News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[MrPromey]

And? Why does it have to be water?

Because that's the view everything that curves around it was designed for.

The Haunted Mansion, the main Frontierland pathway that has only one side, Splash Mountain Tiana's Bayou Talent Scouting Trip, Thunder Mountain. It gave a seemingly "natural" reason for all these things to face the way they do.

With the concept art to go by, they'll now be facing what will appear to just be fake undeveloped space at best and visible autonomous SUVs with faces driving around in the distance at worst.

Think about the backside of either SDMT or the Moana walkthrough. Are we expecting a whole lot better here?

They wouldn't even need to keep it a true island to preserve this. The connection to the canal could serve one end and they could have a false bend that hides the other, dock the ferry* and keep most of this area looking exactly as-is with the same look and feel and a perfect already made barrier to what's behind it.

The loss of the fort would be a compromise, as would probably things like the caves (that of course woudln't make everyone happy) but it wouldn't fundamentally upend this entire area of the park and it's not like they didn't do something very much like what I'm talking about for the canal in front of the Castle that they purposefully chose to keep.

This would allow them to add bridges making full use of the Aunt Polly area for money and a walkway around the front face of it that could connect up to everything else.

*put some sort of desert/snack spot and add tables and chairs that could be used for private events, too if it needs to make money for an excuse to exist or find a way to put it in front of tba and do the same but pipe dixieland music from it or even (gasp) have live entertainment playing the music on it on occasion observable from the shoreline.

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

I have a question for D'Amaro
Is it because of Encanto moved that you decided to abandon Desert Land knowing Cars wouldn't be accepted if brought in as Cars Land (DCA) further behind Coco.

Did you scrap Coco because Encanto was gone and didn't find Cars with Coco not fit like Encanto together even though both along Big Thunder are easily Desert environment properties? All you had left was Cars so you just turned it Frontier instead of just going Cars Land (DCA) behind Big Thunder?

 

[Sneaky]

What's word on Muppets courtyard?

Not set in stone but not looking good.

 

[wdwmagic]

What's word on Muppets courtyard?

I'll have something on that soon

 

[doctornick]

Looks like the Railroad track will be right outside of the one laydown yard. I do have to wonder if they will eventually close the railroad and put in a construction access road to tie this yard to the construction area.

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So, building inside the berm entirely and we still lose the RR again for an extended period? Great.

 

[el_super]

“Formula that works”

So wait, are we back to hoping they DON'T spend money on the parks? I'm sure that's what Wall Street wants.

 

[Jon81uk]

It was a tough day going to the mall and finding the "cool" stores no longer selling styles I was interested in
That day I remember thinking sadly about what that meant about myself and my tastes
I certainly didn't blame the store for moving on without me, make a big show of never shopping there again, or try to blame the lack of items I was interested in on some political nonsense

But this isn’t about Tom Sawyer and the river not being “trendy” it’s about no longer having water and peaceful views in the middle of a busy theme park.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I’m sorry you lost me at comparing TSI to Cinderella Castle. I love the feel of ROA don’t get me wrong, but I’m fine sacrificing it for something new.

you seem hyper focused on “Tom sawyer island” - this isn’t about the island as an attraction - it’s about the island and rivers telling a story. It’s the mills, the cabins, the riverboat the rafts - it’s a huge piece of theme park Magic.

 

[Sneaky]

I'll have something on that soon

are we gonna like it or not like it

 

[BrianLo]

How is this the “largest expansion in Magic Kingdom Park history” if it just repurposes existing guest space?

That quote was specifically reused to describe Villainsland and previously BBTM.

This project was just referred to as Frontierland.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

So wait, are we back to hoping they DON'T spend money on the parks? I'm sure that's what Wall Street wants.

Yes, if this is how they are going to spend it I’d rather they don’t. Hah

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Looks like the Railroad track will be right outside of the one laydown yard. I do have to wonder if they will eventually close the railroad and put in a construction access road to tie this yard to the construction area.

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Hopefully the railroad will only close so they can put in a temporary grade crossing for construction.

 

[doctornick]

All this talk has made me realize that what I love about WDW truly is not just the rides, but the entire experience of the parks. I love the trees, the water features, and beauty of the parks themselves. One of the reasons I love MK so much is because of areas like ROA where I can sit and stare out over the water and think about life. I bet the majority of "rides, rides, rides" people are fine with this because they view the parks as collection of rides to experience and this gives them more of what they want. But for those of us who view the parks as an escape from the hustle and bustle of the world, this choice hurts.

It may sound weird, but one of the things I really enjoy at MK is walking on the wooden path they added along the water to go to Splash/BTMRR. I don't know, but just the feeling of walking on that along the river brings a smile to my face.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Looks like the Railroad track will be right outside of the one laydown yard. I do have to wonder if they will eventually close the railroad and put in a construction access road to tie this yard to the construction area.

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Another lengthy railroad closure is practically guaranteed. If it's not the land prep and construction access areas, then it'll be from the work to fill in the RoA. The train tracks cross the connecting canal and I assume they'll probably renovate or even demolish/rebuild the old bridge...

 

[wdwmagic]

That said, I am honestly surprised that this stayed a secret (relatively) right up until the day it was announced.

What seems to happen a lot in recent years is they are announcing things relatively soon after making a decision. So there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for info to circulate out before it gets announced. In the old days, a decision would be made, quite a few people would know about it, then construction would start, then it would be announced.

 

[basas]

“Formula that works”
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And that’s the truth. For those of us who are opposed to changes such as this we’re consistently told we just don’t “get it”, we’re not the target audience, the general public will LOVE it and spend, spend, spend, it’s a business decision, it’s about the shareholders, etc etc etc.

And yet what they’re doing isn’t working. Maybe they should try a different approach…

 

[Rich Brownn]

Oh, absolutely, none of us were present for most of the moments we study, but there are massive gaps between different levels of research out there.

People deciding that, say, changing the redhead in Pirates is "changing history" are pretty much wasting everyone's time. If they really wanted to point out the travesty visited on Pirates, they'd be demanding to know when the heck Jack Sparrow and company will be out of the ride so the danged thing can be coherent again.

Considering POTC, even in its original form, had no relationship to real pirates (one of the imagineers remarked he was surprised to find most of them died of syphyllis not in battle!) so they went with the "Hollywood"-izedd version

 

[AdventureHasAName]

So wait, are we back to hoping they DON'T spend money on the parks? I'm sure that's what Wall Street wants.

I want additions, not replacements. I want them in parks (and lands) that are themeatic matches. And I want them in the parks that receive less attendance.

 

[Clamman73]

It's like there would be no reason to go right for rope drop anymore. (well even now...)

 

[KDM31091]

Looks like the Railroad track will be right outside of the one laydown yard. I do have to wonder if they will eventually close the railroad and put in a construction access road to tie this yard to the construction area.

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They seem to love closing the Railroad at any possible opportunity, so I'm sure they will, probably for a long time (again)