Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
@James G. , you may have been the first to notice a misspell here but you didn’t notice the first misspell.
-
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DisneySky - COMPLETE
- Thread starter D Hulk
- Start date
ROC = Republic of China. I obliquely reference Disney's relationship with Beijing a few times throughout. Not sure which specific moment James is referring to.
Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
Will this be covering the lands you have yet to explore (apart from Solar City)?
It will. I’ll try to make it as clear as possible, since we haven’t visited these lands yet.
James G.
Well-Known Member
"The Tea Hut specializes in Chinese drinks like hot or cold milk tea. Add-ons include boba balls, grass jellies and lychee seeds. This is a Taiwanese drink trend which might seem odd to many, but is very popular with Southern California’s Asian diaspora." Taiwan=Republic of China.
James G.
Well-Known Member
Hopefully not a dumb question, but does the Fireworks Cart actually sell fireworks? I don't know California law, but in Ohio all you can buy outside of a licensed fireworks store is stuff like sparklers, smoke bombs, poppers, etc.. Using the phrase "expected merchandise" and "Fireworks Cart" together leads to some confusion.
Lu Ban’s Kite Shop
Merchandise store
Toy shop selling kites and other aerial items
Welcome to Lu Ban’s Kite Shop, the marketplace and adjacent workshop of ancient China’s greatest master craftsman. Among Lu Ban’s many inventions - all of which are on display here - are some considered history’s first flying machines. Lu Ban (a real historical figure) is deified in Chinese culture, and deeply connected to DisneySky’s elaborate story. Indeed, careful examination of Lu Ban’s premises reveals mottoes and symbols and imagery which the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.) would later borrow.
Mythic Realms’ major shop sits wedged by waterways on the land’s western edge. With multiple entrances and facades, Lu Ban’s Kite Shop reflects the village’s disparate economic classes. The west-facing corner is the poor side of town, with a chaotic collection of wood huts upon flimsy bamboo stilts resembling the city of Fenghuang. An older house of wood and stone - Lu Ban’s home - is the western entry, accessed along a creaking oak bridge. Outside on a pedestal is a magnetic compass from the Han Dynasty, which is simply a ladle spoon spinning atop a bronze board. Carved roof gables depict colorful fenghuang (mythical birds).
The regal east-facing corner near Floating Lantern Pond is far more prosperous. It rises from the waters not upon rickety stilts, but on finely-carved marble. The Huxinting Tea House in Shanghai is the primary design inspiration here. On this side, the main entry is under a cantilevered cylindrical window box . Another entrance nearby is based on Hong Kong’s Lo Pan Temple, which is a memorial to Lu Ban with parapet walls and a jagged roof.
From either side, the airs above Lu Ban’s rooftops are alive with traditional Chinese kites, which bear the shapes of paper-cut clouds, mighty birds, and red dragons (one is a Mushu cameo).
The interior is divided into different spaces reflecting the exteriors. The regal side also resembles Huxinting Tea House, with vaulted silk-lined ceilings and carved teak rafters, refashioned from Shanghai’s inspiration as a high-end period shop space. The entry lobby prominently features an emblem in the floor which is very similar to the S.E.A. symbol. Its Chinese text is a variation on S.E.A.’s creed (as found in DisneySea’s Fortress Explorations). The poorer side, meanwhile, is Lu Ban’s carpentry workshop, complete with woodworking tools and saw desks repurposed for checkout.
All of the shop’s many connected rooms are filled with inventions. The regal side teems with silk fans and kites and umbrellas, all of them hanging artfully from the rafters and giving the space a soft, heavenly feel. Little paper cranes - Lu Ban’s patron bird - dangle in a window bay. Wall murals are similar to those in Lo Pan Temple.
The workshop space features “bamboopunk” contraptions. These include: rotor-winged bamboo copters; a wooden bird (a prototype kite) strapped to a firecracker; grappling hooks; a “cloud” ladder for sieges; a 250 A.D. pine bicycle cart. Ancient scrolls line shelves. A terracotta statue of Lu Ban himself stands as a centerpiece upon a central urn.
Merchandise consists of apparel and toys. There is also specialized clothing in the traditional Chinese style, much of it made with authentic silk. Wooden toys reflect Lu Ban’s carpentry. These gadgets include gliders and kites, many bearing Disney characters, which come prepackaged and are not meant to be thrown around within DisneySky.
Monsoon Marketplace
Post-ride shop
Souvenir photos of your adventure and Chinese merchandise
Following a watery plunge aboard Storm Mountain, guests find themselves along a waterfront dock styled after Lijiang Town. While they are free to simply return to Mythic Realms via a riverside walkway overlooking East Lake, a doorway straight ahead leads them inside to the Monsoon Marketplace post-ride shop.
