MK Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[Jrb1979]

Thank you. It's a cement "river" with a boat on a track that's been going in the same circle for 50 years.


It's as big as fantasy land. Using the space to gain some real capacity (assuming they actually build 4-5 attractions total) is a win.

It would be a win if the new attractions fit THE THEME of FRONTIERLAND. WDW is becoming the exact thing that many complain Universal does with a bunch of random IP everywhere.

 

[SoFloMagic]

Disney frequently mismanages and wastes space with their expansions

New Fantasyland was advertised as "the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history" and claimed real estate from Toontown Fair, but Fantasyland today has the same number of rides as it did in the 70s.

Tron was a true expansion to Tomorrowland's footprint, but the losses of Stitch's Great Escape, the Galaxy Palace Theater and the Skyway have yet to be replaced

The Disney of Today needs 12-14 acres for two rides. Even for something like Toy Story Land.

The Rivers of America were built to support 4 attractions. Replacing it with 4 other ones is not the capacity gain people are trying to make it, especially when other attraction, retail and dining space in the park remains abandoned

It would be a lot simpler, for example, to reopen Tomorrowland Terrace than build a new cafeteria elsewhere in the park.

People supporting this project because they personally don't like the RoA doesn't mean it's the best use of park space or money. Reopening dead space and other proposed projects like Moana in Adventureland and the MS Theater would be.

I agree on reopening dead space for sure. I think we've heard from some that there are logistical issues with some of these things. Doesn't the stitch spot have issues with queue space and exits? Tomorrowland terrace is used for their cash cow desert parties (although I guess could be reopened for lunch). And wouldn't the Main Street theater kill the east bypass? That's going to be important with the night parade.

100% for Moana in adventure land. Absurd that she only has a walkthrough.

 

[SoFloMagic]

It would be a win if the new attractions fit THE THEME of FRONTIERLAND. WDW is becoming the exact thing that many complain Universal does with a bunch of random IP everywhere.

Frontierland doesn't really seem to have a theme to me at the moment. It's the wild west and the thunder mountain desert, but there's a river and we're also in Louisiana. Bayou and Mountains, Desert and rivers. My hope is that they use the cars area to bridge these gaps and make it make sense as more of just a western plains land.

 

[JD80]

It will let you down I promise you. You haven’t like a park change ever man. Lower your expectations.

And you and others will just move the goalposts like you’re doing now “they won’t build it” to “it won’t be as amazing as planned.”

JRB hasn't been to WDW in almost 8-10 years.

 

[Jrb1979]

JRB hasn't been to WDW in almost 8-10 years.

Wrong its not since the 90s. . Which is the golden years of Disney parks.

 

[MouseEarsMom33]

The Rivers of America were built to support 4 attractions. Replacing it with 4 other ones is not the capacity gain people are trying to make it, especially when other attraction, retail and dining space in the park remains abandoned

RoA's 4 attractions are not the same level of attractions that Disney builds today. I first visited the parks in 2017. Had my brochure of all the attractions and made sure we visited the area. It ended up being a disappointing area. If I am paying hundreds of dollars to visit a theme park, I am not looking to go to an area I can find in my local/nearby state park. Disney isn't competing with nature parks, it's competing with theme parks, specifically Universal down the road.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Both Cars mini-land and Villains are on the 5 year plan announced at D23.

*If* Cars gets built first, Villains is right behind.

They *could* be built simultaneously.

And of course, "economic headwinds" can change everything. But that won't be an excuse, because TWDC wants this built and isn't looking for an excuse not to do it.

 

[RosR9]

This picture helps to show how much space is taken up by RoA. It's significant.

What’s crazy to me is how much space the speedway takes up in comparison. What if we demolished THAT instead and got a couple new rides? Ugh one can dream

 

[Disstevefan1]

Exciting because current management isn’t capable of seeing this is the dumbest thing they could do? Exciting because it rips the heart out of the park? Exciting because it furthers their destruction of the American history aspect of the park?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Keep bookmarks for all these ridiculous posts. It will be fun to replay all of this when they go down new rabbit holes.

