FANTASTIC WORLDS: A Land-by-Land Tour of Park Lore’s Blue Sky, Built-Out, Armchair Imagineered Disney Park

EXPLORERS LANDING

From the sleek, digital realm of TRON, the path presses on into the rustic, ramshackle, seaside town of Explorers Landings. In this coastal marketplace of literary heroes, explorers, immigrants, and adventurers from across the world and timeline, eccentrics, artists, thieves, and collectors from every corner of the globe converge in a colorful, fantastical bay of salt and steam for refueling, respite, and retirement.

Looming beyond stands Vulcania – the once-secret lair of the great Captain Nemo. Contained in the collapsed caldera of a 189-foot tall fire-belching mountain, this science-fantasy land of oxidized iron catwalks and drilled, latern-lit caverns built around a boiling pool is a launch point for adventures to to the center of the Earth, the deep sea, and even through time…

Together, Explorers Landing and Vulcania are paired lands filled with impossible thrills and incredible characters, setting sail for uncharted times and places…

Inspiration & Concept

In the spirit of Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent, I knew I wanted at least one land that would feel exactly as real and cinematic and immersive as the others, but be a world that guests would not recognize from a movie.

The Lost Continent pulled from various myths and legends to create three different sub-sections – a Neopolitan ice cream bar of Atlantean lore, Sinbad’s voyages, and Arthurian legend. I also went with a literary land, and one that brings together many dissimilar parts… but I mixed them all up like a salad.

I wanted Explorers Landing to be very “Diagon Alley.” Sort of whimsical and slanted and hand-built; multi-story fisheries and rowhouses and canneries and sail-making warehouses that are leaning and painted in earthy purples and greens and browns; a living, fantasy-infused sea shanty, with the smell of salt water and the glow of oil lamps in windows. This is a newly-electic world of seance parlors and Victorian glass and canneries and chaise lounges, all set against the backdrop of that bay filled with various fishing vessels and row boats anchored at the waterfront docks.

But this is not just a port drawing travelers from around the world… but from throughout time… How? Well…

Experience

To enter Explorers Landing from the Game Grid, the winding, coiled metallic bridge of TRON descends to a wooden boardwalk and a craggily, waterfront area of leaning warehouses and canneries. Down here – at the water-level of the raised bay – is the region of Explorers Landing known as the Docks.

The Docks

The first and most apparent attraction looms over the plaza: it’s the FIREWORKS FACTORY. The Fireworks Factory was a concept floated for various iterations of the never-built Possibilityland: Discovery Bay. The surest look we have of it in that context is the image above, essentially suggesting that at one stage, it was envisioned as a Frontierland Shootin’ Gallery that would merely activate sparklers and strobes and perhaps LED light shows.

I think we can beat that. So in my park, I picture the Fireworks Factory as a trackless dark ride using the ride system and layout of Mystic Manor. Here, guests would be invited to tour the manufacturing facility and storage warehouse of the Tan family – Chinese immigrants, artists, and inventors .

But when their adorable, yellow Chinese water dragon Yudī decides to pursue his dreams of becoming a Chinese fire dragon, it begins a musical trip through the factory, seeing each of the family’s historic, international collection of candles, pinwheels, and fireworks become colorful, fantastic displays as poor Yudī races to undo what he’s done!

Of course, it all comes to an end in the factory’s shipping room, where swirling rockets, spinning pinwheels, and sputtering fireworks threaten to burn the factory to the ground… until Yudī embraces his identity, turns blue, and summons torrents of water to cool the heat. Don’t worry – there’s a happy ending, as the Mayor of Explorers Landing swings by to thank the Tan family for the greatest show the show’s ever seen, overseeing the delivery of a whole new inventory of fireworks for next time.

From that initial entry plaza and the Fireworks Factory, guests can stay at bay-level by following the Docks, as wooden boardwalks proceed along the water’s edge past the PORT PROVISIONS CAFE (a waterfront buffet eatery with rooftop seating to overlook the land.

I also added THE GREAT BALLOON just as the area where the bay pours into the Sea of Stars. Of course, such a low-capacity attraction would never really be greenlit for a major park, even with an additional charge. But it’s fun to imagine how one of these helium balloon rides could fit into such an adventurous land.

