News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[tomast]

edited in a new post

 

[𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97]

There's something potentially being announced possibly as soon as next Destination D23 just as work starts on RoA that can be open as early as late 2026 to soften the blow for fans for another park. It'll be a fan favorite if it happens.

Disney has plans for 2026. I've heard some stuff, others have heard some stuff. Let's see where stuff happens.

Stuff.

When is next Destination D23? Does RoA work start by next July (when I’ll be there)? If they think for a second that Figment is going to soften the blow of losing Muppets, they’ve got another think coming.

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

I was thinking Imagination.

If Muppets is going for Monsters, I think we're going to know this year and the HoP Muppets will be announced at the same time.

If the current rumor of reusing the existing track layout holds up then I could see it taking about a year, given they shutter the current attraction immediately after Destination concludes. Don’t think anyone’s gonna need that much time to say goodbye to the 22 yr old dumpster fire that’s there now. resurrecting the original set pieces is very doable.

And yeah HoP going away for Muppets after their original show is retired isn’t necessarily a “fan favorite” decision. I would hope they receive their own space elsewhere in DHS, potentially even in the AC plot, but that’s just wishful thinking (edit, just realized we are talking about ROA it’s been hard to catch up on either situation but my point still stands with Muppets)

 

[MrPromey]

They clearly said next 5 years.

This thread is 87% people arguing against made-up points. So… just another day at the forums!

They clearly said what of the next 5 years, exactly?

Please, tell me what they actually said and not what you decided to infer from it.

What can we expect five years from today?

But to that, they clearly said we were getting an addition to Main Street that was going to include a live theater show, too.

Do you remember the Play Pavilion?

Marry Poppins attraction?

This leadership has a record of announcing things way too early, over-promising, under-delivering and taking too long to do it, if they end up doing it at all.

I pay more attention to what they actually do than what they use carefully crafted wording to say and I'm sorry but I find it very difficult to trust anything they present anymore given the way this leadership team delivers, be it timelines, concept art, etc.

I feel it's pretty safe to say they've earned that lack of trust over the last ten or so years.

We've already seen that concept art is blue sky since it's using the Frontierland from DLP and not ours in the rendering which tells you right there whatever you're looking at isn't accurate.

Yeah, I exaggerated a little but to put my statement of your referenced post in context, when they first announced Pandora for AK and posted that fake "groundbreaking" photo, my son had not even been conceived yet. By the time it finally opened, he more than met the minimum height requirements.

Anyway, you're welcome to feel differently but don't pretend I'm "arguing against a made up point".

 

[Moth]

I currently have no pointers it's Imagination. Leaning towards a retheme of RnR.

 

[tomast]

I Believe this carland was design for Disneyland Paris and not for the Magic Kingdom!

at the bottom right of the big thunder you can see a mine shaft elevator similar to the ones you can see on Disneyland Paris Thunder Mountain

And the buildings you can see at the left are the Disneyland Paris frontierland buildings with the Lucky Nugget and the Last Chance Cafe and the Silver Spur

Compare to this google maps image I took.

So the building that seems to be Frotierland railroad at the top middle was indeed the Phantom manor.

 

[Mike S]

I think this is fair, but it would also make Fantasy Springs an example of an “original creation” which I likely wouldn’t agree with.

Although I imagine it doesn’t really come from a place of generosity. Universal really loves building the 1:1 recreations of scenes and landscapes from their IPs — if there was a notable enough place in the Universal monster catalogue, they probably would have done it.

I was going from the perspective that the Monsters featured are Universal Creatives own interpretations even though they say all the classic movie events are apparently canon to the lands story.

Yeah, universal has found a genuine weapon against Disney.

Honestly, if universal acquired more rights aside from Nintendo and Pokémon, and really pushed forward with a gaming ip amusement park then I would actually consider creating a vacation to only visiting universal and skip Disney. Something I never thought I would say.

But stuff like Mario, donkey Kong, and Pokémon are all relatable things for adults and it doesn’t hurt my kids love these ips too. It’s a really huge win - win situation for universal and I would honestly be slightly nervous if I were Disney.

I don’t think there’s much left for gaming IP that could be easily adapted to a theme park AND be a huge multi-generational mass market draw outside of core gaming circles. Nintendo was pretty much it.

 

[davis_unoxx]

As a dedicated fan, I find almost all of my time visiting the parks is dedicated to classic attractions. Mansion, Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, etc in MK; Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, Figment in Epcot, etc.Rarely am I stampeding to the latest IP attraction.

Same for me! I'm in my 20s and other day when I went to Epcot I did LWTL, Spaceship Earth. Then walked around World Showcase and went to the Seas Pavilion through gift shop.

