DisneylandForward

D

DCBaker

Premium Member
Here's the latest update on DisneylandForward:

All-New Parking Structure and Transportation Hub Coming to Resort Area



Plans are underway for a new parking structure and transportation hub that will be built on the east side of Disneyland Resort, on a portion of what is currently the Manchester cast member parking lot. This new area will provide approximately 6,000 parking spaces, shuttle and rideshare areas, security screening and dedicated access for traffic off of Disney Way, improving parking and traffic flow throughout the resort area. As you can see from the artist concept rendering above, this new parking and transportation hub will also feature a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard, leading to an all-new esplanade arrival experience. This pedestrian bridge will also provide convenient public access to and from Harbor Boulevard.

These enhanced parking, transit, and arrival offerings are the first step in our next phase of construction, creating the infrastructure necessary to prepare for future growth and to welcome more guests as new experiences are added – including two all-new attractions that will double the size of Avengers Campus, plus the new “Coco”-themed ride and Avatar destination coming to Disney California Adventure park. The multi-year construction of this new arrival experience is slated to begin in fall of 2026.



Updates on the Location for the “Coco” Attraction

As we continue to add new experiences to Disney California Adventure, we’re excited to share that the upcoming attraction themed to Pixar Animation Studios’ “Coco” will be built near Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier, in areas that are predominantly backstage today. Construction on this attraction is set to begin backstage this fall!



Avatar Experience Location Details

Additionally, we’re looking forward to transforming a portion of the current Hollywood Backlot area into our Avatar destination in Disney California Adventure. This project is still in the early stages of development, and additional details will be shared later, including construction timeframes.

To make way for this new experience, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! will close in early 2026.

Details from the link below:
disneyparksblog.com

Future Expansion Plans for Disneyland Resort

Today, we’re excited to share a peek behind the curtain at some of our long-term plans to expand and grow here at Disneyland Resort!
disneyparksblog.com disneyparksblog.com
 
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D

Disney Vault

Active Member
A lot of changes to the eastern gateway. First off the parking garage is much smaller than originally planned. They originally proposed a structure holding 17,600 cars! Now it is only for 6,000. That is slightly smaller than the Pixar Friends parking structure.

And it looks like the Monorail is no longer getting rerouted for this project.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Nice to see finally some movement on the things that some of us have been talking about for many many years. It seemed like the EGW would never happen, but the day is finally here.

Also nice to see some of the predictions that some of us made come true. ;)
 
FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
While it’s tough to get too much information from the art, it appears there are several key differences between this plan and the original Eastern Gateway, though much of it remains conceptually similar.
  • The pedestrian bridge is shown crossing above the Monorail, which means it will be at least 25-30 high. This in turn means very long sloped walkways (technically not "ramps") to get up there. The art shows it stretching all the way to approximately where the ticket booths are now (which seem to be removed), approximately 1,100' away. Walking up a nearly quarter-mile incline after a long day in the parks will surely leave an impression on tired guests making their way home.
  • Given the bridge's height, I would expect the security checkpoint on the east side to be located in an upper floor of the parking structure. This would eliminate the need for guests to go down to go up, but may be challenging for busloads of transit riders, who would presumably be dropped off at ground level and would need to go through some sort of confined area (escalator and/or elevator) prior to clearing security.
  • The big win of this design is that it keeps pedestrian access on the west side of Harbor Blvd with an additional checkpoint over there, so that people coming from the hotels don't have to backtrack to get to security. This creates an entrance that is much better integrated with the surrounding area, rather than turning it into a 'blank wall' in the original plan. Curiously the image cuts off just before the existing crosswalk, which may imply they're still planning on having people from the hotels on the east side of Harbor Blvd use the checkpoint at the parking structure.
  • It's difficult to discern the scale of things in the image, but the wall along the bridge over Harbor Blvd and the new marquee both appear to be massive. I would hope they're more human-scale in the final design, but they appear to be 20'+ tall, which would tower over guests and lead to a jarring shift in scale when traveling from there to Main Street or Buena Vista Street.
  • The elevator tower is...interesting. It draws a lot of attention to itself with the tall structure and large roof, but is ultimately a fairly bland structure. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the final version. I also don't fully understand the traffic-flow purpose of the stairs and elevators there; it looks like there's a ground-level exit to the west side of Harbor and the bridge carries guests to the east side, so it may be more of a failsafe for people who missed their turn 800' earlier in the Esplanade.
  • In addition to the aforementioned removal of the ticket booths, there also seems to be new trees in the Esplanade. I'm not sure how long the pavers are required to be on display or when the last ones were sold (late-00's?), but many of them are severely worn and they've always been a maintenance headache, so this could be an indication of a larger project to reconfigure that space as well.
  • At risk of reading too much into the background of the art, there's some wacky stuff going on with the Astro Orbiter and Main Street. It's likely just a byproduct of bad 3D rendering, but could be a hint at future plans.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Disney Vault said:
A lot of changes to the eastern gateway. First off the parking garage is much smaller than originally planned. They originally proposed a structure holding 17,600 cars! Now it is only for 6,000. That is slightly smaller than the Pixar Friends parking structure.

