Evilgidgit
Well-Known Member
Might I suggest you actually add pie fights to the experience too, though you have to sign up first and be a participating pie thrower. Restrained fun to avoid lawsuits.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
DisneySky - COMPLETE & RESTORED
- Thread starter D Hulk
- Start date
Launchpad McSnacks
Snack cart
Corndogs and carnival snacks
For a quick bite, look no further than this vintage 1920s fire truck parked alongside Jenny’s Flying Circus. Not that it’s hard to miss, thanks to the JN-1 biplane which has crashed into the surrounding corn fields. This crash is the handiwork of Launchpad McQuack, no doubt, whose painted face adorns the fire truck’s passenger door. There’s even a handwritten “Crash Counter” on the truck, full of tick marks commemorating Launchpad’s many mishaps. Launchpad might even be running the fire response, since every once in a while the JN-1’s engine bursts into flames without any response.
At least the food service here is reliable. In keeping with Jenny’s festive barnstorming spirit (to be explored further in Jenny’s Flying Circus), McSnacks specializes in carnival snacks: Cotton candy, peanuts, caramel apples, pink lemonade. Oh, and Disney’s famous corndogs! Guests can enjoy their treats on a nearby bench, under the shade of a phone pole coated in barnstorming circus flyers, or they can nosh on-the-go admiring Pioneer Fields’ many kinetic rides.
Air Tanker Treats
Snack cart
Popcorn wagon with other items
The farmer’s market stand known as Air Tanker Treats rests in Paseo Plaza’s northeastern corner, near a prototype Douglas C-1 air tanker which provides the name. This humble little stand is a popcorn wagon, primarily. Other farm fresh treats are also available for the more health-conscious, including hot buttered corn-on-the-cob and fresh veggie skewers.
This little roadside stand packs in quite a bit of theming into a small footprint. The stand itself is made from an old hay cart. Inca tapestries and ropes provide an awning. A ruined old mill tower marks the space between Air Tanker Treats and the JetRail station. Before the mill is a display of rusted old farm equipment, all of it the genuine article acquired by Imagineering on a research trip...hoes, pitchforks, a thresher. One of the farmers who runs this wagon is also a part time landscape artist; her watercolor paintings on nearby easels all depict daring scenes from 1920s aviation, such as the C-1 tanker dropping water onto crops or forest fires.
The Clockwork Canyon sub-area
Da Vinci Delights
Snack cart
Italian gelatos and baked goods
While the transition walkway in between Pioneer Fields and Mythic Realms isn’t technically part of either destination, it warrants discussion. This space is known as Clockwork Canyon, themed to an earlier Spanish colonial era. Originally Clockwork Canyon was meant to be an entire expansion land, to be themed around Leonardo Da Vinci’s clockpunk contraptions and similar sixteenth-century fantasias. Clockwork Canyon would have borne a similar aesthetic to Tokyo DisneySea’s Renaissance-styled Soaring Fantastic Flight. This expansion will likely never happen as planned. Between Disney’s Gigantic being cancelled, and the extremely limited expansion space available, sadly it wasn’t meant to be. (Find out more eventually when we discuss DisneySky’s expansion possibilities in depth.)
The Clockwork Canyon that remains is a tribute to that ill-fated concept. It is in its own right a nicely-themed little area. A dried riverbed pathway cuts a deep trench through the thick pine forest. Large river rocks block JetRail views. The forest is lit by medieval-style gas lamp posts. All this is bounded by Middle Ages farm wood fencing. Additional points of interest include a pockmarked medieval ox cart and assorted wood barrels.
The only thing of note in Clockwork Canyon is Da Vinci Treats. This is a snack cart which offers up Italian gelatos and baked goods. The food counter takes the form of Da Vinci’s conical wooden tank intention. Da Vinci’s Aerial Screw - his bizarre man-powered spiral helicopter - sits at the entrance, its kinetic spinning canvas blades drawing guests’ eyes. A little dining area is set up in a forest glen, with shading found under the leather wings of an ancient glider machine and seating found upon Renaissance benches. Shelves all around depict other Da Vinci inventions and sketches. Altogether this is an incredibly minor part of DisneySky, but one we couldn’t help but include considering Da Vinci’s importance in the early history of aviation.
Note that when Clockwork Canyon eventually gets removed (probably when a Coco ride is added to Pioneer Fields), Da Vinci Treats will be relocated...perhaps as a food stand, perhaps as a mere visual “artifact.” The most likely relocation spot is Rancho Disney’s southern entry point. Here the Aerial Screw and Tank will live on as the final thing guests see when leaving DisneySky for the evening. One final bit of aviation folklore.
Last edited:
Tienda Altiplano
General store
Special event items, sweets, baby items and more
Copper Arcade divides up the main shops of Pioneer Fields just as it does in Discovery Glacier. Tienda Altiplano, located right of the arcade in Paseo Plaza’s northwestern corner, serves as the village’s general store. The exterior facade is bathed in a multitude of bright colors like the town of Valparaiso, Chile. Colorful street art murals depict sequential images of a condor in flight, slowly transforming into a JN-1 biplane. Window displays feature mannequins clad in vintage aviator outfits, set before a realistic pampas mural. An amateur meteorologist’s weather station sits in the upstairs window, measuring local conditions. False storefronts in between the Tienda’s genuine entrance advertise non-existent local stores like the “Tienda Generalissimo” and the “Madre y Padre.”
The shop interior proves to be exactly the sort of woosy old-timey general store you might expect. There are display shelves topped with all manner of eclectic local Chilean props: colorful woven Andean handicrafts, old musical instruments, mason jars, cans, skillets, and most notably era-appropriate model airplanes. A rolling ladder sits between two wall shelves, furthering the period department store feel. Barrels on the floor hold real merchandise. Tin star lanterns hang from the ceiling like a star map. Alebrijes, as seen in Coco, line the top shelves. There is a stuffed ostrich; this flightless bird is commonly hunted by gauchos. The checkout counter includes a non-functioning vintage cash register. A mural behind the registers shows off a topographical map of the Andes mountains complete with flight routes.
Merchandise is appropriately generalized to serve the entire land. There is a constant rotating selection of special event items. In addition to the usual Disney Parks souvenirs, a fair amount of the Tienda’s products skew younger in order to serve this land’s family demographic.
Gearloose Labs
Merchandise store
Apparel, folk craft and more
Opposite from Tienda Altiplano, Gearloose Labs is a complementary sister shop which also serves the land’s all-purpose merchandise needs. These are the laboratories of one Gyro Gearloose, the quackpot gander inventor famous from Ducktales and Disney’s many, many Duck Comics.
It might seem a little odd adding a cartoonish character-themed shop to our realistic Chilean village, so designers are very careful with the Gearloose details. From the outside, the only overt nod is the store’s sign itself, which includes a faded drawing of Gyro. Otherwise, the exterior is a converted garage facade. Signage such as “Inventions U don’t think U need!” clutters the stark plaster walls. Next to a “Blowout Sale!” sign sits a charred & exploded internal combustion engine, one of Gyro’s less-than-successful creations.
The shop’s interior is where we really go nuts with the Gyro theming! All manner of crazed devices clutter up an otherwise rather nondescript garage. There are shelves of tools, like wrenches, saws, books, mallets, and an old shoe. Colored liquids bubble in various science beakers. There is a multi-armed automatic bicycle. A pogo stick with pedals. Gyro’s sidecar-shaped motorized unicycle. There is Gyro’s so-called “thinking cap,” which is a head-sized barn cap with nesting space for three simple crow animatronics. (Yes, these are all canonical, genuine Gyro gizmos!)
The most noteworthy sight - the kind which brings in curious guests even when they aren’t shopping - is a small animatronic of Gyro’s beloved Little Helper robot, protected within a glass case. Little Helper, itself a tinkerer, hammers away on a tiny six-inch workbench.
Mostly the shop sells apparel, though there are also Andean-style folk craft for local flavor. Guests who are ready to check out can head to the registers behind a row of red tool boxes. Details behind the counter focus less Gyro and more on the Duck Comics’ Latin American elements. From Carl Barks’ famed Donald Duck story “Lost in the Andes,” a case displays several square eggs. Wall sketches depict the natives of Plain Awful. Another case contains signed postcards from Panchito and Jose Carioca, sending their warmest wishes from Mexico and Brazil respectively.
A walkaround Gyro Gearloose character is known to frequent this shop on occasions. He is an incredibly rare costumed character sighting, so appearances are always special events!
Cathedral Collections
Meet & greet and store
Plush toys themed to nearby characters
Cathedrals are a crucial part of any colonial square. They are central to civic life. In a theme park space, needs are very different. Our cathedral, which is rather small and decorative to begin with, functions as a character meet ‘n’ greet location plus adjoining store.
The palatial structure design is a fusion of the Cartagena and Guanajuato Cathedrals. Stone slab supports hold red- and yellow-colored stucco walls. The colorful dome - topped by a winged angel statue - neatly mirrors the shape and colors of the nearby Airtopia Balloon. Sandstone statuary on the cathedral’s exterior oak doors depict rings of birds with oversized wings, arching over the entry like a circle. The Ninth Circle of Dante’s Paradiso provides visual inspiration.
In the cathedral gardens is a tasteful bronze statue of Donald Duck as Donald Hudson, who (as a helpful plaque explains) was the first man to fly over the Andes. Decommissioned WWI cannons line the flower beds.
An entry lobby leads indoors to a central cathedral chamber. Above a second level balustrade of sandstone and carved hardwood paneling, a mural on the rotunda dome depicts heavenly clouds with the sun’s rays peeking out.
This unexpectedly spectacular setting is home to Cathedral Meeting Place, a dedicated meet ‘n’ greet location for the Fab Five. Two of the corner apses in this cross-shaped space serve as photo-op spots, complete with painted backdrops to best frame Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Whenever needed - say seasonally - additional characters might show up as well. Particularly characters from Coco. The meet ‘n’ greet element is fairly no-frills, but the cathedral’s beauty and the location’s ease-of-use make this very useful in family-friendly Pioneer Fields.
