News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[Disney Analyst]

I wonder if this how people felt back when Mine Train through Natures Wonderland closed? I wonder if people in 20-30 years will walk through this section of the park, talking about what once was, pointing out the hints of remains, sharing the history.

I always find it fun walking around Disneyland and seeing bits of the history of the park, long gone.

 

[basas]

I lament this change from an aesthetics standpoint - I have print on my wall of a photo I took of the steamboat and TSI that I adore - however, the reality is that from a capacity standpoint, that space has been severely limited and underused for an extended period of time. I know that change is hard, the but the bottom line is that MK needs more rides, to provide more capacity, to take the burden off the other attractions. This is a move that will add significant operational capacity to the MK, which will improve the experience for most guests. I will hold out hope that what goes in for Cars attractions maintain some level of theme and cohesion in that area of the park.

Pretty hard to do that when they’re destroying the theme and cohesion in that area of the park.

 

[doctornick]

Wait they are going to put Cars right next to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion? That's it I officially hate the Disney company now.

Yes. And they will leave the Liberty Belle dock even though there won’t be a river there.

 

[eddie104]

People showed up out of the woodworks to defend something the MOMENT Disney said its going away. I've heard people wanting to retheme Tom Sawyer and the rivers for ages. I can't wait to hear this exact same thing about Speedway whenever it inevitably closes. "It added so much kinetics" "It was a Walt attraction"

Ultimately that’s another issue I’ve had being on this site and that’s it’s full of hypocrites.

People are always wish casting myself included for certain things to happen good or bad.

I could probably find a very old thread with posters liking a comment cheering on the demolition of this area.

Now it’s finally happening all of sudden..get out the pitch forks for what ???

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Once their original BBTM plans were scrapped, Coco's massive showbuilding precluded it from being relocated. Cars won, the ROA's fate was sealed.

Villains - despite being a disparate collection of ideas even to this date - was by far the favorite to win over the singular BBTM expansion plot. The art as shown is suggestive of theme and style but not related to a practical model. Yet.

can someone connect the dots here - why was coco scrapped from beyond big thunder and why does that equal cars?

 

[WaltWiz1901]

I don't think I have much to say about this colossally misguided ignorance of the "blessing of size" that I'm certain hasn't been said somewhere within the past 100+ pages of this thread, so, to quote another franchise centered around talking vehicles...

"Disgraceful! Disgusting! Despicable!"

 

[SpectroMagician]

People on this site are just very, very against change.

I can sympathize with those who mourned the loss of Splash Mountain as that was a top 5 attraction and as iconic as Pirates of the Carribbean, the Haunted Mansion and it's a Small World. But I have a hard time believing there are that many die-hard Tom Sawyer Island fans. Hardly anyone goes on Tom Sawyer's Island and I doubt the average person would even know what the Rivers of America is when discussing theme parks. The Cars retheme announcement is something that will really only bother hyper-online parks fans.

Personally I like Tom Sawyer (the novel and its adaptaions) much more than I like Cars, but from a business standpoint this retheme is a no brainer. You are freeing up 10-12 acres that park guests rarely utilize and giving the crowds multiple major e-tickets in their place (cause removing the island also enhances access to the villain land).

I have zero issues with removing Tom Sawyer island, but filling in the Rivers of America is dumb. Putting a IP cased Cars land right next to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion is ever dumber. We will lose the beautiful sightlines of the castle from Splash and around the river, all for an IP of ok movies that do not fit into the theme at all.

 

[Tha Realest]

Though with Huckleberry Finn's novel, there is no uniform consensus. BIG RIVER is getting a movie musical adaptation, the novel JAMES has been met with acclaim, and even African American literary scholars widely disagree. It's not my place to comment on that as a Non Black person, but I think it's worth noting that it's just not that simple or easy. It's where nuance and empathy is so important.

While it’s generally impossible to reach a consensus on anything, especially anything as subjective as art, those two Twain novels are the closest you’ll get to masterpieces in American (o any) fiction, ever. Even those who come to the work with different perspectives can appreciate the importance and significance of those works.

