Port Disney Resort

**Port Disney** was a planned property of The Walt Disney Company that was to have been built on 443 acres (179 ha) surrounding Queensway Bay next to the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, United States. The property was to have featured a marine-themed amusement park, a marina, a cruise ship port, a specialty retail and entertainment area, and hotel accommodations. It was to be built on land occupied by the RMS *Queen Mary* and Hughes H-4 Hercules aircraft (nicknamed the "Spruce Goose"), which Disney acquired as a result of acquiring the Wrather company in 1989.

Port Disney was announced in July 1990, first presented to city and port officials in closed meetings, then revealed in a public meeting on July 31, 1990. This was followed by the publication of *The Port Disney News*, which was mailed directly to homes in 1991 to drum up public support.

## Port Disney planned amenities

Initial (1990) plan for Port Disney at full build-out included DisneySea, five hotels, a cruise ship port, and regular ferry and monorail service linking City-side and Port-side.
Port Disney was to be built in two phases:

1. Construction to occur from 1995–1999 for a 2000 opening
2. Expansion to occur from 2007–2009 for a 2010 opening

The planned Port Disney final build-out included development on both sides of Queensway Bay, at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. The northern side of Queensway Bay (adjacent to Long Beach's downtown) was called the "City-side", and the southern side (adjacent to the existing freight Port of Long Beach) was called the "Port-side".

Port Disney was publicly unveiled on July 31, 1990, and would have included the following attractions after the full build-out in 2010:

* The **DisneySea** theme park (Port-side)
* Five new resort hotels (3,900 new rooms in total) and waterfront restaurants
	+ **Shoreline Hotel** and retail/entertainment center (City-side)
	+ **Tidelands Hotel** (City-side)
	+ **Marina Hotel** (City-side)
	+ **Canal Hotel** (Port-side)
	+ **Port Hotel** (Port-side)
* Water transportation, consisting of:
	+ 400 new marina slips (250 long term and 150 guest slips, in two new marinas located Port-side)
	+ The **WorldPort** ferry landing (for trans-Queensway Bay service), historic vessel harbor, and local (Orange County) harbor cruises (Port-side)
	+ **The Quay**, offering excursions, dinner boats, and charters (Port-side, adjacent to Port Hotel)
	+ A five-berth cruise ship port to distant destinations (Mexico, Seattle, San Diego; Port-side)
* A monorail linking the City- and Port-sides of Queensway Bay

The planned resort would have taken over the space occupied by the Spruce Goose, with the disposition of the plane unknown, and would have taken over two parcels of city parkland. The 3,900 proposed new rooms would have nearly doubled the then-4,800 room combined capacity of all hotels and motels within the city of Long Beach. The plan also called for filling 250 acres (100 ha) of ocean with 20,000,000 cubic yards (15,000,000 m3) of material and asked the city to widen roads and improve infrastructure to accommodate a projected 13 million visitors per year, at a total proposed cost of US$2,000,000,000 (equivalent to $3,913,900,000 in 2019). The *Queen Mary* would have been moved 700 feet (210 m) to a new berth. The complexity of the proposed development meant that an agreement would have to be reached between Disney, the city of Long Beach, the Port of Long Beach, the California Coastal Commission, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

### DisneySea Theme Park

Main article: DisneySea (California)

The lone theme park touted for the new property would have been named **DisneySea**. However the park proposed for Long Beach at Port Disney would have been different from the DisneySea park that was eventually built in Tokyo.

Proposed attractions for the Long Beach DisneySea included:

* *Oceana*, the architectural centerpiece of DisneySea consisting of a complex of bubbles with a two-story "oceanarium" inside depicting the evolution of the seas. Within Oceana would be:
	+ The *Future Research Center*, a working meeting center for oceanographic researchers
	+ The *Ocean Outreach Center*, an educational "library of the sea"
* *Mysterious Island*, a recreation of Atlantis with a suspended thrill ride entitled *Nemo's Lava Cruiser*
* A boardwalk with amusement rides reminiscent of the Long Beach oceanfront during the glory days of The Pike
* *Fleets of Fantasy*, a harbor with replicas of ships hosting rides and restaurants
* *Heroes′* or *Hero′s Harbor*, rides themed for mythological adventurers such as Sinbad and Odysseus
* A Grecian village
* An Asian water market
* *Venture Reefs*, a Caribbean lagoon featuring artificial tropical reefs and a shark cage dive experience

### Port Disney News

Name changes in Port Disney Plan
(*Master Plan*)
 Marina Hotel
 Tidelands Hotel
 Shoreline Hotel
 Canal Hotel
 Canal Hotel
 Port Hotel
 The Quay
 WorldPort
 unnamed Port-side marinas
 Pier J Marina
(near Cruise Ship Port)

The illustrative site plan presented in the *Port Disney News* brochure distributed to Long Beach residents had a slightly different layout and names for some of the featured attractions. The Canal Hotel was now split into two hotels, the Regatta Hotel (on the west side) and the Canal Hotel (on the east side). In addition, The Quay was now an enclosed park and renamed Treasure Lagoon Park.