DisneySky - COMPLETE & RESTORED

D Hulk

D Hulk

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DISNEYSKY

“Welcome one and all to a realm where the sky's the limit. DisneySky imbues all who enter with a spirit of curiosity and excitement. Here scientists, dreamers and adventurers explore the space above our heads. DisneySky is dedicated to Man’s yearning for unknown horizons. May this bold place inspire flights of fantasy throughout the world.”
DisneySky dedication
(displayed on the park’s iconic Dreamers statue)

DisneySky brings an exciting new blue sky to Disney Parks. DisneySky is a realm which fully embraces all the myth and romanticism of flight, of Man’s obsession with the skies. This all-new park is a celebration of Man’s technologies and cultures, of the progress which they create, as told through the history of flight. Many shared concepts appear throughout the park: aviation, space flight, astronomy, meteorology, and related fields.

Starting in the mythic pasts of ancient China and continuing up to the present day (and, hopefully, someday into mankind’s distant future), DisneySky offers up seven beautifully-realized “destinations” for our guests’ enjoyment. All these destinations are gathered around the park’s central icon, Mt. Helios. This towering, snow-capped mountain is an eternal symbol of nature and the heavens above – the unattainable ideals which forever keep Man driving forward. Found in the park’s center, Mt. Helios ties together all of DisneySky’s destinations into a singular thematic whole.

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Visitors begin by entering Runway One, a mid-century Jet Age airfield reflecting a romanticized Golden Age of Civil Aviation. Idealized terminals and hangars draw the eye to Inspiration Observatory at the base of Mt. Helios, where our paths diverge.

From there, guests proceed into the distant pasts of Mythic Realms, a Chinese oasis where legends of storms, sky deities and fantastic flying creatures mix with history’s earliest flying inventions.

The story of flight continues into Discovery Glacier, a Victorian scientific outpost in the Arctic where lighter-than-air dirigibles, balloons and airships – all realized in an adventurous steampunk style – probe the unexplored corners of earth.

Pioneer Fields brings us to the early age of the airplane, represented by a 1920s Andean village where barnstorming, crop dusting, and other newfangled exploits open up a new world for exploration in the skies above.

Aviation technology matures into Diesel Bay, a shimmering “dieselpunk” metropolis which has sprung up from the coastal jungles of Micronesia, fueled by wealth brought by air tankers, jetpacks and zeppelins.

Next we enter the Space Age and shatter the bounds of earth in Cosmic Crater, a land of rocket ships and UFOs based out of a Mojave Desert meteor crater, flavored with a pulpy retro-futuristic spirit.

Lastly, Avengers Airspace presents the Modern Age of aviation as filtered through the heroic lens of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, realized with a Midtown Manhattan overflowing with superheroes, fighter jets and a single, enormous helicarrier.

A fantastic adventure awaits us as we explore DisneySky! Let us begin our final descent now into Disneyland Resort and experience the many great pleasures of this third gate!​
 
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D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
TABLE OF CONTENTS
​
DISNEYSKY GENERAL OVERVIEW
DISNEYLAND RESORT THIRD GATE INFRASTRUCTURE
RANCHO DISNEY ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT
DISNEY'S VILLA CIELO HOTEL & SPA
PLAZA OF THE FOUR WINDS
RUNWAY ONE
MYTHIC REALMS
DISCOVERY GLACIER
PIONEER FIELDS
DIESEL BAY
COSMIC CRATER
AVENGERS AIRSPACE
SEASONAL EVENTS
EXPANSIONS
PARK SPECTACULARS
 
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D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
AUTHOR'S NOTE
DisneySky is an original theme park design for Disneyland Resort's Third Gate. I have worked on this project off-and-on for years. Every day I will add a new post until we have completed our circle tour of DisneySky. Enjoy!

