comics101
Well-Known Member
I actually agree. It seems kinda pointless to close it...I just don't get what you'll gain by closing DAK's headliner attraction.
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WDW Imagineering Project: Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Thread starter goofy donald
- Start date
I actually agree. It seems kinda pointless to close it...I just don't get what you'll gain by closing DAK's headliner attraction.
Asia
Next up is Asia and although its a fairly complete land, there is still some work that can be done here. It’s a clash of two ecosystems and two communities in my opinion that fit seamlessly into one another. There are the tropical lush Indian forests of the maharaja that slowly but surely turn frigid as you make your way through Anandapur to the peaks of Mt. Everest. The third boat dock of the Discovery Island world tours will be here on the water. The shelter the line is under will be a stone building with intricate carvings to kind of fit into the Malaysian / Indian themed side as opposed to the Himalayan sub-culture. Its exact location would be the peninsula on the opposite side of the monkey island. I would build another island to go along with it because I love that type of enclosure but I feel it would be too much work now that the park around it is already constructed.
I also think that the insects of Malaysia are underrepresented. There are some beautiful species from this area and a walkthrough butterfly garden would be great similar to that of the Bambi gardens in Epcots flower and garden festival but with foreign species. I don’t think there is really enough room for this concept though, so a butterfly hut approximately 12/12 feet would be a great addition IMO. Guests could see many tropical insects living in it on the peninsula near the wait for the boat.
Next an update to Maharaja Jungle trek giving it more Indo-Malaysian favourites. Unfortunately the trail has slightly less expansion space to work with then Pangani so a way to diversify the animal population here,and kind of a no brainer for me, would be to diversify the grazing area. The main and most exciting addition would be Guar. There would also be an actual physical change to the area as some of its the exhibits land in the front end would be removed and the exhibit area in the back would be extended. This gives the animals same amount of grazing area while opening up a bit of space for a smaller exhibit or 2 just in front of the grazers or on the opposing wall or as an island in the path. I would also remove the tapirs from this area of the park and set up an exchange with another zoo so their exhibit may be taken up by the rare and endangered Sumatran Rhino for a new breeding program. Other additions would preferably be pangolin, reticulated python, sun bear, mongoose, binturong, and or clouded leopard. Any combination of those creatures could fill an additional 3 to 4 small to medium sized exhibits that could be constructed in additional area available along the trail. Along with them, large insects and spiders as well as a couple small reptile and amphibian creatures will frequent the two indoor parts of the trail in smaller aquarium style exhibits.
Flights of Wonder, Kali river rapids, and the dining and current shopping locations would remain untouched. Expedition Everest however would be shut down for its first major refurbishment, and the Yeti would be officially fixed for good.
*a reminder: (if you want a rough idea of where things are to be located view the overhead park picture from the OP or google earth/wikimaps)*
Finally, the one big project for the area, a new animal trail will be created to represent the animals that are not currently represented in the expanse of the mountainous Himalayas. This addition to the Asian area will go along the side of Everest and will begin at its base. It will be slightly smaller then the current Maharaja Trek. The entrance will have a large sign overtop stating a phrase in Nepalese with English translation underneath saying “White Cat Valley”. The story behind the area is that a village of people lived near the base of the mountain but as the forests were cut down in the area it upset the balance between humans and animals. Eventually the people were driven from their village by the native creatures who were coming into conflict more and more with the villagers every day. The story will be portrayed on a rock wall that the incoming visitors will be able to view on their way in. This will provide blocking from the side of the new Dinoland Aviary roller coaster and boat service area. The theme will be similar to that of the surrounding Himalayan area but it seems a bit more 'off the beaten path'. The path will show signs of travel by yak and carts and there will be rocky terrain all around. The remainder of the blocking should be made easily by the exhibits and animal houses except for the back of the mountain. It is fairly well themed already, but there are a few windows and places where it doesn’t fit the mountain form. A rough blocking structure set above animal houses closest to the mountain should cover the ground view well. The trail will go counter clockwise through the 'ruined village' with some small animal exhibits in the center. The center will mainly be focused around a large temple/shrine structure that will act as the animal house for the smaller exhibits with an underground path for keepers to get to the central animal area. It will be a state of the art design seen in only a few other zoos around the world (where I got my idea from
) and will serve as a beautiful homage to the people of the area. The larger exhibits will be located around the outside of the circle. Throughout the path and in some of the exhibits there will be rubble from where the yaks knocked over the villagers huts. A few huts remain up that guests can walk through and are used as blinds to view the animals through filled with cultural artefacts for themeing. Starting with the large exhibits, the path juts out toward the shrine slightly as a large rocky hill holds blue sheep and Himalayan thar. As you continue around this hill to your left on the first shrine exhibit you will see langur monkeys in a small troop. They will take about a quarter of the shrine's area. Next beside the monkeys is a small snowy rock outcropping for the Himalayan weasel. Back on the right, the edge of the forest begins where red panda hide in the short trees leading into a small clearing with trees and picturesque mountainsides in the background where there are two grazing areas separated by fencing, first a heard of impressive wild yak, then other grazing animals such as Goral, Serow, and musk deer. For the rest of the exhibits on the right hand side, Himalayan black bear change the scene from forested to rocky again leading to the snow leopard ( the main attraction), and finally in the shadow of Everest the playful rhesus macaques bid you farewell playing around a small hut they took over. Remaining on the left side after the weasels there are, the giant flying squirrel, the golden eagle (contained with hard walls on either side so that they can never view animals they would see as prey), and a collection of high altitude pheasants and other avian life. Guests would then be lead back down the same path on the opposite side with a farewell message on the other wall with a happy story about how the villagers rebuilt further down the valley after foresting was terminated and they lived in peace with the animals once more. A small shop made to look like a hut would be erected across from the entrance on the other side of the pathway called Sherpa’s Mountaineer Supply, selling area specific merchandise, and giving the EE's gift shop a bit of a break. This addition is favourable because it requires very little backstage movement with careful planning. Another state of the art addition for these creatures would be geothermal cooling in the bases of their exhibits. All of these creatures can live in areas of the mountainous region that have fairly warm summers, but when temperatures get hot as they do in Florida, the exhibits would be designed to cool the animals with many temperature control features.
