Construction to start this fall on Disneyland expansions

I can see what Coco has to do with California, a little. . . California has a distinct Mexican influence. . .kinda. None of the other inclusions in Disney's recent money dump make any sense at all.

When Universal does it, it's still frowned upon, don't get me wrong, but most of their newer rides and lands carry the spirit of the original parks (and the rides that don't get rightfully criticized).

Meanwhile, Disney thinks that Journey of Water fits into EPCOT and that Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway is a suitable replacement for the great movie ride. Neither of these, nor many others, carry any of the original park"s spirit.

Irreversible damage, that's what it is. But at least we can point to characters we know.

Is the Avatar attraction actually a boat ride? The language they are using is suggesting a walkthrough attraction like the Moana area at Epcot

The position of the Coco ride makes sense given that Disney often stages Festival events with Latin-American influences in this area of the park. However, has anyone looked at the actual space available in this area? Now, if you look at the concept drawing, you can see Incredicoaster's turnaround in the background, which would suggest to me that this would take over the space currently occupied by Boardwalk Pizza. Looking at the aerial, there's a sliver of space between Boardwalk and Paradise Garden, but there's really not much backstage space here unless they're planning to reroute or eliminate the perimeter road, which provides backstage access from Disneyland Drive. Even if this is going to take over the Boardwalk Pizza space, this attraction is going to be TINY, with a footprint no bigger than one of the Fantasyland dark rides, which would make a boat ride shorter than Na'Vi River Journey.

For Avatar, this apparent pivot is extremely disappointing. Disney teased grand designs for this IP in California, and this seems to completely contradict that announcement. It sounds like this is going to be more like an indoor walk-through with no actual ride or movie. This is just completely counter to the concept and what has made PtWoA at DAK so successful. Avatar is about that "wow" factor, so if you're going to stick this inside a building with no actual ride, why bother.

I guess the one good thing here is that by wedging these 2 IPs into existing space inside DCA, it means that WDI has probably realized that trying to connect the main park property to the expansion space in the Toy Story parking lot is impractical. That was the one big question and concern constantly coming from the D23 where Disney made these announcements that corresponded to the modifications to the Disneyland Forward Plan to incorporate the parking lot into the parks. To me, this is a clear recognition that WDI cannot come up with a practical way to get guests from DCA to the Toy Story parking lot parcel (why couldn't they have just used large box trucks to take guests across the street, wink), and to me, that signals that Disney will almost certainly use this "new" space as either a separate gate or perhaps another hotel/resort.

Anyone find the timing interesting of Monsters, Inc in DCA closing while being built at WDW - can we say repurpose? Of course it is not a 1-1 ride swap, but still…

Is Hyperion closing with Hollywood to Pandora change? What about the Animation Academy building, Sunset theatre, etc.?

Where was it announced that the Avatar attraction has been reduced to a walkthrough? I read the above concept art as simply what the Avatar area will look like outside of the ride. And I also wouldn’t be surprised if the ringed circular rock “telescope” weenie in the upper left of the picture is featured in an upcoming AVATAR sequel, much like the Hallelujah Mountains from film 1 are the main weenie for PTWoA at DK. And also to a lesser extent how the Flight of Passage queue seeds Easter eggs for future films too. I don’t expect Disney to half ass this and scale it back to a walk through (unless I missed an announcement or something) after announcing a boat ride. I’ve said it until I was blue in the face (no pun intended) but Disney is playing the long game with this IP. There have been only 2 films released so far and they are both in the TOP 3 highest grossing films of all time, with another in the can coming out this year and 2 more (at least) confirmed for later release. That’s a simple calculus for Disney, and not something I think they want to feebly commit to after making a big splash announcement.

@fattyackin - I don't think Disney ever officially announced that they were going to build a boat ride for Disneyland's Avatar land, it was just fan speculation based on the concept drawings and the hope that WDI would finally repurpose the PotC system from Shanghai for a US attraction. Based on the details noted here, they're closing Mike and Sully early next year for this work, which is just a small corner of the Hollywood Backlot area. If Disney was going to truly go "big" with Avatar to replicate the grand landscape showed in the concept photo, they would probably have to repurpose the entire Hollywood Backlot area, taking out the Hyperion, all of the accessory/support buildings in that corner of the park, and probably even the Animation building that includes Turtle Talk and Animation Academy. Then would come the problem with figuring out how completely taking out this land and replacing it with Avatar would fit with the overarching theme of DCA - I would assume that if they limited it to the Mike and Sully building they could frame it as a movie soundstage or production transporting guests to Pandora.

As we've seen, Disney rarely makes things bigger than they were initially announced, so the thought that Avatar would completely replace Hollywood Backlot seems outsized compared to the expectations Disney set when they originally announced Avatar was coming to Disneyland. Also, if Avatar was going to take over more than just the Mike and Sully footprint, they would have announced more sweeping closures than just the Monsters Inc ride. If you look at the footprint of Battle of the Sunken Treasure, just the attraction building alone would consume this entire corner of DCA, likely out to the Backlot Stage, over to the old Millionaire stage, and almost to the Hyperion (that's just for the attraction building, not including exterior queue and theming or a surrounding land).