Upon entering, first guests find an eight-sided vestibule hall. Their on-ride photos project onto wall-mounted tapestries like mystic imagery.
A hall further down divides the shop’s two main interior floors. This indoors hall is made to feel like an outdoor veranda, with a hidden glass skylight strewn with bamboo slats and awnings. The hall resembles the narrow canal alleyways of Hongcun. Small water-filled drainage ditches line the walls, blocked off by netted fencing. Vaulted doorways peer into the shop spaces on either side.
To the left, merchandise is displayed on jointed cabinets under the complex’s tall Lijiang Town pagoda tower. A ceiling mural high overhead depicts rains falling down from heaven, an apt image following Storm Mountain. Everywhere along shelves there are artifacts from the Kunlun Mountains, items such as jade or peach bushels. Also displayed along the shelves and in little side alcoves are ancient Chinese meteorological devices, plus a parchment portrait of astronomer Wang Chong. Oriental rugs drape from the walls and ceilings.
The second shop floor, found to the right, is a low-slung Chinese pharmacy. Display shelves feature baskets of herbs, all manner of dried sea creatures, and jars full of preserved vegetables and snake wine. A pinewood medical dummy in a corner depicts ancient acupuncture. Throughout, a faint scent of incense wafts. Rows of wide open red doors look out onto Mythic Realms’ pathways, inviting guests outside to enter and browse.
Fireworks Cart
Wagon cart
Wagon with light-up items and more
Floating Lantern Pond’s central island is host to a large ox cart which doubles as the land’s simple “wagon cart” shop. The cart itself is simple enough, balanced on two wooden wheels and handles resting upon a rock. The cart’s leather tenting is home to a grand assortment of medieval Chinese fireworks, plus the expected merchandise.
Observant guests will notice that the cart’s corner wall has been blown out from inside, burnt by a firework blast. The nearby upper levels of Lu Ban’s Kite Shop have also exploded, and still emit smoke. Clearly, one of the cart’s fireworks went off unexpectedly. As explanation, a static Mushu figure (looking sheepish and guilty at his mistake) stands near the cart’s blast.
That concludes Mythic Realms. Tomorrow, Halloween in DisneySky.
Sell fireworks? In a theme park? In California (the land of "gender reveal" wildfires)? HA HA HA!
NO WAY! (Well, maybe in Magic Mountain.) This isn't a lawless Mad Max wilderness like Ohio. By "expected merchandise," I merely meant the merchandise that's expected in any given Disney wagon shop, like sunglasses & pins & whatnot.
HALLOWEEN AT DISNEYSKY
Halloweentime in Anaheim sees the entire Disneyland Resort dressed up to celebrate the season. Disneyland features its iconic giant Mickey Mouse pumpkin, plus appropriate decor throughout the park. Disney California Adventure boasts the rather new Oogie Boogie Bash - A Halloween Party, which serves as California’s answer to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Florida. Even Downtown Disney gets in on the act.
DisneySky joins in the autumnal merriment! Throughout September and October (and sometimes even mid-August), DisneySky’s seven destinations come to life with “spook-tacular” holiday magic. There are new Halloween decorations, character encounters, seasonal treats, and more. So throw on your costume and join us as we fly the spooky skies!
DisneySky Halloween Decorations
Playfully spooky decor crops up throughout DisneySky, regardless of the land, with common seasonal sights including character-based jack-o-lanterns, creepy orange lights, and streamer ribbons in orange-and-black.
Specialized decorations also appear in each of DisneySky’s seven destinations (lands). Giant cobwebs line the rafters of Grand Central Hangar leading into Runway One, while the airfield is garlanded in harvest cornucopias and hay bales. Orange jack-o-lantern faces cover the many semi-spherical domes of Inspiration Observatory, which at night receives spooky projection lighting similar to Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Mythic Realms is strung up with red sky lantern “jack-o-lanterns” and cute Chinese monster decorations.
The Arctic steampunk outposts of Discovery Glacier take on an Old World harvest festival spirit, with carved radishes, vintage postcards, and a central Halloween Tree decked in spooky tin ornaments.
Pioneer Fields, a colonial village in the Chilean Andes, goes all out with Dia de los Muertos decorations with a heavy touch of Pixar’s Coco. Disney calls this area “Coco’s Festival of Frights,” and there are talks of eventually creating a hard-ticket event with this theme. No matter. For now, the Andean village features sugar skulls, countless papel picado streamers, candlelit altars, and more!
In Diesel Bay’s pulpy South Seas metropolis, creepy tiki totems of bamboo and pumice stone suddenly line the walkways, providing a weird glow at night.