If “I told you so” is your favorite game… sure. There are usually winners on both sides.

Nothing in the plan makes up for the loss of the riverboat for me personally - but I’m hoping it looks impressive. Modern dirt racing in Frontierland seems very off to me, and I love cars land at DCA - but we shall see what we get.

 

[Disney Analyst]

RoA's 4 attractions are not the same level of attractions that Disney builds today. I first visited the parks in 2017. Had my brochure of all the attractions and made sure we visited the area. It ended up being a disappointing area. If I am paying hundreds of dollars to visit a theme park, I am not looking to go to an area I can find in my local/nearby state park. Disney isn't competing with nature parks, it's competing with theme parks, specifically Universal down the road.

I’d also add, in theory both Cars Land and Villains Land will likely have a higher capacity and usage than the existing ROA.

But let’s assume it was somehow the same, making up numbers:

ROA area can handle 5,000 guests per hour, but right now it only gets usage of 1,000/5000 guests per hour.

Cars and Villains can handle 5,000 guests per hour, and it’s getting usage of 5,000/5,000 per hour.

While technically the hourly capacity is the same, the usage is far greater.

Now of course both new areas will probably be able to process far more guests, will have shops, and restaurants that are in high demand, and villains will hopefully have some fantastic meet and greets and entertainment.

So in the end, you’ll likely not only increase capacity of the area, but usage will be waaaay up.

 

[esskay]

Do yourself a favor and do what I’m doing:

Keep bookmarks for all these ridiculous posts. It will be fun to replay all of this when they go down new rabbit holes.

Please bookmark mine, unlike a few I actually want to be wrong.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

I love change. I don't find specific attractions or corners of the parks sacrosanct. My nostalgia and love of WDW comes from being at the parks and watching them change over time. It's the same conversation I have with my wife at times. She misses our kids being small but I always say I'm excited to see how they continue to grow.

I think that’s part of what has made the parks special to me. There’s an aura to the legacy and prior attractions that have paved the way. I used to spend countless hours as a child on Yesterland and would imagine what those experiences were like and how they fit into my own experiences at Disneyland. And now my own memories of DCA 1.0 or the McDonalds wagon are part of that era too. That’s really cool.

 

[UNCgolf]

What’s crazy to me is how much space the speedway takes up in comparison. What if we demolished THAT instead and got a couple new rides? Ugh one can dream

The addition of TRON kind of handcuffed them regarding the speedway.

Not that they can't replace it (and they should), but TRON's placement limits what they can do there.

The Jungle Cruise, on the other hand, takes up a massive amount of space...

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not to stir it up…but I do enjoy RSR A lot…was on it twice this week.

I kinda wish they had just replaced test track with it…And of course I know it doesn’t fit at all there

 

[DisneyHead123]

I haven't been by recently to scream into the abyss about cartoon cars, so here goes. A post from Joe Rohde's Instagram on the importance of stories that I thought was cool. Can't get the post to embed without a lot of extra text but the picture of the door is on his Instagram:

Narrative placemaking is basically reverse forensics. A lot can be said in a very small space by paying proper attention to the relationship of details. Let’s take this small section of a door at Swayambunath.

First of all, we can see that this door exists in some kind of building that is old. The style of it is old. The brick shows some signs of wear.

The building must’ve existed before there was electricity because the electricity is obviously jerryrigged to enter the building through a drilled hole in the door frame.

There is some kind of anointment at the top of the door. Something more than just paint …not a horseshoe, but the same idea …some kind of little protective amulet thingy. So we know that there is some belief in something beyond the material world related to this door.

We also know that this door exists in a commercial world because there is a Coca-Cola sticker. A second much more faded sticker on the door itself advertises coffee. The combination of these suggests that even though there is no marquee of any kind on the other side of this door is probably some kind of shop or café.

