Inspired very much by this reddit post and YouTube video by TheMainStreetNews, I thought I’d have a go at armchair imagineering DLP myself. Though, I decided to be a little less realistic with my changes, and kind of made the park look how I want it, rather than how I think it might realistically end up
TLDR: Frontierland gets a show, Adventureland gets an Indiana Jones mini-land, Fantasyland gets Villains, and Discoveryland gets lots of Jules Verne inspired steampunk
So, let’s start with the land with the fewest changes; Frontierland. Now, one of the things I actually love about Frontierland is that it’s not really IP based. Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain are Imagineering created attractions, and don’t rely on any other existing Disney IP. Given the current route Disney is taking where everything has to be based on IP, this is a really nice change. And I wanted to keep it that way. I actually made very few changes to Frontierland, and they all revolve around a small island in the Rivers of the Far West. On this island, I’ve added a small river boat dock and a small theatre, which will have a cowboy show. Think something like Buffalo Bill’s but smaller and with less dinner, and more animatronics. I think the fact that DLP doesn’t;t have a single Country Bear or Carousel of Progress type animatronic show is a real shame, so I’m suggesting a small animatronic cowboy show, with 50% in English and 50% in French. I don’t have a solid plan for the show just yet, but I’m thinking something a bit like the Country Bears where we have some cowboy bears or something doing a musical.
The other change to Frontierland is just to get two riverboats out. I figure that while one is at the island for the show, the other is at the main dock, and vice versa. This way, you cut down by half the amount of time anyone ever has to spend waiting, and the Mark Twain can be properly restored and returned to service.
The land with the next fewest changes is probably Fantasyland. The fantasyland changes all take place at the back of the land. What we’re doing is taking out the Mickey meet & greet location, and expanding out a little bit to add in a Villains land. This land is kind of dark, and maybe a little bit scary. The land itself sits behind some large wrought iron gates, and past the gates everything get’s a bit more villain-y. The weenie in this land is going to be Mother Gothel’s tower from Tangled. This will probably be a walk up attraction, a bit like the Queen off Hearts’ tower in Alice’s Labryinth. Behind the tower sits the lava fields. This is an area not accessible directly to guests, but is used for theming. Using lights and smoke effects, it looks like a large lava field, and there’s lava rivers spilling all out through the land, with a number of bridges for guests to use to get around, over the lava rivers. I think at night, with the lava and some enchanting green glowing coming from the poison apple stand, this land could look just spectacular.
There will be a villains dark ride, probably based on something from the villains land opening in California. I’m not 100% on exactly what this would look like, and would probably be inspired by whatever happens at Disneyland. I’ll come back in here and update when I have a better idea of what this should look like
Next up we have Adventureland. Adventure land doesn’t have loads of changes, and again is based mostly around one small area. We’re bringing back an idea from the original development of the park, and implementing an Indian Jones mini-land within Adventureland.
Already there’s the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster. Now, this is a fine coaster, but it’s really nothing to write home about, and the theming really could use some plussing. So, what we’re going to do is contract two more attractions in that area, and create a giant Temple of Peril.
To the left of the coaster, we’re going to add the Indiana Jones dark ride from California. It wont be an exact copy, but it’ll be largely similar. It will obviously be retimed to the Temple of Peril specifically. Then to the right, we’re going to have the entrance to a walkthrough attraction with lots of interactive elements, hidden secrets and stories, and some fun activities like translating ancient text on the walls. These three together form a really integrated and tightly knit Temple of Peril mini-land, where you get a classic Disney dark ride, some thrill from a rollercoaster, and some iconic Imagineering detail-focused exploration.
The walkthrough starts going through the mostly abandoned archeology camp (where’s everyone gone?). You then have the opportunity to enter the Temple and explore it. This is in the same vein as the pirate caves or Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, but making use of newer technology, such as advanced projection mapping to make rooms transform, and interactive elements like cameras and walls that move when you hit the right spot.
The coaster tells the story of a member of the archeology team exploring a ruined set of tracks they found within the temple, and going on a wild adventure. It will need some slight retiming just to fit into the overall Temple correctly, and a little bit of story added to the queue, but not too much there.
On the dark ride, we follow Indy after he’s been called in to help the dwindling team at the camp. We follow Indy as he goes through the Temple, discovering its secrets and helping to return the missing crew members to the camp.
