Niles: Disney needs to look indoors for its theme park future

What should Disney’s next theme park in America be?

Fans are debating that question as Disney moves ahead with its plans to spend $60 billion on its parks and destinations over the next decade. Just in the past month, Disney cut a deal with Florida to spend up to $17 billion on Walt Disney World over the next 15 years. That’s almost 10 times the at least $1.9 billion that Disney has promised to invest at Disneyland over the next decade. The Florida deal includes approval for Disney to build a fifth theme park at Walt Disney World, which has prompted wild speculation among fans.

Ultimately, I do not really care what theme Walt Disney World should choose for its next park. It can be villains, heroes, new movies or old cartoons. All I know is that if Disney ever builds a fifth theme park in Florida, it needs to be all-indoors.

Having just returned from another trip to the Sunstroke State, I must report that summer weather in Orlando these days too often feels incompatible with human life. The combination punch of extreme heat and humidity batters the joy that families have spent thousands of dollars to feel by visiting Disney. Afternoon thunderstorms used to provide a consistent daily reprieve, but I have endured too many days in recent years when that relief never came.

And if your plan to keep your guests comfortable relies on regular incidents of violent wind, dangerous lightning and pummeling rainfall, then, yeah, you need to build a weather-proof theme park anyway. An indoor theme park would allow Disney’s guests to enjoy their day in comfort, while providing Disney’s Imagineers an opportunity to create the most immersive lands and attractions imaginable.

Start by sending a team of Imagineers and Disney executives on a benchmarking trip to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi remains the creative model for what an indoor theme park can be, with the skyscape and lighting in each land perfectly designed for its theme. It’s an inspiration for what is possible in immersive themed entertainment design.

But Disney does not need to travel that far to tap into the creative talent behind Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi. Much of its design team, including creative director Dave Cobb, are based in Southern California, within minutes of Walt Disney Imagineering’s Glendale headquarters.

Granted, building indoor attractions can cost much, much more money than creating traditional outdoor rides. Without access to cheap oil like Middle Eastern countries, Disney would need to build more solar farms on its Florida property to provide needed energy while getting creative in applying technology to shade and cool its park.

Yet with Disney talking about spending tens of billions of dollars in Florida, I am left to wonder if an indoor park is not already in Walt Disney World’s expansion plans. Let’s hope so. An indoor park is Disney’s best opportunity to create a new world of magic without the misery of Florida weather.