Imagineering a Disney Mountain Resort

[Heppenheimer]

The northern Rockies could work as well, anywhere from northern Colorado to Canada. Denver and Calgary both provide the necessary populations and infrastructure. My ill-informed opinion would favor the Canadian Rockies, simply because in pictures I see, there seems to be a lot more water available. I could be completely wrong, though.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Someone suggested Alaska... an intriguing idea, but unfortunately, a major ski resort on the scale that I outlined would probably be too difficult and expensive to support that far away.

Unless Disney could somehow buy Alyeska Resort.

 

[Heppenheimer]

So, there's my Imagineered Disney-designed, owned and operated mountain resort. As intriguing as the idea is and even though the concept originated with Walt himself, I don't think we'll ever see anything like this. Current Disney management doesn't seem too keen on aggressively expanding their North American vacation properties, much less one located outside their warm weather comfort zone. And given all the hyperventilation we witnessed over something as simple as the Skyliner, I might even question how much overlap exists between typical Disney park guests and those who enjoy more physically active leisure pursuits.

And then there's the potential negative publicity. As you read on every lift ticket waiver, skiing is an inherently dangerous sport. At just about any resort anywhere in the world, serious injuries occur on a daily basis, and it kills about 40 people per year in the US. I can just imagine the headlines when the inevitable, particularly photogenic child ends up in traction. "Straight-A Student's Dream Trip to Disney Mountain Ends in Nightmare".

So even though it will probably never happen, I would love to see Disney Imagineers shake up the ski resort industry just as they did for amusement parks.

That's all for my thoughts on this project, unless something else pops in my head.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Random addition to this thread that I previously ran out of ideas for. A resort designed mostly for winter activities needs a winter carnival. And winter carnivals usually feature elaborate ice sculptures.... like these (My photos from a similar event in Fairbanks, AK):

 

[Heppenheimer]

I enjoyed watching "The Imagineering Story" this weekend. In the segments highlighting Animal Kingdom, I couldn't help but notice that all animals and most of the theming come from warm weather environments. Certainly appropriate to Florida, but this leaves out large parts of the biodiversity of the natural animal kingdom. So, I began to brain-storm an expansion park to my imaginary Disney ski resort. How about a Joe Rohde-esque Northern Animal Kingdom? It would highlight some of the species found in temperate, boreal, Alpine, tundra and arctic climates. Like Florida's Animal Kingdom, it could feature a collection of all-weather rides and shows.

Let me give this some thought to dream up a few ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

 

[Voxel]

I enjoyed watching "The Imagineering Story" this weekend. In the segments highlighting Animal Kingdom, I couldn't help but notice that all animals and most of the theming come from warm weather environments. Certainly appropriate to Florida, but this leaves out large parts of the biodiversity of the natural animal kingdom. So, I began to brain-storm an expansion park to my imaginary Disney ski resort. How about a Joe Rohde-esque Northern Animal Kingdom? It would highlight some of the species found in temperate, boreal, Alpine, tundra and arctic climates. Like Florida's Animal Kingdom, it could feature a collection of all-weather rides and shows.

Let me give this some thought to dream up a few ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

Ever since I was a little kid I have felt that Animal Kingdom needed a "giant Igloo" that would go into an artic world. I think i was 12 riding home from disney with a sketch pad when I drew my first version of it. That is where I started my dream of being a Disney imagineer.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Ever since I was a little kid I have felt that Animal Kingdom needed a "giant Igloo" that would go into an artic world. I think i was 12 riding home from disney with a sketch pad when I drew my first version of it. That is where I started my dream of being a Disney imagineer.

I'm trying to think of a suitable central icon. One that says both "natural" and "cold(er) weather". A giant igloo might be one, or that could be a feature in one of the themed areas. Other ideas... a giant artificial iceberg? A snow-covered artificial mountain, with a large cave (maybe a bit redundant in a resort that also features skiing)? A giant fir tree? A fanciful Arctic/Antarctic research station? The edge of a glacier? A snow-capped volcano?

