In its yesterday's article HERE Orlando Weekly talked about the long rumored Indiana Jones land which may finally "find a home at Disney's Hollywood Studios". Some months ago, another rumor was saying that Animal Kingdom Dinoland and the Dinosaurs attraction could be transformed also in an Indiana Jones land, but according to Orlando Weekly chances are that it will happen finally at DHS which is certainly the most logical choice for a land based on an iconic movie hero.
If it happens it will be in the area where the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular currently is, and according to OW the land could eventually "include the area where Star Tours is currently located, as well as most other aspects of the Echo Lake section of the park. Replacing not only the stunt show but also the area around it, the new Indiana Jones mini-land would be roughly 8 acres in size or about half the size of the Animal Kingdom proposal."
Orlando Weekly goes on saying that "Multiple attractions would be featured in the new land, likely including a signature E-ticket style attraction... ...the signature attraction for the Indy mini-land will be an indoor family attraction of some type that will use a previously realized ride system in a new way. Few details on the specifics of this ride have been shared by insiders, but it’s thought that this ride will compete with the two Star Wars rides as one of the park’s flagship attractions. As with Animal Kingdom’s plan, the DHS one does seem to include an outdoor roller coaster attraction. Both Disneyland Paris and Tokyo DisneySea have Intamin versions of the Pinfari TL-59 looping coasters."
Well, well, all this sounds good and, as i wanted to have a look at how big an Indy land like this would be, i've been on Google Earth checking this and here is two versions, the first one below include Star Tours ( which would be removed or deleted ) and this version will make an area of 41100 square meters ( 10 acres ), including some buildings currently backstage but leaving a bit of space for the needed backstage road going around the park. Click on the picture to see it in larger size.
The other version below does not include Star Tours and in both versions i've kept Echo Lake as i think they will keep it or at least a big part of it as they need to keep some water area in a park which don't have that many. And i also kept the building on the other side of Echo Lake. With this second version it makes an area of 26300 square meters ( 6.5 acres ).
In both versions they'll definitely have room enough to build an Indy land with a big Indiana Jones E-Ticket ride, and if they build Indiana Jones Adventure they will need room for the big IJA show building so let's see how big is the one at Disneyland Anaheim. As you can see below, according to Google Earth it makes ( ride show building only, not counting the long queue decor leading to it ) around 7680 SQM ( 1.89 acres ).
Now, if at DHS they build the ride show building backstage near the parking lot ( like they did at Disneyland, by the way ) as i'm pretty sure they will do, let's see how many square meters it would be. And as you can see it would make roughly 8170 sqm ( 2 acres ). So, it could works perfectly and they still would have an in-park area of 33000 sqm or 18000 sqm - depending if they delete Star Tours or not - to build the Indy roller coaster and a restaurant and shop.
Talking about an Indiana Jones coaster similar to DLP Temple du Péril or TDS Raging Spirits, Orlando Weekly says "If it does make its way to Orlando, the coaster will likely feature dual sides, similar to Animal Kingdom’s Primeval Whirl spinning coaster and Magic Kingdom’s Dumbo spinner." And this reminded me that, in fact, Disneyland Paris Adventureland Temple du Péril originally designed by WDI Imagineers Tom Morris and Chris Tietz was supposed to include TWO different coasters running on two different tracks, and for budget reasons only one was built at DLP - though shortly after the Temple du Péril opening the attraction was so successful that DLP wanted to add the second coaster and never had the budget to do it. I even saw at WDI at the end of the 1990's the model of this second coaster and it would have been a great addition for DLP. And if you want to know how it would have looked - and how it could look if they build this two coasters at Disney's Hollywood Studios, i even have the rendering - as it is in my Disneyland Paris book. On the WDI artwork below, the existing Temple du Péril coaster is on the left and the one which was never built is in the background on the right. Note that the second coaster was not supposed to have a looping, it was a very different track, which made the whole concept very interesting.
At Disneyland Paris the Temple du Péril makes around 2754 sqm ( not counting all the queue area ). If they have to double the temples at DHS that should make around 6000 sqm and let's add 1500 sqm of queue decor, which would make a total of around 7500 sqm, more or less. Considering, as i've said above that they still have between 18000 and 33000 sqm available it means that building the Indy coaster will be possible and this with TWO different tracks running on two different temples - something which would be definitely needed at WDW to have enough hour capacity.
In two words, they have enough room at Disney's Hollywood Studios to build a 8000 sqm Indiana Jones Aventure ride - or equivalent E-Ticket - plus the Indy roller coaster in its original two coasters versions, plus an Indy restaurant and shop and they'll still have room for plenty of lush tropical vegetation.
And by the way, if they build the Indiana Jones coasters what would be a great idea would be to include some great decor scenes they didn't built at DLP, like the one below.
Now, the question is: will they build an Indiana Jones land? Considering the upcoming Indiana Jones 5 movie and the usual taste of Disney for synergy, the answer is: most probably. And will it be at Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios? I put my bets on Disney's Hollywood Studios because it's the place where it makes the more sense to create an Indy land - it's still supposed to be a park about movies, after all, and even with the Star Wars Galaxy Edge addition the park will still need more rides - and also because the stunt show is one of the last remaining attractions from the old era of the Disney's MGM Studios. I like it a lot but after more than 25 years of existence i think it will get the axe. We'll see which park will be the lucky winner of an Indiana Jones land, in the meantime let us know what you think in the comments section below!
Pictures: copyright Disney, Google Earth
