For this week's Power of Veto, you will go back to one of the five lands of Blue Sky Disneyland and pitch either an expansion or redo of that land. Now, we don't expect a full-on project to be done, we simply want a pitch on how you would have done one of these lands differently with the benefit of hindsight
Okay, how's this...
How I, Brer Panther, Would Have Done Seasons of Fantasy
As part of the team working on Seasons of Fantasy, I was simply part of a design committee. When I designed lands for my "dream resort", Disney Down Under, I was on my own. I didn't have anyone else to bounce ideas off of. Which one is easier? I don't know. But here I am, asked to redo a land - this time without any of my teammates' help. Can I pull it off? Well, let's get started...
I really wouldn't change that much about Snow White's Castle or the Courtyard. Same shops, same dining, same walk-through in the castle... so let's move on to the
Spring section.
Spring is a season focused mainly on nature "re-awakening" - the weather gets warmer, the flowers bloom, the trees gain leaves... things like that. Thus, it's fitting that the Spring section is in a mostly forest-y environment. One such attraction featured in this section is
Flowers and Trees, a flat ride based on the Silly Symphony of the same name. Riders circle a pair of anthropomorphic trees surrounded by dancing flowers aboard a large caterpillar.
Bambi is represented via a small quick-service location,
Thumper's Thicket, featuring a mainly vegetarian menu. Also here is an animatronic show, the
Ugly Bug Ball, featuring a cast of cartoony insects celebrating the arrival of Spring. The show exits out into a gift shop/confectionary,
Grasshopper Gifts and Goodies. The "headliner" of this section is a Peter Pan's Flight-esque dark ride based on
Fantasia's
Pastoral Symphony segment, a flight through a Greek world of mythological creatures aboard a beautiful Pegasus.
My version of the
Summer section would mainly focus on
Robin Hood and
Tangled, like the finished section already does. Instead of a
Tangled dark ride, however, the land would have a theatrical show -
Tangled: The Musical, performed in an open-air theater. The
Snuggly Duckling, instead of a 3D show, would be a restaurant a la Gaston's Tavern at the Magic Kingdom, complete with a similar menu (the pork shank is quite popular!). However, I would make no tents to Robin Hood's Merry Adventure or the festival tents.
The
Autumn section is one that I actually had the pleasure of working on. So, predictably, I wouldn't change much of it. However, with
Pastoral Symphony existing, having another "aerial" dark ride seems a bit redundant. Thus,
Ride of the Pumpkin King becomes a hayride, with guests boarding large wagons outdoors before heading into the show building and arriving in Halloweentown.
Winter is where I would REALLY change things. At the risk of igniting the rage of most of the folks on this site, I hate
Frozen. And I always have. I've never thought the film deserved the amount of success that it got. So, instead of the "Arendelle" section, the other section of Winter would be themed to the North Pole. A nice counterpart to the also Christmas-focused Holiday Village, the main draw here is an elaborate - and original - dark ride called
Santa's Workshop. Aboard small sleighs, the attraction whisks guests on a tour of Santa's abode, with elves and reindeer hard at work on preparing for Santa's yearly flight around the world. The attraction exits out into a gift shop,
North Pole Exports, dedicated entirely to selling toys of all shapes and sizes. A small quick-service location selling hot chocolate is also featured.
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