 

[MrPromey]

That's a great question. Will adding cars sell more merch? I'm not really too sure if I really think about it. It's sold just fine without a ride. Little boys will probably always want toy cars. It's kind of like imagination. If they spend the money to fix it, will the line for a figment popcorn bucket be 3hrs instead of 2? I don't know. People just like figment and it sells great with one of the worst rides on property.

It'll sell more merch on property.

 

[MSM]

"II

Exactly. As the park gets more crowded, with more stampede prone FOMO attractions and no escape or retreat, more overwhelming, hotter with less shade and fewer water features, people will inevitably stay for shorter periods, returning to their hotel or in the case of locals, home. Eventually, this will lead to lost revenue. But by then it will be far too late.

To paraphrase Joni Mitchell "They are paving paradise to put up a parking lot"

 

[Sir_Cliff]

They clearly said next 5 years.

This thread is 87% people arguing against made-up points. So… just another day at the forums!

For Villains Land? That’s not going to be open in 5 years - they may start building it in 5 years haha.

This is the slate of projects over the next 5 years, although I don’t know if that means they’ll all open in that 5 years? I guess if they started villains in 2025 or 2026 it could open by 2027-2028? Unless we think it more than a 2 year build… maybe 2029
Opening?

As you can see, they clearly said "five years" but not exactly what is going to happen in five years. If they're still operating with blue sky artwork, does anyone really believe that by mid-2029 they will be strolling into Villains Land at Magic Kingdom? You'll be lucky if you're able to ride the Coco ride at DCA by then.

They may well build Villains Land, but they only announced it this early because they needed to have something to distract fans and keep them happy as they knew their actual big, confirmed announcement for Magic Kingdom was going to be so toxic with the fans that a) they couldn't announce the full details at D23 because D'Amaro would have been booed and it would probably have taken the air out of the room and derailed the whole presentation, and b) when the details came out there would be a lot of angst online. So, don't worry, in 5 years, look forward to... construction? opening? more artwork? for that Villains land you always wanted.

 

[MrPromey]

Epcot is too big for the number of attractions. Every country should have something.

The original plan called for sponsors to make this happen.

It seems like the current plan is to just keep selling alcohol.

While I agree, I don't think we'll see this change to the degree we want unless Disney loses their liquor license.

Having said that, we did by miracles of miracles get the Ratatouille clone. It obviously happened because the primary development costs had already been covered by DLP with none of the original issues or room for improvement being addressed in the new build that opened 14 years after the original. We can argue about it's appropriateness for World Showcase (I think for a shoehorned IP, it's a pretty good fit) or how cheap they did or didn't go on the facade but it's the first addition of a permanent attraction to World Showcase I can think of since Maelstrom opened.

It's just funny it went into a country/pavilion that already had some sort of permanent attraction when so many others still don't but it was clearly approved and built because it ticked the right boxes for IP inclusion and budget since they did the bare minimum to install an off-the-shelf design they already had.

 

[WDWhopper]

They’ve added or announced 11 new cruise ships since 1998 and added or announced zero new theme parks at WDW since 1998.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

This seems to me like someone is who actually informed on the subject speaking about how we got here. It does actually line up with talking points I’ve heard for several years now about the actual physical state of the river itself, the consequences of the way it was built, and the logistical and operational issues associated with those issues. If someone here with more knowledge refutes, by all means do it, but this all makes sense to me and I’ve been hearing about problems with the river bed for awhile.

 

[MrPromey]

But if Cars doesn’t open until 2029 as speculated above (which feels insanely long to me), if effects started to be felt in 2027, couldn’t that still impact the budget for Cars? Sure the general land will be there along with the attractions but the smaller, finishing touches, like all the water features people keep assuring others exist, fall by the wayside? I’m just imagining a scenario like what happened at Epcot but significantly worse given what it’s replacing.

Pandora took 7 years from announcement to opening.

Galaxy's Edge took about 4 to partially open and then another several months to get ROTR semi-regularly running.

Tron Lightcycle Power Run (a clone) that didn't get an accompanying mini-land built with it, took six years.

Unless Disney's decided to change how they manage projects, 2029 seems pretty optimistic considering the paddle boat was still running today.

In terms of cuts, I'd say safer to expect them and possibly be pleasantly surprised if they don't happen. Of the three examples I mentioned above, Pandora is the only one that ended up opening with what was promised/shown early on.

Most of the interactive stuff from the second one was cut or pay-walled behind a separate, now closed experience and the front exterior of the third saw some pretty significant changes.

We wont even get into Cosmic Rewind and the original concept art for that or Main Street expansion or the Epcot Play Pavilion or the major redevelopment for Epcot announced after that, or what was originally shown and explained for NFL vs. what we actually got.*


*In the case of NFL, the changes in this rare instance were likely for the better but that seems to have come largely down to them realizing Potter was more problematic for them than they thought it was going to be when they first announced that expansion.