Unfortunately, with the proximity of these creatures to the Expedition Everest attraction, it most likely would be way too much activity around them If Everest were to be kept open any later then dusk on a regular basis. This is good news still though as the attraction would be open hours later then some of Everest's most current closing times. On special occasions, the attraction could be left open a few extra hours later but as a rule of thumb, for the well being of these very shy mountainous animals, a dusk closing time would be rather appropriate.
Recap
Attractions:
Flights of wonder
Maharajah Jungle trek
Kali river rapids
Expedition Everest
White cat valley: Himalayan village exploration trail
Discovery river taxi dock
Dining
Yak and Yeti
Yak and yeti counter
Anandapur ice cream truck
Royal Anandapur Tea Company
Shopping
Serka zong bazaar
Yak and Yeti Bhaktapur market
Sherpa's Mountaineer supply
Hope you enjoyed, I decided on a final schedule and the next stop will be Africa in the coming days, followed by Camp Minnie Mickey and a huge overhaul of Rafiki's Planet Watch to round out the remaining lands, then we shall enter the entirely new creations.
I wanted to take this time to thank all of my continuous subscribers, Its great how many views that the project has received and we are only just underway :sohappy:. Also thank you members that have given me feedback, I will try to respond to you as soon as I possibly can with all of your ideas and or tweaks.
See you next week with Africa!
Next up is Asia and although its a fairly complete land, there is still some work that can be done here. It’s a clash of two ecosystems and two communities in my opinion that fit seamlessly into one another. There are the tropical lush Indian forests of the maharaja that slowly but surely turn frigid as you make your way through Anandapur to the peaks of Mt. Everest. The third boat dock of the Discovery Island world tours will be here on the water. The shelter the line is under will be a stone building with intricate carvings to kind of fit into the Malaysian / Indian themed side as opposed to the Himalayan sub-culture. Its exact location would be the peninsula on the opposite side of the monkey island. I would build another island to go along with it because I love that type of enclosure but I feel it would be too much work now that the park around it is already constructed.
I also think that the insects of Malaysia are underrepresented. There are some beautiful species from this area and a walkthrough butterfly garden would be great similar to that of the Bambi gardens in Epcots flower and garden festival but with foreign species. I don’t think there is really enough room for this concept though, so a butterfly hut approximately 12/12 feet would be a great addition IMO. Guests could see many tropical insects living in it on the peninsula near the wait for the boat.
Next an update to Maharaja Jungle trek giving it more Indo-Malaysian favourites. Unfortunately the trail has slightly less expansion space to work with then Pangani so a way to diversify the animal population here,and kind of a no brainer for me, would be to diversify the grazing area. The main and most exciting addition would be Guar. There would also be an actual physical change to the area as some of its the exhibits land in the front end would be removed and the exhibit area in the back would be extended. This gives the animals same amount of grazing area while opening up a bit of space for a smaller exhibit or 2 just in front of the grazers or on the opposing wall or as an island in the path. I would also remove the tapirs from this area of the park and set up an exchange with another zoo so their exhibit may be taken up by the rare and endangered Sumatran Rhino for a new breeding program. Other additions would preferably be pangolin, reticulated python, sun bear, mongoose, binturong, and or clouded leopard. Any combination of those creatures could fill an additional 3 to 4 small to medium sized exhibits that could be constructed in additional area available along the trail. Along with them, large insects and spiders as well as a couple small reptile and amphibian creatures will frequent the two indoor parts of the trail in smaller aquarium style exhibits.
Flights of Wonder, Kali river rapids, and the dining and current shopping locations would remain untouched. Expedition Everest however would be shut down for its first major refurbishment, and the Yeti would be officially fixed for good.
*a reminder: (if you want a rough idea of where things are to be located view the overhead park picture from the OP or google earth/wikimaps)*
Finally, the one big project for the area, a new animal trail will be created to represent the animals that are not currently represented in the expanse of the mountainous Himalayas. This addition to the Asian area will go along the side of Everest and will begin at its base. It will be slightly smaller then the current Maharaja Trek. The entrance will have a large sign overtop stating a phrase in Nepalese with English translation underneath saying “White Cat Valley”. The story behind the area is that a village of people lived near the base of the mountain but as the forests were cut down in the area it upset the balance between humans and animals. Eventually the people were driven from their village by the native creatures who were coming into conflict more and more with the villagers every day. The story will be portrayed on a rock wall that the incoming visitors will be able to view on their way in. This will provide blocking from the side of the new Dinoland Aviary roller coaster and boat service area. The theme will be similar to that of the surrounding Himalayan area but it seems a bit more 'off the beaten path'. The path will show signs of travel by yak and carts and there will be rocky terrain all around. The remainder of the blocking should be made easily by the exhibits and animal houses except for the back of the mountain. It is fairly well themed already, but there are a few windows and places where it doesn’t fit the mountain form. A rough blocking structure set above animal houses closest to the mountain should cover the ground view well. The trail will go counter clockwise through the 'ruined village' with some small animal exhibits in the center. The center will mainly be focused around a large temple/shrine structure that will act as the animal house for the smaller exhibits with an underground path for keepers to get to the central animal area. It will be a state of the art design seen in only a few other zoos around the world (where I got my idea from