The fourth cathedral passageway leads to the Cathedral Collections shop antechamber, which is also accessible from outside near Mickey’s Plane Crazy. Simple wood-paneled interior architecture borrows liberally from Santa Fe’s Palace of the Governor. Shelving carries plush toys themed to meet ‘n’ greet characters. Colorful folk art “retablos” in inset panels regularly switch out, so that they always depict the Cathedral’s featured characters.
Happy Thanksgiving! Tomorrow on Black Friday, we will conclude Pioneer Fields' retail.
Last edited:
Jenny’s Flying Circus
Merchandise store
Accessories, toys themed to UP, and more
A barnstorming circus tent, vibrantly colored purple and blue, sits across from Airtopia. It serves as the main shop for the farmland section of Pioneer Fields, prominently featuring UP-themed toys, barnstorming-related accessories, and clothing bearing DisneySky characters.
Jenny’s transient flying circus has descended upon the sleepy town, filling the skies with the sound of overhead cropdusters and filling the dusty roads with several vintage jalopies here to see the show. Jenny herself, prominently starring in circus posters stapled to the canvas, is an anthropomorphic JN-1 biplane...These planes were colloquially known as “Jennies” during the Roaring Twenties, making Jenny a natural original character for DisneySky.
The bigtop’s interior is very reminiscent of Magic Kingdom’s Big Top Souvenirs. Jenny herself flies circling the rafters overhead as a simple kinetic element, held aloft with wires. Shelving is fashioned from stacked biplane wings. Rotating racks are made from overturned plane engines. Stunt pilot props on display include parachute satchels and a bundled rope ladder. A flying circus announcer tower serves as the shop’s centerpiece and as its centrally-located checkout counter.
The far tent surface, opposite from the entrance, is a projection surface for an old-timey movie projector. The vintage machine shows genuine black-and-white footage of 1920s barnstormer stunt pilots. Simple circus seating flanks the screen, providing a fun respite for retail-weary children or husbands.
Jenny’s Flying Circus enjoys a close relationship with UP Snapshot Safari. Guests can purchase any photos they took on that ride, with their special on-ride cameras. These images are available for digital download, or individually framed. They even come compiled into our trademark “My Adventure Book” which packages every UP Snapshot Safari pic into a single, colorfully bound souvenir.
Condor Imports
Wagon cart
Wagon offering hairbands and sun protectors
The unassuming Romani wagon known as Condor Imports, parked without Cabildo permission in Paseo Plaza, sells simple, need-it-now park-touring items such as hairbands and sunglasses.
There really isn’t much to this little cart, simply colorful hand-painted artwork of condors and the Andes mountains. A Spanish coat of arms adorns the wagon’s side entrance door. Underneath an awning, various matador props sit atop the hardwood merchandise shelves: Lances, capes, and a false bull head on a chassis.
Carl’s Balloon Cart
Wagon cart
Wagon selling balloons
Who would we be to create an UP ride, and not sell any balloons? To that end we announce Carl’s Balloon Cart, located alongside the river near the entrance to UP Snapshot Safari.
With its towering cloud of multicolored balloons, there’s no doubt what is sold at Carl’s Balloon Cart. It’s balloons...biodegradable, eco-friendly balloons. Visually, the cart is a near identical replica of Carl’s cart from the movie UP.
Adding immeasurably to this rather basic cart, the area also serves as a character meeting spot. Carl, Russell and Dug appear here several times throughout the day to mingle with guests and otherwise spread joy.
Last edited:
DIESEL BAY
Enjoy a thriving Art Deco metropolis which has risen from the mists of a South Seas jungle
TIME: September 1st, 1938
Diesel Bay rises like a glorious, glistening phoenix from the muggy jungles of the South Seas! This is a stupendous Art Deco metropolis sitting precariously on the edge of the wilderness and on the brink of World War Two. But for the forward-thinking citizens of Diesel Bay, there is nothing but positivity! They exemplify the best entrepreneurial spirit of the Jazz Age, all set to explore the world in dieselpunk style. Diesel Bay boasts a pulpy 1930s charm similar to Adventureland, but with a tighter backstory and setting. The future looks bright for this Micronesian citystate, whose setting & history mirror Singapore’s. An aeronautic spirit dominates everywhere, from the nation’s forbidding jungle interior to its oil-soaked waterfront!
While Diesel Bay is named for its founder William Diesel, its name also refers to the land’s bounteous natural resources. Oil was found here in 1931, and in under a decade a magnificent city grew. By extracting the earth’s wealth, Diesel was able to grow his fledgling bush pilot company into a massive conglomerate. Diesel grew wealthy with his massive air freight industry (major Howard Hughes parallels here!), which gave him the freedom needed to branch away from the increasingly-rigid S.E.A. and found his own S.K.Y. offshoot. Diesel Bay became a meeting place for all sorts of eccentrics, from engineers to adventurers. Soon Sky Pirates began to prey on this jewel in the South Seas.
Guests may quench all their adventurous desires in Diesel Bay. Deep in the jungle’s interior, the ancient ruins of a sky-worshipping culture wait to be discovered. Funiculars ferry guests to the snowy peaks of Mt. Helios for panoramic 360 views of DisneySky below. Guests can strap on a jetpack and fly alongside the Rocketeer battling Sky Pirates. Or guests can simply enjoy the best of Jazz Age dining and entertainment in William Diesel’s cosmopolitan playground.
LAND LAYOUT & DETAILS
Attractions: 62. The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates, 63. Lost Temple Ruins, 64. Myth of Moana, 65. Mt. Helios Funiculars, 66. DisneySky JetRail, 67. SkylinerDining: 68. South Seas Club, 69. Cargo Fruit, 70. Bush Pilots Diner, 71. Bulldog Cafe, 72. Cedar Eagle Dining Room, 73. The Flying Pig, 74. Auto-Gyros
Retail: 75. Parachute Loot, 76. Rocketeer Gear, 77. Skunkworks, 78. Tradewinds Department Store
Traveling clockwise through DisneySky, guests experience the history of Diesel Bay, beginning in primeval jungle and climaxing in an Art Deco masterpiece on the waters of Langley Lagoon.
Jaunty Jazz Age land music brings energetic life to Diesel Bay’s cityscape. Period-appropriate speakers lend just a hint of a record player crackle, which is a very transporting “out-of-time” effect.
Meanwhile, the further guests venture into the jungle, the more the sounds of jazz fade away, until they are replaced entirely with immersive jungle wildlife sound effects.
We start by emerging from Pioneer Field’s covered bridge, which from this side resembles a Maori longhouse. The untamed jungle stretches out before us, with Polynesian-style ancient stone roads mixed with vine-riddled dirt paths. The only sign of civilization to emerge from the tropical leaves is Cargo Fruit, a thatch-roofed fruit shop erected by a native cargo cult.
Diesel Bay's jungle area
The dirt pathway splits off in a Y. To the right, the River Lani cuts through the jungle. (“Lani,” incidentally, is Polynesian for “sky.”) With its tiered pools and waterfalls, intercut with polished rocks and greenery, River Lani recalls Plitvice Lakes in Croatia but with a South Seas flavor. A “temporary” military pontoon bridge crosses the shallow river, beautifully framing a waterfall just to its right.
Following the dirt pathway to the left instead takes us deeper into the jungle and past Parachute Loot, a shop built from repurposed parachute tents. A native drua catamaran leads left down another branching trail, past through a limestone canyon which hides the theater-in-the-round Wayfarer Stage, home of the Myth of Moana live stage show. The main pathway curves rightwards back to the River Lani, which is spanned by a bamboo bridge inspired by The Bridge on the River Kwai. More waterways join the River Lani here, and on the other side is the explorable Lost Temple Ruins, a major walkthrough attraction which lets guests play as archeologists in a sprawling South Seas ruins complex. There is even an elaborate escape room sub-attraction, a first from Disney Imagineering.
Even here in the primitive jungle, the thematic flight motif persists. A mighty rubber tree teems with hanging weaver bird nests. An airplane’s ejector seat dangles from the treetops, with vines already overtaking it. Continuing on, the thick branches part to reveal tenuous signs of modern civilization such as Bush Pilots Diner, which offers Thai curries and a gorgeous waterfall dining platform.
Nineteenth-century European shacks sit at the footsteps of towering limestone cliffs, fashioned haphazardly from driftwood and corrugated metal and such. These structures are inspired by Fiji’s Levuka Town, with individual facades for traders, missionaries, shipwrights, and others. Guests are invited to peer through windows and doors to see staged scenes from early Diesel Bay life...not an attraction in its own right, but a charming fan-favorite detail like the windows of Knott’s Ghost Town or Disneyland Paris’ Frontierland.
These peek-in moments - which are located near possible outdoor queue space for the Bush Pilots Diner buffeteria - include views into bush pilots’ offices. These scenes have a distinctive noir vibe, with their slatted Venetian blinds and creaky ceiling fans. Pilots’ silhouettes appear behind frosted glass doors, arguing over shipping routes. There are neon “Barracuda Airlines” signs. CB radios convey air traffic reports. Anti-Sky Pirate signage dots the walls.
The branching dirt pathways rejoin as the city starts to take shape, and as the DisneySky JetRail bursts from the treetops overhead and sails down the middle of an asphalt street. A paved plaza marks the tentative end of the jungle, filled with oil extraction equipment like a kinetic pumping oil derrick, an oil tower, or the rusty, overgrown Skyliner’s Diesel Bay Station in between them. Hidden machines pump a crude oil scent into the air.
Bounded by limestone cliffs on one side, and by River Lani on the other, the roadway leads directly due west into downtown Diesel Bay. Astounding Art Deco skyscrapers rise up from the jungle, their sleek vertical lines blending in very nicely with the similar limestone walls. Before these cliffs in a hangar is the Rocketeer Gear post-ride shop. Opposite that on the shores of the River Lani is the Bulldog Cafe, a roadside diner shaped like a bulldog.
The far side of the River Lani marks the southern tropical foothills of Mt. Helios, full of receding crystal blue waterfalls and otherworldly limestone karsts - inspired by the rock formations of Puerto Princesa in the Philippines. Departing from a brand new Arc Deco platform, Mt. Helios Funiculars vanish up into the frigid mountaintop. Guests are free to explore the peak of Mt. Helios, though they had better beware of the mountain’s gigantic guardian eagle! A dedicated funicular track even services the high-toned South Seas Club, a table service restaurant improbably housed within an alpine cavern.
