Expedition Isles: The Old Stomping "Grounds"

At long last, we're off!

          Welcome to the second installment of my series of essays in which I charge brazenly onward toward my goal of creating a new theme park. The first blog entry can be found here. This time around, we're going to be discussing the park's entry land - SOCIETY GROUNDS. 

          In my last post, I delved into the various type of park entrances, what makes them work, and how they benefit the park as a whole. Here, I will be applying that analysis and the lessons learned to try and make a first land that not only stands well on its own, but also surmises the themes and motifs guests should know going into the park. So let's get started!

The Story

          Society Grounds serves as the headquarters and transportation hub for members of the Global exPloration Society, or G.P.S. This multiracial, multicultural campus is positively buzzing with activity, as explorers present their latest findings to a rapt audience, newsies shout out the latest  discoveries that have come in hot off the presses, and the music of an age gone by drifts down from open windows. While the architecture takes inspiration largely from Europe, it's hard to place exactly where these grounds might actually be located. Guests are welcomed into the land as the latest Society recruits, out to make a name for themselves as famous explorers and treasure hunters - this is a role guests will play to varying degrees for the entirety of their park experience. Guests will shape their own story as they go forth, but there are certain storylines set in place for them to follow, several of which begin in Society Grounds: 

• Cartography Challenge - Because I'm not calling it MapQuest! Guests will check-in at the Royal Hall of Geography to begin their quest to map the entire park. Here, guests will be given pieces of the map G.P.S. has managed to gather (Society Grounds and one more land chosen at random), and must visit other lands to find the other pieces of the map. Finding all pieces will reward guests with not only a completed map, but also grant access to the second floor of the Royal Hall, where they might enjoy tea and listen as cartographers past regale them with stories of distant lands. 

• Mysteries of the Museum - The things found in the G.P.S. Museum of Mysteries could never really exist...could they? Bring back photographic evidence for the curators and you may be rewarded! (Guests will be rewarded with a commemorative pin with the G.P.S. motto).  

• Field Research - Explorers looking to further their knowledge of the world around them are looking for assistants! Guests may answer trivia about the park or real-world history to earn gold coins - 5 of which can be traded in at the Bazaar for a small trinket. (Sample question: What do the flags about The Galley mean?)

• Harkhuf Brigade - A splinter faction of the G.P.S. who explore only for profit, and care not for knowledge. The seeds of this storyline are subtly placed in this land, and its not really a quest so much as something that guests need to figure out on their own. The Brigade's nefarious goals play into several attractions and a nighttime show. Brigade members are also included around the park disguised as ordinary G.P.S. members (think SHIELD/Hydra, but with cast members) and discovering their identity may lead to amusing interactions or minor rewards. (Fun fact: The name Harkhuf is taken from an early Egyptian explorer who's expedition was entirely focused on trade. He's not evil though, and is actually just a really interesting historical figure!)

The Setting

It wouldn't be any fun if I just told you what the Society Grounds is like without showing you, so let's explore the setting together! A disclaimer: all art below is mine unless stated otherwise, and though I have tried to visualize my ideas as best I can, I am not a professional artist. Just a heads up! Regardless, I hope that the ideas behind the art come through clearly, but if not I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have!

We'll start with an overview (click to enhance): 

This diagram shows the general layout of the land from a bird's eye view. Please note that everything is roughly to scale. By looking at the points of interest, you can gain a sense of the land's flow, but I'll go a bit more into their individual stories below. 

• G.P.S. Museum of Mystery - The park's entrance building, similar to Disneyland's train station. Rather than a waiting area, the second floor houses a museum dedicated to the mythological and items of a mystical nature. Sort of like a more serious and period version of Gravity Falls' Mystery Shack. Of course, the current curators are dismissive of such outlandish poppycock, though younger staff seem to believe. (This is part of a generation gap that can be noted around the land). 

