Most of these Cartoon Destinations that I've taken you on come from the past. Usually they are all closed up for business. But today, we're changing it up. We are going possibly to the future. Disneyland is still around and so is Disney's California Adventure, but what is this DisneylandForward we've been hearing about? That's what this post is all about, and hopefully, the future would be clear for you and me.
You're looking at this map and thinking to yourself "Disneyland's 3rd gate?!" Let me shoot down that thought right now as some have figured out; NO Disney is not building a new theme park on Disneyland property. Ok....so what is it then? Here is the answer........expansion to the two parks.
What? How? Disneyland is over here. California Adventure is over there. How is this possible? Let me explain. After Disneyland opened in 1955, the area began to build up. Businesses began popping up such as hotels and restaurants. However, Disneyland in California, unlike Disney World in Florida, is landlocked. Room for expansion is limited. They opened Disneyland Hotel many years ago and they built two more hotels, but were limited to where they built them. They built California Adventure, but in order to do that, they had to build over top the original parking lot and built a parking garage and tramway connecting the parks to the garage. Both parks were lucky enough to add on with Mickey's Toontown Fair and Cars Land. Disneyland was even luckier to find a way to put in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge (but the Disneyland Railroad had to slightly be rerouted as it often did with expansion), but for California Adventure's Marvel expansion came with a cost: saying good-bye to A Bugs' Land. DisneylandForward may be the answer to their problem.
Let's take a look at the map again and let's take a look at this color coded map too. Smack dab in the middle is the Disneyland Hotel with fixed up areas. Up north of that is the original Disneyland Park. Here we see that a new overpass would be built connecting this new land to the existing Critter Country. Down south is California Adventure with some of it hanging behind Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. A new overpass would connect to that new area and an in between area of Paradise Park and Pixar Pier Down far on the lower right hand corner is an area possibly similar to Disney Springs in Orlando. It would have restaurants, hotels, ticketed shows, and shops.
For Disneyland, these new attractions include a new land based on Frozen, where Anna and Elsa meet and greet guests daily. You could eat at their castle or go on a thrilling boat adventure. Another land would be based off of Tangled where Rapunzel's Tower overlooks the land and one could ride the gondolas. Finally, a new Neverland attraction would feature a boat ride looking for the Lost Boys and Pixie Hollow where you can meet Tinkerbell and her friends.
Meanwhile in California Adventure, plans would include their own versions of Toy Story Land with attractions similar to Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida with a Slinky Dog Roller Coaster. Speaking of roller coasters, Tron would be built there similar to the one going up in the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Finally a new land based on Zootopia would open. Details on that one is limited and another land similar is opening up in Shanghai Disneyland.
Are these plans set in stone? No. In order to do this, they would need to seek approval from Orange County and/or the city of Anaheim. And plans have fallen through before. There were plans for Westcot that never happened. There were plans for a better Downtown Disney District, but also never happened. New overpasses have to built. Parking lots would have to be dug up and built over just like California Adventure did. Projects like this could take years.
Then there is another problem....Disney is broke. They had to shut down the parks due to coronavirus and the parks are their biggest cash cow. The next big cash cow, the movies, also had difficulties due to movie theaters closing during the pandemic. Folks began having Star Wars fatigue. The new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge lands in Florida and California were not that successful with Disney spending lots of time and money on both of them rerouting rides, roads, adding hotels, and even in Florida a Skyway ride connecting parks to the resorts. Would they have the money to invest in these projects? Time will tell.
Hopefully after reading this article, you have a better understanding of what this project entails. Believe me, I needed this better explained myself. If all roads lead directly to success for DisneylandForward, perhaps this would be another Cartoon Destination to take.
No comments:
Post a Comment