Tomorrowland will be home to Disneyland’s first Disney Vacation Club member lounge when the timeshare perk opens next year in unused “space” in a perpetual white elephant building — but what does that mean for any makeover plans for the futuristic themed land?
The Disney Vacation Club Star View Station will open in the first half of 2023 on the second floor of the Star Wars: Launch Bay building in Tomorrowland.
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Tomorrowland is full of unused “space” — including the Magic Eye Theater, former PeopleMover track, Starcade arcade, TomorrowLanding gift shop and the vast majority of Star Wars Launch Bay.
The outdated and half-empty state of Tomorrowland has led Mouse watchers to speculate Disney will announce a complete overhaul of Disneyland’s futuristic themed land during the upcoming D23 Expo on Sept. 9-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
At a minimum, Disneyland will not be taking a bulldozer to Star Wars: Launch Bay over the next year or so with the new DVC lounge set to debut sometime before July 1.
Star Wars Launch Bay — which was once home to Innoventions, America Sings and Carousel of Progress — has long been the white elephant of Tomorrowland.
The hulking two-story round building with a rotating first floor sits on nearly an acre of prime real estate in Tomorrowland. Star Wars Launch Bay remains one of the few locations still closed more than a year after Disneyland reopened following an extended COVID-19 closure of the park. The massive convention-like space has been used sparingly for exclusive character meet-and-greets, fireworks viewing and special event merchandise sales.
Any plans to makeover Disneyland’s Tomorrowland would almost certainly involve the reuse or demolition of Star Wars Launch Bay. That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon with Disney’s most diehard fans getting ready to take up residence on the top floor.
The new DVC lounge in Star Wars Launch Bay is a temporary installation at best — easily removed or relocated. A similar Magic Key annual passholder lounge in the former Starcade arcade was a limited-time addition that quietly disappeared after a few months.
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Disneyland’s first Disney Vacation Club lounge will be similar to other DVC members-only locations atop Disney’s Contemporary Hotel and inside Epcot’s Imagination pavilion at Walt Disney World.
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Disney has about a dozen DVC properties in Florida as well as locations in Hawaii and South Carolina. A few dozen DVC Villas are nestled within Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. A new 12-story Disney Vacation Club timeshare building under construction at the Disneyland Hotel is set to open in 2023.
The exclusive DVC lounge in Tomorrowland will offer member services, seating, WiFi, charging stations and air conditioning to club members.
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The “sleekly designed” DVC lounge will be themed as a Star View Station. Concept art shows wall coverings filled with space stations, rocket ships, futuristic cities and astronaut suits. One mural appears to show the Monsanto Mighty Microscope that once shrunk riders down to the size of an atom on Adventure Thru Inner Space with the PeopleMover in the background.