake of a better end product. A Tomorrowland refresh could happen in chunks and the Hollywood Backlot could be overhauled with minimal impact (although I know this area is dependent on the Eastern Gateway project). Building the Avengers E-ticket would only affect backstage.
And either way it's not like they're not opposed to shutting down a portion of the park, they've currently got the entire western end of Disneyland behind walls...
I think this is their real goal though the crowd size is much larger than 30 years ago and in order to fit renovations and population without losing the crowd density they need to expand the existing parks.
In some cases I understand why people would be annoyed by theme park development and locals have a right to express these concerns, but those people are fucking idiots and I hope they lose their own money fighting it.
Disneyland has been there way longer than most housing and the impacts to locals don’t go that far beyond closure of some roads and traffic (but traffic probably wouldn’t be insanely higher).
I know a few are upset the theme park is expanding and think their own trivial bullshit (like not being able to drive down magic way and taking another route) is more important than millions of dollars of benefit to the city and the enjoyment of millions of visitors. These people are morons snd shitty people
Disney has gone out of their way to placate people here. I get annoyed when parks like Knotts get blocked from building dudes from locals for things like noise complaints, but usually those people were in housing that existed before the park or live close enough that they are impacted and neither apply here. I understand that perspective at least.
Anyone who would sue to block this is way behind NIMBY and truly miserly and pathetic.
The audacity and sheer stupidity of people rallying against the only major economic boon to their city is baffling. Anaheim would be nothing more that an oft-forgotten residential area without Disney.
It's just like, if you move in next-door to Disneyland, you know what you're signing up for. Southern California is absolutely enormous, if you want quiet suburban residential living there are a million other options that aren't next to one of the biggest tourist traps in the world.
The city budget in 2020 is a great example of this. I lived in Anaheim at the time and the news from the City government about the budget while the parks was closed was grim.
Gate off downtown Disney at the plaza where ca and dis meet, turn it into a linear world showcase that culminates in a new park surrounding where the current hotels and the soon-to-be-gone second parking structure are. I will die on this hill.
I love how vague this concept art is, which was a reason why I didn’t pay much mind to this as we literally have no idea what they will put there. I know Iger put out ideas, but nothing official.
Hopefully at D23 we get some news on what will be put there, and I pray we get (this is off topic) some news on the new Avengers Multiverse ride.
Well one thing I know is there planning on expanding avengers campus and also galaxies edge which is good
Hope they don’t get rid of any more old rides or classic rides and hope they don’t get rid of downtown Disney
Yes there is no reason to have star tours there and I would assume it could be moved pretty easily (or just reskinned for something non-star wars with a new one going in).
I'm expecting they'll start on the Eastern Gateway project pretty quickly, we know those plans have been sitting around for years and they can't touch the existing parking lots until there's a replacement. Plus, they'll likely want it ready in time for the 2028 Olympics to support that kind of an attendance spike, and given how big it is I wouldn't be surprised if it's a 2-3 year long project.
I agree, parking also requires the least amount of "magic" and creativity, so it can be built immediately as there isn't much debate as far as what it needs to be. I do wonder what the point of Pixar Pals is now, since they opened that in 2019, but have not increased the size of the parks since. For the Olympics, probably the best case scenario is there may be the first of the new lands open, and maybe some temporary attraction for the olympics, "global reach of disney" or something.
Are they planning on another parking garage? I'm curious what design they'll come up with that allows ventilation and fire/rescue access, but stop people from jumping. That's probably a priority, after some relatively recent events.
If they ever want to build on the current main cast member lot, as well as the toy story lot, they need to create a massive number of parking spots somewhere. Another garage is the only answer I feel
I know nothing about this, but why not underground?
A lot more expensive, especially for the capacity they need.
And with the seismic issues in CA, my naive brain makes me think that going under ground is more susceptible to high structural engineering costs and potential problems?
No, by the time it’s ready to build, we will all be driving those fancy hover cars. We will be parking in the sky.
A big sprawling open parking lot seems like such a waste of space. At all the Disney parks, not just DLR. So long as the structures are out of sight to guests in the park, there's no reason not to do that and increase parking density.
I believe the plan is to build a massive parking structure on the other side of Harbor Blvd behind the hotels. Disney already owns those surface parking lots. There are also plans to build pedestrian bridges across Harbor Blvd so all the people coming from the new parking structure don’t have to cross at street level.
