HKDL Triptych

In honor of the opening of Mystic Point, I created a piece of concept art that shows an "Adventureland Connector" land in place of Toy Story Land.  In a previously-shared IdealBuildout concept plan of HKDL, I continued with the idea of distinct mini-lands surrounding the 'core' lands, including the existing TSL, a Pirateland and an Oz-land.  I like this ring-of-distinct-mini-lands development plan because it is unique to all the MK-style parks. 

The drawings in this post, however, explore a more traditional development route for HKDL: creating five large, core lands and one 'specialty' land (e.g. LSQ or NOSQ):

For the birdseye artwork of 'Adventureland - El Dorado' (below, middle) I attempted an homage to WDI artist Ray Cadd, who produced the flanking pieces:

It's a Meso-American area with the central temple marking the entrance to the Indiana Jones E-ticket, a junior coaster on the left and restaurant/retail complex on the right.  The layout can be seen on the park plan below.

One thing this version does is address the sightline issues presented by Toy Story Land (Parachutes from northern Mystic Point, RC Racers through foliage on Jungle Cruise) by creating a heavily planted land in its place that continues the pulp adventure theme.  The numerous pre-Columbian artifacts scattered around Mystic Point make for nice continuity with this area, as well.

Animal Kingdom - Anniversary Special

In honor of DAK’s 15th anniversary, I thought I’d share this Illustrative.  This plan is mostly about adding two new lands to the park: the forthcoming Pandora (not in the southwest where it is actually planned to go) and an original Mythological Animals land.

Some key changes:

-The Erasure of Wildlife Express and Planet Watch.  I think showing the guests the backstage animal housing and care areas via the Wildlife Express might not have been the best idea: akin to an illusionist adding a bit to his show where he explains to the audience how he did his tricks.  So much effort was put into making the on-stage animal areas transport the visitor to Africa and Asia that to have a themed train show the “hidden” aspects seems to me to undermine all of that, spoiling the illusion.   Seeing that kind of stuff, as well as animal veterinary services, could be done via a special, behind the scenes EPCOT-style tour add-ons, but via general admission.  Eliminating Planet Watch rids the park of its “train to nowhere” problem – a long journey via train and foot to reach a fairly mundane experience.   

-The Return of the Discovery Riverboats.  When the park opened Discovery Riverboats garnered long wait-times and dissatisfied riders, due mostly to the scarcity of rides at the park.  In this plan, that scarcity is a thing of the past, so the Riverboats can return to being an ancillary, B/C-ticket attraction (akin to EPCOT’s Friendships or Disneyland’s Monorail) – a relaxing way to get off one’s feet and be in the shade for a time, not intended to draw big crowds.  There would be minor features and effects throughout, similar to what was originally there (geysers, Siren rocks, iguanodon).

-The Revamp of Dinoland.  This plan features the Dinoland re-vamp I sketched out and posted here a while back, where Countdown to Extinction takes on a 1950s University setting and a major flume is added based on Ice Age giants and the spinner is converted to Ice Age fliers.

- Everest Changes.  Everest gets some additional rockwork (e.g., the bare side facing the parking lot - to draw and impress from a distance, interior tunnels) and a new rockwork ridge concealing the trains after they enter the monastery pinnacle (no trestle).  Having the coaster train on the trestle visible to those on the ground destroys the visual scale of both the upper peaks of the mountain and the monastery:

- Kali River Lengthened.  I added some rainforest/river stretch prior to the deforested part of the ride to help add to the overall duration and impact of the attraction (maybe an AA panther in the Cavern section to liven things up?).

- Africa changes.  The newly-themed Harambe Community Theater takes over the area where the Train Station once was and a new pathway links to Pandora and Asia, providing a second access-point to the land.  The Safari would lose all traces of the Wild Africa Trek, which I feel compromises the park's marquee attraction, by adding roads, huts, pick-up trucks, rope bridges, tourists and other things that undermine the sensation of a Wild Africa.   If visitors sign up for the Backstage Tour, that could include Wild Africa Trek features (like dining on the Serengeti) on the large “Acclimation Savanna”, out of view of the main Safari.  The Watusi cattle, a domestic animal, would also be removed from the Safari.   There would still be the high-speed finale through the hot-springs, and flooded canyon with shooting poachers... with the attraction once again ending on a climax. 