I would LOVE to see Avatar done right in California with a massive land comparable to what Disney created at DAK, but unless they're going to completed doze the Hollywood Backlot and virtually ignore theming continuity in the park, it really seems like this announcement confirms that they're just throwing this into an existing building and downsizing the IP's application.

First off I think it's fantastic that a Coco ride is coming to DCA and most impressively not replacing anything currently at the park. Before I even read Russell's comments above I checked out the area in that corner of the park and agree 100% with him... where is the land for this ride?! There's not much room out there for this! Something to keep an eye out for later, but glad Coco is coming to the parks over here.

As for Avatar. That's also going to be very interesting to follow. I will miss Monsters Inc but it is surrounded by a lot of precious real estate that isn't being used to its full potential. This Avatar re work will help with that. But I also believe space is an issue. Most of Hollywood Pictures Backlot or a good chunk of the bus loading area will need to go for even just the one boat ride which is what this will be. Avatar is awesome and Disney did well with the AK part of it so I'm optimistic. But, very very curious to see how all this will fit in the park.

I do think a Coco boat ride sounds good and intrigued what comes with Avatar in DL as I think Disney will try some other type of simulator attraction for the space.

Glad I got on Monsters Inc, a fun dark ride but never top tier (It was always having to replace the horrible Superstar Limo) so not too shocked it's gone.

A lot of talk about the rides here but one very key things I need to add about the parking lot across Harbor and the walk way:

Please add some SHADE to the walkway! I don't see a canopy and the So Cal sun can be tough at times. This would make such an impact on a visitors visit. Instead of them having to battle the sun first thing as they arrive or last things as they leave and complaining about it, a canopy can do wonders in enhancing the guest experience. I implore Disney to consider a canopy to provide relief from the sun.

Good point Manny, but you've got to give them credit for that old-school Disneyland sign on the east side of the Esplanade.

@Russell: fair points all. I’ve been to DCA a couple of times but spent the least amount of time in that area of the park, so my knowledge of its footprint regarding the backstage area or land available for expansion is sorely limited. This got me to thinking though- one interesting recent ride system development WDI might be able to use in a smaller area for a water themed attraction could possibly a more advanced application of the tech used during the Waterfall Sequence of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I stand behind my blind assertion that whatever form the Avatar land takes at DCA it will be more than just an elevated walkthrough. But I concede that it could be much smaller in scope than I imagined, unless WDI has some hidden ace up its sleeve regarding park expansion.

@fattyakin - I give you...

https://avatartheexperience.com/

Not to say something bigger couldn't be done if they were to take all of Hollywood Backlot (and destroy the park's thematic continuity), but that's kind of what I visualize when I think about Avatar in the space allocated by Mike and Sully to the Rescue. Though, as Manny noted, if the end game is to indeed take over the entirety of the Hollywood Backlot, it's possible that they're announcing the early closure of the Monsters Inc dark ride so those props and animatronics can be repurposed and shipped to DHS.

I see where you're going with utilizing a smaller footprint, other dark rides use features like this (individual ride vehicle rooms for a motion-sim portion of the ride) including Symbolica and the Snori ride at Europa Park

Mid

@Russell

Disney most certainly did confirm a boat ride for the Avatar area at DCA. It was announced last year at D23 during the Honda Center presentation. Here you go; https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/avatar-experience-announced-california-adventure/

And here's the actual Avatar segment from the presentation; https://youtu.be/4SpyJlVtUhs?si=K-JGgR2uURsjpqdk

@FredS:
I KNEW I remembered that happening lol! Alright baby, back on track. This land is gonna be next level! Who’s coming with me!?!

I was pretty close with my guess for Coco, but I figured they'd shut down Goofy's Sky School for it instead of sticking it in backstage space. My version would have been to create a Coco miniland with the ride itself replacing Sky School and Paradise Garden Grill, the Boardwalk Pizza becoming a Mexican restaurant, and the two flat rides across the way (Jumpin' Jellyfish and Silly Symphony Swings) being rethemed to fit the area. However, it seems like they'll probably stick the ride building for Coco behind Incredicoaster, which is an interesting position for it.

I strongly suspect that everything north of Hollywood Land's main street and east of the Philharmagic theater is getting the axe for Avatar. That will clear up about 200k square feet for the land, which could be potentially doubled if the bus and rideshare drop-off areas are relocated across Harbor as part of the new parking garage. That's enough space for a boat ride on the scale of Battle for the Sunken Treasure, though I'd guess the walkable area accompanying it will be much smaller than Florida's version.

As for timelines, my guess is the Avengers Campus expansion, Coco ride, and new parking structure are targeted to be ready in time to handle the influx of visitors coming in 2028 for the Los Angeles Olympics. Avatar is said to be early in development, so I'd bet on that being planned more for either 2030 (the 75th anniversary of the Disneyland Resort) or 2031 (the 30th anniversary of California Adventure).

Also, Russell, there has never been any proposal to connect either existing theme park to the Toy Story parking property, which would be impossible without purchasing and demolishing several hotels. There was a proposal to build a separate third theme park on that lot, but Disneyland Forward shows the direction is instead to expand the two existing theme parks to parking space on the other side of Disneyland Drive and utilize Toy Story's space for a second resort area with hotels, shopping, and dining. I had previously expected Avatar to be the first part of DCA's expansion into the Disneyland Forward plot, but it seems Disney's not quite ready to start utilizing that space.