Originally Posted By Gonzo The Grand Californian will begin expansion sometime is August. They will add 250 rooms. 50 will be suites with kitchens and such. But they will not be DVC per say. They will be avail. for members and members will be encouraged to use their points on them but that will be all. They will not add any new food and beverage additions. August will begin the underground parking structure dig. The only new facility will be and expanded pinocchio's workshop. Which will be moved into the new wing. And Acorn's Gifts will be expanded into the present pinocchio's space. Self parking will still be located across Disneyland drive. And many people still believe that some cars that are Valeted will be across the street. Parking will be very tight at the Disneyland resort hotels. Very tight. Disney really needs some kind of Disney's Magical express for it's resort hotels in California. Parking is going to be quite a chore as expansion of DCA, DTD, and DGCH go foward.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt This is great news, assuming it is true. The wing is going to be built on the south side of the main lobby, adjacent to the lawn, right?
Originally Posted By plpeters70 Why is this such great news? I would think that they would want to fix up DCA before they spend more money on expanding the hotel???
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: Ain't ya heard? They IS fixin' it up--if'n ya can believe all the stuff bein' said 'bout the place lately.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I would think that they would want to fix up DCA before they spend more money on expanding the hotel??? >>> GCH has a very high occupancy rate as well as a high average room rate. Adding 250 rooms will almost certainly provide an immediate revenue boost that will more than pay for the expansion. What to do with DCA is much less obvious. Putting ToT didn't seem to fix the problem, despite it being a top-notch E Ticket. It's obvious that a lot of work needs to be done at DCA to fix the problems - less obvious is exactly what it is that needs to be done, how much money needs to be spent, and how successful it will be to fix the revenue problem at the turnstiles.
Originally Posted By bean "This is great news, assuming it is true. The wing is going to be built on the south side of the main lobby, adjacent to the lawn, right?" Its true Hans, i had mentioned this sometime before. Construction is scheduled for August and the wings will use part of the green grass area and also the parking lot behind Mulholland Madness "Why is this such great news? I would think that they would want to fix up DCA before they spend more money on expanding the hotel???" Don't worry plpeters70 there are seperate budgets for several major projects int he Disneyland resort. This is just one of those. Other projects include a large renovation of several sections of DCA, if approved a large renovation of the Disneyland hotel, a DTD expansion and possibly a fourth hotel if approved. There are also projects in the drawing board that include a large "e" tiket for Disneyland thatw ould open at the end of the decade around the time of DCA's rededication and 10th anniversary. Also as someone else mentioned there is a possibility of a East DTD expansion that would basically remove and relocate the ugly tram,bus and shuttle loading area.
Originally Posted By gadzuux I agree that it's ugly, but it's also right where it needs to be. And I wouldn't want to see it moved anywhere else. Direct access to and from harbor blvd seems like an important requirement for rsort transportation. Yet I'm just as sure that land parcel could pull in a bundle as retail, food and beverage. >> There are also projects in the drawing board that include a large "e" tiket for Disneyland thatw ould open at the end of the decade around the time of DCA's rededication and 10th anniversary. << Otay - good to hear, if true. This would be the first floated rumor I've heard of such a thing. And they better get busy - it takes them forever and a day to build stuff, and 2010 is closer than we may think. Are you referring to woody's roundup and associated supporting area?
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "Are you referring to woody's roundup and associated supporting area? " I sure hope this doesn't happen anymore. I really think that there are going to be too many Pixar based attractions in the parks. If they rebrand Disney MGM studios as Disney/Pixar Studios, that would make sense...but Disneyland and DCA don't have Pixar in the name (yet anyway).
Originally Posted By gadzuux It would mean that three of the four most recent additions to the DLR would be 'toy story' based - buzz, toy story mania, then presumeably woody's round-up (nemo being the fourth addition - not toy story, but still pixar). That's too much 'toy story'. The "upside" is if they were to proceed with the rumored new direct path linking toontown and frontierland. In that event, woody would be a good transition between the two. But from what little I've heard, it'd be a stretch to consider the woody show an "e-ticket".
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: I'm hoping that Disney's Rapunzel is a big hit so they'll go ahead and build a tall tower for us girls to hide out in while a series of gorgeous hunks climb up to rescue us/me. What a marvelous attraction THAT could turn out to be. I'm already dreaming of the many possibilities!
