Mickey's Toontown Fair closing in February 2011

[DisneyNut2007]

Me too.

Me three.

And I still think that PH will come into existence in WDW's Fantasyland in one way or another, along with the Cinderella and Aurora houses.

And I will continue to stand by this belief until official announcements say otherwise.

 

[BrerFrog]

I will miss it because I worked there on my first ICP, I will make sure to take lots of pictures and videos.

 

[cheezbat]

Our Toontown was so inferior to Disneylands, but it was only meant to be temporary...if they had actually beefed it up over the years and turn it into a version similar to California's...maybe it wouldn't be going anywhere.

I still would like to see the Tomorrowland Speedway go bye bye and a new better Toontown replace it. Add a few dark rides in there for good measure!

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Closing Toontown Fair is Awesome!!

 

[ScorpionX]

In Loving Memory of Mickey's Toontown Fair
June 18, 1988-February 11, 2011

 

[stphnbogert]

so what is being built in toontown other than barnstormer being rethemed and the bigger dumbo?

 

[rct247]

I'd love to see Rapunzel get some love already in the new Fantasyland. That was such a good movie.

 

[T-1MILLION]

so what is being built in toontown other than barnstormer being rethemed and the bigger dumbo?

I could be wrong but I don't think much else. A better train station themed to fit fantasyland forest more was supposed to be in the works.

 

[mtomkins]

not sad to see it go, it's gotten run down =[ i agree though, DL's TTF is pretty cool & i would have liked to see that happen ..

i also agree with tomorrowland speedway going away. my dad wanted to ride it SO badly two weeks ago so we did .. we haven't done it in years and decided racing lawnmowers would have been faster lol. [i know, they are not going to go that fast].

and i'm sure it's been said somewhere along the way - but i wouldn't mind the speedway even being turned into the piston cup rally with the Cars crew .. with the new movie coming out, i'd like to see that happen later on .. i get it though, it's tomorrowland, not hollywood studios - but still, if it were transplanted i'd love it see it change over to that .. otherwise .. let it go along with the rest of the expansion!

 

[Atomicmickey]

And wouldn't that be SUPER COOL? Next stop, Fantasy Forest. You pull up to the station and you're transported to another world, deep in the woods, fully themed.

Awesome. Will be looking forward to this, just as the stop in Frontierland sets the stage for the adventure you're about to embark on, there.

 

[T-1MILLION]

And wouldn't that be SUPER COOL? Next stop, Fantasy Forest. You pull up to the station and you're transported to another world, deep in the woods, fully themed.

Awesome. Will be looking forward to this, just as the stop in Frontierland sets the stage for the adventure you're about to embark on, there.

Agreed 100 percent. Hopefully it is not a thing that gets cut and they go "Well it would be easier just to have this fiberglass tent like structure painted to be more circus like"

 

[klstorey]

Actually that train ride makes complete sense now! After the FF you then travel through Tomorrowland and are transported back to Main St. WOW I really like that!

I totally agree with taking out the speedway. I would love to see a new attraction in Tomorrowland added on its side and few on the FL side. The speedway takes up so much land and is so boring. If you want to ride a go-kart just go to one of the numerous places around town. Disney is about things you can't experience anywhere else! A slow, stuck on the track, so many fumes I feel high by the time I actually get in the driver sear go kart is not magical. And just imagine how this attraction is affected by the price of gas! Why have such a cost inside the park?

While we're talking about attractions we hate could we please close the boring Aladdin ride since we now have two Dumbos? Do we really need three of these spinning things in one park?

On the Tomorrowland side I want to see a nice small attraction like the Flying Saucers that are now being re-imagined at DCA. On the FL side they could any number of things.

When at Disneyland Paris the Alice in Wonderland maze was a nice time killer and great place to let little kids burn off some of that energy they have. My favorite non-Florida attraction though is the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Its a simple outdoor attraction that has something you can't see from just walking by. It is these small attractions that make a park great. MK has so few of them. Where are the walk-thru attractions and rides the whole family can go on? We have maybe 7 if that, a lot less if you have someone in the family who is afraid of the dark!

I would love to see a Tangled attraction! This movie was amazing, an instant classic. Maybe an indoor/outdoor Tangled boat ride?

Am I the only one concerned with how the FL is going to flow? I just don't want another DHS where it seems like everywhere you turn you have another sidewalk and you spend half the day backtracking over places you've already been.

 

[thehowiet]

I remember being 7 years old and riding the train from the old Frontierland station, excited to see this new part of the park, while listening to the song about Mickey's Birthdayland. Even at that age, I wasn't really all that into that area of the park. I know it's different now than it was then, but even after becoming Toontown, it always seemed like it was just thrown together and lacked that immersive element of the other lands within MK.