• The Royal Hall of Geography - A deliberate homage to the Royal Geographical Society, this building serves as the City Hall/Guest Relations of the land and park, and is also the hub for the Cartographer's Challenge. Records of the society's history are kept here as well. The entire building is not featured in the concept art below, but it would look something like this: 

Fun Fact: The official name of the building is Lowther Lodge. 

• Bizarre Bazaar - A shop set up for expedition and general goods by some younger explorers looking to retire early. Aside from their inability to spell, the shopkeepers are good folks who have some real bargains. All merchandise here - and within the rest of the park - is themed appropriately (though things like umbrellas are still available). Guests looking for non-themed merchandise will have to find it in a gift shop outside the park. 

• Society Station - The Society Grounds' train station greets trains ready to take you further into the park. While they do provide transportation, the train ride here will be a full-themed ride taking loose inspiration from Murder on the Orient Express. Trains themselves will be designed to replicate the luxurious passenger liners of the early 20th century, including some variance in train car design. I'll be making posts about individual attractions later and I'll go into more detail then. 

• Adventure Tower - A clock tower with a lookout post on the roof that provides grand vistas of the park. Guests can gain access to this tower from it's south side. 

• Fount of Knowledge - A fountain featuring a globe at it's apex and celebrating the pursuit of knowledge around the world. Some of the older explorers here refer to it as the Fountain of Youth, on account of the fact that travel keeps them feeling young. A photo spot and rest area. 

• Around the World in 80 Days Ride - A ride loosely based on Jules Verne's classic novel. Guests will board balloons and travel from the Society Grounds to a bustling city, seeing some of the grandest sights the world has to offer along the way. If the show building looks a bit small, it's because the building actually extends into the next land over, but the onstage part in Society Grounds does not. This ride will have two separate tracks and two separate experiences - one leaving from Society Grounds heading into the city area, and one leaving from the city area returning to society grounds. Like with the trains, I'll be making a longer post going into more detail about this one. 
• Phileas Fogg Meeting Spot - A balloon parked next to the ride entrance is the meeting area for Mr. Fogg, the protagonist of the novel. A bit older, wiser, and now brimming with good stories, Fogg will make appearances here throughout the day. Any time he is not present, the balloon will be open as a photo spot. Fogg will look something like this: 

Charming, no?

• The Galley - A restaurant and snack area, The Galley is run by a former G.P.S. sea cook by the name of John Gully (Making it Gully's Galley, really). Since settling on dry land, Gully has added some non-seafood items to his repertoire, though seafood is still his specialty. While most find his food to be top-notch, some detractors have hung sailing flags outside the entrance that basically translate to "Danger! Steer clear!" The interior is decorated to celebrate the maritime explorers of the past, and there's a group that comes around singing traditional sea shanties every couple hours. 

• Box Corridor Restrooms and Lockers - This one is pretty straight forward, but the corridor to get to the restrooms and lockers is one straight out of Indiana Jones, with boxes and crates piled high from past expeditions. There's an Ark of the Covenant Easter egg, but this isn't some warehouse - this is the shipping and receiving area for the Grounds, or where all of the artifacts from recent expeditions are located until a more suitable home for them is found. All the same, some crates have been here a very long time. Take a look!: 

          With the general overview of the area out of the way, let's move into the visualization of these areas. Upon entering the park, you'll find yourself in the gardens of the Society Grounds, which take the shape of a dense rainforest. Columns from all sorts of past civilization can be seen buried deep in this jungle. The jungle paths lead up to a singular building - the Museum of Mystery, through which guests enter to the rest of the Grounds. The park entrance will look something like this: 

           A few more details to point out here - between the two entrances lies a fountain, taking the form of a waterfall split by an arm thrusting a torch forward. The arm and torch are stone, but the flame is real. Above this, the G.P.S. motto in Latin appears. It reads: Semper et deinceps, Stulta tamen intrepidus, or in English - "Always forward, foolish yet fearless." (My Latin is courtesy of an online translator, so if anyone knows a more accurate translation, please let me know!) The fountain tries to embody that sentiment. This first area is meant to be a transitory space in which the guests willingly enter, subconsciously putting them in the mindset of an explorer before they have entered the park proper. The varying origins of the presented columns and flora also try to make this space a coming together of cultures, reflecting guests' various places of origins and hopefully preparing them for the experience ahead. Finally, the design of the Museum of Mystery building is largely taken from Oxford's Museum of Natural History:

           I tried to keep the Museum of Mystery similar enough to maintain the museum motif, but I also wanted to try to add a temple-like quality of reverence to it, as the entrance plaza is intended to be a place of peace and reflection. 

