Resort Overview:
Guests traveling to the Disneyland Resort are meant to feel like they’ve entered a whole new world when the arrive at Disney Property. To prevent intrusion from the bustling streets surrounding the property guests will arrive at the resort in an amazing new and innovative way.
Guests are sure to come from all over the world to experience this new playground of the imagination so a variety of exciting and different entry ways are being provided. To begin with, guests arriving from the Anaheim Transit system center (the purple star with stops by Amtrak, Bus Route Hub, Mag-Lev to Vegas) will be able to ride the Anaheim Rapid Connection ( A People Mover system) from the Transit Center directly to Disney’s Anaheim Transit Center. This transit center will also provide the resort entry point for all Taxies, ART Trams, some limited parking, and those walking to the resort. The building looks very futuristic with curved ceilings on the top and small ponds out in the front rather like the photo below.
Although most services will be delegated to specific floors the second floor is exclusive to walkers and the ARC station. From here guests board another people mover system traversing Harbor Blvd. and ending at the Downtown Disney Station.
The Downtown Disney Station is essentially the Tomorrowland Monorail Station just larger to accommodate more guests.
Downtown Disney is actually not really actually downtown, in fact there are no stores in it! This area is actually a series of waterfall pathways, essentially the old Disneyland Hotel Waterfalls mirrored across a walkway. However, these waterfalls have lit up city motifs at night and the music changes subtly to match the city lit up behind the shimmering waterfalls. Three pathways lead from this area into the esplanade: waterfalls south, waterfalls north, and straight ahead. All three paths recombine at the end so regardless of which path you choose you will end up in the esplanade
But what of the guests trying to get to the park that are parking? The land known in some alternate universes as the Mickey and Friends and DTD parking areas, will become a massive parking structure reminiscent of the Del Coronado except this area would just be parking. This area will be entered from an all but demolished Disneyland Drive, it will start on Ball and end at the parking center. There will also be a car rental area available at this location as well. Located on the second floor of this parking garage will be a steam powered train that travels to the current Esplanade. Going through extensive foliage which will is room left for potential expansion.
The esplanade will have the ticket booths in it as well as extensive landscaping to make it feel more like a European garden, while still giving a clear cut shot the entrance of the park or the two transit centers. However as a focal piece for the esplanade itself and to give people something entertaining to watch while in line there will be a small lake/fountain that will be a mixture somewhere between the Bellagio Fountains, The fountains of nations at EPCOT, and World of Color. The shows will be short shows like the Bellagio but with the color and musicality of World of Color, the EPCOT fountain aspect will play in between shows. There wont be any lasers or projectors in this show though.
In this esplanade area the pathways will be, on the north west = main parking, North= Disneyland Park, East= Downtown Disney and the DLR people mover to Disney's Anaheim Transit center. Then South West would be the pathway to Main Street USA and The Disneyland Hotel.
Enchanted Castle Hotel:
Located at the end of Main Street is a rising Castle with a sprawling wall and luxurious courtyards, welcome to the Disneyland Hotel and Spa. The Hotel itself is very much like the castle seen in this piece of concept art in terms of walls surrounding a courtyard and guests entering from Main Street going through a gate.
In the Disneyland Hotel and Spa however the courtyard walls are much thicker providing hundreds of rooms along the sides of the courtyard. Across the courtyard opposite from Main Street is the actual castle itself looking very much like the castle seen here first, but with the second ones lower body, and the third ones color patterns and beautiful gold and blue decorations.
The Hotel offers various suites all based on various elements of the movies that made Disney so famous, one wing is all about the wild frontier, one wing all about adventure, one wing all about tomorrow, one wing all about cartoons, and then the main castle’s rooms are based upon the flagship fairy tales of the Disney cannon. There are five premier suites and then one grand suite. The five premier suites are themed to Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Tangled, and the Princess and the Frog. Meanwhile the grand suite is themed to Peter Pan. Meanwhile the courtyard pool area is inspired by The Little Mermaid with an Ursula themed hot tub area, an Under the Sea themed water playground, and the beautiful coast line pool inspired by the beach where Ariel took her first steps on land.
The Ever After Spa is themed to the Renaissance area from which many of Disney’s timeless tales come from. The Spa is truly world class and will offer a variety of specialty treatments as well as large common areas such as steam rooms or special pool areas for guests to mingle about and relax in.
But how do you arrive at this Disney filled paradise? Well one has many options. If it is your wish to drive to the hotel yourself, just park at the Disneyland Parking Palace and board one of the special horse drawn carriages through a secret tree lined avenue past the new TDA building ( designed to match the corporate offices) to the Hotel’s front roundabout, a service complimentary for hotel guests.
Heading straight to or from the local airports? Board one of the hotel’s special Coaches each beautifully themed and made especially for Disney, this service is part of the Disney’s Magical Express service complimentary to all guests staying on property.
No matter where in the hotel your staying everyone is sure to enjoy your visit to the Disneyland hotel, an immerse experience like no other. What are you waiting for?
Main Street USA:
The Disneyland Resort even has its own shopping district! Called Main Street USA it was built to look like a town at the turn of the 20th century, based off an idea once proposed for the park itself! The Street slowly winds its way from the esplanade to the back of the Disneyland Hotel. The shopping district provides a series of fun and exciting shopping and dining destinations sure to bring a smile to everyone in your parties’ face. The shops included on Main Street all must follow a strict set of guidelines in terms of facades and all work must be time period appropriate. Here is a list of all of the tenants:
* Jamba Juice, done like a small farmers shop where he sells fresh foods and this new thing called "smoothies"
* Daveland - Art, Photography, and a history of Disneyland in photos
* Starbucks, A huge old fashioned Coffee House: Maybe this, http://www.yorktownsquare.com/img/br...1X00025_9.jpeg
* The Napa Rose,essentially the same restaurant But views now work like the sky bar for the new Disney Dream with live feeds of various parts of California making up each set of windows. http://www.disneydreamer.com/Napa_Rose-wr.jpg
* Marceline's Candy Palace, massively large candy palace Essentially the basic candy making area as well as a large, identically themed one along the back of the store.
* The Disney Emporium: World of Disney,a mixture of both styles of shop, WOD and DLE, This store will put both the WDW and NYC versions to shame
* Build a Bear ~ "hand made" stuffed animal factory where kids get to build their own stuffed animal
* T-Rex ~ Time Machine/archeologists office entry into this one of a kind restaurant from the designers who brought you rainforest cafe and but not their recipes!
* http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2008-10/42878858.jpg
* Panera ~ Epic Bakery with classic ovens lining the back wall, all of the cooking/baking is done in front of your very eyes.
* D Street ~ enter off a "back alley" into this secret shop, stylized the same as seen at DTD today
* Bank of Main Street~Functioning Bank of America in one section and series of vault shops on the other, Disney Vault 28 (as seen at DTD), Disney Vault 37(Collection of specialty media), Disney Vault 23 (D23 Office)
* Ayefour Real Estate ~ Cover Name for a massive DVC West Coast office, DVC will have villas in the new Disneyland Hotel as well as the simultaneously being built Aulani, and currently in development Washington DC resorts. Name of cover is one of the code names from the Florida Project
* The Ub Iwerks Movie House: A large state of the art movie cinema which will offer both the latest new release films as well as an auditorium that plays rotating classic shorts all day for free, special matinees on classic Disney films, and a theater that plays "The Ub Iwerks Story" multiple times daily for free.
* Fire House Five ~ A fun Restaurant themed to the interior of a firehouse
* Top Pot Doughnuts ~ Victorian Donuts Shop that sells the old fashioned stylized Top Pot Doughnuts
* Doc Sherwood Apothecary ~ Child care and health necessities, shopping for the rather flustered parents and travelers
* Oswald’s ~ Old Fashioned Bar, http://grubtrotters.files.wordpress....6/dsc00983.jpg
* Tuxedo Junction ~ Hip Thriving uva bar equivalent that acts a speak easy behind the book store
* Lillian Sephora's Cometics ~ A beautiful Victorian cosmetics store, slightly a la Nordstrom http://www.columbiashowcase.com/imag..._cosmetics.jpg
* Gymboree Clothing for children
* City Hall Resort Preview Center and Ticket Sales. Walt Disney Travel Company representatives will be here.
* Main Street Exhibition Hall Large Convention/Concert Hall for actuall conventions and concerts
* 4th of July Corner Think Coke Corner with the rag time piano and everything, just BIGGER. Fireworks every nights! (In the form of little firecrackers, not huge pellets) It will basically be a big throw back to classic American ideology. This local will also sell classic, and classy, Americana merchandise.
* The Forum A fun filled restaurant overlooking the concert hall that also has its own stage. The restaurant will provide nightly entertainment of its own and can also open a soundproof wall with the MSEH to provide enviable views of the action
* Louvre A Fine French restaurant designed to make guests feel like they are actually attending a banquet in the famed art museum.
There are still locations for potential tenants to lease should they choose to, these locations are largely covered up and appear just as facades as in a movie.
Up next, we take a look into the actual Disneyland part of this project, with our boldly re-imagined "Main Street" unlike anything you've seen before. Stay tuned...
Disneyland Park
This is a Disneyland Park unlike any other. I think it's safe to say at least that much right off the bat. From the get go, basically what we had in mind with this park is to make the entire thing an entire trip into a sort of "Alternate Reality". One in which, well. a lot of things function a bit differently than were used to, yet the place, in general, still has the odd feeling of being very "human", if that makes any sense. This Disneyland will be a storytelling park unlike any other, as thematically basically all the rides connect to each other. With that in mind, let's get started with the first land in our tour of this new Disneyland Park.
Canal Street:
For Canal Street, we had two VERY distinct cities we had in mind almost immediately to theme this land to. San Francisco and Venice. For some reason, the cheery atmosphere and architecture of San Fran seemed to fit really well with the ornate and innovative styles of Venice, so there you go. Basically, Canal Street is as if those two cities just...massively combined into themselves.
Imagine the buildings looking playful, colorful, yet elegant and detail orientated. The general storyline of this land is that it's essentially a hidden corner of the world that Da Vinci calls his home. The main visual kinetic of this area will be in the Canal Boats and trolley cars. There will be a large Canal running straight down the middle of Canal Street, with sidewalks on either side (wouldn't exactly live up to it's name if it didn't have a canal, now...would it?) Of course, there will be a series of classic Canal Boats to transport you from one end of the street to the other. As for the Trolleys? These are located on the SECOND of the buildings, running a long a track that runs the length of the street, Basically, the first floor will be whatever is in that building, the second floor will be the trolley track, and the third floor will be the upstairs exterior. All this making sense? Good, let's move on.
As for some of the shops and such on Canal Street...well, admittedly, we kind of blew it with this one, and we don't really have a lot of ideas. There IS a large Chocolate Shop, which is basically a pimped out "micro-factory" in the style of the Bakery or the Mission Tortilla Factory in DCA, except BIGGER and having to do with CHOCOLATE!!! Of course, there's a free sample with every visit.
The other shop we actually managed to brainstorm up for this project, well...kind of took on a life of it's own.
Da Vinci's Workshop
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to step into the workshop of an eccentric inventor? Imagine all the trinkets, back corners, hidden away details, and out of this world contraptions. Now think what it would be like if you actually got to step foot inside of the workshop of Da Vinci himself, the world's most famous inventor. Da Vinci has hidden himself away from public view for years, but now, he has finally decided to open the doors of his workshop up to the general public. Are you ready to step inside Da Vinci's Workshop?
Imagine you're enjoying a day in the peaceful atmosphere of Canal Street. You have just emerged from the Chocolate Factory with a full stomach and a taste for something out of the ordinary. Suddenly, you notice something that looks almost like a giant toy, peering through the glare of the large windows of a bank-like building on the corner. Wait! Whatever the hell this thing is, it's got PEOPLE on it. Your curiosity is heightened as you start heading towards this mysterious establishment. As you get closer, you begin to notice the finer details of the exterior. Long vines hang down from the top of the building, just dangling in the wind. It's obvious that whoever owns this place clearly cares more about the inside than the outside.
There's five huge windows on each side. These windows are all about five feet above street level, meaning they offer you an enticing view inside without giving you the ability to look directly into the shop. The entrance appears to have been previously boarded up, but now there is a simple, modest doorway, and a casual buisness sign that reads "Da Vinci's Workshop".
Stepping inside, however, you quickly realize that this place is anything but casual. The ceiling, for example, is absolutely filled to the brim with notes and sketches by Da Vinci himself. Looking straight ahead, you spot the contraption that drew you into this place to begin with. It's a huge contraption called "ParAvalon", which offers guests a birds-eye view of the workshop. Basically, ParAvalon is a glorified Jumpin' Jellyfish. The ride, however, is souped up in several ways. For one, obviously the attraction looks completely different ascetically, taking on the appearance of one of Da Vinci's forgotten inventions. There's also a steering wheel that allows guests to turn their parachutes to either a sharp right or sharp left as they ascend and descend. ParAvalon should prove to be a nice little A/B ticket.
The other ride here is literally hanging from the ceiling. Basically, it's a large mobile of different contraptions. It is called "Da Vinci's Dream Machines". Basically, think Golden Zephyr, except on a bigger scale, and you get the idea. Basically, both rides are just to kind of add a visual kinetic to the area, as well as just be two really fun A/B tickets.
The rest of the Workshop is basically a shop where you can buy various things from books to toys to antiques all themed around Da Vinci or innovation in general. There will also be four to five different "experiments" scattered throughout the workshop for the kids to play with. Basically, think the camp level of Tarzan's Treehouse and you get the basic idea.
In general, I feel Da Vinci's Workshop not only offers another really interesting shop to Canal Street, but also pads out the list of attractions as well as providing a unique in door almost "mini-land".
In addition to this, there is also a building disguised as a library that houses a Beauty and the Beast dark ride.
Beauty and the Beast-Dark Ride/Bell’s Storybook Journey
Along the pathway down Canal Street shortly before one reaches DV’s workshop they will pass Angelique’s Designs and Webster’s Bookshop, Angelique’s a Christmas décor store themed to the Beast’s Attic from Bell’s Enchanted Christmas. It sells limited year round Christmas Décor in Parts as well as Fine Décor and Beauty and the Beast themed merchandise as seen here:
Beauty and the Beast Lumiere Candelabra | Lighting | Disney Store
Webster’s Bookshop is a Disney Book shop similar in style to the Disney Music Shop at Disneyland. Webster’s is however not nearly as small nor is it just a bookshop, It’s also a façade for Bell’s Storybook Journey, a fun filled Beauty and the Beast Dark Ride.
Guests enter through the bookshop where a large Storybook is propped open along the back wall. Guests enter through a large opening on the right page of the book while the Left page bears the Ride Marque. Guests come through the book on the inside of Bell’s Home, where they soon walk out into the Village where the movie’s opening title plays. Here Stained Glass Windows on the shop fronts tell the beginning of the story through Bell finding Philippe after her father disappears. Also along the queue are a few small carts appropriately themed to provide guests with refreshments when the lines regrettably back up too long.
As guests reach the edge of the village they board enchanted carriages similar in style to the ones used in Snow White’s Scary Adventure. Each carriage is themed to a Character from the film on the front name plate, such as Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Feather duster, and so forth, however they all maintain the wood aspect of Snow Whites’.
The carriages head into the woods where they pass a snarling wolf before taking a sharp turn and approaching the Castle Gates. The Gates open sending the riders into the castle Where they see Bell in her Room mourning the loss of her father, We then go down a hallway hearing Bell complain about hunger and seeing her silhouette pass down the hallway with Lumiere leading the way and Cogsworth close behind.
Guests turn the corner into a massive show room where the trackless carriages split up and go along either side of a massive table where the infamous Be Our Guests scene is taking place. The carriages are trackless so they turn and rotate like the HM cars so that they all face the table.
The Next scene takes guests out into the courtyard Where Bell and Beast are first showing affection for each other the first time riders actually see Beast for the first time instead of projected silhouettes and his voice coming from the other side of the door. Here the “Something There” song plays. Entering back into the castle Guests head into the epic fight scene from the movie, the room is two floors and guests wind in and out of various characters fighting each other and then go into another small room where fighting is occurring.
In this room they rise up the second floor and then turn back into the main room and ride across the rooms second level overlooking the main fight scene as well as being caught in some of the second level fighting. On the back side of the second floor a series of windows reveal Beast fighting Gaston on the balcony outside in the west wing where they see Gaston Fall off the edge. They then head out onto the balcony and see the famous transformation scene occur.
Guests then head back into the castle where they enter into Bell and Beast dancing the famous Beauty and the Beast scene while each of the characters transform into their human form and Bell’s father looks on affectionately. The carriage heads back into the castle’s main room where they get out of their carriages and head into Angeline’s Decor.
The most important part of Canal Street, however, is what lies at the end of it. It's a GIANT, cartoon looking Clocktower. I'll let the ride inside of it speak for itself as to what the overall function of this Clock Tower actually is...
Mickey's Clock Cleaners:
The Queue
As you enter from down Canal Street, you see a giant, steam-punk style Clock Tower majestically rising over the towns and cities of the rest of the park. The clock tower is very tall and is reminiscent of the architectural detail seen on Tokyo DisneySea’s Tower of Terror. Peaks and rooftops touch the sky as shiny windows shimmer clear (yet somehow opaque) in the sun. The glittering rooftops are the color of a new, copper penny and an ornate open arch area at the very tip-top of the Clock Tower allow you to peek into the clock’s structure. Small gear-covered vehicles can be seen passing by the openings of the arches and then go back into the main building of the clock. Various brass pipes peer out (almost hidden) in certain areas of the clock’s structure and sometimes emit wafts of smoke.
The main feature of the tower, of course, is the giant clock face dominating the center of the structure. Every hour on the hour, steam begins to flow from the Clock Tower into the sky. Soon after the smoke appears, you can hear the bells chime out in the short Clock Cleaners “jingle”, followed by various rotating Disney melodies (depending on the time… i.e. 6:00 P.M. – You Can Fly, 12:00 P.M. – Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah, 12:00 A.M – So This Is Love, and capped by the bell ringing corresponding to the hour it is (i.e. if 3:00, the bell chimes 3 times).
The clock face itself quite giant; it’s hands are ornately covered in scrollwork and the numbers are in a script font. At nighttime, the clock face lights in a bright egg yellow and, when the bells chime strobe lights run down the clock from the peak of the roof to the bottom of the lake below. During the fireworks spectacular (and if activated to work during the “chime hours”, the clock’s face will act as a giant projection screen, moving it’s clock hands in different positions to add to the projection, and characters will appear on the face of the clock (Peter Pan & the Darling Children flying off, Cinderella and Prince Charming dancing, it may turn into a wreath during Christmas or a Jack-o-Lantern or Oogie Boogie during Halloween.
The Story of the Clock Tower
The Clock Tower is a sign of unity and peace between the different lands. Leonardo Da Vinci thought he would gather the founders of Lumaria, the rangers of Nature’s Wonderland, and the mayor of The Floating City to create a symbol that would incorporate the technology of Lumaria, the beauty of Nature’s Wonderland, and the scale of The Floating City. Leonardo then began to create his most ambitious idea yet: a giant Clock Tower that would feature the newest technology ever created, be powered by nature’s own steam vents, and be tall enough to be seen in the high-in-the-sky Floating City.
At the base of the clock is a tunnel, that (just after the minute hand was placed onto the clock) opened a portal entrance to Toontown. Toontown was a place where cartoon creatures played, and lived a happy life. Well, all sorts of things happened when Toontown was opened. For one thing, Toontown was invaded by the Cogs from Lumaria (they have now all been vanquished, but memories of the first Cog Invasion are on display in Lumaria’s Museum). The toon spirit found its way into parts of Nature’s Wonderland and The Floating City, too. But the most important contribution that Toontown made to the human world (well, in terms of THIS story, anyway) was Ludwig Von Drake. You see, Ludwig was the premier scientist in Toontown and he became very good friends with Leonardo… eventually. I say “eventually” because Von Drake’s first order of business in the human world was to investigate the magnificent Clock Tower that made the portal that brought toon and man together.
