Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary Plans

[Nmoody1]

Realistically this is what I see happening by the 50th anniversary...

In Tomorrowland
1. Major refurb for Space Mountain because lets face it, Its basically falling apart in the condition its in.
2. Updated Carousel of progress.
3. The removal and replacement of Monsters inc laugh floor and Stitchs great escape.
4. Updated autopia like what is found in Disneyland or Hong Kong.
5. Extension of theming found in the main entrance to the back of the land.

In Frontierland
1. Updates to Big Thunder Mountain.
2. Maybe an extension of the land (although I find this hard to believe) around the rivers of America.

In Fantasyland
1. Updated dark rides similar to what Disneyland has gotten over the years.

And lastly, new entertainment across the board. I expect the Electrical parade and Wishes to be replaced prior to the 50th and a new daytime parade to debut for the 50th celebration.

Realistically we'll be lucky if we get anything but some new banners around the resort, a few trash cans replaced and maybe some sparkly new outfits for the characters.mautopia certainly won't get anything... If it was to get anything one would hope for electric cars or a bulldozer. Disney don't care about carousel of progress, not to mention the uproar there would be from all the people stuck in the past. They won't remove monsters AND stitch... Maybe one or the other... We can dream!

It's a lost cause I fear!

 

[Captain Chaos]

Disney has been in discussions on what to do with the 50th anniversary. The choices so far are:

1. Nothing
2. 50% increases on prices resort wide. Nothing says celebrating 50 years with 50% price increases!!!

 

[Bocabear]

They will celebrate with "Year Of A Million Advertisements" Where they will hype the hell out of existing attractions and add in video clips from other parks to make WDW look like is has more than it does. They will put up thousands of Banners throughout the Orlando /Kissimmee area and spend a ton of money on Billboard advertising they do not need, and finally will come up with a line of 50th Anniversary merchandise and a resort wide price increase. That is my prediction....

 

[Magenta Panther]

Honestly, I'd move to steampunk to Frontierland and just double down on the Flash Gordon-y vibe that Tomorrowland used to have.

You mean frontier steampunk like in Wild Wild West? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_West

That would certainly be a radical re-imagining, but I bet it'd work, as long as it didn't take over the whole land.

Didn't the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans museum close down not long ago? Maybe it's too bad Disney didn't snap up the artifacts and do something with them. Here's a thought - a dark ride called "Legends of America's Wild West". It could be a tribute to real Western folk like Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody, and also to cowboy actors like Roy and Dale and Gene Autry, and fictional cowboy heroes like The Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid, and maybe even Disney's own Pecos Bill. (My dad is a cowboy nut). I think that'd be cool.

 

[Matt_Black]

Yeah, just don't go overboard with it. Steampunk is cool, but too much doesn't seem to connect with mainstream America, as evidenced by the film you referenced above, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Jonah Hex, etc.

As far as your list goes, maybe throw in a martial arts type guy to pay homage to stuff like Bruce Lee, Kung Fu (which Bruce Lee pitched and they went with David Carradine), and Shanghai Noon, as well as the many real world Asian immigrants who very much helped shaped the West as much if not more so than white pioneers.

 

[Goofywilliam]

Realistically we'll be lucky if we get anything but some new banners around the resort, a few trash cans replaced and maybe some sparkly new outfits for the characters.mautopia certainly won't get anything... If it was to get anything one would hope for electric cars or a bulldozer. Disney don't care about carousel of progress, not to mention the uproar there would be from all the people stuck in the past. They won't remove monsters AND stitch... Maybe one or the other... We can dream!

It's a lost cause I fear!

