The Journey So Far...
This space will be used to update our running description of Disney's Portals of Adventure, and is entirely optional FYI information.
-Disney's Portals of Adventure-
Disney Parks in the past have had double uses: the Magic Kingdom was an amusement park doubling as a theme park; EPCOT is a World's Fair doubling as a theme park; Hollywood Studios is a studio lot doubling as a theme park; Animal Kingdom is a zoo doubling as a theme park. Disney's fifth gate also fits this criteria:
Disney's Portals of Adventure is a museum doubling as a theme park. When a guests walk through the park, they see works that would be traditionally represented in a museum such as art, nature, or scientific description, before arriving in one of many
completely amazing worlds. The new park also includes an immersive boutique resort!
-The Lands-
The Disney University (DU) Quad
This land represents the entrance of the park (much like Main Street in the Magic Kingdom). The large walking lane will be
luscious green turf and surrounding the lane will be multiple university-themed buildings (possible examples: Music Building, Engineering Building, Bus Depot).
Prop - Dr. Leonard Cooper: Mr. Cooper's statue is located at the entrance to Disney Quad facing the museum, and features the first president of the university with his toe rubbed gold (as students rub it for good luck). Cooper, who received his doctorate in physics, was
one of the first people to theorize the multiverse, and his contributions to the current understanding of the universe are listed on a plaque in front.
All of Cooper's research vanished from the library mysteriously and remains unfounded to this day.
Attraction - Robotic Lectures with Baymax (based on Big Hero 6): Guests enter the Disney University Engineering Department building, where the National Robotics Fair is being held, which is utilized as
an interactive queue to allow guests to interact different REAL science exhibits. After meandering through this queue, guests are invited to a room with
guest speaker Hiro Hamada from the San Fransokyo Institute of technology is presenting his work on the robot Baymax. Hiro gives a brief description of Baymax, before he
allows guests to have conversations with the Robot in an experience like "Turtle Talk with crush" which is a proven successful system.
Attraction - Going Turbo: This new attraction in the Disney Quad transports it's students and VIPs directly to Game Central Station where they will bored a tram that takes them into multiple games similar to the end credits of Wreck It Ralph, and
with three separate experiences including randomly generated mini game experiences like Pac-Man, Street Fighter or Sonic, guests will keep coming back to try each combination. The three car tram will split up upon entering the portals with each car entering into a different game such as
Hero's Duty, Sugar Rush, or Wreck -It Ralph where guests will travel through those games using either laser gun to shoot at Cy-Bugs, using a steering wheel to race against Valleope, or using a joystick and buttons to dodge falling bricks, and at the end, the tram cars will reattach once more. Once reattached, the tram heads towards the boss level, King Candy in full Cy-Bug former, where
guests must work together to face down this colossal threat and earn enough points to see him defeated such as using their laser guns, using the horn on the steering wheel to fire multi-colored candy, or using the joystick and buttons to fire bricks.
The Mystic Gallery
This is the "hub" of Disney's Portals of Adventure and can be found at the rear of the DU Quad. From the outside it looks like a standard University museum building, except at the entrance to the land is
Henry Mystic's enchanted music box, which brings all the gallery's artworks to vivid life and is able to interact with guests who wield magical (RFID chip) paintbrushes a-la Epic Mickey
In addition to being a hub for the park, this land hosts the fine art collections of
S.E.A.'s famed curator Lord Henry Mystic, displayed in a lushly manicured sculpture garden and in a converted spacious Beaux-Artes railway station (akin to Paris's Musee d'Orsay). Golden frames in this land are portals to the wondrous worlds of famous paintings from throughout history, rendered in life-size brushwork styles including romanticism or pointillism or cubism.
Stepping "through" the portals leads to various other lands and attractions.
Prop - The Pheonix: In 1898, a colleague of Henry Mystic and member of Society of Explorers and Adventurers,
Dr. Nathaniel H. Nicholson, was venturing through the Chinese mountains when he happened across a cave of enchantment, and uncovered a centuries old book of spells that
unleashed a magical phoenix bird. Despite witnessing this incredible event and learning about these mythical animals, Dr. Nicholson's tales have not been fully accepted by S.E.A as the phoenix bird has never been seen again. Dr. Nicholson became obsessed with trying to visualize the phoenix bird that he saw, and
painted several illustrations of the bird. He desperately wanted one of those paintings in the Mystic Gallery fine art collection, and Henry Mystic, sympathetic to Dr. Nicholson's situation, allowed the phoenix art to be
placed in the Mystic Gallery. There is also a plaque detailing that the findings have not been confirmed by S.E.A. The phoenix painting is an illustration drawn by Dr. Nicholson and is a mental image of what he saw on his journey in the cave of enchantment, with
hopes of some day changing that plaque and proving the evidence of what he saw.
