After all our PixarFest coverage from Disneyland last week, allow me to catch up on other theme park news with a quick round-up of what Disney, Universal, and Cedar Fair have been filing for with local and federal agencies.
Disney
Disneyland has filed a permit application with the City of Anaheim to "renovate 5000 sq. ft. existing interior space to a conditioned queue area." This is for Space Mountain and will include a reconfiguration of the queue area on the roof of the Tomorrowland Theater. That "existing interior space" appears to be the currently unused upstairs portion of the old Starcade. So it appears that Space Mountain standby queue visitors might soon be getting more interior queue space in which to await their ride, outside of the Southern California sun.
This provides us another excuse to remind readers that Disneyland's Space Mountain now has a single ride line for people who don't want to wait in that outdoor queue. It's not marked at the entrance, though, which is why we keep reminding people about it. Just head for the exit, which is inside to the right of the Tomorrowland Theater, across from the restrooms. You should see a small sign there, directing you to the single rider queue.
Universal
Universal has filed a trademark application for "Jurassic Your World." It's a catch-all application, so it could be for anything that Universal Studios does, not just a theme park attraction. Universal Studios Hollywood is throwing an after-hours, hard-ticket party for Jurassic Park's 25th anniversary and there's a new Jurassic World flick on the way, so let's just use this as an excuse to speculate on Universal's next move after those with this franchise.
Cedar Fair
The amusement park chain has filed a trademark application for "Copperhead Strike." This one also could be for a wide variety of uses, but man that sounds like a great roller coaster name, doesn't it? Speculate away!
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I assume the main reason for expanding the line for Space Mountain is to make room for people visiting Star Wars. What is disappointing is this is a sign Disney will not do any real work to Tomorrowland for several years. Instead all that's being done is converting unused space into queue to make Tomorrowland less crowded, or more accurately, expand capacity when it gets more crowded. Everything in Tomorrowland besides Space Mountain needs to be bulldozed, but sadly that's not going to happen for awhile.
And yet still no use for the People Mover! I can’t believe that something so visible and with a potential capacity to ease the crowds in Tomorrowland is just rotting in plain sight.
Great idea we've all had for how long? It's about time that they utilize that second floor space above Starcade, but CALOSHA will likely get in the way. And I know the issue was with the ramp going up, but I predict, application denied.
It would definitely be nice to have indoor queue space for Space Mountain, as that is one of the more unpleasant lines at the resort. Even if it is just switchbacks, it beats standing outside for an hour or more on a summer day.
As for Copperhead Strike, sounds like something for the 2019 coaster at Carowinds (though, like Centurion, it could very well be a red herring).
Why do you need to remind people of this?! It actually works and those who know it exists have a slight advantage. The last time I tried to use the single ride it was literally longer than the standby.
For somebody that usually goes to WDW, standing outside in California is not a problem at all, but I understand. I will say the People Mover needs to be redone. Believe or not, the TTA is, and always will be, one of my families favorite attractions at WDW. Sometimes new management fail to appreciate the emotional attachment some of the more simple rides can convey, and when the replaced the classic announcer with the updated one, my children were upset. But anyway, I think in today's climate of every pressing negativity, updating Tomorrowland to a optimistic view of the future with missions to Mars, people movers, and attractions such as that are important. Tomorrowlands at DL and MK could stand undating, but especially at DL, and the People Mover is a major, major problem.
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Great news about the Space Mountain queue going indoors.