Kenversations™
Page 2 of 3
The Short List
Besides a water park, what are the possibilities for the third site? What could compliment
the existing parks, yet accommodate attractions that wouldn’t be better suited for
those other parks?
The best way to narrow it down is to start with a list of what Disney has done elsewhere already, and what Disney has been rumored to have considered over the years:
- Studio-themed park
- Disney’s America
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Thrill rides / coasters
- Disney Villains
- Toons
- Additional publicly accessed retail, dining, and entertainment (along the lines of DowntownDisney)
- Gated park with clubs, entertainment, dining, and retail (along the lines of Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World Downtown Disney).
- Sports
- Disney Sea
- Discovery Bay
- EPCOT Center / Westcot
- Hotels
- Feature-length attractions
Okay, let’s consider each of these…
In early concepts, Disneyland Park started out as a studio-centric park both in theme and location, but it was Universal Studios that most people think of as the start of the genre. Disney built the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, and is building a second version near Paris, but this concept doesn’t really make sense for Anaheim anymore. Between Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) and Mickey’s Toontown in Disneyland Park, anything with the studios/Hollywood theme already has a home at the Resort.
Disney’s America, once considered for Virginia, suffers from a similar problem. Though it looks like Knott’s will cover this theme less and less as Cedar Fair works to transform the old Berry Farm into a coaster / thrill park, Disneyland Park, and to some extent, DCA, cover this theme.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom would lose way too much to be at all effective in Anaheim. This type of park requires much more space than is available.
A park composed entirely of bare-bones thrill rides and coasters might not appeal to a broad enough audience for Disney, provide enough variety, or be distinctive enough. Besides, Six Flags Magic Mountain is way ahead in this game, and Knott’s is trying to go there as well.
A park based on Disney Villains would probably not be broad enough in appeal either, and the villains probably best fit within the Disneyland Park concept, as would most of Disney’s animated cartoon properties. A "cartoon" based park, composed of both theatrical and television animation characters, places, and stories, might be too redundant and draw away from Fantasyland and Toontown.
Building another Downtown Disney-style area could be rendered pointless by expanding the existing Downtown Disney, which Disney has considered. Then again, the troubles of Planet Hollywood and DisneyQuest aside, it seems there’s always room for more dining, shopping, and playing experiences.
A gated Pleasure Island-style place is probably more feasible and increasingly likely, though it would have to be modified to attract more people during longer hours.
Sports - I just can’t see Disney doing anything based on or themed to sports with this space, for many of the same reasons that I think a water park is a longshot, only more so.
A form of Disney Sea could work, even with the limited space, though this is the kind of park that is best next to an ocean, like it would have been in Long Beach and like it is in Japan.
Discovery Bay, a favorite concept among Disneyland Resort enthusiasts (and LaughingPlace.com’s own Fabulous Disney Babe, of course), is thematicly viable. We’ve seen some aspects of the various Discovery Bay concepts used in Disney parks already, but we’ve never seen it in full form.
Finally the theme of EPCOT Center / Westcot is still viable. Of course, this parcel of land is smaller than the parcel earlier versions of Westcot was planned for when it was used as bait to get funding for the Resort upgrades. Although it could not be done on the scale of Walt Disney World, and it would borrow general themes from WDW, if it could be done differently enough to be appealing to those who already visit WDW, it could work.