Spin off of 'If you ran Disney World', instead 'If you designed Disney World'

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I was going to post this in the 'if you ran walt disney world' thread but it really is kind of a different topic.

I'd open another park in the US. Probably in Texas, good weather and big population centers to draw cast members and locals from.

Really, I just want to design my own Disney park. I'd make 2 parks there.

Everyone else feel free to share what you can dream up!

The requisite Magic Kingdom park. I think I'd use Rapunzel's castle from Tangled as my park's centerpiece. I'd also make the park flow a little differently and make the River of America flow around this castle. This way, when it is time for the nighttime show guests can either watch from the banks or they can board their own paddle wheel boats to float in the water and watch the lantern release before the fireworks start.

Frontierland would feature heavily in this park, it would be in Texas after all. Pocahontas would have a presence here. I'd re-theme BTMR a bit and add 7DMT tech and make it a car swinging wild west mine train ride. Splash would also be in Frontierland as would be a new Wild West stunt show with horses and cows. I'd commit Disney blasphemy and move the carousel into this land. You could choose from many different mustangs, cows and buffalo.

Adventureland would have numerous different themes: Africa, the fictional Agrabah and a jungle. I'd design a Lion King dark ride and an Aladdin magic carpet indoor coaster. Adventureland would also have a dinner type show hosted by the Genie. It would be a comedy show featuring sidekicks from Disney films. There would be an Emperor's New Groove coaster and a Jungle Book/Jungle Cruise hybrid.

I'd choose Disneyland's New Orleans area and enlarge what they have at Disneyland. I would also take the Haunted Mansion and re-work it in the same vein as Phantom Manor and give it a strong voodoo influence. Tiana would finally get her restaurant here and it would be a character meal featuring live Jazz. This land will also have an innovative, half dark ride half thrill ride that will completely re-imagine Pirates of the Caribbean.

I would not have a Tomorrowland. Instead I would design a Tragic Kingdom. This would be a dark land where the villains rule. To lighten the mood I would design a dark ride which would tell the story from the sidekick point of view. So maybe a scene from Hercules and Pain and Panic would narrate, then one from Aladdin where Iago guides us and so on. I'd design a Maleficent dragon coaster here where the dragon flies over miniature towns and battles an animatronic Phillip and Samsung. I'd probably need another ride or 2 or maybe a show here where the villains lament their fatal flaws.

Fantasyland would exclusively be dark rides because I love dark rides. There would be one for: Frozen, Tangled, Cinderella, Moana and 101 Dalmations.

Instead of Storybook Circus, I'd make a certain ToonTown like the one in Epic Mickey. The town would be in black and white and feature multiple meet and greats with Oswald, Clarabelle Cow, Pete, Horace Horsecollar and other forgotten Disney characters. This wouldn't be a very big land and would mostly be comprised of playgrounds and the meet and greats, except for a 4D show featuring Mickey and all these older characters.

The other park would be a little more thrill ride oriented and would have lands based on: Tron coaster and arcade. Star Wars Millennium Falcon ride and others. Marvel the Ironman ride in development overseas, a Guardians of the Galaxy simulator ride and an Avengers stunt show. Big Hero 6 San Fransokyo with rollercoaster and simulator ride. Incredibles area with a dark ride shooter type (depending on which seat you are in you have different super powers and have to use those to shoot the targets).

Hope some people got some entertainment out of my ideas.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I was going to post this in the 'if you ran walt disney world' thread but it really is kind of a different topic.

I'd open another park in the US. Probably in Texas, good weather and big population centers to draw cast members and locals from.

Really, I just want to design my own Disney park. I'd make 2 parks there.

Everyone else feel free to share what you can dream up!

The requisite Magic Kingdom park. I think I'd use Rapunzel's castle from Tangled as my park's centerpiece. I'd also make the park flow a little differently and make the River of America flow around this castle. This way, when it is time for the nighttime show guests can either watch from the banks or they can board their own paddle wheel boats to float in the water and watch the lantern release before the fireworks start.

