HomeImagineer
Well-Known Member
ohhh nice, i do think its more better than my plan i was making for u which its not done yet
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The "Ultimate" Castle Park
- Thread starter Charlie The Chatbox Ghost
- Start date
I can't wait to see yours!
Miru
Well-Known Member
Up as a flat ride would be interesting.
Half/CartoonHalf/Human
Active Member
How about you call that Santa Cecilla Plaza Market?
Perfect! I’ll update it as soon as I can!
So I’m currently headed home from my honeymoon to Paris (or just landing, depending on if I finish typing this before the plane takes off), and after experiencing Disneyland Paris… man, my ultimate park is going to be taking a lot more inspiration from it! I was blown away by it. So detailed and full for its size, though it might not have many attractions it was beautiful. Definitely a great example of the talent behind the Eisner era Imagineers and what they could do when given near free reign.
So, some updates:
Park Entrance
So, some updates:
Park Entrance
- Entry area will now be a large garden similar to Fantasia Gardens. Water fountains synced to lights and music dance around a bronze statue of Sorcerer Mickey.
- A hotel will be added to the entrance area!
- The arcades have been added to allow for some easier guest flow! The gazebo will also be sized up to match DLP’s.
- Behind Sleeping Beauty Castle will be a small cozy courtyard with the Sword in the Stone, just as in DLP.
- Two shops will be inside the castle.
- Casey Jr. and the Storybook Canal boats will be the DLP layout and style- Casey Jr. is a coaster now!
- Dumbo will be seated on top of a waterfall, like DLP.
- Small World will have small snack stands outside offering worldwide snacks!
- Space Mountain will be using a coaster system similar to DLP’s- shoulder restraints and inversions a plenty!
- The Adventureland Treehouse will now be on a hill which is home to a maze of caverns with secrets to find, like DLP.
- The Haunted Mansion will take more inspiration from Phantom Manor, incorporating the Ravenswood plot line into the ride- though I also want the beating heart bride, so I’ll figure something out. Either way, this will be an entirely unique version the mansion instead of a clone.
- Pirates will be very close the DLP version (sans movie stuff), with a longer cavern section and slightly slower boat speeds.
- Captain Jack’s will be added as a connected restaurant to the ride.
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Another note: I want to try to make all the attractions at the park a bit more unique instead of 1:1 clones. Even if it’s 90% clone, having something unique will now be a priority.
There’s also some other attractions I want to implement, but I’m not sure where:
There’s also some other attractions I want to implement, but I’m not sure where:
- Gravity Falls Mystery Shack Walk-Through and Gift Shop (Could go in Frontierland’s Klondike area, Dark Fantasyland, Fantasyland… even Bear Country’s outskirts?)
- More flat rides- I feel like my part is focused on thrill rides and dark rides and not much else.
- More atmosphere areas- I don’t have the whole park mapped out yet but I want to implement areas meant for soaking in atmosphere!
Evilgidgit
Well-Known Member
The Mystery Shack could work in either Frontierland or Bear Country. Since the cartoon is set in redwood Oregon, keep that in mind.
Half/CartoonHalf/Human
Active Member
I feel like Dark Fantasyland works fine, as if it’s a mix of heroes in dark fantasies and the villains it works perfectly fine! Maybe I could share some ideas with you?
Yeah, I figured the redwoods of Bear Country would be a great backdrop, but then again, it’s a land with talking bears… maybe on the Frontierland/BC border? That area is themed to the PNW so it’d fit
Chaos Cat
Well-Known Member
I've heard the name "Shadowland" tossed around a few times when discussing villain lands before. Maybe that could work?
Evilgidgit
Well-Known Member
Gravity Falls has talking bears. They'll fit right in!
Earlie the Pearlie
Well-Known Member
This is actually basically what we did in round ten of Sorcerer’s! I’m very proud of that project, even though we didn’t win.
I don’t think I’ve commented here, but I love the park! The presentation is fantastic, exactly what I want out of a dream castle park. Keep it up!
Thank you! I'm certainly trying to make it a "best hits" while improving upon all the best parts of castle parks.
