My Family's Dream Disney Park -- homemade imagineering

[Patricia Melton]

I have just returned from a very nice trip out to Disneyland. My family goes to WDW every May, but it's only once in a very blue moon that we get out to Disneyland in California. This was also the very first time that I ever set foot in California Adventure; while I did enjoy the new parts such as Carsland, I think the rest of the park is pretty junky. My husband and I talked about everything I saw in Disneyland and DCA on the flight home and he told me that I should "design my own Disney park". He was kidding, but I think I am going to do it.

I told my son and daughter about this idea and my niece and nephew have agreed to help as well. We're going to get all of our ideas together and then we are going to design our dream Disney park. I don't know how long it will take us, but I think this would be a nice project for my family. I plan on putting it all together into a book or something and then my family can have this memory.

I am very excited about starting work on this. Today I am going to try to figure out the different lands that we will have in our dream park. We're thinking this park would be built somewhere that there is not currently a Disney Park (a place such as Texas maybe). I want this park to be somewhere that the weather is nice so that things can be year round and not close in the winter time. I have only been to Texas a few times so I don't want to make the park about Texas, but I bet that Texas will feature a lot in the Frontierland section of my family's dream park.

I might change this later, but the lands I think we're going to have are:

* Main Street
* Adventureland
* Never Never Land (an area for children)
* Frontierland
* Sleepy Hollow (instead of Liberty Square or New Orleans Square...with a lot of spooky rides)
* Fantasyland
* Discoveryland

There might be some more lands. My family has not decided that yet.

Our goal is to recreate what we love in the current Disney parks and then also fix the things we don't think work very well here in 2013. Since we love 80% of what's in the Disney parks, expect to see a lot of repeats. But, we're definitely getting rid of the Speedway and the idea of "Tomorrowland" since that gets so old and stale so very fast.

Wish me luck as we tackle this project! I am really looking forward to trading my ideas with my family members and then sharing them with you!

 

[Joseph Robinson]

Are you going to get into the nitty gritty of this? Will you be thinking of ride placement, food adn other accomadations. resorts/hotels and all that? Or just write down on a piece of paper "my Disney is going to be super awesome with x, y, z, a, b, c." If it is the former, that would be really interesting.

If you want to take things a step further, build the park in either Minecraft or a Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 type engine (although that is time intensive).

Minecraft Magic Kingdom:

RT3 Haunted Mansion:

 

[Patricia Melton]

Are you going to get into the nitty gritty of this? Will you be thinking of ride placement, food adn other accomadations. resorts/hotels and all that?

We're going to make this a big family project. I want to do illustrations too! This week, we're going to get all our ideas out. I have my niece and nephew with me this weekend and when they come over I am going to give them the gifts I got them at Disneyland. Then we're going to start drawing up our ideas for our park. I think this will be a fun family project.

I want to do a good job writing it up so that other families can maybe do this project too!

I have a fun idea for one of the hotels that will be a boutique hotel and it will be one of the most special hotels ever built...but I need my son to help me think of how exactly it can be pulled off. There are actually a few cool hotel ideas I am going to incorporate.

I will give you a hint, though: I am designing the park with the mindset that Disney has discovered that the themed hotels are something that people clamor for...and so when building the park they don't see the hotels as something that have to be way off to the side but can actually be built to help create atmosphere and environment to the park itself. Disneyland Paris kind of gave me a starting point and I'm going to take it further from there to create something very special.

 

[Patricia Melton]

Rethinking Hotels at a Disney Park -- Five Boutique Hotels Built into the Dream Park to Create Atmosphere and a Very Unique Hospitality Experience

When designing my family's dream park, we wanted to address something that we think of every time we see Cinderella's Castle or Sleeping Beauty's Castle and know that most of those buildings is empty space. There is now the Cinderella Suite in Orlando, but people can't rent it out...which is a real shame.