And it looks like the Monorail is no longer getting rerouted for this project.
Click to expand...
The original Pumbaa structure announced in 2016 as part of the original EGW project was to be 6800 spaces, that was replaced by Pixar with its 6400 spaces when the EGW got cancelled.

So this 6000 spaces is actually the same size as the original plans. I suspect they will be using the rest of the area as either part of an expanded transportation hub larger than the original. Or its possible that like many of us thought 10 years ago that they could do a phase two and add an additional structure later on down the line.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Disney Vault said:
www.ocregister.com

Disneyland plans to build one of the world’s largest parking garages — again

The proposed Eastside garage would accommodate 17,600 vehicles, placing it among the world’s biggest parking structures.
www.ocregister.com www.ocregister.com

It was just last year that OC register talked about the 17,600 version
Click to expand...
That was never an official plan, it was part of the DisneylandForward proposal of the "bluesky" stuff they could do, not a for sure thing. Everything still had to go through the "design" and "approval" phase with the city, and what we got announced today is the final plan. And it appears it goes back to the original 2016 plan with some tweaks and improvements to account for the changes needed to appease the local Harbor businesses that didn't originally approve of it.

So this is what was originally announced in 2016 but better. Here is the original announcement from 2016 -

abc7.com

Disneyland to build new 7-level, 6,800-space parking structure

A new parking structure will be constructed at Disneyland as part of the $1 billion investment deal the theme park has with the city of Anaheim.
abc7.com abc7.com
 
Vegas Disney Fan

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
Looks good, the only thing that worries me is “starting in 2026” likely means finishing in the 2030s, with all the delays and cancellations over the last decade I’m starting to worry I’ll be gone before most of what’s been announced in the last decade is actually finished.
 
Disney Analyst

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Vegas Disney Fan said:
Looks good, the only thing that worries me is “starting in 2026” likely means finishing in the 2030s, with all the delays and cancellations over the last decade I’m starting to worry I’ll be gone before most of what’s been announced in the last decade is actually finished.
Click to expand...

With Coco starting construction this fall backstage, and Monsters Inc closing early 2026, which likely means demo is close at hand for that… there is a chance here for some interesting timeliness, in advance of the 2028 olympics.

It depends how ambitious and fast they are trying to be. I have to imagine they want the new esplanade experience done before or near the Olympics.

Avengers late 2026-early 2027? Coco late 2027 or early 2028? Avatar 2028-2029?

Hard to know. These aren’t huge areas, so could be a faster build then say… a Galaxy’s Edge.
 
dlr74

dlr74

Well-Known Member
Vegas Disney Fan said:
Looks good, the only thing that worries me is “starting in 2026” likely means finishing in the 2030s, with all the delays and cancellations over the last decade I’m starting to worry I’ll be gone before most of what’s been announced in the last decade is actually finished.
Click to expand...
The previous Eastern Gateway plan was announced as "construction starting in 2017 with project completion in 2018".

Based on that timeline, there's a decent possibility this project could be finished by early 2028.
 

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