) and will serve as a beautiful homage to the people of the area. The larger exhibits will be located around the outside of the circle. Throughout the path and in some of the exhibits there will be rubble from where the yaks knocked over the villagers huts. A few huts remain up that guests can walk through and are used as blinds to view the animals through filled with cultural artefacts for themeing. Starting with the large exhibits, the path juts out toward the shrine slightly as a large rocky hill holds blue sheep and Himalayan thar. As you continue around this hill to your left on the first shrine exhibit you will see langur monkeys in a small troop. They will take about a quarter of the shrine's area. Next beside the monkeys is a small snowy rock outcropping for the Himalayan weasel. Back on the right, the edge of the forest begins where red panda hide in the short trees leading into a small clearing with trees and picturesque mountainsides in the background where there are two grazing areas separated by fencing, first a heard of impressive wild yak, then other grazing animals such as Goral, Serow, and musk deer. For the rest of the exhibits on the right hand side, Himalayan black bear change the scene from forested to rocky again leading to the snow leopard ( the main attraction), and finally in the shadow of Everest the playful rhesus macaques bid you farewell playing around a small hut they took over. Remaining on the left side after the weasels there are, the giant flying squirrel, the golden eagle (contained with hard walls on either side so that they can never view animals they would see as prey), and a collection of high altitude pheasants and other avian life. Guests would then be lead back down the same path on the opposite side with a farewell message on the other wall with a happy story about how the villagers rebuilt further down the valley after foresting was terminated and they lived in peace with the animals once more. A small shop made to look like a hut would be erected across from the entrance on the other side of the pathway called Sherpa’s Mountaineer Supply, selling area specific merchandise, and giving the EE's gift shop a bit of a break. This addition is favourable because it requires very little backstage movement with careful planning. Another state of the art addition for these creatures would be geothermal cooling in the bases of their exhibits. All of these creatures can live in areas of the mountainous region that have fairly warm summers, but when temperatures get hot as they do in Florida, the exhibits would be designed to cool the animals with many temperature control features.Unfortunately, with the proximity of these creatures to the Expedition Everest attraction, it most likely would be way too much activity around them If Everest were to be kept open any later then dusk on a regular basis. This is good news still though as the attraction would be open hours later then some of Everest's most current closing times. On special occasions, the attraction could be left open a few extra hours later but as a rule of thumb, for the well being of these very shy mountainous animals, a dusk closing time would be rather appropriate.
Recap
Attractions:
Flights of wonder
Maharajah Jungle trek
Kali river rapids
Expedition Everest
White cat valley: Himalayan village exploration trail
Discovery river taxi dock
Dining
Yak and Yeti
Yak and yeti counter
Anandapur ice cream truck
Royal Anandapur Tea Company
Shopping
Serka zong bazaar
Yak and Yeti Bhaktapur market
Sherpa's Mountaineer supply
Hope you enjoyed, I decided on a final schedule and the next stop will be Africa in the coming days, followed by Camp Minnie Mickey and a huge overhaul of Rafiki's Planet Watch to round out the remaining lands, then we shall enter the entirely new creations.
I wanted to take this time to thank all of my continuous subscribers, Its great how many views that the project has received and we are only just underway :sohappy:. Also thank you members that have given me feedback, I will try to respond to you as soon as I possibly can with all of your ideas and or tweaks.
See you next week with Africa!
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
I'm a bit confused as to the actual physical location of White Cat Valley, and the name as well. I understand your desire to focus on the big cats, but you have three HUGE animals, and it would seem to me that the general public would most identify with Panda's due to their rarity in American Zoological institutions, so you would think that that would be the star, with the Leopards and Bears playing second fiddle (other than that good mix of animals)
I have already voiced my concerns about closing Everest Early (It is simply unrealistic for a myriad of reasons you have ignored) so let me suggest something for you. You have the opportunity to fix a HUGE problem in my opinion with the placement of your trail, and that is the back of Everest. Sure from inside the park it looks great, but from the parking lot and from Osceola parkway, it's an embarrassment. It seems to me like you have a great opportunity to repair that! You could finish off the mountain with soundproofing to put your indoor exhibits inside a cave in the mountain (or perhaps in a research facility that happens to be right up next to the mountain, and then that would solve all the problems as long as it was a good soundproofing job, because it's not really the noise of the ride that would upset the animals (they are after all very close to Kali) it's the noise of the screams from out front. And since it would probably enter and exit from between Everest and Dinoland if my guesses are correct, this seems like it would work out perfectly!
Thoughts?
I have already voiced my concerns about closing Everest Early (It is simply unrealistic for a myriad of reasons you have ignored) so let me suggest something for you. You have the opportunity to fix a HUGE problem in my opinion with the placement of your trail, and that is the back of Everest. Sure from inside the park it looks great, but from the parking lot and from Osceola parkway, it's an embarrassment. It seems to me like you have a great opportunity to repair that! You could finish off the mountain with soundproofing to put your indoor exhibits inside a cave in the mountain (or perhaps in a research facility that happens to be right up next to the mountain, and then that would solve all the problems as long as it was a good soundproofing job, because it's not really the noise of the ride that would upset the animals (they are after all very close to Kali) it's the noise of the screams from out front. And since it would probably enter and exit from between Everest and Dinoland if my guesses are correct, this seems like it would work out perfectly!
Thoughts?
The location of the new animal trail will start on the side of Everest and curl around behind it in the open patch with some forested area all the way back to the backstage service road, yes in the location you guessed. I think you may be mistaken on the animal I'm talking about. Panda bears would not fit in to the actual exhibits as they are found in the bamboo forests of china however yes they are quite rare. I am speaking of the fairly more common in zoos, red panda which is found in colder forested climates. This still allows for the Snow leopards to be the center of attention as they are far more rare. The Himalayan black bear is a sub species of the common black bear and would also play second fiddle. I also like how the focus of each Asian walking trail is a big cat and this kind of adds a common bond and interesting transition to them.