Moving through the building, we come to the main thoroughfare of the Society Grounds:

          Here we see the facades of the buildings listed in the land layout diagram, and the general thrust of the walking areas. The facades are given a warm, generally reddish hue to signify how warm and inviting this land is, though the splashes of deep red hint at the danger that lurks outside the Grounds. In general, the grounds should feel familiar, both in terms of guests' own lives (much like how Main Street evokes a sense of home), but also meta-textually. The land plays off guest expectations for a theme park, and is overall fairly traditional. There's a dark ride, a train, a gift shop, and a weenie. All the essentials are there to make the guest feel at ease. Other lands will play this meta-relationship a bit differently, if everything goes according to plan. 

          Items of interest in this concept include the corner of the Royal Hall of Geography, the canvas banners marking the bazaar, and the cardinal-direction clock faces on Adventure Tower, as well as the crow's nest lookout point. Other notable items - the entrance to the Around the World in 80 Days ride is a building with a sign reading "Fogg's Landing", and the design of the building is taken from a early 20th century rail station, mirroring the actual train station on the far side. The balloon's color scheme is taken from the covers of several reprinted editions of the novel, as well as the 1956 film.

          The sailing flags were noted for their humorous warning above, but they also serve a dual purpose, as do many of the elements depicted here. The crow's nest, the balloon, the flags, the luggage, and more are intended to give guest's a feeling of a land on the move. The Society Grounds are constantly in motion, with people moving in and out and heading to new lands frequently. Though this land is a base for much of what guests can do, this design is intended to keep them from staying too long and remind them that there is so much else to see within the park. It's a base of operations for guests, but not necessarily the main focus of their visit. Indeed, in this concept we can see city buildings and mountains in the distance, hinting that there are plenty more places to explore. 

And, of course, there's the airship.

In my design, Expedition Isles has a closed curtain-style entrance and a hub-and-spoke style park layout. At it's center lies Expedition Plaza, and anchored smack dab in the middle is our park icon - the Spirit of Adventure! 

A very early version of the concept, but hopefully it gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm going for.  

           While Expedition Plaza isn't technically part of the Society Grounds, as the hub is it's own area, the Spirit of Adventure has a presence over the Grounds that can't be ignored. Unlike Cinderella Castle's juxtaposition with Main Street in Magic Kingdom, the Spirit of Adventure is a fulfillment of what Society Grounds has to offer, and should not look out of place sitting at the end of the land. Instead, it continues the transportation motif established in the Grounds, and serves as a gateway both literally and metaphorically into the unknown - or at least the other lands of the park. 

          General plans for the Spirit of Adventure include a restaurant in the rafters, complete with splendid views and vintage news reels and serials projected on the interior walls, and a walk through Explorer Hall of Fame in the passenger area. This Hall of Fame would pay tribute to real explorers throughout history with a focus on the courageous men and women of the late 19th and early 20th century. While Expedition Plaza in this rendering is designed to look like a large compass, I have relegated that role to Adventure Tower and the plaza will instead have a large world map motif. Occasionally, when someone walks on certain points, a red line will follow them to their next destination on the motif, a la the classic transitions of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

          And that's a wrap for just about everything Society Grounds has to offer! It's an entrance land that sets up our guests as explorers, invites them to participate in the fun, and gets them ready to get going to see what the rest of the park has to offer. It does all of this while providing some history to the land and park as a whole. Or, at least, I hope it does! 

