Mickey's Toontown Fair begins its transformation February 2011

[Animaniac93-98]

* I don't think it would make sense for Fantasy Forest to be a full-fledged separate land. The theme doesn't seem differentiated enough from FL to justify a complete breakaway (especially with "fantasy" right there in the name).

But my guess would be they just go to six lands and update the references in the monorail narration and other places. At least I'd like to see that happen. The park has essentially had 6 1/2 lands for the last two decades. I don't want to see some goofy circus area get promoted to a full-fledged land to arbitrarily maintain that number. For me, six strongly themed areas is strongly preferable to a "six plus one" setup like they have now.

Agreed with everything quoted here, but I do feel that Fantasy Forest could be its own "sub-land" like Caribbean Plaza in design, if not official park listing.

 

[mharrington]

The Disneyland.com website, for starters...

I think officially the word was that Mickey lives in Toontown at Disneyland, but also kept a "Country House" at Toontown Fair out in Florida. But with his country house in Florida being torn down next month, his real house in Disneyland will be his primary residence now. The Florida house was just a walk-through set, with Mickey meeting you separately over at the Judges Tent. The Disneyland house is part of an elaborate queue that takes you through the house, then out through the backyard and into "Mickey's Movie Barn" where you meet him on the set of one of his movies. You've got to go through the entire house and then on out to the barn to see Mickey at Disneyland, which I think gives more credence to the claim that Mickey "lives" in the Disneyland house and simply "visits" the country house in Florida.

That doesn't explain the exact duplicate of his Anaheim house and the sprawling Toontown land that exists in Tokyo Disneyland, but I'll leave that explanation for a later date after we decide whether or not Santa Claus exists. :lol:

But that doesn't explain how Disneyland is THE real home of Mickey and company. It just describes that as an ideal spot to find these characters, something that Disneyland has but WDW soon won't have. And I also don't think that this land would ever exist had it not been for this small land, which, when it started out in 1988 as Mickey's Birthdayland, had its own walk-through of Mickey's house, albeit far less cartoon-like in appearance.

And yes, a near, if not exact, replica of CA's Toontown has been put in Japan, which only makes it a bit more head-scratching to me.

Personally, if it was up to me, I would keep WDW's Toontown and greatly improve it into something more worthwhile. I actually thought of things like that and put them on boards like these long before I ever even heard of the Fantasyland expansion.

 

[aladdin2007]

Is it really true that Snow White is closing or is it still a rumor?

Unless they have done a complete 360 with their plans it is true and not a rumor. Its more of a question as to when, sometime in 2011 I would think.

 

[sshindel]

We're going the end of February, so we'll miss seeing Toontown one last time by a week or so. That's kind of a bummer, even though it isn't really that exciting. I just thought it was kind of cute. Especially Minnie's house, since it had the hearts and pink roof.

This isn't devastating as much as the fact that there is just soooo much construction happening in MK right now. It makes me sad that I'll be passing all the boards and walls telling about the future expansion. I just hope that the crane isn't visible in my pictures of the Castle.

It may be. Out of all of our photopass pics that we got on our photopass CD, maybe 1-2 shots (1 setting/time, multiple pics) had a crane in them. No big deal in my opinion, it's about the last thing I noticed, and I only noticed it on the 4th or 5th view. Let me know if you want to see what it may look like and I can post the pic / PM it to you when I get home from work today so you can see. It didn't bother me too much. But, as someone who is now obsessed with these boards, I think I actually will enjoy, years later, being able to say "That was when they were building the whole new area, how cool".

Also, I didnt think that the construction walls really took anything away when we were there. There really was just the big one in FLE. I'd think that the one for Toontown wouldnt have to be too large, just block the walkway, but I'd guess they will have to put something up at the trainstation as well to block that view.


Question to anyone in the know: When they close TTF, will they be closing the TTF train station off for the rest of the build, so that the train will basically go from Main Street to Frontierland, then go backwards to the Main Street station, or will they save that piece off until they are actually doing the work on the conversion of the TTF train station?

