Fans visiting Disney World’s upcoming Star Wars Land expansion, set to open in 2019, will have the opportunity to immerse themselves even more deeply into the fictional universe in an almost Westworld-style experience. At its D23 Expo in Los Angeles this week, Disney announced a new Star Wars-themed hotel where every window will offer views of ‘outer space,’ every employee will be in character, and every guest will be the protagonist of their very own Star Wars storyline.

Premiering as part of the new Disney 360 vacation concept, the hotel will be a ‘living adventure.’

“It’s unlike anything that exists today,” says Bob Chapek, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. “From the second you arrive, you will become a part of a Star Wars story! You’ll immediately become a citizen of the galaxy and experience all that entails, including dressing up in the proper attire. Once you leave Earth, you will discover a starship alive with characters, stories, and adventures that unfold all around you. It is 100% immersive, and the story will touch every single minute of your day, and it will culminate in a unique journey for every person who visits.”

Disney also unveiled models of the new park along with its name, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The park will also be an interactive experience with each guest as a character – so you don’t have to stay in the resort to enjoy that aspect of the action, but it certainly seems like it would add to the overall effect.

“One attraction will make you feel like you’re on a Star Destroyer inside a hangar bay. It’s an attraction built on a scale we’ve never done before.

The second attraction will give guests the opportunity to fly the Millenium Falcon, piloting the ship, shooting blasters or preparing for hyperspace – all while completing a critical mission. But how you perform on the mission holds even bigger stakes: perform with skill and you may earn extra galactic credits, while bringing the ship back banged up could put you on the list of a bounty hunter. End up on Harkos’s list and you may face a problem if you show up at the local cantina!”

Excited ticket holders rush past sullen-faced guards in mouse ears to gain access to Banksy’s Dismaland, a dilapidated, depressing ‘bemusement park’ that’s far from the happiest place on earth. Contained within a derelict seaside swimming complex, the attraction takes everything you love about Disneyland and subverts it into a dystopian vision where nothing works quite like it should, and whatever can go wrong probably will.

Visitors pass through a faux security screening complete with cardboard x-ray machines before submitting to a real search, with guards ironically checking for spray paint to make sure no vandals compromise the strange scene Banksy has curated. Inside, they’re greeted by a structure resembling a post-apocalyptic Cinderella’s castle, a giant pinwheel tangled with plastic and the grim reaper as the sole rider at a bumper car attraction.

A photo backdrop labeled ‘selfie hole’ tells you what it’s for and makes a statement on the person using it at the same time. Step past the ‘No Entry’ gate in the fairytale castle and you’ll be treated to CCTV-like footage of Cinderella and her prince on screens before coming upon the wreckage of her overturned carriage, paparazzi flashbulbs going off in a frenzy deliberately echoing the death of Princess Diana. Everything is designed to be a colossal let-down.

Abandoned for nearly a century, the 2.5-acre site has just the right grimy atmosphere for Banksy’s display, which includes almost none of his own work. The artists who collaborated on the project and have works featured inside include Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst and Jimmy Cauty. The park will be open every day through September 27th, with performances by Run the Jewels, Pussy Riot, Massive Attack and others scheduled each Friday. Tickets are £3 on the Dismaland website (additional photos by Christopher Jobson of Colossal).

“Why play a game when you can live it?” ask the creators of The Void, the world’s first virtual reality theme park slated to open in Utah in summer 2016. Gamers will soon be able to immerse themselves in 4D environments, with all sorts of eye-popping effects layered onto real spaces. Imagine: first-person shooters meet paintball or laser tag – this is the future of gaming.

The flagship Pleasant Grove location will feature sixteen 60-by-60-foot rooms with different themes for different experiences, and they even plan to change these virtual stages every three months so repeat players never get bored.

Want to find out what it feels like to wander around in the jungle during the Jurassic age, or explore a truly terrifying haunted house? Zoom around skyscrapers in a flying car? The Void basically enables you to star in your own action movie, alone or with a group of friends, in a VR experience that far surpasses anything you could do with a headset on your couch.

Each stage not only has custom architecture and sculptures to make it feel more real – you’ll also feel blasts of air and shifts in temperature, take in scents and strap yourself into motion simulators for activities like flying. Individual rooms hold up to 10 gamers at a time who can work as a team or play against each other. The Void has created a virtual reality headset of its own design, called Rapture HMD.

You won’t necessarily have to fly to Utah to experience it, either – they’re planning on opening other locations around the world.

At the top of a mountain, a crumbling Yellow Brick Road winds around forests filled with creepy anthropomorphic trees, Dorothy’s dilapidated house and an Emerald Castle made of stone. The Land of Oz has been abandoned for thirty-three years, and it hasn’t seen much restoration during that time, but it opens to the public October 5th for an annual event called ‘Autumn at Oz,’ enabling visitors to see it in all its sad, derelict glory for a few of Halloween season.

(images via: rockinfree)

Located at Beech Mountain, a ski resort in Western North Carolina, the Land of Oz saw over 20,000 visitors on its opening day in 1970. A ski lift was modified to resemble a balloon ride, taking guests on an aerial tour of the park with views of the mountain scenery. The park design was based on the book rather than the film, and the visitor was intended to experience it from Dorothy’s point of view.

(images via: rockinfree)

Despite a 1975 fire that destroyed some artifacts, including the dress worn by Judy Garland in the movie, the Land of Oz was fully operational until 1980. Once it was closed, many items were stolen, vandalized or destroyed, and those that weren’t were given over to the elements. A few pieces remain in storage at Appalachian State University.

