With thousands of extra bodies expected inside Disneyland for Galaxy’s Edge, Disney Parks Management has been making more room in the park by widening walkways and shrinking or removing planter space, along with some other changes (See: New Adventureland entrance). These changes have been a long time coming, and one attraction just barely escaped removal.
The Astro-Orbitor, smack in the middle of Tomorrowland’s entrance, is extremely problematic in terms of crowd flow long before Project Stardust, as they call the attempt to make Disneyland more crowd-friendly, usually to positive result. Stardust also included the May 1st removal of remaining smoking areas after last year’s purge and new regulations regarding stroller wagon size.
They talked about restoring the Astro-Jets atop the Peoplemover Tower – all they need to do to be ADA-friendly is to reinstall a lift elevator that can be controlled manually in case of an emergency, so why didn’t it make The Cut?
Too expensive.
While the tower was in perfect condition at the time the copper-colored barely-themed spinner ride was planted smack in the middle of a busy walkway, it may not be in such great condition after over two decades of neglect. So, why change it in the first place? The Imagineer in charge of the Astro-Orbitor change in 1998 is deathly afraid of heights, and at the dark time at Imagineering, you took what they assigned you or else. Author and Imagineer David Mumford refused a high-profile job developing Disney’s California Adventure (DCA 1.0). He was sent off to something more low-profile: it was designing Mysterious Island and Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea, though, so…
So anyway, the creative folks wanted to give guests back that thrill of flying though the skies above Disneyland that the Rocket-Jets provided so well, but the Sharp Pencil People, as Walt Disney called them, put the ix-nay on the epositioning-ray.
After Galaxy’s Edge opens, the next big thing that is slated to open is Marvel Land. (I don’t know if that is the final name or not, but I doubt it.) The Disney Parks folks are hoping that the new land – and its new-tech wonder Spider-Man attraction – will help ease crowds a little on the other side of the Esplanade.
Once the Marvel Land is open, Disneyland Guests might not feel the prick so badly when Tomorrowland closes for yet another revamping. Just about everything, save Space Mountain, Must Go! We’re talking 1965 levels of Flat Earth here. The Peoplemover tracks are planned to be completely demolished, crushing the hopes of us who did hold on to a tiny scrap of the above emotion that one of Disney’s greatest attractions would return: it ate crowds, gave a long, entertaining and satisfying look at Tomorrowland and environs, was a great place to rest those Disney feet and, most of all, was an attraction where people of all abilities and ages could have fun together.
I can’t talk about the VAST changes going into Space Mountain yet, but when I can, you’ll be the first to know. I DO know that it’s going to be the number two coaster in Tomorrowland, behind the TRON coaster that’s headed our way.
But the placement of this coaster is unusual in that instead of perching on the outside edge of the land – and the park – they’re taking a page from the park down the street. Knott’s Berry Farm’s Silver Bullet Coaster (great coaster, one of my favorites. Worth the trip alone.) and putting one of TRON’S showiest loops on the hub side of Tomorrowland, drawing people in toward wherever that cool-looking thing above pedestrians’ heads starts.
I must admit, I’m a bit flummoxed when I try to think of how the entrance will be laid out if they let the Astro-Orbitor continue to block the entrance to Tomorrowland. The Vulcania rocks are out; that’s a given. Great in France, not-so-great in Disneyland’s Googie masterpiece. Tilted? Doubled? Moved? I’d love it if they would lift it up where it belongs.
The Monorail is also going to endure a change, and this one is for the worse, from what I’ve heard so far. But there’s a reason! Gone will be the pleasant ride around Fantasyland, seeing the white-and-gold spires of it’s a small world. It’s getting taken out along with the Peoplemover Tracks, because, hey, they’re taking out poles, so why not take them all out? No, that’s not the reason. The reason is that they are going to need all of that real estate for the New Fantasyland project.
What about this New Fantasyland project for Disneyland? Well, that’s another story for another day…
Aside from Tron and a revamped Space Mountain, what would you like to see in a reinvented Tomorrowland?
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