After too many other distractions to count, I am presenting the work I have completed to-date on DisneySky. This work includes 2 lands (of 7) with complete write-ups. Everything else will be presented using my extensive design notes, which total over 100 pages and will explore the entire park! Even in a detailed shorthand format, I am sure that the entirety of this project will enjoyable.

UPDATE, 11/5: Since beginning this thread, I have continued finalizing the incomplete portions of DisneySky. We are already in the newly-written material phase. While I am still formally writing some attractions, I can guarantee you now that every DisneySky attraction, restaurant, et cetera, will appear in a finalized form!​
 
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D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
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DISNEYSKY OVERVIEW

Flight. The desire to break free from earth’s bounds. To explore the heavens, both physically and mentally. This is a yearning which has driven mankind’s development for millennia, influencing our legends, our sciences and our technology.

But how to realize that in a theme park format? DisneySky narrows its focus down to the history of aviation. This yields concrete, comprehensible worlds where guests may live out their grandest dreams of flight, of exploration, of adventure.
It is impossible to create an earthbound setting which feels like it’s floating in the skies, so instead sightlines in DiskeySky forever draw guests' eyes upwards, largely focused on the towering Mt. Helios in the park’s center. Beyond an introductory entry land, Runway One, which primes guests for a high-flying world of aviation, other lands run clockwise in chronological order through major eras in aviation. Details everywhere continually reference back to the skies. The result is simultaneously fantastical and grounded, a mature and imaginative new playground for dreamers worldwide!


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Theme

The theme is in the name - DisneySky.

The primary guiding focus is the history of aviation. More broadly speaking, every one of DisneySky’s lands investigates “Man’s relationship to nature and technology.” This is seen in other related topics as well - topics covered in every land - topics such as flying creatures, the weather and astronomy.

To travel DisneySky clockwise and chronologically, guests will see the story of Man’s ever-expanding consciousness. The limits of our world grow. We begin in a world of myth, in a time when scaling the nearest mountain was considered a superhuman feat. As guests and Man progress, both knowledge and the world open up. With ever greater technologies, we learn and explore vaster horizons - the skies, distant lands, even the very heavens. Our understanding evolves, both growing and expanding, into the realms of the galactic and the quantum. Possibly even into unimaginable spheres beyond those!

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This chronology is largely filtered through the various science fiction “punk” sub-genres. These reveal the popular consciousness of each era. These too provide a common-yet-varied visual style for the entire park.

Mystic Realms is silkpunk (aka bamboopunk), a fantastical Bronze Age version of China littered with early kites and mythical creatures.

Discovery Glacier is steampunk, a Victorian age of invention when heavier-than-air balloon flight opened up new discoveries.

Diesel Bay, unsurprisingly, is dieselpunk, a romantic interwar time of gas-powered airplanes and massive dirigibles.

Cosmic Crater is atompunk, a retro-futuristic look at early space travel as imagined in the booming postwar Atomic Age.

Avengers Airspace is “nowpunk,” an outsized, technology-driven version of the present day as filtered through the modern myth of superheroes.

Even DisneySky’s big planned expansion, the forward-looking Solar City, uses the emerging solarpunk genre. Only Runway One (the entry land) and Pioneer Fields do not follow this “punk” framework. Note the distinct absence of cyberpunk, a style with lacks both DisneySky’s aeronautic focus and its optimism.

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Disneyland as it opened in 1955 reflected common 1950s pop cultural fantasies such as cowboys, spacemen, European fairy tales and the savage wilderness. Within its aeronautic framework, DisneySky looks to do the same for the early 21st Century. As such DisneySky boasts modern day fantasies such as superheroes, steampunk and spies.

And as Disneyland looked to America’s past, to the U.S. Civil War (never directly addressed, but always just offstage) and Abraham Lincoln and Western Expansion, DisneySky focuses on similar 20th Century history. World War II, though never directly mentioned, always looms in the background of so much in DisneySky.