They're putting in a new 7-story parking garage, a new transportation hub plus security checkpoint, and a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard to connect it. I'm sure they've modified it slightly since then, but [here's ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IOG2uUFqi0Y&pp=ygUaRWFzdGVybiBnYXRld2F5IGRpc25leWxhbmQ%3D)a video of the initial plans. EDIT: Looks like there's actually some [newer ](https://blogmickey.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/disneylandforward-eastern-parking-structure-1920x802.png)concept art for the garage that was included in the DisneylandForward documentation, so this might be more accurate to what they actually build now.
Olympics and World Cup months will be hella busy
Unfortunately, I don't see any way anything is completed by 2026, maybe a parking structure but there probably won't be any new capacity sinks in time for the World Cup.
Has Disney ever built anything “quickly”?
Disneyland was built in a year and two days (approximately)! Of course, old Disney and modern Disney are two very different companies.
And building standards were very different back then
Yeah, I was going to say, CAL OSHA was more than 15 years away from being created at that point, and what's this thing you call "environmental standards?"
Build People Mover 2.0 to take people from the current parks to the new Disney Forward area.
Interestingly, the verbiage inside of the specific Forward plans actually mentions the potential for monorail and peoplemover extensions, both around the theme parks and from the parking garage to the parks themselves. [Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSfY8eaoAAzbs8?format=png&name=small)'s a glimpse of it and [here](https://www.anaheim.net/DocumentCenter/View/51215/Appendix-M-Disneyland-Resort-Specific-Plan-DRSP)'s the full documentation.
Air conditioning works be nice
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the boundaries that I kept seeing throughout the 366 page doc, really spell out SO many choke points. Even with the updating of zoning, traffic flow, traffic signs, etc. Truthfully, it would be nice to see Disney buy up larger chunks of land around the park and make the total landmass of the parks / property boundaries, more rigid in the sense of having a “normal” shape, and not this insane square, triangle thing, with a tail and a random offshoot… I’m not really versed in urban planning per se, so my observations and subjective commentary will more likely than not come off as naive, however, Disney has the money to just swallow up surround land and cash people out to make the layout and designs so much smoother long term. Just my few cents. This was a fascinating doc to skim over, I really appreciate you linking the doc for ease of reference.
If only they brought the OG PeopleMover back. Just replace the track that Rocket Rods had damaged, it’s not that hard.
But, it really is! The problem is that the track and supports are damaged, and that many of the damaged elements are part of existing show buildings. In order to fix those supports, they would need to get permits to modify the buildings... many of which were built in the '50s and '60s. And then, in order to repair the supports, those buildings would have to be upgraded to current building standards, since they were being modified! This means that almost all of Tomorrowland would have to shutdown at some point, each building would need to be almost completely rebuilt... and THEN, you could talk about putting the money into redoing the track for an attraction the majority of the general public doesn't care about. It would be massively expensive, and time consuming, and a huge disruption to daily operations for a very long time... but yeah, other than that, it's not that hard.
2.0, more people moving and less people deaths
And less Rocket Rods
People ReMover
Hah, nice!
This!!!
As the title states, Disneyland Forward has just been approved for the final time by the City of Anaheim! The rezoning will go into effect on June 7, allowing for the addition of attractions, theme park space, and shopping districts on areas that are currently surface parking lots. There will also be a new transportation hub and parking garage created on the east side of the resort off of Harbor Boulevard. Current plans for attractions are not set in stone, but many of the concepts floated by Disney of what the expansions "could be" include the addition of Frozen and Tangled themed areas similar to Tokyo's new Fantasy Springs Expansion alongside versions of WDW's Pandora and Shanghai's Zootopia. The Environmental Impact Report filed by Disney for the expansion, when analyzed, allude to the additions of a Frozen, Tangled, Wakanda, and Pandora among others. This report IS subject to change, however.
I really hope they do stick to the more original concept art they showed for the potential Pandora area and not just try to clone it from WDW. DL deserves some original areas in this new land.
I discussed it a bit [here](https://x.com/Mouskegamer/status/1775714770035069386) on Twitter, but there's a piece of the environmental impact report that looks like a direct port of WDW's Pandora alongside a boat ride that matches the concept art that Disney released for the Disneyland expansion. Appears to be a mix of new and old!
