Fantasyland Construction Update..... (DL '82!)

[mharrington]

So in 1982, Disneyland shut down 20% of it's park for an extended period of time to make major improvements, refurbs and additions - and they didn't go bankrupt.

Ironically, by 1984, Disney, period, almost did get broken up by corporate raiders from Wall Street. It took the arrivals of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells to save the day.

 

[ScorpionX]

I have heard it said several times that during the New Fantasyland construction in 1982/83 they kept the Skyway running as a round trip experience from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland and right back to Tomorrowland. They would staff CM's in the Fantasyland station to just push the cabins around the 180 turn and right back towards Tomorrowland again. They did this to keep some ride capacity in a park with its heart cut out (and a lot of rides closed), as well as a publicity thing to get people excited about coming back to Disneyland to see the New Fantasyland.

In the pictures, you can see how the entry/exit stairs of the Fantasyland Skyway station lead right down into the mud and parked Datsun pickups, with every Skyway cabin full of people, so that proves to me this round trip Skyway thing actually did happen. People were boarding and disembarking in Tomorrowland after a round trip.

It also provided some amazing pictures! Thank you so much for posting these spoono88! :sohappy:

I would have made it from Tomorrowland, to Frontierland, as it was the closest land to the station, not including Fantasyland.

 

[spectromagic04]

That's just embarrassing that they were allowed to renovate all of fantasyland all at once like that.

 

[unkadug]

That's just embarrassing that they were allowed to renovate all of fantasyland all at once like that.

How so?

If I had of been a local, I would have preferred them getting the whole thing over with at one time rather than stretching it out for years.

 

[mharrington]

How so?

If I had of been a local, I would have preferred them getting the whole thing over with at one time rather than stretching it out for years.

I think they meant that they felt it was inconvenient to have all of Fantasyland shut down for the duration.

 

[spectrodanny]

I wonder how they did parades during this time. Unlike at MK there is no access road from Town Square back to the parade warehouse which is why on 1 parade days the floats just park near space Mountain until park closing

 

[Dragonrider1227]

Cool pictures! thanks for showing! :wave:

I'm surprised to see so much of the original Fantasyland ripped out and all that dirt, nice to know that even in the past few years they kept it up by adding all the very pretty brick work in Fantasyland. Its to bad the Pirate ship was damaged in its process of being moved, at least parts of it are now in Peter Pan.

It is? Any pictures of this? I always kinda liked that Pirate ship even though I'm too young to actually remember it ^^;

 

[DTM93]

Wow, thank you for posting.
I was on the 'Walk in Walt's Footsteps' Tour a week ago today and the guide was talking about how Fantasyland was completely re-built and I wondered about pictures, thank you!

 

[rainfully]

They must have opened this up during times they were really desperate for traffic flow in the area. A couple of things i noticed... the construction wall at one time blocked the path... as you can see pieces of the wall off to either sides of the opening. Also, this is a one way path. I see they have several CMs lined up along the path... I wonder if they were there to answer questions or to make sure everyone kept moving. Anyways these pics are awesome!

 

[JamieD]

Fantasyland '82 Rehab / BTMR

Our first Disney visit was to WDW is '81 or '82. My family fell in love with BTMR. We branched out to DL in '83 and my family was crushed (or so I'm told since I was 3) because they couldn't ride BTMR. I was always told it was because they were building it. I later read the history and that it was completed in '79, and knew its construction was not the reason for its unavailability. Now, I'm seeing these fantastic photos of the FL rehab in '82 and am wondering if this is somehow the reason behind us thinking that BTMR was under construction. Maybe we were there the wrong week? Any knowledge?

 

[mharrington]

Our first Disney visit was to WDW is '81 or '82. My family fell in love with BTMR. We branched out to DL in '83 and my family was crushed (or so I'm told since I was 3) because they couldn't ride BTMR. I was always told it was because they were building it. I later read the history and that it was completed in '79, and knew its construction was not the reason for its unavailability. Now, I'm seeing these fantastic photos of the FL rehab in '82 and am wondering if this is somehow the reason behind us thinking that BTMR was under construction. Maybe we were there the wrong week? Any knowledge?

I'm guessing it was just a routine rehab. That happens all the time. Ride rehabs are a fact of Disney park life. Big Thunder is one of my most favorite of all Disney attractions, but at least on two occasions when I went to Disneyland, I couldn't ride that ride because it was closed for rehab. Maybe that's what happened to you?

 

[Scuttle]

Great construction pics! I have a fascination with old Disney construction pics.

 

[Communicore]

Yeah these are great pics indeed. The "great wall" in MK should've been like the wall in this construction.