The Design phase, when critical mistakes were made

Tony Baxter, who was working on the Splash Mountain project for Disneyland, was the lead for the WDI team that would design the theme park portion of the resort. Amazingly, they had a blank slate, no site constraints, and access to all the technological improvements done for Epcot. What did they do with that?

Main Street U.S.A.

The first area guests encountered as they entered the park at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom is Main Street, USA, a hommage to the small towns in the USA that Walt Disney grew up in and passed through in the early 1900s. Eddie Sotto, who had been hired for the creation phase, was assigned to create the entrance area at Euro Disneyland. His original idea was to place it chronologically and architecturally around the 1920s, the Roaring 20s, but Michael Eisner wanted a new take on the classic Main Street, USA. 

Eventually, the choice was made with Main Street, USA, which allowed Eddie Sotto and his team’s imagination to run wild within that era. Run wild it did, as the design choice of placing indoor arcades on each side, essentially sandwiching the shops and restaurants with the street, forced additional expenditure:  how do you bring food and items to resupply the facilities while the park is open without having to close the arcades? The solution was costly: pairs of lifts had to be installed to take things over the guest walkways to their facilities, leading to smaller backstores and guest-facing areas. On the other hand, it made sense as they provide a welcome shelter for guests when the weather is not nice outside or it’s cold, along with allowing a good flow of guests in and out of the park when Main Street has a parade or show happening.

The stores had a strict theme, leading to unusual items on sale: Main Street Motors had an actual car on sale when the park opened. Thematically, no expense was spared when theming the stores and restaurants. Calling it the most expensive and lavish park entrance area ever created at the time is not an exaggeration. 

Frontierland:

Frontierland and Adventureland placement in the park were swapped, allowing more land for Frontierland. Tony Baxter treated it like the park’s crown jewel, which made sense as Europeans had a great collective memory and interest in the American Wild West. 

Going back to the creation of the Magic Kingdom, legendary attraction creator Marc Davis had created an area called Thunder Mesa for Frontierland at that park. A large complex with a water dark ride and mine train roller coasters, high interest in Pirates of the Caribbean led to the project eventually being shelved in its original form.

For Frontierland at Euro Disneyland, this was to be the most complete land at the park opening. Thunder Mesa is the name of the boom town that houses Frontierland. A complex storyline tying the land all together was created by Tony Baxter, based on Marc Davis work: a massive golden nugget was discovered, and as a result, a boomtown was hastily constructed around the new mine. Henry Ravenswood, owner of the new Big Thunder mine had a manor built nearby, on the outskirts of town… but soon, things started going awry. The mountain was sacred to the natives, and a massive earthquake stopped the mining operation. Henry Ravenswood, who was also already a jealous and possessive man, went crazy and ruined all the plans for his daughter to marry (Phantom Manor) and the old mine haunted by the possessed ore trains (Big Thunder Mountain.) Two riverboats, canoes, and keelboats used the Rivers of America, with a massive change here.

Big Thunder Mountain replaces Tom Sawyer Island and is one of the largest roller coasters in the world as a result. 4500 feet of track versus 2780 feet in Florida and 3281 feet in Tokyo were needed in Paris, since guests board on the main land and travel twice under the Rivers of America to and from the Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain was again a massive success, but this was the sole roller coaster unlike the other three parks. There was no Space Mountain to split the thrill-seeking crowd, and as a result, even with a massive 2050 riders per hour capacity with five trains running, lines were extremely long. This was also the first time Vekoma manufactured a roller coaster for Disney, and it would not be the last time.

last time.

Phantom Manor was fine, along with the various watercraft on the river. Food capacity was not an issue, too, with many food facilities. This was the only complete land at the park opening.

Adventureland:

Adventureland was a guest flow disaster on opening day and, with so much land, offered very little for guests to do. Coming from Central Plaza, guests would pass an Arabic-looking gate, with stores on the sides. Walking to the left, they’d pass two snack counters, a quick service restaurant (Aux Epices Enchantees, Enchanted Spices), and arrive at the Explorer’s Club. The Explorer’s Club Restaurant was inspired by the sadly gone Adventurer’s Club at Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World, with famous explorers mingling with guests. A tree in the center room was filled with animatronic birds and animals, finally bringing the original concept of the Tiki Room to reality: a restaurant.

Guests would loop into the back of Frontierland at that point, with not much for guests to do there besides visit the petting zoo. They could also enter Adventure Isle, which replaced Tom Sawyer Island as the park’s massive playground and exploration area. This was a beautiful area with caves, a suspension bridge, and a floating bridge, and it was well received.

On the other side of Adventure Isle, the most ambitious version at the time of Pirates of the Caribbean was constructed, with a setting of a Caribbean fortress. The Blue Lagoon restaurant was built with it, leaving Florida as the only Pirates attraction without a restaurant inside. The ride is an excellent retelling of the familiar story, flipping it around. Guests board the boats after exploring the fortress. Leaving the station, they pass by the restaurant before floating through a shipwreck.

The ride system here is not from Arrow Development, like in the previous three installations. Intamin was tapped to supply the ride system for this and Small World, which works perfectly. The lift hill is at the beginning of the journey here, complete with a decorative chain pulling boats up and water crashing down the side. At the top, we’re inside another section of the fortress that’s under siege, which is spectacular. A dramatic new scene shows a sinking pirate ship leaning on the side of the stone walls, with pirates swinging or crawling toward us. Passing the dog holding the key scene, the boat drops down a steep ramp, splashing into the iconic pirate ship scene. The village sequence is similar to the others, with a significant addition: two dueling animatronics with swords pinging against each other.

Rather than simply floating out of the burning town, boats again drop down a smaller but still steep downramp as the powder reserve explodes. The attraction concludes with the caverns filled with pirate skeletons and treasures usually seen at the beginning of the other versions of this ride.

The ride was extremely popular… but massive lines occurred even with its incredible 2500-3000 riders per hour capacity. It was literally the only mechanical attraction in Adventureland!