 

[aladdin2007]

It may be. Out of all of our photopass pics that we got on our photopass CD, maybe 1-2 shots (1 setting/time, multiple pics) had a crane in them. No big deal in my opinion, it's about the last thing I noticed, and I only noticed it on the 4th or 5th view. Let me know if you want to see what it may look like and I can post the pic / PM it to you when I get home from work today so you can see. It didn't bother me too much. But, as someone who is now obsessed with these boards, I think I actually will enjoy, years later, being able to say "That was when they were building the whole new area, how cool".

Also, I didnt think that the construction walls really took anything away when we were there. There really was just the big one in FLE. I'd think that the one for Toontown wouldnt have to be too large, just block the walkway, but I'd guess they will have to put something up at the trainstation as well to block that view.


Question to anyone in the know: When they close TTF, will they be closing the TTF train station off for the rest of the build, so that the train will basically go from Main Street to Frontierland, then go backwards to the Main Street station, or will they save that piece off until they are actually doing the work on the conversion of the TTF train station?

Yes the TTF station will be closing at the same time as toontown and completely remodeled and rethemed,.The train will just bypass it straight to Main Street during the redo.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Right now they technically have 7 lands...

"A castle leads the entranceway to seven lands and more...Step inside our storybook, imagine what's in store!"

If they bulldoze Toontown, maybe their plan is to replace it with another pseudo-land. It will prevent them from having to completely re-do the maps (although, I guess they'll have to delete Toontown from them in the interim anyway), and they won't have to change the 10,000 places in their literature, websites and songs that mention 7 lands.

That's exactly what I was thinking about as well - I just chose not to sing.

Carribean Plaza is NOT a land, get real....

I don't consider it a land, much in the same way that Hester and Chester's Dinorama, Anandapur and Serka Zong aren't lands either. I think they should be classified as areas, sections or villages within lands.

I'm working on another project right now and I'm having to worry about park layouts and what actually needs to be addressed. I haven't even regarded Caribbean Plaza as a section of Adventureland, although I may revise that going forward. I look at these "sections" as comparable to the pavilions in Epcot.

Where it really gets confusing is over in Hollywood Studios where the land designation is really arbitrary. Morseo than any other park, the website and park maps have different information for some attraction locations. It seems that without clearly defined lands, the location of certain items is debatable. Example: Is Prime Time Cafe in/on Hollywood Blvd or Echo Lake? Is Star Tours in the Backlot or Echo Lake? Is Brown Derby on Hollywood Blvd or Sunset Blvd?

Addressing a couple of topics here:

* I like the fact that DL's railroad stops at the four corners of the park. I'm not feeling particularly articulate on the subject, but MK's 3-stop model just feels "unbalanced" by comparison.

* I don't think it would make sense for Fantasy Forest to be a full-fledged separate land. The theme doesn't seem differentiated enough from FL to justify a complete breakaway (especially with "fantasy" right there in the name). If a seventh "land" is to be born from this, the circus area seems most likely to be it.

But my guess would be they just go to six lands and update the references in the monorail narration and other places. At least I'd like to see that happen. The park has essentially had 6 1/2 lands for the last two decades. I don't want to see some goofy circus area get promoted to a full-fledged land to arbitrarily maintain that number. For me, six strongly themed areas is strongly preferable to a "six plus one" setup like they have now.

I do think that Circusland makes more sense as an independent land, but I'm not sure if the distinction will be made.

Is it really true that Snow White is closing or is it still a rumor?

It has not been officially announced, but several trusted sources have been saying that it will close.

 

[mharrington]

Yes the TTF station will be closing at the same time as toontown and completely remodeled and rethemed,.The train will just bypass it straight to Main Street during the redo.

This is off-topic, yes, but I have some old guide books from the Magic Kingdom, and it seems that when Splash Mountain was under construction and there seems to be these piles of what look like logs between the Main Street and Starland stations (from going around the horn, not in Tomorrowland). Here is a picture (it's not mine, but it is from around that time period):

 

[Tom]

This is off-topic, yes, but I have some old guide books from the Magic Kingdom, and it seems that when Splash Mountain was under construction and there seems to be these piles of what look like logs between the Main Street and Starland stations (from going around the horn, not in Tomorrowland). Here is a picture (it's not mine, but it is from around that time period):

Wow. Excellent find - and example. That map clearly shows the train in "shuttle mode". I imagine they'll be able to run it in a complete loop for 99% of the remodel period, since the train doesn't actually go through a new ride/land. However, there will be times when they're working on the station and are too close to the train/track, and they'll likely shut down the train completely or run in a long shuttle mode for the safety of guests.