So what do you think? Does the land stand on it's own well enough? Is there anything you would add or remove? Let me know in the comments! 

Oh, and thanks for reading!

Starting at the Entrance

          They say first impressions are often wrong. "Don't judge a book by it's cover", you know, that sort of thing. There are a myriad of reasons for this disconnect between books and their covers. Perhaps it's a new edition looking to differentiate itself, or perhaps there was some publisher interference that prevented the author from realizing their vision. Going further, maybe the author's vision for what the book is can't be visualized well, or maybe the author simply doesn't understand their own work. At the end of the day, however, the reasons for the disparity matter little. The reader feels they have been misled, and the visual thesis of the book was flat out wrong. Of course, the reader then proceeds to spend hours reading said literature and may come back around to liking or even loving it after their initial confusion or disappointment. 

          Theme parks, existing as a physical art form, have much less leeway when it comes to these initial moments. True, guests will go on to ride their favorite rides, eat their favorite food and see their favorite shows. But at the end of the day, they'll go on back through that entrance gate, and if it's somehow disappointing, that's going to taint their experience. In other words, if you're going to build a theme park, you better make damn sure the entrance counts for something. A park entrance is essentially the thesis statement for the park itself, and it should encapsulate the experience in a nutshell. So, without further ado, let's examine how parks approach this cornerstone of their narrative framework. 

          For starters, let's look at the original - one of the most imitated and popular entrance styles of all - Disneyland. 

          For what comes after you pass under it's archways, Disneyland's entrance is surprisingly understated: a single, small train station sitting  on a hill, with a flower bed featuring a Mickey Mouse design resting in front of it. There are tunnels on either side of the flower bed that lead to Main Street and feature those classic attraction posters, but if you're standing outside, you won't see those yet. Trees block our line of sight to anything beyond, such as the Matterhorn or the castle. Overall, there's nothing here that immediately portends the fun that you're about to have. It's not overly fantastical - and you could likely find a similar station or building somewhere in small town America. The flowerbed is again nicely kept, but still would not be out of place in some downtown display, though the Mickey design might change to something else; there's only a hint here at what awaits you beyond. So what makes this entrance so special, so iconic?

           There's a few factors. First, the symbolism. A train station is a transitory space, and when you enter Disneyland, you're traveling from the mundane, ordinary world to a realm of fantasy where anything can happen. Sure, there's the plaque that tells you that, but you don't need to read it for you to inherently understand this idea when you walk through the tunnel and see the castle at the end of the street. By designing the entrance around a form of transportation, the Imagineers utilize your subconscious to transport you further into their world. All without saying a word. 

           Second, the somewhat ordinary-looking entrance preserves the big reveal. The combination of station, berm, and trees prevent you from seeing what comes next, and builds anticipation. As you wait to enter the park, your mind runs wild with possibilities of what could be just beyond the gates. When you finally do get through and finally see Main Street, the castle, and everything else, there's a moment of wonder at the sight of it all. Were there no train station and you could simply see the castle directly, all of that anticipation and wonder would dissipate much faster as you wait in line to enter. By taking the form of a transitory space and withholding the most fantastical aspects of the park, the Disneyland entrance let's your brain work in it's favor, allowing you to excite yourself about the day to come and ride that excitement throughout the rest of the day. Let's call this entrance style the closed curtain, as it serves a similar purpose to and likely drew inspiration from a theater curtain. 

          In most cases, the castle parks tend to copy the closed curtain concept quite faithfully, with a few variations. Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris forego the subtle transition from ordinary to fantastic, instead opting for showcases of grandeur - WDW doing so by having you cross a lake to get to the entrance, further removing you from your reality, and Paris doing so by placing a grand Victorian hotel in front of the station, accomplishing much the same. Shanghai Disneyland follows the original concept but bleeds a bit more into the fantastical, having a Mickey-themed train station (with no train) at it's gate. Tokyo Disneyland has the largest departure, having no train station at all, instead replacing it with a large building that is a mix of a theater and a marketplace. The theater motif is used for a different type of transitory space, and the closed curtain style is still adhered to:

The incorporation of a marketplace motif in Tokyo's entrance probably makes it the the most honest of them all!

