Some Like It Disney

Disney Parks and Resorts is about to break ground on their latest hotel addition to the Disneyland Resort (DLR) in Anaheim, California. The new hotel, expected to be a “boutique”-sized facility, is to be built off Harbor Blvd. between Manchester Ave. and Disney Way on the eastern edge of the resort.

Similar to Disney’s luxury craftsman-inspired hotel, the Grand Californian, the new hotel will border the resort’s second theme park Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) and is expected to offer guests a private entrance to DCA, as does the Grand Californian. The as yet unnamed hotel will replace the Hollywood and Dine food service facility located in the northeastern corner of DCA’s Hollywood Picture Backlot area. Additionally, it is expected that construction of the new hotel will result in the relocation or possible elimination of the parking lot tram stop on the eastern side of the resort.

Located just off Harbor Blvd., the eastern tram stop serves the Timon and Lion King parking lots. A tram stop located in the Downtown Disney district serves the multilevel Mickey and Friends parking structure.

Expected to lead the design team for the new hotel is well-known Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter. Sources familiar with the project say that the new hotel will be “inspired” by the world famous Hotel Del Coronado.

Located in Coronado, California, directly across the San Diego Bay from the city of San Diego, the Hotel Del Coronado is the largest surviving American wooden Victorian beach resort on the Pacific Coast. While the hotel has played host to countless dignitaries and celebrities, it is perhaps best known for playing the part of a Prohibition Era Florida seaside resort in the classic Billy Wilder film Some Like it Hot.

Baxter—Senior Vice President, Creative Development, Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI)—recently lead one of the teams responsible for presenting new ideas to revitalize DCA, which has struggled to find an audience of its own since first opening in 2001, to Disney CEO Bob Iger and WDI Principal Creative Advisor John Lasseter.

Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter, seen here on the left, at 2006 kick-off party for DCA attraction Monsters Inc.
Image copyright© obe-mediaone.

Sources close to WDI said that Baxter’s plans for DCA would have capitalized on the park’s high concentration of dinning and shopping facilities by making large portions of the park part of the resort’s present dinning, shopping, and entertainment district Downtown Disney. “The E-ticket attractions (such as Tower of Terror and Soarin Over California) would be incorporated into Disneyland,” the source said, without specifying how this would be accomplished.

Ultimately a decision was made to adopt a plan from the team lead by Tom Fitzgerald, Executive Vice President, Senior Creative Executive. The Fitzgerald plan will keep DCA intact as a stand-alone theme park. In addition to the new hotel, Fitzgerald’s plan will include several new attractions, a significant re-themeing of portions of the park—known as “place making”—and a new nighttime spectacular light and water effects show.

On Deck

Already under construction beneath thrill coaster California Screamin in DCA’s Paradise Pier district, Toy Story Mania, an interactive dark ride, is considered part of the DCA revitalization project. An interactive dark ride similar to Disneyland’s Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Toy Story Mania will feature the added dimension of digital 3D.

Also planned for Disney’s Anaheim resort’s second gate is a new high-speed E-ticket attraction similar to Test Track located in Disney World’s Epcot theme park. The new attraction, currently named Carland, will be based on the characters and locations featured in last year’s hit Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars.

Carland’s final budget and location within DCA have not been finalized. Reports indicate that the new attraction may replace the giant reflector in DCA’s Sunshine Plaza and Bountiful Valley Farm. Still other reports indicate that Carland may break out of DCA and replace the Timon parking lot.

Concept artwork for a new nighttime water spectacular that may appear at Disney's California Adventure.
Image copyright© Disney Enterprises.

All of this new construction is expected to coincide with DCA’s long anticipated place making project, which is expected to open up vistas to visually tie remote areas of the park, such as Paradise Pier, to the main entrance plaza. As previously reported by several publications, the entrance to DCA will be remade to more closely resemble the California of the 1920’s that Walt Disney would have seen as he arrived in the Golden State by train, and, at the same time, tying the Disney name more closely to the park.

Disneyland hasn’t been left out of the future plans for the resort, which bears its name. This summer will see the highly anticipated reopening of Tomrrowland’s Submarine Voyage as the new Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.

According to sources, Tomorrowland’s long dormant People Mover ride will also be “Pixarfied” and reemerge as The Incredibles People Pod Mover. Based on the bubble-like vehicles that shuttled people around villainous Syndrome’s Nomanisan Island in the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles, the new ride will solve two problems for Disneyland managers.

“Disneyland desperately needs people eaters (attractions with high hourly rider capacity),” said a source familiar with the project. “A people mover of any kind is a great people-eater.”

By choosing to use an enclosed ride vehicle, Disney is able to resolve a safety issue as well. As the original People Mover track snakes through the CircleVision 360 theatre building, now the home of Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, it passes by building supports deemed, by modern day safety inspectors, close enough to be a hazard to riders, should they ignore safety warnings and stick their hands, arms, feet, and/or legs out of the vehicle.

Not making the cut was another big E-ticket attraction that would have merged the retro-futuristic look of The Incredibles with industrial robot armed roller coaster technology. After gliding past bad guys and scenes from the movie in their ride vehicles, guests would come face to face with one of Snydrome’s most heinous creations—a gigantic robot that would literally pick up their vehicle and toss it about in midair before being forced to gently put it back down by The Incredibles.

Caveat Lector—and No, We Don’t Mean Hannibal

While very well sourced, the Walt Disney Company has not officially announced any of the projects described in this article. The construction of new attractions and facilities at Disney parks and resorts is, as a former Disneyland manager once said, “never a sure thing until we open the doors on it…and even then, I’m never quite sure what they’ve changed since we made the announcement!”