Alongside the funicular station is a stone Art Deco bridge crossing the River Lani. Stairs as well as a criss-crossing path (for ADA access) lead slightly upslope and join with the tunnel pathway from Discovery Glacier. Here at the base of Mt. Helios, this pathway parallels the road below the JetLiner, meandering through a stone forest of karsts. Polynesian bamboo bridges cross the cascading waterfall torrents. Water pours over, under and around a crashed old airplane fuselage. Larger jungle rock formations are inspired by Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. Further along, guests pass the Auto-Gyros kebab snack wagon. A natural sandstone arch leads to Cosmic Crater. An anti-aircraft gun on this cliff faces out towards Langley Lagoon, protecting Diesel Bay. As framed by the Cosmic Crater arch, Diesel Bay’s skyscrapers are picture perfect. Another stone Art Deco bridge leads the way, this one inspired by Los Angeles’ First Street bridge and bearing angel statues atop pillars which themselves boast shapes very similar to Diesel Bay’s skyscrapers.
Jaunty Jazz Age land music brings energetic life to Diesel Bay’s cityscape. Period-appropriate speakers lend just a hint of a record player crackle, which is a very transporting “out-of-time” effect.
Meanwhile, the further guests venture into the jungle, the more the sounds of jazz fade away, until they are replaced entirely with immersive jungle wildlife sound effects.
We start by emerging from Pioneer Field’s covered bridge, which from this side resembles a Maori longhouse. The untamed jungle stretches out before us, with Polynesian-style ancient stone roads mixed with vine-riddled dirt paths. The only sign of civilization to emerge from the tropical leaves is Cargo Fruit, a thatch-roofed fruit shop erected by a native cargo cult.
Diesel Bay's jungle area
The dirt pathway splits off in a Y. To the right, the River Lani cuts through the jungle. (“Lani,” incidentally, is Polynesian for “sky.”) With its tiered pools and waterfalls, intercut with polished rocks and greenery, River Lani recalls Plitvice Lakes in Croatia but with a South Seas flavor. A “temporary” military pontoon bridge crosses the shallow river, beautifully framing a waterfall just to its right.
Following the dirt pathway to the left instead takes us deeper into the jungle and past Parachute Loot, a shop built from repurposed parachute tents. A native drua catamaran leads left down another branching trail, past through a limestone canyon which hides the theater-in-the-round Wayfarer Stage, home of the Myth of Moana live stage show. The main pathway curves rightwards back to the River Lani, which is spanned by a bamboo bridge inspired by The Bridge on the River Kwai. More waterways join the River Lani here, and on the other side is the explorable Lost Temple Ruins, a major walkthrough attraction which lets guests play as archeologists in a sprawling South Seas ruins complex. There is even an elaborate escape room sub-attraction, a first from Disney Imagineering.
Even here in the primitive jungle, the thematic flight motif persists. A mighty rubber tree teems with hanging weaver bird nests. An airplane’s ejector seat dangles from the treetops, with vines already overtaking it. Continuing on, the thick branches part to reveal tenuous signs of modern civilization such as Bush Pilots Diner, which offers Thai curries and a gorgeous waterfall dining platform.
Nineteenth-century European shacks sit at the footsteps of towering limestone cliffs, fashioned haphazardly from driftwood and corrugated metal and such. These structures are inspired by Fiji’s Levuka Town, with individual facades for traders, missionaries, shipwrights, and others. Guests are invited to peer through windows and doors to see staged scenes from early Diesel Bay life...not an attraction in its own right, but a charming fan-favorite detail like the windows of Knott’s Ghost Town or Disneyland Paris’ Frontierland.
These peek-in moments - which are located near possible outdoor queue space for the Bush Pilots Diner buffeteria - include views into bush pilots’ offices. These scenes have a distinctive noir vibe, with their slatted Venetian blinds and creaky ceiling fans. Pilots’ silhouettes appear behind frosted glass doors, arguing over shipping routes. There are neon “Barracuda Airlines” signs. CB radios convey air traffic reports. Anti-Sky Pirate signage dots the walls.
The branching dirt pathways rejoin as the city starts to take shape, and as the DisneySky JetRail bursts from the treetops overhead and sails down the middle of an asphalt street. A paved plaza marks the tentative end of the jungle, filled with oil extraction equipment like a kinetic pumping oil derrick, an oil tower, or the rusty, overgrown Skyliner’s Diesel Bay Station in between them. Hidden machines pump a crude oil scent into the air.
Bounded by limestone cliffs on one side, and by River Lani on the other, the roadway leads directly due west into downtown Diesel Bay. Astounding Art Deco skyscrapers rise up from the jungle, their sleek vertical lines blending in very nicely with the similar limestone walls. Before these cliffs in a hangar is the Rocketeer Gear post-ride shop. Opposite that on the shores of the River Lani is the Bulldog Cafe, a roadside diner shaped like a bulldog.
The far side of the River Lani marks the southern tropical foothills of Mt. Helios, full of receding crystal blue waterfalls and otherworldly limestone karsts - inspired by the rock formations of Puerto Princesa in the Philippines. Departing from a brand new Arc Deco platform, Mt. Helios Funiculars vanish up into the frigid mountaintop. Guests are free to explore the peak of Mt. Helios, though they had better beware of the mountain’s gigantic guardian eagle! A dedicated funicular track even services the high-toned South Seas Club, a table service restaurant improbably housed within an alpine cavern.
Alongside the funicular station is a stone Art Deco bridge crossing the River Lani. Stairs as well as a criss-crossing path (for ADA access) lead slightly upslope and join with the tunnel pathway from Discovery Glacier. Here at the base of Mt. Helios, this pathway parallels the road below the JetLiner, meandering through a stone forest of karsts. Polynesian bamboo bridges cross the cascading waterfall torrents. Water pours over, under and around a crashed old airplane fuselage. Larger jungle rock formations are inspired by Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. Further along, guests pass the Auto-Gyros kebab snack wagon. A natural sandstone arch leads to Cosmic Crater. An anti-aircraft gun on this cliff faces out towards Langley Lagoon, protecting Diesel Bay. As framed by the Cosmic Crater arch, Diesel Bay’s skyscrapers are picture perfect. Another stone Art Deco bridge leads the way, this one inspired by Los Angeles’ First Street bridge and bearing angel statues atop pillars which themselves boast shapes very similar to Diesel Bay’s skyscrapers.
Tomorrow we will continue our walkthrough of Diesel Bay's city area. Guaranteed!
Please pardon my brief delay. You know how it is, waking up the day after personally prepping (from scratch) & hosting & consuming a magnificent Thanksgiving feast, intending to get some work done, and instead spending all day napping. That was me yesterday.
Last edited:
spacemt354
Chili's
I've been reading these slightly out of order - but wow! The level of detail here is insane! 
Diesel Bay's city area
At last we have reached downtown Diesel Bay, with its shiny patterned marble floors and S.K.Y. seal all reminiscent of Rockefeller Center. The similar plaza here is known as Rocketeer Center. This is clearly a city of the skies, as evidenced by the skyscraper’s forced perspective airship mooring posts and rooftop observatory domes. Imagine the New York City which never was, with towering highrises taking inspiration from a great and eclectic collection of American edifices: Detroit’s Fisher Building, New York’s American Radiator Building, Syracuse’s Niagara Mohawk Building, Columbus’ LeVeque Tower, and Los Angeles’ Eastern Columbia Building. There is even one skyscraper still under construction, encased in forced perspective bamboo scaffolding like you’d find in Hong Kong.
Behind these skyscrapers is The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates, accessed by a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Mayan Revival mansion at the street corner. This is the land’s mega-headliner E-ticket, a wildly immersive flight simulator where guests fly on jetpacks battling Sky Pirates!
Nearby is a golden Art Deco statue of Atlas. A pedestal in the city’s plaza displays a Curtiss V-1570 engine (much like the anchor on display in DisneySea’s American Waterfront); a plaque describes this as William Diesel’s original design. An airplane banner, welcoming visitors with “Diesel City - Built On a Wing and a Prayer,” stretches between downtown facades. The DisneySky JetRail Station sits atop the Tradewinds Department Store, both sharing a vaulted Art Deco building.
To further explore the ritzy street of Skyscraper Row, with its tropical palm tree plantings and Hollyhock Stage, guests will find false front facades. As with Pioneer Fields, these give our city greater lived-in realism. There is a pilots union. A “South Seas Suites” hotel, part of Diesel Bay’s greater tourism economy. Similarly, there is a scenic tours storefront. There’s also the office for Diesel Bay’s dedicated newspaper, “The Downdraft.”
Docks made of birchwood line Langley Lagoon along the metropolis’ waterfront. This area is informally known as Pontoon Lagoon. It is a bit more hardscrabble than Skyscraper Row, reeking of saltwater and oil. Seaplanes sit moored along docks, which are covered in barnacles and starfish. A floating dinghy piled full of propellers sits at the mouth of the River Lani. Skunkworks, a sprawling souvenir store named for Lockheed’s WWII-era workshop, visually recalls Disney’s TaleSpin. The Flying Pig snack counter serves Hawaiian luau food at the end of a separate dock, with dining overflow found in a metal freight container. For photo ops, note the nearby dieselpunk motorcycle with sidecar.
But possibly the most noteworthy sight in all of Diesel Bay is the renowned Cedar Eagle, a gigantic seaplane built from cedar and designed by William Diesel itself. Cart rails in the asphalt lead to the Cedar Eagle, floating in the waters along DisneySky’s southern perimeter. Just as DisneySea’s S.S. Columbia is a 5/8th scale replica of the famed Queen Mary ocean liner (once owned by Disney when they were planning a Port Disney park for Long Beach, CA), the Cedar Eagle is a scale replica of the famed Spruce Goose which also once sat in Long Beach. The Cedar Eagle shares the Spruce Goose’s history - the largest airplane ever built, a wartime flying boat prototype which flew once and never entered mass production. She sits now in Diesel Bay’s waters, her massive right wing spanning over the roadways and into Pontoon Lagoon, her interior serving as the setting for the Cedar Eagle Dining Room.