Airplane technology, with its applications in both peacetime and wartime, drives this focus. New myths emerged after WWII, myths like superheroes and spies which are very similar to the western gunslinger who emerged from the Civil War.​
 
D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
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S.E.A. and S.K.Y.

DisneySky is also the latest Disney Park to feature the fan-favorite Society of Explorers and Adventurers - the famed secret society of S.E.A.

Here we continue the story as begun in Tokyo DisneySea and in Hong Kong Disneyland. DisneySky’s tale centers around the Diesels, a family of scientists and adventurers whose lives span the great modern history of aviation.

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Rudolph Blauerhimmel circa 1899

This tale begins with Rudolph Blauerhimmel in Discovery Glacier circa 1899, whose research into aeronautics here in this Arctic hideaway was inspired by S.E.A.’s predecessors in ancient China (as seen in Mystic Realms). Blauerhimmel saw much success in airships and similar contraptions.

He emigrated to Pioneer Fields in South America, changing his name to Diesel. Here Rudolph experimented on that newfangled invention the aeroplane, while his son William Diesel found renown as an early barnstormer pilot.

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William Diesel circa 1938

William’s later material success in airplane shipping led to the founding of Diesel Bay in the 1930s. His squabbles with the hardheaded scions of S.E.A. led William to create a forward-thinking offshoot known as S.K.Y. - the Society for Knowledge and Yearning.

William would later operate the Runway One airfield at the base of Mt. Helios. It was here where he also built his private home - and future hotel - known as Villa Cielo.

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Luna Diesel circa 1961
(credit goes to concept artist Hejun Mao)

S.K.Y. found its greatest success one generation later with William’s daughter Luna Diesel. She was a skilled astronomer whose interest in space rather than the clouds led to the founding of Inspiration Observatory in Runway One. She also established the Cosmic Crater research facility in the American Southwest as rocket testing grounds. Little did Luna know that her experiments in the desert would one day save all of mankind!

Even to the modern day S.K.Y.’s influence can be felt in Avengers Airspace, as Marvel’s genius inventors are known to toss subtle homages to these tinkerers of the past in their amazing new suits and vehicles.



Use of IPs

Intellectual properties (IPs) are used at DisneySky primarily in service of the theme. They are not the park’s central driving force. This is intended as a bit of course correction away from Disney’s present IP obsession, a brand reinvestment into original and unique “purely Disney” ideas which can hopefully fuel new imaginative avenues.

Into this mix, DisneySky includes appropriate popular franchises such as Marvel. It also includes obscure cult classics such as The Rocketeer when they fit perfectly. Of course a wide assortment of Disney characters will still appear daily in live performances and meet ‘n’ greets, guaranteeing guests are always reminded of that special “Disney” feel. There is a roughly 50:50 split between original concepts and IP attractions, which ought to satisfy on all fronts.​
 
D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
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Park Location

DisneySky is located in the “Strawberry Fields” expansion pad south of Katella Ave. and east of Harbor Blvd. Most of the park space is made from the existing Toy Story Parking Lot - additional parking spaces are created elsewhere in the resort to offset this loss. To increase park acreage, some of the bordering commercial structures on Harbor are also razed and developed.

The residential areas east of the Disney-owned parking lot are also a part of DisneySky. It is reasonable to assume that Disney already secretly owns some of this land through shell corporations.

This project assumes that Disney might purchase additional nearby land as DisneySky develops over the years. Certain lands and attractions are designed to perfectly fit existing commercial blocks so that these features may be added or removed from DisneySky without altering the overall park plan.

DisneySky is estimated to be approximately 100 acres large, including backstage. For comparison, Disney California Adventure is roughly 85 acres and Disneyland is roughly 120 acres. Space is tight but not unreasonable, demanding careful park design to maximize limited available space. This is especially important since DisneySky is remotely located from the rest of the resort, and will have to duplicate certain backstage features.

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Note that North is oriented to the south of this image, just as with the DCA map
Park Layout

DisneySky is a loop park like Epcot's World Showcase or Universal’s Islands of Adventure, with a few crucial modifications.