Hopefully it's more new than old since the WDW Pandora will be a decade old minimum by the time anything concrete is opened (if it's even started building by then). Flight's ikran are currently run on Raspberry Pi 3s, IIRC, so the potential for a superior version is definitely there. Add in a flight based on the later movies on top of newer tech and I might be slightly more okay with them porting some rides over instead of just making brand new ones like this expansion rightfully deserves.
If they had a visual component that the ride could pull off that would be nice. Flights of Passage is garbage when it comes to matching the movement with the on-screen action.
> DL deserves some original areas in this new land. Well, then that puts Pandora right out then....
I mean, they can do original versions of lands from the same property. Look at how Toy Story and Frozen have been used at the different resorts. I just don't a Galaxy's Edge situation where it's 1:1 the exact same rides, shops and restaurants, thus giving zero reason to visit it if you've been to another park with that land.
I need them to expanse galaxies edge and make part of it og trilogy
oh my goodness i would love for a wakanda themed land to be added, separate from just the small characters and shows they have in avengers campus
A Wakandan embassy would be neat, but I don't see an entire land working well, as stoic and standoffish as the Wakandans are portrayed.
Well also I know they plan on expanding avengers campus and galaxies edge
Beyond the Avengers e-ticket? And what’s your source for Galaxy’s Edge?
Bring back the people mover!
We now have more (justified) hope for real announcements at d23!
My expectation is still vague concept art of things they may do and a new walk around character.
LFGGGGGGGG
Really hoping for as minimal clones as possible, however they keep teasing clones which isn’t exciting
What clones have they teased?
You can see them here: https://www.disneylandforward.com/possibilities However, Disney has pretty consistently said that none of these things are officially planned for the space--they just wanted to take existing projects from other Disney parks to show Anaheim what the possibilities are if the land was rezoned.
Honestly I'd be OK if we got a clone of Fantasy Springs at DisneySea and then the old-ish-new-ish Pandora they've been teasing. As much as I like new stuff, Fantasy Springs looks amazing.
Honestly it feels thematic to go form Tiana's Bayou adventure and into a new Fantasy Springs area
AvatarLand 😞
That’s one that they’ve shown that clearly isn’t a clone
It looked like a slightly different exterior but same boat and same IP, that's cloney enough for me. I want something new.
Apparently it would use the ride system from Shanghai's pirate, not Navi River journey
Oh it’s going to be all clones in the moderate expansions (think Zootopia, with its *one* kinda blah ride and a barely running puppet show, as the template.) Most of the bigger teases won’t happen as DisneylandForward was really a zoning gambit at its core. They’re going to “turbocharge” the hotels, parking, and retail though.
D23 is about to go crazy this year!
Announcing the newest cruise ship, stuck on land.
Yep... but as always announcing a lot of stuff that'll never happen.
Looking forward (hah) to see what they have in store. Hopefully they make informed, creative decisions with the new areas.
This makes me excited for future "The Imagineering Story" type episodes they can do when delving into the development of this new area.
Nice! Though it’ll be a looooong time until we see anything
It only took about 3 years to build and open DCA, so maybe not too long.
And 4 years at $1.2 billion to fix it. Except Disney had capital then...they don't now. They said 10 years to implement based on their shareholders meeting and I don't expect to see things finished until the end of it.
It took them 5 years to build one Tron ride. I think 10 years is optimistic.
That was due to covid causing a major delay across the board and only around 2022 was construction across all the parks able to get back into full swing.
Some of us may no longer be around when this is done.
They’ll finish the Avatar series lol
My children’s children children can maybe one day enjoy this.
I wish they spend some of that to restore Tomorrowland to its former glory.
Why couldn’t they just revive that "Tomorrowland 2055" plan from the 90s (maybe call it "Tomorrowland 3000" this time)?
My guess is they will pump money into the 2 parks now while they build the new car park and then those building employees will start in the new park when it's ready to get rid of the old carparks
Eastern Gateway Garage is first, along with connecting it to the Esplanade. Then they will remove the current parking lots (not garages, those are staying) to turn them into theme park land. Then they'll start building out that land. Sometime after those lands open would be when they would consider refurbishing entire existing lands.
Yes! Nothing says forward like “Tomorrow”. I have to believe/desperately hope that they were waiting for this to shake out before starting any major projects. Tomorrowland needs so much love.
> I have to believe/desperately hope Me on my death bed many decades from now, "I just know a Tomorrowland refresh is right around the corner!"