Lee Bridge marks the passage over Langley Lagoon to Avengers Airspace. Art Deco stylings create a very smooth transition from Diesel Bay to contemporary New York City, but that is a tale for another day...
Cast member outfits
Most of Diesel Bay’s cast members dress as blue collar workers in the service of S.K.Y., either as wrench wenches or grease monkeys. However, the Art Deco city’s swankier settings feature cast members dressed to impress in classy business suits or evening gowns.
Streetmosphere
Hollyhock Stage is a dedicated outdoor streetmosphere venue in Rocketeer Center along Skyscraper Row. Various acts appear here, such as a dancing duo inspired by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or a small 1930s Jazz trio.
Hollyhock Stage is a dedicated outdoor streetmosphere venue in Rocketeer Center along Skyscraper Row. Various acts appear here, such as a dancing duo inspired by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or a small 1930s Jazz trio.
Walkaround characters
The Rocketeer Center area features “face” characters inspired by Disney’s Rocketeer. Seasonally, we expand upon this with a Diesel Bay Live event which lets guests interact with a wide-ranging cast of Diesel Bay citizens. Their conversations pepper in extensive backstory and involve guests with day-long interactive storylines.
Over on Pontoon Lagoon, characters from The Jungle Book appear dressed in TaleSpin garb. These cartoon characters relegate themselves to specified parts of Skunkworks, in order to not shatter the land’s otherwise-realistic theming. Similarly, deep in the jungle, the waiting area outside of the Wayfarer Stage plays host to characters from Disney’s Moana.
Restrooms
There are two restrooms in Diesel Bay (not counting dedicated restaurant facilities, of course), one each for the land’s two very different regions. In the eastern jungles, the limestone cliffs near the Wayfarer Stage hide a Polynesian cave behind a waterfall. Tunnels held up by primitive bamboo architecture lead the way to a restroom within.
Within the metropolis, Skyscraper Row houses a restroom behind a facade styled after Paris’ La Samaritaine department store. The facade joins the Rocketeer show building and the Cedar Eagle Dining Room hangar. The restroom’s interior maintains La Samaritaine’s gorgeous Art Deco design with beautiful tile work featuring a strong jungle motif.
Churro carts
Patchwork carts are made from recycled airplane parts, all rusted metal and fuselages and propellers. It’s all very dieselpunk! Diesel Bay’s special churros come filled with mango sauce and coated in granola.
Patchwork carts are made from recycled airplane parts, all rusted metal and fuselages and propellers. It’s all very dieselpunk! Diesel Bay’s special churros come filled with mango sauce and coated in granola.
Drinking fountains
Throughout the land, drinking fountains are a fusion of bamboopunk and dieselpunk technology. Airplane water tanks turned on their sides feed fountain contraptions, which are themselves made of bamboo mixed with repurposed engines and other gewgaws.
Throughout the land, drinking fountains are a fusion of bamboopunk and dieselpunk technology. Airplane water tanks turned on their sides feed fountain contraptions, which are themselves made of bamboo mixed with repurposed engines and other gewgaws.
Trash cans
Trash cans are made of repurposed aircraft parts as well, generally dieselpunk engines. Note one particular detail in the jungle, where a row of trash cans includes one which has been crushed beyond use by the encroaching jungle vines.
Trash cans are made of repurposed aircraft parts as well, generally dieselpunk engines. Note one particular detail in the jungle, where a row of trash cans includes one which has been crushed beyond use by the encroaching jungle vines.
Benches
Deep in the jungle, recycled commercial airplane seats - removed and relocated from their craft - provide ample seating. One such bench seat even dangles like a hammock from a jungle vine hanging like a “U” in between two trees.
The Diesel Bay metropolis, in contrast, simply features metal Art Deco benches.
Umbrellas
More repurposed materials! This time it’s converted parachutes on bamboo stands.
More repurposed materials! This time it’s converted parachutes on bamboo stands.
Fencing
Fencing too reflects the dichotomy between wilderness and urban. Bamboo fencing dominates the jungle region, while the city features ornate wrought iron gates with Art Deco patterns.
Fencing too reflects the dichotomy between wilderness and urban. Bamboo fencing dominates the jungle region, while the city features ornate wrought iron gates with Art Deco patterns.
Lighting
But jungle & city both enjoy the same lighting concept: Old airplane headlights repurposed and strung overhead, either by flimsy guide wires or on street poles. Either way, it’s a testament to Diesel Bay’s aviation origins.
But jungle & city both enjoy the same lighting concept: Old airplane headlights repurposed and strung overhead, either by flimsy guide wires or on street poles. Either way, it’s a testament to Diesel Bay’s aviation origins.
Misters
Cooling steam emits from a cracked cargo container marked “GAS.”
Cooling steam emits from a cracked cargo container marked “GAS.”
Stroller corrals & phone-charging stations
Diesel Bay’s recharging station is found in the oil derrick plaza. Hook your device into gas-powered devices and crates found under cargo netting.
Diesel Bay’s recharging station is found in the oil derrick plaza. Hook your device into gas-powered devices and crates found under cargo netting.
Last edited:
The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates
E-ticket flight simulator
Fly on a jetpack alongside the Rocketeer in an adventure battling dastardly sky pirates
HEIGHT REQUIREMENT
Flight is of course a major part of the DisneySky experience. No ride captures the pure physical sensation of flight better than The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates. Guests will don their very own jetpack, then enjoy a spectacular solo flight through the gorgeous seashores and archipelagos of Diesel Bay. But beauty can be deceiving! Danger lurks hidden in the clouds, and soon guests will star in their very own 1930s pulp adventure as they defend the citystate from rampaging hordes of Sky Pirates!
The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates is an IMAX flight simulator following in the very successful wings of Flight of Passage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Some specifics obviously are changed - rather than riding the back of a banshee, guests strap in underneath a jetpack, and rather than becoming one with nature on an alien world, guests duel dastardly brigands in a grizzled film serial milieu.
(Like UP Snapshot Safari, The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates is likely to be a later expansion in DisneySky’s initial five-year-plan, using its headliner status to drive repeat visits.)
The Rocketeer, Disney’s 1991 cult classic film, provides the ride’s grist, but this is no simple film adaptation ride. Crucially so, since while The Rocketeer is beloved by many and is an absolutely perfect fit for DisneySky, it remains a rather niche would-be-franchise. But like TRON, the film’s glitzy dieselpunk setting and two-fisted sense of style make it irresistible (and easy for guests to grasp based on visuals alone), and like TRON: Lightcycle Power Run in Shanghai Disneyland, The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates should prove to be a rousing DisneySky favorite wholly on its own merits!
Sky Pirates have been a nuisance for William Diesel and the good people of Diesel Bay ever since the city’s founding as a bush pilot hideaway. To this day, Diesel’s air cargo shipments are constantly threatened by crews of aerial scallywags. For a while, Diesel tried protecting his investments with a private air force, and with anti-aircraft turrets mounted around the city’s perimeters.
Then Diesel called the Rocketeer!
Now the Rocketeer battles those nogoodnik Sky Pirates, equipped with little more than his trusty jetpack, his own two fists, and a lucky stick of bubblegum. Few know the Rocketeer’s secret identity - not even William Diesel - not that it really matters. He’s a classic 1930s proto-superhero, part Indiana Jones, part Iron Man, part Captain America, all adventure! And it’s guests’ turn to fly alongside him!
Today is the maiden voyage of The Touchstone, Diesel’s latest all-or-nothing business venture - a massive air freight dirigible to put The Hindenburg to shame. We are invited along for a ride, to enjoy a high-toned sky voyage if we’re lucky, to protect The Touchstone’s crude oil cargo if needed. Prepare for high-flying fun!
The towering Rocketeer Center skyscraper at the heart of Diesel Bay serves as the ride’s weenie. Towering over jungle treetops and city rooftops alike, it is the first thing guests notice when arriving from any land entrance. The airy Art Deco masterpiece, with its apparent 77 floors vanishing via forced perspective into the heavens, is a real jewel in the South Seas. The fantastical design fuses many famed 20th-century highrises, both the real and the never realized: There are bits of Chicago’s Union Carbide Building, New York’s American Radiator Building, and Eliel Saarinen’s rejected (but rightly celebrated) design for Tribune Tower in Chicago. Golden accents and receding vertical sightlines draw guests’ eyes upwards. A hemispherical dirigible mast on the tallest spire resembles the Rocketeer’s sleek, golden face mask.
Queue - William Diesel’s Mansion
Access to Rocketeer Center - and thus the queue itself - begins in William Diesel’s mansion located at the skyscraper’s footsteps. This street corner is where Diesel Bay’s jungle meets Diesel Bay’s city, a fitting point for William to call home. His abode, built in forced perspective atop a lush hillside, is a visual fusion of the Ennis House, Hollyhock House, and La Miniatura...essentially, all of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Mayan Revival designs.
Diesel’s home, with its private observatory dome and its temple-like appearance, intentionally evokes the ancient ruins found in Lost Temple Ruins. A series of skyscraper facades behind this house - some of them still under construction and hidden behind Hong Kong-style bamboo scaffolding - hide the larger Rocketeer show building. Each of these golden Art Deco edifices is designed to complement Rocketeer Center, and inspired by New York City’s various vintage never-built structures.
Access to Diesel’s estate is through driveway gates at the street corner. On a pedestal before this entry is a golden statue of Atlas holding up the sky, surrounded by fountains. To the left, FastPass distribution is located in a flat-roofed Miniatura garage. FastPasses are dispensed by jetpack machines mounted atop cargo crates. The driveway gates - themselves inspired by the Ennis House - bear the ride marquee and a bas relief Art Deco frieze of the Rocketeer in mid-flight, resembling the film’s poster.
Diesel’s Driveway
The inner driveway plaza sits surrounded by turreted walls and the mansion’s hillside. So-called “Polynesian Revival” concrete bricks are mass-produced, pre-fab, and bear the S.K.Y. emblem. The main hillside stairway to Diesel’s mansion is sealed off, gated. Subtropical gardens of jungle fronds and palms, familiar from South Seas metropolises like Hong Kong or Singapore, dot the stepped terraces leading to the house. Reflective lily ponds recall Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Vines drape like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon over Art Deco pillars resembling oil derricks, framing the very similar (but much larger) Rocketeer Center.