As for Hong Kong Disneyland? Why, that's up in the title image. It's virtually identical to Anaheim's entrance. 

          The more interesting variations come with the non-castle parks. Several of them continue to use the closed curtain style of entrance, while others are much more experimental and forego it in favor of completely new styles. Though some secondary parks use the closed curtain style, they aren't really focusing on the transition from the ordinary to the magical (though that is an element) as they are on establishing their thematic bend. Consider Walt Disney Studios in Paris:

          Yes, it is a fairly ordinary space by Disney standards, and yes it is a closed curtain-style entrance, as it obscures what lies beyond it, but this entrance plaza is much more about establishing the film focus of the park. Does it work? Absolutely! Does it reach us on as subliminal a level? Not really. This entrance is much more overt in its intentions. We don't have to imagine what we're about to experience because the park tells us straight up. We may imagine what lies in store for us, but our mental wanderings will be limited to the world of film, rather than our wildest fantasies. 

          (Hollywood Studios has a similar idea, except with an open curtain. We're able to see the Chinese Theater at the end of the street from the moment we enter the park. Rather than creating it's own thesis, the entrance relies on the park icon to make the statement for it. In this case, the statement is essentially the same between the two studio parks, but the execution is different.)

One more to consider before we move on to other styles - the entrance to Tokyo DisneySEA: 

And another view here:

          Here we have another closed curtain-style entrance, only by the time we enter this park we have been completely transported from Tokyo to Renaissance-era Italy. This jump establishes the theme of exploration and travel immediately by displacing us, forcing us to become explorers ourselves! The themes are reinforced by the moon phase plaza complete with spinning globe upon the fountain. This entrance is again much more direct in it's intentions than that of a castle-park, but still preserves both that feeling of anticipation and the idea that anything can happen, as we have no idea where this park is going to take us. DisneySEA's entrance is likely the closest to the castle parks in terms of thematic thrust, but takes a very different approach in making such a statement. 

And that's a wrap for closed curtain parks! From here we move on to more experimental styles. We'll move from the fairly mundane to the more bizarre.

           After closed curtain style, the next most popular style seems to be open curtain. Rather than creating a thesis statement for guests to absorb prior to them entering the park, this style of entrance lets the park speak for itself. If your park has a strong sense of cohesion, especially in it's opening areas, this approach can work rather well. If not, your park can seem slapdash and a bit disjointed. Let's compare two parks that utilize this style to see it's pros and cons. 

          Here we see Disney's Hollywood Studios. As mentioned above, this entrance lets the Chinese Theater do most of the talking, though it's important to note the cohesion of the entrance avenue as a whole. The entire street supports the idea of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and while the rest of the park has shifted away from this idea, guests still get a good sense that the park is about great cinema. Hollywood Studios substitutes immediate excitement for the closed curtain's anticipation, and most open curtain entrances do as well. However, this one in particular maintains a bit of that anticipation due to the guests not knowing what else the park may hold, as well as the unified style and the lack of immediately apparent attractions. There's a mystique to the park that's not always preserved well with this entrance style, but Hollywood Studios manages it nicely. 

And here we have Universal Studios Florida. Well the left side anyway. What you see on your right once you've entered the park is this:

Of course before all this there's the famous Universal archway and globe, but those aren't technically part of the park itself. For posterity's sake, though, here's what you see before you reach the ticket stands and turnstiles: 

           Universal Studios Florida is an interesting case in that the idea of this park and of DHS are largely the same, and this even stretches to their park entrances. Both are largely open vistas beyond their turnstiles, though Universal goes against the grain of having a themed main corridor and instead elects to throw as much intellectual property and as many attractions as possible at you as soon as it can. This may be due to the relatively small footprint the park has, but what's odd about this decision is that Universal does indeed have it's own stretch of themed Hollywood streets, and they're quite well done. For my money, they'd make a significantly better opening stretch of the park. While the entrance plaza definitely tells you you're at a movie-based theme park, it does so bluntly, and as a result fails to capture the tantalizing anticipation or sense of magic that DHS's entrance manages elegantly. 

