News Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Historical Construction/Impressions

[nevol]

This image that was used in a famous Miceage Update back in 2015 seems more and more accurate with each passing month here in 2017. Those long pathways into the land, through tunnels and around berms and rockwork, are quite impressive to think about now.

The new Big Thunder Trail and rerouted Railroad is already a wonderfully plussed up buffer. But consider we are still walled off from the long branches of pathway that split from the Big Thunder Trail and head towards the tunnels north of Big Thunder Mountain.

Then there's the third winding pathway from the Hungry Bear Restaurant, that goes along the River and then through another tunnel and along the backside of the new berm; that path is the longest and is equitable in length to the Big Thunder Trail itself.

Star Wars Land is in a galaxy far, far away, and in an expansion area quite a decent walk away too.

It's masterful what they've done and how they've taken the theme of frontierland seriously in this buildout. That had no marketing incentive, but take tremendously into account the guest experience and sensitivity to the park. People whining about losing the quiet riverbanks to Fantasmic can whine no longer, because even when fantasmic comes back, there will be a whole new riverbank by star wars land that will lack programming/entertainment where people can go to find some peace and quiet.

 

[TP2000]

Seems like the park that will have the bigger sightline issues and abrupt transition would be the Florida version. The land in California is set back behind the river and all three entrances have a smooth transition that includes plenty of green area.

Someone had mentioned that the transition in Florida will actually be a city park with residential facades and that the main entrance cave will actually be themed to a theater with a Star Wars Marquee. So if that is correct guests will enter a theater and all of a sudden exit the back end into a forest area. in the other entrance guests go from being in a Toy themed land into a market area within a forest theme.

It will sure be interesting to see how it all plays out especially how the berm in Florida is created. The southern entrance with residential facades should be especially interesting since any kind of berm will most likely contain large greenery. In California that greenery looks like a continuation of the Columbia Gorge and rockwork. In Florida the greenery on top of the Berm will be over what might be residential facades

Agreed. I had read in another thread that the rumor was that for DHS you would walk along the Streets of America (which are rather pointless since the Tram Tour was closed) and then you find a big old movie theater with Star Wars on the marquee; you walk under the marquee and into the theater facade and enter a tunnel that puts you into Star Wars Land.

That's at least a clever idea, and I think the only way you could get from the Tram Tour Streets of America fake facades and into Star Wars Land while making it seem on purpose. While the movie theater facade is clever and I hope they pull that off, I think I'll take Disneyland's forested trails instead.

 

[TP2000]

This realization just came to me. There are three entrances to Disneyland's Star Wars Land; two on the eastern side from Big Thunder Trail, and one on the west from Critter Country.

Yet at DHS there are apparently just two entrances. The two entrances from Big Thunder Trail have been condensed into one entrance from Toy Story Land for DHS. The entrance from Critter Country along the winding trail is the version of the path from Streets of America/Muppets for DHS. Interesting!

Thanks to @marni1971 for this excellent DHS rendering!

 

[Disney Irish]

Agreed. I had read in another thread that the rumor was that for DHS you would walk along the Streets of America (which are rather pointless since the Tram Tour was closed) and then you find a big old movie theater with Star Wars on the marquee; you walk under the marquee and into the theater facade and enter a tunnel that puts you into Star Wars Land.

That's at least a clever idea, and I think the only way you could get from the circa 1990 Tram Tour Streets of America fake facades and into Star Wars Land while making it seem on purpose. While the movie theater facade is clever and I hope they pull that off, I think I'll take Disneyland's forested trails instead.

So you are quite literally walking into a movie. I guess that takes the whole concept of the Studios Theme Park to a whole new level.

 

[TP2000]

So you are quite literally walking into a movie. I guess that takes the whole concept of the Studios Theme Park to a whole new level.

I'm sure the Celebration Place, Florida marketing team thanks you for writing that copy for them.

They can now leave their cubicle farm early and hit up Happy Hour at the Applebee's next door! Fructose Corn Syrup Cocktails and Fried Chicken Poppers for everyone!

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm sure the Celebration, Florida marketing team thanks you for writing that copy for them. They can now leave their cubicle farm early and hit up Happy Hour at the Applebee's next door! High-Fructose Corn Syrup Cocktails and Fried Chicken Poppers for everyone!

Reminds me of the plot to Last Action Hero if you ask me.

But here is the tag line:

"Come to Hollywood Studios and experience the new Star Wars Experience where you literally walk into the movie and experience the Star Wars Universe come to life."

Disney send me a check now.

 

[Curious Constance]

I'm sure the Celebration Place, Florida marketing team thanks you for writing that copy for them.

They can now leave their cubicle farm early and hit up Happy Hour at the Applebee's next door! Fructose Corn Syrup Cocktails and Fried Chicken Poppers for everyone!

