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Pandora: The World of Avatar

Image: Theme Park Tourist
Image: Theme Park Tourist

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the youngest of the Walt Disney World theme parks. After opening in 1998, the park underwent a minor transformation in 2006 — when Expedition: Everest made its debut. Then, for years, it sat relatively dormant — until the company decided it needed to change its reputation from a half-day park into something unique.

So, as the company partnered with James Cameron to bring Avatar into its theme parks, they also realized they had the opportunity to take a pretty big swing. They called in Animal Kingdom mastermind Joe Rohde to lead the project, and the end result was nothing short of magnificent.

Replacing the underwhelming Camp Minnie-Mickey, Pandora: the World of Avatar is as magnificent and luxurious a themed land as you will find anywhere in the word. It’s lush fauna and gorgeous landscapes capture the eye and just simply won’t let it go. Flight of Passage gave the whole park a new must-see attraction — averaging hours-long wait times while bringing new guests through the gate of the natural world.

But, Pandora was responsible for an even bigger transformation at Animal Kingdom. Because the area looked even more magnificent at night, the company decided to extend the park’s operating hours into the evening — and it needed a whole host of new nighttime attractions to keep guests entertained. New restaurants and dining like Tiffin’s and the Harambe Market joined the master plan. An evening version of Kilimanjaro Safaris debuted to guests. And, a new nighttime show called Rivers of Light focused guests’ attention as the night wore on.

In all, Disney’s Animal Kingdom built one new land, but it got a shot in the arm that will last a generation. Job well done.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Image: quintanomedia, Flickr (license)
Image: quintanomedia, Flickr (license)

It is, quite simply, the biggest and most important transformation Disney has done at any of its parks anywhere. It was so massive in scale that Disney actually did it twice, simultaneously.

In Disneyland, an entire section of the park was cordoned off for years — shutting down the Disneyland railroad and sections near Big Thunder Mountain and the Rivers of America. In Orlando, Disney’s Hollywood Studios shrank to the size of a small regional amusement park — waiting to show guests the bleeding edge of entertainment.

And so, in 2019, guests got to finally put their hands on a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

We’ve been living through the hype for so long, it’s easy to forget just how big of a deal Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has been. Disney spent as much building the new theme park lands as it did acquiring the Star Wars property itself — money totaling in the billions. It wouldn’t be right to call it a gamble, because Star Wars is anything but; however, it took quite a lot of confidence in the property for Disney to go through with such a large transformation.

The end result has been obviously incredible. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard the excitement and seen the images. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the biggest thing Disney has ever done — taking part of its theme parks, and transforming them into the world of Star Wars. You can pilot the Millennium Falcon. You can fight the dark side and escape from a star destroyer. It’s easy to lose sight of just how big of a deal that is.

Magic Kingdom Hub

Image: stevewise60, Flickr (license)
Image: stevewise60, Flickr (license)

And yet, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge isn’t quite as major as one particular transformation — at least when you consider the stakes.

Sure, the Star Wars areas cost in the billions, and if they failed to attract guests, corporate heads would certainly roll. But they were replacing underutilized areas of parks that people rarely ventured into. At the same time all of this was happening, Disney decided to completely reimagine one of the most photographed locations on earth: the Magic Kingdom Hub.

Disney has always been at its best when it uses New Urbanist thinking to inform its theme parks and resorts. So, when it came time to redo the Magic Kingdom Hub, they cleverly expanded guest access to the area — creating new, open areas to sit, relax, and gather. Sure, in doing so, the company also created a ton of premium space for their evening fireworks show, but the area is still far more pleasant today than it has ever been at any point in its history.

The hub used to be, as its name suggested, primarily a place of transition — where guests transitioned from where they were to where they wanted to go. Now, it is more of a central meeting area — a kind of public park within the park, that offers guests a spot to relax and stretch out. It makes the Magic Kingdom feel more like a real place, with real inhabitants and real residents — which, in turn, makes the whole property feel more lived in and sincere.

Disney has grown to unprecedented heights over the last decade, but it has done so largely through transformations like this one — which turn a space that was previously an afterthought into one where guests enjoy spending their time, even when they aren’t doing anything at all. Now, Disney plans to do the same thing to Epcot — and hopefully, it turns out just as wonderfully.

 
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