News Disneyland Working on Future Master Plan- includes Theme Park Expansions, Retail/Entertainment Space, and More!

[Nirya]

I'd say that's a very cynical way of looking at what's happening here.

The time for Disney to be a lousy bait-and-switch member of the community has passed. They're opening up themselves to being better participants in the public process this time around regarding the Eastern Esplanade. What's the worst thing that could happen?
"Muah-ha-ha! You gave us carte blanch to build on our hotel parking lots! NOW we're not going to build more attractions! We are going to build more and more DVC UNITS!!!!"

Considering Disney's track record on even recent events, I think it's less a cynical read and more of an understanding of how Disney has repeatedly operated.

 

[Stevek]

I used to live less than a 10-minute car ride away from the DLR. Even as a Disney fan, hearing the fireworks in the evenings when I was home was oftentimes distracting and a bit annoying. I got used to it but it was never not irritating.

I can't imagine trying to put a newborn or young kids to sleep every night. I imagine they tune it out, kinda like living near an airport (which would probably be worse).

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I'd say that's a very cynical way of looking at what's happening here.

The time for Disney to be a lousy bait-and-switch member of the community has passed. They're opening up themselves to being better participants in the public process this time around regarding the Eastern Esplanade. What's the worst thing that could happen?
"Muah-ha-ha! You gave us carte blanch to build on our hotel parking lots! NOW we're not going to build more attractions! We are going to build more and more DVC UNITS!!!!"

Fool me once, shame on me.
Fool me twice, shame on you.

 

[britain]

Fool me once, shame on me.
Fool me twice, shame on you.

Well, anyone with a Totoro avatar can't be wrong.

 

[el_super]

I'd say that's a very cynical way of looking at what's happening here.

But if they just wanted to build a theme park expansion, why not just ask to rezone the area for theme park space?

The less cynical take here, is that what they want to build is a "New Experience" that doesn't really fit the molds outlined in the 1996 agreement. It's not really a theme park and it's not really a dining/retail district. Something of a hybrid between them. Since that concept is hard to understand, especially to the general public, they are rolling it out as a mixed use space that COULD be used for those individual pieces.

With the splitting up of WDI, there is a little more context to this. WDI is going to start branching out into fields that are not typically theme park centric, and for an organization structured around theme park design, that change means a lot to job classifications and direction of work and what projects get grouped together. If you've been following Disney/WDI news for awhile... almost nothing about this "change" in direction will be a surprise to you.

At the highest level what this may mean, and what I am putting my money on, is more of that "direct-to-consumer" attraction experience that they floated around with in the 1990s with DisneyQuest. Moving into the field of having VR attractions like The Void or "flex" attractions located in a retail/dining environment that would offer a low-price, pay-per-play, option against the pricier theme parks.

And with the changes to the AP program, something like this would be a perfect alternative to bringing back significant discounting to the parks. APs may not be ready to spend $100+ dollars a day on a Disney Park experience, but maybe a $10-$20 ride ticket for a specific attraction or an expansion land would be a good alternative?

I don't know... it all seems so clear to me. This is also why they denote the space formally for the third park as a new kind of Disney entertainment... not really a park, not really a Downtown Disney.

Also there is potential growth in being able to roll out these micro-park experience to other cities locales, if it works.

 

[Mac Tonight]

If Chapek had his way...

 

[Sharon&Susan]

If Chapek had his way...

View attachment 542563

 

[NobodyElse]

Looking at these renderings, it seems like Paradise Pier Hotel (and its parking structure) are the stuff sore thumbs are made of.

 

[Darkbeer1]

I can't imagine trying to put a newborn or young kids to sleep every night. I imagine they tune it out, kinda like living near an airport (which would probably be worse).

As someone who lives about 3 miles from the DLR, it is similar to Church Bells.

Hear the Fireworks, you know it is about 9:30. They aren't loud inside the house, and not bad outside.

They also are not fired off on School nights.

Used to live under the John Wayne approach path, and it wasn't bad, but was far enough away to be quiet. It was more a visual thing

Decades ago, used to go to classrooms in the Point Loma area near Lindbergh Field. There was time you just stopped taking for a minute.

Balboa Park has an amphitheater under the Lindbergh flight path. They had a red light/green light system, where in the middle of the play, when a plane was approaching, the red light was triggered and the play just froze until the green light was turned back on.

 

[britain]

But if they just wanted to build a theme park expansion, why not just ask to rezone the area for theme park space?

The less cynical take here, is that what they want to build is a "New Experience" that doesn't really fit the molds outlined in the 1996 agreement. It's not really a theme park and it's not really a dining/retail district. Something of a hybrid between them. Since that concept is hard to understand, especially to the general public, they are rolling it out as a mixed use space that COULD be used for those individual pieces.

With the splitting up of WDI, there is a little more context to this. WDI is going to start branching out into fields that are not typically theme park centric, and for an organization structured around theme park design, that change means a lot to job classifications and direction of work and what projects get grouped together. If you've been following Disney/WDI news for awhile... almost nothing about this "change" in direction will be a surprise to you.

At the highest level what this may mean, and what I am putting my money on, is more of that "direct-to-consumer" attraction experience that they floated around with in the 1990s with DisneyQuest. Moving into the field of having VR attractions like The Void or "flex" attractions located in a retail/dining environment that would offer a low-price, pay-per-play, option against the pricier theme parks.

And with the changes to the AP program, something like this would be a perfect alternative to bringing back significant discounting to the parks. APs may not be ready to spend $100+ dollars a day on a Disney Park experience, but maybe a $10-$20 ride ticket for a specific attraction or an expansion land would be a good alternative?

I don't know... it all seems so clear to me. This is also why they denote the space formally for the third park as a new kind of Disney entertainment... not really a park, not really a Downtown Disney.

Also there is potential growth in being able to roll out these micro-park experience to other cities locales, if it works.

I agree with all that. But I think they ARE essentially asking for it to be rezoned as theme park space ...just without removing the hotel/retail permissions in the name of flexibility.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

They may have known what was there when they moved in, but this is a matter of changing what is going to be there in the future. For instance, many of the homes around the resort were built around 1957, before Disneyland started shooting off fireworks every night. Changes in use like that, could have a detrimental impact on the surrounding homeowners.

True but how many of those homes are still occupied by those that lived pre-fireworks? Its almost willfully ignorant to look at Disneyland in the last 20 years and think nothing more was ever going to happen. Its like when people buy a house in a developing suburb on a former field and then are shocked when the field next to them gets developed into yet another housing development.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

Yep...while some folks might think seeing fireworks every night would be cool...take off your Disney hat and you realize how disruptive it would be to have to hear them all the time.

I get it but its like moving by the airport then getting mad about the planes.

 

[lazyboy97o]

True but how many of those homes are still occupied by those that lived pre-fireworks? Its almost willfully ignorant to look at Disneyland in the last 20 years and think nothing more was ever going to happen. Its like when people buy a house in a developing suburb on a former field and then are shocked when the field next to them gets developed into yet another housing development.

Years ago an area nearby had a “Save Our Farms” campaign that got laughed out of existence when it was revealed that all of the leaders and most of the members lived in subdivisions and were just trying to block others.

 

[britain]

As @el_super indicated, note the light pink.

I give you, DisneyQuest 2.0!

 

[SteamboatJoe]

As someone who lives about 3 miles from the DLR, it is similar to Church Bells.

Hear the Fireworks, you know it is about 9:30. They aren't loud inside the house, and not bad outside.

They also are not fired off on School nights.

Used to live under the John Wayne approach path, and it wasn't bad, but was far enough away to be quiet. It was more a visual thing

Decades ago, used to go to classrooms in the Point Loma area near Lindbergh Field. There was time you just stopped taking for a minute.

Balboa Park has an amphitheater under the Lindbergh flight path. They had a red light/green light system, where in the middle of the play, when a plane was approaching, the red light was triggered and the play just froze until the green light was turned back on.

I grew up in a house near an onion field. Every so often it smelled like cow manure and you couldn't leave your windows open when it was windy when there were no plants in the ground to hold down the dirt. You just dealt with it.

 

[Stevek]

As @el_super indicated, note the light pink.

I give you, DisneyQuest 2.0!


View attachment 542583

Or could it be some type of simulator that could be changed out frequently? Or maybe something like Soarin or Flight of Passage. Who knows at this point but it is interesting that something is there that makes me think it's more than a Disney Quest type of experience.

 

[Darkbeer1]

As someone said, not everyone that lives in the area is new...some have lived there for decades, long before Disney was doing almost nightly fireworks.

Just to clarify, Fireworks are offered about half of the year in days. Holidays and weekends. They are not shot off during the school year (Sunday through Thursdays).

 

[el_super]

Just to clarify, Fireworks are offered about half of the year in days.

Right.. and that changed from about 90 nights a year to about 180+ fairly recently. Recently enough that some people could have bought their homes 20 years ago, when the much more restrictive firework schedule was the norm.

 

[el_super]

I grew up in a house near an onion field. Every so often it smelled like cow manure and you couldn't leave your windows open when it was windy when there were no plants in the ground to hold down the dirt. You just dealt with it.

So imagine instead of just dealing with it, someone actually asked you ahead of time, if you wanted the manure around your open windows. Doesn't mean that it's always right or wrong, but it's good that we live with a system that allows people to voice their opposition.

 

[el_super]

I agree with all that. But I think they ARE essentially asking for it to be rezoned as theme park space ...just without removing the hotel/retail permissions in the name of flexibility.

I think by definition, the theme park space includes retail and dining as well. I don't see why you couldn't have a theme park space that mirrors main street, where it's almost all dining and shopping. But certainly a case could be made that they don't want to brand this as theme park space because they don't want to set the expectation that it's a third-gate-worthy, full-fledged park experience.