I was talking to my husband the other day about marketing people. He said that when he went through business school, he realized that marketing was for people not smart enough to get a real business degree. My husband has a bachelors in Accounting, but he had to take several marketing classes too.
He also said that they literally spin $1000 words for $1 ideas. In his opinion, it's basically just a profession that spends all it's time trying to make really basic, stupid things sound really complex and intelligent. Reminded me of your ideas about marketing professionals! lol

 

[dweezil78]

I was talking to my husband the other day about marketing people. He said that when he went through business school, he realized that marketing was for people not smart enough to get a real business degree. My husband has a bachelors in Accounting, but he had to take several marketing classes too.
He also said that they literally spin $1000 words for $1 ideas. In his opinion, it's basically just a profession that spends all it's time trying to make really basic, stupid things sound really complex and intelligent. Reminded me of your ideas about marketing professionals! lol

Like any profession, there are a wide mix of positions and varying degrees of competency from those who are employed within it. The marketing world I'm in is extremely analytical (often to a fault) and I am surrounded by some insanely smart people -- many who have MBAs. I kind of chuckle to see how much marketing is dumbed down around these parts as if it's just a bunch of idiots churning out bad brochures all day or something.

What you're talking about is more on the creative/copywriting side of things. Again, varying degrees there. Some people who do it are great, others phone it in, and others are totally full of themselves with ginormous egos and think they're rock stars. Real marketing is difficult, time consuming, requires a lot of brain power, and employs a great deal of smart, passionate people.

I'd imagine Disney is a marketing microcosm onto itself -- covering all the highs and lows you'd see in the industry.

 

[nevol]

It seems to me that the walt disney world resort marketing teams trapped in orlando think they know how to design theme parks.

 

[Curious Constance]

Like any profession, there are a wide mix of positions and varying degrees of competency from those who are employed within it. The marketing world I'm in is extremely analytical (often to a fault) and I am surrounded by some insanely smart people -- many who have MBAs. I kind of chuckle to see how much marketing is dumbed down around these parts as if it's just a bunch of idiots churning out bad brochures all day or something.

What you're talking about is more on the creative/copywriting side of things. Again, varying degrees there. Some people who do it are great, others phone it in, and others are totally full of themselves with ginormous egos and think they're rock stars. Real marketing is difficult, time consuming, requires a lot of brain power, and employs a great deal of smart, passionate people.

I'd imagine Disney is a marketing microcosm onto itself -- covering all the highs and lows you'd see in the industry.

Totally agree

 

[Phroobar]

How much do you want to bet the DHS Star Wars berm will be a mound of dirt spray painted with green grass seed and nothing else?

 

[Ismael Flores]

This realization just came to me. There are three entrances to Disneyland's Star Wars Land; two on the eastern side from Big Thunder Trail, and one on the west from Critter Country.

Yet at DHS there are apparently just two entrances. The two entrances from Big Thunder Trail have been condensed into one entrance from Toy Story Land for DHS. The entrance from Critter Country along the winding trail is the version of the path from Streets of America/Muppets for DHS. Interesting!

Thanks to @marni1971 for this excellent DHS rendering!

That is a cool sketch. Seeing this though I wonder where they will get so much dirt to create that huge Berm. Maybe instead of wasting so much real estate just to pile dirt on flat land in Florida, TDO should have had WDI build another few structures that could be used for backstage infrustructure or future development if the land needs capacity. These structures can have some soil placed over them if needed for some plant growth and they would also have facades themed to the rest of the land.

It will be interesting to see how big these dirt Berms are at DHS.

Have been hoping to see an aerial view of the Anaheim property to see the Berms here as well. Seems like some of the Berm areas on the east side are huge and could have probably been built up similar to the Fanstamic show building/Berm.
Would have been great if the Huge Berm that falls between the frontierland entrance and Fantasyland entrance had actually been built up as a building with soil over it and the required foundation of the train.
Imagine how cool an eatery themed to an old abondaned mine would have been in that area.
Perfect place to have brought back the all you could eat bar-b-que that they removed

 

[Mike S]

How much do you want to bet the DHS Star Wars berm will be a mound of dirt spray painted with green grass seed and nothing else?

And if not?

 

[TP2000]

How much do you want to bet the DHS Star Wars berm will be a mound of dirt spray painted with green grass seed and nothing else?

Oh, I'm sure it will be more than that. Trees. Some rockwork or a cliff or two. Maybe some "Alien Outpost" type huts or antennas or a few weird props. But lots of trees. And shrubs.

They have huge Great Movie Ride and MuppetVision warehouses right next door to hide. At Disneyland they are more worried about people looking in from the top deck of the Mark Twain. At DHS it would seem they would be worried about people seeing out and looking at the backside of adjacent ride warehouses.

