New Fantasyland activities?

[NiarrNDisney]

So I was curious - There seems to be some extra space around the Tea Cups and the Circus area. So will there be Midway games or even a new small "Distraction" ride added anytime soon?
I ask because our Magic Kingdom has 40 more acres than DLR and it seems under utilized. There are so many more themed restaurants, lands, attractions, and small activities in California than in Florida! I by no means want to create bottle necks all over the park like those found in DLR, but the quaint little areas you find there keep it exciting, plus they don't take attractions, shops, and restaurants down just to make M&G's.

Thoughts, future plans, etc. etc. ?

 

[ImagineerDude]

You have to remember...Disneyland has two parks, three hotels, Downtown Disney, and a large parking garage. They have 3 main areas to add attractions, activities, shows, etc. WDW has 4 large parks, 2 water parks, Boardwalk, Downtown Disney, ESPN WWOS, over 20 resorts, etc, to spread out the attractions, shows, etc. That was the main idea of WDW, so it wouldn't feel as cramped. "The blessing of size" as Walt called it. I like the open areas so when the park is busy, you aren't pushing your way through a ton of people. I would like to see something in the future and a better transition between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Including taking out the Speedway.

PS- I do NOT want midway games in our Magic Kingdom unless they make COMPLETE sense with the theme

 

[maryszhi]

So I was curious - There seems to be some extra space around the Tea Cups and the Circus area. So will there be Midway games or even a new small "Distraction" ride added anytime soon?
I ask because our Magic Kingdom has 40 more acres than DLR and it seems under utilized. There are so many more themed restaurants, lands, attractions, and small activities in California than in Florida! I by no means want to create bottle necks all over the park like those found in DLR, but the quaint little areas you find there keep it exciting, plus they don't take attractions, shops, and restaurants down just to make M&G's.

Thoughts, future plans, etc. etc. ?

they are saving it for when they need it. disney is lucky it bought up all the land like they did. if not, it would be like disneyland with little to no room to expand.

 

[powlessfamily4]

Elbow room, elbow room.... lots and lots and lots and lots of elbow room! School House Rock

 

[J03Y]

WDW is bigger because it was intended to be, so all that extra space is there for a reason, so that it doesn't feel as cramped as DLR. and midway games don't really fit the feel and theme of either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland.

 

[NiarrNDisney]

No you are right Midway games do not fit in with Tomorrowland or Fantasyland however I figured it would fit in the Circus theme of the new Dumbo area. I personally love competition and midway games so you can usually find me at least once or twice at the Boardwalk or Dinoland throwing darts or rolling balls for whatever reason to win a prize! I figured it might be fun and a nice distraction for the Circus area while people are waiting to get on a ride or for their party to finish up on the Kiddie rides. Either way I was just wondering if there was any future plans for a small attraction or something to be added in the future or if anyone had a thought or wish for a new ride to be added to the area.

 

[Patricia Melton]

I think the Speedway will eventually be removed and will be carved into a Fantasyland attraction and a Tomorrowland attraction.

I personally think a Villain's Mountain type thing will be built over there in front of Dumbo, between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, some day. Some kind of E-ticket where the Disney villains get to be as bad as they want to be and really kick their heels up.

 

[NiarrNDisney]

I think the Speedway will eventually be removed and will be carved into a Fantasyland attraction and a Tomorrowland attraction.

I personally think a Villain's Mountain type thing will be built over there in front of Dumbo, between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, some day. Some kind of E-ticket where the Disney villains get to be as bad as they want to be and really kick their heels up.

I agree I think the future of the Tomorrowland Speedway may be coming to an end, well unless they decide to retheme it to Cars or something else.
I don't however see the Mouse adding another mountain attraction in that area now that they are building the Seven Dwaves Mine Coaster, also they do like to keep DLR and WDW's Magic Kingdoms slightly if not completely different and with another Mt. here it would resemble the Matterhorn. Though I do think something of a grand size would be a great berm between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and be needed since the transition between the two lands lacks in everyway.

 

[spacemt354]

Though I do think something of a grand size would be a great berm between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and be needed since the transition between the two lands lacks in everyway.

