In case the Runaway Railway concept doesn't pan out, here's the first of the two new rides for Mickey's Toontown, which assumes the collective space of Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse, Gadget's Go Coaster and Donald's Boat, to create a brand-new kiddie coaster, which may or may not be the old Go Coaster with a new theme:
In the past, most coasters have had a Goofy theme (i.e., the Great Goofini's Barnstormer, Goofy's Sky School), but not this time. No, this time, the theme is now on Donald Duck! The ride will be set in a brand-new house of Donald's, which will take over the property once occupied by Gadget's Go Coaster and Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse. The new house, where the queue is, will be a mashup of a boat and a house, and look something like this (the concept is based on the abandoned concept of Mickeyville, but done in the Donald color scheme of blue, white and yellow):
The concept will revolve around Donald opening up some kind of an airboat school/service thing. It will fly over a new lake. The ride will be called
Donald's Air Academy (as a response to Goofy's Sky School at the California Adventure). The queue will be in Donald's new boat-house/house-boat/house and boat, as stated earlier. You wind your way through Donald's boat. It will feature several interactive elements. One is a rope based on the one you can pull in the queue of the Indiana Jones ride (a sign nearby tells you not to do it). You pull on that and a British-sounding man yells at you for doing so. You can pull on this rope in this queue and hear Donald yelling at you for doing so. There is also a radio in the corner, too, again set to KRAZY Radio (the same new loop as mentioned above). Also in the queue is this big map on the wall, looking like this one in WDW's now-extinct Toontown Fair (in fact, maybe Disneyland can claim ownership of the real deal here now that Toontown Fair is gone (just revise the direction "To Toontown Fair" to "To Mickey's Toontown"):
Another interactive element in the queue is another rope, supposedly attached to the boat's steam whistle. But when you pull on it, not only does the whistle on the boat emit a boat whistle-like sound, but instead of steam, the whistle sprays out a blast of water onto passersby outside the boat and just walking around. It could provide a nice refreshing treat on a hot day. When the weather gets colder out, it can be reduced or even turned off altogether.
Anyway, onto the roller coaster itself: The roller coaster train looks like a cross between an airboat and the Spruce Goose. It will look like a boat, but have its wings on the bow, a propeller on the front and a tail with an airboat propeller on the back. Along the bottom of the boat-plane would be a huge rubber raft-like thing (at least that's how it's supposed to look), making it also something like a hovercraft. It could be something like how in "Plane Crazy", Mickey made up his plane from a car. As if named after the Spruce Goose, the plane in the new ride will be called the Drake (meaning "Von Drake", suggesting that Ludwig Von Drake made this for Donald) D-34 Swooper, or commonly called the Deciduous Duck (since the Spruce Goose was largely made of wood). Thus, the makeshift flying boat/seaplane/airboat craft would be called the Deciduous Duck. Also, the craft will be painted in the Donald color scheme: blue, yellow and white. Just as you head out the back door of Donald's home, you pass by plans for the new plane, created by Von Drake
Okay, now that we got the description of the roller coaster train out of the way, let's move on. The roller coaster will fly up and over the new Toon lake, dodging characters try to take aim at you with water, such as spitting frogs perched on the rocks (they're actually the same ones previously used in Gadget's Go Coaster) or Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, all scattered about the lake and firing water cannons at you. There's also Goofy in a boat, trying to fish. He's caught a bite, but the fish in question is dragging his line along and spinning his boat around. This boat accidentally kicks up water in your path. The idea is that Donald, as part of his service, is having you take out his new Deciduous Duck aircraft for a test flight, but it seems that there are more than a few bugs to work out (hence the roller coaster part).
Similar to the Great Goofini coaster at WDW, Donald's Air Academy may or may not have Fastpass. Like its predecessor, Gadget's Go Coaster, it will also be sponsored by Sparkle paper towels. It will also have a Single Rider option.
Anyway, that's Donald's Air Academy, the first of two new rides for Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland, should the Runaway Railway concept not go forward here. The second is coming up...