After visiting Disneyland Paris last Thursday, I'm even more inspired. That park is so... for lack of a better word, intimate. It feels more tightly packed and heavily detailed- there's tons of nooks and crannies to discover and secrets to find. The little courtyard behind the castle feels like a cozy spot nestled in, rather than a huge concrete lot like behind Cinderella Castle at MK. Disneyland Paris is 100% a park representation of the talent of the 2nd generation of Imagineers. They took the original Disneyland and made it (at the time) modern, while putting their own spin on things. And they even had high budgets and relative creative freedom! Man, the Eisner era truly was something else. While DLP failed on opening, I think it's amazing. My only critiques would be to revert Space Mountain back to the original one (although it was still a much more intense and thrilling experience than Florida's despite being Star Wars), and to add some more attractions in Adventureland. When I was there, the only ride open was Pirates (which is 100% my favorite version of the attraction currently, still have yet to experience DL's and Tokyo's). Indiana was closed for refurb, leaving only the Swiss Treehouse and the caves underneath to experience- which were amazing. Totally stealing that for my park. But no Jungle Cruise, no Tiki Room, not even another original ride. Frontierland was slightly better, with four attractions we got to experience- BTM, Phantom Manor (my favorite at the park), the riverboat, and the shootin' gallery (which either my gun was wonky or I'm just bad, because I barely hit any target and meanwhile my wife was able to nail nearly every shot). Personally, I think it could benefit from one more attraction- maybe a new CBJ? DLP lacked animatronic shows, or really any shows for that matter- from what I could tell it was Phillarmagic and a Lion King stage show (in Frontierland of all places). Still an incredible park and I've been thinking about it a ton since!
Went through and updated my Google Sheet to match changes made in the thread and added some new things based on ideas I've been circulating, notably the Mystery Shack. I feel like Frontierland needs a bit of a boost to match Tomorrow and Adventure, but it also has three massive attractions, so maybe not. Bear Country is essentially an extension of Frontierland, anyways.
Here's some more ideas I have that I'd love feedback on!
Main Street
- Not technically Main Street, but the entrance hotel like in DLP will be added! The first of three park-connected hotels, the others being in Bear Country and Tomorrowland.
- Adding some more specific stores to fill out the street, taking inspiration from the original DL's original MS and DLP's current MS. Ideas include:
- A photography store for printing out ride photos or PhotoPass photos in-park, also selling photo frames and such.
- A coffee shop
- A hat and ears shop
- A kitchenware and cookbook shop
- A Christmas shop (replacing Sleepy Hollow's with a Halloween shop, or keeping it for more places for guests to buy ornaments)
- In addition to the previously listed changes I made the other day, I do feel like this Fantasyland is a little bloated. Not sure what to do because I don't want to lose anything if I don't have to.
- There's going to be a hotel here! Probably a more sci-fi version of the Contemporary, with a monorail running through it too?
- Like I mentioned, Space Mountain will be the same ride system as DLP's! This allows for inversions and generally more intensity.
- Adding a flat ride- not Aladdin's infamous carpets, but something new. I think I threw around the idea of a balloon ride inspired by Up to get more Pixar in the park?
- Adding Paris's Adventure Isle caverns underneath the Treehouse! The Treehouse is now also the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse again in name only- it's still the new DL version, just with the characters living there being from the movie.
- Adding a flat ride, though not sure what it could be. Jessie's Critter Round-Up? Might feel out of place, despite being western themed.
- Another dark ride could be fun! Any good western ideas that aren't just Woody's Roundup or Coco, perhaps? Are there any classic Disney movies we could pull from?
- I kind of want to make Big Thunder an island like in Paris. It's just so cool to go under the water only to pop up all the way across the water. It'd have to be a second island and river since the park's main island is occupied by pirates. Would this be too much?
- Swapping the Riverboat and the S.S. Columbia! Frontierland now has the riverboat, renamed to Mark Twain. Colonial America didn't have riverboats, no clue why I didn't realize sooner!
- Still stumped on a new name. Nothing's really feeling right yet- I think I may want to axe the -land suffix and leave that for the four OG lands. Maybe something like The Dark Forest or something?
- Mystery Shack is gonna be on the border it shares with Bear Country! May need to add a path between the two to make the transition feel natural? The idea is pretty much @Sneaky 's because a walk through and meet and greet combo is genius!
- The Haunted Mansion will be a fusion of the original and Phantom Manor- the Ravenswood storyline (modified to fit the location) but with the graveyard scene instead of the ghost town. The graveyard scene would end with guests going into a grave dug by the Phantom before Melanie directs them to safety. The Hitchhiking Ghosts still appear in the graveyard- not sure if they should get the ending mirror bit or if Melanie should.
- This also means the graveyard will have the graves of the Ravenswoods and Melanie's tomb!
