News Avatar Experience coming to Disneyland Resort

[SuddenStorm]

Just build it in DCA, which needs it.

 

[TP2000]

If we are going to be Blue Sky'ing, I was thinking if they did use the northern plot for Avatar, you can do something like this:

View attachment 703134

Tear down the FL theater and make that the "Earth" side of a voyager to Pandora. This is the yellow area. Have a transit station and maybe a Pandora tourist shop and/or snack bar. Then you hop on a vehicle/tram "Hogwarts Express" style that transports you to Pandora with screened windows and such. You take that up to the red zone which is Pandora itself.

Harry Potter does this between parks, and Rise of the Resistance within an attraction itself, but never a themed transport system to a land (as far as I know). Would be unique. There is the existing access road there that goes under the berm and Disney would have to find a way to cope with losing that, but could be pretty cool. The tram would have to be pretty high capacity though and they could be a potential bottleneck and people might not want to wait in line to get to a land, but the land itself could be thought of as one big attraction.

I think this is a really good idea!

The silver lining to all this Genie+ Disney Hulu Bundle App Crap they put people through just to use the park nowadays is that it would be perfect to use for "Boarding Groups" for a transport system to control guest access into the land via a transport system of some kind.

This is quite ambitious and I love it , chances of this happening are less than zero IMO but nothing wrong with dreaming

10 years ago I would have agreed completely. But after Star Wars Land showed they can break out of the berm, and with Universal Studios leading the way on industry-revolutionary operations like Hogwarts Express, I think it could happen easier than we think.

And my point above about their stupid app is hard for me to admit; leveraging the App's reservation abilities would make this type of land transport system much more doable operationally and logistically than it would have been just five years ago without an App.

Of course, a simple bermed walkway also works. But what fun it could be to take a spaceship to get to an alien planet land!

 

[TP2000]

I agree completely with all of this. Pandora built outside the berm is OK. Inside the berm, I would only want a ride in Tomorrowland or a film experience in the empty theater.

If that.

I'm not jumping up and down with excitement over the prospect of Avatar's theme at Disneyland; it's just not my movie or scene.

But, I'm about right there with you on what could work for Disneyland if it's suddenly an IP that needs to be in all their properties, not just WDW.

Either just turn their abandoned Tomorrowland venues into a meet n' greet and 3D Clip Show for '24, or go huge and build a Billion dollar version of Pandora for Disneyland in a new land expansion into backstage areas for 2028.

 

[SplashJacket]

I agree with the sentiment but post GE I have come to the compromise that as long as it’s outside the berm a single IP land is fair game. Not because GE blew me away but because I realized that you can kind kind of pretend it’s not there and the IP is coming whether we like it or not. Inside the berm I agree and think IP should only be used on single rides in lands where they make sense.

I wouldn’t like Avatar in Adventureland. Tomorrowland would work.

To me, invasive IP is like adding Frozen to Norway in Epcot, adding Jack Sparrow to PotC, or Stitch to Space Mountain (as was once planned).

I have no problem with them building fully-fledged single-IP lands because it's immersing you in a unique movie environment. It's not adding IP for the sake of IP, the draw is the IP.

Obviously, if everything was IP, then that's bad, but if additions are a healthy mix (arguably they're not at the moment), then I have no issue with it.

Guardians at DCA is a prime example of an IP invasion (regardless of thoughts on the current ride), but Guardians at Epcot is interesting because I feel like they built the original concept for a Big Bang coaster, and then just lightly overlayed Guardians, but would still fall into the category of unnecessary IP (even if I don't mind it that much).

 

[TheDisneyParksfanC8]

I have a gut feeling this means Disneyland Forward has been approved behind the scenes. That is the only way they could build something this substantial. Now if only they would get started on the Avengers E ticket...

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I have a gut feeling this means Disneyland Forward has been approved behind the scenes. That is the only way they could build something this substantial. Now if only they would get started on the Avengers E ticket...

I thought the announcement was for an "experience" (like something at the former Innoventions building), not a whole new land?

 

[No Name]

I thought the announcement was for an "experience" (like something at the former Innoventions building), not a whole new land?

Yeah but their D23 Instagram account also said it “Promises to be as amazing as those (experiences) found at WDW” and hyped it up. Who really knows. Bob Iger has refrained from calling it anything more than an experience but also seems to want to replicate the Animal Kingdom land’s success so who knows.