I assure you I haven't been ignoring the EE early closing issue. You also seem to be missing the fact that when I am extending park hours I'm also leaving the ride open for hours later then its current closing time. I totally agree with trying to change the back of Everest, but the issue is much more difficult then it seems. the reason it looks like it does is that there are offices of some kind there and I think the best solution to fix the back of the mountain would be to, while EE is under its refurb, extend more rock work out from the back of the mountain. It would create a kind of enclosed outdoor walkway with a mix of rock work over hard mesh screening to allow some light through and structural rock work. There are no indoor exhibits so I'm not sure what you are alluding to there but regardless everything is kind of carefully fit as it is with a show building for Everest directly behind the proposed exhibit area. I have considered sound proofing but there is really no way to soundproof the outdoor sections of EE effectively. So to conclude I guarantee, you are in no way being ignored, I have spent time responding to all of your posts on the subject and if I were ignoring your arguments I wouldn't have even spent time to respond to you. I am merely just trying to create the most realistic situation possible. I need some time to gather all the information and see what can be feasibly accomplished, there might be hope for your desire yet and I assure you I will do my best to keep Everest open as late as possible. The final decision should be made before the start of the new concepts.
Hope this answers your questions
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
It doesn't have a current closing time. It's current closing time is when the park closes! If the park closes at 8:00 which it does most of the summer, it closes at 8:00. If for some reason the park would be open until say 10:00 or 11:00 (Which it can be sometimes during high peak periods) it would be open until 10:00 or 11:00. It would NEVER make sense to do it any other way. It would be like say Magic Kingdom were open until Midnight, as it frequently is, and suddenly deciding to close Space Mountain at 8:00pm...You see why this is a problem right? It is purely simply utterly nonsensical to close a high capacity high profile thrill ride that is an iconic representation of the park as a whole, for the sake of a small walking trail that would be ignored by most guests. That is a fact. You keep telling me you've already addressed this and aren't ignoring it, but every time I bring it up, you just say you've already addressed it which you haven't, you have not actually written a legitimate reason for it to close.
And as far as the back of Everest, it was built that way because of budget nothing more. If there are offices back there, they are probably trailers that can be easily moved. Got you on the Panda thing though, I misread it, my bad.
And as far as soundproofing...there are no Outdoor sections of Everest that would come into direct contact with your exhibit area if I understand the location properly. I was talking about soundproofing the inside walls to reduce excess noise coming from inside the mountain itself.
And as far as the back of Everest, it was built that way because of budget nothing more. If there are offices back there, they are probably trailers that can be easily moved. Got you on the Panda thing though, I misread it, my bad.
And as far as soundproofing...there are no Outdoor sections of Everest that would come into direct contact with your exhibit area if I understand the location properly. I was talking about soundproofing the inside walls to reduce excess noise coming from inside the mountain itself.
I said I am in the process of considering it at this time, I never said no I just said I have to look at things closer and find s solution. Can we not just leave it at that instead of arguing this issue? lets not let one minor detail (in the grand scheme of things) damage the thread. and actually your information about park closing is incorrect. The latest it has or will ever stayed open this year or last is 8pm, and its closing times have ranged between 5-8.
mharrington
Well-Known Member
How much more of Animal Kingdom is left?
Well so far we've gone through all of the current lands (once Africa is posted today) except planet watch and CMM. after that 3 new additional lands will be introduced and a final overview will conclude the design. So we are a little over halfway at this point.
As a note to all the readers out there, you can still comment on the project after the final overview and I will still respond to your thoughts and add tweaks if they are a good fit.
Africa will be up by the end of the day as it is fairly short, See you soon!
mharrington
Well-Known Member
In terms of Planet Watch, that will be the home of this park's One Man's Dream exhibit, which will have been broken up from the original show at Disney's Hollywood Studios and scattered to all the parks. In keeping with this park's theme of animals and nature, this park's particular exhibit will be called "Animals and Nature", referring to Walt's interest in animals and nature, as seen mostly in the True-Life Adventure series and maybe even in "Bambi".
Africa
In Africa we get to walk through the village of Harambe in a very realistic Dutch-African settlement in modern day before going on a safari on the plains or walking through the lush forests of Pangani. Locations for food are plentiful and shopping is also abundant in this area so no need to change anything in that respect.
The first addition would be the new dock for the discovery river taxi where the current designated smoking area is. The line would be under a large thatched, peak roof all made out of wood, good enough to keep people out of the sun or rain. Music that’s being played in harambe will be connected through speakers to the docks as well.
Then behind the left side of the village and along the same path as the boat docks, a new theater would be constructed for festival of the lion king, bringing the show to its proper home in Africa. The path to it would be lined with lush African plant life, all of a sudden opening up into a massive hut theater, about the same size as its current home. The hut would look like a mud based construction with a thatch roof. The inside would be similar to the current seating and the show would remain the same as always. This now helps CMM's identity and it moves the best show in the park further away from the exit drawing guests deeper into AK.
One other addition that would be made, would be the expansion of the Pangani forest exploration trail. I believe it is great as it already is so why not attempt to improve on it. There is room in various areas along the trail to add possible exhibit space for a few more animals that I feel should still be exhibited in the park, possible additions could include, aardvark, bat eared fox, bush baby (research station), honey badger, hyena, hyrax, mongoose, elephant shrew, serval / civet , and wild dog being the top prospects. There is enough room ide say for 1 or 2 larger exhibits and a couple of smaller ones plus room in the research station for small animals (where reptiles, amphibians and insects could also be a possibility and have not yet been discussed) so take your pick.
A final thought on animals to consider would be about bringing buffalo on to the reserve for Kilimanjaro Safaris. I know it’s a very dangerous idea considering their unpredictability and their humongous size, however if Disney found a way to contain them somehow they would be an amazing addition to the area. Also, parts of the train track will soon be receiving a massive overhaul (more on that in a later installment:drevil so area will be cleared in that general location for that.
