Nothing at the parks should be sacred. They should all be expendable for something stronger.
...um... Dumbo, the Teacups and the Carousel take up minimal space. I can't see anything on par with POTC/HM fitting in their spots. There's no incentive to replace flat rides with a relatively small footprint.
And I disagree. The major attractions shouldn't get replaced until EVERY last possible expansion pad is filled. They're 'sacred' until there's no more room. MK potentially could add 17-20 more attractions without closing anything else, just using the expansion pads and poorly utilized space.
But POTC, HM, IASW, Peter Pan, Big Thunder, Splash and Space shouldn't leave ever. JC can leave MK due to Animal Kingdom rendering it redundant, but those 7 have no real reason to leave, especially with how big of draws they are. I do agree that anything else is up for replacement.
Same goes for ToT, Kilimanjaro, Spaceship Earth, any of the WS attractions other than Frozenstrom, probably Soarin'/Test Track, and probably Everest/SDMT due to how expensive rockwork is.
No one truly thinks Splash should close or be rethemed. It's a great ride. That doesn't mean we can't wish it was placed in an appropriate location to begin with. It should be in Fantasyland. That would also be a more appealing location for the park's 3rd mountain. But, it's been where it is for more than two decades and it's a wonderful ride, so it's water under the bridge now.
Kinda like Tower of Terror, which also doesn't belong at the end of a 1940s street. Great rides get to bend the rules a bit. This is what worries me about Frozen Ever After, actually--poorly placed AND potentially a crappy ride? Ugh.
Bald Mountain is the only mountain that truly belongs in Fantasyland.
Splash Mountain would have been better in a Critter Country expansion north of Big Thunder (Splash as the headliner, Pooh used as a transition from Critter to Fantasyland, Bambi, a relocated Country Bears and that Autopia-style ride themed to critters to flesh out the land). A new show would go in the old Country Bears locale.
Then WRE or Geyser Mountain could have gone where Splash and the pad between Pirates/current Splash are.
We'd keep Mr. Toad, get a brand new land, get rid of a huge bottleneck, and expand Frontierland WITHOUT closing anything. If only TDO hadn't been so short-sighted back in the early 90s
They could have always built a North American subland for Fantasyland that contained Splash, Dumbo and Bambi.
But Fantasyland definitely doesn't have that much consistency.
Dumbo is set in the United States.. Peter Pan is early 20th century, IASW is definitely early to mid 20th century due to the carnival in the finale, and 20K was 19th century, so Fantasyland has always been more of a 'storybook/fairy tale' land than strictly 'medieval castle'.
I'm not the biggest 10K Subs fans actually, so I'm probably not the person to ask. I'm actually rather indifferent to them being gone now that the land has actually been re-used instead of being left to rot. However, yes, the subs really did not belong in Fantasyland, especially as it is currently constructed.
To Disney's credit, the new Fantasyland is much stronger thematically than ever before. The Circus should IMHO be considered a different land entirely instead of a subland but the "Castle Courtyard" and "Fantasyland Forest" aspects look and work great.
I'd love to see 20K come back as part of a Mysterious Island subland in Adventureland. Or as part of a steampunk replacement for the Speedway. Either way, 20K should come back some day.