At the furthest end of the Docks, deep in the land resides THE GREAT BRASS CAROUSEL. Based on François Delarozière’s incredible Le Manège d’Andréa in Toulouse, France, I wanted this sort of mechanical, steampunk, otherworldly carousel of curious creatures beneath a brass canopy to be an icon of the land, settled into the volcanic waterfalls at the Landing’s rear.

Last but not least, I want to mention that Explorers Bay – the raised lagoon along the Docks – is filled with watercrafts. And there’s a reason for that. At the rear of the land, nestled in the waterfalls is the CHRONORING – a large, pulsing, white ring that hums with energy and light. Every 15 minutes or so, nozzles around the ring would begin to mist as it powers on. Then, with a crack, the ring would “open,” revealing a vehicle from throughout the multiverse – a historic seaplane, a Greek vessel, even a submarine from the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage – which would then proceed into the bay, creating continuous, bustling water traffic all controlled by LPS.

The Village

Whether from an ascending path from the land’s entry stairs by the Port Provisions Cafe or Carousel, or ramps at the Docks’ end, eventually guests will ascend from the Docks to the Village. I wanted the Village to be the New Orleans Square of this park – a place to genuinely get lost in hidden alleys and eccentric storefronts. Palm readers, charicature artists, perfumeries, toymakers, book shops…. these streets are filled with merchants.

The Village also contains two notable attractions. A great Tower of Winds (based on Crump’s World’s Fair original) captures wind and uses it to power the windmill on the facade of PROFESSOR MARVEL’S GALLERY OF WONDERS – an Audio-Animatronics show (in the spirit of the Enchanted Tiki Room) where guests are introduced to the mechanical wonders, enchanted creatures, and singing plants. It exits into the WONDER WORKSHOP, a signature retail experience where guests can build their own mechanical toys and fuzzy fantasy creatures.

The other signature attraction is TOWER OF TERROR: CURSE OF THE STOLEN IDOL – here, a copy of DisneySea’s Modern Marvel: Tower of Terror, the version wrapped in the story of S.E.A. Not only does Harrison Hightower’s story fit the narrative of Explorers Landing and its nautical vibe, but it also is perfectly positioned to look across the Sea at the rest of the park.

The Cliffs

There are two ways to access the third area of Explorers Landing. From deep in the land where the mountainous arm of Vulcania begins to envelope the village, the Cliffs begin at THE OBSERVATORY – a table service restaurant set in the dome of a Planetarium. But you can also access the Cliffs by crossing the Great Iron Bridge that spans between the Village and the Cliffs over the Docks.

The cliffs are remote, with a narrow path between the steep face of Vulcania and the drop-off into the bay below. At its furthest point – nestled in multi-level, cascading waterfalls – resides PROFESSOR MARVEL’S WONDROUS JOURNEY. This fanciful, fantastic dark ride seats guests in colorful hot air balloons, sending them on a fantasy journey across the planet. I wanted this ride to be a musical, suspended “Peter Pan’s Flight” for the park, borrowing elements of Around the World in 80 Days. It also offers a great reprise for Professor Marvel and his cartoon creatures as one of the park’s “original” IPs.

The Cliffs also contain FORTRESS EXPLORATIONS – the ancient fortress embedded in the cooled lava flows of the volcano. A historic base of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, this attraction (copied from DisneySea) is literally a mini science museum in its own right.

Aside from the waterfront playground and access to the SEA MAIDEN docked sailing ship, Fortress Explorations also contains art exhibitions, illusion galleries, a functioning camera obscura, a Foucault pendulum, and – in its central, golden dome… 

… a mechanical Planetarium. All of it comes together in “Leonardo’s Challenge” – an interactive scavenger hunt and game that sends guests through the fortress looking for clues, aligning planets, and activating secret features.

And of course, inside the fortress resides MAGELLAN’S – a table-service restaurant serving as the historic meeting place of S.E.A.’s most prominent members.

VULCANIA

Standing 189 feet over the park is Vulcania, a fire-belching mountain whose collapsed caldera contains a land of its own. As visitors pass through the fiery mountain’s rocky caverns, they emerge in the secret lair of Jules Verne’s literary antihero Captain Nemo.

This is his world – a science-fantasy environment contained entirely within the rocky ring, with visitors stepping along oxidized iron catwalks suspended around the mountainous interior. Below, water flowing into Vulcania from the Sea of Stars roils and churns, with unpredictable geysers bubbling up from below. Hissing steam escapes from geothermal vents as a distint ring of a otherworldly whir echos through the land.

