My idea for expansion and improvements to MK

I worked with RandySavage to visualize my ideas for expansion and improvements at MK. He did a great job with the map, he has some great ideas and plans posted on his site: http://www.idealbuildout.blogspot.com/

With the expansion in Fantasyland, I think that the next logical and possible site of expansion would be with Frontierland. I wanted to look at how elements of WRE could be used and that MK would finally receive this long delayed attraction.

For guests to access this expansion of Frontierland, they will walk through Thunder Mountain; they will then cross over on a high bridge that looks like the rock arch at dlp. There will be a raft ride that would showcase different natural landmarks of the west. There would be an expanded Indian village along with a dark ride that would showcase native american life.

There are also improvements that I would like to see done. First would be that Carpets of Aladdin would be removed and a tiki themed plaza would replace it.

The next improvement would be a main street expansion. This expansion would link TL and main street usa, with one end being where the tl theater was and the other being next to town hall. There would be shops and maybe a restaurant lining this expansion, while having a chinatown theme like the never built expansion wdi envisioned for dl before.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7806/mkexpandedfl.png This is the link to the updated MK map.

I think your expansion ideas are all great! I was wondering how you were planning on fitting the pathway through big thunder mountain, I'm not sure how that would work but it definitely looks like a tight squeeze. I agree with removing the carpets, open up the space, maybe even have a little Aladdin stunt show in the center of the square with all of the carts selling goods like the Arabian market around it. also If you add the china town expansion there would have to be a huge backstage reconfiguration as that is currently a main backstage prep area.

I was kinda thinkin that that parking lot spot around where the galaxy theater, can be used for a tomorrow land expantion

i cant stress enough on how much the speed way needs to be re-routed so that it isnt too close to FL and the noise that spills into the land is rediculas.

The tea cups should really be moved over into fantasyland. perhaps the area right across from pooh.

Main street should expand into that area behind jungle cruise

Adventure land, is what reeeaaally needs an expantion. perhapes a peace of that area where the floats are? It needs another E ticket. and it looks too much like a staight line. Fire mountain? raging spirits? something thrilling. the whole area needs to be more adventure themed. Arabia and pirates wont do it forever. something with a mountain or rock and enchanted stones. Im thinkin something south american.

As for TL. i saw a peice of concept art for another park, but it looked way cooler than TL. http://jasgrace.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/earthquest.png
it made me think of how open TL should be. its too congested and it could use that shimmering blue color. so maybe the astrorbitor could be moved somewhere off to the side. Do the dismay of some, the people mover would have some changes. dont knoe if id get rid of it or not.

FrL could recieve some kind of thunder mesa behind the haunted mansion that is accessable by ferri. the northern half of TSI could be transformed into an interactive indian camp.

Omegadiz said:

I was kinda thinkin that that parking lot spot around where the galaxy theater, can be used for a tomorrow land expantion

i cant stress enough on how much the speed way needs to be re-routed so that it isnt too close to FL and the noise that spills into the land is rediculas.

The tea cups should really be moved over into fantasyland. perhaps the area right across from pooh.

Main street should expand into that area behind jungle cruise

Adventure land, is what reeeaaally needs an expantion. perhapes a peace of that area where the floats are? It needs another E ticket. and it looks too much like a staight line. Fire mountain? raging spirits? something thrilling. the whole area needs to be more adventure themed. Arabia and pirates wont do it forever. something with a mountain or rock and enchanted stones. Im thinkin something south american.

As for TL. i saw a peice of concept art for another park, but it looked way cooler than TL. http://jasgrace.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/earthquest.png
it made me think of how open TL should be. its too congested and it could use that shimmering blue color. so maybe the astrorbitor could be moved somewhere off to the side. Do the dismay of some, the people mover would have some changes. dont knoe if id get rid of it or not.

FrL could recieve some kind of thunder mesa behind the haunted mansion that is accessable by ferri. the northern half of TSI could be transformed into an interactive indian camp.

Click to expand...

1) I agree that would be a perfect addition place but unfortunately I'm not sure where you could relocate that backstage area, where would you relocate it to?

2) I totally agree about the speedway, I think they should locate it to the area behind space mountain just after the railroad tracks, that way the trees and prob a concrete wall for theming, and some updates can be made to the attraction. Keep the same vehicles for posterity, but maybe increase the speed a bit and adjust the ride track a little so it isn't so jarring. Then make a futuristic style tunnel under the railroad possibly with a treadmill walkway like they have at the airports under a covered canopy so that you cant see the train which would ruin the futuristic feel.

3) I agree but after the suggestion I have made above, I feel it will be a smoother transition into fantasy land and therefore the teacups can stay where they are.