 

[Voxel]

I'm trying to think of a suitable central icon. One that says both "natural" and "cold(er) weather". A giant igloo might be one, or that could be a feature in one of the themed areas. Other ideas... a giant artificial iceberg? A snow-covered artificial mountain, with a large cave (maybe a bit redundant in a resort that also features skiing)? A giant fir tree? A fanciful Arctic/Antarctic research station? The edge of a glacier? A snow-capped volcano?

Edge of a glacier would be Epic. A masive "Ice" wall and guest enter through cracks in the ice. They could have smalls amouts of water running of the sides as if it is slightly metlting in the florida heat.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Edge of a glacier would be Epic. A masive "Ice" wall and guest enter through cracks in the ice. They could have smalls amouts of water running of the sides as if it is slightly metlting in the florida heat.

The more I think about it, the more I like the glacier idea as a central icon. The theme of the park is the natural world, so a man-made structure would not fit as well (the glacier will be man-made, of course, but it at least tries to replicate a natural structure). It also perfectly encapsulates visually that this Animal Kingdom represents the colder regions of the world.

Even cooler if Disney Imagineering could figure out how to simulate the ice calving.

The central glacier would contain an attraction (more on that later), but I also like your idea of having guests access the interior through cave-like cracks, like the glacier at Chamonix.

Disney could also build water effects to simulate a slow melt. And in the winter, the structure could also incorporate actual ice and snow. Remember, my fictional resort is not in sunny Florida, but a mountainous location cold enough to support skiing for 4-6 months every winter.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Unlike Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida, where the lands are themed by geography, Disney's Northern Animal Kingdom will be arranged by similar biomes irrespective of geography. The central hub, with its large glacier mock-up, will represent polar regions. The park will also feature lands based on the world's boreal forests, steppes, and alpine biomes.

So, around our glacier, we can have exhibits displaying polar bears:

Penguins:

Fur seals:

Arctic foxes:

 

[Heppenheimer]

For the various structures that would adorn our central hub (snack stands, take-away restaurants, souvenir stands, buildings to hide infrastructure, entrances to view the animals' indoor enclosures when the weather is too warm for them to stay outside, etc.), the design inspiration comes from the patch-work of prefabricated buildings you might find at various polar research facilities, like McMurdo Station or Amundsen-Scott station:

Kind of like Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari are littered with props that suggest expeditions, Disney Imagineers could decorate the area with objects appropriate to the theme, like scientific equipment, dog sleds, shipping containers and the like, with all the little humorous but subtle details we come to expect.

I thought about making the buildings look like igloos, but visually, this might look a little monotonous. And the scientific/exploration theme ties into the polar-based ride I had in mind...

 

[Heppenheimer]

Next, our premiere attraction for Disney's Northern Animal Kingdom will be located inside the park central icon, the before-mentioned fake glacier. Call it "Journey Through the Ice Age". For the backstory, while conducting scientific surveys of the polar regions, deep within the cracks of a glacier, the researchers discovered a strange portal. Once they crossed through, bending time and space, they found themselves transported back to the Pleistocene era. Now, having safely mastered the transfer back and forth between time eras, the researchers invite guests onto a tram-like vehicle to explore Earth during the last Ice Age. Although they've worked out most of the kinks, sometimes the vehicles may slip a little on unstable ice. Most of the ice age megafauna regard the visitors with disinterest, but sometimes, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves get a little too curious...

 

[Heppenheimer]

So, that's the ride's concept. The execution of Journey Through the Ice Age will be a combination of rides systems and ideas. The concept may sound similar to Dinosaur: Countdown to Extinction, but I want to use a different ride system. To simulate the vehicles sliding around on ice, Journey Through the Ice Age will use a modified indoor Flying Turns bobsled roller coaster:

However, the vehicles motion will also be operated, in certain sections, in a more controlled fashion, kind of like on Seven Dwarves' Mine Train or a traditional dark ride. This way, the guest can get a better look at the detailed dioramas, featuring audio-animatronics of various Pleistocene era animals, like:

Wolly Mammoths:

Wooly Rhinos:

 

[Heppenheimer]

Giant sloths:

Giant Elk:

Herds of aurochs:

Dire wolves:

Saber tooted cats:

 

[Heppenheimer]

The ride experience. Guests for Journey Through the Ice Age enter a queue through an ice cave in the glacier.