That area has always just been a waste of prime real estate to me. I consider the MK lucky to have all that room within the berm/railroad tracks compared to the other Disneyland style parks am glad that it will finally be put to good use.

I wonder how much of an impact the closure of Toontown will have on the rest of the park as far as capacity is concerned. Those families waiting in line to meet Mickey and just occupying that area as a whole will have to go somewhere. I'm guessing after February 11th we'll see a little more congestion in Fantasyland. I guess I'll find out when I arrive for my 30th birthday the weekend of February 26th :animwink:

 

[David S.]

I hope Disney is reading this. Not one person so far posted that they will miss Toontown. I certainly won't. I never include it in my visit to Magic Kingdom. Why won't it be missed? It's aimed a very young kids only. Exactly what Walt never wanted. He wanted a place that adults could enjoy also with their kids or without?

I will miss Mickey's Toontown Fair VERY, VERY, much, and I am not a "very young kid", nor do I have kids. Technically, I haven't been a "kid" for quite some time. Well, not in age, anyway, but I am very young at heart so I guess that's why Toontown's charms "aimed at very young kids" are not lost on me.

Thematically and aesthetically, it's my second favorite land in the MK behind only Fantasyland, which could certainly expand without razing Toontown.

Mickey and Minnie's Houses are very cute and charming and of all the "walk-through" theme park attractions I've ever visited (Disney or otherwise) they are my favorite.

So, to the sad news of losing my aesthetic second favorite land in the park, I say:

Aw gee. This is so NOT swell.

"Save my house", said Mickey Mouse!

What a lump of coal in the Christmas stockings of Toontown fans right before the holiday.

Merry Christmas to you too, "TDO".

Sadly, this will be Mickey's Toontown Fair's last Christmas to decorate the Houses for the Holidays (if TDO even bothered this year - I won't be back in O-town until Dec 28th so I haven't seen the MK yet since the Christmas decorations went up).

I was really hoping that even if Toontown wasn't saved, it could at least make it through another year or at least the Easter holidays.

I will really miss the awesome Toontown music loop with songs from the Silly Symphonies and character shorts, and all the whimsical, cute, and charming props and gags inside the houses. Donald getting caught by the shark, getting shut out by Mickey and Goofy in ping-pong, Mickey's messy kitchen, Minnie's answering machine, WACKY radio, Minnie's kitchen, the Barnstormer chickens, etc.

And even before I heard this bad, sad, news, I wanted to comment on the whole "Great Goofini" thing.

As much as it is nice to have some remnant of Toontown stay, it seems like keeping the Barnstormer themed to Goofy but with a circus theme would clash with the nearby Dumbo. After all, Dumbo and Goofy never interacted in a DAC. (Disney Animated Classic). It just seems sort of random that Goofy gets to stay and the other Fab 5 members don't, and of course the cynic in me supposes this could be a way of "repurposing" Barnstormer on the cheap.

The tents are what most people who had issues with Toontown seemed to dislike the most, more than Mickey and Minnie's elaborately detailed and charming houses. The houses seem quite popular with people visiting the park, despite the "groupthink" against them in some quarters online. Yet there are rumors that some of the tents may be staying (such as the large retail space) since they can be easily re-themed to the circus.

So, if they are OK with having Goofy included with Dumbo's circus area, why not just keep Toontown (AND THE HOUSES) intact, and give it a backstory where the fair has left town, but now the circus is in town instead. They could call it "Mickey's Toontown Circus"

Between this and the Snow White dark ride possibly closing, it looks like it's time to start planning in earnest my long-awaited Disneyland/West Coast trip, and even substitute DL for WDW for a few years, and visit DL more regularly in general, because I feel their Fantasyland as it is NOW is much better than what WDW's will be even when this project is finished. DL will still have the new Mermaid ride, just in DCA across the street. And their Toontown will still be intact, and the DL Fantasyland will STILL have 6 attractions missing from the MK. (SEVEN if the Snow White dark ride closes in MK).

Kinda ironic that Walt's original park has so much less space than the MK and WDW, but they make SUCH BETTER USE of the space they have out in Cali.

Everything new at WDW nearly ALWAYS comes at the price of something else, even though they have nearly 30,000 acres of land and Walt's well-known WDW quote of "There's enough land here to hold ALL the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine".

TDO is a joke!

Thanks for killing another of my favorites, this time an ENTIRE land!