So, that made my family think: "What if a Disney park was built with hotels that are actually inside the park?".
I'll get to the issues involving a hotel inside a park in a minute...but first I want to tell you what these hotels should be and where they should be located. I need my son to draw the pictures for me, but for now I will describe these hotels and tell you why I think this would be an excellent idea that would really add something to the parks.

The five hotels inside my family's dream Disney park would be:

1. The Haunted Mansion (in the Sleepy Hollow area that is adjacent to Frontierland and next to the Forbidden Forest that borders Fantasyland).

2. The Adventurer's Club (in Adventureland)

3. Snow White's Castle (in both Fantasyland and the center of the park)

4. The Disney Hotel (on Main Street)

5. Tantive IV (in the Star Wars sub-area of Discoveryland...with the hotel resembling Princess Leia's starship from the outside and on the inside it has the feeling of being on her ship)

Each of these hotels would be "boutique hotels" and would have about 100 rooms each. This would mean they'd have about 500 hotel rooms combined and would have room prices that would be about $500/night with a three night stay minimum. Suites would be much higher than this. These boutique hotels would be geared as a once-in-lifetime event for most people and not a hotel that people would be able to stay in every time they came to the parks.

The reason I'd want to make this a very special/pricey thing is to better control the logistics of the hotels. Simply put, it would be very hard to make these hotels high-capacity and locate them where I want to put them in the park...because I need to be create in the design of the park to still be able to allow hotel guests to come and go after the park closes (but not have them be able to have access to the park itself once it closed, for security purposes).

Essentially, what I want to do is have the boutique hotels be built inside what would ordinarily be just shells for the various landmarks around the park. Let's look at the Haunted Mansion first.

My idea is that there would be 100 guest rooms in the Haunted Mansion that anchors the Sleepy Hollow section of my family's dream Disney park. This would be built so it looks like it is on a hill...and it would be adjacent to the Haunted Mansion attraction's show building (which would actually be hidden beneath a spooky forest and rock formation that would be the "Forbidden Forest" that forms the border between Sleepy Hollow and Fantasyland, since my version of Fantasyland has a villains-themed area that helps with the transition into the perkier and happier fairytale buildings).

Guests staying in the Haunted Mansion (or any of the boutique hotels) would be able to enter and exit the park through special doors the way that guests can now go into Club 33, the Cinderella Suite, or the Disneyland Suite (above Pirates of the Caribbean) with the help of hotel employees that would man the security desks that would control these doors. Guests would not be able to access the park after it is closed, but they would still be able to leave hotel property by way of the special entrance/parking structure that we'd build just for the hotel guests to come and go.

I envision the five hotels being connected underground by way of a special tunnel that would link them all...which would be like having a special utilidor system just for these hotel guests. All the tunnels from the various hotels would ultimately feed into one entrance at the very rear of the park that would also have a parking garage for the guests staying in the 500 rooms of these combined hotels. Access to the hidden road leading to this garage and the boutique hotels would be strictly controlled by way of a security checkpoint and only guests staying in these hotels could gain access. This is like how a gated community works and you need to be a resident to get into the place.

I picture there being one central check-in/front desk type area where guests would handle all those sorts of payment details and then each hotel would have a small concierge/service desk to handle guest needs in the five separate hotel areas that are at the ends of the tunnels.

There would need to be golf carts or some sort of a tram system to shuttle guests back and forth from the hotels to the little check-in hub/garage/exit. Guests could also walk from place to place if they like. I believe the premium price for a room would cover the costs of running the golf carts/tram system.

The Adventure's Club Hotel would look like an outpost in the deepest jungle of Africa...and it would actually be built above the Jungle Cruise ride so that the boats would pass under the hotel. The hotel would thus form part of the scenery. An Adventurer's Club restaurant would be located in the hotel and would be like a Blue Bayou type restaurant because it would overlook part of a ride (not the Jungle Cruise, but another ride we have planned for Adventureland that would be themed to Indiana Jones or other Adventurers). Diners in the restaurant would be part of the atmosphere of the ride and would provide some life and energy to that scene. The Adventurer's Club Hotel would thus feel like an inn where there is a restaurant below and you sleep upstairs. The views from the guest rooms would be of Adventureland, the river below with the boats going by, and the deep jungle plants.

