Rumour: Indiana Jones Land Coming to Animal Kingdom?

Today a rumour surfaced that an Indiana Jones Land might be coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Is Indiana Jones Land coming to Animal Kingdom?

While I'm all in for a land based on Indiana Jones, I highly doubt that such a land is coming to DAK. Indiana Jones is definitely not high on Disney's priority list, the fifth movie got delyed to 2020 and I'm still doubtful that it is really coming. So I'm also very doubtful about an Indy land, especially in DAK.

 

I agree that Indiana Jones would make for a fun land (Lost River Delta in TDS is great, though only about 2/3 of it is really Indy-related), but DAK doesn't seem like the best fit for it. Other than the vague "jungle" setting, there's really no strong connection to animals. Additionally although some of the connections are pretty lose, Dinoland USA is themed to the US; presumably an Indiana Jones area would be elsewhere, but two of the most likely places (Asia and Africa) are already taken elsewhere in the park

I also struggle to see the business argument for redoing Dinosaur into Indiana Jones Adventure. Yes, they share the same track layout and basic structural design, but converting it would be a lot more expensive and time consuming than the other hasty IP overlays they've done recently. And for what? The ride already operates at/near capacity all day (though the same could be said for Maelstrom, The Great Movie Ride, and TOT), and the Indy movie franchise seems to be limping towards its finale. It's a reliable franchise, but it's just not as trendy as the other ones that have been formally announced, and the DL/TDS attractions are notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain

All that said, there do seem to be some reliable sources saying that the Chester & Hester's Dinorama area is finally being looked at for replacement. It was built as temporary filler, with quick and easy removal in mind, so it's great that they're finally getting around to it. What that replacement is remains unclear, but I personally doubt it would convert the entire area into Indiana Jones. It would probably either mesh with the existing dinosaur theme (hmmm...some dino AA's just became available from Epcot) or be a completely independent area that wouldn't require reworking the part of Dinoland that's okay; but that's just speculation on my part

 

I will not cry to see Chester & Hester's Dinorama area go away. It was away a bit of an eye sore and did not fit into the Animal Kingdom.

 

Chester and Hester's DinoRama should be replaced with something else rather sooner than later, but I'm not sure it's going to be Indy.

Didn't Disney have bigger Indy plans back in the 90ies. I remember reading about a small Indy subland for Disneyland or Disneyland Paris. It was a combination of the current Indiana Jones Adventure and a coaster like the one in Paris. If I remeber correctly Temple of Peril was born out of that concept.

 

Yes, the original concept for Indy at DL had a jeep ride and a mine cart roller coaster that intertwined with each other, both going inside and outside a temple structure. The Railroad and Jungle Cruise would have also been rerouted to pass through an indoor show scene where all 4 rides converged. DL's Indiana Jones Adventure is a direct descendant of that concept, but I think Temple of Peril was just an excuse to quickly add capacity to the park and happened to use decorations that were fresh in the minds of the Imagineers; it's hard to see much of Temple of Peril that really relates to the original coaster idea

That said, I have to imagine that the 4-in-one concept was some pretty high-level blue sky. Considering the operational realities of such a project and DL's space limitations, I'm not sure it was ever very realistic. Even with the drawings that show ride layouts, the scales of the 4 attractions just don't really make sense together, and likely couldn't have been built with much intermingling of the various rides

DLP still has space for Indiana Jones Adventure between the coaster and Pirates, should the want to build it. However, the coaster seems to have a lot of downtime (whether due to it's age/maintenance needs or its popularity/budgeting), so it seems pretty likely that a project of that scale could remove the coaster along the way. Combined, that's a huge plot of land that could be home to several all-new attractions, or even a new land for the park

 

They just need to build another Jungle Cruise. Walt originally envisioned it with real animals anyway.

 

Thanks for the concept art, it looks amazing, but way too ambitious.

 

True, but that is the sort of thing that they do when they "Blue Sky' at the early start of projects.

 

Too ambitious? Since when do we say that about a plan for Disney Theme Parks?

 

It was a different time when this was proposed. In hindsight, most of the projects that were part of the Disney Decade never came to be, for various reasons. In general, it seems like today's projects are more modest in scope, but tend to deliver what they set out to (whether that is a worthy goal or not is a different discussion; Disney regularly meets expectations these days but rarely exceeds them)

 

What is the perception of Avatar Land in the US? Did Disney exceed expectations?

 

I haven't seen it myself yet, but it seems like it's sort of a mix. By all accounts, the theming is incredible and among the best anywhere in the world. But there are also only two attractions, one of which is a slow-moving atmospheric boat ride that's too short to really build up the atmosphere. The simulator by all accounts is incredible, but the land's nighttime lighting has failed to live up to expectations

It's not a bad addition by any means, but it doesn't seem to have the wow-factor that Disney was hoping for. The buzz seems to have died down very quickly after opening, which is a bad sign considering the massive investment

 

I wonder how fast Toy Story land's buzz will go down at DHS.

 

Buzz - ha!

 

Buzz - ha!