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More hotel rooms are almost a certainty. After all, there are plenty of hotels and motels in the area, and the three existing Disney hotels seem to have no trouble filling up with guests. They also bring in a lot of money for the resort. Plus, this is something that could be incorporated to any other elements added to the Resort, such a Pleasure Island-style place or a theme park. Indeed, The plans for Westcot incorporated hotel rooms throughout the park.

What about feature-length, high-end attractions? Instead of having two-hour waits for five minute experiences, people would have "feature length" adventures, and pay a premium for them. These can be built with many of the concepts discussed above, but by their very nature, you couldn’t build a lot of them. Also, they have to be based on enduring themes and characters that appeal to a wide audience. Then again, with attention spans getting shorter and shorter, feature-length attractions may never take off.

Maybe Disney could try to go for a smaller but higher spending demographic like Busch has done by converting a "backstage" property of theirs into the more intimate, much more expensive Discovery Cove. The masses would still have the rest of the Resort to enjoy, and Disney would make good money off of their guests with the higher incomes who would be willing to pay for a break from the more crowded aspects of the Resort.

So, Where Does That Leave Us?
I’ve been partial to a sort of fusion of Westcot and Discovery Bay, myself. I know I’m not the only one. Such a park would be centered on the great inventors, visionaries, and explorers, with the idea that their efforts were combined into this single development. This would include a collection of cultural elements from around the world (shades of World Showcase), where we’ve been and where we’re going (shades of Future World), and fantastic sci-fi elements as well. It would be a tight fit, but it could be done, complete with some expensive hotel rooms incorporated into the design.

However, I’m more inclined to believe that Disney will go more towards a Pleasure-Island style development, but with more to do during the day, rides and shows, and hotel rooms. Perhaps it could open late and stay open late, and thereby allow those people who still aren’t exhausted from their day at Disneyland Park or DCA a place of continuing entertainment (and spending). For this to happen, special considerations have to be incorporated into the design to keep it from being too much of a burden on the residential neighbors.

No matter what happens, I hope we DON’T see the powers that be at Disney think "What are the best attractions Disney has elsewhere that aren’t yet at The Disneyland Resort? Let’s collect those and build a park around them!" That’s just a lousy way to design a park. The theme of the park should indicate the attractions to be used, not the other way around. Besides, specific attractions that might be popular now can be old by the time a new park is completed.

There will also be logistical challenges to any new development at the Resort. How will Disney keep the experience coherent and convenient for guests (transportation system)? Where will guests and cast members park (parking structure over former Grand Hotel site)? Where will Disney find enough people willing to be Cast Members for the wages they pay? DCA was built in a way and location so as to share a lot of the Resort’s existing infrastructure and backstage support elements, a benefit the new development would not fully have.

What will end up happening? I guess we’ll just have to stick around to see, now won’t we?

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-- Posted July 25, 2001