Possible Frontierland expansion

deWild

deWild

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
This is Chris Beatty's doing. The initial Fantasyland proposal had three of these similar interactive meet and greets. E-ticket setup for an A-ticket diversion. At least with Mine Train and Mermaid you get the E-ticket setup for C/D-tickets (actual ticket interpretation may vary).

The fact that the Board of Director's reportedly shot down Beatty's proposal for Star Wars tells me that they have learned from these types of mistakes. These meet and greet type things certainly have value, but pick your spots better. Enchanted Tales with Belle and Princess Fairytale Hall are perfectly fine additions, but it's a much tougher sell on the most valuable real estate in Walt Disney World.

This goes to my "it's a small world" should move to Epcot argument as well. Doing so opens up so much space in Fantasyland which should be the lifeblood of Walt Disney World. Add in the possible removal of the Tomorrowland Speedway and you've given Disney a pretty large canvas for something other than meet and greets.
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I'm assuming the three M&G's you refer to were Belle, Tinkerbell, and whatever princess was planned for the Mine Train space. What happened to this Chris Beatty person? Does he still work for the company? I'm interested to see/read about the other plans for Star Wars before management decided on the current version being constructed.

Small World being moved to Epcot or moved to a new location within MK would be beautiful for future expansion. I cannot fathom what might be if that were to happen (*cough**remove the bottleneck**cough*). While we're on the topic of wasted space, I have been on the Speedway exactly ONE time since I started visiting WDW in the early 90s. ONCE. I can't tell you how many times I've visited WDW and skipped the cars. In the future, if one were to look up wasted in the dictionary two definitions will pop up: the first - "the general sensation parents feel when standing in line for the Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom" - and the second - "additional reference, see space, wasted".
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Master Yoda said:
Not to the same degree...supposedly.

WDW has always had the reputation of having a non-local client base while all the other Disney parks have the opposite. The way you get locals to make more trips is to tweak the attractions with seasonal overlays. The same thing seems to anger non-locals more than enticing them.

When it comes to guests complaining about seasonal overlays at the other parks they seem to have a particular thing in common....they are not locals.
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As an aside to this... as a non-local who never visited during holidays, I was pretty surprised to learn in relatively recent years that WDW even had seasonal decorations. I always felt like that kind of stuff was a "gimmick" that local parks do for their local people to get them to come in extra times but a really high quality theme park wouldn't need to do such things because its offerings are so strong that they stand on their own merit year round. Growing up, since my family and I didn't actually go to the parks all that often (maybe every 3 years or so), I think we would have been annoyed and disappointed if HM or CBJ or whatever had some seasonal thing instead of the "proper" experience. So, I totally get that sentiment.

I do believe there's a legitimate concern about pleasing locals/frequent guests versus having the classic stuff available for infrequent/once in a lifetime guests at WDW.
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
doctornick said:
As an aside to this... as a non-local who never visited during holidays, I was pretty surprised to learn in relatively recent years that WDW even had seasonal decorations. I always felt like that kind of stuff was a "gimmick" that local parks do for their local people to get them to come in extra times but a really high quality theme park wouldn't need to do such things because its offerings are so strong that they stand on their own merit year round. Growing up, since my family and I didn't actually go to the parks all that often (maybe every 3 years or so), I think we would have been annoyed and disappointed if HM or CBJ or whatever had some seasonal thing instead of the "proper" experience. So, I totally get that sentiment.

I do believe there's a legitimate concern about pleasing locals/frequent guests versus having the classic stuff available for infrequent/once in a lifetime guests at WDW.
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You gotta dance with the girl that brought ya. That is really all any of the parks are doing.

It kind of stinks when WDW is your local park and you want all of that extra stuff that the others are doing, but what are you going to do?
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
CaptainAmerica said:
It's a single attraction, not some cataclysmic trend.
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Yep. For an "enhanced" M&G (or walkthrough or whatever you want to consider it), ETWB is actually top notch. I don't think anyone is suggesting having a bunch of these per parks, but as the occasional experience I think it's actually quite good. Certainly a more interesting use of space than an ordinary M&G. As an adult, I find myself pretty intrigued by the experience.

IIRC, it actually won a Thea award when it opened.
 
Coaster Lover

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
MansionButler84 said:
Or, mayhaps:

View attachment 209724
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I dunno... maybe it's just me, but I like the Haunted Mansion as just the Haunted Mansion... I especially like the Haunted Mansion being the Haunted Mansion (as opposed to Nightmare before Christmas) during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween... Haunted Mansion Holiday was fun, but... yeah... now, a Ghost Galaxy overlay for Space Mountain I'd be all for, but just to set up the infrastructure for that I would assume would take quite a significant closure of Space Mountain...
 
