I believe this was actually done Thursday of last week. Their was a lot of filming crews and special events people in FLE that day when i was walking through MK.
Why No? A more involved ride was replaced with something less so. It may not be on the level of Horizons to M:S but it basically meets that criteria. 20k had much more to it then UTS. The line is certainly more involved on UTS then 20k but the ride itself seemed to have more to it on 20k that out weighs the waiting line aspect of this. That said, I am just glad something is back in that space. It is much better then what has been there for the past 13 or so years.
There is also a more permanent recognition of the ride that was there before in the form of the Nautilus imprinted into the rock work. Does someone have a picture?
This is why it was trending that night... http://resourcefulmommy.com/10695/new-fantasyland-twitter-party/
While it's true that this was not a publicly accessible area it was part of the attraction space since it was the ride vehicle maintenance area and attraction support area. As with any E-Ticket attraction larger amounts of space are usually needed to add/remove and maintain vehicles when compared to smaller more simplistic rides. So yes converting E-Ticket attractions to D/C attractions does indeed create more public accessible space to be used for shops/restaurants etc. This formula could be used pretty much anywhere, take out a big attraction replace with a couple of smaller ones, shops, and restaurants. Then hype it up as a New Land, Big expansion, etc. and increase profits.
That's 21st century, the Skyway is all gone, but 20K hasn't been cleared yet. So 2000 to 2004 then, just to add further useless information. Now to wait for Marni, who could tell you the exact day based on the tech specifications of a speaker system he sees in some backstage area.
Here's the MK in 1978 as seen from the redeveloped area otherwise known as the expansion:
