Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

[Casey Jr]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

Thanks, Randy! That helps alot!

[RandySavage]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

A visual interpretation of some of what we may be seeing in this plan:

[HiddenMickeyBook]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

Wow, hard to believe that is Disneyland and not WDW. Very interesting!

[Casey Jr]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

yeah, that fits just right. It seems the old Show Building for the more elaborate Indiana Jones is even smaller than the huge current one.

[RandySavage]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

It seems that the yellow building south of Jungle Cruise is a placeholder for the early indoor-outdoor version of Indy:

[Uncle Bob]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

Wow, what an interesting plan. I've read several articles over the years about various major expansion plans for DL itself before they really started to focus on a second gate, but threre really doesn't seem to be much conceptual drawings that have got out. This is definitely one of the more intersting and unusual ones I've seen. Thanks for posting. From what I can tell your analysis of what the things are seems to make sense.

[Let's Enunciate]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

I wish I could offer some sort of intelligible conjecture as to what we are looking at, but this is foreign territory here. Obviously this deviates significantly from the Westcot plans. Pyramids and space-age type domes? I had not heard of these plans from Disney. The westernmost (farthest to the left) part of the brown area is vaguely reminiscent of the Arabian Coast region of Tokyo Disney Sea, and this would explain the domes and perhaps some of the other strange architechture. (At least as viewed from overhead) I've attached a picture as well as an overview map of Tokyo Disney Sea. Doesn't the way TDS is designed remind you of the brown section of the park? With all the spaces of water separating the different attractions? Perhaps this was an early version of that concept that got scrapped? It looks like there are boats in the water too, just like at Disney Sea.

[Casey Jr]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

WOW! where on earth do you find this stuff? This doesn't look like any of the Westcot plans, so cool. Thanks alot, RandySavage.

[Rongo]

Re: Expansion Map for DLR, c. 1990

Yule (snicker) find the complete story of Westcot on the excellent Yesterland site... it was mentioned here 2 weeks ago:
WESTCOT Center and the Original Disneyland Resort, Part 1, at Yesterland

[RandySavage]

I came across this interesting conceptual master plan for the resort. I'm guessing the date is ~1990 since it predates Indy and comes after MGM:



Lots of interesting stuff here:

ORANGE: Hollywoodland

You can see the Chinese Theater (Great Movie Ride) clearly. The amphitheater in the lower right could be for the Young Indy Stunt Show. Other rumored attractions are outlined by Jim Hill here:

Jim Hill : A Special Weekend Edition of Why For?

RED: Disneyland Hotel - in the Mictorian style of Paris'.

BROWN: The best I can come up with after analyzing the plan is that here they tried taking the World Showcase part out of WestCOT and making that the Downtown Disney area.

The area's buildings are comprised of what appear to be domes (India? Russia?), towers (Europe) and pyramids (Maya, Egypt).

There is also a track that runs throughout the area (a version of WestCOT's around-the-world boat ride?), but, oddly, ends up in Hollywoodland.

DARK PURPLE: This is a very strange layout for a theme park, but takes up all the space the fully-expanded DCA will. There are two huge, futuristic pyramids (like Vegas' Luxor?) and covered (elevated) walkways to other very large "pavillions."

In the lower left is a very large arena with a pool in the center - reminiscent of SeaWorld's Shamu stadium.

At the bottom where the image ends, there is a road (on satellite, not visible here), so I assume this is the extent of the purple park, unless...

LIGHT PURPLE: Another pavillion to the second gate? (lower left of image).

YELLOW: New resort hotel.

Any other conjecture on what this map shows?

And Merry Christmas.


EDIT: Looking closer - near the Jungle Cruise, that may be the show building for the early Indiana Jones & the Lost Expedition.