Indiana Jones Ride at Disney Hollywood Studios?

[PerceptiveCoot]

There will be merchandise for a popular new character from Indiana Jones 5 in a cart, but inexplicably, no meet and greet.

 

[Nick]

It’s been so long since we’ve had an announcement for new rides I forgot it was possible

There's gonna have to be new rides announced at D23 this year... right? They're running out of rides from D23 2017 that they can stretch out as long as possible.

 

[TheUniC6]

There's gonna have to be new rides announced at D23 this year... right? They're running out of rides from D23 2017 that they can stretch out as long as possible.

I would hope they would go all out with D23. They have been making boatloads of money after having the parks shutdown for a while. At the very least, I want to see them give a status on the Avengers E ticket, Although another factor for the delay was Chadwick's death and they are waiting to see the reception of the second Black Panther before they move forward with the ride. But one thing that I am certain that will be announced is what Disney was able to work out with Anaheim in regards to Disneyland Forward.

 

[Cheezbat]

They need to announce…something…anything for WDW at D23. Tron is it for things in the pipeline…the new attraction well is running dry.

 

[belloq87]

Not explicitly related to any plans for a new Indiana Jones attraction, but I do find it interesting (and welcome!) that Disney is about to introduce a new line of Indy merchandise to the parks...

New Indiana Jones Merchandise Uncovered at Disney Parks - Disney Parks Blog

Hold onto your hats – new Indiana Jones-inspired merchandise is coming soon to Disney Parks and shopDisney! If you’re headed out on an expedition, you might want to make sure you have the right wardrobe for any adventure. Get your own beige safari-style shirt and jacket inspired by everyone’s...

disneyparks.disney.go.com

These seem like higher-end items, more along the lines of the replicas you'd find in Dok-Ondar's over in Galaxy's Edge, which implies to me that -- whether any new attraction is forthcoming or not -- Disney intends for Indy to remain a significant park presence.

In any event, I'm going to spend way too much money on some of this stuff!

 

[biggerboat16]

Looking on Google Earth, there’s a large backstage area behind the stunt show with just a few small staff buildings. If these buildings were relocated, a large dark ride could fit without the park needing to expand into the parking lot. This spot likely wouldn’t be able to accommodate an overly large land, but a show-building and queue could easily fit along with some small food and beverage offerings. This is my blue-sky concept, but a Shanghai-style indoor boat ride with an emphasis on thrills would be perfect here. To save the space of a lift hill, it could even use an elevator lift disguised within a show scene like transformers does. Two levels of the actual ride and show-scenes, with a climactic drop at the end of the second level that takes you back to the first level. I feel that this park needs a few more serious attractions that are friendly to older audiences. It used to be THE park for that, but with the Backlot Tour and GMR replaced by toy story and Mickey respectively, it seems like the park is moving away from that. An attraction based on Indy would be a great step in the right direction and compliment the likes of TOT and ROTR perfectly with immersive action and thrills.
This is my rough drawing, but the yellow would be the entrance to the land. The blue could be the land itself, with some small gift shops and maybe a restaurant. The green would be the entrance/queue/facade for the ride itself. I’m thinking a Mayan theme like we see in Tokyo would compliment the use of water nicely. Then the red would be the show-building. Again, probably not overly likely due to two backstage buildings having to be removed, but my concept does allow one to be kept, while also touching as little in-park infrastructure as possible.

 

[HandsomePete]

Relocating backstage buildings is easier said than done. You've also killed fire lanes and also made it really hard for CMs to get from their entrance to Hollywood Blvd.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

For all the "blessing of size" they talk about, they really landlocked DHS without having to do remove major backstage infrastructure.

 

[Nick]

For all the "blessing of size" they talk about, they really landlocked DHS without having to do remove major backstage infrastructure.

The landlocked it with SWGE. The could've expanded so far out - just look at where the cast parking is and then there's even more land that is suitable for building beyond that.

 

[HandsomePete]

The landlocked it with SWGE. The could've expanded so far out - just look at where the cast parking is and then there's even more land that is suitable for building beyond that.

Not really - the stuff on the other side of the canal that rings the park gets really swampy really quickly. The new entrance was borderline viable with an absurd amount of fill dirt. Going across World Drive was ahead of beyond that canal.

The fundamental problem is that the original idea for the park was a few million people per year. Then way more than that showed up in year one.

 

[Nick]

The fundamental problem is that the original idea for the park was a few million people per year. Then way more than that showed up in year one.

Well yeah, with everything they're changed, they're still working with the same basic area within the park boundaries as 1994.

There's still plenty of room to expand the park within the current boundaries though imo and a lot of it happens if they finally do something about Launch Bay/Animation Courtyard. Demolish it, move any unnecessary backstage offices, give necessary ones a new home, and demolish the parking garage. That opens up quite a bit of space. There's also a bit of space off of Sunset.