 

[J4546]

im still thinking it will be a smaller experience perhaps in the magic eye or launch bay buildings

 

[PiratesMansion]

im still thinking it will be a smaller experience perhaps in the magic eye or star tours buildings

They're not getting rid of Star Tours, and if they were just going to put something in the Magic Eye theater, they wouldn't be talking about it the way they are right now.

 

[J4546]

They're not getting rid of Star Tours, and if they were just going to put something in the Magic Eye theater, they wouldn't be talking about it the way they are right now.

oops i meant the launch bay

 

[PiratesMansion]

oops i meant the launch bay

I actually like the idea of putting something in Launch Bay, but I feel like they're going to do something bigger.

The way they keep talking about it, I think it's fair to assume it has to be a land at this point.

 

[mickEblu]

im still thinking it will be a smaller experience perhaps in the magic eye or launch bay buildings

This is a solid take.

 

[britain]

Iger wouldn’t mention it on a financial call if it was only as impactful as a new Launch Bay exhibit.

The implication is “Here’s a good IP (that’s recently proven to be still popular) and we’re going to do something big with it at DL.”

 

[britain]

Don’t put it anywhere new. Let it justify a big Tomorrowland redo.

If they are smart, they will stop waiting for the “white whale“ of a homegrown science-fiction IP that will serve as the inspiration for a new Tomorrowland (Tron, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Tron again, Tomorrowland the Movie, Strange World, etc) and not look a gift ikran in the mouth.

(That’s the alien dragons from Avatar, for those that don’t know - You’re welcome @TP2000.)

Avatar is a successful sci-fi IP that is pro-technological advancement as long as it’s being done by the “good, kind guys”. That’s about as utopian as modern blockbusters are going to get these days.

It doesn’t need to entirely replace Tomorrowland explicitly. But just like Indy spurred the redevelopment of all of Adventureland into kinda being a 1930’s Indy land, adding a big Avatar attraction to Tomorrowland could do something similar.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

Bring Flight of Passage over but with something about it being a new cutting edge long distance avatar link... have a preshow of heading up to a station above earth (using Space 220 tech to get there) to give it a bit of flare and tie it into Tomorrowland...

Problem solved of having it in Tomorrowland and incorporates two established 'experience/ride' techs.

 

[Disney Irish]

I have a gut feeling this means Disneyland Forward has been approved behind the scenes. That is the only way they could build something this substantial.

If that was the case we'd have heard something by now. A huge change in Disney's ability to make changes to the DLR would have leaked. Especially in light of Iger's recent comments on DLRs ability for expansion and having more space than people realize (BTW, a comment echoed by Tony Baxter a few years ago).

So yeah I wouldn't say its been approved just yet. But I don't think it'll be something that will take years and years to get done. I wouldn't be surprised if D23 2024 didn't have an update on this, along with new DLR project announcements, to end the 100th anniversary year.

 

[britain]

The next time you hear progress on Disneyland Forward it will be in the form of a press release like "The City Council of Anaheim has decided to move to step 3 of the 28 step process of granting approval."

Anything they want to build within the next few years will be on land they already have approval to build attractions on.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

With all due respect to someone who has 20th century working knowledge of the park like yourself whom I genuinely appreciate, none of those functions except fireworks can't be moved somewhere else

I mean, for goshsakes, to build Star Wars Land in 2015-2018 they demolished many backstage warehouses that had been there in constant use since the 1950's and 60's and rerouted the Disneyland Railroad and rerouted the entire Rivers of America and even hacked apart Tom Sawyer Island. Compared to that, repurposing these 10 acres for Pandora Land or Frozen Land or whatever it may be is much easier.



Or, wait, the fireworks launch pad can also be moved somewhere else, the roof of the TDA parking structure for example. Even though it still exists untouched in this plan in the Gold box on the right of the Google Earth images above.

Although, to be perfectly honest, I think it's fairly obvious that the days are numbered for the use of commercial fireworks in California. The state has already outlawed gas vehicles by 2035, and gas leaf blowers, and is considering outlawing gas stoves and furnaces, so the wildly decadent and polluting display of fireworks for working class theme park audiences does not have a bright future in California. I'm kind of surprised legal fireworks at Disneyland lasted this long into the 21st century, to be honest, but I imagine the Covid era sidetracked a lot of pet projects in Sacramento which will now gain steam through the 2020's.



