MK Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[wdwmagic]

I am actually shocked there isn't more tears here about no trackless. The way so many had convinced themselves it would be... counter to all rational thought. The pivot to 'the ride will be canceled' as a coping mechanism wasn't what I expected the jump to be.

The need for input makes me wonder if instead of RSR, we get a more lightweight, hybrid version of EMV+Test Track.. where the ride vehicle augments the movement vs just driving over the rough terrain. They vehicles won't be able to drive over such offroad features like that with traditional ATV kinda suspension like they experienced in their field testing. They will have to mimic it with actuators like the EMVs do.

For those crying "I don't need another XYZ..." - I think Disney is smart enough here they can't just rebrand RSR. And the kind of stuff they are highlighting in their video would be pointless for a RSR/TestTrack equivalent too. They clearly want to add a different dynamic to the experience. If they can do the EMV thing, but in the smaller form factor it could be interesting.

There was some pretty hefty suggestions from inside that it was going to be the Automatic Guided All-Terrain Vehicle ride system. It is unclear when that was abandoned, or even how serious that project direction was.

I agree that whatever its built has to differ from Test Track and RSR. I'm disappointed that we may not get the trackless, as that would have really been something groundbreaking. I'm also not convinced that off-road rallying =< speed.

It will be interesting to see exactly what is built, and how much show is brought to this experience beyond the ride system.

 

[MrPromey]

Let me explain to you politely… most fans don’t care how the sausage is made.

So if they were to replace Haunted Mansion with a different attraction, you'd call that an "expansion"?

Personally, I'd call that a replacement as would, I think, most people with a command of the English language and certainly anyone returning to the parks who headed back there to experience the ride they thought they were going to do, gone and replaced with something else.

 

[JohnD]

Let me explain to you politely… most fans don’t care how the sausage is made.

Let me explain to you politely. If you don't care, then don't call it what it is not.

 

[Streetway Again]

There was some pretty hefty suggestions from inside that it was going to be the Automatic Guided All-Terrain Vehicle ride system. It is unclear when that was abandoned, or even how serious that project direction was.

I agree that whatever its built has to differ from Test Track and RSR. I'm disappointed that we may not get the trackless, as that would have really been something groundbreaking. I'm also not convinced that off-road rallying =< speed.

It will be interesting to see exactly what is built, and how much show is brought to this experience beyond the ride system.

One of my questions is how the transition to villains that is very likely in the upper loop will be done.

I’m sure the ride will look diff from that intitial concept art, but i also wonder how it will look once built. How far close to the existing pathways will Pistion peak go?

 

[Disstevefan1]

There are plenty of ways to keep some of the river and the riverboat and still take some of the space to replace it with something new.

If Disney wanted to do that they would have. They do not. They do not see the river, the island, the riverboat as theme or attractions, they see them as a cost and as something they can’t sell LLs to.

The company wants to make money. immersion and theme is way down on the list in Disney’s theme park business today.

 

[lazyboy97o]

There was some pretty hefty suggestions from inside that it was going to be the Automatic Guided All-Terrain Vehicle ride system. It is unclear when that was abandoned, or even how serious that project direction was.

I agree that whatever its built has to differ from Test Track and RSR. I'm disappointed that we may not get the trackless, as that would have really been something groundbreaking. I'm also not convinced that off-road rallying =< speed.

It will be interesting to see exactly what is built, and how much show is brought to this experience beyond the ride system.

Are we allowed to recognize the location of where this track is likely to be manufacturered?

 

[Disstevefan1]

Let me explain to you politely… most fans don’t care how the sausage is made.

I hate it when they take my favorite sausage off the menu and replace it with something I don't like.

Especially when there is plenty of room on the menu to just add the new dish without removing my favorite sausage.

 

[Streetway Again]

Take this as you will

 

[Disstevefan1]

Yes. Exactly what I was saying

So we all agree, replacements are not expansions and we know the difference.

For the record, if they replaced the haunted mansion, that would be called a mistake.

In my opinion, replacing RoA, TSI and the riverboat is also called a mistake.

 

[Charlie The Chatbox Ghost]

The railroad?

Oh god I didn't even think of that. With how often it's been down in recent years... uh oh.

I think another reason the country bears are different from the tiki room is that in that show it’s more about the characters and the humor. I don’t think anyone goes in there because it’s great music. As opposed to the tiki room where the characters are (imo) less of a focus. In the tiki room the focus is more on the music. I hope this makes sense.

True, that makes sense. While Tiki Room has named characters, it's just the four hosts who are all visually interchangeable. Tokyo even renames them when doing new shows. CBJ is more character-driven while Tiki Room is more music-driven, which is probably why none of the Tiki Room overlays have really ever worked meanwhile all the CBJ ones have worked well.

I think Tiki benefits from being a relatively small attraction occupying a relatively small space.

The only two things I could really see them replacing it with are retail or backstage space.