In the pre-show area, decorated with various scientific instruments and ice-hewing equipment, we hear the spiel about the discovery of the dimensional portal deep within the ice. Guests are now invited to board the vehicles so that they can go back in time to view the megafauna of the last ice age, while hearing slight hints that they haven't quite perfected the operation of the vehicles over unsteady ice, and that some of the animals might mistake the guests for their normal prey. The portal itself can be some kind of mist with projection effects.

 

[Heppenheimer]

The ride will move guests through various scenic dioramas of audio-animatronic and projection mapped animals of the Pleistocene era (hopefully, using more up-dated technology than we see in Disneylands' Primeval World).

:
The scenes need not all display barrren Arctic tundra, but can also show the rich hinterland beyond the edge of the glaciers.

It mostly proceeds at a leisurely pace, but the bobsled track sets in to simulate the vehicles slipping on the glaciers, and attempting to outrun attacking predators, like the dire wolves and saber-toothed cats. The ride ends with a sharp drop as the vehicles accidentally trigger an avalanche.

Just when it appears that the vehicles will be caught, they pass again through the portal and safely back to the present time.

The ride doesn't need to be completely scientifically or historically accurate. But along with a sense of fun, it should also offer a lesson on how climate change can vastly change the environment.

 

[Imagineer45]

I know the original idea was a Disney ski resort in the mountains, but what about an indoor ski resort at WWoS? They just opened the first indoor ski slope in the country right outside NYC, and it has been incredibly popular (before the pandemic). There is a large, mostly cleared plot of land in the southeast corner of WWoS that is sometimes used for grass parking, but it would be an excellent location.

 

[Heppenheimer]

I know the original idea was a Disney ski resort in the mountains, but what about an indoor ski resort at WWoS? They just opened the first indoor ski slope in the country right outside NYC, and it has been incredibly popular (before the pandemic). There is a large, mostly cleared plot of land in the southeast corner of WWoS that is sometimes used for grass parking, but it would be an excellent location.

I had thought of that, but it was more fun to Imagineer an entire resort. There's only so much theming you can do with an indoor slope, and the limited capacity probably wouldn't be worth the investment for the Disney Company as an addition to the Florida resort.

But you did give me an idea... even in northern climates, the ski season can only last a few months. An indoor slope would allow this imaginary resort to extend the ski season to year round operations. I'll probably return to this idea after finishing the Northern Animal Kingdom, unless someone else wants to take the lead.

 

[Heppenheimer]

The next land for our Northern Animal Kingdom will be based on a boreal forest biome:

The setting is a Scandinavian timber village as the gateway to the vasts forest land beyond. The village has a dwindling population, and it is starting to succumb to the advancement of the surrounding woods. Rumor has it that fantastical creatures have been spotted in the area.

I originally planned on calling this section of the park "Borelia"... but then I realized that name sounds too similar to the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. So instead, I'll call it Förtrolladskog, which Google translate tells me is Swedish for "Enchanted Forest".

 

[Heppenheimer]

Next, the animal trail for Förtrolladskog. Beyond the decaying village buildings, a trail leads into a thick conifer and birch forest. Not only can you observe the animals of the world's boreal forests, but as the name in Swedish implies, fantastical creatures also call this area home. Unlike the animals, which are clearly visible in their exhibit areas, you can only catch glimpses of the fairies, trolls, elves and sprites who live here. Some of this could reference Frozen II:

Or Brave:

Think motion-activated twinkling lights, sounds, and some moving landscapes, like rocks that vaguely resemble trolls but make slight movements, like opening their eyes.