I think dialogue is great. I think nuance and empathy are great.

Yes. But there is no “dialogue” here. Already it’s being asserted that TSI and the very existence of “Liberty Square” and the Hall of Presidents are fatally “problematic” and divisive.

I also know that none of this is being done for my benefit. It's not done with guests like me in mind. It's done to sell Cars merch.

Agree 1,000%. They will absolutely sell more Cars merch than anything for a public domain property.

 

[doctornick]

can someone connect the dots here - why was coco scrapped from beyond big thunder and why does that equal cars?

Coco was going to be a large/tall show building for a Soarin’/FoP type ride. That type of building needed to be on the edge of the park to properly hide it. Putting it in the current RoA area would have it stick out and be bad show.

Cars was chosen because they thus felt it would look better and gave the backstage elements better hidden in that location. Basically they picked the location first then chose the IP.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Coco was going to be a large/tall show building for a Soarin’/FoP type ride. That type of building needed to be on the edge of the park to properly hide it. Putting it in the current RoA area would have it stick out and be bad show.

Cars was chosen because they thus felt it would look better and gave the backstage elements better hidden in that location. Basically they picked the location first then chose the IP.

But why was that site scrapped?

 

[John Zeller]

If Disney has to have Cars in Magic Kingdom put it where the Speedway is. It's not as if Go Karts fit thematically in Tomorrowland.
anyway.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I figured I’ll quote this for emphasis. Of note - they decided against Coco because they did not want to put the new land actually beyond BTM. They decided they wanted to destroy RoA and TSI and then settled on Cars because it could effectively be used in that location - even though the location was the more costly choice.

The cherry on top is that the higher cost also led to Moana not being approved for MK at this time. So not only do we lose existing attractions for an “expansion” but we also didn’t even get an actual new thing in a currently unused area.

There is the possibility that history repeats itself. The chairs get one of their regular shuffles, the new people don’t want to spend the money, and they scramble to build a little pond and a steamboat shaped playground instead. Kind of like what was there, just worse.

 

[MrPromey]

Let’s also remember alligators have been spotted in the Rivers of America.

As have they in the many waterways across property.

As have they in the golf course behind my home (daily).

If people were swimming in Rivers of America I'd almost be concerned but then again, there are a lot of natural bodies of water including state parks all over Florida where tubing is a thing and alligators share those spaces, too.

Disney keeps an eye on those gators that are spotted inside the MK and once they become too big or begin to exhibit nuance behavior (usually due to tourists throwing them food - which, btw, is illegal in Florida) they have them removed - same as is done everywhere else in the state.

 

[Pi on my Cake]

Do we think this whole plan will go the way of the CBJ toy story redo. The backlash to this is really bad. And they can't use the racism shield like they did with Splash.

The backlash to this actually hasn't been bad outside this forum. Even among major Disney fans the reception I've seen everywhere else has been positive or mixed at worst. Especially since the concept art seems full of greenery, rockwork, and water features in a way that will keep a lot of the energy and focus on nature that we have now while setting up significantly more practical access to Villains and potential other new expansions

It's taking a beautiful land with an unpopular theme that's impractical to expand and turning it into what (assuming the reality is even half as good as the concept art is which admittedly is not a given with Disney but what they showed today seems rather realistic even if not FINAL) will be a beautiful land with a more popular theme that's very easy to expand

Even as someone who never wanted them to touch the river, seeing the art put a lot of my fears to rest and makes me think that much of what made them so nice will still be there just in a new form

 

[doctornick]

But why was that site scrapped?

I don’t think we know for sure, but to me the tea leaves suggest because they wanted to remove RoA and TSI because they were viewed as “problematic”.

The key thing is they decided to remove RoA/TSI first and use that location, then decided on an IP. And they didn’t choose it because it was cost effective

 

[eddie104]

Don’t worry, from the sounds of things Liberty Sq is next

I don’t think so and can you tone down the hyperbole a little it’s starting to get ridiculous.