I also would like to see Backlot Express/Indy/Star Tours/Muppets area/Frozen building redeveloped. Basically that entire side of the park

 

[GAcoaster]

They SHOULD have built parking structures and expanded forward into the existing lots and beefed up the size of the "Main Street". It really is too small overall for the crowds they pull.

There's still no reason why after all these years the two side streets are backstage roads and not just made into guest areas. I don't know how they've justified Fantasmic exiting through a backstage area for all this time-- oh yeah, they don't REALLY care about the "Show" element anymore.

 

[Nick]

They SHOULD have built parking structures and expanded forward into the existing lots and beefed up the size of the "Main Street". It really is too small overall for the crowds they pull.

There's still no reason why after all these years the two side streets are backstage roads and not just made into guest areas. I don't know how they've justified Fantasmic exiting through a backstage area for all this time-- oh yeah, they don't REALLY care about the "Show" element anymore.

There was serious proposals for a Cast parking garage to be across the street with a walking bridge over World Drive, but there was never serious proposals for a parking garage in guest parking garage as those got cut very early on after the DHS overhaul was given approval.

Disney is very hesitant (i.e. cheap) on building parking garages unless there's literally no other room, sort of like in the case with Disney Springs. Since they are pretty much permanent structures and require regular maintenance, Disney will always build a bigger parking lot before they build a parking garage unless there's literally no other choice.

Eventually it will get to the point where DHS has no other option but to build parking garages so the park boundaries can expand into the current parking lot, but right now the park still has enough problems to sort out they probably figured they could get away with using the current park boundaries for the next 10-15 years knowing how long it takes them to build things and also how long they take off between projects at each park. For example, Tron is going to be the first ride to open at MK since 2014. Pandora opened in 2017 and there's no sign of anything happening on the horizon at DAK, etc.

 

[GAcoaster]

I know there was no serious proposal for building garages as part of the overhaul, but it was short sighted to continue to have the park hemmed in the way it is. The problem is (and will continue to be) it's a park that wasn't really designed to be a theme park. It has grown into one, but needs to shake it's original scale limitations.

 

[OLSinFLA]

I know there was no serious proposal for building garages as part of the overhaul, but it was short sighted to continue to have the park hemmed in the way it is. The problem is (and will continue to be) it's a park that wasn't really designed to be a theme park. It has grown into one, but needs to shake it's original scale limitations.

It was always designed to be a theme park. It was specifically created to try and force Universal not to build theirs.

 

[GAcoaster]

It was always designed to be a theme park. It was specifically created to try and force Universal not to build theirs.

It was designed as a large scale attraction, but never meant to be a full theme park as much as a working studio and experience along the lines of the original Universal Studios Tour attraction in Hollywood. The park was never meant to be the scale of a Magic Kingdom or EPCOT Center, but being "Disney" guests had expectations of more attractions than were initially planned. It was built in haste to beat Universal to the punch and was poorly planned and executed because of that haste.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

MGM Studios was built and rushed to beat Universal.

Universal got mad and decided to focus on attractions versus the studio tour element.

 

[OLSinFLA]

It was designed as a large scale attraction, but never meant to be a full theme park as much as a working studio and experience along the lines of the original Universal Studios Tour attraction in Hollywood. The park was never meant to be the scale of a Magic Kingdom or EPCOT Center, but being "Disney" guests had expectations of more attractions than were initially planned. It was built in haste to beat Universal to the punch and was poorly planned and executed because of that haste.

No, sorry to insist, but it was always designed as a THEME PARK with a small (2 soundstages) studio. While the tour was part of it, most of the tour was "manufactured" to seem to be used (like The Golden Girls house. Never used. The photo used on the show was from a real house in south Florida). If Disney had really meant it just be a tour, there'd have been no need for Star Tours or the GMR. And even the soundstages weren't all real. At least one was a fake one and didn't even have A/C at the time. I mean if the fact that it had the tourist tour means it wasn't a park, neither was Universal Orlando, which actually had a much larger studio and "backlot:.

 

[Alicia]

They described Disney MGM Studios as a half day park, add on ticket to a Disney vacation, when they were designing it. The Sunset Blvd and Muppet expansions would make it a full theme park.

Early maps even describe part of the area as “Theme Park” where the 2 (non tram) rides where the first couple years. But they knew they’d need more rides if people were going to be willing to see it as a full theme park. To start, they compensated by filling the entry streets with as many characters and “real” celebrities as they could. (I got lots of autographs from real celebrities as they would schedule radio press junkets, commercial filming, and other things right out in the open that first year.)

Essentially, the park wasn’t planned well, because it put a lot of stock in the whole “actual film studio” and not enough in rides. But they figured that out before it even opened, with expansions already planned. They just ran out of time to build them.

In other words, you’re both right lol. It was a half day park, but they called it a theme park.

 

[Nick]

In other words, you’re both right lol. It was a half day park, but they called it a theme park.

The way I look at it is half of it was a working studio and half of it was promoted as an actual theme park. So while there was a theme park half of the park, it was exactly that - only half of a park, not even just a half day park. It was only considered a half day park because the tram tour was multiple hours long which kept people occupied.