Hope You enjoyed, next up we finish the counterclockwise tour of the 'original lands' of AK with CMM and our first of 2 major overhauls. See you in a couple days.
Recap
Attractions
Kilimanjaro safaris
Pangani forest exploration trail
Festival of the Lion King
Africa train station
Discovery river taxi dock #2
Dining
Tusker house
Dawa bar
Harambe fruit market
Kusafiri coffee and bakery
Tamu Tamu
Shopping
Mombasa marketplace
Daka la filmu
In Africa we get to walk through the village of Harambe in a very realistic Dutch-African settlement in modern day before going on a safari on the plains or walking through the lush forests of Pangani. Locations for food are plentiful and shopping is also abundant in this area so no need to change anything in that respect.
The first addition would be the new dock for the discovery river taxi where the current designated smoking area is. The line would be under a large thatched, peak roof all made out of wood, good enough to keep people out of the sun or rain. Music that’s being played in harambe will be connected through speakers to the docks as well.
Then behind the left side of the village and along the same path as the boat docks, a new theater would be constructed for festival of the lion king, bringing the show to its proper home in Africa. The path to it would be lined with lush African plant life, all of a sudden opening up into a massive hut theater, about the same size as its current home. The hut would look like a mud based construction with a thatch roof. The inside would be similar to the current seating and the show would remain the same as always. This now helps CMM's identity and it moves the best show in the park further away from the exit drawing guests deeper into AK.
One other addition that would be made, would be the expansion of the Pangani forest exploration trail. I believe it is great as it already is so why not attempt to improve on it. There is room in various areas along the trail to add possible exhibit space for a few more animals that I feel should still be exhibited in the park, possible additions could include, aardvark, bat eared fox, bush baby (research station), honey badger, hyena, hyrax, mongoose, elephant shrew, serval / civet , and wild dog being the top prospects. There is enough room ide say for 1 or 2 larger exhibits and a couple of smaller ones plus room in the research station for small animals (where reptiles, amphibians and insects could also be a possibility and have not yet been discussed) so take your pick.
A final thought on animals to consider would be about bringing buffalo on to the reserve for Kilimanjaro Safaris. I know it’s a very dangerous idea considering their unpredictability and their humongous size, however if Disney found a way to contain them somehow they would be an amazing addition to the area. Also, parts of the train track will soon be receiving a massive overhaul (more on that in a later installment:drevil
so area will be cleared in that general location for that.Hope You enjoyed, next up we finish the counterclockwise tour of the 'original lands' of AK with CMM and our first of 2 major overhauls. See you in a couple days.
Recap
Attractions
Kilimanjaro safaris
Pangani forest exploration trail
Festival of the Lion King
Africa train station
Discovery river taxi dock #2
Dining
Tusker house
Dawa bar
Harambe fruit market
Kusafiri coffee and bakery
Tamu Tamu
Shopping
Mombasa marketplace
Daka la filmu
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
My only suggestion is to perhaps consider adding Zebras somewhere, either on the Safari, or Pangani, finally put them on-show somewhere!
Oh my I completely forgot about that. Thank you Tip Top Club, Zebra will be added to the savannah of KS.
mharrington
Well-Known Member
I hope you have some good plans for Camp Minnie-Mickey.
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
The Zebras can't be on the Savannah with the other animals, they were taken off show a while back.
mharrington
Well-Known Member
Where is everybody?
Sorry for the absence everyone, I've been designing my contest submission and now that that is done, I shall post CMM by tonight guaranteed. For being so patient I will give you a little hint as to what is to come. CMM will be split into two areas: CMM - Grizzly point.
mharrington
Well-Known Member
How will Camp Minnie-Mickey look?
Camp Minnie Mickey + a surprise!
Hey everybody:wave:, sorry I've had some trouble posting recently with bad internet and some personal issues to deal with so unfortunately I haven’t been able to keep up with the posts as of late. Hopefully I haven’t lost any of my loyal followers along the way and we can now get back on track. We are in the home stretch but this is the most exciting part as the new land designs begin today. To thank all of you that have stayed with me through this process I give you the first DOUBLE UPLOAD. Here are the plans for the new CMM and a new North American land soon to be named. I hope you enjoy!
CMM right now is a broken concept with a lot of potential. The first step in the right direction for this area in my opinion would be to make the themeing more focused to North America / kids / characters. This would be accomplished by adding more of the character sculptures seen throughout the area and adding interactivity to them. Similar to the Winnie the Pooh queue, these figures would entertain guests when they grab or step on something to activate an action from the interactive AA’s. There would also be walkthrough items, things to physically interact with, for example a small campsite area with the fab 5’s tents to explore. Finally the themeing itself would be more cohesive. All the buildings would fit with the wooden lodge theme and there would be a largely North American feel to the area. This would require an exterior overhaul of the (now ex) lion king theatre with an addition of a mid-sized screen and fake wooden log sitting area called the Junior Woodchucks stage on the right side of the wall adjacent to the path on the way to the washrooms. It would show old cartoons and be a small resting area for families where they can get small, “snack size”, free bags of popcorn and sit for a while. There would also be some activities that kids could join in on with your favorite Junior woodchucks, H,D,L.
The greeting trails would be slightly expanded into some of the unused areas to handle more capacity and an extra large stroller parking would be created off to the side near the restrooms as well to handle all of the “kid friendly” attractions of the area. Also camp soft serve and treats would go back to serving on a regular basis serving ice cream, warm cookies and camp fire favourites like smores that can be purchased and then eaten at the new camp movie screen (as advertised at the location) or while just walking around the park. Along with this, the addition of a new mid-small sized gift shop called the Camp General Store will occur directly across from the kids discovery zone as soon as you cross the bridge from Discovery Island. It will be themed as a camp welcome center / general store and will house area specific items like Mickey and Minnie in camp clothes, camp necessities, etc.