 

[jjharvpro]

I never loved nor hated Toontown. I maybe went thru to Mickey and Minnie's houses, rode Barnstormer during the fireworks just to get in another ride, and stopped at the TT train station once(to get to Tomorrowland).

I'm very glad to see even more progress and official dates for the Fantasyland expansion. I have to say that I do wish that I took some last pics there when I was there in WDW in March, just to have.

I DO NOT want Snow White to go--NOT AT ALL!!!! ugh!!!!!

Can't wait for some aerial pics when the walls come up!

 

[Tom]

That's exactly what I was thinking about as well - I just chose not to sing.

You didn't let it stop you during at least one of your recent PodCasts

 

[TP2000]

It's worth mentioning that Disneyland has long since shuttered a few of its attractions in Toontown, including the Jolly Trolley.

I do hear that the Roger Rabbit attraction is a true E ticket, though.

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is not really an E Ticket, but it is a great D Ticket five minute long dark ride. Truly wonderful and quite inventive.

The Jolly Trolley was closed several years ago, both in Anaheim and Tokyo, and now sits at its little depot or in front of the barn as photo-op type things. Something about the battery packs used to run it were no longer up to code??? They recently turned the depot into a DVC kiosk, so that slimy practice is not exclusive to WDW. Here kids play on the parked trolley while DVC shills its wares in the depot.

Goofy's Bounce House had the bouncing floor removed a few years ago for rumored liability reasons, and was turned into a "Kindergarten" play area for small kids with slides, big furniture, and crawl-through playground equipment. It's now called Goofy's Playhouse.

 

[SeaCastle]

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is not really an E Ticket, but it is a great D Ticket five minute long dark ride. Truly wonderful and quite inventive.



The Jolly Trolley was closed several years ago, both in Anaheim and Tokyo, and now sits at its little depot or in front of the barn as photo-op type things. Something about the battery packs used to run it were no longer up to code???



Goofy's Bounce House had the bouncing floor removed a few years ago for rumored liability reasons, and was turned into a "Kindergarten" play area for small kids with slides, big furniture, and crawl-through playground equipment. It's now called Goofy's Playhouse.

If I'm not mistaken, the Jolly Trolley was closed due to a boy being hit by the trolley, caused by the pathways in Toontown being too crowded. Also, I believe they just turned the stationary Jolly Trolley into a DVC kiosk.

 

[TP2000]

If I'm not mistaken, the Jolly Trolley was closed due to a boy being hit by the trolley, caused by the pathways in Toontown being too crowded.

Hmm, I don't remember any accident involving the trolley and can't find anything related to that on Google. I think you are thinking of the accident back in September, 2000 when a boy fell out of his taxicab on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. That was before they added the doors to the vehicles.

 

[SeaCastle]

Hmm, I don't remember any accident involving the trolley and can't find anything related to that on Google. I think you are thinking of the accident back in September, 2000 when a boy fell out of his taxicab on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. That was before they added the doors to the vehicles.

Ah, that was it. Thanks for correcting that.

Outside of my mix-up of Toontown attractions, I do believe the trolley was removed since the pathways were so crowded, though I'm sure they've found a way to deal with that for the Red Car Trolley they're installing at DCA.

 

[TP2000]

Outside of my mix-up of Toontown attractions, I do believe the trolley was removed since the pathways were so crowded, though I'm sure they've found a way to deal with that for the Red Car Trolley they're installing at DCA.

Well, they actually used to employ a Cast Member to "sweep" the tracks by walking ahead of the trolley and moving people to the side. I remember this well from Disneyland on busy days, and in Tokyo they did the same thing even when the place wasn't very crowded. It worked well. Here's a Tokyo Cast Member acting as the "sweeper" position on an uncrowded day, before they permanently parked their trolleys like Anaheim.