          Now, open curtains generally open up to some sort of view of a central plaza or park icon. However, there's no hard and fast rule that the entrance areas have to open up to anything in particular, only that they have to lead to the rest of the park. While we're talking about Universal, their second park is a good example of this third type of entrance, in which you enter the park to be totally immersed in the first land you come across with little hint of what's to come. We'll call this style, fittingly, "Port of Entry". 

          Universal's Islands of Adventure park forgoes the traditional hub structure and elects to go with a ring style park, and as such, no other lands are really visible at all from the entrance. Instead, you're greeted with the above, their entrance land, which greets you with a generic adventure theme. What really differentiates this type of entrance is not so much what it does so much as was it doesn't do. There is no icon to see, no preview of the park, no grand overture of things to come. Your first impressions of the park rely solely on the contents of this land and this land alone. In Islands of Adventure, then, this first land is used to try to solidify the adventure motif on it's own. In doing so the land heavily favors it's conceptual architecture over the physical. Consider that the land itself is purposely vague, not carrying too many signs of any one real culture and instead treading lightly into fantasy. This is by design. In the Port of Entry style, the first land is the overture, and unless the theme park is themed around a physical space, they must skew more conceptual to establish the themes of the park early on. 

Buena Vista Street is maybe the only Port of Entry that can really get away with focusing more on the physical architecture.

          Other parks with this entrance style seem to follow this idea of conceptual lands as entrances. Animal Kingdom is perhaps the most successful of these, with it's Port of Entry being "The Oasis", a land that is nothing but dense forest, walking paths, and a few animal exhibits. With just these few elements, the land is able to convey it's themes of nature, exploration, and education quite nicely. Of course, this style of entrance is one that had already been implemented by dozens of zoos around the country, but the execution here is still great. 

Adventure awaits...

          And finally, we come to our fourth and final entrance type, which is a bit of an oddball. I speak, of course, of the entrance to Epcot. 

          Epcot has, to my knowledge, one of the most unique park designs in that it combines a loop design in one half with a hub in the other half. On top of that, it's one of the only parks to front load it's icon. There's no need to go into the park to see it, as it's just on the other side of the turnstiles. So does that make this Open curtain-style? Closed curtain? It's not exactly Port of Entry. 

          I'm putting Epcot in it's own category. The closed curtain style has the entrance itself give the park's thesis statement. The open curtain style has the park make it's own thesis statement. Port of Entry has the first land make the park's thesis statement. But only Epcot has a ride make the park's thesis statement. 

          Sure, you don't have to go on Spaceship Earth when you first come into Epcot, but the way the park is designed it's practically begging you to do so. And why shouldn't it? The ride is a showcase for everything you'll see around the park. It's got technology, science, history, culture, and the ever important goal of making the future brighter through shared human progress. And it's continuously loading to boot! Though the ride has changed over the years, it's one of the few parts of the park that still has a tenuous grasp on the ethos of EPCOT Center. Everything you need to know about the park is in that ride. It's like it was designed that way or something. Let's call this style of entrance "Welcome Wagon" (because it welcomes you and you ride it...that makes sense right? Does that work?)

           So there you have it! The four categories of park entrances I've found - Closed Curtain, Open Curtain, Port of Entry, and Welcome Wagon. All with distinct styles, advantages, and disadvantages. Have any thoughts on this topic? Agree or disagree with my analysis? Let me know in the comments? Oh, and thanks for reading!

P.S. Also, I will be making a follow-up post to this soon regarding Expedition Isles - no, I haven't forgotten that project! Just been a bit busy. 

         

Title Photo Source

Welcome to Expedition Isles!