Next up is the relocation of Its tough to be a bug. It will be located in the current space of the old Pocahontas theatre as that will be demolished and it will encompass its entire old stage, backstage, and some surrounding area. The building will be themed as a rotting giant redwood log which still fits with the North American theme and serves as a transitional piece to the next land. The queue will be a spoof of the tree of life with poorly carved bugs throughout. The switchbacks will be themed to be rotting pieces of log and the waiting area and entire show will remain essentially the same. At the end you will exit into the Walking Stick Bugporium, a small gift shop selling Bugs Life items and where you can interact with an AA of Slim voiced by David Hyde Pierce. Its enough of a tweak to keep the attraction fresh but also keeping it close to its roots as it is still a successful attraction.
Finally, the new main attraction of the land will be a show in the newly renamed Main Lodge Theatre called PETucation with the fox and the hound. The show will be a mix of the old lion king show and flights of wonder combining real animals and life like AA’s as the fox and the hound take you through the differences between pets and wild animals that you might find around your home as well as all of their amazing qualities. The AA’s will not directly interact with the animals but will mainly serve as narrators for the audience and will also banter back and forth as well as having the ability to swivel to watch the show themselves and interact with individual guests. The animals will do tricks showcasing natural behaviours, and some other special ones in this thrilling, fun, upbeat show for people of all ages to enjoy. It will end with a little bit of a sing along, adding a bit more interactivity for children that occurred in lion king. As people are entering the theatre, there will be a fun preshow called Learn to Camp with Goofy. It will be in the style of the old how to goofy cartoons but this time with the real goofy bumbling around trying to be a good camper, while being instructed by the omniscient narrator from above. Overall it should end up being one of the more popular shows in AK.
With two large shows and the parks largest meet and greet area, this will make CMM a great “kids zone” and a major people eater bringing up park capacity. It will also draw people towards the new land behind CMM, The Great Wild North.
The Great Wild North will be an extension of Camp Minnie Mickey. Directly after the leaving the camp just past ITTBAB, the clean cartoonish environment continues as you are transported to Brownstone park and here we find a seamless mix of Brownstone's fantasy and Yellowstones reality. There will be views created in a similar style to those of Hollywood studios, which can be seen in the distance as far as after just crossing the bridge from Discovery Island to CMM. It will look similar to this: http://www.rockymountainmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Yellowstone-National-Park.jpg, and it will also help to conceal a show building for Bambi (to be discussed later). The landscape will be back behind a few layers of trees to help keep the illusion of that being the actual view. The centerpiece of the area will be an old faithful geyser water play area that will be similar to what should have been working at BTMRR, however this one will be able to recapture its water to reduce the environmental strain. Here Humphrey the bear and the ranger (or Donald dressed as the ranger) will be walk around characters. There will also be an authentic replica of the park ranger’s post that will have CM’s act as park rangers and will be a new addition to the kid’s discovery zone. Mickey and Minnie will be here to help out with challenges and do meet and greet's.
As you go further away from the ranger’s station, there is a fork in the path. You either can head to the left, and thick forests, or to the right and the giant landscape you could see from the bridge. If you go to the left you come across The Story of Bambi. This is a new dark ride and the first classic dark ride in AK. It takes you through Bambi’s story with a sort of omniscient narrator and character perspective mix so not only is it entertaining but informative with the negative effects of poaching and excessive hunting on the environment. The queue will be full of natural elements and be similar to a natural version of a hedge maze. You then walk into what seems like an animal den and enter the ride vehicles which are various woodland creatures and will be on the same ride system as pooh’s honey hunt. You travel through Bambi’s story with many interactive aa’s and end with an informative video on poaching narrated by Bambi. The ride then ends and you exit through a path that brings you close to the entrance. Along this path you can look at white tail deer and other creatures in an open clearing exhibit. Across from the attraction is a quick service restaurant called Thumper’s Rabbit Hole. It will sell some light fare as well as Bambi’s forest organics products, a new Disney specific food line, to be discussed in more detail a few posts from now. The QS will be themed to Thumpers rabbit home and feature hints to the original movie.
Yellowstone Trails will be the exhibit area for this part of the park. It will be located in the back left corner of the expansion space and will be a curved circular path. As some of the animals are featured in the ride soon to be mentioned, it will be a smaller path then some of the others seen in the park. In the middle of the circle will be foliage around a large watchtower that people can climb in small numbers and use binoculars to view the exhibits from above. Entering the trail, you instantly see the awe inspiring Great Plains and a heard of bison, this then slowly transitions to swamp as elk and then moose exhibits are shown. There is then a break as birds of prey such as turkey vulture, bald eagle, and great horned owl are shown in smaller exhibits, and a small aviary cage over a pond near the path that holds swans, loon, sparrows and others. Then the carnivore exhibits come up starting with smaller solitary exhibits for wolverine, lynx, bobcat, and Mountain Lion then opening up into larger exhibits for the two highlight attractions of the path, the massive Kodiak Grizzly, and the smart dangerous pack of grey wolves. After a short berm of dense foliage you exit back out near the trails entrance and towards the main area of the park. The two shared exhibits for bison and elk will add immensely to the ride experience of Wild North as it will share the amazing views and great animal experience.