Vulcania is itself plucked from Tokyo DisneySea, where (as “Mysterious Island”) it’s the park’s centerpiece land. There’s almost no way to explain what an incredibly immersive experience this 360-degree land is, or the stunning, jaw-dropping scale to which it’s built. It’s a shockingly incredible project, and is widely recognized as among the best Disney Parks “lands” on Earth for very good reason.

It’s also genius because Imagineers have tried time and time again to inject more of Jules Verne’s 19th century science-fantasy adventure novels – the “Voyages Extraordinaires” – into Disney Parks (see the Lost Legends: 20,000 Leagues, Space Mountain: De la Terre á la Lune, and of course, Discovery Bay) but time and time again, Verne projects either fizzle out or give way to IP overlays.

Even though, for example, Vulcania would arguably be a pretty sound fit in Animal Kingdom or even Disneyland, it’ll just never be. Not while hot box office franchises are all the rage. But here in Fantastic Worlds, Vulcania belongs. It’s larger-than-life; cinematic; immersive; adventurous…

So here in Fantastic Worlds, Vulcania comes pre-loaded with its two iconic attractions. 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA here is an unusual suspended dark ride in its own right, but enclosing riders in submarine pods that can travel through the deep sea. Filled with incredible setpieces, the ride would read like an E-Ticket anywhere else, but in Vulcania it’s clearly playing second fiddle to something even bigger.

That would be JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, a ride often regarded as one of the greatest ever assembled by Disney Imagineering. This incredibly convoluted dark ride (whose layout we detailed in our One & Only collection) sends guests deep into the planet, passing by subterranean seas, bioluminscent forests, crystal caverns, and eventually to the planet’s molten core where one of the greatest Audio-Animatronics of all times awaits.

The ‘one-two punch’ of 20,000 Leagues & Journey already makes Vulcania the departure point for voyages through earth and sea. But in my built-out, idealized park, I wanted to include a trip through another frontier: time.

In 1972, Disney released a film called The Island at the Top of the World. As it turned out, Island was produced during Disney’s infamous “dark age” when the studio just couldn’t quite seem to get a hit at the box office. It was also a “last gasp” of the two decade long era of fantasy adventure films that Walt’s 20,000 Leagues had begun before STAR WARS forever shifted cinema from fantasy to sci-fi. In other words, it’s not exactly a Disney classic.

But it did produce the iconic Hyperion – a scarlet airship that serves as the film’s equivalent of the Nautilus. Even though neither Island at the Top of the World nor the Hyperion are legitimate Verne creations, either would fit the world of Vulcania well enough. I opted to use the Hyperion, but not as a voyage through the air (though that would nicely fit with the land’s existing sea and earth adventures. Oops). Instead, I created HYPERION: VOYAGE THRU TIME.

Odd as it may sound, I decided here to use the ride system developed for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Frankly, that’s because it’s a totally ingenious ride system that spectacularly narrows guests down into increasingly-personally-scaled experiences until they end up one of just six crew members aboard the Falcon’s cockpit. Now sure, the ride itself is kinda “meh.” But the foundation is there.

So you can easily imagine entering the Hyperion’s hanger via Vulcania where a character – perhaps Captain Nemo himself, or even the Timekeeper – would send you off to journey through time. Rather than smashing blasters and light up buttons that don’t mean anything, I’d use this smart, six-person, high-capacity ride system to send guests on randomized adventures through time. Imagine a “Pilot” being tasked with pulling back a lever, but instead of jumping to lightspeed, it activates a spinning display of numbers, settling on a “year” and flashing guests there.

From primeval worlds to Renaissance flights; Medival sieges to the far-flung future, this randomized ride could be gamified to various levels (giving riders “jobs” – obviously, the “left and right” and “up and down” motion control jobs are seriously cool). There could be a MacGuffin to chase, or it could just be a joyful, bright, adventurous, fun trip through time.

There are so many possibilities here, but I fundamentally feel that there are so many possibilities for how this ride system could be adapted to place guests at the controls of the Hyperion as it races through time.

From the holy ground of Hallow Vale to the buzzing streets of San Fransokyo; the glowing Grid to the hidden alleys and docks of Explorers Landing, and now into the grand adventures only possible in Vulcania… This park is at its best when it’s taking us to impossible places and incredible worlds. Believe it or not, we’re halfway through its lineup… So what awaits next, in the central position across from Hallow Vale around the lagoon? We’re about to find out…