Originally Posted By bean No the once proposed woodys round-up area was going to be placed in frontierland. If plans go ahead the new "e" ticket being suggested would go in tomorrowland. The idea is to continue developing areas of the park like tomorrowland before one of the largest pieces of land in Disneyland is used.(i am refering to the north half of frontierland Tomorrowland still needs some work to help mesh the mismatch theming it has now. Even Innoventions is being as a possibility for future development once the contracts start expiring or until the sponsors could be offered other locations to present themselves as sponsors
Originally Posted By gadzuux So what can you tell us about the possible relocation of the tram loading area? I can understand why they might wanna do this, just not how they think they can pull it off.
Originally Posted By bean Not much, the area is being looked at for a possible DTD east expansion and possibly a hotel. It is just one of many options being looked at. The tram loading area would be eliminated completely. As DCA expands into the rest of timon, keeping a tram loading area for a smaller and dissapearing parking space would not be in the best interest. There are also other possibilties of relocating the load and unload area that would just add a few feet to the distance people would walk. The shuttle service area would also be relocated with a more efficient load and unload area that would require less space. These are all ideas thrown in as suggestions for better utilizing the resorts property and still keep the concetration of Disney hotels within walking distance of one of the parks. The east tram loading was actually a very badly planned site with little to no Disney influence in its theming. That is what happens when you have outsiders do the planning and design.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "Not much, the area is being looked at for a possible DTD east expansion and possibly a hotel. It is just one of many options being looked at. The tram loading area would be eliminated completely." Makes sense. Way back when, before the Resort expansion was completely defined, an outdoor amptitheater was planned for that location - something along the lines of the one at Universal. My guess is that it evolved into the Hyperion. Looking at Windows Live Maps there appears to be more than enough room for a hotel or entertainment district in that area.
Originally Posted By bean your correct, The area was once proposed for a large amphitheatre. The entrance would have been inside Westcot approximately where the front of the Monsters attraction is. It would have been via two pedestrain bridges. This would have allowed for a landscaped walkway to have been built under the bridges outside the parks boundaries. The walkway would have allowed access to Harbor Blvd as well to the elevated peoplemover transport station that would take people to the parking structures a block east of the resort.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 I know the ultimate answer is money, but they really should have built a peoplemover system from the garage to the parks. They could have eliminated that entire road area where the tram runs now and instead used that space for more Downtown Disney. Plus, an elevated peoplemover would have looked wonderful traveling above the guests in Downtown Disney. In the long run, I would think that it would have been a lot cheaper to maintain a peoplemover than to constantly pay to gas and drive those trams all day.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "I know the ultimate answer is money, but they really should have built a peoplemover system from the garage to the parks." I think another reason why they skipped the peoplemover is because the Resort circa 2001 wasn't fully built out as originally planned. If they'd built a peoplemover system then they'd have to either build around it now or re-route it each time it the place expands, which of course, would be very costly.
Originally Posted By gadzuux >> The tram loading area would be eliminated completely. As DCA expands into the rest of timon, keeping a tram loading area for a smaller and dissapearing parking space would not be in the best interest. << I see where the confusion is now. You're referring to the specific loading area for the disney tram to the timon lot. I was referring to the entirety of the loading area on the east side of the esplanade.
Originally Posted By bean The tram loading area is in the east side of the resort. The east side transportation hub is made up of primarly three sections. -The Timon tram loading and unloading area -The hotel shuttle loading areas -The taxi loading areas If the decision was made to expand towards the east transportation hub, the Tram loading area and the shuttle loading area would be removed. The hotel shuttle area would be reconfigured and moved. There are actually several areas that it could be relocated to and still be in close proximaty to the entrance of the area. Most of the people that stay on offsite properties on Harbor walk to the parks entrance. Most of the shuttles that drop of guests are from hotels in Katella, Ball and other hotels within the Anaheim resort area. These shuttles normally travel on a counter clockwise route around the Disneyland resort property and they make stops where necessary. The shuttle route could be diverted to end their cycle on the west side of the resort close to the west parking structure loading area. Another possibility could be to have a transportation on the proposed second parking structure one block from the west entrance. Once their guest could board an elevated transportation system that would take them to the east ticket center with a station north of DCA's boundaries Other possibilities would be the reconfiguration of some of the buildings/offices that are located near Disneyland southern berm.(near the dinosuar diorama show buildings. Now these are jsut ideas that get thrown around and some were actually designed and planned in the early 90's when the resort was first planned on expanding.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt bean, the scenarios you present sound reasonable. It seems like if a hotel were built on that site it could straddle the eastern entrance to the Resort much like the Disneyland Hotel at DPR does at the entrance to Disneyland Paris. Guests could simply pass underneath it to the Esplanade (or whatever they call it now).