Rather than use a single circular path traversing the park, DisneySky is composed of a double circle (an outer loop and an inner loop) with spokes connecting these paths. Both circles join together at a small hub in Runway One.

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In place of a central “negative space” lagoon, at DisneySky’s center is the towering Mt. Helios. Mt. Helios is the icon and symbol for DisneySky, a representation of Man’s eternal gaze upwards, of nature’s majesty dwarfing all before it.

More literally, Mt. Helios is a 199-foot-tall mountain (4’ taller than MISSION: Breakout, making it the tallest structure allowed by Anaheim building codes). Mt. Helios is visible from all of DisneySky’s “destinations” (lands), and it is carefully designed to fit each land perfectly. Its northern slopes facing Runway One resemble a temperate range, not unlike the real mountain ranges in surrounding Southern California. Its icy eastern slopes, often bathed in afternoon shade, match Discovery Glacier’s Arctic worlds. Subtropical southern slopes fit the sweltering South Seas setting of Diesel Bay. Lastly, the arid west-facing slopes - often aglow in the evening’s sunset - add to the stark desert world of Cosmic Crater.

The peak of Mt. Helios is perpetually snow-capped, realized with brilliant forced perspective. Its jagged vertical minarets are inspired by the otherworldly peaks of both Patagonia and the California Sierras. Fog misters near the top create an eternal “cloud bank” hugging the highest peaks, completing the illusion of an immortal, mythical mountain.

Mt. Helios is incredibly practical too, with enough space inside the structure to house several attractions, restaurants and shops across four different lands.

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There is no parade route in DisneySky. Instead, the Langley Lagoon area (named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley) is used for both daytime and nighttime shows. Views for these shows are practically 360 degrees, very much like at DisneySea’s Portofino Bay, allowing for minimal congestion and maximum enjoyment.

Like at Disneyland, a perimeter berm helps block outside views from within DisneySky. Other tall elements like structures or trees are used to direct or filter views. With so much urban buildup in the areas surrounding DisneySky, a little extra creativity is needed at times. The massive show building for Storm Mountain in Mythic Realms is used to obscure the 14-storey WorldMark Anaheim hotel directly across the street. The urban contemporary Avengers Airspace land is placed on the park’s west side nearest to large modern structures nearby such as the Anaheim Convention Center. These massive buildings are impossible to hide completely, so instead they should blend into this land’s New York cityscape.

Walkways are wide like at California Adventure, DisneySea, and other newer Disney parks. Like at DisneySea, a combined design focus on vertical elements as well as careful line-of-sight prevents these wide paths from feeling over-scaled relative to the quainter Disneyland nearby. DisneySky is walkable and user friendly without losing its sense of place.

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Backstage

A perimeter roadway circling DisneySky provides access to all the necessary backstage elements. These structures are very dense and are built vertically whenever possible to conserve space. At times these tall backstage buildings will be visible from DisneySky’s “onstage” (especially from Avengers Airspace). Exposed backstage surfaces will receive themed facades to minimize the intrusion.

Note that there are a number of redundant facilities present, since DisneySky is unable to share backstage space with Disneyland or California Adventure.

What follows is a semi-comprehensive list of major backstage facilities:

Main Cast Member Building: This is a major multi-floor building located on the park’s west side alongside Harbor. It includes offices, costuming space, a break center, a dining hall, parking spaces, plus a tram stop for quick cast member access. (This is cast members’ daily DisneySky entrance.)

Merchandise & Food Delivery: On Katella just south of the Rancho Disney entertainment district (to be explored later) is the main receiving and distribution warehouse. Track bays allow for easy shipping. This is also the center for food and merchandise storage.

Entertainment Building: This building in the southwest corner is the primary staging spot for all Langley Lagoon shows. It has direct access to Langley Lagoon's onstage waterways in the form of a covered boat dock on the ground level (like a scaled-down & enclosed version of DisneySea’s lagoon backstage).