I actually disagree with this part. I think it's a great transition and here is why. When you round the corner past winnie the pooh, you see the tea cups ahead of you, and now you see dumbo in the distance. As you continue to round the corner, you begin to see the final corner of the speedway. At first glance, these little cars look like they could be an attraction in fantasyland. You aren't thrust into a world of tomorrow right away. It is a gradual transition, and as you continue on walking past the speedway and see the Astro Orbiter ahead, and space mountain looming over the speedway, the racecars blend right into that futuristic land.

As much as people may look at the speedway and point out how much land it takes up, it is a Magic Kingdom classic. Also the Jungle Cruise takes up basically the same amount of real estate, so why no push for that to be removed? In my opinion, if I were to pick between the two, I would remove the Jungle Cruise, just because I feel an big E-ticket in Adventureland would be a better fit. But anyway, back to the speedway. When I was a little kid, the one thing I wanted to do was to drive my own racecar. It's not everywhere a 3 year old can sit behind the wheel of a car. In my opinion, the speedway is one of those timeless classics that I don't think is going away any time soon. Not only because it is a classic, but because an E-ticket attraction in that location will alter a lot of things we have come to enjoy.

There would be no more scenic views from the train looking out onto the speedway. You'll just be looking at the back of a building. The pathway from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland will surely be taken out, which takes away that nice shortcut my family and I have come to enjoy. The E-ticket, if a large structure, will also ruin the views of space mountain from the fantasyland to tomorrowland vantage point. It will also create more traffic jams, with the Snow White Mine Train, FLE, and now another E-ticket all bunched together. And to top it all off, I fear the attraction will fall into the trap of Disneyland. The transition from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland via the matterhorn and subs is probably the worst in any disney park I have been to. There is just too much in that area and it is so confusing. A monorail next to the subs? And a giant mountain looming over the autopia? That's not to say those attractions themselves are bad, it's just the transition is terrible, and I don't want Disney World to fall into that trap because I feel FL to TL is one of the better transitions in the Magic Kingdom.

 

[Patricia Melton]

As much as people may look at the speedway and point out how much land it takes up, it is a Magic Kingdom classic. Also the Jungle Cruise takes up basically the same amount of real estate, so why no push for that to be removed?

Here is my family's take on why the Speedway should go but something like the Jungle Cruise needs to be preserved and maintained forever: there is no opportunity to take a Jungle Cruise in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, or wherever else a guest may be from but on any given day you can ride a Go-Kart practically anywhere in the US, even in winter if you go to an indoor course.

My son and daughter never got into the Speedway (or Autopia at DLR); they grew up in the 80s and 90s and we had Go-Kart tracks in Ohio where we lived. There was nothing special about riding Go-Karts in a Disney park so we tended to skip them. Every few years, we'd go on the Speedway just so it felt like we were going on every ride in the park but it's the one ride that I honestly couldn't wait to be over. My son felt the same way, though my daughter enjoyed sightseeing from the track and looking for what attraction she wanted to do next. For our family, the Speedway was just a place to go to drive around and see where we wanted to visit next, not an attraction we enjoyed being on.

In my opinion, the only way that Speedway should stay is if it was re-themed to something like Tron and the cars were made to look super-futuristic and Disney made the thing "feel" like it was going super fast somehow (but not really going fast because it would be a safety concern for me)...the could be achieved with special effects somehow, like if the whole thing were enclosed and the backgrounds were projected on the walls to look like you were speeding through a futuristic city or a city in a computer or whatever.

But, I don't think any of this is possible, even for the Imagineers so I'd rather see the Speedway retired and the land reclaimed for something more imaginative.

One final note...have you ever noticed that people collect posters for Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, etc. but I have never seen people collecting memorabilia for the Speedway in a big way?

The Speedway does not inspire the same level of love that the other attractions do, because there is nothing like the other attractions anywhere in the world. But there are Go-Karts a plenty wherever a guest is from.

 

[WEDway1975]

They should updated the Tomorrowland Speedway to look like this.

Also, they should change the name to the Autopia and they should lose the speedway theme since the Indianapolis Speedway doesn't sponsor it anymore.