Cosmic Crater embraces the scariness of aliens and robots and other 1950s sci-fi terrors. UFO lanterns, extraterrestrial skulls, and eerie orange-glowing space rocks bedevil the Southwestern deserts.
And in Avengers Airspace, fall leaves line the New York City streets, while at night projections of witches, skeletons & ghouls cover the building facades. The northern stretch of Langley Lagoon features an array of floating jack-o-lantern islands.
Character Encounters
In addition to the decorations, DisneySky’s destinations teem with unique seasonal character meet ‘n’ greets, some of them in designated locations but most as unscheduled walkaround encounters. For simplicity’s sake, fewer lands feature characters, but those that do go all-out.
Pioneer Fields is where the classic Disney characters don their best Halloween costumes and mingle with guests. Outfits here are duplicates of those found at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, with Witch Daisy, Pumpkin Donald, and Ghost Goofy, among others.
Mythic Realms simply features Jiangshi - Chinese hopping vampires. Harmless rows of Qing Dynasty revenants who hop together as a group, led by a living sorcerer master.
Avengers Airspace breaks out Marvel’s various and sundried horror characters, ranging from the well-known Doctor Strange and including freaks such as Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider, and Werewolf by Night. (Of course with care taken to match all existing and upcoming MCU plans.)
Pioneer Fields tops them all with its Coco characters! A massive cast of living skeletons from the Land of the Dead roam, while even regular cast members wear skeletal face paint. Skeleton mariachis play in Paseo Plaza. Exclusive Coco meet ‘n’ greets are held in the Cabildo Building (don’t worry, we’ll cover these settings eventually), with characters including Miguel, Hector, Dante, and Frida Kahlo.
Seasonal Treats
Park-wide, every year sees new Halloween treats created. Fun new offerings such as these really help to drive repeat visits from local guests! From the sweet to the savory, from the spooky to the not-so-scary, there is no end to the tasty delectables to be found.
Churro carts serve unique pumpkin spice offerings. A new pumpkin pie churro appears in Runway One. Carts also roast bags of perfectly seasoned pumpkin seeds. A mere suggestion of other Halloween foodstuffs includes sweet potato pies at Wright Bakers, pumpkin cheesecake and Coco cookies at Pioneer Fields’ Pie-in-the-Sky Pie Shoppe, and “little green man” mochi ice cream balls in Cosmic Crater’s Bunker Bistro.
Entertainment & Overlays
Halloween overlays are limited at DisneySky, since most of the park’s attractions don’t lend themselves to obvious seasonal switch-ups.
Live entertainment provides the easiest opportunity for Halloween fun. The biggest change is to the DisneySky Kite Festival, a live daytime pageant which takes place in Langley Lagoon and serves as a substitute for parades. (To be covered in detail later.) For the spooky season, this show becomes the DisneySky Kite Festival - Villains Take Flight. Taking inspiration from Tokyo DisneySea’s seasonal Villains World spectacular, Villains Take Flight features fan favorite Disney Villains riding harbor boats and flying their own villain-themed kites. Featured fiends include Hades, Jafar, Maleficent, Cruella de Vil (now recklessly piloting a biplane), and deep cut favorites like Professor Ratigan and Dumbo’s Pink Elephants. With ornate masquerade-style costumes, colorful new kites, and an original theme song, Villains Take Flight
In Pioneer Fields the Airtopia hot air balloon flat ride, towering in its central weenie location, serves as a fantastic canvas for redecoration. During Halloween it becomes Scare-topia. The sixteen ride balloons and the full-scale Airtopia Balloon above them all transform, redecorated as festive, multicolored Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls! Visible throughout the land, these joyful hovering skulls add immense holiday cheer.
Lastly, there is a building in Avengers Airspace in a transitional area in between Runway One and an expansion pad. This is a planned "Flex Space" for rotating exhibits, attractions, and even rides. Some creatives within Imagineering have proposed using this building for a haunted maze walkthrough during the Halloween season, in the style of the Halloween haunts at Hong Kong Disneyland. This proposed scare maze would have a tentative Marvel Zombies theme. The concept remains undeveloped at present, but it remains on the back burner for future Halloween evens.
Thank you for celebrating Halloween with us at DisneySky. We hope you had a pleasant...fright!
Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
If DtD would have a Halloween overlay, would Rancho Disney also get its own (plus Dias de Los Muertos)?
OF COURSE!
Rancho Disney will share the Coco-themed Dia de Los Muertos festival with Pioneer Fields.
Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
What’s happened?
DisneySky will return tomorrow with Discovery Glacier
Just needing a day off. Nothing to worry about.
Pi on my Cake
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Finally the intermission! I've had to go to the bathroom for days!