The queue winds around a streamlined dieselpunk automobile parked in the corner. Parked next to it, rather improbably, is a bright red Gee Bee “sportster” airplane, familiar for its distinct snub-nose fuselage. Oil stains in the asphalt suggest that Diesel fuels both vehicles directly from a nearby crude barrel and funnel. The queues diverge here, with FastPass heading directly up the hillside towards Rocketeer Center and standby guests entering the mansion’s slope through a Fallingwater-style cantilever.
Basement Workshop
Prefab concrete blocks line a downward-sloping hallway, lit in an Art Deco style by recessed spotlights. The hall leads to the basement underneath Diesel’s mansion.
This basement houses the workshop where Diesel himself invents new flying machines. Imagine a 1930s version of Tony Stark’s garage labs. Indeed, among the many newspapers and magazine and framed certificates chronicling the ride’s backstory for guests who are interested, there is a photo of Diesel shaking hands with fellow industrialist Howard Stark...foreshadowing the upcoming Avengers Airspace land.
Carefully staged workbench alcoves provide queued guests with plenty of visual material. There are blueprints aplenty covering many of the land’s machines, from the X-3 jetpack to The Touchstone airship to Diesel’s pride-and-joy, the Cedar Eagle. One corner holds a chemical burn station. Experimental jet fuels line shelves.
There are dents and cracks in the walls, evidence of prototype jetpack experiments. The strongest evidence is the bronze statue of Professor Rudolph Blauerhimmel (Diesel’s father) impaled on a far wall, an X-3 jetpack still strapped to its shoulders, the statue melted away below the waist from the afterburn. To the statue’s left is a hidden passageway behind a bookshelf, now wide open.
Tomorrow, the epic queue continues...up into Diesel's mansion and the Rocketeer Center skyscraper.
Last edited:
Mansion Living Room
Through the bookshelf passageway, guests discover the statue’s head smashed through on the other side. A set of back-and-forth ramping halls carry guests upwards to the mansion’s main level. Anti-Sky Pirate propaganda posters, all very WWII in tone, line the walls. A switchback alcove contains a small brass Art Deco statue of Iris, goddess of rainbows. The ramps eventually top out, and open up to reveal the mansion’s airy, brightly-lit living room.
The vaulted, two-floor living room recalls Wright’s Ennis House. Detailed columns divide aisles from the central den. Art Deco chandeliers stylistically suggest clouds in the sky. Vast Tiffany glass windows on the outer perimeter look out onto Diesel Bay’s cityscape. A massive hearth dominates the opposite side, where on the mantle hangs an oil painting of S.K.Y.’s William Diesel with his young daughter Luna (to be featured later in Cosmic Crater). The roaring fireplace below is actively fueled by an outdated Rocketeer jetpack, transformed into a makeshift heater torch. Carefully displayed artifacts speak to Diesel’s worldly travels, with a particular emphasis on relics from the local Lost Temple Ruins dig. A giant Moai enjoys a place of prominence on a distant raised platform.
The queue circles around a prominent display case. A remarkably detailed model within features the Touchstone airship - a rigid airframe dirigible, like a fictionalized Graf Zeppelin - moored to the spire mast of the Rocketeer Center highrise. This is all the visual information needed to convey the ride’s central setting and story. For a little more punch, a banner on the exit doorway announces “Maiden voyage of the airship Touchstone!”
Rocketeer Center Plaza
That far doorway leads outside, through Diesel’s private access route to Rocketeer Center Plaza. Like the famous 30 Rock ice rink, this plaza is a sunken granite corridor beautifully framing its skyscraper. A decorative ring lining the plaza depicts signs of the zodiac. At the highrise structure’s base, flanked by stepped fountain waterfalls, is a shining bronze statue of the sky god Uranus, lightning bolt in hand. (Uranus stands in for 30 Rock’s Prometheus.) Air cannons face the heavens, awaiting a Sky Pirate attack.
Queue steps lead up from the plaza to the highrise’s main entry. A gold-leaf frieze spanning the lobby doors is dedicated to Isaiah 40:31, depicting a Gothic superman in flight and reading “On Wings of Eagles.” Revolving bronze-and-glass doors, forever spinning and able to slow down to match guests’ gaits, lead indoors to the lobby.
Rocketeer Center Lobby
The octagonal lobby circles around a large utility shaft. The main entrance is perpendicular to this central elevator hallway. The wall directly ahead bears a magnificent fresco mural, three panels wide and many stories tall! This piece, titled “Man at the Tradewinds” on its base, derives from Diego Rivera’s long-lost “Man at the Crossroads” mural created for Rockefeller Center. Our mural, realized in Rivera’s boldly humanist style, depicts The Touchtone dirigible delivering wealth to Diesel Bay. This decidedly industrialist image is at odds with Rivera’s controversial anti-capitalist original, allowing us some sly digs at S.K.Y.’s robber baron nature.
The queue meanders clockwise around the elevator corridor, along Champlain marble floors circling a steel-framed curtain wall enclosure. Concrete Art Deco bas reliefs depict the Rocketeer’s many heroic exploits: evacuating sinking seaplanes, hoisting Sky Pirates from their biplanes, battling oil field fires. Potted ferns soften the harsh, vertical lines.
Following the clockwise route, to the left of the entrance is a security desk - vacant at the moment, but all evidence shows a guard is on duty. A nearby cage contains several confiscated weapons: flare guns, sabers, grenades, brass knuckles, a whip, et cetera. Anti-Sky Pirate posters feature prominently.
The queue passes by the far side of the elevator corridor, zigging around a pair of mounted Art Deco obelisks on display. The shaft wall - the wall opposite the Tradewinds fresco - does not feature a similar mural, but rather Rocketeer Center’s 77 floor directory...names listed are Imagineer credits. Adjacent to the directory is a series of pneumatic tubes for delivering mail throughout the building; pipelines of cylindrical containers whiz past overhead. Windows further along in the lobby’s eastern corner provide elevated views of Diesel Bay’s Department Store and Langley Lagoon beyond. Live performances happen below on Hollyhock Stage outside.
Having fully circumnavigated the lobby, guests reach the central elevator bank. It is a vaulted space, with geometric chandeliers and an Escher-esque ceiling mural depicting the highrise floors receding skywards. Here, standby, FastPass and Single Rider queues merge. Cast members behind a marble information desk direct guests into one of four elevators, to usher them upwards to Rocketeer Center’s tallest heights.
Tiffany Elevator
Guests enter the golden elevator. A cast member in a red elevator operator outfit pulls shut the accordion gate doors, then manipulates a large button panel. Sixteen guests at a time ride in each Tiffany glass elevator. A golden floor dial slowly turns, showing our ascent all the way up to the tallest 77th floor. Shadows of intermediate floors drop by in the frosted Tiffany doors. Air rushes past. Sounds of a bustling downtown office building echo past.
During a one minute duration, we simulate a fanciful elevator ride up dozens upon dozens of floors! In truth, like Epcot’s hydrolators and DisneySea’s terravators, this journey only takes guests up a few floors...to the highest floor of the Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates show building. (Each elevator is able to ferry 16 guests every 2.5 minutes, allowing us to meet the ride’s 1,560 hourly capacity needs.)
Airship Mooring Spire
Elevators let out onto a penthouse corridor. Each of the four shafts feeds into one of four new queue lines, each running parallel, each serving one of the ride’s four separate IMAX theaters.
All four queue lines immediately reach an “outdoors” observation deck. It is nighttime now, with stars twinkling in the sky and 360 degree views of Diesel Bay below (done with forced perspective models on a lower level, and obscured by distant skyscraper ledges). The queues branch off, and circle around the central elevator shaft before meeting on the opposite side - circumnavigating a golden buildingtop spire which resembles the Rocketeer’s helmet. The deck features ocean liner design touches, as this airship-boarding process means to capture the luxuries of high-end travel.
Circling around the deck reveals the mighty Touchstone dirigible itself, its nose moored to the spire overhead. The Empire State Building’s airship mooring mast, which never proved feasible in real life, provides the inspiration. Cable lines lazily drift up and down. The Touchstone sits perpendicular to guests’ views, its bow facing Rocketeer Center and its long rigid airframe receding out-of-sight into the cloudy night sky...invisible but for the occasional flash of a red klieg on its hull. The S.K.Y. emblem 8-feet high christens The Touchstone’s silk frame, with a lightning bolt decal referencing Disney’s old Touchstone Pictures logo. Guests hear whirring propeller engines keeping the titanic zeppelin afloat; they feel cold winds in their hair.
A gangplank catwalk stretches out from the deck’s precipice and enters the craft’s nose. All four parallel queues cross the expanse. Guests officially board The Touchstone.
Tomorrow, queueing & pre-shows within the airship.
Last edited:
The Touchstone’s Airframe
Industrial ramps slope inwards, continuing straight through The Touchstone’s main rigid structure. There is the sound of turbines outside. Cables line the sparse ribbed hull. Steam vents blast at intervals. Hydrogen gasbags block views of the larger airship skeleton. Girders form a triangular frame encasing the queues.
Large cylindrical water vapor tanks flank the walkways. These tanks are unique special effects, resembling miniature nuclear reactors. Glowing water droplets seemingly hover and even spiral within the chamber. The floating water illusion is actually a simple tone generator machine, which is sold over-the-counter at magic shops.
Central Cargo Hold
The four queues continue together through a bulkhead, culminating at a set of holding gates in the show building’s very center. The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates uses the same basic ride setup as Flights of Passage, and has a similar queue breakdown. This is the point where the four queues diverge. We are at a “+” intersection with IMAX theaters in all four corners.
At the airship hull’s center is a circular vertical cargo hold atrium, three floors high. The queues sit on the top floor mezzanine, where ceiling winches hold a busted airship tractor engine car over the dropoff. The engine tilts as the dirigible yaws in the wind. Tarp-covered crates fill out the space. This is the center of The Touchstone’s industrial heart. Girder stairwells lead downstairs along the hold’s perimeter. Opposite from the holding gates is an elevator bank for handicapped guests.