Frontierland would feature heavily in this park, it would be in Texas after all. Pocahontas would have a presence here. I'd re-theme BTMR a bit and add 7DMT tech and make it a car swinging wild west mine train ride. Splash would also be in Frontierland as would be a new Wild West stunt show with horses and cows. I'd commit Disney blasphemy and move the carousel into this land. You could choose from many different mustangs, cows and buffalo.

Adventureland would have numerous different themes: Africa, the fictional Agrabah and a jungle. I'd design a Lion King dark ride and an Aladdin magic carpet indoor coaster. Adventureland would also have a dinner type show hosted by the Genie. It would be a comedy show featuring sidekicks from Disney films. There would be an Emperor's New Groove coaster and a Jungle Book/Jungle Cruise hybrid.

I'd choose Disneyland's New Orleans area and enlarge what they have at Disneyland. I would also take the Haunted Mansion and re-work it in the same vein as Phantom Manor and give it a strong voodoo influence. Tiana would finally get her restaurant here and it would be a character meal featuring live Jazz. This land will also have an innovative, half dark ride half thrill ride that will completely re-imagine Pirates of the Caribbean.

I would not have a Tomorrowland. Instead I would design a Tragic Kingdom. This would be a dark land where the villains rule. To lighten the mood I would design a dark ride which would tell the story from the sidekick point of view. So maybe a scene from Hercules and Pain and Panic would narrate, then one from Aladdin where Iago guides us and so on. I'd design a Maleficent dragon coaster here where the dragon flies over miniature towns and battles an animatronic Phillip and Samsung. I'd probably need another ride or 2 or maybe a show here where the villains lament their fatal flaws.

Fantasyland would exclusively be dark rides because I love dark rides. There would be one for: Frozen, Tangled, Cinderella, Moana and 101 Dalmations.

Instead of Storybook Circus, I'd make a certain ToonTown like the one in Epic Mickey. The town would be in black and white and feature multiple meet and greats with Oswald, Clarabelle Cow, Pete, Horace Horsecollar and other forgotten Disney characters. This wouldn't be a very big land and would mostly be comprised of playgrounds and the meet and greats, except for a 4D show featuring Mickey and all these older characters.

The other park would be a little more thrill ride oriented and would have lands based on: Tron coaster and arcade. Star Wars Millennium Falcon ride and others. Marvel the Ironman ride in development overseas, a Guardians of the Galaxy simulator ride and an Avengers stunt show. Big Hero 6 San Fransokyo with rollercoaster and simulator ride. Incredibles area with a dark ride shooter type (depending on which seat you are in you have different super powers and have to use those to shoot the targets).

Hope some people got some entertainment out of my ideas.

You had me at Texas

 

[KingLlama]

You had me at "stunt show with cows".

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

You had me at Texas

You had me at "stunt show with cows".

Well you guys are easy to please. I'll just write Disney and ask them to add more Texas and cows and their problems will be over.

 

[maxiesmom]

Are we running the parks to be cool, or running them to make a profit? Some things I might like to see many not really bring in any more money.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Are we running the parks to be cool, or running them to make a profit? Some things I might like to see many not really bring in any more money.

Profit has no place in my dream space . This is a thread about what you'd like to dream up.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Wow, amazed at the thought and creativity that went into your ideas!! I can never match that, but I can say I've always wanted to see a ride (probably mostly dark) based on the closets and Monsters, Inc., and I'd love to see more, and more creative ideas, on "non thrill rides", since I haven't been able to do most of them since a neck fusion years ago. I actually started calling them "neck rides", and I still miss being able to do them, so it would be great to have some interesting alternatives. I think that's why Epcot has become my favorite park over the years, especially if I'm alone.

 

[LittleDreamer]

My thread got a spin off? I didn't think its ratings were that good. Anyways I can't answer this because I would never shut up. I've dreamed up much in my free time, from attractions, shows, to food items and merchandise. If I was a better artist I could make a better show of it all, but alas stick figures don't seem to get the concept across.