Snow White's Castle would be the central landmark of the park and would have guest rooms that looked like they were in a castle. There would be one very large Snow White suite that would be gorgeous and cheerful and also one Queen Grimhilde Royal Suite that would be spooky but elegant. There would be a room that was two stories tall and built into one of the towers. When you'd enter the hotel, you'd do so from the tunnel in the special guest utilidor system and you'd feel like you were coming in through the dungeon of the castle...and then up into the gorgeous lobby where you'd be greeted and shown to your rooms. While the park is open, there would be a way to enter the hotel and leave the hotel for guests only by way of a secret door that was accessible only to guests with their room keys; the attendant controlling the reservations to the Snow White's Royal Table restaurant would also control this access.

Disney Hotel on Main Street would be built right along Main Street and would look like a Victorian Hotel from that time. I might even design it to be like the Disneyland Paris hotel that's right there above the main gate...and I think I'd make it look like a hotel that was built right by a train station back in the olden days.

The Tantive IV Hotel would give guests the feeling like they were sleeping on a Star Wars space ship. It would have sleek white corridors and the hotel staff would have uniforms that looked like they were working on Princess Leia's ship. The outside of the hotel would look like a giant replica of the ship...like it had landed on a spaceport...and the inside of the ship would feel like you are really on a ship. While the park was open guests could enter the ship and leave into the park via a special secured area that is adjacent to a Star Wars themed restaurant.

In dreaming up these boutique hotels I keep trying to remember that Disney strictly controls its staffing costs...and so I think every hotel would pretty much be built so that the hotel guests can enter and leave the hotel during park hours via special "secret" entrances that could be controlled by the host stations of the restaurants that would be adjacent to the hotels.

When the park closes, the hotel guests would be directed to use the tunnels that feed to the central hub and they can leave the park property via that route. Since hotels have to comply with all sorts of fire codes and other safety standards, of course there would be emergency exits that would let people out into the park in an emergency...but then they'd be shown back into the hotel when the emergency was resolved.

A 100 room boutique hotel requires not many staff members to function: I envision there being a pair of Concierges on duty for two shifts and then one on duty for the night shift. There would be a pair of security officers on duty at all times too...and there would be a person manning both the tunnel entrance and the park entrance at all times. Then there would be housekeeping staff to clean the rooms and the usual maintenance people to take care of any problems guests have with rooms. These salaries would all be comfortably covered by the $500/night premium room fees (which would bring in about $90 million a year with the 500 rooms these boutique hotels would have all around the park).

What I like about this idea is that the various icon buildings around the park would have a life to them...since guests would be turning off and on lights and would be moving behind the windows in all of these boutique hotels. I think that would be very interesting...and could make the place feel alive.

The windows would be see-through from only one side to prevent the guests from making obscene gestures or doing anything vulgar that park guests could see. I remember there was a disaster at some hotel that was built onto a baseball field where guests were doing things in the nude that children should not see...so the one-way glass would resolve that. For instance, the Haunted Mansion and the Snow White Castle rooms would all have stained glass to obscure the view from the outside. The Tantive IV would have black glass from the outside. The Disney Hotel would have frosted Victorian glass...and the Adventurer's Hotel would have those little white wooden slits that they have in jungle outposts to keep the animals and bugs out.

None of the guest room windows would open to prevent people from breaking into the parks at night or doing anything else that is bad (like throwing things at guests or trying to hurt people). Just to be completely safe, when guests check into the boutique hotels all bags would be scanned like at the airport to make sure no one is bringing any weapons in so that no one could use a guest room to harm anyone in the parks.