- Pandora is accessed via entering a cave in between Africa and Asia.  Once inside, openings in the rocky ceiling show the swirling nebulae and galaxies: the idea is to simulate traveling to Pandora via a wormhole.  Visitors exit the cavern and arrive at the Peace Plaza, where humans have now settled as stewards of the moon, rather than pillagers.   A special effects-laden theater presentation could show how Earth’s biodiversity was wiped out in the Sixth Extinction, serving as a reminder of the need to preserve Earth’s current species.  Beyond the human settlement are the wilds of Pandora.   I drew this plan before the Avatar ride blueprints leaked, but, convergently, we both were thinking of a Banshee Riding e-ticket featuring a moving harnesses set into multiple, medium-scale, inverted omni-dome simulators.  The exterior setting for my version is a rocky cove where a Tree of Souls is located.   There is a Bioluminescent Forest exploration trail on the same scale as Pangani and Maharajah, but featuring the AA animals and glowing plants of Pandora.   There is also a large-scale, family, dry-for-wet dark ride exploring the Seas of Pandora, as this environment is said to be featured in sequels.

-The mythical animal land in this version of the park is more strictly themed to the beasts and of Classical Mythology.  Adventurers set off from an Ancient Greek port on the Aegean, for a series of original (non-pre—exising IP) experiences.  As the park needs family-friendly rides, Mythic Voyage is a long, musical family boat ride in the vein of DisneySea’s Sinbad.   The land’s coaster features a giant AA hydra (in place of the fire-breathing Dragon originally planned).

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The following graphic illustrates the master-plan's development over a 15-20 year schedule, phase by phase:

1998: The park opens, heavy on atmosphere, but still light on attractions.  The budgets for Camp Minnie-Mickey, Wildlife Express and Conservation Station are diverted towards giving Mythia a foothold and the park a family-friendly, high-capacity, long, indoor ride (Mythic Voyager).  Every land (save Pandora) is represented (Asia has the table service restaurant and one Gibbon habitat).
1999: Within a year, Asia opens Maharajah Jungle Trek and Dinoland opens a family spinner.  The Harambe Theater (Lion King) opens to help absorb crowds. 
2000: Kali River opens in Asia.  Minotaur Labyrinth opens in Mythia
2003: Five year-anniversary sees Everest rise in Asia.
2006: Another major E-ticket, Mammoth Falls opens.
2009: Mythia doubles in size with Hydra coaster and Greek Theater. 
2011: Pandora Phase I opens
2014: Pandora Phase II opens.  Park achieves arête: Ideal Buildout.

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If you enjoyed this work, take a minute to leave a comment.

Varied Resolution

Happy Easter.

The conceptual site plans you see here are at the widest resolution in order to present the Big Picture of a particular theme park idea.  My design mantra is "The Park is the E-ticket" - meaning the goal is to create a park where the visitor can wander around going on few or none of the composite rides and still feel like the experience has been worth it.  Granted, achieving this rare feat is mostly done on the micro level (detail and execution), but establishing good skeletal and circulatory systems, themes and transitions, sightlines - and showing the full build-out potential (no park would open on the scale that I present here) - is, to me, the vital first step. 

 When the time comes to communicate a more detailed idea of what a park would be like, I begin to "zoom in."  To show this, I've chosen a small section of the American Experience - a park on which I collaborated with Comics101 a while back.  

The area shown, part of Libertyville, is to have the feel of cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York around the time of the country's founding.  This, of course, has already been conceptualized and executed brilliantly by the likes of Herb Ryman and the designers of the Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square (a great gallery of its construction can be seen here).

The Federal, Dutch, Flemish and Georgian Colonial styles of the facades dictate the roof types of this section, and I used a semi-chaotic massing to give the area a theatrical feel.  Even the backstage facing roofline of the show-building is themed in order to maintain proper long-distance sightlines (probably unnecessary due to tree-planted berms around it, but with no budget to worry about, why not...).

And if you want to view the patriotic slideshow from the original American Experience post you can check it out here.

HYBRID PARK

Felipe Z. floated an idea for a DisneySea park for his native Brazil.  The hook was that it would not be a typical theme park, but be a hybrid park: a water park mixed with a “dry land” park.  I have designed loads of land parks and a number of water parks, but never merged the two into a fully hybrid park, so I agreed to come up with an illustrative master plan for Felipe.

There are numerous considerations that would make a park like this a logistical challenge, to say the least, which is why it is so unusual (e.g., you could be riding indoor attractions/coasters in dripping bathing-suits!).  But it was fun and different to imagine and draw such a place.

The park is about the same size as Anaheim's Disneyland (a little smaller than MK). 

