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Credit: California Family TravelNews reports show that Disney’s plans for a new California theme park are permanently scrapped, leaving Anaheim as the only Walt Disney option in the Golden State.
California Theme Parks, Disney, and Universal Studios
In Los Angeles, there is Universal Studio Hollywood. There’s SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo, Legoland California, and smaller theme parks. This comes alongside the host of more niche Southern California attractions. But the main feature is Anaheim, where California theme parks focus on Walt Disney.
Walt Disney Fast Fact: The Disneyland park sits on 160 acres of land, but only 85 acres are open to the public.
Around 17 million visits occurred in 2022, almost doubling its average of 8.5 million. In Anaheim, there is Disney California Adventure Park and Disneyland California. Both of these attractions are the West Coast counterparts of Disney World in Florida, though with much less ground. So, Disney planned to change that by adding a Long Beach location, Port Disney.
Walt Disney Theme Park Expansions in California
News reports show that what was initially slated as a way for Disneyland Resort to grow in California is permanently canceled. It was to be a theme park in Long Beach, Southern California. Instead, the Disney California Adventure Park is reportedly focusing on the Disneyland Forward Project, per the OC Register.
The Scrapped Port Disney Plan
In 1988, Disney bought the Disneyland Hotel from Jack Wrather, who ran the hotel adjacent to Disneyland California. Walt Disney Co. bought it from the estate and decided to maintain ownership. In the 1990s, Disney CEO Michael Eisner announced the Disney Decade plan, assessing all sectors of the Walt Disney Company.
Fast Fact: Disney CEO Michael Eisner served from 1984 to 2005 in an executive capacity.
It was lovingly entitled Port Disney and would have a DisneySea theme park like the one in Tokyo. Alas, the Long Beach longing never came to be. What would have featured six hotels, shopping, and dining, along with a California theme park and cruise ship port, never materialized.
Disneyland Forward Takes the California Theme Park Focus
As it stands, Disneyland Resort in Southern California features eight themed lands. These theme park zones include Main Street, U.S.A. U.S.A., Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Frontierland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Mickey’s Toontown, and Tomorrowland.
Fast Fact: Disney might have a stranglehold on the California theme park market, but places like Knott’s Berry Farm continue to draw crowds.
The theme parks have ample opportunity for development, and Crawford, the former landholder, saw that potential. Disney kept the long-term lease to the “Queen Mary” and an accompanying piece of land in Long Beach, Southern California. To the spectator, it appeared that a future Magic Mountain was on the horizon.
California Theme Park Plans Made God Laugh
When Walt Disney (or his representatives in the modern theme park era) made plans, they encountered seemingly endless difficulties. They came at the state, local, and federal levels.
First was the Southern California law, with a mandatory environmental impact study, similar to those in San Diego and other zones like Legoland, California. Because of the cost, the focus shifted to other Disney Decade plans.
Fast Fact: Like the eastern EPCOT, the project would have been called WestCot, but California Adventure Park rang better.
The bumps in the road ultimately led to the creation of Disney’s California Adventure Park. It features an impressive series of water park features. Designed as an adventure city of California theme parks, it has everything from a Castle Park to the terrifying roller coaster of Disney dreams (or nightmares).
The continued presence of Downtown Disney shows that the Pacific park remains of interest despite delays in its new development or DIS stock worries. And Disney isn’t stopping its plans altogether, despite the Port Disney Long Beach setback or its issues on the United States East Coast.
California Theme Park Plans: Disneyland Forward
The initiative? Create an effective theme park in California. The name? It seems to change with the times. Nonetheless, Disney keeps its plans for hotels west of the Castle Park icons, using areas the company already owns. The theme park additions would include parking spaces and various attraction ideas.
Among the theme park pitches that failed was another entrance to the Anaheim theme park, mainly because of zoning issues related to the California Resort. The city quickly pushed back, so Walt Disney pivoted back to the Disneyland Forward project. It has a significant theme park focus but doesn’t represent the renovations to each attraction.
Fast Fact: Walt Disney has done work on Downtown Disney that is entirely separate from the central plan.
The California theme park powerhouse continues incorporating Southern California residents to explain the plans for Discovery Kingdom, among its other theme park ideas. The goal is to describe the proposal and encourage local support for the California Resort to succeed.
It shows Disney’s continued efforts to make Anaheim the go-to California theme park destination. There are options from San Francisco to Northern California, Santa Monica to Walt Disney World. The goal of Disneyland Forward is to continue to drive Anaheim traffic and use the theme park experience to reinforce the Disney brand.
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