Finally, we’ll look at the land with the biggest changes; Discoveryland. This is probably my favourite land in the park, and the one I think has the most potential. This is also where my suggestions get very unrealistic (okay, maybe the Temple of Peril stuff is kind of unrealistic as well, but that’s beside the point).
First things first, we’re moving some rides. Buzz and Star Tours are going to different parks, they won’t be in the main park anymore. That’s so that we can use the space and fix the theming. Discoveryland was designed to be a steampunk area heavily inspired by the great classic science fiction of authors like H.G. Wells and, especially, Jules Verne.
If we move Buzz over the Toy Story Playland (spoilers for the next one I guess) we can retheme the building so that it fits the sci-fi theming of the land. In this space, we’re going to put a Journey to the Centre of the Earth dark ride, a bit like the one in Tokyo. We’re kind of turning Discoveryland into a Jules Verne land really. I think the park in general could do with some modern dark rides – there hasn’t actually been any kind of new ride since either 1995 or 2004, depending on how you want to count Buzz replacing Le Visionarium. While I love the classic dark rides we have, the main park is just begging for something new. Even the version in Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, nearly 25 years ago. I think there’s a great opportunity here to bring over a popular attraction, but give it a facelift and add in the latest and greatest technologies. We’ll have to add in a lower floor (it is a journey to the centre of the earth after all) and the outer building will be re-themed as a steampunk adventurer’s base. Since DLP has the Nautilus as well, the story from DisneySea with Captain Nemo works perfectly, which means this is largely a drop in ride, with only a few small touches.
Hyperspace Mountain will also be re-themed back to regular Space Mountain and once again based on ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ as it was before the Star Wars overlay in 2017. This is a pretty obvious and I think a popular decision. Hyperspace is still highly regarded purely as a rollercoaster, but in terms of theming it’s generally agreed that both previous versions were better, with the original being held in the highest regard. So the Star Wars overlay goes away, the cannon is refurbed so that the smoke and movement and everything works again, and we have a proper classic attraction restored to it’s former glory.
That then brings us round to the back of the land, and Star Tours and the space around there, behind Cafe Hyperion. As I said, Star Tours is being moved (not removed, though) and we’re going to put a new attraction in its place.
We’re actually keeping the commercial flight aspect of Star Tours, and we’re going to build a hot air balloon port in its place. The port will be the entrance to a brand new Soarin’ Over California/Around the World style ride, where guests will experience Philleas Fogg’s adventure around the world (in 80 days) from a hot air balloon. I think this give the land a great sense of verticality, which is already there with the giant Space Mountain building and the Cafe Hyperion building, and Soarin’ is a really popular ride system which I think could be transformed into something really unique. It obviously won’t be able to follow the journey in real time, but our guests will accompany an animatronic Fogg to a balloon for a new challenge after he has returned from his global circumnavigation. Guests will go through a pre-show in the queue with the animatronic who will briefly explain his previous adventure, and explain to you that you are now going to travel by balloon from here in the park, to Paris, and you fly over a gorgeous recreation of the city in the 19th century. Complete with views of the newly constructed Eiffel Tower, and dodging smoke stacks and chimneys, to a short race against a passenger train, this represents something totally new for DLP, while focusing on French culture and celebrating Paris and the country of France as a whole.
Next to Around the World (or maybe more accurately around Paris) the Plaza Jules Verne. This is going to be a large area, themed again to the hot air balloon/airship design of the ride and Cafe Hyperion. This will be a big open plaza with shops, fountains, statues and seating. There will be some quick service snack carts as well. The shops will be themed to a balloon port style ride, which will also be the ride’s gift shop, and in the back corner there will be a small inventors workshop themed shop; think Dok-Ondar’s in Galaxy’s Edge. This will have lots of small animatronics and effects, and will feature lots of interesting items from all over the world. There will be lots of small moving displays, with steam powered gadgets and the like. Lots and lots of small details and things to look at; something that will keep you occupied for a good while, and where you’ll always notice something new each time you visit. I’d also include a small experiment table, which would have a rotating set of experiments that are regularly swapped out. The shop would sell lots of steampunk insp[ired stuff, so you can get a hat and some goggle before going on your balloon adventure
So, that’s basically it for my ideas for the main park. I realise some of these ideas are quite unrealistic, but I think they’re all pretty good and, at least to me, seem like exactly the kind of thing that the park really needs. The main park has really lacked investment and hasn’t had a truly new attraction in around 20 years, so I think these changes are rather overdue.
Let me know what you think about these, and we’ll look at the Studios and the 3rd gate sometime in the future