Attraction - Goghing Through the Cosmos: A giant mural covering one wall within the Mystic Gallery depicts Vincent Van Gogh's famous "Starry Night", altered slightly to contain a golden portal on the bottom its left side, leading to the forest which surrounds the town shown in the painting. Guests venture through the golden frame,
into the nighttime forest (housed within a show building), following an overgrown dirt trail through moss covered trees and an eerie fog, until they reach the archaeological dig site where one of Mystic's most prized possessions, the Nebra Sky Disc, was found. Here, guests board a Star Tours style Motion simulator where a mischievous tour guide convinces guests to help him retrieve what he believes to be the back half of the famous disk. However, as soon as this second mysterious disc is moved, a bright light emanates from the ground and
guests are sucked through a portal into a journey across the cosmos, where they take in stunning galactic vistas, explore foreign worlds, and race to make it back home before the sun rises, the Starry Night ends, and the portal closes.
Mythica
This is a steampunk inspired land
full of gears and buzzing machinery. It is located below The Mystic Gallery and contributes to the parks overarching story that Mythica is a mysterious and mystical city that powers the portals to adventure located in The Mystic Gallery.
Prop - The Nuummite Cog: Spinning silently away in the land of Mythica is the Nuummite Cog and is the single most important part of Mythica and Disney's Portals of Adventures. This
very small black gear shining with labradorescene, no bigger than a hand, in the land of giant bronze gears, powers the golden frames in the Mystic Gallery that allows guests to travel to different worlds. Coming upon the Cog guests will only see a small bronze name plate saying:
"The Nuummite Cog is the only gear never to be replaced in Mythica". But keen eyed guests will notice that every shop has a picture or statue of the Cog and all of the locals (castmembers) wear replicas of the Cog somewhere on their person indicating that this little cog is more important than it appears. Like the parks namesake, the full story of the Nuummite Cog is found if guests are adventurous enough to discover it by
talking to locals who hold small personalizable stories regarding the Cog, and
the shop keepers each have a different part of the story about how the Cog came to be and thereby keeping the adventure for the truth alive for the guests.
Attraction - Tesla's Flight: Before boarding their blimp, guests will enter the show building that resembles
a working hangar filled with blimp parts, crates, interactive levers for machinery and other elements like "steam", etc. In lieu of standard cast uniforms, cast members will be dressed in a myriad of garb ranging from blimp captain to machinists, and will periodically be roaming about the working hangar, inspecting, moving items, and
talking to the passengers. The final leg of the queue will take guests on a walk through of a life size blimp cab to see the inner workings and layout before boarding their ride vehicle. Guests board blimps (which use technology similar to that of Peter Pan's flight) that hold 24 people and one guide. The ride primarily
showcases breathtaking scenes of Mythica, while our guide describes scenes as "the simple oh market square," "the coliseum royale," or "the golden capital."
Attraction - Treasure Planet: Coming to Mythica will be a Treasure Planet attraction inspired by the Academy Award nominated 2002 film,
Treasure Planet, which will seamlessly blend in with not only the steampunk architecture, but also
the themes of adventure that permeate the park as a whole. While the film itself wasn't a box office success, one can point to other Disney attractions like Dinosaur, where films that weren't popular can still be great attractions -- and this E-ticket adventure will be no different, following along Jim Hawkins on
a mission to find Treasure Planet. Using the Shanghai Pirates technology, you'll travel in boats through the skies and the seas, along with John Silver, B.E.N. and other novel characters you'll meet on your journey, with the objective of making this a
10-minute Pirates of the Caribbean style sailing adventure for the whole family.
The Exploratorium
This land focuses on the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Guests will be able to trek down into caves to view wondrous animals and plants while traveling through the underground passages to reach various attractions
themed towards the seven natural wonders (the Aurora Borealis, the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, Paricutin, Victoria Falls).