Needless to say, Ludwig broke the Clock Tower.
With fears that the portal between the two worlds would break, three heroes named Mickey, Donald, and Goofy soon entered the portal and worked tirelessly with the help of Ludwig, Leonardo, the founders of Lumaria, the rangers of Nature’s Wonderland, the mayor of The Floating City, and citizens from all of the lands, toons, humans, and all sorts of others… together. Eventually the Clock Tower was repaired, and great unity was created not because of the Clock Tower itself… but because of all the creatures that worked together to reach a common goal.
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy often take time out of their busy schedules to maintain the Clock Tower’s complex inner workings, but they can’t do it without a little help. Minnie and Pluto help re-stock buckets, soap, ladders, and all sorts of stuff for the Clock Cleaners when they’re not selling provisions and other items of interest to travelers crossing between the portals, and Chip ‘n’ Dale, resident nut-jobs of Toontown, are always looking for new sandwich recipes and helping the Clock Cleaners fuel up after a long day of work. Personally, I don’t think they’ll ever invent anything better than “Pea-Nut Butter and Grape Jelly Sandwiches”… those are fantastic.
But the most important bit of help is from wandering travelers. You see, Leonardo has invented something he likes to call “kinetic energy”. Apparently your body weight propels these Clock Cars that Leonardo has placed into the Clock Tower. When one reaches high speeds inside of the clock, the power that your Clock Car creates is enough to power the Clock, while any excess energy is distributed to different towns.
So what are you waiting for? Enter the clock and watch the loony antics of the Clock Cleaners! Just don’t go too fast…
Once entering the famous Clock Tower Toon Tunnel, you may notice that as you enter the halfway point of the tunnel, if you look up you will be able to see a large glass window looking into the clock. What you may see is a large, shiny metallic structure hanging down from the ceiling and spinning around. What you will definitely see, though, is a bunch of people going down various ramps in order to get into a Clock Car (a two-row wild mouse car-like vehicle with a bunch of gears and stuff plastered to the sides. I bet that has something to do with the whole “kinetic” thing Da Vinci was talking about…
Anyway, you enter the little entryway outside of the tunnel and you notice a sign above the entryway reading “Mickey’s Clock Cleaners”. There’s also a normal-sized circular clock by the sign, showing real time, but with two little circular gears coming out of the top of the clock… a hidden Mickey!
As you enter the first room, you see steam entering through cracks in the floor. The walls are copper and, well, a little dirty. You can see some aging going on, some of it is a little green, and the whole room is looking a little neglected. Well, let’s hope the building doesn’t collapse or anything. This is also the first room in which you hear the “Clock Cleaners Theme”. It’s modeled after the classic Mickey short intros and will be highly addictive. It’s remodeled to have a steam-punk beat, so you hear clanging of machines, the whirring of gadgets, and (most importantly) the sound of steam on every other beat. The music slowly builds from the beginning of the line to the finale to the ride, so here you begin to hear the steam hissing out of cracks on every other beat. In the next room you can see metallic tubes inside of some of the cracks in the floor, and some funnels over particularly big cracks. You can see that out of some of the tubes little openings spit steam. Though this room is particularly less steamy than the last one, you can see that these tubes run outside the building, high up into the ceiling, and all over the place. A bunch of stuff is against the wall, too. Stuff like giant bars of soap, ladders, giant brooms, buckets, all sort of stuff that would be perfect for cleaning this place up. Here, the music takes the steam sounds and adds a clanking sound. After you exit the storage space you enter an area filled with mirrors that look out onto the crowd of Lumaria. This area is sort of interactive, as you can see the people outside and they can see you… a fun photo spot if your friend is on the other side of the glass. In this room the melody of the song is added into the mix.
Next is the “scale” room. Basically, this clouded, dented copper room is filled with a bunch of balancing weights attached to the ceiling. The move up an down and give a good energy to the room. A “tsssss” sound is heard when the move up and down, coordinating with the song. Finally, before the loading area, there is a “safety room”. There is minimal wording, but model vehicles are on display and you can see them opening and closing their own harnesses, demonstrating their spinning capabilities. Some of these cars are dented or even made a hole in the wall, so we should be careful, huh?
The loading area has that clear glass area I was telling you about before, but here you can clearly see the flurry of activity. This area is a bit cleaner and shinier than the rest of the line. Once you enter your vehicle on the continuously moving track, you begin your journey into the tower…
The Ride
As you enter the first room, a blast of steam covers the entryway! Oh boy, you can’t see anything, the whole room is filled with steam! When the initial blast of steam clears, you begin to notice some details: There are a bunch of gears decorating the wall and spinning, there are a bunch of pumping pistons (pumping to the music) that are creating steam, and there’s a GIANT GEAR in front of you that your car looks like it’s going to ride onto. As you ride onto the gear, it begins to turn like a ferris wheel. Because the piece of track your Clock Car latched on to is free-moving, you never go upside-down or anything, but you spun around the gear and then latch onto another piece of track. Now you begin to move “normally”, and a slight decline down the zig-zagging track helps keep your speed up. Once you reach a turning point on the track you make a sharp turn, as if you’re going to fall off the track. Of course, you remain safely in your Clock Car, being blasted by steam from the pistons that pump up and down throughout the track.
As you exit this room, you enter a room filled with spinning gears on the wall. A particularly large set of two meshing gears are spinning just next to you, and due to two strategically placed screws in the wall, the two gears look like teeth and the screws make a face. Goofy, who is standing by with a giant tube of toothpaste and a giant toothbrush, is brushing the “teeth” of the gears in time to the music. The gears here are definitely more bronze than the last room, but they still look like they have a layer or two of grime on them.
As you begin to leave this room, you see a BUNCH of signs all over the walls reading “Danger! Main Spring!”. As you are pulled up a small incline by a chain lift, you see the “main spring” at the end of the track. It seems like there is no more track after the spring; the track simply ends and then the spring sits there. Donald is on top of the spring with a broom. Donald hums “Hickory Dickey Dock” to counterpoint the Clock Cleaners melody. Unfortunately, it looks like Donald’s broom is stuck in the coil of the giant spring and he’s trying to get it out. As you stop at the last piece of track by the spring, Donald throws a tantrum and violently tries to pull the broom out of the spring. On one final pull, the spring unfurls and sends springs and pieces of metal siring forth from the sides of the room, effectively making the whole room appear as if it’s “breaking”. The soundtrack also begins to “break” here too, and all of the sound effects that have piled up over all of the different scenes you’ve been through.
Donald is blocked by the spring’s parts covering him up, and just as he’s covered you see a burred figure of Donald shoot up the wall as if sprung up by the broken spring. You, too, spring up (the piece of track you’ve attached to is an elevator) and follow Donald’s blue-and-white streak up the shaft to the second floor.
Just as you reach the second floor, you hear a giant CRASH and see Donald trapped inside of a tooth of a gear that moves back and forth. Donald’s head is inside of the gap between the gear’s teeth and is being conked back and forth between the teeth. His head moves in the opposite direction of his free-hanging bottom to funny effect. At this point, the clonking sound that Donald’s head makes is added into the musical mix, which gets fully restored from the “breaking spring” sequence.
The next room has several spinning gears on the ceiling, going about their businesses as the music goes on. You are driving towards a real window and you see that (though you haven’t reached the highest part of the Clock Tower yet) you are at a pretty tall height. And your Clock Car looks like it’s going to fall off the side of the window and crash into the ground! AHHH! Thank goodness that the track is not aimed outside the window, but actually going deeper into the clock. Of course, you veer away from the window and slightly slow down as you enter the next room.
Here, you can see the ceiling is filled with all sorts of balances and steam-driven devices, but mainly the room is filled with more gears. The problem is, though, that they all seem to be short circuiting, or not completing their full rotations. The gears on the ceiling don’t make full circles, either. They seem stuck… by something. The music also seems stuck, as if a CD is repeating the same 4 bars of music over and over again. A shadow of Donald is seen as you go up another short chain lift. Donald’s trying to fix a machine with a mallet but failing fantastically; the machine always seems to spring back and scare him.
As you turn the corner into the next room (still on the chain lift), you notice that the problems with the short circuiting come from a single Stork nesting (and sleeping) on a particularly important piston. The piston is shaking violently and all around the room the ceiling gears are shaking in the same fashion. The instrumental here is playful xylophone (not repeating as in the previous room), and Mickey is finally seen, nearby, as he taps his feet due to the predicament of the stork (the tapping is also done in time to the music). Once you’ve gotten a good look at Mickey and the Stork, you go down a tiny dip to gain momentum into the next room.
In the next room, another shadow projection is show on the wall as the ceiling gears continue to “short circuit”. You see a projection of Mickey attempting to throw the Stork out of the window, but it flies right back in and grabs Mickey by the shoulders! At least Mickey did his job: the ceiling gears begin to function properly as soon as the projection shows Mickey removing the Stork from the piston. You turn away from the wall into another wall of spinning gears (which you also turn away from) and immediately enter the next room.
All of the song elements in the ride so far have come together into this room (even the xylophone and the tapping). The room features Mickey, as seen in the shadow animation, being spun around by the Stork on the ceiling.
As you enter the next room, you once again stop as Donald stands grabbing onto a bunch of ropes. As your car latches onto the track here, you see Donald trying hard to pull on the ropes, which you can feel moving your car slightly up and down. As Donald makes one last pull of the ropes and your car is secure, the ropes “unlatch” as Donald says “uh-oh…” and you see a large sandbag hit the floor along with a whole bunch of rope snaking down from the shaft above. Once you look above, you notice that you’re staring up at the GIANT CLOCK TOWER SHAFT!
All of the music drops out and a “slide whistle” begins to play as you immediately begin to rise up into the shaft and SPIN in place, giving you a 360 degree view of the vast shaft! You also see the shadow of the giant clock face, which is “reversed” due to the fact that you’re inside. It’s also telling the correct time, if you pay attention. You also notice a figure riding on the second hand of the clock… it’s Mickey! He stands on the second hand (ticking of course), or he hangs onto the arrow of the hand if the second hand is on the 12 or at the 6. At the same time, Mickey whistles the Clock Cleaners Theme in time to the ticking clock, the only music you can hear here. You eventually make it to the very tippy top of the shaft and into the “roof” portion of the clock and enter a new room.
This is the “signature room” of the attraction, which is basically a bunch of soundproof windows looking out onto Canal Street and the Downtown Disney and Hotel complex, which, ironically, means you get an awesome view of Main Street and the Castle. During the fireworks, the windows are covered with blinds and your car focuses more on the other “wow” factor of the room, the multitude of giant bells happily ringing (loosely in the tune of the Clock Cleaners Theme) and filling the rafters of the roof with golden shine and song. It’s also worth not that this is the “clean” portion of the ride. The grime and dirt previously seen is nonexistent as everything from this point in the ride on is shiny (except of course for the stone walls).
You soon enter the next room, which is of the “Big Mamma Bell”. All focus in the room is on the giant bell, and the absence of music here, aside from the dim sound of the bells, is a good indication that we should be listening to Goofy. As we move across the small room, we hear Goofy sing “Allll of the belllls in the ollllld tower ringg!”, at which point a large mallet comes from the floor and hits the bell (and consequently Goofy), making a loud dinging noise. The lighting dims a bit as we turn the corner and see stars (in the style of cartoons where stars literally circle a confused character’s head), except, in addition to the stars, we see little tiny Storks form a circle while the tweeting noise is heard.
We come down a longish passageway and we notice a window (this time it’s a fake projection) at the end of the hall. We notice Goofy spin around (in shadow form) and promptly fall off the clock tower. As we make a sharp turn (we never fall out the window ourselves, of course) and immediately latch onto another elevator track (which will take us back down to the second floor), we see a shadow of Goofy walking off the ledge and falling down the length of the main Clock Tower shaft, all the while making his patent “Goofy holler”. We follow his shadow down the long shaft and, of course, Goofy’s pants are caught on a flagpole as usual.
As we exit the shaft we see another long length of track in the same style of the track we saw upstairs, except this track goes through a real window… and our track doesn’t curve away from it… it goes right out the window! Don’t worry, though, Mickey’s right next to a giant crank and, with all his might, he turns the crank and the piece of track shifts in another direction away from the window. We make a sharp turn and head into a “toilet bowl” style room where the track coils all the way back down to the first floor of the attraction. There’s even more smoke here and a bunch of mirrors disorient you. A sped-up version of the Clock Cleaners theme, with EVERY SINGLE SOUND EFFECT, plays in this room, and the springing of a bunch of coiling springs here as you coil down the track make the soundtrack turn into a cacophony of sounds, one pilling onto the other, the springs adding to the intensity, you spinning down!
IT’S TOO MUCH!
You coil down to the first floor where a completely dark room lights up with projections of multicolored Salvador Dali-style melting clocks, springs snapping, all sorts of mayhem. You swerve back and forth through the room until you finally slow down.
As you exit the room, you come upon a beautiful sight… the clock is clean. And not only that, but those gears from before weren’t bronze at all… they were GOLDEN! They were just so dirty nobody could tell the difference! In the style of the “finale room” of it’s a small world, every apparatus you’ve seen throughout the ride makes an appearance here in shimmering gold, all working in harmony with a full orchestral version of the Clock Cleaners theme. The Stork also makes one final appearance, resting on a spinning wheel where he won’t do any more damage to the Clock Tower. You finally see Donald and Goofy sitting back-to-back on a spinning gear, totally wiped out from all the work they’ve done. Mickey, though, stands just above the exit on a stationary gear and says: “Thanks for helpin’ us out today! See ya real soon, huh huh!”
And with that, you exit back into the loading area and exit out onto the opposite side of the car and through another hallway with shimmering golden gears spinning. You, of course, are emptied into a gift shop where you can find all sorts of Clock Cleaners goodies, like DVDs, actual replica timepieces, Clock Cleaner watches (and of course the classic Mickey arms watch too), and all sorts of fun and exclusive items.
With Clock Cleaners as our big E ticket, and the Clock Tower in general servicing as an icon for the park, we feel Canal Street, as a whole, really is a great entry way into the mysterious realms of this new Disneyland. Were just getting started, though. Up next, an epic re-imagining of a classic Disney motif. That's right...It's time to explore Nature's Wonderland.
Nature's Wonderland:
While all of the areas of Disneyland have an element of human achievement, this area slightly deviates from the norm, as it focuses not on new human technologies as the rest of the park does, but the core roots of nature and emotion. When a small group of explorers from Lumaria, Canal Street, and the Floating City came across a secluded wonderland, they were amazed. An fabulous untouched wilderness, waiting to be explored! It was almost too much to take in. When delegates from each of the 3 lands assembled in a committee (this was before the formation of the Clock Tower, so Toontown was as of yet undiscovered and Nature's Wonderland had no delegates yet), they eventually came to the conclusion that this natural wonderland should be protected and have as little human interference as possible within.
Leonardo suggested that there be some sort of dome over the land to prevent the humans from altering the ecosystem too much. While all understood that there shouldn't be a great opaque dome shrouding the natural beauty of the land, they wished there was some way to preserve Nature's Wonderland. Eventually, the scientists in the Floating City discovered an "invisible dome" concept, which would emanate from the center of the land and protect the giant trees, mountains, and other natural things inside of the mountain from pollutants. And with the limited power inside of the land stemming from clean steam technology, pollution hasn't been a problem in Nature's Wonderland for quite some time.
When this dome technology was decided upon, the Floating City began work on full-scale dome technology while Lumarian citizens with impressive skills in ecological preservation were selected to become "park rangers". The eldest of them all is still the land's "delegate" when the lands meet to discuss important matters. This elder park ranger created a steam-powered train ride in the woods for curious explorers to view the land with minimal ecological damage. You can still take a personal tour with him when visiting his shack today. He also organized the first rafting company in the area, giving explorers the chance to get up-close and personal with the geysers of the land.
After the Clock Tower was created and Toontown was discovered, research on the dome was completed (with the help of Dr. Ludwig Von Drake) and now it's machine sits on top of an out-of-place corporate building in the middle of the land, which gives tours of Nature's Wonderland from the air.
You may just want to skip the tours all together and explore the land on your own and without vehicle, the way nature intended. Some say that a magical creature lives inside of Nature's Wonderland, making the area bloom with life every Spring. Maybe you can find this creature if you take a hike to the back of the Wonderland towards the unassuming mountain range in the distance?
Journey through Nature’s Wilderness:
As soon as guests enter Nature’s Wilderness, their eyes will be drawn to a large mountain range which covers almost the whole backside of the land. As guests approach the mountain range, they’ll find a pathway with a large, wooden sign over it that reads “Journey through Nature’s Wilderness.” As guests enter the queue, they will find themselves in a deep forest.
As guests wind their way through the forest, they will eventually come upon a large wooden building built into the side of the mountain. This is the loading area. As guests enter the loading area, they will find various mining equipment and other various tools and machines scattered around the area. The train will soon enter the building to allow guests to board. The train is very similar to the train from BTMRR but the train is painted a fading, rusting black color while the cars are much darker and brown. Guests board the train and put down their lap bar as the announcer comes over and says: “Thank you for joining us on this journey through Nature’s Wilderness. Make sure to keep your hands and arms inside the train at all times. Those animals can get pretty close.” With that, the train lets out a whistle as smoke comes out of the smokestack and leaves the station. The trains leave the building and take a right into a dark cave as our guide comes over the speakers and says: “Hello and welcome on our journey through nature’s wilderness. In a few minutes, you’ll be face to face with some of the many species of animals that make up our environment.” As guests leave the cave, they are greeted with some of the many animals that guests will see while on the ride.
Guests exit the cave as soothing banjo music starts playing. As guests pass through the deep forests, they’ll notice small group of deer eating on a small hill occasionally looking up to look at the passing guests. Birds are in the trees chirping or feeding their young. A large woodpecker continuously pecks at one of the giant pine trees of the forest. As guests leave the woodland animals behind them, the sound of rushing water is heard as guests approach a large stream. As the trains approach the stream, the guide comes over the speakers and says: “Here we are at Hansbach where bears are at play and the salmon are plenty. These bears are always hanging around here trying to get their food.” As the trains start to head over the bridge to get across, they’ll notice a group of three or four bears trying standing upstream trying to get some food. Occasionally, guests will see some salmon jump out of the water as they try to go upstream while narrowly escaping the swinging paws of the bears. As the trains get across the bridge, they continue through the forest occasionally seeing deer and and the occasional rabbit poking his head out of his burrow to see if it’s safe to come outside. As the trains take a left, the foliage of the beautiful forests slowly fade into a rocky valley. As the trains enter the area, the guide once again comes over the speakers and says: “Welcome to Barbicane Valley. Home of the world famous Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most beautiful sights you’ll ever see. Don’t worry about missing the geyser, it’s always spitting out water.” A small waterfall is seen rolling down the dips and breaks in the rock as some coyotes stand there drinking from the stream, having little interest in the passing guests. As guests round the corner, they come face to face with Old Faithful, continuously shooting water just as the guide said. Right as the train goes past the geyser, the water stops shooting. After the trains pass the dry geyser, the water again starts shooting out of it.
With the sounds of the geyser behind them, guests approach a large bridge that leads right across the Rivers of the Wilderness and onto a large mountain. As guests look down at the water, they’ll see more fish jumping out of the water for a few seconds as they swim through the river. About halfway across the bridge, the guide comes over the speakers and says: “Here we are crossing the Rivers of the Wilderness on our way to Bear Mountain. This mountain is full of bears playing and exploring their mountain. Don’t worry though, they’re friendly. Most of them anyway.” Guests will see the giant mountain right as they enter the bridge. The island is very large and consists of one large mountain and a smaller mountain off to the side of it attached by a small bridge. Both mountains are made from gray rock and look about the same with the exception of a waterfall on the bigger mountain that runs from the peak to the river below. Both mountains are covered with trees and have small ponds, caves and more waterfalls scattered around the mountains. As guests finally reach the island at about a quarter of the way up the island, they quickly meet some of the many inhabitants of the island. In a small clearing, a group of bear cubs play under the watchful eye of their mother. In one of the trees, a bear cub is dangling from a branch after falling while trying to get some honey from a beehive. In the middle of the clearing, two cubs wrestle as they see who can beat who. Off to the other side of the clearing is a cub stuck inside a hollow log trying to get out while two skunks are on top poking his head in a hole in the top to see what the commotion is. Near the front of the clearing right on the train track is a small pond that some bears are seen swimming in and drinking from. As the trains make twist their way up the mountain occasionally seeing animals, the guide comes over the speakers and says: “Here in Nature’s Wilderness, all of us have learned to live with animals in peace and harmony by respecting them and even helping them. Hopefully after seeing these wonders, you’ll decide to do the same.”
