Disney Hints at Even Bigger Plans
Walt Disney Co. is considering doubling the size of a retail, shopping and dining complex--and adding thousands more hotel rooms--just outside its California Adventure theme park in Anaheim.
The possible additions were described by Disneyland President Paul Pressler and other managers this week in meetings with Disneyland employees. The $1.4 billion California Adventure, a long-planned “second gate” to Disneyland, is under construction and scheduled to open in 2001.
Company officials say no final decisions have been made about the number of additional hotel rooms and the amount of retail space.
“We just wanted to show what additional opportunities are available to us,” Ray Gomez, a Disney spokesman in Anaheim, said Friday.
But the scope of the potential expansion, and the fact that it is advanced enough to share with thousands of employees, was welcome news in Anaheim, where billions of dollars are being spent fixing up aging roads and the convention center.
“From the city’s perspective, we are very pleased with the confidence Disney is showing in the economy and the tourism industry,” Deputy City Manager Tom Wood said.
Initial plans included a 750-room hotel inside the new park and a 200,000-square-foot mall, Disneyland Center, across West Street from the parks, next to the Disneyland Hotel. The company hasn’t publicly discussed further expansion after the new park opens.
However, in the meetings with employees, longtime Disney planner Byron Pollitt did exactly that, displaying maps of how the area will look when current construction is done--and where more projects could be built. Potential additions include:
* Expanding Disneyland Center to 400,000 square feet, with four nightclubs, a 14-screen multiplex, a 40,000-square-foot World of Disney Store, an ESPN sports bar (the sports channel is part of the Disney empire), and a DisneyQuest virtual reality amusement center.
* 2,000 hotel rooms on what is now the Simba parking lot southwest of the Disneyland Pacific Hotel.
* An all-suite hotel in what is now the Pinocchio parking lot north of the Disneyland Hotel.
* A new tower at the Disneyland Hotel.
* A 250-room addition to the Grand Californian, the Craftsman-style hotel to be built inside the new park.
Employees reported that Pressler, the Disneyland president, said he would make a priority of improving “show quality” at older areas of the park in the next few years.
Officials also gave more detailed descriptions of planned attractions at Disney’s California Adventure.
The attractions, some of which can be seen in sketches at a DCA preview building on Ball Road in Anaheim, include:
* A roller coaster making a 360-degree loop inside a giant Mickey Mouse head at a California beach-themed area, one of three sections of the park.
* A white-water rafting simulation ride ending in a 20-foot drop on Grizzly Mountain, the park’s central monument, which resembles a bear’s face.
* The latest version of a “Superstar Limo” ride in the park’s Hollywood section. The ride once included “paparazzi” pursuing the riders, a feature now dropped because of the accident that claimed Princess Diana’s life in Paris.
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Even More Growth?
Possible expansion at Disney resort complex:
* 2,000 hotel rooms next to Disneyland Pacific Hotel
* New tower at Disneyland Hotel
* New all-suite hotel on what is now Pinocchio parking lot D. Enlargement of Disneyland Center--a shopping, dining and entertainment complex--from 200,000 to 400,000 square feet
* Addition of 250 rooms to 750-room Grand Californian Hotel to be built inside Disney’s future California Adventure theme park
