Main Street U.S.A. hub redevelopment at the Magic Kingdom

[Gabe1]

MK is a rainforest now compared back to those first few years in the early 70s.

It is understandable when a park is new as it was in the early 70's, not so much in a new millennium. The MK is a desert in comparison to the 80's and 90's after that the MK and Epcot became attached to their chain saws. I doubt Disney will come close to the shade of the cherry trees once in the Hub, they are fond of dwarf trees and seedling 2" trunk trees these days unlike the planters that once were in FL with full mature trees. Those full mature trees in guest walkways in each land kept the concrete from getting so hot and the guests out of direct sun.

Dwarf has some nice trees in the queue. BOG's large entrance and queue is pure sunshine, passing out umbrellas for shade and free water. That whole area can hardly be considered a rainforest.

There are trees in a seating planter near Pinocchio IF allowed to mature may someday be useful. Yet there are not trees near Small World, Peter and not much for guests to use as relief between Pooh, Fairytale Hall and Dwarf.
The road to get to Mermaid queue doesn't have a lot of guest shade either. Where there are rocks with real and fake trees they don't offer much more than theming for guest to look up at vs cooling from the direct sun.

 

[articos]

My point is that it wasn't always that way. Not running the vehicles at night is relatively recent. I don't expect the trolly. That is a little too much work. No reason the Omnibus can't be restarted on nights when the parade and/or fireworks aren't right at closing time. The area has been way too congested to even consider it for a while. You would only do it on nights the park is open to midnight or later since there are two evening parades. But, I don't expect it back.

What I think is more likely is an expansion of hours before the parades. With more room, it should be easier to restart some of the vehicles after Castle shows. As it is, transportation usually only runs until about 10:00am. There is a lot of atmosphere lost by not running these vehicles more. If you don't get to the park before 10, you may not even know they exist.

Sadly, I don't think MSV will ever come back at night.

 

[GoofyPalWalt]

What is the expected completion date of the hub renovations?

 

[danlb_2000]

What is the expected completion date of the hub renovations?

No firm date, but it will likely not be complete until well into 2015.

 

[dstrawn9889]

What is the expected completion date of the hub renovations?

eleventy-seven seconds after the last person stops asking when it will be completed without at least thumbing through the thread. seriously, its like on every page... /sorry/rant over/ not a great day at work

 

[meyeet]

eleventy-seven seconds after the last person stops asking when it will be completed without at least thumbing through the thread. seriously, its like on every page... /sorry/rant over/ not a great day at work

To be fair, the last one was from a separate thread that was merged into this one. But I know what you're saying.

 

[muse1983]

Well...for our October trip it looks like the Fantasyland construction we encountered in 2012 will be replaced with some hub construction...not that bad of a trade in my opinion.

 

[WDWLover#1]

It is understandable when a park is new as it was in the early 70's, not so much in a new millennium. The MK is a desert in comparison to the 80's and 90's after that the MK and Epcot became attached to their chain saws. I doubt Disney will come close to the shade of the cherry trees once in the Hub, they are fond of dwarf trees and seedling 2" trunk trees these days unlike the planters that once were in FL with full mature trees. Those full mature trees in guest walkways in each land kept the concrete from getting so hot and the guests out of direct sun.

Dwarf has some nice trees in the queue. BOG's large entrance and queue is pure sunshine, passing out umbrellas for shade and free water. That whole area can hardly be considered a rainforest.

There are trees in a seating planter near Pinocchio IF allowed to mature may someday be useful. Yet there are not trees near Small World, Peter and not much for guests to use as relief between Pooh, Fairytale Hall and Dwarf.
The road to get to Mermaid queue doesn't have a lot of guest shade either. Where there are rocks with real and fake trees they don't offer much more than theming for guest to look up at vs cooling from the direct sun.

I read this is because they're on top of the utilidoors. They can't plant trees on top due to roots.

 

[cw1982]

Me too - 6 speed Miata, 5 speed 4Runner. Give the keys to a teenager, sit back, and laugh ... as long as you don't value the clutch & tranny that much . Also GREAT fun if someone tries to steal your car in 2014 ("hey - what the hell IS this?").

Sigh... I would LOVE to be able to drive a 5 speed. DH swears I burnt out the clutch on his '91 Maxima the last time he tried to teach me... in all fairness, that clutch was over 20 years old at the time. Still, I haven't tried again since!

 

[ABQ]

Baloney - you would need to work at it to burn a clutch out in 1st... unless you NEVER shifted . My wife is doing GREAT, learning to drive a stick .
Note - you can actually drive a stick when you can go into first, on a hill in San Francisco, using the emergency brake, clutch, and gas ALL AT ONCE - without sliding backwards .

Had to do that sort of thing often in my old Jeep, but it was on some rough trails in Moab, Utah. This all proves that A, Disney may actually not have enough drivers for the vehicles on Main street, but B, that they could easily train a few.

 

[note2001]

Are you all planning on applying for a job driving the old jitney on main street?

I thought that was changed over to an automatic after the last accident in which it took out all the fully grown trees on main street. That's what a bus driver told me anyway.

The boat skipper had a different story....

 

[disney9752]

I read this is because they're on top of the utilidoors. They can't plant trees on top due to roots.

it didn't stop them from having pretty big trees for at least 10 years, by 81 the trees in hub were a decent size, plus if I recall in raised planters so they had a way to grow before hitting the tunnels..... on another token saying no trees due to tunnels means the liberty tree should be chopped down any day now....

 

[Rob562]

it didn't stop them from having pretty big trees for at least 10 years, by 81 the trees in hub were a decent size, plus if I recall in raised planters so they had a way to grow before hitting the tunnels..... on another token saying no trees due to tunnels means the liberty tree should be chopped down any day now....

In the post the person quoted they bolded a few sentences referring to the lack of trees through the center of Fantasyland due to the Utilidors, which is pretty much true...

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the tunnel through Liberty Square runs near the Liberty Tree, but not under it. (In that area it's strictly just the walkway. Under central Fantasyland are a complex of rooms, etc)

-Rob

 

[The Duck]

A recent video update.

 

[Horizons1]

Well, it's not an oak, but at least it's A tree.

 

[Kman101]

At least there's a tree still! They just made the planter smaller.

 

[Jose]

View attachment 57872 View attachment 57873

Well, it's not an oak, but at least it's A tree.

 

[steve2wdw]

View attachment 57872 View attachment 57873

Well, it's not an oak, but at least it's A tree.

It looks like it's the same tree (a magnolia)....just in a slightly new spot. While there's a much bigger ramp on the corner, at least they didn't remove the curb on the east side of TS.

 

[steve2wdw]

This is from last year...could be the same tree, but pruned a bit. Either way, a tree for a tree.

 

[note2001]

At least there's a tree still! They just made the planter smaller.

Looking at the street, it's possible they moved the planter back to enlarge the street too. I sense they're getting ready for something big to turn that corner.