Cast members dressed as airship crew members - one each for the four queues - divide guests up into groups of sixteen. Each of the four IMAX theaters is itself divided into three levels, with space for sixteen riders per level. Each group of sixteen guests proceeds to their own holding chamber (1 of 12), either on this floor or down one or two flights to the next levels down.
Holding Chambers
Each floor carries unique theming. Recessed rooms set off from the central cargo hold at northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest all bear out their level’s theme.
The upper landing is the crew’s quarters. The airship’s bare industrial look continues, with meager furnishings including folding leather chairs and sleeping hammocks strung from girders. Pinup calendars feature “wrench wench” gals who look like Rosie the Riveter. Porthole windows to the outside depict The Touchstone in midday flight over a sea of clouds.
The next landing down is a fancy passenger lounge. Curtained windows here also depict the flight. Furnishings suggest Britain’s luxurious R-101 airship, with an unaccompanied player piano and Oriental carpeting. Wall paintings feature the Hindenburg explosion, and carry the admonition “Absolutely NO smoking!”
The lowest floor is the airship’s command bridge. Riveted metal workspaces teem with navigation charts and altimeter gauges and valves. Airframe windows look out onto the midday skies, though views are obscured by a constant drifting cloud bank (physical effect “outside”).
Pre-Show #1 - Stealth Mode
In each chamber, guests wait up to four minutes due to ride sequencing. Each IMAX theater’s three chambers begin their pre-shows simultaneously...not that guests will notice this. To entertain guests while they wait, a bit of a “pre-pre-show” takes place over an early cathode ray television and an accompanying radar screen.
Initially, the TV streams live, staticky black-and-white footage of a gramophone record player. Period swing music plays. Eventually, once we can be assured all three holding chambers are populated, the feed changes. The Touchstone’s Captain removes the gramophone and addresses guests. With the radar screen filling up with dots, the Captain warns that Sky Pirates are closing in! Like enemy submarines, a ping of sonar rings out...the Pirates are on the hunt.
The Captain advises all guests to remain absolutely silent, lest the Sky Pirates find us. The chamber’s lights switch to red stealth mode. The Captain pilots The Touchstone downwards into the thick cloud layer, visible in the chambers’ windows, in an effort to “run silent, run deep.” This is a long, pregnant moment of suspenseful silence. Silhouetted Sky Pirate planes glide by in the windows, but somehow beyond all odds they do not notice The Touchstone.
The cluster of bogeys on radar soon drifts away. Lighting returns to normal. The Captain assures us that all is safe again.
Pre-Show #2 - Passenger Cabin Newsreel
And in a sudden jolt, iron galley doors whoosh open! Airship crew members direct guest groups into a passenger cabin - a windowless and underfurnished room with foldaway bunk beds and call button panels...like an airborne railway sleeper car. Crew members hand out aviator goggles (RealD 3D glasses) and instruct guests to stand on circles numbering 1 through 16. (Twelve identical passenger cabins duplicate this pre-show throughout the airship.)
Once all are assembled, the room’s lights dim and a period projector creaks to life. A sensationalist 1930s newsreel play out out against a panel wall…
“NEWS TAKES FLIGHT!” Throughout this four-minute pre-show, a breathless tinny-voiced reporter rattles off the ride’s crucial backstory. Much of this we already covered: William Diesel’s founding of Diesel Bay as an air freight metropolis, constant attack by Sky Pirates, their eventual feud with the Rocketeer, “the savior of Diesel Bay.” Black-and-white newsreel footage comes across like stylized animated propaganda, a bit like Victory Through Air Power combined with the vintage Fleischer Superman cartoons.
The narrator ceaselessly recounts the Rocketeer’s exploits, while animated footage depicts the Rocketeer dogfighting Sky Pirate fighter planes, or escaping their airborne plank-walking via jetpack, or otherwise saving the day. With a more pressing tone, the narrator describes the Sky Pirates’ Captain LeRoi, how he desires to steal a jetpack and reverse-engineer his very own army of superhuman aerial soldiers…
Eventually the film crackles. A new reel is spliced in. Live action footage plays of the jetpack’s real inventor, Alfie “Doc” Dockerson (an original character played by J.K. Simmons). Doc explains that guests will soon be flying with their very own experimental X-3 jetpacks. The Touchstone’s crew is on high alert for a possible Sky Pirate ambush. For guests’ health, certain riding procedures must be followed. Doc runs guests through the usual ride safety video, supplementing the material with still images like from an airplane evacuation placard. He then wishes guests a safe and exciting flight before signing off.
Tomorrow: Ride!
Last edited:
MickeyWaffleCo.
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Well, it took me a solid week, but I finally made it to the end of this thread. I am ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY! This is an incredible idea! I love the theming, the overall idea, and the details!! This is just AMAZING!
Loading - Airship Promenades
Lights come on. A new set of galley doors slides open, and guests continue further into The Touchstone’s stately A-deck. Guests reach a pair of Art Deco promenades, each designed like Hindenburg’s stately dining room. A rear hand-painted wall map depicts Diesel Bay. Riders are provided with built-in storage shelves, finely-carved Bauhaus wood cases recessed between the map panels.
Long slanted windows run the length of the promenades. Even now, window screens look out onto the curved IMAX theater screens beyond, which depict a stately late afternoon flight over cumulonimbus clouds.
Each promenade boasts a row of eight ceiling-mounted X-3 jetpacks, held in place by riveted winch devices. Dangling jetpack seats are designed like Bolliger & Mabillard’s comfortable flying roller coaster seats, with lowering over-the-shoulder restraints which serve as chest platforms once guests are riding prone. We already saw this same seating setup on Mythic Realms’ Beastly Kites flat ride.
Each jetpack seat is equipped with multi-sensory “4D” features. A set of tubes hidden overhead provides each rider with various immersive effects, including air blasts, water sprays, and scents. Heaters near riders’ legs create the feeling of warm jetpack exhaust. The theater’s stacked jetpack levels - 16 across and 3 high - move in unison to the ride film, simulating flight with seamless freedom of movement. Individual riders will enjoy an incredibly singular flight, as the ride setup (and even the blocked peripheral views from the 3D glasses) makes them forget all about other riders.
RIDE STATS
Ride type: Flight simulator
Capacity per theater: 48
Hourly capacity: 1,560
Duration: 4:30
Height restriction: 42”
Ride type: Flight simulator
Capacity per theater: 48
Hourly capacity: 1,560
Duration: 4:30
Height restriction: 42”
Ride Experience - The Majesty of Flight
First the jetpacks tilt forward, from an upright position to a prone position like Superman in flight. This moment alone can be enough to get guests cheering. The forward slanted windows curve inward, swiveling under the floorboards, as the jetpack winches move outwards beyond the dirigible’s envelope.
The jetpack flight begins! Individual riders immediately forget about others around them as the immersive flight simulator experience takes over. Wind rushes and sunlight beams down. All the freedom and magnificence of free flight is realized in an instance, as guests fly via jetpack over a late afternoon panoramic sky. Heavenly nimbostratus clouds crest like waves below. Sun beams break like halos from behind a puffy cloud formation. Rousing orchestral music by the late James Horner completes the moment.
A contrail wisp forms on the horizon. Performing a graceful Immelmann dive, the Rocketeer jets over and flies alongside us, skimming the clouds. He addresses riders over short wave radio speakers, complimenting our piloting skills. The Rocketeer then whizzes past, beckoning we follow.
Jetpacks reverse course and follow the Rocketeer back towards the glorious Touchstone airship...only to narrowly dodge the chopping blades of its exterior propeller car! A swift dive jolts riders, and reminds them that flight is inherently dangerous.
But that was a momentary shock. The Rocketeer elegantly sails over The Touchstone’s silken hull, and we follow. Gliding mere feet below the airship’s undercarriage, riders experience moments of hushed awe to appreciate the dirigible’s bridge (where the captain waves back) and dart past a Sparrowhawk prop plane moored to the airship’s trapeze.
Flight Through Diesel Bay
Past the plane, the skyscrapers of Diesel Bay are revealed thousands of feet below. Sunlight reflects off the azure blue ocean. The Rocketeer dives down, and riders follow, passing through stratocumulus clouds. In-theater 4D mist effects cover riders in clouds, making the moment all the more real.
The clouds clear to reveal a Conwing L-16 seaplane taking off from the bay. Riders swiftly dodge the craft, then recover to admire the great many other period airplanes throughout the bustling city - docked in the waters, or moored on highrise masts.
The Rocketeer leads the way, spiraling around the upper floors of Rocketeer Center, around its golden spire dome and mooring antenna. Then he dives down the vertical length of the skyscraper, and riders again follow. They whiz past office windows, and level out to “barnstorm” through the urban canyons of Diesel Bay, just a few yards up from the honking automobile traffic below.
Jetpacks perform a bunny hop maneuver to dodge an oncoming double decker bus, resettling over a river alongside the boulevard. The river redirects away from the city, down a valley of jagged jungle cliffs.
South Seas Shores
Riders rise up over the cliffs and over jungle treetops. Their motions disturb parrots in the branches, who scatter in front of riders.
Riders enter a coastal wilderness. Like Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, a colony of otherworldly karst islands grow from the turquoise blue tropical waters. Riders skim the ocean’s surface under a layer of stratus clouds. Water sprays spritz riders; ocean scents mix with fruity mango aromas in the air. Rocketing past small fishing boats and over a small Mercury seaplane landing in the shoals, riders reach the open ocean. They continue against the crashing waves, through schools of flying fish and dolphins cresting the curls.
The flight path curves under natural limestone arches. The route leads quickly through a grotto cave in the coastal cliffs, to a pristine hidden bush pilots’ cove like the settings of Porco Rosso. Jetpacks again rise up past the treeline, now launching vertically up into the wide open skies! Dark clouds gather...
The Squadron of Doom
Foreboding cumulonimbus storm clouds blot out the sun. Ahead of riders, the Rocketeer cools his jets and peers ahead. A mountain-sized cloud head forms into the shape of a pirate skull. “Uh oh,” the Rocketeer murmurs, “Sky Pirates.” Lightning strikes within the titan thunderhead, revealing the imposing silhouette of a battleship within...
James Horner’s music takes on a dangerous tone as it transitions from beautiful to adventurous. The storm clouds part as The Buzzard rises up like a dragon. This is the Sky Pirates’ airborne aircraft carrier, a flying monstrosity the size of a football field. Winged skull emblems festoon dirigible sails, which carry a boat-shaped steel warship.