I know I have more thinking to do on all of this, but I really think if Walt Disney was building his park today in 2013 he would have built it to include hotels within the park itself...and he would use these to bring a sort of life to the buildings that is kind of lacking now.

I also think it would be just amazing to be able to say you slept in the Haunted Mansion or in Adventureland.

I don't think I could make any of the above work with more than 500 rooms total or more than 100 rooms per boutique hotel. I think it would be just too hectic and chaotic then.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this as my family continues to plan this out.

 

[Tip Top Club]

I used the idea of in-park hotels for a park I armchair-imagineered a while back (a project I revisit now and again) and what I ended up using them for was almost like a berm. I would put them on the outside edge of the park to use them as view-blockers. And they were always in-theme so it gave an excuse to put really tall buildings in the park and make the ares feel more lived it. I settled on putting them on the outside edge for two reasons. 1. it gives those guests the perk of walking down a few flights of stairs (or taking an elevator, or whatever) and being at the entrance turnstiles. And number 2, It's not technically in the park, so there's no issue of clearing the parks at night when work needs to be done.

Also It makes hotel restaurants and shopping more accesible to day-guests, who might not want to make a trip out to, say, Animal Kingdom Lodge, from Epcot.

 

[Patricia Melton]

I used the idea of in-park hotels for a park I armchair-imagineered a while back (a project I revisit now and again) and what I ended up using them for was almost like a berm. I would put them on the outside edge of the park to use them as view-blockers. And they were always in-theme so it gave an excuse to put really tall buildings in the park and make the ares feel more lived it. I settled on putting them on the outside edge for two reasons. 1. it gives those guests the perk of walking down a few flights of stairs (or taking an elevator, or whatever) and being at the entrance turnstiles. And number 2, It's not technically in the park, so there's no issue of clearing the parks at night when work needs to be done.

Also It makes hotel restaurants and shopping more accesible to day-guests, who might not want to make a trip out to, say, Animal Kingdom Lodge, from Epcot.

This is very interesting. And as I was reading it I realized that this is what Disney did with the Grand Californian hotel at DCA.

I will have to revisit my hotel plans and incorporate this.

Maybe I will adjust things so that the Adventure's Hotel and Tantive IV are outside the berm...and that the Haunted Mansion hotel is part of a larger hotel outside the berm too (and the HM wing would jut out into the park but still be attached to that larger hotel).

That would leave the only boutique hotel as the Snow White Castle one...but I could have that run from a tunnel to another hotel.

I like these ideas and will consult with my family to see what we are going to do with them!

 

[Patricia Melton]

What New Attractions and Characters Would Be Represented in My Family's Dream Park?

Today I was talking with my husband about all the different characters and attractions we'd want to have in our dream Disney park. One of the big rules we've agreed on for this project is to try our best not to repeat most of what is currently found in Disney parks. Our family's dream park would be one where every Disney fan can find something new.

We still don't know exactly where we're going to put the different lands, but we do know we're going to arrange them a little differently so that we can blend one land into another better than it's currently done.

It looks like we might keep Fantasyland where it has always been, but we're going to put Adventureland to the right of it...and then Discoveryland to the right of that. If you think of Fantasyland as 12 o'clock then Adventureland would be at 2 or 3 o'clock and Discoveryland would be at 4 or 5 o'clock. Main Street remains at 6 o'clock.

For the other half of the park, we're thinking we'll have Frontierland at 7 or 8 o'clock, Sleepy Hollow at 9 o'clock and the Forbidden Forest at 11 o'clock.

Fantasyland just happens to be my son and daughter's favorite land and they have lots of ideas on what they want to have there. I have to confer with them to see what exactly they want, but my husband and I have some ideas too. Here's what we are thinking so far:

* Almost every attraction will be built as a little sub-area with a ride, some kind of food location, a gift shop, and a little area for a meet & greet (which can become a nice quiet rest area for guests when there's no meet and greet happening). The model we will use is the Beauty & the Beast area of the New Fantasyland expansion at MK in 2012-2013. The goal is to capture the feeling of each classic film and make guests believe they are stepping into those worlds (and becoming part of them, in the case of Ariel!).