As the trains finally reach the peak of the mountain, the guide comes over for one last time and says: “Hang onto your hats and glasses. This is going to be a bumpy ride.” As soon as he finishes this warning, the trains immediately dip down into a cave. The cave is very dark with a few lanterns hanging above. As the trains slow down in the cave, a large area in the cave is shown to hold three bears that have stumbled upon some lost mining equipment. One bear is standing on his hind legs, watching guests while wearing one of the miner hats they found in the caves. The second bear is standing and sniffing a pickaxe trying to see what it is. The third bear is seen sitting behind a plunger for dynamite with one of his front paws on the on the lever. Right as guests pass, his weight finally causes the plunger to fall but, to the guests’ relief, nothing happens. As guests pass the bears relieved about dead fuse, a loud explosion is heard from behind as the train quickly speeds up again and takes a sharp right back outside. The train twists its way down the outside of the mountain occasionally going through some smaller caves until it reaches the waterfall. The train goes over a small wooden bridge that runs right in front of the waterfall and circles around the mountain one last time and crosses another bridge which goes to the second island that holds the smaller of the two mountains. Here, the trains again twist their way through the caves and rockwork of the smaller mountain going behind waterfalls and seeing the occasional animal watching in amazement the trains going by.
Once at the bottom of the mountain, on the banks of the Rivers of the Wilderness, the trains will enter a cave that has a mountain lion standing above it looking ready to pounce at the oncoming guests. Luckily, this is not the case. The trains enter the dark cave, go down a small slope and suddenly slow down as the beautifully lit Rainbow Caverns is revealed to guests. As the trains enter the caverns, the guide comes over the speakers once again and says: “Welcome to the world famous Rainbow Caverns located directly below the Rivers of the Wilderness. This amazing feat of nature has been accomplished by reasons unknown though we do know that the lighting that this cavern gives creates different colors in the waters of the mine. So sit back and relax. We’ll be back to the station shortly.” As the trains go through the caverns, guests will see the amazing sights this cave gives. Everything here glows different colors. A small reflecting pool changes color from blue to red continuously as it bubbles from an unknown source. Trickles of water go down natural rock steps as they glow all the different colors of the rainbow. Off to the left is a large area known as the paint pots which is made up of six ‘bowls’ which were formed from the rock that contain bubbling mud in many different, bright colors. Right in front of the trains is the large Rainbow Falls. In this waterfall, each section is separated by color to create the effect of a rainbow falling down into a small pool. In this pool, fish colored orange, red, green and yellow jump in and out of the water continuously in the rainbow colored water.
The trains take a right from the falls and enter the unloading zone. As the trains enter the room, the guide comes over the speakers once more and says: “Welcome back from your journey through Nature’s Wilderness. Please wait until the train comes to a complete stop before exiting the train. Thank you and enjoy your day.” The actual unload zone is a pretty large room that has a large waterfall covering the back wall of the room. Guests exit the train and enter a small cave which brings them back up to the outside world. To get back to load, the trains just simply go up a set of lift hills and exit the cave right into the loading dock.
Nature's Wonderland Rafting Company:
As guests approach the right corner of the Rivers of the Wilderness, they will come upon what looks like a camp set up in the middle of the forest with a sign over the path that reads ‘River Rapids Adventure.’ As guests pass under the sign, they will immediately enter a large camp which is made up of wooden shacks, docks and other structures. Guests twist their way through the forests, occasionally passing under wooden buildings, which provide shade from the hot sun, and going over small bridges over creeks and such. As guests continue to make their way through the forests passing small camps and the occasional lookout tower, guests will come to the right corner on the banks of the Rivers of the Wilderness which holds the loading area for the rafting adventure.
The loading area is the normal turn table that takes the rafts around from the end to the start of the ride. It is made of light wood and has a small covered area in the very center that provides shades for the ride ops and guests waiting to board. The actual rafts look similar to the rafts of Grizzly River Run. They are black with old rucksacks hanging off the back of each seat. Like other rafts, this has a large wheel that guests can grab onto while riding the ride. In the center of the wheel is a covered cubby that guests can put their belongings in to keep dry. Guests board the eight person rafts, go around the turntable and start their journey full of adventure and fun.
The rafts leave the loading area and enter the forest. Other than the small, tame rapids and the couple hills scattered about, there’s not much going on here except for a few groups of deer, rabbits and other woodland critters looking out at the passing guests. After the rafts zig zag through the woods a bit, they enter the bottom of a small valley. Much like the valley in Journey through Nature’s Wilderness, this one is made from a light grey rock and has a few streams and geysers scattered around the area. These geysers can be controlled by guests from a bridge that runs above the valley. On the bridge are a few wood boxes which allow guests to shoot water at the oncoming rafts. Most of these just activate a geyser that not only sprays up but also out towards the rafts. One special machine affects a small stream that runs from the side into the track in the middle of the valley. When the button is pressed, the small trickle of water suddenly becomes a huge flowing stream as it gushes out completely soaking any unlucky guests in the way.
As the rafts make their way through the valley passing small stream that flow into the stream that the rafts are in and smaller geysers, they will eventually get to the end of the valley which has a very large geyser shooting straight out of the stream with the rafts heading right for it. The rafts eventually reach the geyser and go right over it, soaking the guests closest to the geyser. Right after passing over the geyser, the rafts fall down a large hill(while spinning) and into the forests below once again soaking most of the guests on the raft. As the rafts turn the corner, they will find themselves right in the middle of a small forest fire.
The forest fire has caught in a clearing. Most of the grass has burned into a yellowish brown. Many of the surrounding trees are either burning or are ashes on the ground. A large group of trees are on piled on the ground after burning in the fire. As guests get to the end of the fire, they will notice the entrance to a cave. As guests approach this, they will notice that a burning tree is about to fall right in front of the cave entrance, trapping guests in the fire.
Luckily, the rafts get through in time just as the tree falls in front of the entrance. With the sound of the falling tree behind them, the rafts fall down a small hill and go deeper into the mysterious cave. After the drop, guests will enter a dimly lit cave that reveals that the cave is actually a flooded mine. The tops of rusted mine cars can be seen in the water. The walls reveal patches of gold and gems embedded in the wall showing that there is still treasure to be found in the dark mine. A few cracks in the walls reveal that bats are living in the caves next door. After slowly going through the mine, the rafts go onto a lift hill and make their way outside and back into the load zone. Guests can then exit and leave back out into rest of the park.
Global Expeditions:
In the back of the Dome, a colorful, yet somewhat corporate-style building can be found. Upon entering, we find ourselves in the Global Expeditions Agency. Receptionists sit at desks and, between their various calls, interact with passersby. At one point, we pass by a door marked "TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS". A red light above is lit saying "Arrangement in Progress". A discussion can be heard from behind the door involving a couple wishing to travel to the Amazon. As we pass down a hall lined with posters of various environments (Plains, Bayous, Jungles, etc.), TV monitors help explain to us what is going on:
Global Expeditions Agency is a travel company that sends clients on trips to various places around the world in a matter of minutes. This is possible because the GEA has set a pair of none-too-distant teleporters in the different environments. Travelers enter through one and, as they exit through the other, monitoring employees at the GEA set the location of where to go next. To roam through the areas, travelers ride in a 4-seater vehicle known as the Explorer's Teleportable Transport, also known affectionately as an Adven-chair-er. These vehicles can travel over any terrain imaginable, have air-supplied bubbles should the trip include going underwater, and can fly back to the GEA if ordered.
We soon reach a boarding area where guests continuously load onto an Adven-chair-er. These initially face sideways and are boarded on from a moving platform (think Nemo at Epcot). We board one and are locked in by an over-the-shoulder restraint. After a safety check, we turn a corner and face forward. We notice immediately that there is no visible track. This isn't going to be a traditional journey. (the vehicle is actually moving via a trackless system...for now) Two monitors of the GEA, Marc and Claude (references, don't ya love 'em?) are heard via speaker.
Marc: Hello travelers, these are your monitors Marc and Claude speaking.
Claude: Are you ready for the most stunning trip of your life? Well get ready! Because it's starting in 5...
Marc: 4...
Claude: 3...
Marc: 2...
Marc & Claude: 1!
During the countdown, we have been approaching a metallic arch that has been showing signs of generating. We go through the arch and are surrounded by strobe lights. The lights stop and we find ourselves amongst a grassy area. A light heat is felt.
Claude: Your first stop on your expedition is the African Savanna. These grasslands cover 20% of the Earth's land area. And if you're lucky, you might see a lion or two.
We pass by a rock with a lioness atop it, looking for an animal to capture. A pride of lions is then seen, consisting of a dozen lionesses, their playful little cubs, and a single male lion: leader of the pack. He growls as we pass.
We find ourselves going through another arch and set of strobes before entering a vast, frozen area. It feels cold enough that it could snow, and indeed it is. Penguins roam the area, some sliding down hills. The scent of fish floats through the area.
Marc: Here in the Antarctic, you'll find the coldest temperatures on the planet. But these penguins don't seem to mind.
After passing through another arch and strobes, we find ourselves in a bayou. There is a bit of muddy stink in the area as we pass across a set of logs, pre-organized by the GEA.
Marc:Now the bayou is an interesting place. This marshy wetland is home to animals such as alligators, catfish, and many others.
Claude: Now before you reach your next stop, please be aware that it is under the surface of the ocean, so don't be surprised when the large bubble comes down from behind.
Marc: Wait a minute, Paul...it's not working!
Claude: What do you mean?!
Marc: It's not setting itself on "Ocean".
Claude: What is is set on?
Marc: "Rainforest".
Claude: But we're not done there yet!
But too late. We've already teleported to a rainforest. Marc and Claude's voices tail off as the speakers malfunction.
Marc: Hold on folks!
Claude: Don't worry! We'll get you baaaaaaaaaaaacccckkk...
We zoom through the rainforest. We are nearly stomped on by a passing stampede of elephants. As we pass by the skeletons of GEA workers who have died with an work-in-progress teleporter unfinished and un-operative, a large snake snaps at us from above. We then pass a fierce group of reclusive natives, who blow poison darts at us as we pass. We feel the wind from them as the zoom right by our faces, missing us by less than an inch. Eventually, we find ourselves inside a large, dark, hollow tree. Suddenly, the speakers come back to life.
Claude: Got it! Operate flying mode.
Marc: Hang on tight!
We suddenly fly out of the top of the tree. The emergency flying mode has been operated. We fly over the rainforest, through the clouds, and land safely back at the GEA. Only thing is we crash into the pitch black basement. (Inside the tree, the vehicle attached itself onto a KUKA arm. The flying sequence was accomplished via a video carousel a la Harry Potter. Once in the basement, the vehicle detached from the arm and is back on the trackless system.) We emerge into a lighter area of the basement. A hole in the ceiling is visible.
Marc: Sorry about all the chaos folks.
Claude: We promise it will never happen again.
Marc: But despite all that, we hope you've enjoyed your expedition and will join us again soon.
Claude: See you soon!
We disembark-sideways again-and exit into the GEA's gift shop. Here we can by various curios from around the world.
That, or we could just exit back into Nature's Wonderland...
The Firebird:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FWq17CT6Cs
When you explore Nature’s Wonderland, you may notice a gate of two black rocks (likely volcanic) and a park ranger sign. The Park Ranger’s sign tells the single rider and stand-by waits for the ride, while the black rocks (forming a sort of gateway into the ride read “Firebird” in shimmering green lettering.
Once inside the outdoor queue, you seem to be going deeper and deeper into the forest, with green pines and deciduous trees of the Pacific Northwest. Outdoor air conditioning is hidden through the trees and creates a cooling atmosphere for those in line. The trees hide a fallen tree trunk with a hollow center, which you enter to get into the next area of the forest.
This area of the forest is indoors, but appears to be outside. That means that all of the trees here are “prop trees” (as they are in the rest of the ride) and backdrops in between the trees make the forest look like it goes on forever. Of course, the most jarring thing about this area is that all of the trees are completely dead. It’s winter, and there’s snow on the naked tree limbs, a chilly breeze blows by, and a grayish-white sky stretches far into the distance. Quite a difference from the hot California sun, right? The area is sort of bleak and sad, as the forest isn’t bustling with activity, but rather sort of sad and lonely. Of course, the whole thing is foreign and beautiful, too.
As you get to a particular point on the indoor line, you are asked to wait until another vehicle comes. When you get the go-ahead, you and 11 other people enter the main queuing area, where the first few bars of “Firebird Suite 1919 Version” (0:00-0:30) begin to play very softly in the background. Amidst the snow-covered area you find a vehicle with 12 seats, with 3 rows of 4 people. The vehicle is made up of brown branches, has speakers in it’s headrests, and glides across the “snowy” floor without a track (in reality, the ride uses a metal wire imbedded into the floor to guide the vehicles and, when at certain points in the ride, the vehicles speed up, slow down, and even turns backwards). You enter the vehicles and move into the ride’s opening scenes.
While still in the opening area, not going through any doors or anything, you begin to move deep into the snowy forest. Harps and violins play the soft melodies of the music while you notice an Elk, as a projection, moving through the forest in the distance. (0:30-0:46) You come to a giant cave and enter inside.
As you enter the cave, which is quite barren besides an icicle and a pool of real water, you see the Elk breathing on the blue crystalline icicle. The smoke from the Elk’s mouth travels to the icicle and “melts” the tip of it (Really, a drop of water is released from the tip of the icicle) (0:46-0:50). Soon, a magical Spring Sprite emerges from the drop of water and swims to the Elk in the form of a clear plastic figure (lighted with a projector hanging from above to show her ever-moving rippling water body) rising from the (0:50-1:12). You leave the cave from the other side.
You then enter the cold forest once again, just to see the Spring Sprite swoop from the ceiling to the ground (using wires), covering the ground in green. She herself flows with realistic greenery with the help of a hidden projector that adds movement (and flying insects!) to her figure. The floor changes color as the white floor is actually a scrim that is lit on the underside, exposing the green grass underneath. The light bleeds up and into the rest of the landscape, casting colored lighting on the plants and the bushes as the actual temperature becomes the same as that in a nice springtime California morning (1:12-1:22).
As you pass underneath a tree branch (that acts as a sort of room divider), you see the Spring Sprite just above you, shaking her verdant hair and letting loose a flock of projected butterflies as small mechanical butterflies seem to appear on the surrounding tree branches (the undersides of the butterfly wings are colored brown so they blend in before they “magically appear”). The tree also begins to gain browner and richer color (another lighting effect)(1:22-1:33).
In the next room, you see “streamers” of leaves flow out of the trees out of the warm-colored trees. You notice the Spring Sprite (always lit with a projector) hunched over a small blue flower, which she “rolls up” into a giant yellow bloom. The yellow flower, by-the-by, actually blooms out of the Spring Sprite’s hands, not the stem itself (1:33-1:46).
As you move on, you see the Elk motion to a barren tree, which he sort of looks at in anticipation. You see the Spring Sprite on top of the tree, then she “extends” upwards and into the sky (with her base still attached to the tree). As she flies up, you can see small cherry blossoms “bloom” out of the tree at the same time (to amazing effect) while the Sprite’s body is projected onto with cherry blossoms coming out of her body like confetti (1:46-1:56).
As you turn from the cherry tree, you see the route before you turn green and flower… up to a point. At the end of the trail, black obsidian rocks block the green from flowing. The Spring Sprite can be seen by the “stop” section where she can’t spread her grass any more. She looks puzzled and slightly scared as she looks into the distance, behind the rocks (1:56-2:13).
You take your time to ride through the rock and see the tip of a mountain, which is not too far from where you are. You finally enter the interior of the mountain and see a large, black, rocky node in the center of the circular room and the Spring Sprite, cautiously putting her hand to the node… (2:13-2:45) Suddenly, two angry red eyes light up on the node, the lighting in the room suddenly turns from neutral smoky to bright red, and small flame throwers around the perimeter of the room all, at the same time, shoot a flame, creating a room of heat and flame (2:45-2:46). As the Spring Sprite turns her head up in awe, the node from the center of the room begins to spout insane amounts of fog as the “Firebird” in “smoke form” appear (2:26-2:57). At this point we hightail it out of the volcano and look back to see a giant projection of the Firebird appears (as if coming out of the room you just entered), and blasts of smoke and red (fiber-optic) embers come from the obsidian rocks that surround us, as if the rock is being melted and destroyed. Rocks tumble at you as the Firebird funnels into a smoke cloud and comes down the side of the mountain, projected, as lava (2:57-3:19).
As you go down the path, your car begins to drive backwards and you see the lava, as projection, coming down the route you just rode through, making trees fall and smoke shoot from the ground while you narrowly avoid these elements. You see a full-scale replica of the cherry blossom tree that you just saw bloom and, when the lava Firebird comes by the tree goes up in real flames. You see the Elk off to the side of the tree, looking on in horror (3:19-3:38).
You enter a rock canyon and see that the lava is beginning to follow the Spring Sprite. You see her finding refuge on a small rock pedestal, but more lava is beginning to pour in from the top of the canyon. Suddenly from the floor a giant mouth made of lava (the Firebird) comes up and lunges at the Spring Sprite and us. We leave the area through a split in the rocks (3:38-3:52).
As you exit the rock formation you see the whole forest burning, a column of projected fire on the mountain/volcano on a giant panorama of the whole forest on fire, with the Spring Sprite looking on in absolute terror (3:38-4:00).
You see the Spring Sprite, in the distance (projected) on top of one of the burnt trees. Suddenly the Firebird appears in bird form (in projection) and lunges at the Spring Sprite. As you turn around quickly, you see, in your face, the giant burning body of the Firebird, enhanced with projection and real fire blasts engulfing you too. A final flash of fire in the Firebird’s eyes makes the whole scene go pitch black (4:00-4:20).
As you enter the next scene, an abundance of smoke is present. This is all you see until you notice the charred remains of the trees and beautiful plants we once saw in this area. You slowly move through the area, between the destroyed trees. Finally, we see the Elk once more (4:20-5:25).
You see the Elk once more as you move through the charred forest. He’s standing next to a very small patch of green dust. As he blows on it, mimicking the effect from the beginning of the ride, you stop and see a very small Spring Sprite appears out of the ashes. She is not clear, though, as the ashes have made her grey. Her hair blows as she seems to cry. The Elk puts his head to her body (5:25-6:05).
As you turn away from this sad scene very slowly, you see the burnt and blackened cherry tree sitting at the end of a long hallway of burnt trees. As you see the Elk galloping (in slow motion projection) towards the cherry tree in-between the blackened trees, you see the Spring Sprite (on his horns) crying, and the projected tear trail coming from her plop onto the ground and make grass and flowers begin to grow on the real ground (6:05-7:05).
As the projection hallway fades away, the deep blue Sprite flies off of the Elk’s horns and fly into the sky. At this point, we can see her, with projection enhancement effects, fly overhead. Her body begins as a short sheet, but as we move through the scene her body extends with us. By the end of the room, over our heads we can see the Spring Sprite completely covering the ceiling of the room, projection effects making her body flow and fans making her body blow and the Elk can be seen galloping behind us in AA form (7:05-7:40).
During a musical cue (entering a giant projection dome), a sprinkle of “rain” from the Spring Sprite hits our faces and we can begin to see grass slowly growing from the ground (7:40-7:45)
Suddenly, the black obsidian rock next to us bursts apart and out comes a giant vine (7:46-7:50)!