 

[NiarrNDisney]

As much as people may look at the speedway and point out how much land it takes up, it is a Magic Kingdom classic. Also the Jungle Cruise takes up basically the same amount of real estate, so why no push for that to be removed? In my opinion, if I were to pick between the two, I would remove the Jungle Cruise, just because I feel an big E-ticket in Adventureland would be a better fit. But anyway, back to the speedway. When I was a little kid, the one thing I wanted to do was to drive my own racecar. It's not everywhere a 3 year old can sit behind the wheel of a car. In my opinion, the speedway is one of those timeless classics that I don't think is going away any time soon. Not only because it is a classic, but because an E-ticket attraction in that location will alter a lot of things we have come to enjoy.

There would be no more scenic views from the train looking out onto the speedway. You'll just be looking at the back of a building. The pathway from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland will surely be taken out, which takes away that nice shortcut my family and I have come to enjoy. The E-ticket, if a large structure, will also ruin the views of space mountain from the fantasyland to tomorrowland vantage point. It will also create more traffic jams, with the Snow White Mine Train, FLE, and now another E-ticket all bunched together. And to top it all off, I fear the attraction will fall into the trap of Disneyland. The transition from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland via the matterhorn and subs is probably the worst in any disney park I have been to. There is just too much in that area and it is so confusing. A monorail next to the subs? And a giant mountain looming over the autopia? That's not to say those attractions themselves are bad, it's just the transition is terrible, and I don't want Disney World to fall into that trap because I feel FL to TL is one of the better transitions in the Magic Kingdom.

I do understand your point of not getting rid of a classic attractions, I am just saying that I fear the Tomorrowland Speedways time may be up in the future or at least in its current capacity. Walt himself built the original attraction in DLR specifically since at the time the US highway system between states was growing very quickly and he knew it would be very nostalgic to children to be able to get behind the wheel of a car for the first time.

I also get what your saying about not creating a confusing bottle neck between the two lands though by no means am I suggesting that they build and attraction right in the middle of the pathway. I was just saying that if they did get rid of TSW I am figuring that its space is where they would build an attraction.

 

[Patricia Melton]

They should updated the Tomorrowland Speedway to look like this.

Also, they should change the name to the Autopia and they should lose the speedway theme since the Indianapolis Speedway doesn't sponsor it anymore.

I love this picture of the station...gorgeous.

But I still don't see what driving around in cars has to do with the future.

If all of Tomorrowland was renamed "Discoveryland" and the theme was changed to steampunk instead of Deco/Tech (like it more or less is now), then the Speedway can stay with cars that are themed to look like they are fanciful steam powered contraptions. Each car would be a little different and would be fertile ground for imagineers to invent all kinds of oddball, kooky cars to drive around.

THAT would be a one of a kind attraction found nowhere else. Steampunk Go-Karts would be very cool.

 

[NiarrNDisney]

I have a suggestion: I used to go to this palace in Mississippi that was owned by a casino that had two different types of bumper "cars" there were boats and the other were hover crafts which I think would be a great fit for the Tomorrowland theme and maybe a nice addition to the Speedway.

 

[WEDway1975]

But I still don't see what driving around in cars has to do with the future.

They should update the cars to be electric like Hong Kong’s Autopia cause,

1. They’re silent so now more noise from the engine.

And

2. There’s no more smell either since it’s electric.

 

[spacemt354]

Here is my family's take on why the Speedway should go but something like the Jungle Cruise needs to be preserved and maintained forever: there is no opportunity to take a Jungle Cruise in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, or wherever else a guest may be from but on any given day you can ride a Go-Kart practically anywhere in the US, even in winter if you go to an indoor course.

One final note...have you ever noticed that people collect posters for Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, etc. but I have never seen people collecting memorabilia for the Speedway in a big way?

The Speedway does not inspire the same level of love that the other attractions do, because there is nothing like the other attractions anywhere in the world. But there are Go-Karts a plenty wherever a guest is from.

Just for the record. I would rather not have either taken away. But if I had to choose one or the other (JC or speedway) I would choose Jungle Cruise for a few reasons. One because of Kilimanjaro's Safari's. Walt origianlly wanted his Jungle Cruise to have live animals, but that dream had failed. Yet now on the safari ride, there are a ton of live animals (a lot of them are AA's on Jungle Cruise), so his dream has come to "life", pardon the pun! Also, I feel like Jungle Cruise has become more of a comedy skit in the last few years, rather than a serious ride about animals. Granted I think the jokes are really funny, but are a couple one-liners really worth the space it takes up? I think those are valid points to make. Not saying I want it taken away, I'm just saying that I believe the speedway is more memorable than the Jungle Cruise.