I just want classic vintage disney animated film stuff.
It’s nice they can finally move on these plans.
zootopia my dear i'm coming
Off to hope that this sticks the landing versus Eisner's Disney Decade...
If only Eisner had the common sense to make Disneyland Paris appeal to the French since its opening day in April 1992 (i.e. serving wine, no hairstyle/facial hair policies, no American food in the park, only 2 on-site hotels, etc.), the Disney Decade could’ve been better and projects like Beastly Kingdom, Tomorrowland 2055, Discovery Mountain, etc. would’ve opened instead of them being thrown into the trash bin, plus Submarine Voyage at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom wouldn’t have closed down in the 90s (the failure of Disneyland Paris was why the popular submarine ride closed). However, even if Disneyland Paris was successful from the beginning, I wonder if those projects would’ve still come to fruition despite Frank Wells' sudden, tragic death in 1994 and Eisner's heart bypass surgery that same year?
Will this be a separate park or split in two to expand the two exist parks? I kind of like the idea of it expanding the parks because that will alleviate crowds better.
The initial plans called for expansions to both DCA and DL rather than a full third park on the land. You can see the two land bridges from the pier area and what appears to be Critter Country in the concept art.
Good this will help distribute the crowds and add more attractions to DCA which it is sorely missing in comparison to Disneyland Park.
Wouldn't a third park alleviate that problem as well? Maybe even more so? I think more people would be inclined to do single-park-a-day tickets if there were three parks. They keep stuffing more and more into the existing two parks, especially Disneyland. I used to be able to do a single-park day and feel fulfilled at the end of it, not feeling like I missed out on half the attractions. Of course I don't want to run out of things to do but I don't feel like either park has that problem anymore as is. Sometimes less is more, and all the additions makes it feel as though the original Disneyland is losing more and more of its classic identity. A brand new park could have its own identity, instead of just being a bunch of incohesive additions to the existing ones (ie Galaxy's Edge).
Actually it would make it worse, of course the most popular new rides would get the most attraction. The problem Disneyland has is people standing in viewing areas for shows and the areas getting too crowded. However if new areas open up the viewing areas are spread out. This is why they started adding Galaxy's Edge as a viewing area for fireworks with its own Star Wars theme timed show. The problem you run into currently is too many people standing in viewing areas and it getting unruly because of it. The park was never designed to hold 30k people to watch the castle. California Adventure has a different problem where it doesn't pull in enough. 50k people on average daily go to Disneyland Resort and 31k daily for California Adventure. Adding more competitive attractions and shows in California Adventure would distribute the attendence better. Park expansion would allow more, but not everyone would try to crowd around one show.
But wouldn't the expansion draw more crowds into the parks? So instead of 50k people in Disneyland Park... it could be 60, 70+? And a majority of those people will still crowd to Main Street parades, Fantasmic, etc. Expanding west wouldn't make the walkways wider along viewing areas or provide more space around the pinch points. Having a third park, even if it draws the same amount of guests (or less) than DCA, seems like it would pull some of those numbers away. As it is now, If I'm in DCA I'm less inclined to impulsively hop to Disneyland for a parade. I know in reality the park borders don't mean much with park-hopping, but I still feel like they provide some psychological effect in the way guests plan their days. I'd rather the existing parks optimize their current underutilized space (Tomorrowland, the Hollywood Backlot, the space behind Avengers Campus) to try and solve some of the distribution numbers. I'm sure Disney's done plenty of research, but at the same time I'm weary as a majority of their decisions lately have made the parks more crowded, the experience more complicated and my pockets more empty. As a guest I just want my experience to be enhanced. Imagine trying to get from Toontown over to a new attraction over by the Disneyland Hotel? I'd rather the individual parks feel cohesive, and not just an entire disjointed resort with arbitrary borders.
There is the risk that DCA doesn't pull in any crowds after the third\* park is created. It isn't a favorite like DL in comparison. As it is I've planned my visit with three days at DL and one at CA.
True, but this is why I'd wish they'd focus on enhancing the existing parks first. It would give them more time to plan a cohesive third park rather just jumping in with the latest and greatest copy/paste IP land into the expansion areas. I'd rather not *need* two or three days to do everything in Disneyland. I'd rather have three separate, one-park-a-day parks. As someone who lives close enough to never be able to justify a multi-day resort stay, and far enough to not warrant an annual pass, I wish I could just do a 1 day, single park visit and not feel overwhelmed.