DisneySky will return tomorrow with Discovery Glacier
DISCOVERY GLACIER
You’ll find a Victorian scientific outpost full of wild inventions in this Arctic wilderness
TIME: December 31st, 1899
Discovery Glacier celebrates the height of aeronautic invention at the end of the Nineteenth Century. This is the time of steampunk, a time when the skies were dominated by whimsical lighter-than-air machines like airships, dirigibles and hot air balloons. A time when steam power drove innovation. New scientific discoveries opened up new realms to be explored and understood. Here in a Victorian commune high in the Arctic hinterland, tinkerers and craftsmen push the limits on robotics, electricity and aerial adventure. New horizons open up - including potentially the North Pole itself - and with them new romantic fantasies, new adventures...new dangers.
Discovery Glacier was founded in 1880 by Captain Nemo, intended as a secret scientific outpost for the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. This was to be a terminally-ill Nemo’s final gift to a world he feared was on the brink of oblivion. Discovery Glacier was hidden deep in the Arctic Circle in the glacial shadow of Mt. Helios, beyond any nation’s grasp. It was to be a paradise of invention, freed from war and petty conflict. S.E.A.’s Professor Rudolph Blauerhimmel later oversaw this Victorian utopia in Nemo’s absence. Blauerhimmel delved deep into the world of ballooning. His fellow scientific madmen pursued other steam-powered dreams, together fashioning a retro-futuristic wonderland. We encounter the land decades later at the outpost’s height, in 1899 on the verge of the Twentieth Century.
Guests find Discovery Glacier to be a wholly inward-looking land, nestled tight against Mt. Helios’ shadowy eastern slopes. A monumental frozen glacier feeds an iced-over lake around which this ornate cobblestone village is built. Research facilities represent the height of Victorian architectural artistry. They also represent the height of vintage adventure, as guests become test subjects on countless wild journeys. They may sail a dirigible into undiscovered wintry wastelands, ride a magnetic glider through a copper power plant, or even break the bounds of time itself!
Land Layout & Details
Attractions: 35. Flight to the Top of the World, 36. The Time Machine, 37. Spark Gap Hover-Coaster, 38. Tinkerer's Workshop
Dining: 39. Salon de Hyperion, 40. Steammaster's Grill, 41. The Freeze Station
Retail: 42. Galerie des Automates, 43. Time Flies, 44. Aerial Outpost
Mt. Helios’ northeastern slopes divide the space between Runway One and Discovery Glacier. The lands are joined by an ice cave. A glacial underground river flows from Discovery Glacier’s frigid lake, draining through this cave and downslope to Mythic Realms. A natural stone walkway sees guests through the tunnel, lit by Tesla lanterns on wires overhead.
Discovery Glacier’s musical loop features orchestral music inspired by 19th-century Victorian compositions but with a more adventurous “steampunk” flavor. The music will occasionally recede into the aural background, briefly replaced by ambient sound effects like avalanches and propeller engine sounds and ticking clocks.
Approached from any of the land’s three tunnel entries, guests will emerge to behold all of Discovery Glacier at once. The land rotates around the central, iced-over Lake Verne. Mt Helios towers to the west, covered in an enormous baby blue glacier, the glacier’s melting waters and frozen waterfall feeding the lake. Mountainous foothills coated in fir trees hug the ice-carved valley, while the eastern edge is hemmed in by an Industrial Revolution complex of research laboratories and residences for Discovery Glacier’s scientist population.
Walkways circle Lake Verne. On the western glacier side they are carved from gigantic valley boulders, while the manmade complexes on the east are paved with oxidized riveted gangways and warped cedar boardwalks. Sidewalks lining these roads are made from multi-toned clunker bricks. So are brick-paved tunnels found scattered throughout the land.
All this is offset by the azure blue lake, which is awash with off-white ice floes. In Lake Verne’s center, serving as a “weenie” for the land’s three distinct entrances, is the Heliosphere - a kinetic bronze heliocentric model of the Solar System set atop a crag. This is a mechanical model, an “orrery.” At night, the lake comes alive as Aurora Borealis “northern lights” glisten and shimmer from beneath its surface, granting the whole of Discovery Glacier a cold, alien ambiance.
The nearest glacier wall right of the Runway One entrance has been carved away, making room for The Freeze Station. This is an ice cream stand which uses the glacier itself in the production process. The exterior ice walls hold in place a glass case which houses a collection of mercury barometers. Glacial slopes overhead are held in place by avalanche barriers. The icy, frozen hillsides - pouring down from Mt. Helios’ distant peaks - are actively mined by Discovery Glacier’s researchers. A giant steampunk ice drill sits suspended from a copper rig, its giant conical drill frozen solid in place embedded into the arctic soil.