4) again same issue as #1

5) I agree that it would be great for there to be an expansion to adventure land however getting to that expansion space is all but impossible. If they wanted to curl adventure land behind jungle cruise there would have to be a total backstage overhaul in that area and I'm not sure Disney is prepared to do that.

6) I disagree with this point, yes tomorrow land is congested but if you take astro orbiter off the roof, you take away the one thing that makes it unique and exciting and the people mover is a classic attraction I think it should stay as is personally, once you start messing with that you star messing with the entire structure of the whole land

7) I like this idea a lot, however maybe instead of a ferry providing access there could be a drawbridge with a wood log and rope theme, maybe some CM's in native and pilgrim garb pretending to 'lift' the bridge'

Interesting idea for introducing Native Americans back to Frontierland. I feel like Frontierland has focused too much on cowboys and more generic western themes in recent times, whereas Disneyland's Frontierland used to be better at depicting the complex relationship between the two sides, so it's nice to see you go back to that. I sometimes wonder how the public/national press would respond if a Disney park were to feature Native Americans in a large way again ("Oh no, Disney is Disneyfying Native Americans), but I like to think it could be done if it were done very respectfully. If Imagineering were to handle Native American cultures with the same degree of respect and cultural accuracy with which Joe Rhode handled African and Asian cultures at AK, I don't see there being much of a problem.

Also an interesting solution for how to expand Frontierland in terms of land. The current closed-in state of Frontierland is a bit of a creative challenge, and while I have no idea if a tunnel through Thunder Mountain is at all feasible, it's certainly cool.

goofy donald said:

I think your expansion ideas are all great! I was wondering how you were planning on fitting the pathway through big thunder mountain, I'm not sure how that would work but it definitely looks like a tight squeeze. I agree with removing the carpets, open up the space, maybe even have a little Aladdin stunt show in the center of the square with all of the carts selling goods like the Arabian market around it. also If you add the china town expansion there would have to be a huge backstage reconfiguration as that is currently a main backstage prep area.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I was looking at different ways that the pathway could be done. Either a way through Big Thunder, pathways over and on Big Thunder, or around it. I know that a group has released plans for most of the attractions, but I don't know how it looks in a 3d sense. The main concern I have is just that the bridge over the inlet would be high enough for any boats to pass. I know that the train bridge is a drawbridge, but I think that it may cost too much to build the rock bridge as a swing bridge.

I looked at what was located in that backstage zone and also the location of the utildors before concluding that it would not disrupt too much. I had one side as just a facade with disguised openings lining this street so that afterhours the shops can still be restocked after hours. There will be a slight pickup in traffic on the utildors, but I have been told that the amount of daily traffic during park hours is not that high.

I don't think that a middle eastern theme fits in AL, I do know that one of the original shops was middle eastern themed, but still it clashes with the current attractions. If tdo does build my frontierland expansion, AL would be next for an expansion. They could expand past the beam into the area that borders the inlet and 7 seas lagoon. This expansion can be middle eastern themed with aladdin and the price of persia used in attractions. Yes I know the PP bombed, but it is one of the movies they have that matches this theme.

Omegadiz said:

I was kinda thinkin that that parking lot spot around where the galaxy theater, can be used for a tomorrow land expantion

i cant stress enough on how much the speed way needs to be re-routed so that it isnt too close to FL and the noise that spills into the land is rediculas.

The tea cups should really be moved over into fantasyland. perhaps the area right across from pooh.

Main street should expand into that area behind jungle cruise

Adventure land, is what reeeaaally needs an expantion. perhapes a peace of that area where the floats are? It needs another E ticket. and it looks too much like a staight line. Fire mountain? raging spirits? something thrilling. the whole area needs to be more adventure themed. Arabia and pirates wont do it forever. something with a mountain or rock and enchanted stones. Im thinkin something south american.

As for TL. i saw a peice of concept art for another park, but it looked way cooler than TL. http://jasgrace.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/earthquest.png
it made me think of how open TL should be. its too congested and it could use that shimmering blue color. so maybe the astrorbitor could be moved somewhere off to the side. Do the dismay of some, the people mover would have some changes. dont knoe if id get rid of it or not.

FrL could recieve some kind of thunder mesa behind the haunted mansion that is accessable by ferri. the northern half of TSI could be transformed into an interactive indian camp.

Click to expand...

The speedway needs an update in so many different ways. First off, please no cars theme, that would just erk me so much. This speedway is suppose to be about the future, right? Well remove the gas cars and put in electric vehicles. Or how about working with GM to use their Hy-wire concept? Heck, the government could bankroll the whole thing if it leads to hydrogen cars being showcased to 17 million annual guests.

As for future expansion in TL, why not cross the berm again and build to the land just north of SM?