I figured I’ll quote this for emphasis. Of note - they decided against Coco because they did not want to put the new land actually beyond BTM. They decided they wanted to destroy RoA and TSI and then settled on Cars because it could effectively be used in that location - even though the location was the more costly choice.

The cherry on top is that the higher cost also led to Moana not being approved for MK at this time. So not only do we lose existing attractions for an “expansion” but we also didn’t even get an actual new thing in a currently unused area.

Are you okay ???

Because I’m so lost and confused why you are freaking out over this change.

I’m just astounded over some people reactions of this project.

The backlash to this actually hasn't been bad outside this forum. Even among major Disney fans the reception I've seen everywhere else has been positive or mixed at worst. Especially since the concept art seems full of greenery, rockwork, and water features in a way that will keep a lot of the energy and focus on nature that we have now while setting up significantly more practical access to Villains and potential other new expansions

Wow would look at that..people actually are finding the silver lining in this news after all.

Also this is level headed way to look the pros and cons of this “expansion”.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

How can anyone continue to post on here and say that Cars Land is not increased capacity???? The attractions there will see more guests in one month than Tom Sawyer Island does in a year. This is insane.

 

[fgmnt]

The problem is that DHS simply doesn't have enough other attractions, especially family friendly ones.

It'll also be interesting to see how well that works. I think the Door Coaster, as a suspended coaster, will scare off some kids that happily ride Slinky, and of course there's already RNRC for people that want something more thrilling.

People are going to want to ride both so I don’t see how that helps.

This is not the Door Coaster thread so I'm not going to really push it in here any more than this post.

Slinky Dog Dash commands a 38-inch height requirement. This is a height most 4 year olds can achieve. A number of guests to the parks are under this height limit, but man, I can't imagine taking a family down to Orlando unless at least one/majority of the kids were at least 4 years old and had credibly developed the capacity to form memories. It's not as family friendly as not having a height requirement, but it's pretty close!

Slinky Dog Dash is... fine. For being "fine" it commands a frankly egregious wait time. What does that mean? There is a general demand for attractions that meet or exceed that quality and flavor of experience that is being severely underserved.

Disney does want people to have happy and successful feeling visits, because it gets them to spend more money. The theory around this is complex, but be honest with yourself: have you ever completed every attraction in DHS in a normal day in it's post 2019 configuration? Probably not! Have you ever had the same visit twice, where you do the exact same attractions the same amount of times? Probably not! Do you think every guest has the same goals in a given park visit as you? I would hope not!

There are groups who want to go specifically to enjoy the Toy Story rides. There are groups who want to go to see the stuff added since their last visit. There are groups who want to cover all of the roller coasters. There are groups who want to see all of the shows. There are groups who want to buy as much crap in Galaxy's Edge as they can cram in the plane trip back. I want to ride Tower of Terror at least 3 times.

Meanwhile, while the attraction will generate 15,000 new experiences a day, over a tail beyond probably 9 months at most, it will not drive more than 15,000 additional unique visits a day.

More guests will have more satisfactory trips with this addition. They'll either have this specific new experience to enjoy, or will benefit indirectly from the crowds that go to it and leave other attractions available. If a family finds the idea of the Door Coaster too intense, but not Slinky Dog, they will likely enjoy a significantly shorter wait time than if the Door Coaster didn't exist. If a family feels like they need to ride at least one of the two roller coasters, they'll benefit for the same reason. If they don't want to or can't stand in line for either, they'll enjoy lower demand from people who now feel better served by having the new ride.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Even as someone who never wanted them to touch the river, seeing the art put a lot of my fears to rest and makes me think that much of what made them so nice will still be there just in a new form

I’m sure there was a concept sketch that included keeping the riverboat and this attraction - big thunder in Paris anyone?

There definitely was a way to make this more of a win-win.

 

[basas]

How can anyone continue to post on here and say that Cars Land is not increased capacity???? The attractions there will see more guests in one month than Tom Sawyer Island does in a year. This is insane.

It’s pretty simple math, actually.

TSI + LB + Cars = Y guests/hour
or
Cars = X guests/hour

Which sum is higher capacity?