Disneyland and its sister parks offer a variety of fantastic lands for guests to visit, each mostly self-contained and immersive within its own universe. Fantasyland never interferes with Tomorrowland, which never really touches Adventureland, and so on. As a result, all of these different experiences have very little to do with each other, and that's great! Everyone has their favorite area of the park or favorite ride, and it (mostly) all works. The park structure facilitates these different adventures and let's the guest choose their experience from these varied, independent attractions. 

          DisneySea eschewed this approach and tried something new, forgoing the fully independent lands by offering the connective tissue of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers as a background for multiple lands in the park. You can explore the original SEA headquarters, a Renaissance fortress, in Mediterranean Harbor and then go to American Waterfront and experience a 20th century hotel mystery based around a member of SEA, then go to Lost River Delta to see artifacts being packed to send back to the Waterfront. Overall, a pretty cool conceit, especially so for the detail-oriented. Since it's inception, the society has spread to virtually every Disney Resort, becoming an unwieldy web of connections for park guests to decipher. Putting more recent SEA work aside, it's undeniable that the idea of connecting lands is a fun one for designers and guests alike, giving them extra incentive to explore everything DisneySea has to offer. Even in this park where connections are fairly common, however, they are surprisingly light - more of a motif than a true story. These connections are put to good use, but can they go further? Or, to put it another way...

Could you create an entire theme park where every land, every ride, and every detail come together to form one cohesive narrative? Can you base an entire theme park around one story?

That's the question I intend to answer with my newest little experiment: Expedition Isles!

Ta-da!

          The idea came to me that if I want to understand a lot of the decisions made in designing a theme park, then I should, logically, design a theme park myself. Not just attractions, but the lands, the layout, the cast members, the logistics - everything! In this realm of my creation, I want to take the idea of an inter-connected theme park to its limit, examining its potential advantages, shortcomings, and whether it can tell a story that's any good. I also aim to incorporate my personal philosophy that parks should challenge their guests and push them beyond their comfort zone, to help them learn and grow while they are having fun and being thrilled along the way. 

           Before we begin, a quick word - this project is open to input from you - yes, you! If you have ideas to share or want to collaborate with art, ideas, or anything else, please feel free to reach out! It'll be much more fun to design something together, don't you agree?

Now, here's the basics!

Synopsis

          Set in the early 20th century era of pulp adventure, Expedition Isles is a glimpse into a world obsessed with exploration and the pursuit of knowledge. But it's not just the world that's obsessed - you are, too, as you take on the role of the newest recruits of the Global exPloration Society, or GPS (thanks to a curious typo). Starting from HQ, you'll journey to six different regions around the globe to solve the mysteries that lie within. Along the way you're bound to encounter curious characters, alluring environments, and daring escapades. Not to worry - as a member of GPS, you're surely prepared for even the worst situations that might befall you! Part theme park, part escape room, and part video game, Expedition Isles is an adventure unlike any other. So what are you waiting for? The expedition awaits!

Q and A

Why this theme in particular?

          Simple! There's a number of reasons that some theme parks succeed over others, and a big one is setting. Ideally, their settings have to be set away from our modern world, whether through time, space, or alternate reality. They have to feel different, yet familiar enough for us to want to explore them. Furthermore, theme parks succeed when their authors understand the source material. For me, pulp adventure has always been a huge interest of mine, and it has proven to be quite fruitful as a framework for thematic design and construction (see Adventureland, S.E.A., etc.). Pulp adventure as a topic has proven itself to be a deep well, but it also hasn't been fully tapped, often remaining set in a jungle environment without much outside of that setting. It's scope in theme parks has been arbitrarily limited, and there is so much more to draw from. Plus I want to design something that excites me and, well, this does the trick!

But won't audiences get tired of the same theme throughout the entire park?

I don't think so. I think there's enough variance within the genre to sustain audience interest while at the same time meeting various audience demands. Depending on where you draw from there's easy leeway to incorporate adventure, romance, comedy, horror, mystery elements, and even dinosaurs. The variance in theme, combined with the variation in settings and a myriad of (hopefully) engaging story lines should keep the audience entertained. If anything, the unifying theme should help with cohesion and audience immersion. 