Headed leftwards toward S.E.A.’s urban outpost, a wooden bridge crosses Lake Verne’s river. The lakeshore features natural hot springs behind net fencing, full of bubbling sulfuric water and warm vertical steam vents. Across from this is Aerial Outpost, a wagon merchandise cart set beneath a Montgolfier-style vertical dirigible like something out of Disney’s Atlantis. A cigarette smoking area nearby is set back around a great big “HYDROGEN” tank alongside many smaller compressed air tanks and flammables - let no one say DisneySky lacks a dry sense of humor.
Beyond that, nestled against the woodsy northern foothills, is Spark Gap Hover-Coaster. This is an interactive family coaster set in a Tesla power station, all a modern update on ideas first proposed for Disneyland’s Discovery Bay and its Spark Gap Coaster. (Indeed, you will find a lot of old Discovery Bay in Discovery Glacier, mixed with elements from Disney’s other steampunk lands it has inspired, all filtered through a distinctive DisneySky Arctic viewpoint.)
Continuing on, guests pass over boardwalks built atop Lake Verne’s chilled waters. Built further out over those waters is Steammaster’s Grill, a counter service restaurant set in a boathouse surrounded by half-frozen whaling ships. Opposite that is Tinkerer’s Workshop, S.E.A.’s main steampunk factory complex whose open doors invite any and all to enter and enjoy the interactive scientific exhibits within.
Discovery Glacier’s musical loop features orchestral music inspired by 19th-century Victorian compositions but with a more adventurous “steampunk” flavor. The music will occasionally recede into the aural background, briefly replaced by ambient sound effects like avalanches and propeller engine sounds and ticking clocks.
Approached from any of the land’s three tunnel entries, guests will emerge to behold all of Discovery Glacier at once. The land rotates around the central, iced-over Lake Verne. Mt Helios towers to the west, covered in an enormous baby blue glacier, the glacier’s melting waters and frozen waterfall feeding the lake. Mountainous foothills coated in fir trees hug the ice-carved valley, while the eastern edge is hemmed in by an Industrial Revolution complex of research laboratories and residences for Discovery Glacier’s scientist population.
Walkways circle Lake Verne. On the western glacier side they are carved from gigantic valley boulders, while the manmade complexes on the east are paved with oxidized riveted gangways and warped cedar boardwalks. Sidewalks lining these roads are made from multi-toned clunker bricks. So are brick-paved tunnels found scattered throughout the land.
All this is offset by the azure blue lake, which is awash with off-white ice floes. In Lake Verne’s center, serving as a “weenie” for the land’s three distinct entrances, is the Heliosphere - a kinetic bronze heliocentric model of the Solar System set atop a crag. This is a mechanical model, an “orrery.” At night, the lake comes alive as Aurora Borealis “northern lights” glisten and shimmer from beneath its surface, granting the whole of Discovery Glacier a cold, alien ambiance.
The nearest glacier wall right of the Runway One entrance has been carved away, making room for The Freeze Station. This is an ice cream stand which uses the glacier itself in the production process. The exterior ice walls hold in place a glass case which houses a collection of mercury barometers. Glacial slopes overhead are held in place by avalanche barriers. The icy, frozen hillsides - pouring down from Mt. Helios’ distant peaks - are actively mined by Discovery Glacier’s researchers. A giant steampunk ice drill sits suspended from a copper rig, its giant conical drill frozen solid in place embedded into the arctic soil.
Headed leftwards toward S.E.A.’s urban outpost, a wooden bridge crosses Lake Verne’s river. The lakeshore features natural hot springs behind net fencing, full of bubbling sulfuric water and warm vertical steam vents. Across from this is Aerial Outpost, a wagon merchandise cart set beneath a Montgolfier-style vertical dirigible like something out of Disney’s Atlantis. A cigarette smoking area nearby is set back around a great big “HYDROGEN” tank alongside many smaller compressed air tanks and flammables - let no one say DisneySky lacks a dry sense of humor.
Beyond that, nestled against the woodsy northern foothills, is Spark Gap Hover-Coaster. This is an interactive family coaster set in a Tesla power station, all a modern update on ideas first proposed for Disneyland’s Discovery Bay and its Spark Gap Coaster. (Indeed, you will find a lot of old Discovery Bay in Discovery Glacier, mixed with elements from Disney’s other steampunk lands it has inspired, all filtered through a distinctive DisneySky Arctic viewpoint.)
Continuing on, guests pass over boardwalks built atop Lake Verne’s chilled waters. Built further out over those waters is Steammaster’s Grill, a counter service restaurant set in a boathouse surrounded by half-frozen whaling ships. Opposite that is Tinkerer’s Workshop, S.E.A.’s main steampunk factory complex whose open doors invite any and all to enter and enjoy the interactive scientific exhibits within.