Prop trees all around us begin to spring up from the ground and grow leaves (projected on the projection dome’s ceiling) (7:50-7:55)!
All sorts of things begin to rapid-grow as the projection dome makes the nature around us turn greener than before and we see the Spring Sprite fly around us and create beauty (7:55-8:05)!
As we leave the dome we immediately get bum-rushed by a flood of pink and orange butterflies, attached to the ceiling and flying on a conveyor belt that lights up for a brief moment (8:05-8:06).
We once again see the Cherry Tree, which, using a similar effect as in the beginning of the ride, she beautifully makes bloom in an instant, much more quickly than before (8:06-8:10).
A rush of green lights and strobe bring us to a 360 panorama of the land, where the Spring Sprite immediately fills with life (accompanied by a bunch of trees and flowers blooming physically in-room). You see the smoking volcano become covered in green grass by the Sprite, achieving her full potential (8:10-8:35).
As you back out of the room backwards while still facing the grass covered volcano and going deeper into the trees as in the beginning of the ride, you suddenly turn around and see a full AA of the Spring Sprite fly from the trees, even more beautiful than before, then fall back into the green vortex she creates (8:35-8:45).
Green grass, green strobes, and green lighting seem to fill the finale room as a wind blows in you hair and a confetti-like shower of grass seems to fall on the scene (via projectors). You are in the thick of the trees and finally see one final glimpse of the now-green volcano through one gap in the trees. The Elk stands by and stares at the Sprite as she happily flies away and brings life back to the forest (8:45-9:15).
You enter the unloading area, which is mainly silent except for the sound of the breezes, the tweet of birds, and the rustling of leaves and grass. You exit you branch car, which, you now notice, has bloomed with the Spring Sprite’s magic during the finale: little flowers and leaves have turned your car from a brown and sad winter car to a spring car. You exit the amazingly lush room and into the forest once again, paying closer attention to the bounties of nature while looking for you next adventure in Nature’s Wonderland.
...And that's Nature's Wonderland for you. An epic land celebrating man's relation to nature, and the mysterious, magical quality that nature possesses. Coming up next though, is something ENTIRELY man made. Have you ever dreamed about what it would be like to visit a city that was built in the clouds? Well, boy do we have the land for you! Stay tuned...
Columbia: The Floating City
While Lumaria began it's work on alternative energy sources, a floating utopian city named Columbia (affectionately called the Floating City) was created. Some say that Columbia floated from the sky on a whim, others say that residents of Columbia are actually members of Lumaria who thought that their revolution would not be successful and retreated to build a Floating City. Though nobody knows exactly how it came into being, it definitely exists now. The Floating City uses burning thrusters to keep it's three connected floating islands in the air, while it uses zeppelin as it's main mode of transport. While small ones are common, elite zeppelin pads depart from the Floating City to float over the main land. As a hub for air transport technology, the Floating City is used for flying machine research.
You have to take sky elevators to get to the Floating City, which can be found in an ornate building on the mainland, accessible from many different cities on the mainland.
Residents of the Floating City don't only include scientists. In fact, one of the more prominent, and mysteriously magical, members of the Floating City's community is a nanny named Mary Poppins, who is rumored to float down to the mainland with a magical umbrella and a carpet bag.
The Aerovators:
Much like how the hydrolators took guests down into the depths of the ocean, the Aerovators does the same brining guests straight up in the floating city of Columbia, the most amazing breakthrough of the early 20th Century. Looking at the façade that is not only for the Aerovators but also the whole land itself(which is completely indoors) guests will see a large, three story ornately decorated building. The tan brick building is covered with large windows on the second and third floor and has large double doors in the middle of the first floor. On each of the six pillars on the front of the building are large banners that look like the American Flag. Above the main door is a large banner colored in red, white and blue that reads “Travel to the Amazing Floating City in the Brand New Aerovators.” Smaller banners that look the same read “1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”
After going through a few switchbacks, guests enter the building through the large double doors. The inside is also ornately decorated with green marble flooring and large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. In the back of the room guests will get their first glimpse of the aerovators. In a large row of six against the wall, the aerovators look like large copper tubes which run from the ground to the ceiling. The part of the tube that guests enter has about five opaque windows around the tube. As guests get to the end of the line and are sent to their designated aerovator, they will start to hear the sounds of the elevators coming back to the ground with a large sound of compressed air. Before the doors open, steam comes out of the vents at the bottom of the doors.
When the doors open, groups of ten guests are escorted into the aerovator. The inside is about as plain as the outside with the exception of the windows and a few red and green buttons next to the door. Once everyone is inside, the doors close as the aerovators seem to shoot upwards. Here, it is revealed that the windows are actually video screens which will show guests how they actually got to the city. In the video, the aerovators move up and out of the building and continue upwards. Looking out through the windows, guests can see zeppelins flying by until they come face to face with the amazing city.
Large balloons are seen continually staying blown up thanks to a series of large burners under each section. As the aerovators continue upwards, they will eventually go into the underbelly of the city when they pass in between the large burners before once again entering the underside of the city. There’s not much to see here. Only the copper tube occasionally going past the windows. After leaving, they will enter the welcome center of the city. This building is themed basically the same as the entrance except this holds a large gift shop with merchandise themed mainly to the city.
The Amazing Flying Machine:
The centerpiece of the Utopian city of Columbia is the Exposition Hall, home of the Amazing Flying Machine. Guests approaching this building will notice that it looks very similar to building which houses the aerovators. Once again, large windows surround the two story building with a large set of doors in the center of the building. Above the door is a large bronze sign which reads "Exposition Hall. City of Columbia 1904." In between the pillars is a large read, white and blue banner which reads "Behold the Wonders of the Amazing Flying Machine."
As guests enter the large double doors, they will notice that the inside is very similar to a museum showcasing many of the advancements in air travel. In the center of the room is a large hot air ballon which goes from the stand that it's on straight to the ceiling above the second floor. Against the walls are large models of things such as the zeppelin and the Wright Flyer. As guests make their way to the back of the room, they will see a scale model of the city of Columbia which is made up of three large floating islands. As guests continue through, they will climb a staircase to the second floor balcony which is placed in the back of the room. Against the wall are four sets of doors that have a bronze plaque above it which reads "Presentation Room."
After a few minutes, the doors open as guests are brought inside. The room has five rows of theater seats with a large screen in front which is themed to look like a small stage. On the screen is an empty stage with an American flag in the back and a small podium off to the sign. Once everyone is in their seats, the mayor of Columbia walks out onto the stage. He is a pretty young person who has a mustache and wears a black suit. He welcomes guests to the city and immediately introduces their special guests who is known only as the inventor. He walks to the podium and in a monotone voice, he explains that over the years, he has attempted to revolutionize the way people travel through the air. He also explains that he has finally figured it out as guests will soon find out. It is then that guests find their purpose for meeting with the inventor. They will be testing the machine. After explaining all this, a trap door opens up as the flying machine is revealed. It is a bit plain and obviously a prototype. The cab is made from wood and has a large, metal helicopter propellor in the center. On each side are a set of wings made from a light colored, papery material with a wood skeleton. Under the cab are a small set of wheels which makes the landings a bit safer. The inventor encourages guests to quickly exit the building to board their flying machine. As guests are leaving, he also says that he'll be controlling them from inside the building.
As guests exit the room, they will find themselves in what appears to be outside but is really a series of projectors that make it look like it's outside. There are four of these rooms(one for each preshow). Everything is a screen from the ceiling even to the floor. The screen makes guests think that they are in the backyard of Exposition Hall. A wrought iron gate surrounds is on three of the four walls. The fourth wall just looks like the back exit of the building. Against the left wall is the flying machine which guests will soon board. Once all of the guests are in the room, the doors of the machine open to allow guests to enter from wither side. The vehicle seats about twenty people with four rows of five. The propellor doesnt affect the seating as it is in between rows. Once everyone is in the machine, the doors close as the inventor comes over the radio to say that he's starting it up. After hearing a few beeps and other noises, the propeller starts to turn faster and faster as the machine lifts off the ground. This is acheived by having the simulator system used in other rides hidden under the flooring until it lifts off the ground. However, guests wont see the lifts or the hole in the floor giving the effect that their really flying.
As the cobblestone walkway that the machine was on gets smaller and smaller, the entirety of the city is revealed to guests on the screens. Guests are given a beautiful view of all three islands, occasionally seeing zeppelins and other aircraft passing by. The machines then dive down a bit as they twist their way through the skyscrapers of the building. After the short scenic tour of the city, the machines zoom forward to continue on but almost crash into a zeppelin, causing the inventor to lose control of the machine. He quickly announces that control has been lost but he'll try to regain it as quickly as possible. One problem though, guests were flying in between two of the islands. The machines suddenly tilt almost straight down as they rapidly fall towards the ground below. Luckily though, The Inventor begins to regain control just as guests fall below the city. As the machine starts going upwards with little control, it twists and turns through the surrounding aerovator shafts, just barely missing some of them. Finally, the inventor regains complete control as the machines keep travelling upwards. As it continues upwards, the machine gets too close to the burners under the city as it gets sucked one of the large balloons which keeps the city afloat. Luckily, the inventor gets guests out quickly while barely missing the flame of the burners. Once out, the machines weave through the large burners until it finally gets back to the top of the city. As the machines start to come in for a landing, the inventor starts to lose control again as it comes crashing down into the backyard almost hitting the wrought iron fence. As the machines come to a stop, the inventor comes over the radio and apologizes for putting them in so much danger. He also says that he'll make sure all the bugs are worked out for next time.
Guests exit the vehicle and reenter the building through a different door which brings them into the boiler room. Guests continue through the room until they come out the side entrance of the building
A Jolly Holiday with Mary Poppins:
Queue & Facade: Guests will approach one of the buildings in the city that happens to be a retail/residential living building. This is the home of Mary Poppins, guests will enter her "condo" per say right off the street passing through her entry way, through the kitchen, through the parlor, up the stairs, through the hallway, past her bedroom, through the library and out onto the balcony. Here after a short series of switchbacks the umbrella-carpet bag cars will come down, drop of returning guests and pick up new ones waiting on the balcony. The cars would then fly up over the railings of the balcony and into the "clouds" (fog) below, there the carts would turn into a largely fog free show building
Ride:
Guests pass under the fog and into what appears to by the sky above London, here we see Mary sitting on a Cloud re-reading the letter she received from the Banks Children. Guests then dive down just slightly more, through a cloud, and find themselves in front of the Banks Household with Mary Floating along side.
The carpet bags fly through the door that opens up into the Children’s nursery playroom where the spoon full of sugar scene is occurring. Blocks with hidden meanings abound and small Disney toys as well as traditional toys come to life around the room. Guests then fly into a mural along the nursery wall that opens up into the horse race where the Carpet Bags run alongside the horses for a short time before arriving at the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show scene.
Shortly after the carpet bags rise up into the sky coming out of a chalk painting outside the Bank’s household where Jane and Michael are explaining to Bert what happened at the bank. Guests then rise up alongside the house up to the rooftops where Step in Time is occurring with some of the most advanced AA’s of all time.
Guests then go slightly downwards and enter into the sleeping area of the Nursery Where Mary is singing feed the birds. Out the window riders can see The Old Bird Woman on the steps of the cathedral across from the bank as though they were much closer to the house, just on the other side of the par esq. Meanwhile the Snow globe Mary holds is much large for guests to be able to see inside where the scene of Mr. Banks being fired is playing out.
Guests then head through Mary’s nanny bedroom passing by such notable aspects as her mirror, measuring tape, medicine, and carpet bag. They then head out her window out onto cherry tree lane where everyone is flying kites together and Mr. Banks is flying one while shaking hands with the new head of the Bank while standing with his children. Bert is also there selling kites and Mary is “flying away” next to the guests. They then head up through some more “clouds” and out into the outdoor area of the Flying City main show building.
Return: from time to time vehicle has been rising up so the guests only fly up a little ways and then come out of the show building from the side of ceiling of the flying city area show building (Mary is on the back end so the ride show building is spread out from the house building to an area outside.) They then float down to the balcony and go down another staircase into a shop with various Mary Poppins themed merchandise from Umbrellas and carpet bags and tape measures, to a small "Medicine" snow cone bar serving various flavors of medicine such as "Rum Punch".
Uncle Albert's:
The largest Peppers Ghost ever built Uncle Albert’s is a full service family friendly restaurant where guests can enjoy great food from “up in the air”. All of the tables are located on glass floors under which are dioramas/peppers ghost/projection combination rooms of Uncle Albert’s other house. Guests looking down feel like they are eating on the ceiling, the restaurant will play background music from the movie as well as holds characters breakfasts where a random mix of Disney Characters as well as Mary Poppins, Bert, and Uncle Albert himself come out and mingle with the guests in the “We Love to Laugh” Character meals. The restaurant’s menu will feature themed fair very similar to the menu below but also with some special dishes and drinks such as Mr. Banks’ Breakfast and Mary’s Medicine Mixers (Specialty flavored sodas and juices).
The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant:
Guests exploring this fantastic city of the sky will come upon one of the more upscale restaurants which provides great food and a one of a kind experience. The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant is placed inside what appears to be the actual cab of a zeppelin. The outside of the restaurant looks like two somewhat large, metal hangers which are separated by a small, tan brick building which somewhat resembles a library or judicial house. As guests look out at the hangers, they will notice that the very tops of the blimps are poking through the top of the hanger. They just look like any other blimp with the metallic silver painted on the balloon.
As guests enter the center building, they will be greeted with a brightly lit, upscale room that can only be compared to the waiting room of Tutto Italia. The room is painted a very light tan and has a dark red rug covering the floors. Small, white columns are placed in each corner of the room. A small circular couch is placed in the very center of the room directly under a large, ornate chandelier which gives the room most of its light. In the left corner, a large dark wood table is placed where guests can go and make reservations and sign in. After entering, guests will be greeted by a CM who helps them sign in their reservation, lets them chose which zeppelin they would like to board, gives them a boarding pass and directs them into one of two waiting areas. The room on the right is themed mainly American Flight. This room holds 40 people which are the biggest amount of guests to fit in each zeppelin. This room also has tan walls but a blue carpet. Leather couches are placed around the walls of the room. The walls are covered with black and white pictures showing many of the breakthroughs in flying including the Wright Brothers flying machine, biplanes, sea planes and of course blimps. In the back corner is a large record player which plays old classical music and if guests listen closely, they may hear a orchestrated version of a certain Adventurer’s Club theme song. The room to the left of the main room is themed to European Flight. This room is set up about the same as the American Flight room but has black and white pictures reflecting European Flight including DaVinci’s flying machines, hot air balloons, the Albatross II and zeppelins. There is also a bookcase in the back of the room which features books such as De la Terre a la Lune, Cinq Semaines en Ballon, Le Tour de Monde en Quatre-Vigts Jours and Le Chemin de France.
Every hour on the hour, groups of thirty are brought into the zeppelin of their choosing(depending on which waiting area they’re in.) The room is covered with screens which look like the inside of the hanger(thanks to projectors. If guests look up, they will see the bottom half of the balloon which is colored in metallic silver. The metal cab of the zeppelin is a dark green with gold outlining. On the side of the America Zeppelin has the numbers 1903(year of the first flight) while the Europe Zeppelin has the numbers 1873(year Around the World in 80 Days was released.) The zeppelins have large windows on each side which take up about a quarter of the wall. A large curved window is in the very front to give guests a forward view of what’s going on. Once inside the zeppelin, guests will find themselves in the brightly lit dining room. The light wood flooring and the dark green walls reflects the light making it even lighter and inviting. Tables are placed along the walls of the first and second floors. These tables are a bit big but leave enough room for guests and cast members to walk through with ease. In the very front of the cab is a large wheel which allows the zeppelin to be turned. Guests will be allowed to get their pictures taken at this wheel at certain times during their “flight”. In the back corner of the cab is a small spiral staircase that leads up to the second floor. The seats are set up basically the same as the bottom floor except for one table which is placed on an overhang in the front of the cab.
Once everyone is settled into their seats, a voice is heard over a loud speaker announcing that their flight will begin shortly. After a minute, the door to the cab is closed as the staircase into the zeppelin is moved away. Suddenly, the hum of an engine is heard as a voice comes over the loudspeakers saying “Welcome to the Royal Zeppelin Restaurant. We are about to start our ascent and ask you to remain seated until we reach a safe level. Your waiters will then take your order and start your meal. While you’re waiting though, feel free to take a look at the menu. Thank you and enjoy your flight.” Once that announcement is over, the lights dim as the screens in front and to the side of the zeppelin give the appearance of it rising out of the hanger and into the clouds. Once in the clouds, the captain comes over the loudspeaker and says “We are now at a safe level. Please feel free to get up and enjoy the scenery as your orders are being taken.” The only differences between each video is that the America Zeppelin visits places such as Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, New York City, Washington D.C. and Yosemite National Park while the Europe Zeppelin visits places such as Paris, London, Rome and Venice.
During the flight, guests are treated to a three course meal which includes Calamari, Bruchetta, Escargot, Kobe Burgers, Duck, Salmon, Lava Cake, Ice Cream and the Zeppelin sundae which is a banana split made in a bowl that is shaped to look like the zeppelin(the ice cream is made to look like the balloon.) After the hour flight, the zeppelins make their descent back into the hanger where they exit back into the lobby and come back out the front to continue exploring the Floating City.
Menu
Zeppelin 1903(America)
Appetizers
Maryland Crab Cakes- An American Classic. Three of the crab cakes you all know and love served with tartar sauce.
California Rolls- A Japanese staple with an American twist. Five are served with wasabi and ginger.
Duck Three Ways- Confit, Rillette and fleischenecke served with orange gastrique.
Cobb Salad- Another American classic made with lettuce, bacon, chicken, egg, avocado and topped with a red-wine vinaigrette and Roquefort Cheese.
Entrees
Filet Mignon-The most tender choice cut of beef served medium rare with steak sauce and a side of potato wedges and asparagus.
Twin Lobster Tail and Scallops-Twin lobster tails steamed to perfection and served with melted butter and a small side of scallops.
Beef Wellington-The classic dish drizzled with steak sauce and served with mashed potatoes and a choice of vegetable.
Kobe Beef Burger-Some of the tenderest beef which creates one of the most tender and delicious burgers ever created. Comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mustard with a side of French fries. Cheese optional.
Swordfish Steak-A large swordfish steak served with broccoli.
Zeppelin 1873(Europe)
Appetizers
Escargot-Escargot served in garlic sauce
French Onion Soup-The classic French soup served with oyster crackers and cheese(optional)
Bruchetta-Italian bread covered with diced tomatoes and cheese. Served with marinara sauce.
Pasta Fagioli-The traditional Italian Soup served with oyster crackers.
Entrees
Duck Confit-Half a breast and one leg of the duck served confit with a side of green beans and sweet potatoes.
Pasta in Clam Sauce-Spaghetti served with a generous helping of white clam sauce.
Spaghetti with meatballs-The classic spaghetti and meatballs served in a homemade marinara sauce
Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich-The classic French staple served with a side of potato wedges.
Dessert(Served in both Zeppelins)
Cream Puffs-Four cream puffs sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Mount Sneffels Lava Flow Cake-This delicious chocolate dessert is a simple lava cake but on a bigger scale. The actual cake is about six inches tall and serves up to three people. When guests put their fork into the gooey warm cake, ‘lava’ begins to flow in the form of hot chocolate. This is also served with two scoops of ice cream which surround the cake.
The Royal Zeppelin Sundae-A regular banana split placed in a bowl which takes the shape of the zeppelin which guests are already in. The ice cream is made to look like the balloon while the stand looks like the cab of the zeppelin. Serves up to four guests
Well what do you think? Hungry yet? I know I sure am. You know what I'm more hungry for than food though...I'm hungry to get this darn project completely posted already. So with that in mind, let's head into our next land. It's one I think a lot of people have been greatly looking forward to.
