Lensman
Well-Known Member
I think Tom Sawyer's Island and the front half of Rivers of America are a critical aspect of the theming of Frontierland. Get rid of that and you're basically saying get rid of Frontierland which I think we all agree is a bad idea.I have been going to WDW since it opened and before that Disneyland. Me I am just waiting for the day when they gut a good chunk of Frontieerland/Island/RiverBoat and Liberty Square. From Tom Sawer at Thunder Mt side, to Haunted Mansion back to the railroad tracks, Liberty Square and many of the shops and shooting gallery, it is a huge plot of land. Liberty Square has little going, the River Boat isn't a huge hourly draw and neither is Tom's Island. That can all be redeveloped into a new land with modern attractions when the time is right for Disney as it is under utilized acreage. We see what happened to Birthdayland/Toon Town and multiple times shortening the track for the Indy Cars to accommodate both Circus and Tron. When push comes to shove a boat and an Island isn't likely enough to not consider redeveloping those acres.
Regarding the idea about having more activities at Disney Springs, I think it's an interesting concept, but we should discuss implementation. DisneyQuest didn't do all that well for some reason, but there do seem to be new VR activities popping up. It's a nice idea to move old attractions to DS, but I agree with everyone else that it's impractical. Operating costs are probably high and the redesign and rebuild costs also make it mostly impractical.
OTOH, I'd like to see them move Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride out of Adventureland. Maybe they could move it to the Springs? Or if they ever decide to retire the Teacups (which I wouldn't want them to), I could see them moving them to the Springs.
So moving a spinner might be practical, but moving a dark ride just seems much more difficult. I'm not sure if Disney has any dark rides whose construction facilitates moving like carnival dark rides would.