So I have been thinking...
We know the proposed bridge is going to require the demolition of the queues (and op booths?) for both Little Balloons and Little Gliders. It's not impossible to find a solution to this that doesn't involve moving the rides. An example of this would be wrapping new queues around the outside of the ride areas like below:
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The issue, of course, is that this would eat further into the already constrained path space through this area. It would also make the entry area around the bridge to the park's new attraction sorta a circus.
I'm very much leaning towards the idea that, at a minimum, Little Gliders is going to move. It can be dropped right onto the Flying Machine plot with next to zero difficulty, it could fix the current pipeline encroachment, and would likely allow the park to better conceal the easement area.
I've also been thinking about the new bridge. It's pretty narrow. It's not too narrow to just be a guest pathway, but it is still fairly narrow. Instead of it being a bridge to a new plaza for this attraction, what if it were part of the queue itself and what we're looking at on the other side of the bridge isn't a new ride plaza but actually the queue and load/unload area?
If Gliders goes and the bridge is used for queue, Gliders' current ride pad could be used for queue as well. Put a tall fence or wall along the back to block views of the easement, put some covers up over this extended queue space and across the bridge, and I think this could work.
Using the bridge as queue would move the attraction's entrance right into Da Vinci's Garden. I think there are pros and cons to this for sure. Thematically, it probably makes things a lot more difficult. It will probably also cause some undesirable congestion if path widening doesn't take place into the gardens. That said, it would also place the ride's entrance directly on the existence guest artery through San Marcos almost certainly resulting in higher ridership.
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Not necessarily advocating for something like this, but thought it was an interesting proposal.