There is a lock. Which suggests that there is some concern that there are people who need to be locked out when the owner is not there.

We know that there might be monkeys nearby because there’s a faded old sign for monkey chow. (Never buy it! Never use it.) Presumably this sign is made by the owner, and we can sense something about the owners aesthetic sentiments from the quality of the sign.

Now this is a real door in the real world. But if you expect to design places and get people to accept them as seeming real. You have to do all this. You have to provide reasons inside of the story world for why things look the way they are so that nothing looks the way it looks because a designer thinks that might be nice. That’s our lesson for today.

I like this, and think it applies to other types of placemaking. Narrative details are very likely going to be lost on me but I notice a lot about the feeling of places. I think emotional cues could be analyzed similarly. You walk into a park and your gaze, in most cases, is immediately drawn upwards, which has a subtle feeling tone to it. It's a little sun salutation, if you will. There's "The Architecture of Reassurance" all around. There are Norman Rockwell-esque nostalgic images that pull on a very particular heartstring for many people (and a note, lest that sound sort of insular - I'd be happy to have joyous, images from other cultures, like a Coco village). There are glimmers of things you can see bits of in the distance, corners you can't quite see around, that invite a feeling of curiosity. There are pathways that naturally invite you to walk, move forward, when your usual predisposition might be to flop down on the couch and scroll through your phone. There are shop windows that catch your attention as you go, with interesting and delightful little curiosities inside. Maybe there's a fountain that jumps playfully and invites your mirror neurons to do the same. Etc.

My worry with Cars is that I just don't see what the story - narratively, emotionally - is supposed to be. Why are we transported to the land of cartoon Cars? Why do we want to be? What happens when we get there, other than someone puts us in a ride car and then lets us out? I don't think the vast majority of the area is even walkable, it seems like it will just be get on the ride, get off the ride.

Ok, so, that completes my semi regular abyss scream.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Why are we transported to the land of cartoon Cars? Why do we want to be?

Because everything has to be IP now. And maybe it will help to sell more toys

The IP in this case, adds nothing to the ride experience, and would be largely the same without it. Even better because then we wouldn't have to worry about explaining why sentient cars from another universe are in Frontierland.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Frontierland doesn't really seem to have a theme to me at the moment. It's the wild west and the thunder mountain desert, but there's a river and we're also in Louisiana. Bayou and Mountains, Desert and rivers. My hope is that they use the cars area to bridge these gaps and make it make sense as more of just a western plains land.

To me, especially with this. It's more about exploring the different regions/biomes of Western American (by Western I do mean specifically past the original 13 colonies. Everything currently announced fits into that descriptions as we are exploring a little town in Tennesse (Frontierland shops/CBMJ), then moving out into the Bayous of Louisiana, Crossing the deserty expanse of Arizona before finally turning to explore the Redwood Forests/Geyser state parks of California/West Coast. If we are a SLIGHTLY generous with BTM's timing, you can even line up the dates of each attraction slowly increasing. CBMJ explitcly takes place in the early 1900s, Tiana's in around 1920-1930s, Big Thunder can actually take place at any time after the 1900s seemingly since the town is already abandoned and the founder of the Mining Company is seemingly long dead anyway, and then Cars can take place obviously more towards the present.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Because everything has to be IP now. And maybe it will help to sell more toys

The IP in this case, adds nothing to the ride experience, and would be largely the same without it. Even better because then we wouldn't have to worry about explaining why sentient cars from another universe are in Frontierland.

Belief can be suspended enough for talking animals from Georgia in Frontierland or a singing bear show from Tennesse etc but not this I guess.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Belief can be suspended enough for talking animals from Georgia in Frontierland or a singing bear show from Tennesse etc but not this I guess.

It does change the date range of Frontierland drastically. But frozen doesn’t belong in Norway either. Remy as an IP is a perfect fit for France.