Park Security: Located appropriately alongside the park entrance, obscured from public view.

Park Fire Station: Located in the southeast corner.

Park Shop: Also found in the southeast, this structure serves as the primary workshop for designing and storing park props.

In addition, there are various A/C cooler structures located throughout the perimeter areas. ​
 
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D Hulk

D Hulk

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Tokyo DisneySea shows the sort of weathered detailing and place-making we will employ in DisneySky

Park Design

DisneySky follows the DisneySea design aesthetic, featuring lands which are more “magical realism” than “fantasy.” Real world locations and historical periods serve as the influence for DisneySky’s settings.

Everything inside the park represents a heightened realism. There is a strong focus on varied textures and weathering. There are no repeating patterns in masonry or other surfaces; everything is detailed to feel handmade, in the DisneySea model. Surfaces are not spotlessly clean, but artfully weathered. This could mean rainspot stains, fake dirt around building bases, or cracks in buildings.

Due to the limited space in Anaheim, there is a density of design elements. Shops and attractions closely abut as they do at Disneyland.

Transitions from land to lands are necessarily abrupt and sudden. These transitions are always marked by an archway or tunnel to symbolically mark the passage of time and space.

DisneySky’s attraction roster is based on the best Disney Parks catalog found throughout the world; all of the Disney ride types which aren't yet found at the Disneyland Resort appear in DisneySky. There are many duplicated ride systems (and even layouts), but few direct clones. Instead, some attractions could be seen as spiritual successors, serving the same programmatic function for Disneyland Resort as their inspirations do elsewhere.

For guest convenience, DisneySky also employs the following design notes:
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  • FastPass is used throughout the park on major popular attractions much like at Disneyland and California Adventure. Guests using the Disneyland Resort app may reserve day-of MaxPass reservations for an upcharge fee.​

  • Stroller corrals are provided in every land to hopefully reduce stroller congestion on main walkways. These corrals include phone charging outlet stations, always carefully themed.​
  • All drinking fountain stations include spigots for refilling bottles, as can already be found at Shanghai Disneyland.​
  • There is park-wide WiFi.​
  • Several of DisneySky’s major restaurants employ mobile ordering on the app. These restaurants are designed so they may be converted to next-gen ordering systems (as seen at Magic Kingdom’s Be Our Guest).​
  • While RFID Magic Bands are considered a possibility, this is not a central design concern (as Magic Bands do not work well with Disneyland Resort’s mostly local clientele).​

NOTE: The standards of Disney Park design are a moving target, as technology and tastes and popular IPs (and COVID) all dictate. Much of the initial DisneySky design process occurred several years ago and there are aspects which might now be anachronistic. If the park has a solid foundation then it shouldn't matter if it is a little outdated.

Oh, and @JokersWild, don't worry, the Wright Brothers will be appearing.

Tomorrow we will start to explore how DisneySky impacts overall resort infrastructure, with steps taken to make this as realistic a third gate proposal as possible. ​
 
D Hulk

D Hulk

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Original Poster
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RESORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Before we can enter DisneySky, first we must prepare the Disneyland Resort infrastructure. It is no small thing, proposing a third gate, particularly since DisneySky’s “Strawberry Fields” site on the southeast corner of Harbor Blvd. and Katella Ave. is remotely located from existing resort amenities.

A third theme park creates additional crowds. These crowds need additional parking, additional transportation, additional shopping and additional hotels. The purpose of a third theme park is to increase length-of-stay for out-of-town guests, and pull in local visitors without undermining existing attractions. DisneySky must be easily accessible for all. Any improvements made to usher in DisneySky will benefit the Disneyland Resort as a whole.

Let us examine how an off-site guest approaches the Disneyland Resort to get an idea of these new infrastructure improvements.