Tomorrow we will continue to explore Discovery Glacier's layout & details.
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Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
I’ve been following this project for over a month now and I’ve been meaning to wait for this moment to get this thought off my chest since this involves this very land. If I’m being honest here, this is the only renamed land where I prefer it’s original name; Discovery Fjord. Of course, as this is your project, you get to call the shots, and I’m not trying to criticize the land’s current name nor do I have a dislike for it. I can get behind the other three renames but I think why I prefer the land’s original name may boil down to personal preference, as I think Fjord sounds more exotic. This also happens to be my favorite land in the entire park both in the original and in this redux.
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Discovery Glacier walkthrough continued.
The heart of the boardwalk - set directly before Lake Verne’s Heliosphere - features a massive S.E.A. logo and a circular plaza around it. Here the Copper Arcade offers covered passage to the Pioneer Fields land. Copper Arcade is a cast-iron and plate-glass exhibition hall modeled on London’s long lost Crystal Palace - considered by some to be “ground zero” for the steampunk aesthetic with its glass dome, its Beaux Artes arched entry, and its flanking retail space. Copper Arcade’s covered space resembles the original Penn Station, vaulted overhead with titanic timepieces.
Two shops flank Copper Arcade. Nearer to Tinkerer’s Workshop is Galerie des Automates, an automaton museum and shop. On the Arcade’s other corner is Time Flies, another British-style store whose exterior borrows from both Harrods and Burlington Arcade.
For now we continue along Discovery Glacier’s boardwalk to The Time Machine set next door to Time Flies. This is the mansion of S.E.A.’s Dr. Huxley. It is an eclectic monstrosity of domes and balconies inspired by countless historical eras. Rumor has it Dr. Huxley has perfected time travel itself! A pink brick clocktower high over Huxley’s home is a support pillar for the SkyLiner. Her gondola cars perpetually glide over Lake Verne, providing Discovery Glacier with invaluable kineticism.
On the nearby cobblestone streets is a platform, and upon it are display pedestals for vintage pre-thermometer thermoscopes designed to measure Discovery Glacier’s temperatures. Near that is a steel rail leading from the lake’s edge to a tunnel in the southeastern slopes (under the Mt. Helios Funicular route) styled like a Victorian London subway tunnel. On the lakeshore, the rail terminates near iron fencing. A walkway leads from there to the sub-zero lake and a rowboat frozen solid. Following the rail into the tunnels, past a parked hand cart loaded with metalworker equipment, guests discover passage to Diesel Bay and beyond. These tunnels are held in place by riveted cylindrical supports and brick-lined walls, subtly transitioning from steampunk to dieselpunk styles as Diesel Bay draws near. Natural caverns break up this constructed tunnel. A howling hole slanting upwards points to the mysterious upper slopes of Mt. Helios.
From here, a walkway along Lake Verne’s western shores takes us back to where we began. We first travel through granite caverns behind the land’s iconic frozen waterfall. Walls feature Captain Nemo’s Nautilus submarine encased in ice. A wooden hangar on the far side, one half-buried in a rockslide, marks the entrance to Flight to the Top of the World, Discovery Glacier’s E-ticket centerpiece - a thrilling dirigible voyage to strange lost worlds deep in the Arctic wilderness! The Hyperion airship sits moored in this hangar, a red maroon masterpiece.
Our tour through Discovery Glacier concludes along a final mountainous stretch by the glacier’s edge. The lakeside features an Archimedes screw - a device meant to draw water from the depths - frozen solid and frosted with icicles. Across from that is the entrance to Salon de Hyperion. Found behind a simple plate-glass shed, guests may enjoy table service French cuisine aboard the flying Hyperion...a truly unique dining experience which is entirely not-to-be-missed!
Cast member outfits
Cast members appear either in steampunk lab assistant outfits (heavy on the mechanic coveralls) or in fancy Victorian suits or dresses, depending on the specific setting.
Restrooms
The first restroom is set in an “ice house” storage structure alongside Tinkerer’s Workshop. This is sunken below the land’s walkway level (to not block views of Spark Gap Hover-Coaster), with a green roof set partially in the earth. Arch-shaped brick doors provide entry, with two doorways corresponding with stone domes in the green Icelandic roof. Set across from Steammaster’s Grill, this restroom is partially intended for that restaurant’s clients.
The second restroom is located in the Victorian tunnels leading to Diesel Bay. The interior facade somewhat borrows from Istanbul’s Basilica Cistern. It is set behind “leaking” brick walls, their waters pouring into a little drainage ditch.
Both restrooms’ interiors are formed of simple clinker bricks, lightly adorned like Victorian industrial closets. There are posters erected advertising Discovery Glacier attractions and eateries, all in a quaint period style.
