I wouldn't be surprised if they used Toy Story for Cast Members and only use it as an overflow parking lot for guests on busy days.
I think it's a safe assumption that the entire "pedestrian connector" on the east, as well as it's meandering counter-part on the west will both gently slope up to the Harbor crossing. My guess is that the grade will just meet the requirements to eliminate the need for elevators, etc.
I think we do know that it won't be. Not sure why it would need to be.
Plus the need for more parking for the new 4th Disney Hotel near ESPN Zone. (and surprisingly hasn't been mentioned that it might get changed/converted to part of the new Hotel. Disney owns it, and has dropped the franchise as a unit, they just run it since they own the land). The one I love, and that might happen, the Rainforest Café also loses its lease, and then the DtD Monorail station returns to "Hotel" use as part of the 4th Hotel. That decision is years away.
I wonder if there will be ticketing at the new transportation hub. Seems like a good place to buy tickets and do security all in one place.
This can't be more expensive than re-routing monorails and building a long bridge.
Why would Disney want to alienate the Harbor "Good Neighbor Hotels" when Disney seems to have no desire to compete in the value market? That's a lot of business to drive away when you already have your four times higher priced hotels running at near capacity all the time. If they could drive them to a similarly or slightly higher priced Disney property, fine, but that doesn't exist.
Thanks for the kind words, just found this thread, and I should add a few things that might help the discussion.
Because it would require moving all of the associated utilities plus the expensive complexities of keeping the road above open.All of these issue with monorail and road clearance brings me back to my original thought. Why didn't they think about going under Harbor with a pedestrian tunnel. This can't be more expensive than re-routing monorails and building a long bridge.
True, it is all just speculation. I'm just not convinced that after 18 years of not having so much as a churro cart out there in that bus loading area that they are suddenly going to fill all that newly created expansion space with more Downtown Disney. As if TDA suddenly realized a bunch of tourists arrive and depart every day via Harbor Blvd. Who knew?!?
I could believe 25% or less of this new footprint would be for retail and the Resort's fifth Starbucks location. But my hunch is that at least 75% of this space is going to be for DCA park expansion.
And why Disney has worked with companies like Wincome to get new 4-star Hotels to be built.
MiceChat had this in their rumor update today:
By next spring the vertical construction on the new parking structure at the Eastern Gateway will be well under way. Planning documents filed by the city clearly show the office building occupied by the United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) office still there once the project is complete by the fall of 2018. Disney secretly purchased that land back in 2013, but the lease for that federal government office runs until the year 2020 and Uncle Sam has rebuffed every attempt from Disney to coax them out of that long lease. So the USCIS building will remain in the middle of this complex until then. But once the lease ends in 2020 Disney will determine how to best use that space based on the first few years of operation of the Eastern Gateway complex.
http://micechat.com/136176-miceage-disneyland-rumor-update-monorail/
All of these issue with monorail and road clearance brings me back to my original thought. Why didn't they think about going under Harbor with a pedestrian tunnel. This can't be more expensive than re-routing monorails and building a long bridge
And what about MiceAge's claim that the Monorail is being rerouted to accommodate the pedestrian bridge over Harbor Blvd and the DCA expansion?
"The new route will take the beam parallel to the existing inbound beam, before it makes an S-curve across the Esplanade to meet the current route through the rest of DCA. The Disneyland Monorail is currently scheduled to close on April 17th, 2017 and remain closed through at least October, although those dates could change a bit this far out."
Welcome DB!! I hope you stick around.. I miss you on the forums! The DLR section here isn't massive.. but it's not crazy-land and we have real admins!
Very enlightening!
For those who are unfamiliar there's more here:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/anaheim-722304-city-disney.html
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