Columbia: The Floating City
While Lumaria began it's work on alternative energy sources, a floating utopian city named Columbia (affectionately called the Floating City) was created. Some say that Columbia floated from the sky on a whim, others say that residents of Columbia are actually members of Lumaria who thought that their revolution would not be successful and retreated to build a Floating City. Though nobody knows exactly how it came into being, it definitely exists now. The Floating City uses burning thrusters to keep it's three connected floating islands in the air, while it uses zeppelin as it's main mode of transport. While small ones are common, elite zeppelin pads depart from the Floating City to float over the main land. As a hub for air transport technology, the Floating City is used for flying machine research.
You have to take sky elevators to get to the Floating City, which can be found in an ornate building on the mainland, accessible from many different cities on the mainland.
Residents of the Floating City don't only include scientists. In fact, one of the more prominent, and mysteriously magical, members of the Floating City's community is a nanny named Mary Poppins, who is rumored to float down to the mainland with a magical umbrella and a carpet bag.
The Aerovators:
Much like how the hydrolators took guests down into the depths of the ocean, the Aerovators does the same brining guests straight up in the floating city of Columbia, the most amazing breakthrough of the early 20th Century. Looking at the façade that is not only for the Aerovators but also the whole land itself(which is completely indoors) guests will see a large, three story ornately decorated building. The tan brick building is covered with large windows on the second and third floor and has large double doors in the middle of the first floor. On each of the six pillars on the front of the building are large banners that look like the American Flag. Above the main door is a large banner colored in red, white and blue that reads “Travel to the Amazing Floating City in the Brand New Aerovators.” Smaller banners that look the same read “1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”
After going through a few switchbacks, guests enter the building through the large double doors. The inside is also ornately decorated with green marble flooring and large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. In the back of the room guests will get their first glimpse of the aerovators. In a large row of six against the wall, the aerovators look like large copper tubes which run from the ground to the ceiling. The part of the tube that guests enter has about five opaque windows around the tube. As guests get to the end of the line and are sent to their designated aerovator, they will start to hear the sounds of the elevators coming back to the ground with a large sound of compressed air. Before the doors open, steam comes out of the vents at the bottom of the doors.
When the doors open, groups of ten guests are escorted into the aerovator. The inside is about as plain as the outside with the exception of the windows and a few red and green buttons next to the door. Once everyone is inside, the doors close as the aerovators seem to shoot upwards. Here, it is revealed that the windows are actually video screens which will show guests how they actually got to the city. In the video, the aerovators move up and out of the building and continue upwards. Looking out through the windows, guests can see zeppelins flying by until they come face to face with the amazing city.
Large balloons are seen continually staying blown up thanks to a series of large burners under each section. As the aerovators continue upwards, they will eventually go into the underbelly of the city when they pass in between the large burners before once again entering the underside of the city. There’s not much to see here. Only the copper tube occasionally going past the windows. After leaving, they will enter the welcome center of the city. This building is themed basically the same as the entrance except this holds a large gift shop with merchandise themed mainly to the city.
The Amazing Flying Machine:
The centerpiece of the Utopian city of Columbia is the Exposition Hall, home of the Amazing Flying Machine. Guests approaching this building will notice that it looks very similar to building which houses the aerovators. Once again, large windows surround the two story building with a large set of doors in the center of the building. Above the door is a large bronze sign which reads "Exposition Hall. City of Columbia 1904." In between the pillars is a large read, white and blue banner which reads "Behold the Wonders of the Amazing Flying Machine."
As guests enter the large double doors, they will notice that the inside is very similar to a museum showcasing many of the advancements in air travel. In the center of the room is a large hot air ballon which goes from the stand that it's on straight to the ceiling above the second floor. Against the walls are large models of things such as the zeppelin and the Wright Flyer. As guests make their way to the back of the room, they will see a scale model of the city of Columbia which is made up of three large floating islands. As guests continue through, they will climb a staircase to the second floor balcony which is placed in the back of the room. Against the wall are four sets of doors that have a bronze plaque above it which reads "Presentation Room."
After a few minutes, the doors open as guests are brought inside. The room has five rows of theater seats with a large screen in front which is themed to look like a small stage. On the screen is an empty stage with an American flag in the back and a small podium off to the sign. Once everyone is in their seats, the mayor of Columbia walks out onto the stage. He is a pretty young person who has a mustache and wears a black suit. He welcomes guests to the city and immediately introduces their special guests who is known only as the inventor. He walks to the podium and in a monotone voice, he explains that over the years, he has attempted to revolutionize the way people travel through the air. He also explains that he has finally figured it out as guests will soon find out. It is then that guests find their purpose for meeting with the inventor. They will be testing the machine. After explaining all this, a trap door opens up as the flying machine is revealed. It is a bit plain and obviously a prototype. The cab is made from wood and has a large, metal helicopter propellor in the center. On each side are a set of wings made from a light colored, papery material with a wood skeleton. Under the cab are a small set of wheels which makes the landings a bit safer. The inventor encourages guests to quickly exit the building to board their flying machine. As guests are leaving, he also says that he'll be controlling them from inside the building.
As guests exit the room, they will find themselves in what appears to be outside but is really a series of projectors that make it look like it's outside. There are four of these rooms(one for each preshow). Everything is a screen from the ceiling even to the floor. The screen makes guests think that they are in the backyard of Exposition Hall. A wrought iron gate surrounds is on three of the four walls. The fourth wall just looks like the back exit of the building. Against the left wall is the flying machine which guests will soon board. Once all of the guests are in the room, the doors of the machine open to allow guests to enter from wither side. The vehicle seats about twenty people with four rows of five. The propellor doesnt affect the seating as it is in between rows. Once everyone is in the machine, the doors close as the inventor comes over the radio to say that he's starting it up. After hearing a few beeps and other noises, the propeller starts to turn faster and faster as the machine lifts off the ground. This is acheived by having the simulator system used in other rides hidden under the flooring until it lifts off the ground. However, guests wont see the lifts or the hole in the floor giving the effect that their really flying.
As the cobblestone walkway that the machine was on gets smaller and smaller, the entirety of the city is revealed to guests on the screens. Guests are given a beautiful view of all three islands, occasionally seeing zeppelins and other aircraft passing by. The machines then dive down a bit as they twist their way through the skyscrapers of the building. After the short scenic tour of the city, the machines zoom forward to continue on but almost crash into a zeppelin, causing the inventor to lose control of the machine. He quickly announces that control has been lost but he'll try to regain it as quickly as possible. One problem though, guests were flying in between two of the islands. The machines suddenly tilt almost straight down as they rapidly fall towards the ground below. Luckily though, The Inventor begins to regain control just as guests fall below the city. As the machine starts going upwards with little control, it twists and turns through the surrounding aerovator shafts, just barely missing some of them. Finally, the inventor regains complete control as the machines keep travelling upwards. As it continues upwards, the machine gets too close to the burners under the city as it gets sucked one of the large balloons which keeps the city afloat. Luckily, the inventor gets guests out quickly while barely missing the flame of the burners. Once out, the machines weave through the large burners until it finally gets back to the top of the city. As the machines start to come in for a landing, the inventor starts to lose control again as it comes crashing down into the backyard almost hitting the wrought iron fence. As the machines come to a stop, the inventor comes over the radio and apologizes for putting them in so much danger. He also says that he'll make sure all the bugs are worked out for next time.
Guests exit the vehicle and reenter the building through a different door which brings them into the boiler room. Guests continue through the room until they come out the side entrance of the building
A Jolly Holiday with Mary Poppins:
Queue & Facade: Guests will approach one of the buildings in the city that happens to be a retail/residential living building. This is the home of Mary Poppins, guests will enter her "condo" per say right off the street passing through her entry way, through the kitchen, through the parlor, up the stairs, through the hallway, past her bedroom, through the library and out onto the balcony. Here after a short series of switchbacks the umbrella-carpet bag cars will come down, drop of returning guests and pick up new ones waiting on the balcony. The cars would then fly up over the railings of the balcony and into the "clouds" (fog) below, there the carts would turn into a largely fog free show building
Ride:
Guests pass under the fog and into what appears to by the sky above London, here we see Mary sitting on a Cloud re-reading the letter she received from the Banks Children. Guests then dive down just slightly more, through a cloud, and find themselves in front of the Banks Household with Mary Floating along side.
The carpet bags fly through the door that opens up into the Children’s nursery playroom where the spoon full of sugar scene is occurring. Blocks with hidden meanings abound and small Disney toys as well as traditional toys come to life around the room. Guests then fly into a mural along the nursery wall that opens up into the horse race where the Carpet Bags run alongside the horses for a short time before arriving at the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show scene.
Shortly after the carpet bags rise up into the sky coming out of a chalk painting outside the Bank’s household where Jane and Michael are explaining to Bert what happened at the bank. Guests then rise up alongside the house up to the rooftops where Step in Time is occurring with some of the most advanced AA’s of all time.
Guests then go slightly downwards and enter into the sleeping area of the Nursery Where Mary is singing feed the birds. Out the window riders can see The Old Bird Woman on the steps of the cathedral across from the bank as though they were much closer to the house, just on the other side of the par esq. Meanwhile the Snow globe Mary holds is much large for guests to be able to see inside where the scene of Mr. Banks being fired is playing out.
Guests then head through Mary’s nanny bedroom passing by such notable aspects as her mirror, measuring tape, medicine, and carpet bag. They then head out her window out onto cherry tree lane where everyone is flying kites together and Mr. Banks is flying one while shaking hands with the new head of the Bank while standing with his children. Bert is also there selling kites and Mary is “flying away” next to the guests. They then head up through some more “clouds” and out into the outdoor area of the Flying City main show building.
Return: from time to time vehicle has been rising up so the guests only fly up a little ways and then come out of the show building from the side of ceiling of the flying city area show building (Mary is on the back end so the ride show building is spread out from the house building to an area outside.) They then float down to the balcony and go down another staircase into a shop with various Mary Poppins themed merchandise from Umbrellas and carpet bags and tape measures, to a small "Medicine" snow cone bar serving various flavors of medicine such as "Rum Punch".
Uncle Albert's:
The largest Peppers Ghost ever built Uncle Albert’s is a full service family friendly restaurant where guests can enjoy great food from “up in the air”. All of the tables are located on glass floors under which are dioramas/peppers ghost/projection combination rooms of Uncle Albert’s other house. Guests looking down feel like they are eating on the ceiling, the restaurant will play background music from the movie as well as holds characters breakfasts where a random mix of Disney Characters as well as Mary Poppins, Bert, and Uncle Albert himself come out and mingle with the guests in the “We Love to Laugh” Character meals. The restaurant’s menu will feature themed fair very similar to the menu below but also with some special dishes and drinks such as Mr. Banks’ Breakfast and Mary’s Medicine Mixers (Specialty flavored sodas and juices).
The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant:
Guests exploring this fantastic city of the sky will come upon one of the more upscale restaurants which provides great food and a one of a kind experience. The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant is placed inside what appears to be the actual cab of a zeppelin. The outside of the restaurant looks like two somewhat large, metal hangers which are separated by a small, tan brick building which somewhat resembles a library or judicial house. As guests look out at the hangers, they will notice that the very tops of the blimps are poking through the top of the hanger. They just look like any other blimp with the metallic silver painted on the balloon.
As guests enter the center building, they will be greeted with a brightly lit, upscale room that can only be compared to the waiting room of Tutto Italia. The room is painted a very light tan and has a dark red rug covering the floors. Small, white columns are placed in each corner of the room. A small circular couch is placed in the very center of the room directly under a large, ornate chandelier which gives the room most of its light. In the left corner, a large dark wood table is placed where guests can go and make reservations and sign in. After entering, guests will be greeted by a CM who helps them sign in their reservation, lets them chose which zeppelin they would like to board, gives them a boarding pass and directs them into one of two waiting areas. The room on the right is themed mainly American Flight. This room holds 40 people which are the biggest amount of guests to fit in each zeppelin. This room also has tan walls but a blue carpet. Leather couches are placed around the walls of the room. The walls are covered with black and white pictures showing many of the breakthroughs in flying including the Wright Brothers flying machine, biplanes, sea planes and of course blimps. In the back corner is a large record player which plays old classical music and if guests listen closely, they may hear a orchestrated version of a certain Adventurer’s Club theme song. The room to the left of the main room is themed to European Flight. This room is set up about the same as the American Flight room but has black and white pictures reflecting European Flight including DaVinci’s flying machines, hot air balloons, the Albatross II and zeppelins. There is also a bookcase in the back of the room which features books such as De la Terre a la Lune, Cinq Semaines en Ballon, Le Tour de Monde en Quatre-Vigts Jours and Le Chemin de France.
Every hour on the hour, groups of thirty are brought into the zeppelin of their choosing(depending on which waiting area they’re in.) The room is covered with screens which look like the inside of the hanger(thanks to projectors. If guests look up, they will see the bottom half of the balloon which is colored in metallic silver. The metal cab of the zeppelin is a dark green with gold outlining. On the side of the America Zeppelin has the numbers 1903(year of the first flight) while the Europe Zeppelin has the numbers 1873(year Around the World in 80 Days was released.) The zeppelins have large windows on each side which take up about a quarter of the wall. A large curved window is in the very front to give guests a forward view of what’s going on. Once inside the zeppelin, guests will find themselves in the brightly lit dining room. The light wood flooring and the dark green walls reflects the light making it even lighter and inviting. Tables are placed along the walls of the first and second floors. These tables are a bit big but leave enough room for guests and cast members to walk through with ease. In the very front of the cab is a large wheel which allows the zeppelin to be turned. Guests will be allowed to get their pictures taken at this wheel at certain times during their “flight”. In the back corner of the cab is a small spiral staircase that leads up to the second floor. The seats are set up basically the same as the bottom floor except for one table which is placed on an overhang in the front of the cab.
Once everyone is settled into their seats, a voice is heard over a loud speaker announcing that their flight will begin shortly. After a minute, the door to the cab is closed as the staircase into the zeppelin is moved away. Suddenly, the hum of an engine is heard as a voice comes over the loudspeakers saying “Welcome to the Royal Zeppelin Restaurant. We are about to start our ascent and ask you to remain seated until we reach a safe level. Your waiters will then take your order and start your meal. While you’re waiting though, feel free to take a look at the menu. Thank you and enjoy your flight.” Once that announcement is over, the lights dim as the screens in front and to the side of the zeppelin give the appearance of it rising out of the hanger and into the clouds. Once in the clouds, the captain comes over the loudspeaker and says “We are now at a safe level. Please feel free to get up and enjoy the scenery as your orders are being taken.” The only differences between each video is that the America Zeppelin visits places such as Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, New York City, Washington D.C. and Yosemite National Park while the Europe Zeppelin visits places such as Paris, London, Rome and Venice.
During the flight, guests are treated to a three course meal which includes Calamari, Bruchetta, Escargot, Kobe Burgers, Duck, Salmon, Lava Cake, Ice Cream and the Zeppelin sundae which is a banana split made in a bowl that is shaped to look like the zeppelin(the ice cream is made to look like the balloon.) After the hour flight, the zeppelins make their descent back into the hanger where they exit back into the lobby and come back out the front to continue exploring the Floating City.
Menu
Zeppelin 1903(America)
Appetizers
Maryland Crab Cakes- An American Classic. Three of the crab cakes you all know and love served with tartar sauce.
California Rolls- A Japanese staple with an American twist. Five are served with wasabi and ginger.
Duck Three Ways- Confit, Rillette and fleischenecke served with orange gastrique.
Cobb Salad- Another American classic made with lettuce, bacon, chicken, egg, avocado and topped with a red-wine vinaigrette and Roquefort Cheese.
Entrees
Filet Mignon-The most tender choice cut of beef served medium rare with steak sauce and a side of potato wedges and asparagus.
Twin Lobster Tail and Scallops-Twin lobster tails steamed to perfection and served with melted butter and a small side of scallops.
Beef Wellington-The classic dish drizzled with steak sauce and served with mashed potatoes and a choice of vegetable.
Kobe Beef Burger-Some of the tenderest beef which creates one of the most tender and delicious burgers ever created. Comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mustard with a side of French fries. Cheese optional.
Swordfish Steak-A large swordfish steak served with broccoli.
Zeppelin 1873(Europe)
Appetizers
Escargot-Escargot served in garlic sauce
French Onion Soup-The classic French soup served with oyster crackers and cheese(optional)
Bruchetta-Italian bread covered with diced tomatoes and cheese. Served with marinara sauce.
Pasta Fagioli-The traditional Italian Soup served with oyster crackers.
Entrees
Duck Confit-Half a breast and one leg of the duck served confit with a side of green beans and sweet potatoes.
Pasta in Clam Sauce-Spaghetti served with a generous helping of white clam sauce.
Spaghetti with meatballs-The classic spaghetti and meatballs served in a homemade marinara sauce
Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich-The classic French staple served with a side of potato wedges.
Dessert(Served in both Zeppelins)
Cream Puffs-Four cream puffs sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Mount Sneffels Lava Flow Cake-This delicious chocolate dessert is a simple lava cake but on a bigger scale. The actual cake is about six inches tall and serves up to three people. When guests put their fork into the gooey warm cake, ‘lava’ begins to flow in the form of hot chocolate. This is also served with two scoops of ice cream which surround the cake.
The Royal Zeppelin Sundae-A regular banana split placed in a bowl which takes the shape of the zeppelin which guests are already in. The ice cream is made to look like the balloon while the stand looks like the cab of the zeppelin. Serves up to four guests
Well what do you think? Hungry yet? I know I sure am. You know what I'm more hungry for than food though...I'm hungry to get this darn project completely posted already. So with that in mind, let's head into our next land. It's one I think a lot of people have been greatly looking forward to.
Columbia: The Floating City
While Lumaria began it's work on alternative energy sources, a floating utopian city named Columbia (affectionately called the Floating City) was created. Some say that Columbia floated from the sky on a whim, others say that residents of Columbia are actually members of Lumaria who thought that their revolution would not be successful and retreated to build a Floating City. Though nobody knows exactly how it came into being, it definitely exists now. The Floating City uses burning thrusters to keep it's three connected floating islands in the air, while it uses zeppelin as it's main mode of transport. While small ones are common, elite zeppelin pads depart from the Floating City to float over the main land. As a hub for air transport technology, the Floating City is used for flying machine research.
You have to take sky elevators to get to the Floating City, which can be found in an ornate building on the mainland, accessible from many different cities on the mainland.
Residents of the Floating City don't only include scientists. In fact, one of the more prominent, and mysteriously magical, members of the Floating City's community is a nanny named Mary Poppins, who is rumored to float down to the mainland with a magical umbrella and a carpet bag.
The Aerovators:
Much like how the hydrolators took guests down into the depths of the ocean, the Aerovators does the same brining guests straight up in the floating city of Columbia, the most amazing breakthrough of the early 20th Century. Looking at the façade that is not only for the Aerovators but also the whole land itself(which is completely indoors) guests will see a large, three story ornately decorated building. The tan brick building is covered with large windows on the second and third floor and has large double doors in the middle of the first floor. On each of the six pillars on the front of the building are large banners that look like the American Flag. Above the main door is a large banner colored in red, white and blue that reads “Travel to the Amazing Floating City in the Brand New Aerovators.” Smaller banners that look the same read “1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”
After going through a few switchbacks, guests enter the building through the large double doors. The inside is also ornately decorated with green marble flooring and large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. In the back of the room guests will get their first glimpse of the aerovators. In a large row of six against the wall, the aerovators look like large copper tubes which run from the ground to the ceiling. The part of the tube that guests enter has about five opaque windows around the tube. As guests get to the end of the line and are sent to their designated aerovator, they will start to hear the sounds of the elevators coming back to the ground with a large sound of compressed air. Before the doors open, steam comes out of the vents at the bottom of the doors.
When the doors open, groups of ten guests are escorted into the aerovator. The inside is about as plain as the outside with the exception of the windows and a few red and green buttons next to the door. Once everyone is inside, the doors close as the aerovators seem to shoot upwards. Here, it is revealed that the windows are actually video screens which will show guests how they actually got to the city. In the video, the aerovators move up and out of the building and continue upwards. Looking out through the windows, guests can see zeppelins flying by until they come face to face with the amazing city.