As for building an expansion of Main Street to AL, I see more problems with that. First would be that the parade ends in that backstage area. Second would be that it would cut off the first aide center. Third, there really isn't a nature path that could be followed.

MarkTwain said:

Interesting idea for introducing Native Americans back to Frontierland. I feel like Frontierland has focused too much on cowboys and more generic western themes in recent times, whereas Disneyland's Frontierland used to be better at depicting the complex relationship between the two sides, so it's nice to see you go back to that. I sometimes wonder how the public/national press would respond if a Disney park were to feature Native Americans in a large way again ("Oh no, Disney is Disneyfying Native Americans), but I like to think it could be done if it were done very respectfully. If Imagineering were to handle Native American cultures with the same degree of respect and cultural accuracy with which Joe Rhode handled African and Asian cultures at AK, I don't see there being much of a problem.

Also an interesting solution for how to expand Frontierland in terms of land. The current closed-in state of Frontierland is a bit of a creative challenge, and while I have no idea if a tunnel through Thunder Mountain is at all feasible, it's certainly cool.

Click to expand...

I think that a wre being built today, after native americans have been able to rightly criticize how we depict them, will be better than what was designed by marc davis in his era. This is nothing against Marc, but the era he worked in influenced how the native americans models were designed. If disney works with native american nations, that the ride built would accurate while also engaging. Frontierland should not be so one dimensional at wdw because it does not tell the proper story.

I always thought the way that Frontierland ends did not feel right, you can see there is more right north of thunder mountain. I said earlier that there could be difficulty in knowing how a path can be built because of not seeing a 3d model of the interworkings of thunder mountain. There are solutions that can be done if walking through the mountain is not possible. I do know that whatever the solution is, that unfortunately thunder mountain would be closed during part of this construction.

I failed to mention one other improvement/addition to AL, the return of AC. I really think that if the AC is built inside of one of the parks, that it won't be sacrificed due to changing entertainment taste by tdo. This new AC would be located in the temple in the JC. There would be wide "rope" bridges that would be used to cross over the rivers of the JC and the swiss family tree to enter this new restaurant and lounge.

Hmm, i guess i didnt think that through. Scratch the MS expansion at least in that particular area.

I can go on and on about TL:

Destroy the new stage that was put up for club 626. There should be a differnt looking stage and area for it.

Re-route and retheme speed way to hover cars perhaps? in the center of the new route, add a large pole with a big, nice blue light bulb on top. not only would it look cool, but it would also serve as a way to track the vehicles. riders can use it as a GPS and see other cars (blips on their mini-maps)

new Jet Pack dumbo-like ride. Pretty simple to do. Large pole (again with the light on top) The vehicle would hold to at a time and be like loading on to a standing coaster. once strapped in, the ride will begin to lift and spin. as it begins its lift, the jetpacks will lean forward at a 45 degree angle. the main difference between this and Dumbo is that the ride would travel up the pole as youre spinning. you can still move your vehicle up and down, but you would still be high up. There could be 2 of these. One thats taller and spins faster, the other for smaller guest. these would go in the parking lot. not immediatly do that its blocking future expasion but in that area.

Where the rockets are, to the dismay of some, they could be replaced with a decorative and intersting satalite display that would serve as TLs weenie.

Maybe a tv screen hanging off of inoventions much in the way that the DCL ships have them.



Entrance to the park;

There should be some form of fantasia gardens when you get off of the ferri

Adventureland. This area of the park could use an upgrade aswell. The question is, how? I wish there was a way to get to that green area South West of POTC. hmmm

Omegadiz said:

Hmm, i guess i didnt think that through. Scratch the MS expansion at least in that particular area.

I can go on and on about TL:

Destroy the new stage that was put up for club 626. There should be a differnt looking stage and area for it.

Re-route and retheme speed way to hover cars perhaps? in the center of the new route, add a large pole with a big, nice blue light bulb on top. not only would it look cool, but it would also serve as a way to track the vehicles. riders can use it as a GPS and see other cars (blips on their mini-maps)

new Jet Pack dumbo-like ride. Pretty simple to do. Large pole (again with the light on top) The vehicle would hold to at a time and be like loading on to a standing coaster. once strapped in, the ride will begin to lift and spin. as it begins its lift, the jetpacks will lean forward at a 45 degree angle. the main difference between this and Dumbo is that the ride would travel up the pole as youre spinning. you can still move your vehicle up and down, but you would still be high up. There could be 2 of these. One thats taller and spins faster, the other for smaller guest. these would go in the parking lot. not immediatly do that its blocking future expasion but in that area.

Where the rockets are, to the dismay of some, they could be replaced with a decorative and intersting satalite display that would serve as TLs weenie.