- Swapping the S.S. Columbia and the Riverboat! Feels more timeline appropriate for Sleepy Hollow to get the older ship.
- I think I want this park's PoTC to be the Paris version. I just really liked it compared to MK's- never been on the original so I have no real way to compare.
- The Pirate's Lair has an exit to Bear Country, adding yet another way to get to the island. Now there's the two ships, the catacombs, and the liar.
- There's a bear cave that leads underground to OPI.
- I think this park should have some attached hotels- one being in Bear Country, pretty much a Great Wilderness Lodge with some CBJ flare. I think it'd be dope to have the original idea for the CBJ here- a dinner show. The stage would be larger, featuring three mini stages on each side and a larger stage in the center, that has room for Henry to come in and out of rather than being on the side, which would allow for every single original bear to be in the finale- Ernest and Trixie can finally join in on the fun! Could also have some new bears using Marc Davis's unused concepts or perhaps some entirely new designs? The shows would be randomized, with each bear having a few different songs they could go through. I'd definitely need to modify the park layout to fit an entrance in, or just have hotel guests navigate the wilderness trails to get into the park, but that could be a pain.
- Speaking of the CBJ, I may swap it's location from the heart of the land to where Teddi Barra's Arcade is currently, so I could have the covered bridge walkway like in DL's version. Plus, then the CBJ, Pirates, and Mansion would all have connected buildings, which isn't important at all but fun because those are my top three!
- Wow another flat ride! Just trying to add more family-friendly capacity. There's plenty of dark rides, but something quicker to get through is always a plus. Perhaps a Da Vinci-esque spinner? There's definitely something we could conceptualize that would fit.
- I'm wondering if the concept of the Adventurer's Club works better in a Downtown Disney type area, that guests would be able to stay until midnight at. I could swap it for the Astronomer's Club and have it more focused on lore of S.E.A. rather than a New Year's Eve party.
- I feel like this land is going to be huge but I still have yet to try laying it out. If I were to cut anything, I think Professor Marvel would be first to go, followed by Island at the Top of the World and then the Dig Site. I'd love to keep all three though.
Here's a current progress pic on the park layout! Had to push Adventureland in the back, but I think it's okay since neither Frontierland or Tomorrowland have entrances from the main hub. I wanted it to originally have a path for each land (minus Dark Fantasyland) but you win some, you lose some.
Please let me know what you guys think!
Also, not to get too ahead of myself, but I've been thinking about a sister park- one that would complement this one. Pretty much any classic Disney idea that's not here would go there. Current ideas include a Hollywood land home to Roger Rabbit, MuppetVision, and the Great Movie Ride; Journey into Imagination somewhere that would fit (maybe a Future World type thing?), a land themed to midways, county fairs, and boardwalks (like Paradise Pier but a bit more mainland), maybe even some IP specific lands? Though I personally prefer genre lands.
Lord Fozzinator
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Why yes I do think adding more flat rides is a plus and some other things that you listed are good ideas, it is also a good idea to try not to lean into DP too much. Thunder and pirates being primary examples, yes they are good rides and possibly the best version of them but perhaps clones aren’t the way to go. Not telling you how to do your own park but something to take into account.
Good point- perhaps the new-park-high hasn't quite worn off yet. I think BTM will likely stay the version it's currently, though I do think DLP's PotC is great. It may just be a fusion of all the classic Pirates by the end of this.
Miru
Well-Known Member
Would Expedition Everest work somewhere in that? Maybe Soarin’?
And the implication would be that Marvel/Lucasfilm are more likely to get their own designated park(s) rather than end up in the sister park. That would be better approach IMO; a more “thrill park” that could include Star Wars, various other Lucasfilm IP, Marvel, etc.
Everest technically exists in the park as Matterhorn Mountain: Legend of the Yeti, which is just EE with the Matterhorn as the facade instead of Everest. Though I'm wondering if it should be a unique mountain since it's in Discovery Bay.
Soarin' would go great in a park! I'm almost wondering if it should be in Discovery Bay as the DisneySea version but that land has enough as it is, lol. I'm also starting to wonder if the secondary park should just be the S.E.A. park, with Discovery Bay being an outpost rather than the HQ for the organization. Who knows.
For Marvel/Lucasfilm- a park with them actually makes sense. We have the castle park, the secondary park, and then an IP land park home to Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, maybe a Disney movie or two, etc. That third park could keep the other two safe! Maybe in that case I don't need the Avengers ride in Tomorrowland but I think having some Marvel in there is probably a good idea, even if it's a stretch.