Large balloons are seen continually staying blown up thanks to a series of large burners under each section. As the aerovators continue upwards, they will eventually go into the underbelly of the city when they pass in between the large burners before once again entering the underside of the city. There’s not much to see here. Only the copper tube occasionally going past the windows. After leaving, they will enter the welcome center of the city. This building is themed basically the same as the entrance except this holds a large gift shop with merchandise themed mainly to the city.
The Amazing Flying Machine:
The centerpiece of the Utopian city of Columbia is the Exposition Hall, home of the Amazing Flying Machine. Guests approaching this building will notice that it looks very similar to building which houses the aerovators. Once again, large windows surround the two story building with a large set of doors in the center of the building. Above the door is a large bronze sign which reads "Exposition Hall. City of Columbia 1904." In between the pillars is a large read, white and blue banner which reads "Behold the Wonders of the Amazing Flying Machine."
As guests enter the large double doors, they will notice that the inside is very similar to a museum showcasing many of the advancements in air travel. In the center of the room is a large hot air ballon which goes from the stand that it's on straight to the ceiling above the second floor. Against the walls are large models of things such as the zeppelin and the Wright Flyer. As guests make their way to the back of the room, they will see a scale model of the city of Columbia which is made up of three large floating islands. As guests continue through, they will climb a staircase to the second floor balcony which is placed in the back of the room. Against the wall are four sets of doors that have a bronze plaque above it which reads "Presentation Room."
After a few minutes, the doors open as guests are brought inside. The room has five rows of theater seats with a large screen in front which is themed to look like a small stage. On the screen is an empty stage with an American flag in the back and a small podium off to the sign. Once everyone is in their seats, the mayor of Columbia walks out onto the stage. He is a pretty young person who has a mustache and wears a black suit. He welcomes guests to the city and immediately introduces their special guests who is known only as the inventor. He walks to the podium and in a monotone voice, he explains that over the years, he has attempted to revolutionize the way people travel through the air. He also explains that he has finally figured it out as guests will soon find out. It is then that guests find their purpose for meeting with the inventor. They will be testing the machine. After explaining all this, a trap door opens up as the flying machine is revealed. It is a bit plain and obviously a prototype. The cab is made from wood and has a large, metal helicopter propellor in the center. On each side are a set of wings made from a light colored, papery material with a wood skeleton. Under the cab are a small set of wheels which makes the landings a bit safer. The inventor encourages guests to quickly exit the building to board their flying machine. As guests are leaving, he also says that he'll be controlling them from inside the building.
As guests exit the room, they will find themselves in what appears to be outside but is really a series of projectors that make it look like it's outside. There are four of these rooms(one for each preshow). Everything is a screen from the ceiling even to the floor. The screen makes guests think that they are in the backyard of Exposition Hall. A wrought iron gate surrounds is on three of the four walls. The fourth wall just looks like the back exit of the building. Against the left wall is the flying machine which guests will soon board. Once all of the guests are in the room, the doors of the machine open to allow guests to enter from wither side. The vehicle seats about twenty people with four rows of five. The propellor doesnt affect the seating as it is in between rows. Once everyone is in the machine, the doors close as the inventor comes over the radio to say that he's starting it up. After hearing a few beeps and other noises, the propeller starts to turn faster and faster as the machine lifts off the ground. This is acheived by having the simulator system used in other rides hidden under the flooring until it lifts off the ground. However, guests wont see the lifts or the hole in the floor giving the effect that their really flying.
As the cobblestone walkway that the machine was on gets smaller and smaller, the entirety of the city is revealed to guests on the screens. Guests are given a beautiful view of all three islands, occasionally seeing zeppelins and other aircraft passing by. The machines then dive down a bit as they twist their way through the skyscrapers of the building. After the short scenic tour of the city, the machines zoom forward to continue on but almost crash into a zeppelin, causing the inventor to lose control of the machine. He quickly announces that control has been lost but he'll try to regain it as quickly as possible. One problem though, guests were flying in between two of the islands. The machines suddenly tilt almost straight down as they rapidly fall towards the ground below. Luckily though, The Inventor begins to regain control just as guests fall below the city. As the machine starts going upwards with little control, it twists and turns through the surrounding aerovator shafts, just barely missing some of them. Finally, the inventor regains complete control as the machines keep travelling upwards. As it continues upwards, the machine gets too close to the burners under the city as it gets sucked one of the large balloons which keeps the city afloat. Luckily, the inventor gets guests out quickly while barely missing the flame of the burners. Once out, the machines weave through the large burners until it finally gets back to the top of the city. As the machines start to come in for a landing, the inventor starts to lose control again as it comes crashing down into the backyard almost hitting the wrought iron fence. As the machines come to a stop, the inventor comes over the radio and apologizes for putting them in so much danger. He also says that he'll make sure all the bugs are worked out for next time.
Guests exit the vehicle and reenter the building through a different door which brings them into the boiler room. Guests continue through the room until they come out the side entrance of the building
A Jolly Holiday with Mary Poppins:
Queue & Facade: Guests will approach one of the buildings in the city that happens to be a retail/residential living building. This is the home of Mary Poppins, guests will enter her "condo" per say right off the street passing through her entry way, through the kitchen, through the parlor, up the stairs, through the hallway, past her bedroom, through the library and out onto the balcony. Here after a short series of switchbacks the umbrella-carpet bag cars will come down, drop of returning guests and pick up new ones waiting on the balcony. The cars would then fly up over the railings of the balcony and into the "clouds" (fog) below, there the carts would turn into a largely fog free show building
Ride:
Guests pass under the fog and into what appears to by the sky above London, here we see Mary sitting on a Cloud re-reading the letter she received from the Banks Children. Guests then dive down just slightly more, through a cloud, and find themselves in front of the Banks Household with Mary Floating along side.
The carpet bags fly through the door that opens up into the Children’s nursery playroom where the spoon full of sugar scene is occurring. Blocks with hidden meanings abound and small Disney toys as well as traditional toys come to life around the room. Guests then fly into a mural along the nursery wall that opens up into the horse race where the Carpet Bags run alongside the horses for a short time before arriving at the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show scene.
Shortly after the carpet bags rise up into the sky coming out of a chalk painting outside the Bank’s household where Jane and Michael are explaining to Bert what happened at the bank. Guests then rise up alongside the house up to the rooftops where Step in Time is occurring with some of the most advanced AA’s of all time.
Guests then go slightly downwards and enter into the sleeping area of the Nursery Where Mary is singing feed the birds. Out the window riders can see The Old Bird Woman on the steps of the cathedral across from the bank as though they were much closer to the house, just on the other side of the par esq. Meanwhile the Snow globe Mary holds is much large for guests to be able to see inside where the scene of Mr. Banks being fired is playing out.
Guests then head through Mary’s nanny bedroom passing by such notable aspects as her mirror, measuring tape, medicine, and carpet bag. They then head out her window out onto cherry tree lane where everyone is flying kites together and Mr. Banks is flying one while shaking hands with the new head of the Bank while standing with his children. Bert is also there selling kites and Mary is “flying away” next to the guests. They then head up through some more “clouds” and out into the outdoor area of the Flying City main show building.
Return: from time to time vehicle has been rising up so the guests only fly up a little ways and then come out of the show building from the side of ceiling of the flying city area show building (Mary is on the back end so the ride show building is spread out from the house building to an area outside.) They then float down to the balcony and go down another staircase into a shop with various Mary Poppins themed merchandise from Umbrellas and carpet bags and tape measures, to a small "Medicine" snow cone bar serving various flavors of medicine such as "Rum Punch".
Uncle Albert's:
The largest Peppers Ghost ever built Uncle Albert’s is a full service family friendly restaurant where guests can enjoy great food from “up in the air”. All of the tables are located on glass floors under which are dioramas/peppers ghost/projection combination rooms of Uncle Albert’s other house. Guests looking down feel like they are eating on the ceiling, the restaurant will play background music from the movie as well as holds characters breakfasts where a random mix of Disney Characters as well as Mary Poppins, Bert, and Uncle Albert himself come out and mingle with the guests in the “We Love to Laugh” Character meals. The restaurant’s menu will feature themed fair very similar to the menu below but also with some special dishes and drinks such as Mr. Banks’ Breakfast and Mary’s Medicine Mixers (Specialty flavored sodas and juices).
The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant:
Guests exploring this fantastic city of the sky will come upon one of the more upscale restaurants which provides great food and a one of a kind experience. The Royal Zeppelin Restaurant is placed inside what appears to be the actual cab of a zeppelin. The outside of the restaurant looks like two somewhat large, metal hangers which are separated by a small, tan brick building which somewhat resembles a library or judicial house. As guests look out at the hangers, they will notice that the very tops of the blimps are poking through the top of the hanger. They just look like any other blimp with the metallic silver painted on the balloon.
As guests enter the center building, they will be greeted with a brightly lit, upscale room that can only be compared to the waiting room of Tutto Italia. The room is painted a very light tan and has a dark red rug covering the floors. Small, white columns are placed in each corner of the room. A small circular couch is placed in the very center of the room directly under a large, ornate chandelier which gives the room most of its light. In the left corner, a large dark wood table is placed where guests can go and make reservations and sign in. After entering, guests will be greeted by a CM who helps them sign in their reservation, lets them chose which zeppelin they would like to board, gives them a boarding pass and directs them into one of two waiting areas. The room on the right is themed mainly American Flight. This room holds 40 people which are the biggest amount of guests to fit in each zeppelin. This room also has tan walls but a blue carpet. Leather couches are placed around the walls of the room. The walls are covered with black and white pictures showing many of the breakthroughs in flying including the Wright Brothers flying machine, biplanes, sea planes and of course blimps. In the back corner is a large record player which plays old classical music and if guests listen closely, they may hear a orchestrated version of a certain Adventurer’s Club theme song. The room to the left of the main room is themed to European Flight. This room is set up about the same as the American Flight room but has black and white pictures reflecting European Flight including DaVinci’s flying machines, hot air balloons, the Albatross II and zeppelins. There is also a bookcase in the back of the room which features books such as De la Terre a la Lune, Cinq Semaines en Ballon, Le Tour de Monde en Quatre-Vigts Jours and Le Chemin de France.
Every hour on the hour, groups of thirty are brought into the zeppelin of their choosing(depending on which waiting area they’re in.) The room is covered with screens which look like the inside of the hanger(thanks to projectors. If guests look up, they will see the bottom half of the balloon which is colored in metallic silver. The metal cab of the zeppelin is a dark green with gold outlining. On the side of the America Zeppelin has the numbers 1903(year of the first flight) while the Europe Zeppelin has the numbers 1873(year Around the World in 80 Days was released.) The zeppelins have large windows on each side which take up about a quarter of the wall. A large curved window is in the very front to give guests a forward view of what’s going on. Once inside the zeppelin, guests will find themselves in the brightly lit dining room. The light wood flooring and the dark green walls reflects the light making it even lighter and inviting. Tables are placed along the walls of the first and second floors. These tables are a bit big but leave enough room for guests and cast members to walk through with ease. In the very front of the cab is a large wheel which allows the zeppelin to be turned. Guests will be allowed to get their pictures taken at this wheel at certain times during their “flight”. In the back corner of the cab is a small spiral staircase that leads up to the second floor. The seats are set up basically the same as the bottom floor except for one table which is placed on an overhang in the front of the cab.
Once everyone is settled into their seats, a voice is heard over a loud speaker announcing that their flight will begin shortly. After a minute, the door to the cab is closed as the staircase into the zeppelin is moved away. Suddenly, the hum of an engine is heard as a voice comes over the loudspeakers saying “Welcome to the Royal Zeppelin Restaurant. We are about to start our ascent and ask you to remain seated until we reach a safe level. Your waiters will then take your order and start your meal. While you’re waiting though, feel free to take a look at the menu. Thank you and enjoy your flight.” Once that announcement is over, the lights dim as the screens in front and to the side of the zeppelin give the appearance of it rising out of the hanger and into the clouds. Once in the clouds, the captain comes over the loudspeaker and says “We are now at a safe level. Please feel free to get up and enjoy the scenery as your orders are being taken.” The only differences between each video is that the America Zeppelin visits places such as Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, New York City, Washington D.C. and Yosemite National Park while the Europe Zeppelin visits places such as Paris, London, Rome and Venice.
During the flight, guests are treated to a three course meal which includes Calamari, Bruchetta, Escargot, Kobe Burgers, Duck, Salmon, Lava Cake, Ice Cream and the Zeppelin sundae which is a banana split made in a bowl that is shaped to look like the zeppelin(the ice cream is made to look like the balloon.) After the hour flight, the zeppelins make their descent back into the hanger where they exit back into the lobby and come back out the front to continue exploring the Floating City.
Menu
Zeppelin 1903(America)
Appetizers
Maryland Crab Cakes- An American Classic. Three of the crab cakes you all know and love served with tartar sauce.
California Rolls- A Japanese staple with an American twist. Five are served with wasabi and ginger.
Duck Three Ways- Confit, Rillette and fleischenecke served with orange gastrique.
Cobb Salad- Another American classic made with lettuce, bacon, chicken, egg, avocado and topped with a red-wine vinaigrette and Roquefort Cheese.
Entrees
Filet Mignon-The most tender choice cut of beef served medium rare with steak sauce and a side of potato wedges and asparagus.
Twin Lobster Tail and Scallops-Twin lobster tails steamed to perfection and served with melted butter and a small side of scallops.
Beef Wellington-The classic dish drizzled with steak sauce and served with mashed potatoes and a choice of vegetable.
Kobe Beef Burger-Some of the tenderest beef which creates one of the most tender and delicious burgers ever created. Comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mustard with a side of French fries. Cheese optional.
Swordfish Steak-A large swordfish steak served with broccoli.
Zeppelin 1873(Europe)
Appetizers
Escargot-Escargot served in garlic sauce
French Onion Soup-The classic French soup served with oyster crackers and cheese(optional)
Bruchetta-Italian bread covered with diced tomatoes and cheese. Served with marinara sauce.
Pasta Fagioli-The traditional Italian Soup served with oyster crackers.
Entrees
Duck Confit-Half a breast and one leg of the duck served confit with a side of green beans and sweet potatoes.
Pasta in Clam Sauce-Spaghetti served with a generous helping of white clam sauce.
Spaghetti with meatballs-The classic spaghetti and meatballs served in a homemade marinara sauce
Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich-The classic French staple served with a side of potato wedges.
Dessert(Served in both Zeppelins)
Cream Puffs-Four cream puffs sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Mount Sneffels Lava Flow Cake-This delicious chocolate dessert is a simple lava cake but on a bigger scale. The actual cake is about six inches tall and serves up to three people. When guests put their fork into the gooey warm cake, ‘lava’ begins to flow in the form of hot chocolate. This is also served with two scoops of ice cream which surround the cake.
The Royal Zeppelin Sundae-A regular banana split placed in a bowl which takes the shape of the zeppelin which guests are already in. The ice cream is made to look like the balloon while the stand looks like the cab of the zeppelin. Serves up to four guests
Well what do you think? Hungry yet? I know I sure am. You know what I'm more hungry for than food though...I'm hungry to get this darn project completely posted already. So with that in mind, let's head into our next land. It's one I think a lot of people have been greatly looking forward to.
Toon Town:
Seriously...where to even START with this one? From the get-go, we knew we'd be designing an epic version of Toon Town using non-Disney characters. This Toon Town, in particular, will be VERY story orientated, and will actually be one of the more thrilling, almost teen-centric areas of the park. There's definitely an "edge" present here clearly not found in the other Toon Towns.
I'll start with the storyline. As had been established in the Clock Cleaners ride, the construction of the clock was basically a way to peacefully bridge the gap between Toons and humans to live harmoniously amongst each other. Doom (re-animated as a classic "Toon" who talks just.....like.....THIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSS :head explodes: ), however, does not like the idea of humans running freely in Toon Town...at all. So, after stealing blueprints from Professor Ludwig Von Drake's labs in Port Lumaria, Doom crafts his Cog machines (basically, the same creatures present in the Toon Town Online game), builds an army, and swiftly takes over Toon Town. While wandering through the area, you'll notice a distinct high energy, high "risk" vibe. It seems walking through the area that things could fall and hit you at any minute. Stuff like pianos "dangling" off of balconies and what-not. We didn't *quiet* get to crafting EXACTLY what Doom's plans are, but it doesn't really matter. The main point I'm trying to make here is that in this Toon Town, it's Doom who is CLEARLY in charge. Even still...there's PLENTY for guests to do here...it's all just...risky....
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin:
Well...the person who was in charge of this project, Disneyland DHI, was kind of a no show this week...so we really don't have all that much to go on for the land's signature attraction. Basically, all we had brainstormed was that, first and foremost, you would ride in a cab, except this cab would be an EMV that also featured the ability to spin. Having EMV movement would be another step in making this ride, well...epic. The ride is basically a chase through the back alleys of Toon Town, with a frightening encounter with Toon Doom and the DIP cannon at the end. Sorry there's not more to go on for this ride...
The Toon Town Tower Hotel
Introduction
Even before this season started, when MEW posted that teaser about the All Stars working on an epic version of Toon Town and including non-Disney characters, one image has stood in my head as something that simply MUST make its way into that particular project...Droopy as a Tower of Terror bell-hop beckoning us aboard with a cautious "going up, sir?" It was the perfect starting point for what turned out to be a really fun, really original vision of the Tower of Terror. What I like so much about the idea of a Tower of Terror in Toon Town is that it's something that you wouldn't expect to find in Toon Town (a land that has for the last couple decades had a nasty reputation as a "kiddy" area) and also not something you'd expect to see a Tower of Terror themed after (when usually, ToTs are realistic to an extent and focus on ghosts and the twilight zone for their themes)...And yet...you have to think, it really is a pretty great marriage when it comes down to it. The idea of a large tower filled with crazy, unpredictable happenings inside. You don't know EXACTLY what's inside, all you know is that people are screaming their lungs out and crazy sounds are coming out of the tower from all directions. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty "Toon Town" to me. And thus, with the Droopy bell-hop as kind of our starting point, the Toon Town Tower Hotel was born.
Exterior
The Toon Town Tower will have a blue/pink/purple color tone going all the way up the tower. Near the top of the tower, of course, is the "Toon Town Tower Hotel" lettering. This lettering, however, more resembles multi-colored magnets on a fridge, though they are still fully functioning neon lights just like any Tower signage. Of course, some of the letters will be backwards, and might even be missing a couple letters here and there. As you get closer and closer to the tower, you can hear all the strange and goofy noises that are coming off from inside the tower (the sound effects will be turned up extra loud in the ride to achieve this specific effect) It's obvious that this is, first and foremost, a hotel for TOONS. Humans enter at their own risk. Essentially, the entrance to the Toon Town Tower really isn't all that different from the entrance to the DCA Tower, and the two of them have similar formations. There will be a Fastpass area off to the side (disguised as a luggage terminal), and just the tower sitting there, right inside of lavish black gates similar to DCA, except, like everything else...more...well, "Toony". You walk up to the entrance of the tower, check the wait times, and decide to just hit the stand-by line. After about 10 minutes of curving outside the building, you enter the hotel's lobby.
The Lobby
Upon entering the lobby, you can tell that it's CLEARLY filthy. In fact, this time around it is made ABUNDANTLY clear. There are cobwebs ALL OVER the lobby to the point of self-parody. In addition to cobwebs, you can see graffiti, broken chairs, and basically any sort of destruction you can think of present in this filthy mess of a room. As you round a corner to go into a library, you see a shadow of Granny frantically dusting off cobwebs and complaining about the awful state of the hotel.
The Library
As you enter the library, you take notice of all the many books on the shelf. Actually...because there's no film in this library (I kind of wanted to keep the contents of the actual tower a mystery in the queue and not lay the story out with a long prologue) the room itself will be a bit longer and will actually have you winding through a rather large library instead of just cramming into a small room to listen to Rod Serling talk for two minutes. Anyways, there's not really much to this scene, except EVERY book on the shelf will have some kind of self-referential humor to its title and it will be a really fun room for people who like to spot little details like that.