(images via: emerald mountain)

The park was partially restored in 1990, and Former employees started Autumn at Oz as a reunion three years later. Now it’s an annual event, opening the doors to the outside world just two days every year. Proceeds from the event go to the (apparently minimal) upkeep of the park.

Amusement parks offer an adrenaline-soaked escape from reality, transporting us into fantasy worlds where pretty much anything is possible – and sometimes, the concept art for a proposed theme park can be nearly as exciting as the park itself. These 12 concepts include eagerly awaited new theme parks expected to open soon, projects that have been shelved and incredibly imaginative ideas that could never actually exist.

World of Warcraft & Starcraft-Themed Amusement Park

(images via: manaflask)

It’s not a joke: China really is building a World of Warcraft-themed amusement park (with a Starcraft section to boot). It’s called Joyland, and it’s under construction in the Wunjin district with an expected opening sometime this spring. For the time being, however, it’s still just a concept, with fantastical illustrations giving us an idea of what to expect.

Vertical Theme Park for New York City

(images via: evolo)

Imagine all of the rides in a typical theme park compacted into a single skyscraper – in the middle of Manhattan. Architect Ju-Hyun Kim packs a flume ride, sky promenade, a roller coaster, a ferris wheel, restaurants, a vertical carousel and a space theater into a tower that fits right in with the surrounding architecture. This novel concept not only shrinks the often-sprawling footprint of an amusement park into a much smaller space, but also keeps the fun inside city limits, cutting back on the need for travel.

Dubailand: Marvel Superheroes Theme Park

(images via: conceptartworld)

Before Disney bought comic book empire Marvel, a deal was struck that allowed a massive Marvel theme park be to constructed as part of the multi-billion-dollar Dubailand, an amusement park complex rumored to be 20 times larger than Disney World. The Marvel section of the park will include 17 rides and attractions and occupy over four and a half million square feet. Said to be opening in late 2011, the actual status of the project is unclear due to Dubailand’s financial difficulties. The developers of Dubailand had hoped to attract 15 million tourists a year by 2015.

Disney’s Forgotten Water World

(images via: jimhillmedia)

Once upon a time, Disney imagineers planned a $2 billion seaside park for Long Beach Harbor, California. Port Disney was to focus on the myths and mystery of the ocean, and the park’s crowning glory was Oceania, a massive interactive aquarium with a tidal exchange with the ocean to create real tidal pools in the outdoor exhibits. Guests would have snorkeled in five different reef environments or even enjoyed a few terrifying moments in a shark cage. Doomed due to concerns about the impact to the coastline, this project got new life when some aspects of it were used at Tokyo DisneySea.

Theme Planet by Michael Sormann

(image via: io9)

Theme Planet, a short film by 3D artist Michael Sormann, explores the concept of an entire planet being one big theme park. Aside from fantastic animation, the film includes glimpses of fun attractions and features like the ‘Barracuda’ steam-powered train.

Dubai Space & Science World

(images via: realtyna.com)

Before the economy crashed, Dubai development seemed like a freight train with busted brakes. Today, it’s unclear whether many of the spectacular concepts proposed for the city will ever actually be built, but what about those already under construction? It’s hard to say whether we’ll ever actually see the ‘Space & Science World’ attraction in Dubailand ever come to life.

Dubailand Ski Dome

(images via: skidubai.com)

One of Dubailand’s biggest attractions, ‘Sunny Mountain Ski Dome’ or ‘Snowdome’, is already rumored to have been shelved altogether due to stratospheric costs. A massive steel dome would have enclosed an artificial mountain range covered in snow for a complete ski resort with winter activities and arctic animals like polar bears and penguins – all in the middle of the desert.

Robot Land Theme Park in South Korea

(images via: engadget)

It’s not finished yet, but in 2013, Robot Land will reportedly open its gates to visitors keen on experiencing every form of robot entertainment currently known to man. There will be robotic rides, robotic fish in aquariums for visitors to manipulate, robotic performers and even robotic cashiers.

Radiant Copenhagen: New Uses for Subway Stations

(image via: radiant cophenhagen)

What’s to come in the distant future for the city of Copenhagen? One of over a hundred ideas submitted to the Radiant Copenhagen project envisions a sparkling underground amusement park in place of the current Vanløse subway station, to be built after the imagined abolishment of public transport between 2060 and 2100.

Two Amusement Park Concepts for Saudi Arabia

(images via: sidell gibson)

Sidell Gibson Architects created two concept designs for amusement parks in waterfront locations in Saudi Arabia, each containing a wide range of activities like ice skating, cinemas, rides, virtual games, indoor water sports and outdoor swimming pools. “We have drawn inspiration from the local habitat and in particular the flora and fauna of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts and the immediate adjacency of the water itself. The starting point is the way seeds are arranged in a sunflower or daisy. The pattern of intersecting parabolic spirals is the result of a natural growth process where new, smaller seeds emerge from a centre and displace larger and older ones… One benefit of this geometric pattern is that it lends itself to being developed flexibly, in many ways without loosing the sense of the inherent geometry.”

The Euthanasia Coaster

(images via: io9)

Perhaps, from the drawings, this roller coaster doesn’t strike you as all that impressive. It’s not flashy concept art; it’s really quite simple. But get on this roller coaster, and it’s the last thing you’ll ever do. Royal College of Art PhD student Julijonas Urbonas created Euthanasia Coaster for the exact purpose that the name suggests; the coaster is designed to starve the rider’s brain of oxygen. The idea is that if you choose to go, you can go in a way that is thrillingly, amazingly, mind-numblingly fun. “Thanks to the marriage of the advanced cross-disciplinary research in space medicine, mechanical engineering, material technologies and, of course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful.”