Instead I would design a Tragic Kingdom. This would be a dark land where the villains rule.

The idea of a villain's park has been one floating around for so long and one I keep coming back too. The problem is I never know how to handle the outside visual appearance. It's tricky to marry the dark ominous feeling the villains project with the wide spaces you need to accommodate crowds. The most logical would be to make it a forest but that's a large cost to manage that growth. Not to mention all the falling snakes you would have to watch out for. A villians area would probably be best implemented in a large indoor space sort of like Triton's Kingdom at Tokyo Disney Sea.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

to food items

Since I LOVE to eat, and it's an integral part of my vacations, I'd LOVE to hear some of your food ideas!!

You also brought another thought to mind - I'd still love to see the now-forgoten-for-the-AK-Beastly Kingdom come to life in some form, since I'm a huge fan of mythological things, and dragons, unicorns, etc.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wow, amazed at the thought and creativity that went into your ideas!! I can never match that, but I can say I've always wanted to see a ride (probably mostly dark) based on the closets and Monsters, Inc., and I'd love to see more, and more creative ideas, on "non thrill rides", since I haven't been able to do most of them since a neck fusion years ago. I actually started calling them "neck rides", and I still miss being able to do them, so it would be great to have some interesting alternatives. I think that's why Epcot has become my favorite park over the years, especially if I'm alone.

I would really like to see more innovation on Disney's part for non-thrill rides as well. One of my ideas was the new shooter type ride with super heroes. I really think that could be done well. Kind of a ride vehicle like Men in Black at Universal. Each seat is a different super hero power though, say one has an energy beam like Iron Man, another has a Hulk punch. Each seat has a kind of power glove. The rider puts on the glove and their hand movements will translate to screens around you so you can fight the villains. I'd imagine the actual ride to be a bit like Spiderman in that there would be screens and real sets to move about it.

I'm excited to see what they do with the Frozen dark ride. I really think Imagineers could do a lot with dark rides if they try to add in new technologies.

Did you ever ride the Monster's Inc dark ride at DL? It might be kind of what you are imagining, though you don't really get to go through any doors. That would actually be a very fun ride though, you could be initiated as an official scarer and travel through doors and you could try to scare kids and the animatronics could react due to the level of your scare.

My thread got a spin off? I didn't think its ratings were that good. Anyways I can't answer this because I would never shut up. I've dreamed up much in my free time, from attractions, shows, to food items and merchandise. If I was a better artist I could make a better show of it all, but alas stick figures don't seem to get the concept across.


The idea of a villain's park has been one floating around for so long and one I keep coming back too. The problem is I never know how to handle the outside visual appearance. It's tricky to marry the dark ominous feeling the villains project with the wide spaces you need to accommodate crowds. The most logical would be to make it a forest but that's a large cost to manage that growth. Not to mention all the falling snakes you would have to watch out for. A villain's area would probably be best implemented in a large indoor space sort of like Triton's Kingdom at Tokyo Disney Sea.

I'm not sure if it is the number of replies that is what make a thread good, it is the thought behind the thread and the ideas that it might inspire.

I wish you would answer, I think my ideas were pretty long winded. I always like to hear other people's imaginings.

Well, my villain's area would just be a land, so much smaller than a whole park. You weren't far off in wanting to place the Tragic Kingdom in an indoor space, I imagine a Diagon Alley type feel, Universal made it darker just by putting a roof overhead. Disney could do a lot with that concept. I'd dream up an enclosed street, the buildings would be made of stone and wood and would all be crooked and have a not right feel to them. I'd go a step further than Universal. Instead of just having a roof over the streets, I'd have the ceiling composed of a high resolution screen so there could be lightning and storm clouds or grey threatening ominous skies. Perhaps Maleficent in dragon form could go flying over the streets every once in a while.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Since I've not been to DL since the early 80's, I've never ridden the Monsters Inc. ride there, didn't even know they had one. But, I'm intrigued. I always thought "the doors sequence" made perfect sense for a dark ride though, for sure!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

There was another thread where I had laid out visions for a park - but the gist was to take the orginal concept of EPCOT and marry it to a theme park. So it would be a fully domed park but there would be a hotel, DVC, and possible fully time rentals/houses as part of it (also thinking this could help offset the cost for a domed park as I think some people would pay quite a bit to literally live inside a Disney theme park)

The lands would be loosely based on the seasons, or at least that seasons/holidays could be featured in different areas. This way the people that lived there would have one area that would celebrate Christmas, another area for Halloween, another area for 4th of July, etc.