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Trams

Walt Disney World hotel guests enjoy complimentary motorcoach rides to and from Orlando International Airport aboard Disney’s Magical Express. This amenity lets guests enjoy Disney service even sooner into their vacation. For Disney, it ensures greater influence over their vacation schedule.

Disney’s Magical Express, which is already a minor presence at Disneyland Resort, expands to serve the growing resort area. On-site hotel guests flying into either John Wayne Airport in Orange County or to LAX now get the same complimentary shuttle service to Disney-owned hotels. The service comes with free luggage room delivery. Aboard the bus, decorated with Fab Five characters in a whimsical mid-century style, guests may watch onboard TVs which advertise Disneyland Resort’s many wonders.

The Cast Line is a cast member tram designed to ferry cast members from their new dedicated east side parking structure (to be discussed) to their backstage areas at either Disneyland/Disney California Adventure or at DisneySky. A common Disneyland cast member complaint is about remote parking and additional commute time (sometimes up to 30 minutes) just to get from their cars to backstage. The Cast Line should alleviate these issues with a streamlined, dedicated route from park-to-park along the streets of Anaheim.

Intra-resort shuttles such as Walt Disney World’s Minnie Vans are not possible in Anaheim. Disneyland Resort is a patchwork mixed in with city streets and private businesses. Disney guest shuttles traveling these routes would be legally and politically unlikely with the City of Anaheim. Due to local ART buses, shared public roadways and staffing costs, transportation within the resort will be instead via the new Disneyland Resort People Mover (to be discussed).

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Yen Sid Parking Deck (cast member parking) integrated with additional parking expansions, existing resort infrastructure, and private Anaheim businesses

Yen Sid Parking Deck

Parking altogether is a big logistical challenge for Disneyland Resort, which suffers from limited available acreage and outsized demand. Surface level parking lots are increasingly inefficient, and are already getting phased out on the resort’s west side in the area surrounding the massive Mickey and Friends Parking Structure.

The Eastern Gateway Project is revived and revised in order to create a new transportation complex east of the existing parks. Disney has been purchasing nearby land (all of it behind the private businesses along Harbor Blvd.). At present a government immigration building divides the Disney-owned sites, but it shall be acquired soon as its lease expires. In order for resort infrastructure to cross Disney Way south of the site, Disney must deal with Anaheim and SoCal Edison to bury the power lines which presently sit above ground level.

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Concept art from Disney for their now-canceled Eastern Gateway Project

Once these needs are satisfied, Disney will have contiguous acreage for multiple parking structures and a transportation center, all with an eye towards guest convenience and resort security. Yen Sid Parking Deck is part of this endeavor.

Yen Sid Parking Deck is a multi-level parking structure exclusively for cast members. DisneySky is replacing the current Katella Cast Member Lot. This new solution can fit more vehicles over a smaller acreage while also offering quicker backstage access.

This structure is located on Disney Way just north of the Anaheim City Walk, itself the future location of Rancho Disney. This structure replaces the surface level Pumbaa Parking Lot (presently only used for overflow parking on the busiest days), directly east of the new Walt Disney Transportation Center. Yen Sid will be 8 levels tall, the same as the nearby Seven Dwarfs guest structure, with 8,000 spaces available for cast members (1,000 per level). Vehicle access is along Disney Way, carefully removed from guest vehicle routes.

Cast members are behind-the-scenes magic workers, and so their structure is named for the Fantasia sorcerer who represents Walt Disney himself. Yen Sid Parking Deck is integrated with guests’ resort areas, and its aesthetics match the resort as a whole. The tiered facades are softened with lush planting troughs, and with surface level facades (hiding security and infrastructure) done in Disney’s classic “Mictorian” style. The structure’s concrete walls feature large, colorful Disney characters. City planners describe techniques like this to improve a city’s allure and walkability. And while these design features are justified for guests, they will improve cast members’ days as well, which will mean better interactions with guests.

