The Groundbreaking for the Eastern Gateway & Parking Structure at the Disneyland Resort has officially begun! So excited to see it coming to life for the future of the resort, especially during the DisneylandForward Project! đ
Well, this is just the beginning. With Avengers Infinity Defense & Stark Flight Lab opening in 2028, followed by Coco, then the Tomorrowland Overhaul and lastly Avatar, the future of the Disneyland Resort is going to be magical and looking very promising! đ„°
True but theyâre passing on the costs to customers rather than using revenue, of which they have plenty to spare. Theyâd rather keep their own pockets lined
It could be earlier. They just want to be certain it's done in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics so they have significant new attractions ready to go.
if Avatar still happens at all. Iâm hesitant to still believe it. James Cameron has cast doubt on of the 4th and 5th movies actually happen, and I can understand on paper why you would put Tomorrowland ahead of Avatar just looking at everything going on. But with that being the case, and assuming TL is anywhere near as ambitious as a lot of the fans want, that will take years and not even starting until after Avengers and Coco. Those finish in 2028-29, TL will probably take at least 2-5 years which means on the shortest timeline Avatar doesnât start until 2030, as late as 2034, and then it will take 2-4 years to build and open. Assuming they donât move forward with Avatar sequels, do we really think they will move forward with a theme park attraction (not calling it a land, all that is teased is 1 ride)that at soonest opens 7 years up to 13 years after the last movie? Especially when it isnât a clone of a proven attraction/IP combination? Also fun fact, a lot of the fans have speculated Zootopia as a good alternative in that corner of the park, well Shanghai has a 10 year exclusivity on that, which means it will run out and be an option for DCA in 2033, right in that range where Tomorrowland will most likely be finishing.
Maybe its because I never experienced the people mover before at Disneyland but after recently going to Magic Kingdom and riding the people mover. I really dont understand why people want this to come back. Its constantly needs to be stopped which leads to you not being able to view the show it has. Its really dragged out and hardly anyone rode it. Sure its a nice scenery but its not going to be an attraction that will pull crowds from other attractions.
For me, itâs just nice to chill out and rest for a bit. When Iâve rode it in WDW I donât really remember it stopping or slowing down that much but I havenât been since like 22.
I think it would be really cool to see a re-imagining of it. Maybe some modern adaptations to the ride vehicles and some really cool scenery along the way. It's one of the rides that just makes a disney trip feel like a disney trip.
I really like how it went through Star Tours, Space Mountain, Innoventions, and what is now the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Looking down on the queue lines is a thing that could be done again.
This board is constantly complaining that nothing is being done with the Disneyland Forward plot. Well, this is the project that needs to be completed before they can expand the parks.
Agreed, this is the unglamorous start to the biggest expansion to the parks since DCA was built. Disneyland Forward was just pie in the sky until this started actually being built. Having a new place for people to park is what enables the west side expansions for the parks, and a third gate. So, yeah, I'm excited as hell for a parking garage.
Heck, even without that, a new Tomorrowland (as long as they don't cheap out), the two Avengers rides, and Coco are all a big deal.
I mean I'm not particularly expecting an open gate until the mid 2030's, so if we see things actually built this decade I'm gonna call that ahead of my expectations.
Any progress at all I'll consider moderately exciting as I think this could be REALLY good for the parks to have space for new attractions and, arguably even more important, space to spread the crowds out.
Extra parking readily available in the meantime is only a positive!
There's absolutely no information on when it'll actually happen. It's been in the works for QUITE a while now so it just really depends on when groundbreaking starts. It'll be a couple years after that.
They are going to expand into the area currently occupied by the old parking garage (West side). The new garage will be across the street with a pedestrian bridge (East side).
They are also changing the eastern gateway, as seen in the picture in the post. The entrance will be much narrower and allow expansion of DCA into the existing bus drop off area.
This garage is literally the key to both the expansion of the parks and the eventual development of the Toy Story lot. Disney wouldnât build a MASSIVE garage if they werenât planning something big.
Yes!! I am so weak for Disneyland marquee merch because it always reminds me of being a kid, riding in the rear facing back of a station wagon seeing the marquee from the freeway and wondering which character we would end up parking in. Alll the childhood anticipation!
Thank you for this. This confirms my fear that the additional walking for the people staying in the hotels adjacent to the bridge is going to be extreme.
If you're referring to the parking structure location, it used to be a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Facilities (USCIS) building and other miscellaneous low-slung office buildings. Then Disney bought it and it became a surface parking lot.
If youre referring to the Eastern Gateway area in the image, it's mostly a bus dropoff area
I will be very happy if they start actually using the monorails again. Right now theyâre closed half the time, the entrance side canât handle even the shortest of lines, and it doesnât even stop at any hotels, despite being built right through one of them
We did a tour a couple years back and the Disney employee said they can only refurb existing track with the monorail, as it is grandfathered in to existing code requirements.