LOST CONTINENT
The Entry and First Land would be based on ruined Atlantis, not unlike the Mythos/Poseidon area of Islands of Adventure.   The idea is Atlantis was a proto-civilization, so the architecture could be a hybrid of Mayan, Egyptian, Persian, etc., not just Classical).  The lazy river (Castaway Creek) is this park’s encircling railroad and has entry points throughout.  The river would pass through various environments (arctic to tropic), props, special effects and an ice cavern.   Lost Continent would have the main changing rooms/lockers, retail, signature dining, and two major attractions: a Big Thunder scale coaster through the ruins of the Great Temple and an indoor E-ticket set-based dark ride (based on Atlantis seeding various civilizations on Earth before being destroyed).  I opted for a smaller lagoon for the fountain show, because I think it's more effective when the visitors are closer to the water cannons (if everyone is in bathing suits, they might not mind getting wet). 

MERMAID ISLE
The central park Icon/weenie is a larger version of King Triton's castle (TDS) built into the undulating coastal rockwork.  The castle is a portal through the shell-like ridge/reef into the park’s hub-land, which has direct access to all other lands.  The area is to feel like giant tidal pool (not under the surface as in Tokyo’s indoor section) where the various spinners are imbedded.   There would be an all new Mermaid dark ride in this area – which is where the undersea parts would be presented –  as well as a high-capacity dining venue.  

FROZEN VALLEY
The land is bifurcated into a polar/montane wilderness/scientific exploration area and a recreational ski mountain (nod to Blizzard Beach).  The bigger, wilder mountain has the park’s vertical speed slides, the six-person raft slide (like Teamboat Spings) and serves as the show-building & base for the Yeti Rapids.   The major dark ride in this zone is an LPS polar explorer attraction.   The suspended ski lift coaster would be D-ticket family thrill.

TROPICAL REEF
This area is dedicated to studying and preserving the tropical coral seas.  I imagined The Seas pavilion as closer in spirit to the EPCOT original and its contents as independent of the Pixar franchise (to avoid Nemo overkill).   I imagined a Manatee Habitat (river) that flows out of the pavilion and through the land, so visitors can look down and see Manatees, not in a tank, but in a natural riverine environment.    There is also the popular Crush coaster from Paris. 

BUCCANEER BAY:
This area is also bifurcated into a Pirate Port, which would be ramshackle and dangerous, and a Crown Colony, which would be cleaner and more peaceful.  I love exploration areas like the Tree of Life Paths (RIP), Maharajah Jungle Trek or Tom Sawyer Island and this area would have two great ones: the Fortress, which would be elevated on a rocky hill - a dark counterpoint to King Triton’s Castle.   There would be layered vista from the lighthouse: the pirate ship (sit-down dining) in the foreground, then the pirate village (a conceptual elevation of which I posted last week) in the middle, and rising in the distance, the dark Fortress.  There is a new 'Jewel of the Seven Seas' interactive game being prepared in MK's Adventureland.  Buccaneer Bay would have a special area dedicated to such an experience (on the scale of Maharajah, with caverns, shipwrecks and ruins to explore and trigger special effects).

The Crown Colony would be more civilized port town with a Clocktower in the square.   But the marquee ride would betray that feeling of safety, when the town comes under attack (in the queue) and visitors must flee aboard boats on a harrowing PotC-style adventure (new ride).   The Typhoon Lagoon inspired wave pool  is surrounded by a sandy, palm-dotted beach and backed by another rocky mountain that supports the various slides. 

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Thoughts?

Area Development

Here is a Conceptual Elevation of an imagined theme park environment:

In this Pirate Town, I wanted to represent a dilapidated-but-fanciful, sagging English Colonial Town as opposed to the Spanish style that is more typically seen in and around PotC (although there are unusual elements of other styles - Pirates were not rule-abiding).  The stable doors on the left would be flung open to serve as wider access to the retail or dining venue within.

This area is part of a new theme park that I will share in the coming days.

Poppins Attraction

A while ago I received a request by Wills F. to do an attraction layout for his Mary Poppins ride idea.  One of the older Alternate Magic Kingdom plan’s I had drawn had space allocated for a Poppins dark ride - and that seemed to be in the right ballpark, scale-wise, for Wills' attraction.  

In this version of MK, the narrow FL area transitioning from Liberty Square’s Sleepy Hollow to the Castle Courtyard is influenced by Victorian England, featuring Poppins & Toad rides/facades:

I based the layout closely on Wills’ written description (which follows):

"The queue building is modeled after Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Entering through the front door, the queue winds through various rooms of the Banks household, before arriving at the loading dock in front of the staircase.  Guests then board a chariot pulled by two carousel horses modeled after those found in the film. As they move along the suspended tracks the horses move up and down.

