Disney's American Journey

[Noski]

Hello again, Mice Chat. The following is the latest in my series of alternate Disney Park layouts. Sorry for the delay. The last two weeks have been pretty hectic for me, and the power was out most of the day yesterday due to the record setting snow here in Dallas. The previous thread died a horrible, quick death, and if you missed it, here it is:
Disney's Magic Museum

This one is much more traditional than the last one, and much more thought out, although I haven’t really got a real layout. It is, inspired by the Disney’s America concepts from the 90’s, Disney’s American Journey.

Be warned: there may be some political commentary ahead, so if you don’t want to read it, don’t read on. I’ll try to keep it light.

The entry area for this park will be designed to look like Ellis Island. The ticket office, turnstiles, and guest amenities such as stroller rental will all be located inside. Once you have officially entered the park, you can take a boat to the “mainland.” Off in the distance, you’ll be able to see a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty (forced perspective, so that it appears full size), the icon of this park.

You’ll get off the boat in an area similar to Tokyo DisneySea’s American Waterfront (on the “east coast” of the park), but like Main Street, it will have no major attractions, just shops and restaurants. From here, you can go north or south.

If you go north, you’ll arrive in Colonial New England, an area themed to Boston shortly after the Puritans first arrived. One of the major attractions here is a dark ride about the Pilgrims’ journey across the Atlantic. The other is Cursed Mansion, a new interpretation of the Haunted Mansion themed to the Salem Witch Trials. Perhaps there could also be some sort of attraction themed to Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.

If you go south from the entrance area, you’ll be in Capitol Hill, a land themed to Washington DC. There are two major E-Ticket attractions here: We the People, and The Hall of Presidents. We the People is a dark ride or show about the founding and history of America. The Hall of Presidents is the same concept as the one in WDW, but with a less liberally biased version, and more presidents should speak. My ideal list of presidents is: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln (of course), Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Barrack Obama (but only because he’s the current president. As soon as he’s gone, this will change). Also, this would be the easternmost stop for the Transcontinental Railroad, which connects the entire park.

A bit southwest of Capitol Hill lies, New Orleans Square, which is largely the same as its counterpart at the happiest place on earth. It includes, of course Pirates of the Caribbean and the Riverboat landing (the Rivers of America runs next to this, and the next land). Splash Mountain, due to its Dixieland origins, has been annexed as well. [If the Cursed Mansion adaptation is shot down, we can always duplicate the original mansion here]

Continuing to the west: The Frontier, which is very similar to Frontierland. The star attractions are Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Marc Davis’s Western River Expedition. Also, there is a Transcontinental Railroad station.

South of there, we jump to the 60’s for Space Center, based on the NASA HQ in Houston, Texas. There are three major attractions here. The most famous is Space Mountain, now slightly more realistic (meaning better projections, and better supports for the coaster so they don’t block the view of the light show). One of the new attractions is Space Center Tour, an educational dark ride featuring replicated areas from the real NASA space center. The other is Mad Lab, a dark ride/thrill ride themed to crazy experiments being conducted at NASA. This will include tributes to such extinct Tommorowland and EPCOT rides as Adventures through Inner Space, House of the Future, Body Worlds, and more.

On the “West Coast” is Hollywood, a movie themed area similar to DCA’s. All these rides are clones: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Great Movie Ride, and Rock and Roller Coaster.

North of there is probably the largest area, Walt Disney: A Great American. The first attraction here is the Walt Disney Story, a video/exhibit about Walt’s life. Once past that, there are four sub-areas, each representing one aspect of Walt Disney. One contains Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Tokyo style), representing the animated classics produced during Walt’s life. The next is Disney Goes to the Fair, a boat ride through short versions of each of the attractions WED created for the New York World’s Fair. The third is a station for the Transcontinental Railroad, representing Walt’s love of trains. Finally, there is The Great Dreamer, featuring some of Walt’s greatest dreams, including the WEDway People Mover, the monorail, EPCOT, and others.

I hope you enjoyed the walkthrough. Please discuss and ask questions!

[MarkTwain]

I thought I'd give this well-thought-out post some love.

Generally I like it. It reminds me much of Disney's America, which I suspect may have been of some inspiration for this project. For the most part I'm kind of glad Disney's America never materialized, but if it did, your proposal is definitely how I would want it to happen. The proposed Disney's America was much too war-based IMO - with the park icon being a fort, and entire lands devoted to jet fighters and Civil War reenactments. America is so much more than our military history, as you seem to have noticed.

Without getting too political here, I question whether the Hall of Presidents has a bias of any kind, seeing as it pays tribute to presidents on both sides of the political spectrum - and with a large portion of the show dedicated to Republican Abraham Lincoln, no less. In any case, I question whether the HoP is something Disney would want to build again, both because it is unique to the MK, and because it is receiving increasingly political reactions from audiences.

I think one thing I've you've sort of touched upon is how the Disneyland formula and its collections already is a theme park that celebrates American culture. Although Disneyland doesn't have literal depictions of each phase of American history, it captures different facets of the American spirit - our heritage, our creative imagination and fantasies, our reach for new places to explore, our sense of discovery and optimism. That's part of why I thought Disney's America would be redundant, as it's a more literal treatment of what Disneyland already accomplished at a more abstract level. But I like how you acknowledged that fact and somewhat manipulated the Disneyland formula, through the rearrangement of existing Disney attractions into a way that creates a more defined portrait of the United States. I think your park would be an interesting alternative to the classic Disneyland park, if Disney ever wanted to make a new resort in the US.

[Timekeeper]

This works really well, and I like how it flows from land to land, well done!


Timekeeper

[Noski]

Thanks for your comments! About the HoP: I just want to add that Republicans were more liberal than Democrats in the 1800s, but that's beside the real point of the attraction, or at least it should be.

[MostExalted]

no more disney parks