Attraction - Volcano Adventures: From the Exploratorium's caverns, guests emerge into the magma-encrusted ruins of a Mexican village at the base of the volcanic wonder Paricutin. As guests walk into the
molten caverns of the interior of the massive super volcano, they are greeted by the research team known as the
VAST - Volcanic Assimilation of Scientific Tectonics - whose job it is to explore ancient volcanoes around the world and report back with their findings for energy efficient tools and a better understanding of our planet's internal heating system. Guests walk through a
makeshift laboratory set up in the depths of the super-volcano as one of the lead scientists, Dr. Vernon Jules, explains your trek down to the core of the earth, and before/after he is explaining your mission, guests are free to walk around the laboratory, interacting with several devices and tools that the scientists use on their journeys (similar to but more interactive than the Yeti Museum on Expedition Everest). As guests get closer to the end of the queue, the
EMV vehicles are boarded on a rocky surface with molten rivers on the other side of it, and as you depart the laboratory, there is a final piece of information that the VAST scientists have found which is a large image of an Aztec god that seems to guard the volcano, giving you an uneasy feeling as you head out on your "Volcano Adventures". Aboard scientific research Jeeps (EMV vehicles), guests
descend into the Earth while another volcano swiftly emerges, just as Paricutin did in 1943. In a tremendous finale, Aztec fire gods launch guests (via elevator platform) up the erupting volcano's main shaft, for a thrill ride that
combines the best of Indiana Jones Adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Tower of Terror!
Attraction - Niagara Falls River Expedition: The queue starts in a cave, as with every Exploratorium attraction, which leads to a beautiful and lush fern grotto carved out by erosion behind the pounding falls. From a rocky opening,
wooden catwalks lead outside over spillways to a ferry boat,
The Misty Maiden, moored at the base of the mighty cataracts. Decks provide visitors with
stupendous vistas of the waterfalls, the rafts, even an ominous shipwreck, plus many museum-quality interactive exhibits with information on Niagara's natural and human history. On-board the attraction, guests
journey through the Canadian and North American Wilderness teeming with wildlife as they trek down the "8th" Wonder of the World... Niagara Falls. On this high capacity (3,200 guests per hour) raft attraction, you will
see several animatronics of animals that inhabit the natural forests of North America, such as bears, foxes, and more, before
plummeting down the falls. The drop is 65 feet at a 42 degree angle, reaching speeds of 40 mph; guests must be at least 40 inches tall to ride.
Nighttime Spectacular - Glow: Guests fortunate enough to find viewing space within The Exploratorium at night find themselves treated to the park's star event:
Glow. It is a pyrotechnic tale of a glowworm's journey to reunite with his family. The tale begins with a number of drones mimicking
glowworms living among the top of Exploratorium's underground cavern performing a synchronized dance. However, soon after, a rumble blares through the speakers and all the glowworms retreat to safety, save for one which hovers over the crowd. Suddenly, blasts of orange fireworks cover the night sky as
the Aztec God's volcano erupts, separating this line drone from his family! Glow, our tiny protagonist,
squirms and squiggles to survive until finding safety within the white and blue fireworks, a waterfall which cools the violent magma, and whisks our lonely traveler away to a grassy field (green fireworks) where he is reunited with his family. They
finish their dance as all colors of fireworks blast in the background.
Restaurant -
The Diamond Express: The Diamond Express seats guests inside of a train, in which
windows show views of various natural wonders (all of the seven wonders plus many more like the Smokey Mountains and Muir Woods). There are three trains and meals take around an hour so that cast members have 30 minutes to prepare the trains for the next wave of guests. Guests are encouraged not to leave their train during their stay, as there will be everything one needs on board (including bathrooms, changing stations, etc.). The Diamond Express takes reservations only and will have a prefix menu
served with food from all around Earth to showcase our diversity.
Restaurant - Obsidiana: Guests with a sense of adventure trek into Obsidiana (located near the base of Volcano Adventure). It is a
sit down table restaurant with three themed rooms - a base camp science lab, the rivers of magma observatory, and a cavern filled with Aztec ruins and treasures. Once every half hour, diner's witness
the Aztec god's wrath as his anger boil's over, causing a fiery explosion of magma which causes all the electronics in the lab to overload, coats the observatory windows with magma, and brings the very walls and treasures of the Aztec ruins to life. Diners will utilize
interactive order systems at their table to carry their orders to the kitchen (for example, a diner in the cavern will have their request carried by an "Aztec eagle", which digitally "flies" from the table, through the decorated wall, to the kitchen) when deciding between Obsidiana's spicy and sweet fare, as this restaurant specializes in chili peppers and cacao.