Tomorrow: We look at new guest parking, as well as the related transportation center infrastructure. Exciting stuff, I know!​
 
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D Hulk

D Hulk

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Seven Dwarfs Parking Deck
(Eastern Gateway)

Even now, Disneyland Resort needs more parking. They will need more parking still with the addition of DisneySky. Estimated total spots desired for three theme parks and other resort attractions amount to 35,000. Here are calculations for estimated spots:

Mickey and Friends Parking Structure: 10,250
Pinocchio Parking Structure: 6,500
Simba Parking Lot: 3,200
Seven Dwarfs Parking Deck (new with the Eastern Gateway): 11,200

That adds up to 31,250, which is 3,750 too few still! With time, this difference can be made up by converting surface-level lots on the west side around hotels (such as Stitch Parking Lot) into more multi-tiered structures.

All these spots are needed for motorists enjoying one-day theme park visits. (Hotel guest and Downtown Disney parking is not counted in these numbers.) Presently, the vast majority of day guests park in Mickey and Friends, which is directly connected to the southbound I-5 from Los Angeles. Motorists coming north up the I-5 from Orange County are forced to follow circuitous surface street routes.

The new Seven Dwarfs Parking Deck will resolve this, with dedicated on- and off-ramps for northbound I-5 traffic. Roughly one third of Resort guests daily will benefit from this improvement, with a new structure roughly the same size as Mickey and Friends.

The eight levels of Seven Dwarfs Parking Deck are named for the Seven Dwarfs – Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey – and Snow White herself on the rooftop level. This is a fitting tribute to Walt’s premiere animated feature. The raw concrete interiors will be aesthetically improved with charming forest murals inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For many guests, this will be their first introduction to the Disneyland Resort, and any steps which can simplify traversing a massive parking structure are more than welcome.

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To that end, the western perimeter along each level includes moving sidewalks to carry guests to the escalators and elevators which lead to the Gateway Plaza. This will ease walking distances, which can be a major inconvenience for guests. Universal Orlando’s parking structures boast similar features, making this a realistic and pleasant start to a magical day.



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Walt Disney Transportation Center

Increasingly, more off-site day guests are reaching Disneyland Resort by means other than personal vehicles. For them, the Walt Disney Transportation Center accessed via Disney Way alongside Yen Sid Parking Deck will be their gateway. This Transportation Center replaces the vehicle drop-off area east of the Disneyland Esplanade, which then becomes precious expansion space for Disney California Adventure.

A ground level drop-off area welcomes the following guests:
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  • Pedestrians traveling the sidewalks from non-Disney hotels. Note that to assuage the owners of “good neighbor” hotels abutting the Transportation Center along Harbor Blvd., “backdoor” access points to the Transportation Center are created along the motels’ backsides, along with a pedestrian access point to the Disneyland Esplanade along Harbor Blvd.’s west side. (Access has been an ongoing point of contention with past Eastern Gateway projects. These proposals are a compromise with motel owners for overall resort improvement.) ​
  • Commuters on resort buses and trams such as the Magical Express. Angled bus docks allow for efficient drop-off without the need for reversing.​
  • Public bus passengers, such as those on Anaheim’s ART bus.​
  • Riders arriving by private vehicle, be it taxis, ride-shares like Uber or Lyft, or personal drop-off by friends or family.​

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In addition to these needs, the Transportation Center is designed to accommodate possible future transportation needs as well. It will be able to accept self-driving cars. Additionally, a portion of the area can be converted for Anaheim’s rumored light rail metro system.

Escalators and elevators at the northern end carry guests from the Transportation Center up to the Gateway Plaza.

For the Transportation Center and all related resort infrastructure, we will use the same “Mictorian” style as seen in Hong Kong Disneyland’s transportation areas, along with lush tropical planting to soften the concrete and asphalt. Covered seating areas are available for waiting guests, done in ornate curlicue iron work. Additionally, resort walkways overhead (leading to DisneySky and Rancho Disney) provide extra shade and shelter.​
 
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