Disney to announce overhaul of DL Tomorrowland at D23?

[mickEblu]

What if a new Frozen boat ride and the monorail and a new Mary Poppins dark ride all went around the restaurant? And it even had a new store. And a snack bar. And a churro cart. Plus an Instagrammable Moment.

Dumb idea, I know.

But it's a big piece of land, and I'm just sitting and thinking like it was 1970, waiting for the beach fog to burn off....

A Mary Poppins ride would be great! Some day at some Disney park they have to do this. I think a recreation of that lovely little idyllic park from the animated Penguin sequence etc Would make a great transition to the Small World area. I’d love to see them take another stab at the MMRR concept (going through Berts painting and into the park) but at a smaller more intimate scale with more physical set pieces.

 

[mickEblu]

What if a new Frozen boat ride and the monorail and a new Mary Poppins dark ride all went around the restaurant? And it even had a new store. And a snack bar. And a churro cart. Plus an Instagrammable Moment.

Dumb idea, I know.

But it's a big piece of land, and I'm just sitting and thinking like it was 1970, waiting for the beach fog to burn off....

When you say big piece of land you re not just referring to the Motorbiat area are you? Or are you assuming they would use some of autopia too?

 

[britain]

C’mon thread, don’t you die on me! You gotta live!

 

[mickEblu]

I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t excited about the PeopleMover. Over at RatChat they re not even talking about it on the message boards

 

[Supreme Leader]

I would love a new PeopleMover... But not in our trainwreck of a "Tomorrowland". Gut the entire land and start from scratch.

 

[mickEblu]

I would love a new PeopleMover... But not in our trainwreck of a "Tomorrowland". Gut the entire land and start from scratch.

Under Chapek? No thank you. Plus it’s not really that bad. Get rid of Buzz for a proper dark ride and retheme Nemo and you re like halfway there. Bulldoze Launch Bay and replace with a futuristic looking restaurant + weenie. Get rid of that atrocity on the old Rocket Jets platform. Move new Spinner to the platform. Nice new entrance and some spit n polish and you re there. I don’t think the lands issues are the bones as much as they are the need for more kinetic energy, the Pixar rides and the abandoned carrousel theatre.

 

[britain]

I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t excited about the PeopleMover. Over at RatChat they re not even talking about it on the message boards

They’re afraid to get their hopes up.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I just saw a car with PeopleMover vanity plates.

 

[Too Many Hats]

How am I just now realizing the sensibilities of Small World and Mary Poppins fit together perfectly. Anyway, that's what I want now for that back corner of the park -- Small World, Mary Poppins, and Frozen. I really think it works, in a charming Disneyland sort of way.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Under Chapek? No thank you. Plus it’s not really that bad. Get rid of Buzz for a proper dark ride and retheme Nemo and you re like halfway there. Bulldoze Launch Bay and replace with a futuristic looking restaurant + weenie. Get rid of that atrocity on the old Rocket Jets platform. Move new Spinner to the platform. Nice new entrance and some spit n polish and you re there. I don’t think the lands issues are the bones as much as they are the need for more kinetic energy, the Pixar rides and the abandoned carrousel theatre.

For me, the "bones" issue is the People Mover. I honestly cannot stand looking at it just rotting away, abandoned forever. It's depressing (the opposite of how an area called Tomorrowland should make guests feel) and aesthetically displeasing. And so if the only way to remove the People Mover tracks is to bulldoze the entire land (as has been suggested), I'm in favor of that. However, if it can be removed without impacting the land's existing infrastructure, then I agree with your ideas here.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t excited about the PeopleMover. Over at RatChat they re not even talking about it on the message boards

Nothing’s been confirmed yet. I’m sure if a Disney confirms its return, there will be much more traffic on the forums, especially if concept art is provided.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I'd instantly gain new hope for the future of the parks if the Peoplemover really did return.

 

[Phroobar]

Such mundane ideas but Disney imagineers thrive on mundane ideas.

 

[shambolicdefending]

I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t excited about the PeopleMover. Over at RatChat they re not even talking about it on the message boards

Not really much to talk about yet. Just a couple of vague rumor tweets. Hard to carry on much robust conversation based on that, alone.

 

[britain]

My man David on Fresh Baked (whom I will defend as a level-headed, good-natured soul in whom there is no guile; He sometimes speculates silly things, but he's the first to tell you he could be wrong) is reporting that he's spoken to insiders that claim the Peoplemover could have been back a long time ago if Disney had committed to a long-term solution to the Carousel Theater / Launch Bay problem. The company was not willing to restore the Peoplemover track if they were "just one sci-fi hit movie away" from replacing the carousel building with a completely new structure based on a new hit IP.

As we know with Disney's non-Star Wars and non-Marvel films, that sci-fi hit just never seems to arrive. The recent rumor that the carousel building will simply be razed and replaced with nothing more than seating makes sense with this Peoplemover rumor, in my opinion.

 

[Stevek]

I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t excited about the PeopleMover. Over at RatChat they re not even talking about it on the message boards

I guess because I've learned not to trust rumors.

 

[el_super]

Even if Disney were still working on this.... lots could change (economy/rate hikes) that would demand postponing this. At the rate they are working, they could even go so far as announcing it at D23 and it would still have a 50/50 chance.

 

[el_super]

Peoplemover could have been back a long time ago if Disney had committed to a long-term solution to the Carousel Theater / Launch Bay problem.

I don't think that was the biggest hurdle really. It was the price tag all along. The insane amount of construction work that would have been needed to bring everything up to code and bring the ride back wouldn't have been worth it, even if there wasn't a possibility they would have to reconfigure the track as part of the Carousel Theater project.

Even now it still seems impossible to think they would spend the money to rebuild the existing PeopleMover. The ride had it's time in the sun. When it closed back in the 1990s, it had few riders and wasn't much of a draw. As dumb as it turned out, converting them to Rocket Rods made all the sense in the world at the time.

The only way that bringing back some form of PeopleMover makes any sense at all, is if it is built into another project entirely. Tearing out the old 1950s expo halls entirely and rebuilding Tomorrowland from the ground up.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The insane amount of construction work that would have been needed to bring everything up to code

You keep saying this as though existing structures have to meet the same standards as new ones. They don’t.

 

[el_super]

You keep saying this as though existing structures have to meet the same standards as new ones. They don’t.

Well Tony Baxter seemed to think they would apply here and I tend to believe him on such things.

It's also not like Disney spent a small fortune building new emergency exit ramps from the Starcade that cut across where the PeopleMover track used to be to meet exit requirements for the Space Mountain queue for no good reason.