The Boiler Room
Going across the library, we then see the service elevator, which is over the top completely barricaded off, with police tape, boards and nails, the works. Obviously someone DOESN'T want us using the service elevator. So we round the corner and go into the boiler room to take the maintenance elevator up to our rooms...or wherever the hell we might be going. The boiler room is actually quiet similar, in terms of layout AND details, to any classic Boiler Room. The only difference is that, while usually the furnaces in this room only give off a slight creepy vibe that they have faces, these things full on are living, breathing Toon furnaces. Some of them talk to each other, a couple are sick and throw up embers, but they're all characters. There's about five of them in total throughout the boiler room. Anyways, the BR is set up as usual with three elevators loading on the first floor and three on the second floor.
Going up, Sir?
As you wait for your elevator to arrive, you notice the finger pointer indicating the number of floors above the elevator doorway. The counter on the floors is normal through the first nine, but from there on out, well...just look at the picture
As the pointer starts coming down from the astronomically high top floor, you notice it starts to wobble. About midway through the long stretch of numbers, suddenly you hear a loud...*snap* from inside the elevator shaft and the elevator comes crashing down. As it crashes, you hear a bunch of noises of cartoon violence, afterward, you hear a *ding*, and the doors of the elevator slide open, emitting a light green fog/mist (think HM boarding area). You see that Droopy is your personal bell hop (this time present in the actual ride cabin as an on-board AA similar to Rex). After a quick bout of coughing, the dog promptly asks in his usual somber, depressed tone..."Going up, sir?" With that, you are admitted into the elevator for a ride into a hotel for Toons that you won't soon forget. As for the actual elevator shafts? Don't worry, they're basically identical to the ones we've become familiar with, except these shafts are COVERED with Toon graffiti. ("For a good time, call Allison Wonderland" stuff like that...) Moving on...So here's the basic layout of how each ride will go down. There's nine floors with show scenes in each elevator shaft. The scenes are sorted into three categories, "silly", which means the scenes are simply meant to be an enjoyable upbeat laugh, "story", which means the details of these scenes connect the dots to the actual plot line of the hotel (which will be gone over at the end of the project), and "homage" which means those scenes will essentially be playing tribute to specific subjects. Each time guests ride, they will experience ONE silly scene, ONE story scene, and ONE homage scene, in random order, followed by a drop sequence. This way, you will have to ride the ride A LOT of times in order to experience ALL the insanity that this hotel has to offer. And even when you do see all the show scenes, they're pretty much ALWAYS going to be in a random order, so it is pretty much 100% a new ride every time. Oh yeah, and midway through the ride (between the second and third show scenes) there's a flash of lightining, a burst of green fog, and Droopy disappears from the elevator. Don't worry, he'll be back.
One last note has to be made regarding the nature of the show scenes. I want to have as many physical sets within the tower as possible. There will be some projection animation showing some of the more elaborate effects, but most of the time, I want to try to keep it as PHYSICAL, yet cartoony, as possible. I've always believed that SCREENS are always, essentially, "lazy Imagineering" *shoots darting glance in Midway Mania's direction* so having said that, I want to rely on that kind of stuff as little as possible, while there will still be SOME implications where it will have to be used. Anyways, now that all the logistics are out of the way, why don't you say we actually tour this wacked out hotel!
"Silly" scenes
The three "silly" scenes are a close encounter with Gennie during one of his more...private moments, a fake-out involving a Jessica Rabbit, erm...kind of look-alike, similar to the movie, and a "Holy CRAP, we went WAAAY too high" scene with the Jetsons as a backdrop. We'll start with the Genie. The doors open up, and you see a large lamp just sitting in an empty closet like room. Steam is pouring out of the spout, and you can hear a water fountain. As you move closer to the lamp, an animation of Genie is projected onto the front. He is taking a shower and singing to himself. As you inch your way closer to him, the elevator accidently slightly moves the lamp, and Genie looks straight in our direction. After a couple seconds of shock, he then screams..."AAAAAAAH!!! A MAN!!!!" and proceeds to close the "curtain" of his lamp. The doors close, and we go to the next floor.
The Jessica fake out starts with the doors opening revealing Jessica Rabbit's silhouette against a wall. The elevator moves forward towards this alluring figure, but before long the shadow turns around and you find out that in reality, this silhouette belongs to a HIDEOUSLY grotesque Toon. The only problem is...she has the hots for you. She looks at you with beaming eyes and loudly exclaims "MY MAN!!" before rushing towards the elevator with exaggerated, terrifying kissy-lips. The doors close just as she is about to reach the elevator. Obviously this scene is based around the moment in the film where the same thing happens to Eddie.
The Jetsons scene begins with an extended climb up the tower (this scene is located on the very top floor of all shafts) The doors open, revealing the futuristic sky-city that the Jetsons inhabit. You see George Jetson in the background, going around in his hover-car (or whatever it is) and dropping off his family, who all fly down to their various locations. This scene is a mix of miniatures (the future city) and projections (the Jetsons and their ship/pods). Anyways, as I said before, the point of this scene is that you've OBVIOUSLY climbed too far up, so, with a cartoony sign that pops up reading "...Whoops!", the doors close and you drop down.
"Story" scenes
The three story scenes are a Scooby Doo send up in a hallway (with some details regarding the actual story), a trip into another dimension (which brings to light the nature of the hotel), and a battle between hotel staff and the unruly Toon guests of the top floors with a few DIP guns involved. The Scooby Doo scene starts with the doors opening themselves up to a long hallway with, of course, multiple doors on either side. You see a classic Scooby Doo monster messing with the elevator on the other side of the room. He turns around, notices you, and proceeds to hulk towards your elevator. Suddenly, you hear loud footsteps and Fred yelling "Hurry gang, I saw him go into this Hallway", and with that, the monster goes into a room, the Scooby gang pops up and looks around, going into another room, and from there it's the classic Scooby scenario of always JUST missing the monster for another couple passes before the door closes and you are on your way.
The DIP scene starts with a bunch of un-ruly Toons having a food fight in the hotel's banquet hall. The Weasels then crash through the ceiling, wielding guns that contain DIP. The weasels, by the way, are all dressed up as hotel security. Anyways, basically what ensues is a fight between the Toons and the Weasels, with a couple Toons being "DIP'd" in the process. In the midst of this conflict, a weasel notices your elevator and aims a DIP gun directly at us before the doors close.
The last scene opens with what appears to be just a standard mirror. The now classic DCA mirror effect is done, but then, an even more high tech effect is created. All your reflections, when the lighting flashes, don't get turned into ghosts, but rather Toon like projections. The glass of the large mirror then lowers, unknown to guests because as it does green mist starts POURING into the elevator, and in a very creepy effect the elevator actually seems to move through the mirror. Once "through the looking glass", you see that this "mirror" world is just completely backwards. Nothing is where it's supposed to be (think Alice's upside down room, but more extreme and not just stuff on the ceiling) you also see that this mirror world is inhabited by obscure, "forgotten" characters such as Oswald. Another gulp of green fog starts filling the elevator, and after another flash, the elevator moves backwards, revealing the mirror, right back in its original state. You are meant to be left with a "What the hell was THAT?" impression.
"Homage" scenes
Finally, the three homage scenes pay respect to the Peanuts, black and white animation, and the Disney Villains, respectively. The Peanuts scene takes place in the same hallway as the Scooby Doo scene, except this time, it's just the Peanuts gang, in their now iconic Halloween costumes, going room to room trick-or-treating. After one room, the famous "I got a rock" exchange takes place. As this is happening, and as Lucy begins calling Linus a block-head for mentioning the Great Pumpkin, green smoke starts to form behind them, and the actual Great Pumpkin rises up, except this one takes on a scary appearance and has sharp teeth and stuff like that. The gang turns around, sees this, and screams. Then, the whole contraption falls apart, and you see Snoopy from up above, literally pulling the strings. All he does is chuckle, and the doors close.
The "Black and White" floor basically consists of a big argument between Olive Oil and Betty Boop, with Pop-Eye in the middle. I've had this idea in my head for a while now, the two girls fighting over Pop Eye, simply because Pop Eye started life as a random character who came in and danced with Betty during one of her shorts, and then appeared in a series of his own with a new girl. What happened between Pop Eye and Betty? Anyways, as the two are arguing, a large "sheet ghost" with red eyes and sharp teeth appears behind them. The three of them turn around and scream, as the sheet lowers to the ground and you see it's actually Casper playing around. "Gotcha" he laughs, as the doors once again close.
Finally, the Villain Room is an all out party in the hotel's event hall. Basically, it's a Villain Convention, and every villain in existence is there. They are all just partying it up. Now...I don't know how appropriate the idea of intoxicated Disney villains are to a family audience, but I think the idea of a drunk Jafar in particular sounds absolutely hilarious. Anyways, this is a rather large room with A LOT of sight gags and details. I can't really describe it, it's more of just..you have to get the general idea. Big party, lots of villains, MAYBE some intoxication, and lots of hilarity.
And I Would Have Gotten Away With it, Too...
Well, those are the show scenes. Remember, you experience three of them randomly, one from each set. After the second scene, lightning flashes and Droopy disappears from your elevator. What happened to Droopy you asked? Well, after the drop sequence, your elevator promptly lands at the bottom floor, and you hear a loud exasperated grunt of pain. the elevator backs up, and you see you have hit Droopy, whose head is pocking out from the classic Scooby Doo monster costume seen tinkering with the elevator in the Hallway scene. Droopy is all tied up in elevator rope, his mask clearly fallen off in the impact. "And I would of gotten away with it, too. If it weren't for you meddling tourists..." he remarks as you exit the elevator.
Now, you might be wondering, exactly what was Droopy trying to "get away with". Well...a big theme of this tower is the running story of the Toons living on the high levels being basically a bunch of vandalizing delinquents. These Toons are actually vandalizing the place because they are "forgotten toons", and Doom has placed them all under house arrest in the tower because they are Toons the public wouldn't be interested in seeing now that Toon Town is open to humans. So, naturally, the high level Toons fight back. Droopy, meanwhile, is just a pitiful bell-hop, miserable as ever. I was thinking, how is it exactly that Droopy takes ALL the crap he takes and never once snaps. Well...what if he decided to join with the Toons on the top floor. Droopy, being a small, depressed dog, doesn't have much in terms of contributions, but he DOES have an entire system of elevators at his disposal being the hotel's chief bell hop. So, he devices a plan to rig the elevators to journey into secret floors and have all kinds of special hiding places and what not for the forgotten Toons to wreck their havoc on the hotel, as they clearly do as seen in the Lobby. Droopy also has to keep up with appearances, however, so he has to still do his job. Unfortunately...through all the incessant rigging he has done to the elevators, the ride up the tower proves to be...unpredictable. And that is the basic story, and overall walk through of our Toon Town Tower Hotel. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Toon Town Trolley Tours Starring Donald Duck
Facade:
The facade is decorated to look like a Train Station. However, right over the sign, an trolley has crashed through the wall, and is balancing in and out, almost falling out of the building and into the building. In the driver's seat we can see an scared Donald, trying to drive the trolley back. Posters are all along the walls showing places Toons can visit like Cucamonga, Walla-Walla, The Hotel "Just Around the Riverbend" and the Briar Patch.
Queue
As guests enter the building, they are immediately brought to this ficticional trolley company called Toontown Trolley Co. Announcements are playing through a speaker system:
"Attention Mr. Big Boss, your presence is require at the Engine Room."
"Attention Yram Snippop, Mrs Yram Snippop, please come to the Suociodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus room. "
"Donald Duck, Mr. Donald Duck, your passengers have just arrived."
"Attention all passengers, bags must be taken to the "Bag Checking" booth. You will not be authorized to take anything over 50 tons."
The first thing they see is an female toon in the attendant booth. She is frantically taking calls, writing names and directing the guests to the right direction. They pass through a door that leads to the Engine room, where you can hear Goofy working (more like, breaking). One of the doors leads to the "Improbable" room, and the Doorknob from Alice in Wonderland greets guests as they pass by. The guests then enter the office corridor, where they pass through various offices belonging to famous Disney characters. The shadow on the Fairy Godmother's office is of a pumpkin becoming various things, and the shadow for Peg-Leg Pete's office is of him hearing to the news.
One of the shadows is of the Donald Duck office, but something is wrong, because... part of the wall is missing! Guests continue through Donald's office, which is a mess, and part of the wall has been destroyed since Donald accidentally set off an TNT he got from Pete's office. There is a hole on the window in Donald's form, and pictures of Uncle Scrooge, Daisy and his nephews are hanging from the ventilator, while paper is being incinerated and cut into pieces by machines. A TV nearby is playing a mix of Donald Duck shorts, and a poster on the wall says "Incredible piano-playing ducks at the Ink and Paint Club!" and a Donald clock on the wall is almost falling off the shelf, and just under it is the only thing not destroyed on Donald's office is a plant, and a little note right next to it says its a gift from Daisy (oh no...)
As guests exit Donald's destroyed office, they get into the mechinical part of the Toontown Trolley Co facility. A nearby trolley that will be used for intergalactic trips has two dogs fixing his thrusters, while a trolley that's going to be used by an penguin family is getting inflatable tires that could lift the trolley off the water. Guests then enter Big Boss office.
Pre-show:
The pre-show takes place in the office that belongs to Big Boss. A big toon, wearing a purple suit, whose face you cannot see, is seated behind a glass. Nearby him are TV screens that are playing commercials for the Toontown Trolley Co. The muses from Hercules are holding the TV screens, and as soon as the commercials stop and the door opens, Big Boss starts talking, voiced by Jim Cummings, he has a New York accent, and a really old but smart tone:
BIG BOSS: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Toontown Trolley Co. My name is Big Boss. And I'm the big boss around here. Well, duh. For 55 years, we have been running things smoothly here in ToonTown. Who got Mickey to his work in 1971 so he could open the Magic Kingdom? Us! And who helped Lumiere come back from his trip to France so he could finish filming Beauty and the Beast? Us! As you can see, folks, we are the best around here... but there is one little problem.
* The TVs change and starts showing Donald Duck shorts *
BIG BOSS: Its that little duck, Donald. He's the only thing that makes we lose our customers around here. And I can't afford that, no, no. Sure, he's a great fella, but he just...
* The TV shows Donald crashing through the filming of Little Mermaid, destroying the set *
BIG BOSS: Can't drive! Urgh! Well... I'm a nice fella... So I thought I might give him a chance. I don't wanna fire him fellas, so thats where you come in. I want you to tell me, at the end of the ride, how was it. If its good, we'll keep Donald... If its not... Well, you can consider him to be FIRED!... Oh, and now, fellas, here is some important safety information from the safest guy in this company, Goofy!
* Goofy appears in two of the five screens *
GOOFY: Gwarsh! Hiya folks! Here's how things are going to go!
* The other three TVs show Roger Rabbit, Dopey, Scar, Merlin, Baloo, Jiminy Cricket and the crows from Dumbo going to the trolley *
GOOFY: When the door to the trolley opens, move to the end of the row, to the last available seat!
* Baloo sits on the seat, eventually ocuppying two seats. *
GOOFY: Then, don't forget to buckle up. We need you to be buckled up real tight!
* Scar refuses to buckle up, but Merlin does it. Scar shows his teeth, but Merlin transforms him into a small kitty, wrapping him against the seat. *
GOOFY: Don't forget to put all of your carry-on items on the compartment under the seat!
* Roger Rabbit starts taking out a lot of stuff from his pocket, stuffing it on the compartment, to the point that it fills up. *
GOOFY: And during the ride, no smoking, eating, drinking or taking flash photography.
* Jiminy Cricket takes a picture of the crows, who pick up the camera and Jiminy Cricket, and throw it out. *
GOOFY: After that, you're all ready for your trip!
* The trolley exits to Toontown, with Jiminy Cricket holding on to one of its doors, waving. *
BIG BOSS: Well thats our safety video. Cost me a lot to get all of these stars... And since time is money, whatta are you all waiting?! Move out!
The doors open, taking the guests into the loading area.
The Ride:
The guests then exit to the loading area, disguised as the garage. As they wait to board their trolley a Benny the Cab animatronic, being fixed next to the trolley, shouts jokes at the guests, while complaining that he doesn't likes the Toon thats fixing his trunk. The safety video that was played in the pre-show is re-played in two TV screens up above the loading area, but this time, Minnie narrates the video.
As guests enter the trolley, they can see that the wheel that the driver uses is an old fashioned pirate wheel. There are also some controls nearby it (and a phone), and on the far right, there is the driver's cabin, and we can see the shadow of Donald, humming to himself while finishing to put on his drivers garb. As everyone's seated, a cast member closes the doors, and the ride finally begins.
BIG BOSS: *through speakers* Alright fellas, here's your driver for today's tour, Mister Donald Duck!
Donald comes out of the driver's cabin as his theme plays on the speakers.
DONALD: Hello! Hello everybody! I'm Donald Duck! And today we'll have a swell ride! What we will see? What will we hear? Well, be prepared!
The front door of the garage opens, and we can see the zany ToonTown. Donald walks to the trolley's wheel, while Mr.Toad speeds past the Toontown Trolley Co garage.
DONALD: Oh yeah, folks! * turns wheel and spins around to talk with the audience. *
The trolley starts to slowly drive forward.
DONALD: If you see an bird, you know, small, pink, and singing an annoying song, please warn me! I've been trying to catch that bird for a loooooooong time!
Donald turns back to the wheel, making the trolley get into the street. We see Toontown during lunch time, with millions of toons walking around, and some speeding by and in front of us. The phone on the trolley then starts ringing.
DONALD: Oh no! * runs to get it * Hello? M-mr Big Boss!
The aracuan bird pops from the back of the talking Donald and walks to the wheel, singing his song.
DONALD: Don't worry boss, I've got everything on my *notices the aracuan bird* HAAAAAAAAAND! *drops phone*
The aracuan bird then spins the wheel, making the trolley itself spin and start to drive down a road, directly to the ACME Warehouse.
DONALD: *grabs the aracuan bird* I've got you know, and there is no place you can run to!
ARACUAN BIRD: *taps on Donald's mouth and points to the wall they are driving to*
DONALD: Oh no.
The trolley crashes through the wall, entering the ACME Warehouse, and sending Donald flying to the driver's cabin. The aracuan bird sings again and spins the wheel, making the trolley spin and activate most of the gags on the Warehouse. Once Donald gets out of the driver's cabin, the trolley is already driving backwards and crashes through another wall. Donald throws the aracuan bird to the driver's cabin and spins the trolley, so that it is driving forward, not backwards:
DONALD: Oh no... We are on the forest! Big Boss isn't going to be happy!... Look out!
The trolley crashes some trees down, and drives over Big Bad Wolf just as he is about to blow the first pig house. The trolley continues to crash down trees, but this time it drives towards an about to be shot Bugs Bunny, running from Elmer Fudd. Bugs crashes through the trolley's front window, making Donald lose the wheel.
DONALD: What- What are you doing here?!
BUGS: Eh, doc, what do you think I'm doing?
DONALD: Crashing through the front window of my trolley!
BUGS: Relax, doc, at least we could be driving towards a cliff!
DONALD: But we are!
BUGS: We are?
They look and see they are driving towards a cliff.
BUGS: *turns to the audience* This is where you scream, folks.
The trolley then drives off the cliff, with Donald and Bugs screaming in panic.
DONALD: Screaming won't do it, we gotta do something!
BUGS: Pull the portable hole lever!
DONALD: What lever?
BUGS: WHAT LEVER?! * points to the only lever in the entire trolley *
Donald pulls the lever, making the trolley shake and shoot a portable hole on the ground. The trolley falls into the hole, coming out of a tunnel in the middle of the desert.
DONALD: How did we get into the desert?
BUGS: I don't know, doc, but I'm getting out of here!
DONALD: Why?
