News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[Jrb1979]

It’s not even nostalgia. It’s the views they’re eliminating.

They’re doing the worst of both worlds.

Not just that. Parks need those filler attractions to balance out capacity.

 

[DCLcruiser]

HM isn't on the art either. Generally you don't take the time to draw irrelevant parts outside of what you're trying to portray.

The teal queue canopy from HM.

 

[Brian]

Maybe we'll get a Haunted Mansion tombstone for the RoA too:

"Here lies the Rivers, once wild and free,
Now just a pond, as you can see."

 

[John park hopper]

Maybe we'll get a Haunted Mansion tombstone for the RoA too:

"Here lies the Rivers, once wild and free,
Now just a pond, as you can see."

stagnant pond

 

[monothingie]

It’s just small.

 

[SplashJacket]

I guarantee the day they announce a replacement for the Speedway, the exact same complaining we're seeing today will be made about that too.

That’s just false.

People will be complaining that their kids liked it. Some people are complaining about TSI, but mostly everything is complaining about the ruined views.

A speedway replacement makes the area infinitely more visually interesting. A RoA makes it far less visually appealing, or lateral, at best.

 

[doctornick]

Disneyland is (and should be) the nostalgia/history park. Magic Kingdom has always been a copy. No sense in letting the most popular park in the world get stale.

So, the solution is to let DL keep its cool stuff and destroy MK? Just idiotic

MK is over 50 years old, it deserves nostalgia as well.

 

[Surferboy567]

RSR is a great ride, in my opinion that’s better than an area no one ever goes to and now pretends they care about.

Their is something to say about the kinetics but I still think this is an upgrade.

 

[mightynine]

So, what are we thinking here, a renaming of Frontierland on the level of "World (Vague Descriptor)"? Westernland? Vertical Integration Kingdom - West?

 

[Stripes]

stagnant pond

They’ve got to keep the mosquitos out.

 

[UNCgolf]

I don't actually care about losing Tom Sawyer Island (and god, please demolish the Tomorrowland Speedway and replace it with something worthwhile), but eliminating the river entirely and replacing that whole area with Cars will make the MK a significantly less pleasant place to visit.

When they changed the castle hub to the current version, the park lost some serenity/aesthetics, but that will seem incredibly minor to the whole riverfront disappearing.

When do they fill in the EPCOT lagoon for more development space?

 

[Kamikaze]

Why can't nostalgia and new coexist--- WDW certainly has the space for both

See signature.

 

[djkidkaz]

Not just that. Parks need those filler attractions to balance out capacity.

Filler attractions that nobody rides are not balancing out capacity, they are just taking up valuable real estate.

 

[doctornick]

Maybe it’s just me but I really don’t feel that “the park’s legacy” argument works here.

This isn’t Disneyland. MK’s version of Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island et all has never, ever been on the level of importance or significance that Disneyland’s is. Unlike Disneyland’s version, this particular corner of the park gets really ignored beyond it just being a way to get to the rides in the area people care about.

The RoA and riverboat are deeply integral part of Disneyland’s identity, especially with Fantasmic! being performed there and it’s co-relationship with other nearby attractions. That has NEVER been the case for Magic Kingdom. It has never been a highlighted point of the park, has never been held up as one of its sacred jewels. It has always just been “Disneyland has it so we do too.”

MK’s version of Frontierland has been incredibly weak for decades. Among the worst (if not THE worst in the world, bottom two). It getting a massive overhaul I feel has been an inevitability for ages.

I understand nostalgia for RoA. I do. I have it myself. I’ve loved it. But the park isn’t really losing anything critical to it’s existence and identity here.

This was never sacred ground here. I do feel the image of a river and riverboat is indeed a fixture and foundation of Disney iconography, just that that comes from a completely different park.

If you want to knock this from a thematic point of view, I’ll gladly join that. I don’t think Cars really belongs here either. But I really also cannot start to pretend that MK’s RoA or TSI is or ever has been important to this park, let alone a part of its legacy.

MK's TSI is so much better than the DL equivalent. Just because a lot of people are foolish to not enjoy it doesn't mean it has no value.

 

[wm49rs]

 

[KDM31091]

I am absolutely devastated about this loss of RoA and TSI. I know that they are low capacity and on valuable real estate, but I feel like Disney keeps insisting that most new attractions need to be an E ticket. Attractions like RoA and TSI and so crucial to the design and flow of a theme park that as they keep removing them, there are going to be less and less things for guests to do when the parks are actually crowded and busy. It is important to have things for guests to do that require little to no wait. Its all part of the experience. This is literally theme park operations 101 but I'm not sure any one at Disney making these decisions has taken that class yet.

This exactly, plus the perks are nearly always busy. The low wait relaxing attractions are just as important. Instead the park will feel just as crowded even with all these new big ticket attractions and the resulting crowds. More virtual queue stress. More breakdowns causing excessive crowding when there’s no “chill” attractions for people to retreat to. More crowds and chaos.

I dunno, as time goes by, unfortunately, they are just sucking all of the fun out of the parks, and making the experience demanding, stressful, and exhausting, if you actually want to ride the big attractions. So turning every new attraction into a huge draw is not the answer either IMO.

 

[Andrew C]

No. In the concept art, half of liberty square is missing. Looks like a new parade route and land entrance View attachment 808642

You are circling different areas on the map. The concept art is much for zoomed in than that overhead look of the area today.

Also, they are not providing much detail to the surrounding area as the art is supposed to focus on the cars area.

 

[Kamikaze]

Disneyland is (and should be) the nostalgia/history park. Magic Kingdom has always been a copy. No sense in letting the most popular park in the world get stale.

I would bet that DL has had a higher attraction turnover in the last 53 years than MK.

 

[doctornick]

...in what possible world does a large land with multiple rides not represent an increase of capacity over the riverboat and Tom Sawyer's Island, of all things?

Hey, you know what increases capacity even more? Putting Cars on virgin land to the north and keeping RoA/TSI. Why not all of it?

I mean, it's the busiest theme park in the world, why not max out capacity especially when you have the "blessing of size"?

 

[DavidDL]

The river adds character, atmosphere, and beauty. These are not unimportant to one’s experience of the park; they are fundamental to it.

The amount of folks who fail to grasp this concept is staggering. Bumming around the forums without being able to understand this I guess is fine, but when one of those jokesters makes their way into a position at Disney, we get this. A joke of a decision.

Additionally, this is just yet another sign that NO attraction or space is safe from modern Disney management. I remember it was rumored Guardians would take over Tower of Terror, it felt like a joke someone would make online. But it happened and made the park worse. “At least we still have the better one out in Florida!”, defenders would say. That isn’t the point, though.

The point is that modern Disney has slowly been getting more and more bold over the years with what spaces they can ruin. It starts with something small, like the Main Street Theatre in WDW or the Court of Angels in Disneyland. Then they come for something like Tower of Terror. Now, they take the Rivers of America. All this leads me to realize that I will probably see something like Pirates or Mansion removed in my lifetime, which is heart breaking.

But hey, who needs character, atmosphere or beauty in a Disney park when I could be hearing Larry the Cable Guy say “Get ‘er dun!!” all day?