 

[Disney Analyst]

This seems to me like someone is who actually informed on the subject speaking about how we got here. It does actually line up with talking points I’ve heard for several years now about the actual physical state of the river itself, the consequences of the way it was built, and the logistical and operational issues associated with those issues. If someone here with more knowledge refutes, by all means do it, but this all makes sense to me and I’ve been hearing about problems with the river bed for awhile.

Well now that’s interesting.

Here’s the full text for those who can’t view Twitter:

It’s hard to see from the art, but there are new ponds, streams, and waterfalls that are being created, so it’s not a total loss of water. There will actually be more kinetic energy with this than there currently is in the area. But as for why…

Remember that the Rivers of America at WDW are connected by a lock to the Seven Seas Lagoon. Major challenges exist to this river system and drainage in the area that need to be accounted for. The foundation of the river isn’t in great shape, nor is it filtered water. The nature of this river surrounding the island system also prevents construction on the islands. To retain any of this river as is would be impossible, as the connection would need to remain near Thunder Mountain to the lock.

One of the key drivers of this re-do was requested by the park management itself… to eliminate dead ends. That can’t be accomplished while retaining the navigable river system. So you have an aging river basin in dire need of resurfacing, logistical nightmares to improve the islands, and dead end pathways on two sides. Plus access must be created to get to the other side of the river systems for any expansion.

I can tell you that countless rides were taken on the riverboat by key people involved in this decision and it was not taken lightly. They know they have to blow everyone out of the water with what gets built on the site. (Pun intended) It still makes sense.

Cars being the IP was selected for WDI by others. Cars makes ridiculous financial and demographic sense. It sells merchandise like no other franchise, it will eventually allow for the removal of the Tomorrowland Speedway on the other side of the park to free up more valuable real estate in the park, it appeals to the Floridian demographic, and it appeals to families (not single millennials, if they were going for that demographic they would have themed the entire area to A Goofy Movie). Cars also is a friendly story that will provide the friendly alternative to the scary Villains land beyond.

How to fit Cars into the region is actually very real, as JL did concepts for the original films going through places like Yellowstone, but were never realized (though the adjacent franchise, Planes Fire & Rescue does take place in a Yellowstone-like national park). There is a lot more to this concept and I think you’ll see some more Cars related IP coming around the bend that will even cement how it makes logical sense being there. This concept is adjacent to National Parks (not inside one) and it is very pretty. I do have doubts about the reliability of it being outdoors in Florida, but that’s besides the point here.

The aesthetics of the land are based on the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area in DCA. (Piston Peak instead of Grizzly Peak) Obviously there are some aesthetic differences and it’s a Cars ride instead of a rapids ride, but that’s a product of the MK having Tiana’s so close and the IP requirement set above.

In the end, there was no way to save the existing river system. The new lands have major elevation changes that can’t be accomplished without altering the river, and the reality is that they have an obligation to push for more capacity in the park, even if it means at the cost of something so big. It will be tough to see for the next 5-10 years, but I’ve been assured it will all be worth it, and the new water features will be much cleaner and feel a lot more fun.

I hope that explains a lot of the decision making that went into this. Happy to answer a few other questions if you still have them.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

This seems to me like someone is who actually informed on the subject speaking about how we got here.

It’s an interesting read - it reminds me of the “reasons” that we lost the subs as well.

There were certainly options to keep the River - to say it wasn’t possible is 100% false.

 

[Stripes]

It’s an interesting read - it reminds me of the “reasons” that we lost the subs as well.

There were certainly options to keep the River - to say it wasn’t possible is 100% false.

Possible and realistic are two different things.

Frankly, getting an aesthetic in Frontierland that looks like Grizzly Peak and 4 new popular attractions and beautiful vistas is a deal I’ll take any day over the worst looking Rivers of America at any Disney park.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Possible and realistic are two different things.

Frankly, getting an aesthetic in Frontierland that looks like this and 4 new popular attractions and beautiful vistas is a deal I’ll take any day over the worst looking Rivers of America at any Disney park.
View attachment 809198

View attachment 809199

I mean, you could have not chosen a photo from DCA that so obviously has a filter to compare with a photo of Rivers of America that looks worse than I think any of us will recall seeing it in real life.

Also keep in mind that this comes as a package deal with this new refurb of Frontierland:

 

[Stripes]

I mean, you could have not chosen a photo from DCA that so obviously has a filter to compare with a photo of Rivers of America that looks worse than I think any of us will recall seeing it in real life.

Also keep in mind that this comes as a package deal with this new refurb of Frontierland:

View attachment 809201

Haha, I searched Google Images for “Rivers of America Magic Kingdom” and I picked the nicest photo I saw of Rivers of America. Trust me, I could’ve chosen something worse.

You’re not just getting Cars, you’re also getting Villains out of the river. And a frontierland with more kinetic water.