Even if they were to shoehorn a small Moana attraction in there, the IP popularity would create serious capacity issues.

Seems similar to the problems with Stitch. Disney doesn't seem interested in building freestanding non-e-ticket attractions anymore since they can't charge people to experience those so what do they do with space in the middle of the park with a fixed footprint?

I suppose they could shutter the whole thing and turn it into a Moana character meet-and-greet but I think that's about the extent of it.

The concept art and info from inside sources at the time said it was a dedicated meet and greet space. Though nowadays I think the popular theory/rumor is that Moana will get something in the still-unused Fire Mountain expansion pad, which is tucked behind Pirates. I'd be fine with that.

nah, look at the pathway, and where it lines up with the river today. Probably is villains in upper loop, cars in lower loop.

And if the boat was staying, they would’ve said it by now.

Ah, I was too focused on the water to the right of BTM. I guess it'll just be like, a pond now?

 

[Streetway Again]

Oh god I didn't even think of that. With how often it's been down in recent years... uh oh

They spent the money for the torn tunnel so i don't think it’ll be gone

Ah, I was too focused on the water to the right of BTM. I guess it'll just be like, a pond now?

I didnt notice the water! Yeah, i guess it’ll be a small strip of river on the side? I’m sure that upper loop thing was proposed though. I think that cars and river was the price we had to pay to get villains, with that talk of compromise you said earlier.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Take this as you will

All seems plausible/reasonable - I am sure management wanted to see and probably asked for many different takes and determined any plan that kept part of the river wasn't worth the tradeoffs (either in (and a combination of) reduced experiences, increased operating costs, less room for new projects that will absorb more capacity and deliver more ROI/LL$, etc)

Obviously "worth" is going to vary by the individual guest and by Disney management

 

[MrPromey]

So we all agree, replacements are not expansions and we know the difference.

For the record, if they replaced the haunted mansion, that would be called a mistake.

In my opinion, replacing RoA, TSI and the riverboat is also called a mistake.

I assume that now-deleted message was their brilliant response to me?

This feels like we're talking to a ten year old but this account's been around since 2019 so unless they've logged on to a parent's account... man, I just don't know.

 

[Disone]

Possible ride layout shown in the latest WDI video

View attachment 847793

I'm assuming there are parts not visible here, hidden behind and inside that tall section.

Based on that picture I don't think there's a whole lot of room behind that tall section.

Is this the same but from a birds eye view?
View attachment 847805

That's definitely Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California adventure.

I think the problem folks have is they everyone knows WDW has the space to expand and yet they choose to destroy and replace.

Agree.

Well, that's the question. Is it the "whole ROA"? When I look at the design schematics, clearly the lower half is filled in. It's unclear about the upper half. Still doesn't negate that argument that this isn't an "expansion" at all but a replacement. See @wdwmagic image below.

View attachment 847821

I agree and as someone said swap it. Move the attraction to the northern part of the river and keep the southern part.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So do we have a very early look at the track layout here?

View attachment 847794

That seems…kinda short.

Indeed. The front half of the ride from start and then a underground loop and then up the mountain matches the concept art. But then this model has the car going immediately back down to the start truncating the back part of the ride. There is an extra 'track' tacked to the back of this model that seems like it should be that back part of the ride, but no clear way it is connected to the front loop.

 

[WaltWiz1901]

Then maybe it’s a lack of proper budgeting? TDR has much higher quality attractions, both old and new. No clue how it can be possible for them to spend less than other parks but look and run better.

definitely no proper budgeting nor anyone to keep it under control. to wit, using a couple of attractions with the same approximate budget...

• Pooh's Hunny Hunt cost approximately $100-110 million US dollars - or 11 billion Japanese yen - to build in the late '90s/early '00s, while DCA's Ariel's Undersea Adventure cost the same amount of money initially and an additional $50 million to fix in the early '10s (if memory serves, the MK installation was $150 million from the get-go). guess which attraction takes fuller advantage of the same basic conceit and evidently was a better ROI long-term?
• keep in mind that Mermaid also cost as much as (and in the end, even more than) Expedition Everest, the final major attraction built in the Eisner era, meaning it took Iger-era Disney as much money to build their "attempt" at a C/D-ticket borderline traditional Fantasyland dark ride as it took Eisner-era Disney to build show-stopping E-tickets under both their own and OLC's money

 

[marni1971]

They’ve certainly been hitting social media over the last few days.

Almost like they’re trying to paint a positive picture.

 

[danlb_2000]

It will be interesting to see if/when the Frontierland signs come back what they say.

I am expecting "Frontier" land

 

[Disstevefan1]

I am expecting "Frontier" land

Lets see what happens. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

 

[Grantwil93]

Pretty sure people has said that wasn't true. It's possible some pieces were fabricated, but I don't think anything meaningful was ever installed, roof overlay excepted.

The whole building is festival storage atm. Not being used for anything besides that.thohgh imagineers go over to it occasionally.