* Every area will have something for both boys and girls to do, so there is no "this is too Princess!" or "this is too rough and tumble!". We will keep in mind Walt Disney's philosophy that the attractions should all be things that all family members can enjoy...though I think we should recognize that in 2013 teens and young adults do expect some thrill rides that the little guys and gals can't go on. So, I want to have something like a "Junior" version of each thrill ride so that the little kids can have fun right next door to the "Big" version of that attraction.

* All of the queues will be delightfully themed and will have lots of surprises and fun things for family members to enjoy while waiting. I want to design the park so that there are enough attractions that will make sure that no line ever gets longer than a 40 minute wait. I know this will be a challenge and I will have to get my son to help me design this because he is very good at figuring out the math on things like this.

Now, let's think about what I want to put into our Fantasyland and what I will not include from the other Disney parks. Some of this will be pretty controversial, I am sure, but I want to be really bold with this new "Melton Family Disney Park".

1. Dark Rides and E-tickets
My family loves dark rides, so our Dream Park will have more of them than a regular Disney park. I don't, however, want to repeat any of the existing ones from other Fantasylands. I also think there should be two E-tickets in Fantasyland but we have not decided on what those will be yet. I do want to have a Maleficent themed-coaster, but that will be the first attraction in the Villains' Forbidden Forest that I have planned just to the left of Fantasyland.

2. London Sub-Land
Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations, Sword in the Stone, Aristocrats, The Rescuers, Robin Hood, A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Dark Cauldron and any other British-themed thing we can think of will be represented here. I picture the Peter Pan attraction being built so that it has a big Never Never Land aspect to it...which will form part of the transition into Adventureland, since both of those have a kind of jungle vibe to them. I also think that a Princess and the Frog attraction/restaurant/area can be built at the border of Adventureland and Fantasyland because the swamp of Adventureland will give way to the Princess and the Frog area...and there could be a little New Orleans part that then turns into a more French/European style part for the transition to Fantasyland. I have this all in my head and it makes perfect sense but I guess I won't be able to communicate it perfectly until I get my son to draw a picture of it! But, Princess Tiana will get her "Tiana's Palace" restaurant and it will have the most delicious creole food you have ever tasted, I guarantee!

3. A Castle for Every Princess
I really want to set things up so that Snow White's Castle (the central castle of the park) feels like it is in the middle of a very fast enchanted kingdom...and guests can see ALL of the other Disney castles off in the distance. Some of these other neighboring castles will allow guests inside and some will just be out there in the distance. One thing that makes a lot of sense for me is to have a Little Mermaid area that is next to Never Never Land because both of those movies had mermaids. I also want to put Agrabah's Palace somewhere in the distance so that the Aladdin area of Adventureland would also share that Palace as an icon from the other side. I need to be creative with this because there is a lot of stuff I want to put on the border of these two lands!

4. Lots of energy and motion
I just got back from a trip to Disneyland as I am writing this, so I am very heavily influenced by all the energy and motion of its Fantasyland. In particular, I love how they have the Canal Boats with Casey Jr. working just above them...and lots of tunnels and bridges and things that these attractions share. I really want to incorporate some of this. It's funny, but one of the things I dislike the most about Disney parks is the Speedway/Autopia because I am just so bothered by a "Tomorrowland" with all the gas-belching cars in it. Yet, I actually think a car ride for kids based on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride could be WONDERFUL if it is built in a way where the cars from that ride add some kinetic energy and background color to other rides. I am trying to think of a way to build Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Cars so that guests riding on it provide visual interest and energy to the London scenes (as in, those well-themed British cars could look amazing from a Mary Poppins or Peter Pan or Dalmations area).