Benches
Many benches resemble steampunk workbenches, often with discarded metalworking tools strewn about their bases. Around the glacier, seating is carved directly into the icy walls.
The heart of the boardwalk - set directly before Lake Verne’s Heliosphere - features a massive S.E.A. logo and a circular plaza around it. Here the Copper Arcade offers covered passage to the Pioneer Fields land. Copper Arcade is a cast-iron and plate-glass exhibition hall modeled on London’s long lost Crystal Palace - considered by some to be “ground zero” for the steampunk aesthetic with its glass dome, its Beaux Artes arched entry, and its flanking retail space. Copper Arcade’s covered space resembles the original Penn Station, vaulted overhead with titanic timepieces.
Two shops flank Copper Arcade. Nearer to Tinkerer’s Workshop is Galerie des Automates, an automaton museum and shop. On the Arcade’s other corner is Time Flies, another British-style store whose exterior borrows from both Harrods and Burlington Arcade.
For now we continue along Discovery Glacier’s boardwalk to The Time Machine set next door to Time Flies. This is the mansion of S.E.A.’s Dr. Huxley. It is an eclectic monstrosity of domes and balconies inspired by countless historical eras. Rumor has it Dr. Huxley has perfected time travel itself! A pink brick clocktower high over Huxley’s home is a support pillar for the SkyLiner. Her gondola cars perpetually glide over Lake Verne, providing Discovery Glacier with invaluable kineticism.
On the nearby cobblestone streets is a platform, and upon it are display pedestals for vintage pre-thermometer thermoscopes designed to measure Discovery Glacier’s temperatures. Near that is a steel rail leading from the lake’s edge to a tunnel in the southeastern slopes (under the Mt. Helios Funicular route) styled like a Victorian London subway tunnel. On the lakeshore, the rail terminates near iron fencing. A walkway leads from there to the sub-zero lake and a rowboat frozen solid. Following the rail into the tunnels, past a parked hand cart loaded with metalworker equipment, guests discover passage to Diesel Bay and beyond. These tunnels are held in place by riveted cylindrical supports and brick-lined walls, subtly transitioning from steampunk to dieselpunk styles as Diesel Bay draws near. Natural caverns break up this constructed tunnel. A howling hole slanting upwards points to the mysterious upper slopes of Mt. Helios.
From here, a walkway along Lake Verne’s western shores takes us back to where we began. We first travel through granite caverns behind the land’s iconic frozen waterfall. Walls feature Captain Nemo’s Nautilus submarine encased in ice. A wooden hangar on the far side, one half-buried in a rockslide, marks the entrance to Flight to the Top of the World, Discovery Glacier’s E-ticket centerpiece - a thrilling dirigible voyage to strange lost worlds deep in the Arctic wilderness! The Hyperion airship sits moored in this hangar, a red maroon masterpiece.
Our tour through Discovery Glacier concludes along a final mountainous stretch by the glacier’s edge. The lakeside features an Archimedes screw - a device meant to draw water from the depths - frozen solid and frosted with icicles. Across from that is the entrance to Salon de Hyperion. Found behind a simple plate-glass shed, guests may enjoy table service French cuisine aboard the flying Hyperion...a truly unique dining experience which is entirely not-to-be-missed!
Cast member outfits
Cast members appear either in steampunk lab assistant outfits (heavy on the mechanic coveralls) or in fancy Victorian suits or dresses, depending on the specific setting.
Streetmosphere
The Victorian-era magician The Great Electro roams the shops and restaurants, performing close-up magic with a steampunk flair.
Wandering the same spaces is a period-appropriate fortune teller, a psychic & séance expert, who provides guests with future predictions and palm readings very much in the Victorian spiritualist tradition.
The Victorian-era magician The Great Electro roams the shops and restaurants, performing close-up magic with a steampunk flair.
Wandering the same spaces is a period-appropriate fortune teller, a psychic & séance expert, who provides guests with future predictions and palm readings very much in the Victorian spiritualist tradition.
Walkaround characters
Discovery Glacier - being for the most part an original IP-free land - does not prominently feature walkaround characters. However, on rare occasions characters from Disney’s underappreciated Atlantis: The Lost Empire might appear.
Discovery Glacier - being for the most part an original IP-free land - does not prominently feature walkaround characters. However, on rare occasions characters from Disney’s underappreciated Atlantis: The Lost Empire might appear.
Restrooms
The first restroom is set in an “ice house” storage structure alongside Tinkerer’s Workshop. This is sunken below the land’s walkway level (to not block views of Spark Gap Hover-Coaster), with a green roof set partially in the earth. Arch-shaped brick doors provide entry, with two doorways corresponding with stone domes in the green Icelandic roof. Set across from Steammaster’s Grill, this restroom is partially intended for that restaurant’s clients.
