So, the last time I checked this thread was August 17, 2024. I was literally disgusted when Disney announced the closure of TSI/ROA/Liberty Belle and honestly believe it is the worse thing they have ever done in "changing" the parks. Absolutely destroying that area. But with the new concept art, I figured I'd wade back in and revisit what they are doing.
So, I still feel this is an absolutely terrible indefensibly decision. Putting Cars in MK makes no sense. Destroying the ROA to put Cars makes less sense. If they wanted to "change" Frontierland to include some national parks concept that's actually okay, but adding Cars to that wrecks any harmony. They are destroying the entire point of Frontierland and having a lame concept to "try" to make it work.
That being said, even though these entire plans are horrible, I will say that the new information and concept art at least makes it seem like the execution of this ridiculous idea is probably about as good as possible. I'm very happy to see that it seems that the waterfront will persist - that was my first and main complain with the previous artwork that seemed to remove the water along areas which were designed to be waterfront. I even had said that they should keep the water intact from the Liberty Belle to BTMRR as that is the critical area that needs the water feature and it looks like this is doing exactly that. Whether than is from feedback or just someone coming to their senses it certainly seems like a (good) change from the original terrible concept art.
The features for the new land (subland?) seem actually nice if it plays out. The geyser, waterfalls, etc. If it weren't an incongruent Cars theme, having a national parks vibe would actually be a cool addition to MK. I like that it seems like the barrel bridge will remain in some form. someone else mentioned that maybe they can still have caves to explore and I hope they do (though not optimistic).
I'm glad to hear that the train will continue to run in some form instead of an extended closure again. I hope they "plus" the area next to Villains so that it makes it more interesting from the train - whether they just do dinosaurs or grand canyon like in DL or have the ride view into a Villains show scene (like in Splash) or having some new diorama concept. I'm guessing the Native American village does not return.
I hope they keep the Liberty Belle even if docked. Yes, that's not nearly as good as it staying as real transportation mode, but better than nothing. I wonder if there is any possibility of running that as a back and forth shuttle long term in the remaining water? Probably not, but would be cool. Any chance they keep the rafts going back and forth to a point on the Cars area? Again, almost certainly nice but would be cool to still retain some "traffic" on the water.
Not clear to me how this will exactly connect HM and its queue. Will it need to be modified significantly so that the queue works differently? Or does it stay as is and the path to Cars (and onto BTMRR) starts after the Liberty Belle dock and before the HM entrance?