After the bloodbath of the late 90's which kept me away from WDW for awhile (Toad, 20K, original Tiki show, original Figment ride, Kitchen Kabaret, World Of Motion, Horizons, etc), it seemed the carnage was finally over and all of my surviving favorites were safe.

With Toontown being killed and Snow White rumored for the same, I was obviously wrong.

California, here I come! Disneyland OWNS the MK and most likely always will!

PS. I do realize that my opinions on Toontown put me in a small minority on the boards. I am not expressing these views in an attempt to be controversial or a contrarian, or to upset anyone or get involved in an argument over the holidays. I am just speaking very sincerely and from the heart to show my support for Mickey's Toontown Fair!

 

[inluvwithbeast]

I'm pretty sure FLE was forced on TDO by Burbank. They would have preferred to leave your lands alone.

One again, TDO is a scapegoat. I'm not an apologist and I know TDO is pretty crappy quite often. But I don't think the blame should really fully rest there. Besides, look what you're getting in return. Something new and fresh. TTF was never meant to be permanent anyway.

And I'm thinking there are lots of examples of characters existing beside each other in the parks that were never in any film or show together.

 

[David S.]

I'm pretty sure FLE was forced on TDO by Burbank. They would have preferred to leave your lands alone.

One again, TDO is a scapegoat. I'm not an apologist and I know TDO is pretty crappy quite often. But I don't think the blame should really fully rest there.

If it is not their call, than I apologize for singling them out. I don't know which version of my post you read, but I have since edited some of the "anti-TDO" sentiments that were in the first version. But whoever is deciding these things, I never liked the way expansion almost always comes through subtraction, which seems pretty consistent at WDW. For instance, if the planners and decision makers had any foresight at all back in '98, we'd still be riding Toad and the Pooh ride would have found a home in a brand new show building, built on some of the land that they are finally using now!

Besides, look what you're getting in return. Something new and fresh. TTF was never meant to be permanent anyway.

Well, I know that the early incarnations as "Birthdayland" and "Starland" were meant to be temporary. After all, you can't celebrate Mickey's 60th forever! But I thought I remember reading that the "Toontown Fair" upgrade was intended to bring the section closer in design to the Toontown in DL (minus the downtown/Roger Rabbit elements) and make it more worthy as a "true", "permanent" land in the MK.

As far as new and fresh, the only thing I am really looking forward to is the Mermaid ride, and that show building could have easily co-existed with Toontown.

It's just in my nature that once I bond with something, I am intensely loyal. So I am much more likely to cling to things I have already bonded with than to desire new things that I haven't experienced yet. I've never been an "out with the old, in with the new", type of person - especially if the old is something I like. In that case, I'm more "cling to the old", and anything new has to earn a place in my heart before I get too excited about it.

And I'm thinking there are lots of examples of characters existing beside each other in the parks that were never in any film or show together.

Good point. I guess I should have explained my meaning better. I thought the idea behind "New Fantasyland" was to give each Animated Classic represented in the additions it's own section - the Little Mermaid section, Beauty and the Beast section, Dumbo's Circus section, etc. So that's what I meant by Goofy not fitting in with the Dumbo theme, under the assumption they were trying to create a circus land for Dumbo faithful to the one depicted in the film.

Naturally if that's not what they are going for, it wouldn't be out of place, just as Mad Tea Party exists next to Pooh even though they are not from the same film.

But then, why the need to retheme Barnstormer at all or remove Toontown in the first place, if they aren't going for a cohesive Dumbo's Circus theme?

If it's OK for Goofy to be a part of Dumbo's Circus section, than by that same logic, they could easily "repurpose" the rest of Toontown Fair into Toontown Circus, and say that Dumbo's Circus is visiting Toontown. Since Dumbo is one of the few DACs set in the United States, and since it is not rooted in the traditions of European fairytales, this could probably work, and it would save the houses.

Since Pixie Hollow was cancelled, I don't get what they are tearing down the houses for, anyway.

 

[trr1]

"There's enough land here to hold ALL the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine."- Walt Disney


Sorry Walt not anymore. We sold some land and deannexed more, Then we have all those DVC's and built the town of celebration

 

[paul436]

I always enjoyed Mickey's Toon Town Fair but have to admit I didn't visit it as much as the kids got older. The one in Disneyland is a lot better.

 

[flavious27]

I'll miss Mickey and Minnie's houses, as will my kids. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to the completed FL expansion...

They are going to be moving them, no news on where.

Good riddance.

?

so they are getting rid of the Goofy roller-coaster and Donald's boat as well?

Goofy will be re-themed as something dumbo related.

 

[wdwmagic]

They are going to be moving them, no news on where.

The leading theory was the will be demolished. Do you have some new info?