I understand your worry but this is an anniversary disney can not ignore. I do feel like I was being a little optimistic about some of the things on my list but the autopia was not one. Lets face it, its a popular attraction that always has a decent wait time and has a large rider count per hour. It would be a no brainer for disney to update the ride with a more advanced ride system to do away with the need of so many cast members to operate the ride and not to mention, it probably would not cost that much to update and they could advertise it as a new attraction. All Carousel of Progress needs is a thorough cleaning and repair along with a few minor updates. Disney does care about the classic attractions, even if they don't bring in the riders they potentially could. Just look at the tiki room, country bear jamboree, American Adventure and Hall of Presidents. All of these attraction have had nice refurbs over the past few years. About Stitch and Monsters, one could only hope Disney would do something about BOTH of them.

 

[imagineer boy]

They will celebrate with "Year Of A Million Advertisements" Where they will hype the hell out of existing attractions and add in video clips from other parks to make WDW look like is has more than it does. They will put up thousands of Banners throughout the Orlando /Kissimmee area and spend a ton of money on Billboard advertising they do not need, and finally will come up with a line of 50th Anniversary merchandise and a resort wide price increase. That is my prediction....

I think sadly you're pretty accurate.

 

[RadiatorSpringsRacer]

Tomorrowland has lots of potential. I read somewhere that TDO was once considering a futuristic steampunk motif for it (which could be rad cool).

I'd be willing to bet actual money that a Treasure Planet attraction was in those plans somewhere.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

 

[doctornick]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

View attachment 97118

Hey, I just made the same basic suggestion last page!

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Hopefully they ADD attractions.

 

[Goofywilliam]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

View attachment 97118

Your post really got me thinking about an expansion in this area. Here is what I came up with...

 

[Progress.City]

Hopefully they ADD attractions.

They have medication for that!

 

[MagicHappens1971]

On the talks of the expansion pads, THEORETICALLY speaking, and I'm not sure if this is possible. But if moving Small World backwards would create more room, that makes me think there is room behind it's show building. So couldn't they build a ride backing up to it (behind it) and have you take a boat to get there? Or does the river not go that far behind?

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

They have medication for that!

 

[jt04]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

View attachment 97118

TSI could easily be repurposed to something like PaTF. Anything more relevant than TS.

Thanks for the drawing showing just how much land is available.

 

[EdC]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

View attachment 97118

MerlinTheGoat had mentioned a different method that had talked about re-doing the northern part of Tom Sawyer Island. While adding the new land area behind BTMR would not impact current things, it's way out of the way and would result in walkways like between Peter Pan and Small World.

I could also see Disney docking the Riverboat permanently OR with modification of the island and track of the Riverboat make the boat go in a circle instead of extended figure 8 (minus the crossover in the middle). That would free up the northern part for 1-3 attractions and potentially allow Rivers of America to be circumnavigated on foot to get rid of dead-ends. Lots of potential ideas for this.

 

[WDWVolFan]

Instead of kick out Ol' Tom Sawyer. They should expand north past Big Thunder. They could build a walkway behind big thunder and across barge canal access to RoA. Like the Bridge at Mexico in EPCOT that allows friendship boats from backstage storage onto world showcase lagoon.
They could then have a decent sized land in the wooded area between Big Thunder and Floridan Way.
They could tie into the existing queue outlet at splash shown at the base of the red markings. This is the area where when you exit Splash you walk under the Railroad Station/Tracks.

Tada!! expansion and not taking any existing rides/attractions away.

View attachment 97118

Great spot for a meet and greet or a new parking lot.

 

[Disney4family]

Great spot for a meet and greet or a new parking lot.

 

[P_Radden]

While you guys are discussing expansion on the west side of the park, I feel it would be more likely they would expand the east side of the park.

In this pic, "Area 1" could be developed for either New Fantasy Land or Tomorrowland. The removal of Tomorrowland Speedway opens up access to the area behind it.

I know the area in blue is backstage parking for CMs, however it provides a great amount of land for a proper Tomorrowland Expansion. Not to mention the area between CoP and SM (where the old skyway bldg sits). Also, this could connect to the Mainstreet Bypass providing a new exit from Tomorrowland


However I doubt they will do any expansions to the park any time soon.