5. DisneySea

Location: Long Beach, California

Planned in: 1990s

Theme: The ocean

Size: 225 acres

Lands: Oceana, Mysterious Island, Heroes' Harbor, Fleets of Fantasy, Rainbow Pier Boardwalk, Adventure Reef

The background

In 1984, Michael Eisner and Frank Wells were parachuted into Disney as CEO and President respectively, in an ultimately successful attempt to save the struggling company from being broken up. Eisner and Wells oversaw an unprecedented period of expansion at Disney’s theme park resorts, building new hotels with abandon and adding a third park, Disney-MGM Studios, to Walt Disney World.

Buoyed by their early success, the pair hatched a plan to transform Disneyland into a multi-day destination resort along the same lines as Walt Disney World. There was a major problem, though – lack of space. The land surrounding Disneyland in Anaheim had become blighted by urban sprawl, and Disney didn’t have much land of its own to work with.

Instead, it proposed building a new resort in Long Beach, which it dubbed Port Disney and announced in July 1990. At a cost of $2.8 billion, the resort was due to open in two phases (the first in 2000), pulling in some 10 million guests in its first year of operations.

The plans

The headline theme park of the Port Disney Resort was to be DisneySea – the most ambitious Disney park ever, sprawling across 225 acres. The entire park would have featured a marine theme, combining live animal exhibits with high-tech rides and attractions. Each of its lands was to be themed around a real or fictional port.

Oceana

This stunning, multi-domed structure would have been the world's largest aquarium. It would have featured tidal exchange with actual ocean, so as the tide changed, the levels of water in the outside display tanks would rise and fall.

The aquarium would have held a ridiculous 10 to 12 million gallons of water, making it double the size of the one at Epcot’s Living Seas pavilion (itself the world’s largest when it opened). Oceana would also have hosted a real, working research center, bringing together scientists from around the world.

Mysterious Island

Built around an enormous mock volcano, Mysterious Island would focus on Jules Verne’s stories about Captain Nemo and the Nautilus submarine. City of Atlantis would be an underwater trip to the mythical lost city, Pirate Island would be a child-friendly area for exploration and Nemo’s Lava Cruiser would simulate a trip into underground caverns.

Heroes’ Harbor

Themed around a Greek village, Heroes’ Harbor would play host to myths and legends of the sea. Attractions would include the Aqua-Labyrinth maze (with walls made of water), a Sinbad the Sailor ride, and an attraction themed around Ulysses.

Fleets of Fantasy

This area would have hosted a variety of midway rides, with theming designed to resemble ships from around the world.

Rainbow Pier Boardwalk

Similar in style to Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Pier, the Rainbow Pier Boardwalk would have hosted an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster and a Ferris Wheel.

Adventure Reef

Adventure Reef would have hosted easily DisneySea’s most unusual attraction: the Shark Cage. This would have been exactly what it sounds like – a steel cage that lowered guests into a tank full of sharks. Elsewhere, tamer attractions would see guests snorkelling through tropical reefs.

Other resort elements

DisneySea would be accompanied by no fewer than five hotels, a cruise ship port, a marina and an evening entertainment area. Disney had already acquired long-term leases for the RMS Queen Mary (which would have become one of the hotels) and the Spruce Goose boat plane, which would have been incorporated into the new resort.

A monorail circuit would have linked the hotels, theme park and other attractions, and a shuttle service would have operated between Port Disney and the original Disneyland resort.

What went wrong?

The Long Beach project wasn't Disney's only option for expansion in California. The company was still looking at expanding in Anaheim, and announced ambitious plans for a second theme park there just one year after the Port Disney announcement. Realistically, only one new park would be built - and the decision on which one would be heavily influenced by which authorities offered the best incentives to Disney to build there.

Anaheim offered to fund a new parking garage and build a new on/off ramp from the I5 interstate. Meanwhile, the California Coastal Commission refused to let Disney go ahead with the dredging and land-filling operations needed to build Port Disney as originally planned (although Disney did offer up an alternative that would require less landfill).

Following the crushingly disappointing debut of the EuroDisney Resort in 1992, Eisner dramatically scaled back his ambitious plans for a "Disney Decade" of theme park expansion. This, as well as the above factors, led to the Port Disney project being dropped.

The legacy

The entire DisneySea concept, including the idea of lands themed around ports, was picked up by the Tokyo Disney Resort for its second park. Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, becoming the most expensive theme park ever built at $4 billion.

Although Oceana was nowhere to be seen, a number of elements were lifted or adapted from the Long Beach plans. Notably, Mysterious Island is one of the lands at the Tokyo park, featuring attractions that are similar in concept to those planned for California. The Hotel MiraCosta is essentially a hybrid of two hotels planned for Port Disney, the Port Hotel and Canal Hotel.

Disney’s California Adventure was much less ambitious than DisneySea when it debuted in 2001, but it did feature Paradise Pier, an area that shares much in common with DisneySea’s proposed Rainbow Pier Boardwalk land.

Learn more

You can find out more about DisneySea and Port Disney in this detailed look at the plans.