If you'd like to see video of how the "sweeper" position worked on the Jolly Trolley, this YouTube video shows the Cast Members performing this task from about the 2:00 minute mark onward. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p8s2a2NyJ4

As far as the Red Cars go, those things are much bigger than the cartoonish and small Jolly Trolley. I'm sure they will be no harder to get down the street than the horse-drawn streetcars at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.

Main Street USA has to be the most congested street in any theme park anywhere, and yet the streetcars there do just fine with a few rings of the bell.

The DCA Red Cars will likely be just as workable in a busy theme park street as Disneyland's/Magic Kingdom's horse-drawn trolleys have been for decades.

 

[Rob562]

But that doesn't explain how Disneyland is THE real home of Mickey and company. It just describes that as an ideal spot to find these characters, something that Disneyland has but WDW soon won't have.

There is a three-paragraph backstory included on page 43 of the original Imagineering book that basically said that Toontown had always been there in Anaheim. One day in the early 50's Mickey and Walt were talking and Walt's idea of Disneyland came up in the conversation. Mickey then suggested to Walt that he build Disneyland in the vacant land next-door to Toontown.
It wasn't until decades later that the toons realized that as easy as it was for them to go next-door to visit their non-toon friends, their non-toon friends could just as easily come visit them in Toontown. So a way was built for Guests to access Toontown from within Disneyland.

-Rob

 

[RSoxNo1]

You didn't let it stop you during at least one of your recent PodCasts

Touche

As for Roger Rabbit, It's definitely not an E-Ticket. If we're calling Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan C-tickets, then it's probably an average D-ticket.

 

[cheezbat]

I've gotta say...looking at the map, It really irks me just how much space that crappy Tomorrowland Speedway is taking up. There's the plot of land for you new 7th land in the Magic Kingdom...tear that thing out and build us a NEW and one of a kind land! :animwink:

 

[TP2000]

There is a three-paragraph backstory included on page 43 of the original Imagineering book that basically said that Toontown had always been there in Anaheim...

Here's the exact wording of the official backstory of Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland, or officially located next door to Disneyland, as told in several Walt Disney Imagineering sources since the 1990's;

Mickey's Swell Idea

Of course, everyone knows that Mickey's Toontown existed long before Disneyland was built right next door. One happy day in 1952, while Walt Disney was in Toontown visiting his pal Mickey Mouse, his dream for a new park come up in conversation. Mickey knew that whenever Walt got that sparkle in his eye, whatever he was dreaming up was bound to come true. So he was dismayed when Walt confided in him that he was having a difficult time finding a site large enough to accomodate all the wonderful things he had in mind.

"Oh, boy, I've got a swell idea!" Mickey exclaimed as he grabbed Walt by the hand and led him over to the fence that seperated Toontown from the human world. "Take a look over this fence," continued Mickey. "There's a fine and dandy parcel of land just on the other side that would be a wonderful place to build Disneyland!" And it was.

Many years went by before it finally dawned on the toons (the first time something dawned on them besides a happy cartoon sun) that since it was so easy for them to go next door to visit all their non-toon friends at Disneyland, their non-toon friends could just as easily come visit them in Toontown! And that is exactly what happened when Mickey's Toontown was "finally" opened to Disneyland visitors in February, 1993.

Clever! And that pretty much seals it that Mickey's house in the Toontown next door to Disneyland is his actual home. His "country house" was located in Florida, but will be torn down next month to be replaced by a still slightly mysterious "Phase Two" of the Fantasyland expansion.

 

[mharrington]

I've gotta say...looking at the map, It really irks me just how much space that crappy Tomorrowland Speedway is taking up. There's the plot of land for you new 7th land in the Magic Kingdom...tear that thing out and build us a NEW and one of a kind land! :animwink:

This 7th land would have to segue seamlessly from Tomorrowland, because the Speedway can be clearly seen from the overhead track for the PeopleMover/TTA as well as in plain view of Space Mountain. What about those two attractions? Wouldn't this land kind of clash thematically with the two rides clearly viewable from this area?