Finally the main addition of the area, a wild water raft ride and the area’s one E-ticket attraction, Chip and Dale’s Wild North Adventures. It is a white water raft ride with your two favourite chipmunks, as you take a tour through the woods. The ride vehicle will be a similar design to that seen Dinosaur and Indiana Jones so that it can simulate a raft going through white water. The water will be just deep enough underneath to hide the track the ride vehicle sits on and splash guests a little on the bumps. You enter the queue which weaves you through Chip and Dale’s loge HQ for their travel company, Wild North Adventures, and watch a video with a safety instructions cartoon, a welcome message, and the objectives for the trip. The video would play approximately 15 minutes with a 5 minute pause screen in between to keep the intro fairly fresh and not annoying in long lines. You then enter your raft and begin your journey. The ride takes you through a mix of animal exhibits, most of which are joined with Yellowstone trails, and AA’s. C and D narrate as they are in the lead boat with their trusty paddlers you met in the preshow to map out ahead of you and they are talking to you via radio. The water right now is calm and suddenly on your left you come across your first exhibit, a heard of bison grazing on the plains. Afterwards you then spot a porcupine on the right then later up stream elk again on the left but as you turn a bend in the river the water starts to get rough, you get sucked into the rapids and now have to paddle your way through! It’s a fun ride with some splashes and some intense motion and speed before taking a small, 3 foot, drop down for one big splash and then curve back through a raccoon exhibit and finally a skunk to end it all off with a joke from C & D’s travel service. It should be a fun ride where you get to experience wildlife and an e-ticket experience. All gifts will be found at Tree house toys, a fat hollowed out tree stump building off to the side of the attraction selling Great Wild North merchandise.
Recap
Camp Minnie Mickey-
Attractions
Greeting trails
It's Tough to be a Bug
Fox and the hound PETucation
Interactive zones / Junior Woodchuck's stage
Dining
Camp soft serve and treats
Shopping
The camp general store
The Great wild North-
Attractions
The Yellowstone forests
The Story of Bambi
Chip and dale’s wild north adventures
Old Faithful play fountain/park rangers post
Dining
Thumpers snack hole
Shopping
Chip and Dale’s tree house toys
*thanks to Tahu for their concept design of GWN and the Junior wood chucks and Humphrey additions*
Finally its all there hope you enjoy! next up Rafiki's Planet Watch and the Wilderness Railroad!!
See you real soon, were in the final stretch with the last 3 lands coming up
Hey everybody:wave:, sorry I've had some trouble posting recently with bad internet and some personal issues to deal with so unfortunately I haven’t been able to keep up with the posts as of late
. Hopefully I haven’t lost any of my loyal followers along the way and we can now get back on track. We are in the home stretch but this is the most exciting part as the new land designs begin today. To thank all of you that have stayed with me through this process I give you the first DOUBLE UPLOAD. Here are the plans for the new CMM and a new North American land soon to be named. I hope you enjoy!CMM right now is a broken concept with a lot of potential. The first step in the right direction for this area in my opinion would be to make the themeing more focused to North America / kids / characters. This would be accomplished by adding more of the character sculptures seen throughout the area and adding interactivity to them. Similar to the Winnie the Pooh queue, these figures would entertain guests when they grab or step on something to activate an action from the interactive AA’s. There would also be walkthrough items, things to physically interact with, for example a small campsite area with the fab 5’s tents to explore. Finally the themeing itself would be more cohesive. All the buildings would fit with the wooden lodge theme and there would be a largely North American feel to the area. This would require an exterior overhaul of the (now ex) lion king theatre with an addition of a mid-sized screen and fake wooden log sitting area called the Junior Woodchucks stage on the right side of the wall adjacent to the path on the way to the washrooms. It would show old cartoons and be a small resting area for families where they can get small, “snack size”, free bags of popcorn and sit for a while. There would also be some activities that kids could join in on with your favorite Junior woodchucks, H,D,L.
The greeting trails would be slightly expanded into some of the unused areas to handle more capacity and an extra large stroller parking would be created off to the side near the restrooms as well to handle all of the “kid friendly” attractions of the area. Also camp soft serve and treats would go back to serving on a regular basis serving ice cream, warm cookies and camp fire favourites like smores that can be purchased and then eaten at the new camp movie screen (as advertised at the location) or while just walking around the park. Along with this, the addition of a new mid-small sized gift shop called the Camp General Store will occur directly across from the kids discovery zone as soon as you cross the bridge from Discovery Island. It will be themed as a camp welcome center / general store and will house area specific items like Mickey and Minnie in camp clothes, camp necessities, etc.
Next up is the relocation of Its tough to be a bug. It will be located in the current space of the old Pocahontas theatre as that will be demolished and it will encompass its entire old stage, backstage, and some surrounding area. The building will be themed as a rotting giant redwood log which still fits with the North American theme and serves as a transitional piece to the next land. The queue will be a spoof of the tree of life with poorly carved bugs throughout. The switchbacks will be themed to be rotting pieces of log and the waiting area and entire show will remain essentially the same. At the end you will exit into the Walking Stick Bugporium, a small gift shop selling Bugs Life items and where you can interact with an AA of Slim voiced by David Hyde Pierce. Its enough of a tweak to keep the attraction fresh but also keeping it close to its roots as it is still a successful attraction.
Finally, the new main attraction of the land will be a show in the newly renamed Main Lodge Theatre called PETucation with the fox and the hound. The show will be a mix of the old lion king show and flights of wonder combining real animals and life like AA’s as the fox and the hound take you through the differences between pets and wild animals that you might find around your home as well as all of their amazing qualities. The AA’s will not directly interact with the animals but will mainly serve as narrators for the audience and will also banter back and forth as well as having the ability to swivel to watch the show themselves and interact with individual guests. The animals will do tricks showcasing natural behaviours, and some other special ones in this thrilling, fun, upbeat show for people of all ages to enjoy. It will end with a little bit of a sing along, adding a bit more interactivity for children that occurred in lion king. As people are entering the theatre, there will be a fun preshow called Learn to Camp with Goofy. It will be in the style of the old how to goofy cartoons but this time with the real goofy bumbling around trying to be a good camper, while being instructed by the omniscient narrator from above. Overall it should end up being one of the more popular shows in AK.
With two large shows and the parks largest meet and greet area, this will make CMM a great “kids zone” and a major people eater bringing up park capacity. It will also draw people towards the new land behind CMM, The Great Wild North.