 

[Kman101]

Ah, well another poster was using you as a source as if you were an insider of some sort. I don't know you @tirian , so good to know you are just a fan typing on the computer at home like the rest of us.

It would seem to me that Disneyland's version will be the most separated from the park it is in. Earlier we were discussing the close proximity of the Streets of America and MuppetVision and Green Alien Flying Saucer Spin Ride, all of which are just 50 yards or so from the Star Wars entry tunnels at DHS.

Disneyland has none of those issues, and is physically further from any adjacent rides than DHS, much less jarring thematic changes like Toy Story and Muppets. I'm sure they will do wonderful things with a dirt berm and rockwork in DHS to hide Star Wars sightlines, and I expect to see them pushing that dirt into place shortly.

But just looking at aerial photos of the two parks, the Star Wars project at Disneyland seems much further removed and off in its own world compared to DHS.

If anything, and since we are both just fans using Google Earth and online sources to come up with our opinions, I would use the phrase "more encompassing" to apply to the Disneyland version not the DHS version.

You can address me by my username and not "some poster" as if being deliberately dismissive, thanks. Not sure why it becomes a competition on which resort is better. I just mentioned what tirian said because they do know certain things and they are a bit of an insider and folks were discussing the transitions. I wasn't trying to put my nose up in the air saying WDW's is better ... and I even said DL will have the better transition.

My mistake for mentioning the word LOL. I clearly offended by (not my intent) you taking it to mean, heaven forbid, FL's would be better. That wasn't my intention. They're going to be identical.

 

[Kman101]

And I can't imagine walking under a theater marquee to enter the land a To DHS. I thought that was just a posters suggestion? You'll be walking through a tunnel. The columns for it are up. But this is about DL's construction so I'll shut up LOL

 

[MisterPenguin]

Seeing this though I wonder where they will get so much dirt to create that huge Berm.

I hate to break this to you... but it's doubtful that the 'berm' will be an actual mound of dirt. Just like the floating mountains in Pandora are not actually made out of rock and dirt.

I'm kidding. The Pandoran floating mountains are made out of unobtanium.

 

[Kman101]

I hate to break this to you... but it's doubtful that the 'berm' will be an actual mound of dirt. Just like the floating mountains in Pandora are not actually made out of rock and dirt.

I'm kidding. The Pandoran floating mountains are made out of unobtanium.

But everything is done awful in Florida. That seems to be the mantra some have towards the "parks in the swamps"

 

[TP2000]

You can address me by my username and not "some poster" as if being deliberately dismissive, thanks. Not sure why it becomes a competition on which resort is better. I just mentioned what tirian said because they do know certain things and they are a bit of an insider and folks were discussing the transitions. I wasn't trying to put my nose up in the air saying WDW's is better ... and I even said DL will have the better transition.

I honestly didn't know who you were, or who said it, and I just didn't bother to scroll back through a few pages of posts to find out who said it. I was responding to a post by @phruby who was probably quoting you, but by that second degree of separation referencing a third person, I stopped tracking who said what. Obviously, I now know you quoted @tirian about DHS being "encompassing".

After about a dozen posts go by, I stop being able to track exactly who said what two pages ago. But at least I'm nice about it.

What I've learned from all this is that so far we are all just a bunch of fans making pre-judgements on the various Disneyland and DHS versions of this new land, based on Google Earth and other fan posts. I'm of the opinion Disneyland will have the longest lead-up to Star Wars Land and the most buffer between Star Wars and adjacent lands/themes. Also, the adjacent themes at Disneyland are physically much further away from even the entry paths.

Meanwhile, at DHS, they are going to have this literally a few yards from one of the two entry tunnels to Star Wars Land. At least it's themed to aliens from another planet, just like Star Wars?

 

[Kman101]

I honestly didn't know who you were, or who said it, and I just didn't bother to scroll back through a few pages of posts to find out who said it. I was responding to a post by @phruby who was probably quoting you, but by that second degree of separation referencing a third person, I stopped tracking who said what. Obviously, I now know you quoted @tirian about DHS being "encompassing".

After about a dozen posts go by, I stop being able to track exactly who said what two pages ago. But at least I'm nice about it.

What I've learned from all this is that so far we are all just a bunch of fans making pre-judgements on the various Disneyland and DHS versions of this new land, based on Google Earth and other fan posts. I'm of the opinion Disneyland will have the longest lead-up to Star Wars Land and the most buffer between Star Wars and adjacent lands/themes.

I took it the wrong way, I apologize for probably being a tad too sensitive LOL and for maybe not handling it bit nicer no excuse but it's been a long day.

Completely agreed with the last part of your post. And BTW I enjoy your well written and thought out posts on Disneyland.