I got an e-mail from a CM friend regarding the Burning Settler's Cabin on Tom Sawyer Island sharing that it was going to indeed make a comeback. I relayed that message in the Burn that cabin again thread. After that, my CM friend passed on some interesting information regarding the upcoming additions to the new Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer Island.
With their permission I'm sharing it here. Enjoy.
We have all actually been surprised with most of what has been happening to the island (aside from the mast and zipline in the front). They are putting a big ship hull by the fort. The idea is that they are trying to make it look like a giant ship somehow wrecked all over the island. Most of us agree that, with the wreckage spread out the way it is, it seems more like Captain Hook's ship ran out of fairy dust and landed all over the island.
They are also working on a sunken treasure scene in smuggler's cove (with a skeleton attached to the treasure). The way it works is you pull a rope and it pulls the treasure up, then it pulls itself back down, then you pull it up, then it pulls itself back down again, then on the third try, you will be able to get the chest enough out of the water to see a skeleton hanging on it, at which point it'll pull itself back down.
They also plan on reopening the fort and are, in fact, adding a wheelchair lift for it. They want to open it up so that there will be an extra bathroom on the island and should have a fruit cart there.
The cave has been widened to make it wheelchair accessible and will now feature a skeleton that pops up in the middle of it (where the bottomless pit used to be). They have already ran the airlines for the skeleton. They claim that they will be adding an extra room to the cave. It should be another treasure scene. They say that they have been experimenting with an effect that should make it look like your hand is turning into a skeleton when you reach for a certain treasure. They said that they were originally going to try and use that effect in POTC, but did not perfect it in time for the reopening.
The only problem is that there are only 29 CMs left that have raft knowlege, that's including the night drivers, fantasmic shuttle drivers, and leads. We will be required to run 2 CMs per raft (we'll be using 3 rafts per day), plus a dock assist CM and at least 3 positions on the island (one for each wheelchair lift that they are adding).
Many thanks to the CM who went out of their way to share this info, the news is very exciting!