Why do you need a 1970's style above ground parade warehouse? Why can't it be buried, or even sunken just 15 feet with a slightly elevated land or land access path built above it, with a ramp or elevator to move the floats up/down to ground level?



Why can't the parking lot tram maintenance barn be moved across Disneyland Drive to the Mickey & Friends area where.... wait for it... the trams actually operate? The primary maintenance is on the engine bays in each drive cab, with lighter maintenance on the chassis and suspension underneath the passenger cars. For the past 25 years that maintenance has taken place in a small-ish barn just east of Disneyland Drive that is basically a glorified Jiffy Lube with a sunken maintenance pit that cabs and cars can drive over. All of that maintenance can be rebuilt in a new facility just north of Mickey & Friends. It would be like moving a Jiffy Lube.

EDIT: Now that I look at the recent Google Earth maps, that old tram maintenance facility is gone already. Was it moved into the ground floor of the new Pixar Pals parking structure, I wonder? It must have been. So, problem already solved!



If there's a costume issue facility, locker room and/or green room for the live characters that appear in Star Wars Land, that facility could also be sunk underground instead of housed in cheap pre-fab buildings they built in 2018 and that were clearly visible from the extended queue of Millennium Falcon back in 2019. None of that can't be moved, or placed in a new basement level, to accomodate an access corridor to the new land expansion to the north.

I would also assume if they used the small expansion plot east of the current Imperial gift shop for a real dinner-theater show, that they could build a basement level at that time to house costuming/support facilities for the dozen or so walk-around characters in the land.



Again, I respect your time at the park and the perspective you have. I'm probably older than you, so it kind of makes me giggle to say this, but things change and you don't have to operate the park like it is still 1985! Bury the support facilities underground. Move stuff across the street if you can. Elevate walkways and access paths above new infrastructure facilities like they did at Tokyo DisneySea.

Combine ride buildings and backstage facilities into one multi-level layered structure, like they did at Tokyo DisneySea, or they did back in 1958-59 with the Tomorrowland expansion, or they did in 1965-67 with the New Orleans Square addition, or they did in 1982-83 with the New Fantasyland rebuild. As both Walt and Star Wars Land have proved to us over the decades, anything is possible at Disneyland!

I dunno—I’m old enough to have seen Walt in a parade. LOL

Honestly I’m not saying they’ll never take more out of the north service area. But I don’t think it will be half the space people are talking about and not before they use up other options:
1. Tomorrowland
2. Fantasyland
3. DCA expansion pads (AC, STAGE 12, 17, Goofy’s, etc.)
4. “Disneyland Forward”/westside.

Unfortunately, the bean counters have a lot of control. I have seen a lot of the infrastructure you reference and I wish they would invest in more like that. But their ways are mysterious. Let’s hope for more innovation, not less.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Hi again, a problem with putting Pandora in Disneyland California, DLForward or not, that came to mind is that the floating mountains would be an eyesore for the Anaheim residents. Said themed land works better in Florida because the area is mainly surrounded by trees.

 

[TP2000]

Hi again, a problem with putting Pandora in Disneyland California, DLForward or not, that came to mind is that the floating mountains would be an eyesore for the Anaheim residents. Said themed land works better in Florida because the area is mainly surrounded by trees.

No more an eyesore than a fake Swiss mountain or a giant LED lit Ferris wheel (from its backside).

The floating mountains are fiberglass molds mounted on giant steel girders themed as vines.

Yes, the Anaheim politicians like to claim that they've created a "World Class Resort District!", but the reality in most of that area is far from "World Class". West Anaheim's precious sightlines beyond the Ball Road Overpass from the ARCO station and Bedbug Motel North Maingate will survive that aesthetic onslaught of a Pandora Land expansion if it happens southeast of that intersection.

The Gorgeous World Class Resort Streetscape Before Pandora Ruins It By Rising Above That Days Inn (3.1 Stars On Google!).

Looking closer at that Days Inn on the southwest corner of Ball Road and Disneyland Drive, I had no idea there were still motels in the 2020's that had those sticky polyester bed covers. It's a "2 Star" hotel, but even with those lowered expectations it's customers rate it 3.1 stars. Something tells me the sightlines to the west beyond that roaring overpass aren't going to be a problem for this place...

Or, if Pandora goes in the Simba parking lot as part of DCA expansion across Disneyland Drive, here's the view it will impact looking north on Disneyland Drive. You can call this view a "World Class Resort Distric!" all you want, but it still doesn't make it worth worrying about.