EricsBiscuit

EricsBiscuit

Well-Known Member
They could still replace Belle with an E. Maybe it's temporary and the AAs and sfx could be used on a new BAtB ride. I don't know and I'm sure someone else raised this possibility before. At least we got SDMT and Ariel.

As for SW, thank goodness that ride is gone. Not an attraction, a ride. Worse than Stitch. It was a bunch of moving cardboard with a few mannequins. I almost broke my neck on that thing in Tokyo. Contrast that with the beautiful PFTH which earns walk through status in my book.
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
Bocabear said:
I can't even imagine what a disaster that Fantasyland would have been...though as we see, there are always people that would think it was the most wonderful thing ever...
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You might have seen a Frozen dark ride by now instead of the Norway version. A dark ride in place of the princess hall and who knows what other differences. Not that I am complaining by how it all worked out.
 
Bocabear

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
EricsBiscuit said:
They could still replace Belle with an E. Maybe it's temporary and the AAs and sfx could be used on a new BAtB ride. I don't know and I'm sure someone else raised this possibility before. At least we got SDMT and Ariel.

As for SW, thank goodness that ride is gone. Not an attraction, a ride. Worse than Stitch. It was a bunch of moving cardboard with a few mannequins. I almost broke my neck on that thing in Tokyo. Contrast that with the beautiful PFTH which earns walk through status in my book.
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SW? Snow White? Star Wars? Almost broke your neck? on Shnow White's Scary Adventures? It was a quaint old school dark ride... I still rode it every time even after they ruined it by toning down the horror elements...
Princess Fairy Tale Hall aka Marriott Ballroom Pre Function Space with Costumed College Kids is not a ride replacement in my book and never will be.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Master Yoda said:
Not to the same degree...supposedly.

WDW has always had the reputation of having a non-local client base while all the other Disney parks have the opposite. The way you get locals to make more trips is to tweak the attractions with seasonal overlays. The same thing seems to anger non-locals more than enticing them.

When it comes to guests complaining about seasonal overlays at the other parks they seem to have a particular thing in common....they are not locals.
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Walt Disney World has plenty of repeat business these days. The far bigger problem is that all of the parks are strained for capacity.
 
deWild

deWild

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
There were five originally. Belle, Tink, Aurora, Cinderella and Ariel.

Thank god Rassulo got the push.
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It was Jay that pushed against the Meet 'n Greets? And then he wasn't promoted to COO afterwards? This doesn't make any sense. Why am I just hearing about this now lol
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Sorry to burst your bubble but that version of NFL had no room for a ride aside from UTS.
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Lee once indicated that expansion could happen behind BATB. That was before the final design was finalized. A lot could have changed between the two versions and apparently did.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
deWild said:
I'm assuming the three M&G's you refer to were Belle, Tinkerbell, and whatever princess was planned for the Mine Train space. What happened to this Chris Beatty person? Does he still work for the company? I'm interested to see/read about the other plans for Star Wars before management decided on the current version being constructed.

Small World being moved to Epcot or moved to a new location within MK would be beautiful for future expansion. I cannot fathom what might be if that were to happen (*cough**remove the bottleneck**cough*). While we're on the topic of wasted space, I have been on the Speedway exactly ONE time since I started visiting WDW in the early 90s. ONCE. I can't tell you how many times I've visited WDW and skipped the cars. In the future, if one were to look up wasted in the dictionary two definitions will pop up: the first - "the general sensation parents feel when standing in line for the Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom" - and the second - "additional reference, see space, wasted".
Click to expand...
The original Fantasyland had a Cinderella Chateau and Aurora Cottage meet and greet. At Cinderella's Chateau you were going to watch her "magically transform" into her gown. At the Aurora Cottage you were making birthday cards for her 16th birthday. Beatty is still very much involved in Imagineering. He's been seen in recent videos on the Disney Parks Blog but I don't remember what attraction it was for.

For it's a small world, you could do any number of things in that area. In my perfect world I'd have it be Frozen, Peter Pan and possibly a third IP. I could see the Beauty and the Beast mountains being extended to be used as a backdrop for Frozen. I'd remove Frozen from Norway and put it in Fantasyland where it belongs.

As for the Speedway, I think they missed an opportunity to integrate a similar attraction using RC Racer in Toy Story Land. It could have been integrated in and around the Slinky Dog Dash Coaster as a much more efficient use of space. I understand the need for a Speedway type attraction, but the current form is dated and a poor use of space.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
Yep. For an "enhanced" M&G (or walkthrough or whatever you want to consider it), ETWB is actually top notch. I don't think anyone is suggesting having a bunch of these per parks, but as the occasional experience I think it's actually quite good. Certainly a more interesting use of space than an ordinary M&G. As an adult, I find myself pretty intrigued by the experience.

IIRC, it actually won a Thea award when it opened.
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They literally suggested having a bunch of these in the parks as part of New Fantasyland.
 

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