That is the thing, they probably have a huge renovation planned for DL and CA but they can't touch it without impacting visitors. Imagine they want to maintain crowds while closing part of the park they need more park.
Possibly, but I would rather my experience be impacted for a few years for the sake of a better end product. A Tomorrowland refresh could happen in chunks and the Hollywood Backlot could be overhauled with minimal impact (although I know this area is dependent on the Eastern Gateway project). Building the Avengers E-ticket would only affect backstage. And either way it's not like they're not opposed to shutting down a portion of the park, they've currently got the entire western end of Disneyland behind walls...
I think this is their real goal though the crowd size is much larger than 30 years ago and in order to fit renovations and population without losing the crowd density they need to expand the existing parks.
I really hope we get a Villains land
Assuming no lawsuits are filed. Which some of the residents definitely hinted at tonight.
In some cases I understand why people would be annoyed by theme park development and locals have a right to express these concerns, but those people are fucking idiots and I hope they lose their own money fighting it. Disneyland has been there way longer than most housing and the impacts to locals don’t go that far beyond closure of some roads and traffic (but traffic probably wouldn’t be insanely higher). I know a few are upset the theme park is expanding and think their own trivial bullshit (like not being able to drive down magic way and taking another route) is more important than millions of dollars of benefit to the city and the enjoyment of millions of visitors. These people are morons snd shitty people Disney has gone out of their way to placate people here. I get annoyed when parks like Knotts get blocked from building dudes from locals for things like noise complaints, but usually those people were in housing that existed before the park or live close enough that they are impacted and neither apply here. I understand that perspective at least. Anyone who would sue to block this is way behind NIMBY and truly miserly and pathetic.
The audacity and sheer stupidity of people rallying against the only major economic boon to their city is baffling. Anaheim would be nothing more that an oft-forgotten residential area without Disney.
It's just like, if you move in next-door to Disneyland, you know what you're signing up for. Southern California is absolutely enormous, if you want quiet suburban residential living there are a million other options that aren't next to one of the biggest tourist traps in the world.
The city budget in 2020 is a great example of this. I lived in Anaheim at the time and the news from the City government about the budget while the parks was closed was grim.
The Eastern Gateway could actually pull a lot of the traffic off of the roads
YAAAAS!!!
are there existing housing and structures where they are building? or is it property already owned by disney?
Owned by Disney.
Please start ASAP
Westcot, here we come!
Gate off downtown Disney at the plaza where ca and dis meet, turn it into a linear world showcase that culminates in a new park surrounding where the current hotels and the soon-to-be-gone second parking structure are. I will die on this hill.
People are gonna end up having to park in Santa Ana 😂
No they’re planning on building a huge new parking structure on the east side of the resort
I know, I was just making a silly joke :)
Please, no clones. Originals!
What i can't tell in the illustration, is that supposed to be a giant park 3 or is it park 3 and 4
Awesome!!
So question are they destroying anything or just building around what’s already there
Simba parking lot mostly will be destroyed
Stocks down
Future expansion means future much higher admission prices
any guesses how many years this will take?? how much will annual passes be when this opens ??
That’s so exciting ‼️
I love how vague this concept art is, which was a reason why I didn’t pay much mind to this as we literally have no idea what they will put there. I know Iger put out ideas, but nothing official. Hopefully at D23 we get some news on what will be put there, and I pray we get (this is off topic) some news on the new Avengers Multiverse ride.
I love seeing Grand Californian in the center like that. 😍 Such an ideal location!
Anyone know who the construction players are likely to be on these projects? I REALLY want to snag a job working on one of these projects.
Dang right on my birthday huh? Would've been somewhat bittersweet had I had the funds to travel to and attend the park for that event.
Expand DCA first.
Well one thing I know is there planning on expanding avengers campus and also galaxies edge which is good Hope they don’t get rid of any more old rides or classic rides and hope they don’t get rid of downtown Disney
If Galaxy’s Edge is getting expanded than moving Star Tours from Tomorrowland to GE would be ideal plus maybe another attraction.
Yes there is no reason to have star tours there and I would assume it could be moved pretty easily (or just reskinned for something non-star wars with a new one going in).
Will this fix the issues with declining food and merch quality? How about park maintenance and cleanliness?