Dreamscape
Much of Disney's Portals of Adventure is dedicated to real world adventures, but Dreamscape takes guests on
an adventure of the mind where Dreamfinder is not just a ride but an environment dedicated to imagination. It's a land where Captain Eo can invite guests to become members of his Corp dedicated to the gift of music and also where Dream Seekers are offered the chance to
live and create their own adventurers.
Prop - The Dream Machine: In his never ending mission to collect and catalog the world's dreams,
Dreamfinder invented the Dream Machine, a one-story-tall rotating hollow cylinder capable of inspiring waking dreams in all who view it. The Dream Machine creates stroboscopic flickers as its rotates, synced to the alpha waves of our dream state, which
create increasingly concrete imagery for guests who view the machine with their eyes closed. A darkened dome easily accessed from the main corridors of Dreamscape houses this amazing (and wholly functional) contraption, with
dreamlike murals on the outside depicting Dreamfinder's invention process, imagining the Dream Machine in his own dreams and then bringing it to reality.
Attraction - Journey Into Imagination: This newly refurbished attraction gets guests' brains firing on a boat ride down the Streams of Consciousness, where guests
help Dreamfinder and Pigment fish for free-flowing ideas under the glowing synapses, ideas which they can then combine together after the ride in the interactive Imagination Station.
Attraction - An Emotional Trek: Deep within the Dreamscape dwells the world of the mind, as seen in Disney/Pixar's Inside Out, where
guests aboard a Train of Thought venture forth to visit their own Personality Island, Dream Productions, Abstract Thought, Long-Term Memory, and more. Each car on the Train of Thought is a separate trackless vehicle which
guests themselves control by choosing between Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust at any moment using a simple dashboard dial and accompanying video screen. Vehicles' movements and music reflect their Emotions, while
ride scenery changes appropriately via projections, lighting, even different pre-programmed animatronic actions, making Inside Out: An Emotional Trek and endlessly re-rideable, interactive joyride to enjoy in any mood.
Attraction - Dreamscape Transit Authority PeopleMover: Through Dreamscape, a makeshift people-mover will be designed to emulate Dreamfinder's Dream-mobile, as you're
riding in the 'floating' vehicle through the land and through the attractions that populate it, with a Linear induction motor guiding the vehicles from a track above the ships.
Restaurant - A Pigment of Your Imagination: Guests wanting to eat within the Dreamscape can follow the color changing walkway up to the front door of
A Pigment of Your Imagination. This new quick service restaurant is themed around color and how it affects the mind, the imagination, and most importantly the taste buds. Guests are led to
one of seven glowing color themed rooms with round tables where their menus are projected onto the table and using just their touch, guests can order an array of meals. Food is themed around the color spectrum and includes an ice cream bar filled with an array of colors that would not necessarily indicate what the flavor is. While they wait, guests are free to use the
interactive paint brushes to draw on the tables or even on the walls of the restaurant as nearly every flat surface is touch activated, and at the end of the meal, guests would receive a personalized menu filled with what they ate and what the color of the food they ate says about them.
-The Resort-
Skylandia
The floating island fortress of Skylandia (presently moored to the Earth) is the sister city to Mythica, supplier of Tesla's Flight's airborne marvels, and a wondrous boutique resort experience which immerses guests in a comforting world of steampunk fantasy. Guests enjoy staterooms appointed with Cote D'Azur luxury, swim in an infinite pool overlooking Portals of Adventure, shop in 19th century arcades, and
dine in a posh airship whose window screens depict an enchanting flight.
Prop - The Lodestone: The Lodestone is the
world's largest naturally-occurring magnet, which sits at the heart of Skyandia encased in steampunk controls, which utilize its magnetic properties to navigate the great flying city throughout the world.
Attraction - Dirigibles: These simulator trams (like Hogwarts Express) ferry resort guests to Mythica's secret entrance, where guests' Skylandia Magic Bands grant them exclusive "living theater" interactions with Mythica's citizens (cast member performers), front row spectacular seating, and
access to Mythica's hidden chambers and mysteries.