The second restroom is located in the Victorian tunnels leading to Diesel Bay. The interior facade somewhat borrows from Istanbul’s Basilica Cistern. It is set behind “leaking” brick walls, their waters pouring into a little drainage ditch.
Both restrooms’ interiors are formed of simple clinker bricks, lightly adorned like Victorian industrial closets. There are posters erected advertising Discovery Glacier attractions and eateries, all in a quaint period style.
Churro carts
Imagine a cart made from a repurposed steam boiler, one with wheels and accessories taken from a locomotive and with everything bolted together haphazardly. For the churros, imagine how this inhospitable wintry setting could be improved by delicious hot chocolate filling and nut coating.
Imagine a cart made from a repurposed steam boiler, one with wheels and accessories taken from a locomotive and with everything bolted together haphazardly. For the churros, imagine how this inhospitable wintry setting could be improved by delicious hot chocolate filling and nut coating.
Drinking fountains
Steampunk pipe fountains dot the landscape, all of them fed by icicle-clad pipes leading from the glacier or from Lake Verne.
Steampunk pipe fountains dot the landscape, all of them fed by icicle-clad pipes leading from the glacier or from Lake Verne.
Trash cans
Oily, riveted tin drums now serve as trash cans.
Oily, riveted tin drums now serve as trash cans.
Benches
Many benches resemble steampunk workbenches, often with discarded metalworking tools strewn about their bases. Around the glacier, seating is carved directly into the icy walls.
Umbrellas
Local animal hides are stretched across steampunk stands.
Local animal hides are stretched across steampunk stands.
Fencing
Most fencing is set around Lake Verne, with most of that being repurposed nautical netting held within oxidized industrial fences. Barriers elsewhere consist of Icelandic stone walls and simple teak fences.
Most fencing is set around Lake Verne, with most of that being repurposed nautical netting held within oxidized industrial fences. Barriers elsewhere consist of Icelandic stone walls and simple teak fences.
Lighting
Streetlamps everywhere resemble utilitarian Tesla coils.
Streetlamps everywhere resemble utilitarian Tesla coils.
Misters
Set in between Salon de Hyperion and the Freeze Station, a busted steam engine is a logical source for cooling mist sprays. So too are the aforementioned hot springs located near Steammaster’s Grill.
Set in between Salon de Hyperion and the Freeze Station, a busted steam engine is a logical source for cooling mist sprays. So too are the aforementioned hot springs located near Steammaster’s Grill.
Stroller corrals & phone-charging stations
An open-air port - like a miniature version of London’s Crystal Palace - sits out over the waters of Lake Verne near The Time Machine. Within it are steam engine charging stations, plus assorted wall-mounted gadgetry done with a Nicola Tesla design aesthetic.
An open-air port - like a miniature version of London’s Crystal Palace - sits out over the waters of Lake Verne near The Time Machine. Within it are steam engine charging stations, plus assorted wall-mounted gadgetry done with a Nicola Tesla design aesthetic.
Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
Well, looks like I got my prediction for this somewhat wrong. I thought the cart would have been made a repurposed mineral wagon or narrow gauge tender. Just how big are these carts anyway? I also predicted the churro having a hot chocolate filling but was totally blank on the coating.
Speaking of locomotives, if space was not issue for DisneySky, I would like to imagine that there would be an overhead narrow gauge railway with a shunter (switcher for North American audiences) going to the waterfront, where a coaling tower that's supplied by a barge "loads" empty into a couple of coal wagons ( black colored smoke simulating dust and sound effects simulate coal being loaded, while the coal cars have a mechanism that flips to show a full coal wagon when the effects take place) before the little engine would scuttle back into a facade that resembles an industrial space like a gasworks (once inside, the coal load flips over to make it look like the wagons have been emptied). Alternatively; and recently I've just came up with; the coaling tower would be a goods shed (freight house for Americans) serviced by watercraft, and vans (the Europeans' version of boxcars) replacing the coal wagons (I've contemplated the vans having their doors open to reveal nothing inside until they come into the goods shed (which is enclosed save for the door, which the engine blocks when it's inside, and the windows; which are artfully weathered to look grimy). Once a few minutes have passed, the sounds of doors being closed and the engine's whistle occur and the engine hauls the vans (whose doors have been closed) to the end of the track inside a warehouse facade (which could possibly be a store, though you couldn't see the train from inside). Once a few minutes have passed, the sounds of worker's voices and the engine's whistle have played, the train rolls out and the process repeats itself.
Suchomimus
Well-Known Member
I feel like I've seen that image on the left from somewhere before. What is it from?