More thunder and lightning crash as the skies grow ever darker. The Buzzard disgorges distant, silhouetted fighter planes...the Sky Pirates’ dreaded Squadron of Doom. Battle is imminent.
Storm Cloud Dogfight
Jetpacks U-turn and enter evasive maneuvers! Nearby cotton candy clouds break apart, with a swirling downwash effect. A pair of Corsair jets emerge and fly directly at riders, firing machine guns - air cannon effect whiz past riders’ ears. “They’re after your jetpack” the Rocketeer exclaims. “Get outta here!”
An aerial dogfight commences! Jetpacks flee upwards, towards a new ceiling of thundering storm clouds above. Rain water effects pelt riders. The Corsairs’ Sky Pirate pilots reveal themselves - they are nothing more than dieselpunk robot automatons! Terrifying, faceless, soulless monsters...which the Rocketeer can destroy with impunity. He engages in derring-do upon the Corsairs’ wings, dodging robot-pirates’ saber swipes. The Rocketeer deploys one robot’s parachute, launching the mechanism hurtling past riders - and directly into a crack of lightning! Electrical bolts fry the pirate!
What will happen next? Will riders' rocketry rid themselves of this precarious pirate pickle? Find out tomorrow in the fantastically fiery finale to The Rocketeer and the Sky Pirates!@MickeyWaffleCo., extremely big thanks for your high complements! I am so pleased that you have enjoyed DisneySky so far. I hope you continue to enjoy the park as we continue through these final three lands.
Last edited:
Buzzing the Buzzard
Four more gathering Corsairs press riders’ jetpacks deeper into the thickening tempest of rain and lightning. Physical fog and water sprays grow heavier! The fighter jets become mere shadows in pursuit.
Red lights in the fog take shape. The Buzzard warship appears within the grey, calamitous tempest. Jetpacks skim around The Buzzard’s frame, along its decks and then below into its steel innards. Hidden inside, the jetpacks take brief respite as riders regard the setting: The Sky Pirates’ air fleet launches from cannon windows like jets on an aircraft carrier, peppering the stormy skies with danger. The stench of diesel permeates the air. Riders’ jetpacks glide gingerly into a darkened alcove. Riders sit there alone, unarmed, with the Rocketeer nowhere to be seen.
Sky Pirate Captain LeRoi (right) and a robotic Sky Pirate
Suddenly, glowing mechanical eyes light up! Sirens ring out! Robot pirates lunge forward, their tin faces hidden behind gas masks and pilot goggles. One pirate swings in on a chain rope. Riders’ jetpacks launch them upwards, through exhaust vents to topside. Jetpacks hover in the skies just beyond The Buzzard’s deck.
Sky Pirate Captain LeRoi looms dead ahead! He alone among this horde is human...a classic pirate captain stereotype with a dieselpunk twist. In place of a hook hand, LeRoi has a monkey wrench. In place of a parrot on his shoulder, LeRoi has a buzzard. There is a brief showdown pause as LeRoi regards riders…
Freefall!
LeRoi fires a flare gun!
Physical sparks bedevil riders! The jetpacks malfunction and die.
Riders enter a simulated freefall!
The rainstorm fades away as riders plummet. The ocean manifests hundreds of feet below, swiftly growing larger in riders’ vision as they tumble helplessly towards it!
The Rocketeer propels into sight, racing riders towards the Earth. While entering a glide alongside riders, the Rocketeer reaches into his helmet facemask...and produces a wad of bubblegum. Using it, he patches the bullethole in our jetpack; riders smell the gum.
With a rocky shore rushing up, practically within arms’ reach...the jetpacks refire!
The Sky Pirates’ Airfield
Riders regain partial jetpack control and level out precariously amidst the razor-sharp rocks. Jetpacks thread a needle through a stone forest like Madagascar’s Tsingy. Riders curve through the mouth of a “skull rock” formation, then rise up to behold an ominous sight…
The Sky Pirate’s ground fortress, a factory airfield hidden amidst the sawtoothed crags. Polluted smoke clouds bathe the whole complex in a sickly yellow-green hue. The damaged jetpacks sputter, barely able to rise above tree level as they barrel out-of-control towards a runway.
Skull graffiti adorns passing factory structures. Jetpacks dodge a taxiing aircraft, a dieselpunk version of a Daimler-Benz Project C plane. Unable to gain altitude, riders are chased by a dieselpunk tank - think the multi-story behemoth proposed for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Dodging mounted anti-aircraft cannons, dodging warm air blasts from the tank’s mortars, jetpacks smash through a factory window!
The Steel Mill
The ground chase continues along a steel mill floor. Jetpacks rush just feet above glowing molten steel, around flaming cauldron waterfalls and sparking arc welders. The 4D heat effects really kick in here! An ore cart full of robot pirates pursues riders along a rail track, firing off rifles (and air blasts).
The dieselpunk tank smashes through a brick wall ahead. The crippled jetpacks slow down, as riders are cornered. The tank’s turret spins, and riders are caught in its sights, when…
The Rocketeer bursts in! He pushes the turret aside. It misfires, launching a mortar directly into a stack of munitions and gasoline drums. Powerful explosions rock the steel mill. The Rocketeer grabs riders by the jetpack straps and carries them up just above billowing fireballs. Rocketeer and riders all hurtle straight upwards through a smokestack as the entire Sky Pirate complex below is engulfed in flames!
The Buzzard’s Last Stand
Sailing once again upwards into the bright blue skies, riders reapproach The Buzzard. The Rocketeer swiftly torch-welds riders’ busted packs - shades of Iron Man-style gadgetry in Rocketeer’s wrist gauntlet - and at last the jetpacks are in ship shape and ready for a final battle. Riders and Rocketeer both stare down the nearing Buzzard with steely determination.
“Okay, I’ll blow a hole in their airship, and you sabotage it from within. Now go!”
Gravity bombs and even robot-manned Okha missiles tumble from The Buzzard above, but riders deftly maneuver around these obstacles. The Rocketeer snags one bomb in mid-plummet and redirects it using his acrobatic jetpack skills. The bomb arcs upwards, blasting a massive hole into The Buzzard’s rigid airframe sails.
“Bombs away! You’re on, kid! Let’s fry this Buzzard and go home!”
The airframe’s skull-wing insignia burns away, like a symbolic defeat. Riders pilot their way through the cinders and into the balloon’s girder-filled interior. The hydrogen-soaked air all around riders erupts into spontaneous flames! Heat effects climax! Jetpacks slalom into the cable wires which hold The Buzzard aloft, slicing them to ribbons. As The Buzzard warship below lilts, defeated, riders swerve around swinging red-hot cables and escape through a freshly-burnt aft hole!
Black curtains of hydrogen smoke envelop riders...
Victory!
They burst triumphantly from the choking sooty air and out into crystal clear blue skies under the shining Sun!
Jetpacks turn around to witness the skeletal burning remains of The Buzzard plunging like a meteor towards the Sky Pirate’s airfield. Countless Squadron of Doom Corsairs are swatted away like horseflies by the flaming wreckage. Other Corsairs retreat, their tailfins smoking.
The Rocketeer flies past riders, clutching Captain LeRoi bound prisoner in a tangle of chains. The Rocketeer congratulates us, then jets away, vanishing into a beautiful sunset. A pristine bank of cumulus clouds forms the horizon. Mt. Helios and the crystalline skyscrapers of Diesel Bay rise up from these airy wisps.
Riders turn upwards, as the mountain and cityscape lower from view. They hurtle rather too quickly towards The Touchstone above. The captain’s voice crackles over the radio. “Slow down! You’re coming in too fast!” The aircraft’s promenade windows swiftly come into view.
Jetpacks slow, sputter, and spin around. Momentum sends them flying backwards through the dirigible windows...back into the jetpack’s winch harnesses with a slight mechanical jolt. Back in The Touchstone’s grasp, the moored jetpacks recede into the promenade as the window bays swivel shut before them.
Post-Ride - The Touchstone Has Landed
Jetpacks rotate back to their upright positions as they “reconnect” to the promenade winches. Safely back on, well, not “solid ground” necessarily, but at least the relative safety of the mid-flight Touchstone, guests remove their jetpacks and gather their belongings.
Exits are located at the promenades’ far ends, opposite from the entry points. Guests exiting from the second or third theater levels head down posh Art Deco stairwells, part of the airship’s stately passenger quarters. The walls feature framed Art Deco flight artwork. (Handicapped guests exit via sidedoors to take the cargo hold elevators instead.)
All three theater levels converge on the ground level. At the far ends of The Touchstone’s “+” shape, guests follow a girder hallway inwards. There is evidence of damage sustained during the Sky Pirates’ attack, such as bullethole light shafts in the floor. Reaching the central cargo hold where all theaters empty out, the winched airship engine has now crashed to this lowest level, leaving bowed floor indents. Ropes block off the smoking heap.
The Touchstone has landed now, as guests follow a northwards hallway out from the cargo hold. The hall leads immediately into an enclosed, sloping gangplank. This passageway funnels guests off from The Touchstone and into industrial hangar hallways. This final corridor stretch leads past pinup girl posters mixed with mounted blueprints, lastly depositing guests in the Rocketeer Gear post-ride gift shop (see “Retail”).
@James G., regarding misting. Apparently sensory effects like this are used on Flight of Passage without issue (I haven’t been on it), so I presume it’s easily done.
Last edited:
Lost Temple Ruins
D-ticket walkthrough
Join an archaeological expedition into lost Polynesian ruins, home to an ancient sky-worshipping civilization
Deep in the remotest jungles of Diesel Bay, buried beneath centuries of vines and rubble, the lost civilization of Tonga waits to be discovered. Ages ago, a society of sky-worshipers first settled the archipelago. Now, their mysterious Micronesian ruins provide a vast explorable setting. Lost Temple Ruins follows in the grand Disney tradition of Tom Sawyer’s Island and Fortress Explorations, providing a walkthrough attraction on an unprecedented scale and with incomparable depth. This even serves as an experimental canvas for Imagineering, thanks to Disney’s very first in-park escape room! Buried deep in DisneySky’s southeastern corner, Lost Temple Ruins is as immersive an experience as you could hope for!
