Disneyland has shuffled the project timeline for the Avatar themed land, Avengers Campus expansion and Coco boat ride after announcing a major makeover of Tomorrowland featuring new attractions during a D23 fan event in Anaheim.
Walt Disney Imagineering provided updates on the Avatar themed land coming to Disney California Adventure and Disneyland’s reimagined Tomorrowland on Saturday, Aug. 15 during the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress showcase at the Honda Center as part of the D23 fan expo in Anaheim.
Disneyland slotted the Tomorrowland transformation on the Anaheim theme park resort’s project calendar between the world’s first Coco attraction coming to DCA’s Pixar Pier and the Avatar themed land planned for DCA’s Hollywood Land backlot.
Opening dates for the Coco boat ride, Tomorrowland transformation and Avatar land have not yet been announced.
Disneyland officials announced a timeline for the four projects under construction or in development at the Anaheim theme park resort:
- DCA’s Avengers Campus expansion is underway and will open first.
- The Coco boat ride in DCA’s Pixar Pixar will open second.
- Disneyland’s reimagined Tomorrowland will debut next.
- The Avatar destination in DCA’s Hollywood Land backlot will open after the Tomorrowland project.
“We believe that delivering the projects this way is the right thing to do for our fans,” Disneyland Resort President Jill Estorino said during a D23 media briefing. “We’re going to be able to provide a reimagined Tomorrowland in Walt’s park while continuing to invest in Disney California Adventure to bring new stories to life over time.”
Disneyland will reimagine Tomorrowland using Walt Disney’s original vision for the 1955 opening day land that dreamed of an imaginative, wondrous and optimistic future.
Disneyland’s reimagined Tomorrowland will feature new attractions and open spaces full of attention to detail, immersive storytelling and emotional experiences, according to Imagineering’s Disneyland Resort Executive Creative Producer Emo O’Brien.
The Imagineering: Horizons pavilion on the D23 show floor featured a scale model of the Avatar E-ticket attraction dominated by a towering ribbed rockwork wall and maquette of the 30-person ride vehicle. The Disneyland Monorail traveled along the edge of the Avatar attraction in the scale model.
Disneyland has announced the new land themed to the “Avatar: The Way of Water” film will take over the DCA’s Hollywood Land studio backlot and push out into the bus drop-off and pick-up area along Harbor Boulevard.
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The Avatar boat ride planned for the new land looks like a close cousin to Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure.
The state-of-the-art ride system features an advanced propulsion system that provides unprecedented control over the speed, position, orientation and rotation of the boats, according to a patent filed by Disney in 2012.