5. Perfect sightlines that prevent other lands from bleeding in...and excellent transitions to other lands
This is a big thing for me because I think Disney has tried harder than anyone to have good sight lines and to make sure that the lands don't intrude on each other...but there are failures. I really want to be creative about this and to try my best to make sure that not even the central Snow White's Castle intrudes into the other lands of the park. I don't know how I am going to do this, but I am going to try. My son and daughter will help me as they are very good with visuals.

I am so happy I found this Imagineering section of the forums because I have so many ideas and I am having so much putting them all together. Tonight I am going to sit down and think of all the different attractions we want to have and how we are going to represent ALL the characters from Disney's wonderful catalog.

If you have good ideas too, please share them and you can help my family design our dream park!

 

[Patricia Melton]

An Idea for a Different Kind of Main Street

I don't know what we'll do with this, but tonight at dinner my husband and I had an idea for Main Street that could be fun. What about making it something other than a Victorian town?

I know when they were designing Disneyland Paris they thought of making its Main Street a 1920s town. I also know that Shanghai Disneyland will not have a traditional Main Street at all. The Victorian Main Street is already well-represented in most of the current Disney parks...so I thought about doing something different.

I still want the Main Street to be in the past...but I thought maybe it would be fun to have it be some kind of different styled town than just a Victorian town. Here are some of my ideas so far:

* a Western Town...which would kind of make Main Street part of Frontierland and would kind of combine those two things into one area.

* a New Orleans-style French Quarter Main Street, which would be sort of like a Bourbon Street.

* a Fantasy village...so that Fantasyland and Main Street were combined and the street would lead to the big castle in the middle of the park (which would actually be the first time that Main Street and the castle thematically matched)

* a London-style street like from the Mary Poppins days

Whatever kind of style we come up with for Main Street, we'd like to have the upper floors of the shops be hotel rooms because we'd like a hotel to be built in the front of the park, with the normally empty floors of the buildings in the parks being used for the hotel rooms as much as possible.

I'm going to have to really think hard on this because coming up with the theme for Main Street will really set the tone for the rest of our Dream Park!

 

[Tip Top Club]

What about a really classic American Street, like Liberty Square. That's very Disney.

 

[Matt7187]

This sounds like a really fun family project! I wish my family would do something like this! Anyway, can't wait to see the finished project!

 

[jdmdisney99]

Yeah, Patricia, this sounds really fantastic! My family could never sit down and agree on stuff to put in it! I bet it will turn out amazing! If you need any help or advice you know you can come to this forum. We've got a lot of future Imagineers here @WED99 @Matt7187 @ctxak98 @Turtle and our "advisors" @BryceM @Tip Top Club

 

[Tip Top Club]

Ooo, @BryceM, look at us, we're Advisers!

Love it!

 

[WED99]

We have Advisors?

This project makes me laugh, if my family tried this they would literally be sitting there saying "How about a ride?!" "WOW! Great idea!" "Good going!" and then me just sitting there like

@Patricia Melton I think instead of trying to latch onto a certain theme as you are doing, maybe attempt to find...

1) A certain era
2) A certain architectural style

Also try to think of what you want the area to represent.

What makes your Disney park different to others?

How do you want guests to feel when they enter your park?

What is the wienie for your park?

Where is the location of your park?

Answer those questions and I think I'll be able to give you a good idea.

 

[WED99]

Here are a couple of ideas and pictures to help you brainstorm. After you answer those questions I think I could help narrow it down to one if you like...

First maybe go for a classic European Village look, then use a more medieval style for your fantasyland.

Another nice option might be to mix classic gothic architecture styles with a modern theme.

And finally something I think would work well is to go for a 1940's art deco style.

 

[WED99]

Ok I might be over doing it here but I had another idea while playing Assassins Creed 3. Why not base your Main Street around Boston during the American Revolution? I think this might be resemble Liberty Square closely but that isn't a bad thing.