So there would be a winter area with a mountain for a toboggan type ride and perhaps a Frozen attractions and meet & greet, and other winter related activities. Perhaps reference the classic cartoon where Donald and his nephews get into a snow-ball fight (that would be another theme of this park is a lot of references to classic Disney to counter-balance some of the newness and modernness of everything). I also envision a European mountain village type set up with restaurants, etc.

An areas that could be for villains and related activities would be the logical place for Halloween. I like some of the ideas mentioned above about a Meleficient ride - but would also like some of the "fun scary" aspects covered and have a Nightmare Before Christmas/area. Also would love something like Mystic Point here and bringing back the Adventurers Club

Summerland would feature a boardwalk, a raft ride, and a water park (another unique aspect to this park would have a waterpark as part of it) - ideally leveraging what River Country was. There would be a lot of candy stores and other classic boardwalk type places.

There would be an area for covering classic cartoons and classic Disney - probably something a combination of Fantasyland and Toontown that would have a number of dark rides and meet & greets and feature Mickey as Steamboat Willie and Pete and Clarabelle Cow but also modern classics like Little Mermaid, etc.

As for other food options, there would need to be a variety of places and at least a few would have "seasonal" menus to keep it fresh for the people that live there. Definitely at least one very upscale option and would love a gastropup type place that made their own official Disney beer. Either in summerland or the classic area would have an old soda jerk type place

Anyway, I am sure I had other details, but that is the gist of it

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Since I've not been to DL since the early 80's, I've never ridden the Monsters Inc. ride there, didn't even know they had one. But, I'm intrigued. I always thought "the doors sequence" made perfect sense for a dark ride though, for sure!

It's a cute ride but it is basically a dark ride that tells the story of the first movie - not sure if that is what you are thinking or something more technologically advanced where you are "taken" through the doors to different worlds, etc.

 

[LittleDreamer]

Since I LOVE to eat, and it's an integral part of my vacations, I'd LOVE to hear some of your food ideas!!

I'm not a chef so my ideas are broad stroke or overarching philosophy for a restaurant. So to give a general idea let me give you a restaurant and a specific item I planned out considerably.

Mickey and Gang Cake Ball or Truffle set: For truffles team up with Godiva or Ghirardelli. Cake balls make them at the bakeries. I have designs for these on one of my computers. If they prove popular you can make other sets such as Princesses, Villains, ect.

• Mickey - simply chocolate with chocolate ganache center. Simple crowdpleasing.
• Minnie - Red Velvet with cream cheese pearls/center
• Daisy - Yellow cake with peach center
• Donald - I've gone all over on Donald either, yellow cake with tart lemon center or a chocolate and chili
• Goofy - Pineapple upside down cake basically.

For a restaurant I will always desire something that has a changing menu, sticking with something for a 3 or so months then switching up. So the ideas to utilize this and fit with the themeing are Imagineers Kitchen or Limited Engagements. Imagineers kitchen was a simple idea for the Odyssey space, nothing too fancy just a ground to test dishes and chefs. The decor would be prints of sketches and blueprints from different classic rides. The host/ess stand would be a drafting table. For Limited Engagements this came up when I say the concept art for Disney Springs. Design would be an old grand movie house. I keep playing around with the size of this design because working around needs of the kitchen. One early concept was to have the kitchen in the center with seating on the stage and balcony, so the cooking would be almost a show, but then I just thought people are gonna try and throw things into the kitchen and that idea dropped, but still loved the idea of eatting in a old movie house. One of my friends was helping restore the Landmark Lowe's Jersey City theater, and since I walk into the place (even in the terrible shape it was in at the time) I feel in love with that style of design.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

For a restaurant I will always desire something that has a changing menu, sticking with something for a 3 or so months then switching up. So the ideas to utilize this and fit with the themeing are Imagineers Kitchen or Limited Engagements. Imagineers kitchen was a simple idea for the Odyssey space, nothing too fancy just a ground to test dishes and chefs.