Maybe a tv screen hanging off of inoventions much in the way that the DCL ships have them.



Entrance to the park;

There should be some form of fantasia gardens when you get off of the ferri

Adventureland. This area of the park could use an upgrade aswell. The question is, how? I wish there was a way to get to that green area South West of POTC. hmmm

Click to expand...

I think the hardest thing for us fans is realizing everything that happens behind the scenes and why the parks are designed the way they are. It would be great if main street had the arcades that dlp has, but they designed them to be there. It would be nice that mk has little paths that lead to other points in the park, like the back path from sm to tt, but they need to fit.

If they ever expand AL to the area east of the inlet and south of potc, that might be able to snake a path along the berm to that new area.

Anything that is placed where the stage is at will just look out of place, because it is. WDI, TDO, Iger, and Staggs need to figure out what the direction of TL is going to be before they built and or retheme anything else. It seems like the direction in the past has been to just put something vaguely space themed in there and see what happens.

The Victorianesqe theme I like, it works like a welcome mat to main street usa. They could have a fantasia theme for the pathway that is on the ne side of 7 seas lagoon, that would fit.

You mention the area next to the canal. That area could be middle eastern themed and it won't clash with what you see already in AL. This area can have Aladdin attractions in it and also a d ticket attraction for prince of persia.

Well for that area, i was thinkin something more like indiana jones. Something with stone rocks and spirits and more modern adventure. A raging spirts esque ride would do the trick. the bigger concern is getting to it. underground tunnel perhaps? and we have to remember that there isnt a lot so space there. probably one or 2 good attractions would fit as we dont want anything too visible from the lagoon.

I couldnt help but notice that you didnt give much feedback about my tomorrowland suggestions. I would really like an opinion.

Omegadiz said:

Well for that area, i was thinkin something more like indiana jones. Something with stone rocks and spirits and more modern adventure. A raging spirts esque ride would do the trick. the bigger concern is getting to it. underground tunnel perhaps? and we have to remember that there isnt a lot so space there. probably one or 2 good attractions would fit as we dont want anything too visible from the lagoon.

I couldnt help but notice that you didnt give much feedback about my tomorrowland suggestions. I would really like an opinion.

Click to expand...

Well for TL, I think that there needs to be a high level about what the direction will be. Will they keep a space theme, will they have a more futuristic view of life in the world in 50 years, or will tl still be kind of a mishmash.

I like the idea of a ride that will have ride vehicles that look like jet packs; there was an idea of using jetpack vehicles in the orginal concept of M:S. They could place an attraction in the plot north of SM that could based around that ride vehicle.

Updating and having an interactive element to the speedway would be engaging. The only thing is that no one is racing anymore at the speedway, tracking yourself will require that element of freedom.

The only thing with that area is that it is about 7 acres, so wdi would need to be creative with ride placement.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9994/arabi.png

This shows a relocated carpet ride and an indy size ride. There could be a c ticket ride added in the upper right side of this land. There could be shops and stores as part of the first level of the indy ride; the queue could be part of that first level with the ride being above. A palace could be what the show building looks like.

wow. now im on board with that. But Carribean way is park of the backstage area where floats are driven.

and thats a long path. there would need to be something of an interactive element that would lead people into going back there. perhaps some new JC animatronics that make allow the guest walking to see. and some liki tikis of some sort.

also there couldnt really be anything too tall like the new fantasyland addition because it would ruin the view coming in on the monorail and in my opinion that would be a travesty.

I personally could see that working. Look at how Disneyland worked Indy into their Adventureland area...with a very long yet cool queue. As for the parade float road...well, there's always the possibility of either building a bridge going over it or a tunnel under it. Disney has built around many obstacles in years past, and I really don't see this as a big obstacle they couldn't get around. I would love to see AC make it's way into AL too...but I would place it at the entrance of the land replacing the now defunct old restaurant they had there.

dumb question, but, what is AC?

Omegadiz said:

dumb question, but, what is AC?

Click to expand...

Adventurers' Club.

Omegadiz said:

wow. now im on board with that. But Carribean way is park of the backstage area where floats are driven.

and thats a long path. there would need to be something of an interactive element that would lead people into going back there. perhaps some new JC animatronics that make allow the guest walking to see. and some liki tikis of some sort.

Click to expand...

Well the one path would pass under Carribean Way, the same way the other one will pass under the berm.

The two paths would need to be themed fairly well, with small buildings along the way to break up the monotony. Disney did this with the path in asia to ee.

goofy donald said:

also there couldnt really be anything too tall like the new fantasyland addition because it would ruin the view coming in on the monorail and in my opinion that would be a travesty.

Click to expand...

Well tall trees near the monorail track, solves everything.