BUGS: Why?! Because of that!
Bugs jumps out of the trolley as soon as Donald sees the Coyote preparing to throw a big rock towards the trolley, thinking that it is the Roadrunner. But as soon as the trolley nears the Coyote, he accidentally throws himself into the trolley, instead of the rock. An Coyote animatronic then crashes through the ceiling, trying to free himself.
DONALD: Oh no, Big Boss is going to make fried duck outta me!
Donald is trying to drive the trolley through the desert near ToonTown with Coyote into the ceiling. Suddenly, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles appear on their flying magic carpet (which is actually the carpet from Alladin):
PANCHITO: Donald! What a surprise! Didn't know you were visiting us!
DONALD: Panchito! Jose! Get out of the way, I'm trying to drive this trolley!
JOSE: Listen Donald, you gotta articulate!
DONALD: Get outta the way!
PANCHITO: What did he say?
JOSE: I think he said "let us dance in an good old fashioned way!"
DONALD: What?
Jose and Panchito enter the trolley, as decorations appear on the driver's cabin, and color lightining and projections fill the trolley as it bounces to the music, driving directly to a tunnel:
JOSE: *picks up Donald and starts dancing with him* For a duck that does not wear pants, you sure do dance well!
DONALD: Get outta here, I gotta drive this trolley!
PANCHITO: What did he say?
JOSE: Let us dance the Molly Polly!
Jose, Panchito and Donald appear in dancing costumes and force Donald to dance as they enter the dark tunnel.
DONALD: Get out of here, Jose, I'm trying to not lose my job! *kicks them out of the trolley and it comes back to normal*
JOSE: Oh yes, Donald, watch out for the traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain-
DONALD: What? Watch out for the rain?
A bright round light can be seen at the end of the tunnel, together with train sounds.
DONALD: Oh no! Back up, back up, BACK UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!
Coyote comes out of the ceiling and slides down the trolley, seeing the incoming lights.
DONALD: Hold on everybody! I'm shooting an portable hole besides us!
Coyote pulls out an "uh-oh" sign as we drive backwards, the train coming closer and closer- and before the train can hit us, we teleport back to Toontown through the portable hole, however, this time, we are on the highway, and are driving right alongside Roger Rabbit and other toons. What they don't see is that the train has also teleported with us.
ROGER: Donald! I didn't knew you were still with the company!
DONALD: Cantalkgottarun!
ROGER: What's the problem, Donald? *looks behind and eye pops out* A TRAAAAAAAAAIN!
All the cars begin to scramble and scream in panic.
ROGER: Donald, follow me! I know a shortcut!
Donald then follows Donald as they drive down an never ending highway, with the train following right behind them. Roger then signals for Donald to turn into a road, and we can hear the train speeding past us.
DONALD: Ooh. That was close!
However, what Donald doesn't sees is that we are driving directly to the Toontown Trolley Co garage. They signal us to stop, but Donald is not looking. The aracuan bird comes out of the cabin and sings his song, making an angry Donald turn around and notice that they are driving towards the wall. We crash through, a bunch of worried toons in front of us.
BIG BOSS: *on speakers* DONALD DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
DONALD: Eh heh... Boss? I can explain this?
BIG BOSS: Explain? You don't have to explain anything, my boy! Look at these people! They are all laughing! They are happy! Which means, they'll come back!
DONALD: Does that means I still have my job?
BIG BOSS: Of course you do, Donald!
DONALD: Hooray! Now I'll still have the money to fix everything I broke!
BIG BOSS: Yes, yes... WHAT?!
DONALD: Eh hehehe... You didn't hear nothing! * runs out of the trolley *
BIG BOSS: DONAAAAAAAAAALD!
The Donald Duck theme plays as Goofy tells us the usual safety instructions and says goodbye.
The exit area is the gift shop for the ride, together with TV screens showing Donald running through the queue, bumping past guests, escaping from Big Boss.
Lake Toon and TooNature Reserve
Located right across from the entrance to Toontown lies Lake Toon a beautiful pristine lake with the TooNature Reserve island in the middle. Right at the edge of the lake is a large dock where the infamous Steamboat Willie Restaurant docks, one of the parks two fine dining locations. Off to the right of the Steamboat Willie dock is Donald’s Boat a quick service eatery where guests can purchase nautical themed bites and then eat in the nearby Toon Park.
Far on the edges of the lake are two large mounds of dirt with tunnels in them leading underground, one on either side of the lake. The tunnel on the right bears the marquee of Bugs Bunny’s TooNature Reserve Tours and the tunnel on the right bears the Marquee of Elmer Fud’s Wabbit Hunt Expedition.
Bugs Bunny’s TooNature Reserve Tours entrance leads to an underground tunnel that goes under the lake over to the island, the tunnel is themed to a tunnel Bugs dug in order to be able to leave the Reserve and visit Toontown. Guests soon reach the ride itself and upon entry into Bugs home a siren is heard going off warning all visitors that Hunters are on the island looking for Wabbits so they must be on alert. A Bugs AA located in the house tells guests not to worry and how hunters only make tours more fun. Guests soon board their “tram car”, really a rollercoaster train, and head out.
Elmer Fud’s Wabbit Hunt Expedition entrance leads to an underground tunnel that goes under the lake over to the island, the tunnel is themed to a tunnel being dug by Elmer Fud, and he can be heard but not seen throughout the tunnel digging, in order to get to the TooNature Reserve and go hunting for some Wabbits. Soon guests come out onto the reserve and Elmer Finds an old abandoned ranger car, really a rollercoaster train, and head out.
The two coasters zoom around the island going in and out of caves, around trees, over rivers, down waterfalls, and up mountains. The Coasters are synchronized and are constantly coming into “close calls” where the riders can hear Bugs and Elmer throwing insults back at one another. At one point the two coasters are going up a lift where Bugs can be seen at the top sneaking up on Elmer just as the Bugs coaster is slightly behind the Elmer coaster. Just as the two coasters reach the top Bugs tips Elmer over the side of the edge and the Elmer coaster goes diving off the edge in a steep drop while the Bugs Coaster Makes an Inverted Loop and turn and begins going back the other direction. Similar instances occur throughout with both Elmer and Bugs AA showing up and interacting with each other from time to time.
In the end both coasters return to their respective load unload stations and the Elmer Rides are “assisted” out another tunnel by Park Rangers. As they go down the tunnel harsh barking orders and rangers popping out from the sides will startle those leaving the Elmer side. Meanwhile the Bugs riders are provided a Cop duel mirror view into the Elmer’s Riders leaving as they get to watch them leaving and jumping from time to time as they are startled by the various effects. These two tunnels let out in Toontown Park across from Donald’s.
Donald’s Boat will appear very much like it does at DL’s Toontown except it’s lower levels will be a counter where guests can come up and order their food. The menu at this location will be toonified names of a menu very similar to the one seen below:
Ivar's Seafood - Seattle's Best Seafood and Chowder
Steamboat Willie is an upscale steamboat eatery that will look identical to the steamboat below however its various levels will be filled with tables and guests get ever changing views as it traverses around the lake docking every 15-30 minutes. Its menu will look very much like the menu listed below but with only slightly lower prices.
And, that's our Toon Town for you. Remember, LOT'S of sight gags all over the place, MOST of them having to do with the guests being in all kinds of imminent danger. This might seem like a dark theme to go with, but I feel if it's over the top, guests will get the joke and of course know that they aren't in any REAL danger. There is also a new Ink and Paint Club (different from the one in the movie) which is basically a dinner theater with rotating animated acts. We haven't quiet worked out the details of that one yet. Well, I hope this Toon Town lived up to your guys expectations. Anyways, were ALMOST done. Last stop: The storytelling centerpiece of all of this Disneyland: Port Lumaria.
Port Lumaria:
Alright, we are now officially in the home stretch. See that light at the end of the tunnel? Were ALMOST there. As for Port Lumaria, which will be located in geographically the same location as Disneyland's Tomorrowland, at this point in the projects, I think there's already been enough exposition in the other lands for you guys to basically get what Port Lumaria is. It's essentially the MAIN colony of this Disneyland, and where all the story events go down. It is here that Ludwig Von Drake invented the Cogs, Doom stole the Cogs, and yeah...pretty much all hell broke loose. This is also the land with the most "Steampunk" influence, as basically the whole idea of the land is this colony and its relation/dependence on steam to fuel their society. With that in mind, let's get started with the final land on the tour. I PROMISE, it's almost over...
The Port Lumaria Grande Carousel
What is it about carousels, anyways? If you trace carousels all the way back in Disneyland history...they pretty much planted the whole idea of "Theme Parks" in Walt's head to begin with. So, with that in mind, this new vision of "Disneyland" just had to have a carousel, and not only that, it HAD to be a centerpiece of an entire area. Port Lumaria in our new Disneyland, is essentially where all the storytelling essentials of what were trying to do with our park come together, where we see the Cog attack, the origin of the "steam" angle, and a bunch of other important little details all chronicled into one very dynamic land. Props to Disneyson for essentially nailing down the concept. Anyways, Port Lumaria seems like absolutely the PERFECT place to put a carousel, so here we go.
Basically, the Port Lumaria Grande Carousel will be the biggest, grandest, most elaborate, all out STUNNING carousel you've ever seen. The whole thing is housed in a giant two story glass structure. In case you haven't guessed by now, this isn't just a single story carousel. For a while now, we've stuck with the idea of doing a classic Double Decker, but since I was asked to do the write up of the carousel, I kind of got an idea in my head to do just a little bit "more". So, you have a classic Double Decker Carousel, housed in a pristine ornate glass structure. Pretty basic, right? Yeah...it would be, if there wasn't a third floor involved. But indeed, There's a third, though much smaller...like, about the fourth of the size of the first two floors, carousel layer on the top of the glass structure. THIS one is open air, so with a seat beat, honestly a carousel from THAT height, I think, could be interesting, thrilling, and add a whole new dynamic to the visual ascetic of what were going for.
Now, for what our great judges love so much...the nitty gritty details. Well, the glass structures will be ornate, and will look SPECTACULAR at sunset. The carousel will be facing the docks of the port, so as you ride, you get a BEAUTIFUL view of the blue water of Port Lumaria Bay (or...whatever?) The corners of the carousel, however, will have long bronze pipes going all the way down from top to bottom, giving the Carousel, of course, a distinct Steampunk vibe. The horses themselves, while undeniably majestic and beautiful, will have tiny steampunk details as well in their reins and such. Just little touches here and there so that they kind of take on a bit of an other worldly quality, but JUST slightly.
From a storytelling perspective, the Port Lumaria Grande Carousel is of course a STEAM powered contraption. So as the ride goes around, the steam from the long pipes can be seen bursting out. Basically, the point trying to be conveyed is that this carousel is essentially helping to power the town. As I said, the carousel is basically located smack dab in the middle of everything in Port Lumaria, and will be QUIET the sight behold. On top of that, it really is an "epic" carousel if there ever was one, and I can imagine EVERYONE wanting to ride it. Not JUST the kids. That's pretty much Walt's dream come full circle right there. What IS it about carousels, anyway?
Encounters of the Fourth Kind:
The Facade:
At the entrance of Lumeria, one of the buildings guests are attracted by is a museum. It is a quite odd building; an opera house kind of structure with architecture gaining a mix between something out of a Jules Verne book and the Italian renaissance, perhaps to blend the two areas together. The design along the top of the facade is drastically different, a rust green-tinted copper fin pattern jutting from the facade, with one large fin jutting out from the top of the facade with a glowing beacon at the tip...an antennae maybe? (In other words, think of the Sydney Opera House if it was created 200 years ago).
The Showroom:
After walking through the copper steam-punk inspired doorway, guests enter the showroom displaying the works and inventions of, with a full sized unfinished antique looking plane/UFO hanging from the center of the room. Something is not right though, as the inside is mostly dark with dim red and green lights revealing portions of the room. There are abandonded paintings on the wall, and papers thrown all over the place, revealing Da-Vinci like drawings when up close, albeit more industrial inspired drawings. At the end of the room there is a large, omnious door with spinning cogwheels and fog flowing as it opens every few minutes to allow the next batch of guests into the queue.
The Queue/Station:
These batch of guests begin the queue through a long, wide tunnel with nothing but silver pipes all around releasing steam from time to time, not to mention the few spotlights coming from the ceiling. At the end of this tunnel is an elevator unlike any other, able to hold 50 people at a time. The elevator door opens with the same cogwheel system as before. The guests swarm into the elevator, but as the elevator door closes behind them, the shaft is completely dark. Suddenly, in front of the guests a screen lights up, roughly displaying what looks like a man in what looks like some sort of 1800's diver's uniform (in reality a space suit) sending the guests a message. The thing is, the message is in a language undeciferable by any human...something's going on. The message finishes, and the elevator begins to decend. As light from the outer rooms bleed into the elevator, a human voice warns the guests of the situation before getting cut off himself and being led out with opera music, which plays until the elevator reaches the bottom. The elevator door opens, and the guests then swarm out into the station.
The station itself is rather stark; once again copper walls, dim spotlights from the ceiling, a telegraph going off in the corner, and browned out paper nailed to one of the walls displaying in sketches what the trains look like and safety procedures. There are at least two trains in the station, one unloading and one loading. These trains look like rockets designed in the late 18th century, two cars seating six people each. The guests enter the cars, pull down the lap bars, and embark into the unknown.
The Ride
The trains leave the station and turn into darkness. There is nothing but mist and the sound of screeches. The train then enters a long room displaying odd sapien like creatures in glass tubes, the silent creatures themselves lit dimly in green and the rest of the room being pretty dark except for a electricity inducing orb at the end of the room. The room then goes completly dark as the orb flashes a blinding light. With this the train goes down an ever so slight incline, and the passengers hear screams and mist being shot into their faces. After this the train makes a curve into the lift hill. The lift hill is nothing but a glass tube with flashing lights, until the train halts completly after exiting the tube halfway up the lift and everything goes dark once more. A goliath sized AA alien lit in a cool blue is shown right in front of the passengers and screams. With this, the train is shot into the abyss.
The trains wind, twist, turn, and drop in the dark. There is no light except for the flashing holograms of extraterrestrials as the trains zoom by at top speed. After all this excitement in the dark the train stops again, only to be revealed that we are now in a large room with sleeper pods all over the place (think of The Matrix), which start to gush liquid after a few seconds and reveal moving AA's. The rains then drop into the darkness once again, before hitting a frozen tunnel with flashing blue lights as the trains hit the brake run. The train makes one final turn, ironically cheery classical music plays though the intercom, and the ride is over.
The Exit Queue:
It's pretty much a moving sidewalk to ground level with a gallery displaying renaissance era paintings with hidden aliens in the art works. Once on ground level, guests reach the ornate Verne-esque gift shop where they could also buy an on-ride photos.
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Lumaria’s major source of power is not easy to miss – It’s a sizable volcano in the back of the town! Though steam can be found coming out of the ground all over this land, this is the steamiest area of them all. As you get closer and closer to the volcano you notice more and more frequent steam vents pouring steam into the sky. While steam works all well and fine as a main power source of the land, the Lumarians are always looking for alternate energy sources. A large power plant (with drills the size of two minivans) can be found at the base of the mountain, where the inquisitive minds of the city wonder where all of this steam comes from. This is also where one can board a Terravator and travel deep into the Center of the Earth to help discover this amazing mystery.
You enter the building and immediately see the offices of the scientists and power plant workers. You can see all sorts of papers, manuscripts, and drawings of things inside the Center of the Earth. While some may look fantastical, they are truly real and exist just beyond this passage…
You continue through the foreboding caves of the volcano, where you see a stream running against the wall of the cave (labeled by a small scientific marker - “The Hansbach”).
You come across the Terravators (elevators into the earth), housed inside of a small room containing four doors that open to reveal the Terravators.
When you enter one of them, the doors close and a siren goes off. The metal walls (with slits on the sides so natural lighting can come in) begin to feel hot as the lights move as if you are actually journeying deeper and deeper into the earth. After a short while (and a massive “clunk”), you hit the ground once again. However, you are now MUCH further down inside of the earth…
As you exit you notice something you wouldn’t expect in the center of the earth… cool blue lighting reflecting through the walls of the cave. Maybe the earth isn’t as fiery in the core after all. But where does the lava come from? Ah, you’ll have to wait for that answer. You load onto you Drillmobiles (EMVs with large drills on the tips of the chasis) and begin your journey…
You immediately begin to see the reason of where the “water” part of the steam comes from: There a giant ocean in the middle of the earth! Lightning cackles in the distance, making for a frightening vibe added to the serenity of the ocean. It looks like it goes on for miles and miles, and small plaques identifying different plants at the rocky shore assure you that you’re going in the right direction. While you continue through the covered cave that has “windows” blown out so you can see the ocean, a screech is heard. Suddenly, a giant sea monster rides from the ocean! It looks at you for a moment and lunges, breaking one of the rocky supports of the cave’s safe window structure and shaking your vehicle. Another monster then rises up, as if going for the “final kill”, but then gets a lightning strike (TOO close for comfort) scares the monster away.
You begin to veer off track due to the monsters and their wrongdoings. As you pass by and miss the entrance to another labeled cave that you’re CLEARLY meant to be going in to, you hear sirens and yellow lights appear on the “planned track”. Unfortunately, you’re far past that area now and you’re going into “uncharted territory”.
You venture deeper into the Center of the Earth now (which shifts from a blue color scheme to a sort of greenish-blue glow), with strange glowing mushrooms appearing from the ground. Suddenly you see that some of these mushrooms are GIANT! Glowing vegetation prospers here, as large rivers from the sea flow down into the cavern creating a humid and life-giving environment. A bunch of glowing bugs and pseudo-birds are also seen here happily living their happy glowing life.
Unfortunately, you have no time to enjoy this happy glowing, as a giant fireball shoots in front of your face, scaring all of the animals (and some plants) into hiding.
Suddenly, the river next to you looks as if it’s picking up the pace. You follow it through the small caverns, where it becomes even more humid as you go along. The caverns turn orange and red and lava can be seen flowing through the walls. Steam begins to escape from the river, though it continues to rush on as you quickly navigate through narrow passages deeper into the cave.
Reds and oranges are incredibly strong now, and another fireball appears on your left, even more giant than before! As you stare in awe, you may not notice that to your left there is a giant Lava Monster waiting to attack you. As he makes a noise, moves around, lunges at you, you scream, the on-ride photo is taken, etc, you make a mad dash to the end. You can see that the river behind you is stopped up now by a bunch of steaming rocks, so you really don’t have a guide any more.
As you “drill” deeper and deeper into the earth (or further out of the earth, as it were, as the Lava Monster IS the Center of the Earth), dodging fireballs and hearing the horrible roar of the monster, you eventually drill into another cave area… where the Lava Monster is awaiting your arrival. You’re dead. You are SO dead. Well, you WOULD be dead if it weren’t for the giant river making one last appearance in this fiery room. It sweeps up the Lava Monster and he suddenly begins to emit steam while slowly losing his glowing color. The whole room, in fact, begins to steam, and there’s so much steam, in fact, that the pressure begins to build in the room… the pressure builds so much, in fact, that you trigger an eruption of steam! You immediately begin to travel up the smokestack of the volcano (due to the magic of an elevator system latching onto your vehicle when you were distracted by the river) and you fly higher and higher at a really fast pace until you finally emerge from the volcano and plunge back into the power plant, where you begin to lose steam and get back onto the “planned track”.
Well, are YOU going to tell anyone that the reason for the steam is a giant LAVA MONSTER? They’ll think you’re crazy! Maybe you should keep it to yourself…
While visiting the power plant, you may be drawn to a restaurant that puts itself on the side of the volcano, giving a good view of the surrounding land. The large dining room of the restaurant is built into the side of the volcano, so several natural streams and lava flows have found their way into the dining room. While also giving the diners a wonderful aesthetic focal point, it also gives clues into the mixture of lava and water, creating small pockets of steam inside the restaurant. You may also see a Terravator go down into the earth when looking through some of the large cracks in the wall of the dining room.
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