I like the idea of using the Odyssey for this, though I might argue it should/could be a bit fancy (like, during Food & Wine Fest this is where you have a fancy meal to complement the tasting at the booths - not V&A fancy or anything but a "nice" restaurant) and I think it could complement the F&WF in the fall and the Flower and Garden in the spring and then do like summertime classics in the summer and winter specialties/comfort food in the winter.

I also think they should do similar with the Wonders of Life pavilion and make things in there a bit more permanent. They already use it for the festivals but if you added a more permanent craft beer and wine bar and an indoor play area for kids and do like a hot chocolate bar in the winter, etc. I think it would be a neat place to relax for a bit and at least use the space for something

 

[KingLlama]

#NeckRides

 

[SorcererHeidi]

#NeckRides

Have I told you lately (or this week) I LOVE your sense of humor?

 

[SorcererHeidi]

It's a cute ride but it is basically a dark ride that tells the story of the first movie - not sure if that is what you are thinking or something more technologically advanced where you are "taken" through the doors to different worlds, etc.

Yep, exactly - was thinking of being taken through the closet doors to different worlds, or child's rooms, and having different experiences and/or adventures - something along those lines.

By the way - I love all your ideas, and the creativity and thought behind all of them!

 

[SorcererHeidi]

I'm not a chef so my ideas are broad stroke or overarching philosophy for a restaurant. So to give a general idea let me give you a restaurant and a specific item I planned out considerably.

Mickey and Gang Cake Ball or Truffle set: For truffles team up with Godiva or Ghirardelli. Cake balls make them at the bakeries. I have designs for these on one of my computers. If they prove popular you can make other sets such as Princesses, Villains, ect.

• Mickey - simply chocolate with chocolate ganache center. Simple crowdpleasing.
• Minnie - Red Velvet with cream cheese pearls/center
• Daisy - Yellow cake with peach center
• Donald - I've gone all over on Donald either, yellow cake with tart lemon center or a chocolate and chili
• Goofy - Pineapple upside down cake basically.

For a restaurant I will always desire something that has a changing menu, sticking with something for a 3 or so months then switching up. So the ideas to utilize this and fit with the themeing are Imagineers Kitchen or Limited Engagements. Imagineers kitchen was a simple idea for the Odyssey space, nothing too fancy just a ground to test dishes and chefs. The decor would be prints of sketches and blueprints from different classic rides. The host/ess stand would be a drafting table. For Limited Engagements this came up when I say the concept art for Disney Springs. Design would be an old grand movie house. I keep playing around with the size of this design because working around needs of the kitchen. One early concept was to have the kitchen in the center with seating on the stage and balcony, so the cooking would be almost a show, but then I just thought people are gonna try and throw things into the kitchen and that idea dropped, but still loved the idea of eatting in a old movie house. One of my friends was helping restore the Landmark Lowe's Jersey City theater, and since I walk into the place (even in the terrible shape it was in at the time) I feel in love with that style of design.

I am so much in awe at the level of thought, detail, and imagination you've put into all this - truly! Your Little Dreamer board name fits you to a T!!

 

[Yorel]

Texas would be a great way to get around the Marvel license issue. So I'd really exploit that. I'd have almost half a park devoted entirely to Marvel & Star Wars... the stuff my sons like... but in a fun disney attractions (not just hero themed roller coasters) but really thoughtful experiences.

With the focus on so many girly & princess themes, it's an opportunity to pay homage to all the boys.