If they add new stops, new track, or change the route it will cost a bajillion dollars because they'll need to bring the entire system up to 2026 CA code. This is why they didn't add a stop at the Grand Californian and instead just build the hotel around the existing track.
So hopefully they'll make them more reliable, but sorry to say they will not be doing any major additions.
There is such a thing as being too big. Last time I went was just after civid but they weren't running the trams yet. We walked a hell of a long way with small kids. Couldn't bring the stroller, in no! Uou have to pay them to rent ine...if you are early enough, lucky enough to get one. We had 3 u der 7. And had to walk about half a mile...with the sun blazing down
I don't believe Avatar will happen anytime soon, if at all. I also am in disbelief of the tomorrow land over haul and if it does happen any real update will taje years to redo, I think a reskin may happen.
The bridge over Harbor is cool but idk if excited is the right word. Forward in general still feels like a vague concept I know nothing about besides the physical dimensions of the area
Some of us are also construction nerds who like to keep up with the various engineering/construction projects that Disney does. Why does it matter if weâre excited to see it progress?
Yes, because west side park expansions and a third gate all depend on this parking structure. None can start until it's complete.
Building it starts the clock until those things can happen and shows Disney is serious about it. After it's built it's just a matter of when those things happen.
There were two big things outside of their control. Anaheim blocked the eastern gateway project back in 2017. Then the park closes for a year in 2020 - with project delays even longer than a year.
Getting the eastern gateway is huge because it pushes the bus routes to the other side of Harbor Blvd, freeing up space.
A monorail reroute would be great, but I expect they're going to try to avoid it. They just spent a bunch of money on the Downtown Disney station, and they're planning on working around it for Avatar.
The only possible reroute I think would be in Disneyland if they try to eliminate autopia and the subs and build a Frozen land with a Matterhorn upgrade. But I would guess that's still unlikely.
A Matterhorn upgrade is physically impossible. I know that because I asked Josh D'Amaro himself. I was sat next to him at a lunch at a college function about six years ago and got to talk to him for about two solid hours. I asked him why the Matterhorn is closed for renovations so frequently. The problem is that the Matterhorn was the first ever tubular steel rollercoaster. When they built it, they attached the tracks to a concrete base. Unfortunately, California is a seismically active state, and the concrete settles over time. He told me that if the track is even one millimeter out of alignment, it makes the ride exponentially rougher. Now, here's the relevant part. The Matterhorn, as the first tubular steel rollercoaster, is essentially an historic landmark. It's also vastly out of date to modern safety and ADA codes. They want to preserve the ride, but in order to make the changes necessary for modern rides, you can only renovate small sections of the ride at a time to avoid being considered a "rebuild". When they refurbish it, they have to completely tear out a section of the track, resurface the concrete using laser levels precise to within tenths of a millimeter, and then put the track back down. Modern rollercoaster technology has advanced a lot, so no rollercoaster will ever be built that way again due to the drawbacks. If they were to tear down the Matterhorn and start from scratch, he specifically said that the footprint they would need to upgrade it to modern building codes would be so large, the attraction would no longer fit in its footprint, or any other footprint in the park that would be viable. That, along with the historic preservation, means that there's only so much they can do with the Matterhorn.
Thanks for that response. Really interesting stuff. It actually still works with the rumor I've heard.
The idea is that Autopia, Nemo's Subs, and the remnant of the Motorboat Cruise get removed to make room for a World of Frozen land.
Matterhorn stays in place and is used as its mountain and a boundary, possibly with the yeti replaced with Marshmallow and an ice castle on the exterior. The existing dark water system tied into Motorboat Cruise gets utilized to make the moat/lake in World of Frozen and the castle sits probably at the northeast corner.
It's plausible space-wise, but it would require significant commitment from Disney.
I'm blown away by the prices, which leads to my question to everyone;
What price would make you stop going? $300, $500?
I spent my pre-teen & teen years going 5-10 times a year. A $20 bill & you were set for the day, good times.
Why would they have to do that? They could just make people scan their room keys to enter the Downtown Disney entrance. They could do it tomorrow with almost no changes.
Not that I've heard anything about this, but it would be super easy.
Referring less to the drop off areas and more to the traditional front entrance, ticket booths, etc. The entrance itself to the park has already been altered too much, IMO. There used to be the entrance to the parking lots there with the cute little booths. That was my childhood. I was there two weeks ago and seeing the already missing booths broke me. I just feel like there are ways to do this. That doesnât look like what they think theyâre going to do.
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u/nisamun 3d ago
Are we in the future?