Given the time period of the genre's creation, won't it be problematic to incorporate certain elements or ideas into the park?

In a word, yes. I don't want to fully ignore problematic ideas, as I feel it's better to address them head-on, but I also think it's silly to ignore the fact that I'm designing this park in 2018. Discretion is key. If something seems extremely problematic and there's no reason to use it, then I won't. If there's an opportunity to learn from our collective past and lead to a collective benefit, then we'll see. Racism, sexism, and discrimination of any kind have no place here, but worker's rights and economic issues could play an interesting role. 

So this park isn't going to be set completely in the realm of fantasy?

No. Fantasy is good for escapism, and I think that's something that Disney and Universal do quite well. I know my limits and there's not a chance in the world I'm going to beat them at their own game. But I also think it's silly to have escapism as the only design philosophy for theme parks, so let's tread new ground and try something different. 

Sounds good! So when is it opening?

Ha! You're funny.

General Design Notes

Expedition Isles is intended to put guests in an immersive role playing experience and push the boundaries of thematic design. While some norms of theme parks remain - many will be thrown out the window. Some examples:

• Since this is primarly a Disney blog, we'll go ahead and say all Disney IP is on the table for use, though the focus here will be largely - nay, almost exclusively original theme park stories

• Traditional theme park maps and signage do not exist. No sign posts either. The theme of this park is exploration, and we're sticking to it. (Absolutely necessary signage i.e. bathrooms are still present, though themed appropriately)

• Maps will instead be collected piece by piece at stations as guests explore the park. Think The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to get a general idea of how map hunting works (and no, guests don't have to climb towers) 

• No matter the attraction, guests always have the base context of being a GPS member. This base membership can be altered to fit particular attractions, but this underlying context should run throughout the entire park

• All lands are part of the same universe, meaning characters and attractions can reoccur through multiple regions/lands and acknowledge each other freely without breaking the fourth wall

• Speaking of characters, I think it's a shame the modern theme park character is solely there for photos and autographs when they could do so much more in adding texture and nuance to a land. So we aren't doing that, and we definitely aren't hiding them behind queues. Most will be walk around or placed in proper settings, able to have free discussions with guests as they go about their adventure.  

• No major parades. Nighttime spectacular is not a certainty at this time. If it does exist, it will look very different. 

• The line between cast member and character is heavily blurred, and many may double as a denizen of their region. 

• Oh, and did I mention there's also secret attractions? While major attractions will be marked as locations on maps present in each region, smaller ones will not be, and can only be discovered through exploration or talking to "residents" of the region. 

And that's just a small sampling of the changes that we'll be making!

Another key aspect of the park will be interactive quests, similar to those already present in the Florida parks (i.e. Animal Kingdom's Wilderness Explorers). Knowledge gained from walkthrough attractions, shows, and interactions can be used to find secret attractions, or be turned in for special meet n' greets and awards (i.e. turning in a quest in the city area may get you a Key to the City from the mayor).

The themes of the lands are already determined and include but are not limited to: 

• A dense jungle setting similar to classic Adventureland
• A desolate mountain pass home to both friendly villagers and hidden peril
• A royal academy in it's golden age
• A lost canyon full of ancient secrets

And more to be revealed in future posts, which will also go in-depth into the attractions and other features of each region! I think it's safe to say the expedition is just beginning!

And one final reminder: as much as this project is about building a theme park as realistically as possible, the focus is going to be as much on analysis of the creative process as it is on the park itself. I'm sure there will be plenty of mistakes made, but ultimately these are going to be learning opportunities and for that reason I look forward to making them! If articles about existing theme parks and/or Disney are more your cup of tea, don't worry, I'll be keeping up with those as well! 

Thoughts? Comments? Have ideas to share? Let me know below!

Title Photo Credit