(There is a little bit of “future-proofing” with the design of Lost Temple Ruins. In the chance that guests demand more rides in DisneySky, the attraction is arranged like the temples of DisneySea’s Raging Spirits or Paris’ Temple of Peril...That is, with minimal effort the location can receive a looping roller coaster tentatively called “Lost Temple Havoc.” Though we prefer it as a walkthrough.)
Like with Tom Sawyer’s Island, just getting there is part of the fun! Lost Temple Ruins sits across from the wildest sections of the River Lani. To get there, guests must cross the wing of a crashed DC-3 airplane. The craft rests precariously on the edge of a river waterfall, rapids pounding below and powerful currents rushing through the wing’s propeller housing. The river even passes through the plane’s hollowed-out fuselage, feeding the overgrown jungle foliage within. Guests must pass through this interior via inflatable airplane slide.
An alternate access point is located near Bush Pilots’ outdoor patio. A rickety, swaying rope bridge spans an oasis waterfall. Perched on the canyon’s far side as a “weenie” is a 1930s two-seater seaplane, the same fictional model as DisneySea’s “Tin Goose” in Lost River Delta.
Both entrances meet up in a jungle clearing overlooking the ruined compound. Pathways branch off in multiple directions. Cast members are present to hand out illustrated maps, to keep guests from getting lost and to help them locate Lost Temple Ruins’ many features. These maps include an ancient hieroglyphic language, like the old code cards from Indiana Jones Adventure, to help translate the ruins’ many codexes.
The ruins of Tonga themselves look like they’ve just recently emerged from the seas; receding waterways still pour down the stone terraces, around exposed corral and simplistic flopping animatronic fish. A little translation effort will reveal that Tonga is actually ancient lost Lemuria, or “Mu,” a mythical Atlantis of the Indian Ocean.
The archaeological ruins are a fusion of disparate cultural elements, as would be expected from a legendary place like Mu. The primary influence is Micronesia’s Nan Madol, with its megalithic layered temples of crisscrossed basalt columns and interlocking ferns. Additional stylistic touches come from Polynesian villages, Vietnam’s My Son ruins, and ancient Mayan sites. Archaeological equipment and scaffolding pervade the complex.
Two massive stone structures sit as Tonga’s main features. The nearer one is Tonga Observatory, inspired by the Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza. This stepped, monumental edifice is a ghost of its former glory, with mossy piles of rubble crowding its base and the skyward observatory dome cracked open on one site.
To access the Observatory’s ground level entrance, guests must pass through the Liki Tikis. They are a circle of Moai tiki statues - familiar from others in Magic Kingdom, Tokyo and Hong Kong - which fire randomly-timed water spouts from their mouths. Guests are tasked with navigating this fun water play area ruled by mischievous totems.
Located in the base of Tonga Observatory is the Calendar Chamber. Within, mounted atop a ceremonial pulpit, is a monolithic Aztec-style stone calendar. Via a series of stone levers in the walls, attached to rope vine machinery, guests can spin the massive calendar like the Wheel of Fortune. Like the animals on a Chinese calendar, the Tongan Calendar features twelve distinct jungle birds. As the idol rotates, new birdcalls echo through the chamber. When left unattended, the calendar resets itself.
Stairs and rope ladders within the Calendar Chamber ascend to Tonga Observatory’s upper parapets. This vantage point looks down onto Kon Lani, a water play area set along the Observatory’s southern base. Kon Lani is inspired by Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki craft: it’s a Polynesian outrigger in a pool complete with Maori longhouse and a coconut cloth sail. Mounted along Kon Lani’s bow is an array of bamboo blow dart tubes, which function like button-activated water pistols. Similar water pistols are located on the Observatory towers, formed from rusted metal Bronze Age tools. The Observatory pistols shoot water from carved bird faces, as guests on both levels can engage each other in an impromptu water battle! And in case there’s nobody upstairs to duel, water spigots even randomly spray from Kon Lani’s bamboo floorboards.
Cobbled walkways meander around the edge of the Kon Lani pool, around a limestone quarry wall (and DisneySky’s southern berm) which bears partially-hewn Moai. Like the monoliths of Easter Island, the Moai of Diesel Bay silently stand guardian over their realm. Ancient Tongan tools line the site. Small waterfall streams pour down the limestone cracks.
Tomorrow, the rest of Lost Temple Ruins.
Last edited:
The quarry walkway leads to Plunderer’s Dig, a sandy archaeological dig area inspired by The Boneyard at Animal Kingdom. This is an expansive outdoor children’s play area, complete with a huge scaffolding jungle gym with cargo nets to climb on above, plastic slides (archaeological chutes) to ride to the sand below, and a big central sand pit with digging toys and climbable crates. There are half-buried Moai to uncover in the sand, and many more semi-fossilized Tongan artifacts. Parents can relax and watch in chairs made from wheelbarrows.
Gaps in the limestone cliffs lead to Cenote Caverns. There are additional cavern entrances further into the site near the Pyramid of Mu. The cavern interiors provide a damp, air-conditioned maze of claustrophobic tunnels to explore, full of dark curving paths and dripping water. One branching route leads along a small underground river a-la Belize, and to a secret cenote. Sunlight lights the sinkhole from above. Here, the Tongans made sacrifices to their sky gods. Shattered human skeletons line the watery basin, mixed in with treasures like golden tikis and giant pearls.
The crumbling Pyramid of Mu sits opposite from the Tonga Observatory. The Pyramid of Mu Ropes Course spans a stillwater pond between these monumental buildings. This is a classic collection of rope bridges found in the archaeological scaffolding along the temples’ facades. There are three levels of rope bridges, all accessible from an ad hoc wooden archaeologist's tower in the central clearing. Bridges cross over the main walkways, with one accessing the Observatory rooftop, and two connecting to different levels of the Pyramid.
“Modern” 1930s anti-aircraft artillery guns sit mounted on the tower’s upper platforms, trained on the heavens in case of a Sky Pirate attack. Guests can “fire” these massive cannons, which release puffs of smoke and create loud, echoing ka-booms.
The lower level bridges access an open atrium within the Pyramid, which includes an unlikely indoors waterfall and views down onto the Lost Ruins Escape Room (covered later). The Pyramid’s upper level offers access to a ceremonial temple. Inside, a giant bell is rung by a “stonepunk” hammer device activated with a crank. Access to this temple is strictly one-way, with the exit leading down the exterior Pyramid steps alongside the escape room exit.
Through the front base of the Pyramid is the Map Room. This is the sort of pulp archaeological scene familiar from Raiders of the Lost Ark. A massive ancient model depicts the Tonga complex in its pristine Golden Age state. Guests may activate a shaft of sunlight using a wall lever. By manipulating a large magnification glass mounted on a staff they can direct the light across the model and illuminate different areas. Ancient hieroglyphics glow bright when lit.
Lastly there is the centerpiece Lost Ruins Escape Room. This major sub-attraction takes place within the Pyramid of Mu. Groups of ten guests (with parties combined as needed) are sealed within a Tongan tomb, and given 30 minutes to devise their escape...or suffer the consequences!
Lost Ruins Escape Room actually holds four separate escape rooms. Between them, there is an hourly capacity of 80 guests...which is actually huge for an escape room, and minuscule for a theme park! Due to this, the sub-attraction operates on a mandatory reservation return time system. Beginning at park opening, reservations can be made in person daily at an archaeologist's tent near the DC-3’s wing along the Diesel Bay pathways near the Lost Temple Ruins entrance. Reservations are strictly first-come-first-served...likely not the sort of adventure which one-time guests will rush for at rope drop, but for California locals it becomes a magnificent way to enrich return visits.
Guests assemble for their reservations (spaced every seven minutes) within a corrugated metal archaeologist's shed along the shores of the River Lani. Artifacts appear atop of and within crates. Archaeologist cast members welcome guests, and lead them to a secret Pyramid side entrance hidden in scaffolding under rubble.
A cast member leads guests down underlit stone hallways while delivering a pre-show speech. Ages ago, when the Emperor of Tonga perished, his remains were sealed in a tomb and a curse was placed upon the chamber. The vengeful sky deities protect that catacomb now, vowing vengeance upon whosoever dares enter…
But the tomb has already been excavated, the cast member cheerfully explains while leading guests into the Pyramid’s central waterfall atrium - the room visible from the ropes course. The curse has been lifted and the tomb is now safe to enter. Guests can access the tomb through a hidden passage behind a multi-story waterfall which gushes forth from a huge statue of the Emperor.
Guests obligingly enter the tomb - through one of four vault doors. Once inside, the chamber seals shut! The cast member calls to guests from the atrium outside, vowing to find rescue. And the game is afoot! Guests have thirty minutes to decipher their own escape from the Emperor’s tomb, before they are evacuated one way or the other.
Clues and methods-of-escape regularly change out, making Lost Ruins Escape Room an endlessly repeatable experience. There are codex puzzles in the Indiana Jones style, hieroglyphics on the walls to decipher, and physical puzzles formed from the temple’s stone mechanisms.
In-room special effects are a truly terrifying “Disney” touch, very much in the fearsome vein of ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter. Lights come and go. Eerie sound effects wail across the chasms of time. Spikes emerge from the ceiling. Mummies might appear. In the darkness, bats fly through guests’ hair, and bugs rush past their feet. These effects get changed out as often as the puzzles, again adding perpetual repeatability.
Should guests successfully solve the Riddle of the Emperor, a winner’s exit reveals itself. They escape into a shimmering treasure room held within a natural crystal cavern, where bioluminescent lights sparkle and dance as they refract through the diamonds and off of the Emperor’s golden trinkets. This sight - among the rarest locations within DisneySky - can only be seen when the escape room is won…
Otherwise, archeologist cast members rescue guests through an alternate tunnel exit. Guests narrowly escape while the tomb collapses behind them. As a consolation prize, one way or the other participating guests receive a collectible trading pin (among other rotating themed souvenirs) to commemorate their one-of-a-kind Disney Park experience.
Thank you very much, @fradz!
And rest in peace Chuck Yeager, one of the aviation legends who inspired DisneySky. He was 97.
Last edited: