Any discussion of a third gate in those expansion spots west of Disneyland Drive would almost necessitate tearing out the Disneyland Hotel and rebuilding those rooms somewhere else. It's why I think the idea behind turning the Toy Story Lot into a Disney Springs-ish area with a ton of extra rooms makes sense as a bridge idea.
My pie-in-the-sky concept for this expansion would be as follows:
- A brand new Disneyland Hotel complex is built as part of the Toy Story lot area. This would provide extra rooms for both the resort and the convention center nearby, while also providing the convention center with some better food options for attendees (let's be honest here: asking them to walk all the way to DTD is a lot). This new complex is outside the security bubble (important distinction which you'll understand why soon enough) and some of the higher-end food options at DTD get shifted over here, while DTD shifts their offerings to service the people going to the parks (think quick eateries and experiences).
- Disney buys GardenWalk. This adds a few more hotels to their footprint while creating one long corridor they would own from the parks to the new DLH/DS complex. The complex would likely need to be reconfigured a bit for coming changes, but it would have a path to the new parking structure on the east side. This would also be outside the security bubble. Getting new tenants will likely not be as difficult for the following reason:
- Monorail gets extended and rebuilt, with the Disneyland station taken out and a station instead added to GardenWalk as a transportation hub to move guests from the DLH/DS complex to the resort. Guests would have to go through security to board (thus getting them into the security bubble) but monorail service is completely free. New track layout would cut out the winding around above Autopia and instead do the one outer circle (thus still giving access to the Roundhouse), would cross Harbor twice at Disney Way and then cut through Garden Walk, with the station on the north side of the complex to also service people at the new parking structure. The track would then do a loop in the middle of the new DLH/DS complex (similar to the monorail path at Epcot) before going back through GardenWalk, across Harbor, and relinking with the old track through DCA. I think this would necessitate losing or relocating House of Blues and the AMC Theaters, but that can be accommodated for with the new DLH/DS complex.
- Finally, the hard part: tearing down the existing DLH complex to free up the final space to put a third gate. Entrance would be about where the current security checkpoint is from the DLH, so you would exit the monorail and be right at that gate. I don't personally care what they put in this park, since I'm more thinking logistically with everything else at the resort, but if Disney was willing to hold out on adding Avatar to DCA immediately, this would be a slam-dunk anchor for the new park.
But I also recognize this would cost billions to do on its own before even getting to the park...which is also why it kinda makes sense as the first move for Disney if they really did want a third gate.