It might not have been for your family, because you grew up with Go-Karts, but to families who didn't have that luxury like my own, being a little kid and driving a racecar was one of the most memorable things I can remember from my early trips. And I hope one day I can take my children down there and relive that same memory again from the parent perspective.

And the posters and such that people collect for other rides, a lot of families collect and cherish things from the speedway that are more significant than a poster of an attraction. Their own family photos. The speedway is truly the kodak family moment of the parent and child sitting in the racecar. In fact we still have those pictures around our home from when my sibilings and I were little. We didn't take family pictures on any of the other rides that you had mentioned you can collect posters from. It's something personal I guess, and to people who didn't experience it, they probably will not have the same love and affection that I do for the speedway. There might be Go-kart tracks other places, but there is something special and memorable about driving a racecar inside the Magic Kingdom, and I hope that experience never goes away.

 

[Patricia Melton]

It might not have been from your family, because you grew up with Go-Karts, but to families who didn't have that luxury like my own, being a little kid and driving a racecar was one of the most memorable things I can remember from my early trips. And I hope one day I can take my children down there and relive that same memory again from the parent perspective.

You can take your kids down to a Go-Kart track where you live as soon as they are old enough to ride one. Around here, the admission fee is about $15 or so. You can ride around all day and also most likely have bumper boats too. If we have this in central Ohio you are sure to have this where you live too.

I highly doubt there is anyone living anywhere in the US who does not have access to Go-Karts that is MUCH more convenient and much cheaper than taking a trip all the way down to Orlando or out to Anaheim to ride Go-Karts.

I think it's a shame for families who save up their money for years sometimes to take a big trip to Disney and there in MK taking up a giant amount of space is a Go-Kart track that they could have found back home. Let's give them something really amazing and once in a lifetime to experience in that Speedway space...instead of gas-powered, fumes-belching Go-Karts they could experience back where they live.

 

[spacemt354]

Patricia I think you missed my point.

It's not the go-karts, it's not the ride itself. It's the memory it creates. A track in Ohio is not the same as a track right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom. And this feeling isn't really going to register to anyone who hasn't experienced it or feels that they can get the same experience elsewhere. I don't agree with that notion, but that is just my opinion.

And I know this is getting technical, but if the Go-Kart track at home costs $15 and if the MK park pass costs $94 (its somewhere around there), then the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway technically costs $2.47 to ride the whole day, since there are 38 attractions total in the current MK. Not saying the speedway is an E-ticket, but it is definitely worth keeping. It's a disney classic. It holds too many memories and kodak moments for families that I hope will remain through time so I can live them as well. The go-kart track at home doesn't have that same joy or emotion or kodak moment that the Indy Speedway does. Adding an E-ticket just for the sake of taking up space might not be the best decision, or the right placement of the attraction (see my first comment regarding the ramifications of an E-ticket in that location)

So anyway, here's to hoping that the speedway is here to stay!

 

[Patricia Melton]

Patricia I think you missed my point.

It's not the go-karts, it's not the ride itself. It's the memory it creates. A track in Ohio is not the same as a track right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom.

I hear what you are saying, but I have a different opinion about the Go-Karts. Personally, I love Snow White's Scary Adventures and Mister Toad's Wild Ride. I miss that they are now gone because I had great memories on both those rides. I will always have my memories of them, though. When they were closed, my memories of them were not deleted.

Uncle Walt didn't intend his parks to be museums...he intended them to grow and change and introduce new things that would create new memories.

I think it's time to build a Cars-themed Go-Kart experience similar to the Speedway over at DHS and free up this space in MK for something new and exciting that will provide new memories to families. If they were really smart, Disney would have included a Go-Kart thing in Carsland in DCA so that Autopia could be removed and people who really love riding Go-Karts at Disney could have continued to do that in DCA.

 

[puntagordabob]

Uncle Walt didn't intend his parks to be museums...he intended them to grow and change and introduce new things that would create new memories.
quote]
!)

Except for the Tiki Room.... he clearly burned Iago to cinders for messing with the Tiki Room! Word to the wise: Be Leaving the Tiki Birds alone! (while I am making humor here... I do want to add that I am serious...leave the Tiki Room alone!