The Great Wild North will be an extension of Camp Minnie Mickey. Directly after the leaving the camp just past ITTBAB, the clean cartoonish environment continues as you are transported to Brownstone park and here we find a seamless mix of Brownstone's fantasy and Yellowstones reality. There will be views created in a similar style to those of Hollywood studios, which can be seen in the distance as far as after just crossing the bridge from Discovery Island to CMM. It will look similar to this: http://www.rockymountainmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Yellowstone-National-Park.jpg, and it will also help to conceal a show building for Bambi (to be discussed later). The landscape will be back behind a few layers of trees to help keep the illusion of that being the actual view. The centerpiece of the area will be an old faithful geyser water play area that will be similar to what should have been working at BTMRR, however this one will be able to recapture its water to reduce the environmental strain. Here Humphrey the bear and the ranger (or Donald dressed as the ranger) will be walk around characters. There will also be an authentic replica of the park ranger’s post that will have CM’s act as park rangers and will be a new addition to the kid’s discovery zone. Mickey and Minnie will be here to help out with challenges and do meet and greet's.
As you go further away from the ranger’s station, there is a fork in the path. You either can head to the left, and thick forests, or to the right and the giant landscape you could see from the bridge. If you go to the left you come across The Story of Bambi. This is a new dark ride and the first classic dark ride in AK. It takes you through Bambi’s story with a sort of omniscient narrator and character perspective mix so not only is it entertaining but informative with the negative effects of poaching and excessive hunting on the environment. The queue will be full of natural elements and be similar to a natural version of a hedge maze. You then walk into what seems like an animal den and enter the ride vehicles which are various woodland creatures and will be on the same ride system as pooh’s honey hunt. You travel through Bambi’s story with many interactive aa’s and end with an informative video on poaching narrated by Bambi. The ride then ends and you exit through a path that brings you close to the entrance. Along this path you can look at white tail deer and other creatures in an open clearing exhibit. Across from the attraction is a quick service restaurant called Thumper’s Rabbit Hole. It will sell some light fare as well as Bambi’s forest organics products, a new Disney specific food line, to be discussed in more detail a few posts from now. The QS will be themed to Thumpers rabbit home and feature hints to the original movie.
Yellowstone Trails will be the exhibit area for this part of the park. It will be located in the back left corner of the expansion space and will be a curved circular path. As some of the animals are featured in the ride soon to be mentioned, it will be a smaller path then some of the others seen in the park. In the middle of the circle will be foliage around a large watchtower that people can climb in small numbers and use binoculars to view the exhibits from above. Entering the trail, you instantly see the awe inspiring Great Plains and a heard of bison, this then slowly transitions to swamp as elk and then moose exhibits are shown. There is then a break as birds of prey such as turkey vulture, bald eagle, and great horned owl are shown in smaller exhibits, and a small aviary cage over a pond near the path that holds swans, loon, sparrows and others. Then the carnivore exhibits come up starting with smaller solitary exhibits for wolverine, lynx, bobcat, and Mountain Lion then opening up into larger exhibits for the two highlight attractions of the path, the massive Kodiak Grizzly, and the smart dangerous pack of grey wolves. After a short berm of dense foliage you exit back out near the trails entrance and towards the main area of the park. The two shared exhibits for bison and elk will add immensely to the ride experience of Wild North as it will share the amazing views and great animal experience.
Finally the main addition of the area, a wild water raft ride and the area’s one E-ticket attraction, Chip and Dale’s Wild North Adventures. It is a white water raft ride with your two favourite chipmunks, as you take a tour through the woods. The ride vehicle will be a similar design to that seen Dinosaur and Indiana Jones so that it can simulate a raft going through white water. The water will be just deep enough underneath to hide the track the ride vehicle sits on and splash guests a little on the bumps. You enter the queue which weaves you through Chip and Dale’s loge HQ for their travel company, Wild North Adventures, and watch a video with a safety instructions cartoon, a welcome message, and the objectives for the trip. The video would play approximately 15 minutes with a 5 minute pause screen in between to keep the intro fairly fresh and not annoying in long lines. You then enter your raft and begin your journey. The ride takes you through a mix of animal exhibits, most of which are joined with Yellowstone trails, and AA’s. C and D narrate as they are in the lead boat with their trusty paddlers you met in the preshow to map out ahead of you and they are talking to you via radio. The water right now is calm and suddenly on your left you come across your first exhibit, a heard of bison grazing on the plains. Afterwards you then spot a porcupine on the right then later up stream elk again on the left but as you turn a bend in the river the water starts to get rough, you get sucked into the rapids and now have to paddle your way through! It’s a fun ride with some splashes and some intense motion and speed before taking a small, 3 foot, drop down for one big splash and then curve back through a raccoon exhibit and finally a skunk to end it all off with a joke from C & D’s travel service. It should be a fun ride where you get to experience wildlife and an e-ticket experience. All gifts will be found at Tree house toys, a fat hollowed out tree stump building off to the side of the attraction selling Great Wild North merchandise.
Recap
Camp Minnie Mickey-
Attractions
Greeting trails
It's Tough to be a Bug
Fox and the hound PETucation
Interactive zones / Junior Woodchuck's stage
Dining
Camp soft serve and treats
Shopping
The camp general store
The Great wild North-
Attractions
The Yellowstone forests
The Story of Bambi
Chip and dale’s wild north adventures
Old Faithful play fountain/park rangers post
Dining
Thumpers snack hole
Shopping
Chip and Dale’s tree house toys
*thanks to Tahu for their concept design of GWN and the Junior wood chucks and Humphrey additions*
Finally its all there
hope you enjoy! next up Rafiki's Planet Watch and the Wilderness Railroad!!See you real soon, were in the final stretch with the last 3 lands coming up
mharrington
Well-Known Member
But there are no real attractions, however.
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
Also I would hardly call, Tough to be a Bug a "Successful Attraction" They are constantly battling with it's lack of Re-Ridability.