Scene I: The vehicle pulls forward and pulls an immediate left into the Banks Children’s Nursery. Toys fly onto the shelves and beds make themselves at the snap of Jane and Michael’s fingers.  The vehicle passes by Mary Poppins herself as she sings “A Spoonful of Sugar.”

Scene II: Out the window and into the park, passing by Bert as he sings “Chim-Chim-Cheree”, we pass through a frame and into the animated world where Bert and Mary are singing “Jolly Holiday.”

Scene III: Around the corner, the horses pass by the Penguin run restaurant where Bert and the Penguins are dancing.

Scene IV: We find ourselves on the race track and win the race. We pass by the reporters, followed by Mary, Bert and the Band singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”

Scene V: A storm hits and the vehicle passes by St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Mary sings with the Old Bird Woman “Feed the Birds”.

Scene VI: Back into the Banks mansion where Mary warns you to stay away from the fireplace, because you never know what could happen.  Into the lounge, where Bert sings about the world above London (“Up where the smoke is all billowed and curled…”)

Scene VII: Passing through the fireplace and we suddenly find ourselves winding around the rooftops of London. Sweeps pop out of various chimneys with a cheery “Cheeroo!” before engaging in a good old fashioned “Step In Time”... but, of course, are chased away by Admiral Boom’s fireworks.

Scene VIII: The vehicle passes by several flying kites before finding itself back in the park, where the entire banks family is singing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite.”  Finally, we pass by Bert, waving goodbye to Mary, who is flying away: “Goodbye Mary Poppins, don’t stay away too long”
  
Post: The vehicles make a right hand turn and arrive back at the unloading dock. The exit unloads into Jolly Holiday Gifts, where various Mary Poppins related merchandise can be found."

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A couple notes on my interpretation.  
-In the center of the Park is the film's carousel that does double duty for the early and late park show-scenes.
-On the right of the racetrack room would be a floor to ceiling screen running the length of the track upon which other animated racers would be projected.  At the finish line the grandstand is on the left.
-Heavy fog effects in the Bird Lady scene.  Again, fog used to obscure anything below roof-level on the Sweep scene.  

Hope you enjoy.

Universal Islands of Adventure

I had fun re-visiting an old IoA Build-Out and creating an illustrative version.    This hypothetical of the park keeps and expands the original Lost Continent (its Merlinwood section).   Merlinwood featured two treasures of theme park design history that went extinct with the coming of Potter: the Enchanted Oak Tavern and the Dueling Dragons queue. 

What has always struck me about the superlative queue to DD was that it ran alongside (and led to) a massive unthemed, naked steel coaster (same for its current Potter incarnation).  In certain situations, a naked steel coaster can work in a Tier I park.  I think Hulk works across the lagoon because of the highly-stylized nature of the Comic book environment that is home to it.  And, of course, this is a theme park and there must be elasticity to the rules and expectations of theme.  

However, when the environment strives to create a realistic, albeit fantasy, world, something that makes no effort to inhabit that world becomes a jarring, sour note.  When it is something as massive as DD, it spoils the transporting effect that so much of the other elements work to achieve.   (Small naked coasters like Flying Unicorn, which can be absorbed by trees and landscape are easier to pass off).   So in this plan, I showed how several themed elements could combine to help Dueling Dragons become part of the Merlinwood landscape and enhance the sense of story and place in Lost Continent.  

The wooded berm along the property border gives and impression of distant forests.  Several rockwork embankments help support the track and perpetuate the fantasty forest environment.  The main lift hill is hidden by a rocky edifice (mountain).  Ruins and towers are scattered across the landscape.  To show how the many support pylons could potentially be themed I created this artwork:

In this illustration, the pylons could be disguised as forest timbers crudely fastened with rusting ironwork and spikes (built by orcs enslaved by the dragons?).  Torches could adorn them for a nice night-time effect. The tube-support track would be painted sky camouflage to blend in (rather than bright red/blue).  Rounding out Merlinwood would be an extensive family dark ride (where Forbidden Journey is today), with an emphasis on sets, physical effects and animatronics over screens.

The other big addition to the park is Mt. Crumpit – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which I imagined as a mildly-thrilling, independently-powered (testrack) E+ dark ride, but with coaster-like curves, ascents and drops.  The sleigh ride-vehicles would go through numerous elaborate show scenes. The double-peaked twisting mountain (one tall, one shorter) would rise behind the Who Village queue area.    Two other major family attractions (super-hero dark ride and Isla Sorna omni-simulator) are also added to the park. 

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