Fantasyland expansion being scaled back?

[lugnut33]

I for one would be hugely disappointed if they cut back on this project. The Magic Kingdom is in some serious need of expansion to help disperse the crowd.

 

[dalt01]

I for one would be hugely disappointed if they cut back on this project. The Magic Kingdom is in some serious need of expansion to help disperse the crowd.

not so sure it will accomplish that anyway.........toon town used to eat up a lot of the stroller crowd and with that gone..........

 

[G66]

I for one would be hugely disappointed if they cut back on this project. The Magic Kingdom is in some serious need of expansion to help disperse the crowd.

The article talks of scaling back the "overly" princes focused Fantasyland to go with an assortment of new rides & attractions for the Magic Kingdom that would have far broader appeal. I would agree with that decision.

 

[lugnut33]

The article talks of scaling back the "overly" princes focused Fantasyland to go with an assortment of new rides & attractions for the Magic Kingdom that would have far broader appeal. I would agree with that decision.

Why not keep the princess part, and do an expansion someday of Tomorrowland focused on boy/tomboy appeal?

 

[doconeill]

Why not keep the princess part, and do an expansion someday of Tomorrowland focused on boy/tomboy appeal?

The poster over on the theme park boards claimed there would be an expansion of Adventureland...there have been rumors of a new e-ticket in that area for some time...

 

[G66]

Why not keep the princess part, and do an expansion someday of Tomorrowland focused on boy/tomboy appeal?

Because someday may never come. The project is now.

 

[cxcelica]

Quite the interesting article. I know you can't always believe Jim Hill, but I'd say he is right as often as he is wrong.

I would say that's about right. I'll read Jim every once in a while because its a unique perspective. But like you said he's probably right 50% of the time and wrong 50% of the time. Unfortunately that's really not a good ratio if you want to consider him a reliable source. There is no doubt, he does have some legitimate connections inside Disney, it's just seems that he than takes that information and then uses innuendos and assumptions to connect the dots in his stories. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

I laughed a little at the part of the story where he said that Disney was jealous that people were waiting an hour to get into the shops at WWoHP

 

[simmons_m]

Interesting and thought provoking read, with a number of points that make sense. It will be fun to see how things play out.
Could the acquisition of Marvel impact the plans as well?

 

[doconeill]

Could the acquisition of Marvel impact the plans as well?

The Marvel acquisition came with some fairly big handcuffs on what they could do in the parks (due to the Universal rights), with most of the popular characters taken, but I can see how Marvel may have been part of the reaction to the "girl-centric" view of Disney. I don't think it was, only because such acquisitions usually take a long time and it was probably started long before...

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

According to this thread (and some threads on other sites), the Pixie Hollow construction is officially off, and the Dumboland project is still in the air.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

I guess Jim Hill was on target (at least somewhat)....

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/General_Disney_News/Disney_World_changing_Fantasyland_plans.htm

- D

 

[ADP]

It sounds like "scaled back" maybe the wrong choice of words according to what they are really doing. It seems like they are replacing and maybe rearranging.

 

[Merry Mousketeer]

There have been rumors on the West Coast for a couple of months that the Princesses would be scaled back and replaced with more attractions. Nothing specific.

I don't know if this is telling, but at the Walt Disney Family Museum's Disneyland 55th Anniversary Celebration, a couple of Imagineers talked about future plans for all Disney Parks. When speaking about the WDW Fantasyland expansion, they spoke only about The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast sections. That got me to wondering if Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were in jeopardy.

 

[exwdwcm]

It sounds like "scaled back" maybe the wrong choice of words according to what they are really doing. It seems like they are replacing and maybe rearranging.

i agree, it sounds like they are just reconsidering the plans and maybe moving some resources and ideas to other parts of the park maybe even. there's been rumors about them doing something with tom sawyer island or frontierland even. again- just rumors floating around. from the gossip i've read, it sounds like maybe some of those princess meet and greets could be nixxed? sounds like Little Mermaid and the B&B tavern are still safe at least. Hopefully dumbo is too. Pixie hollow was so far down on the schedule, who knows what will become of it.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

It sounds like "scaled back" maybe the wrong choice of words according to what they are really doing. It seems like they are replacing and maybe rearranging.

I suppose it depends on how you read it. To me - it does seem as if they're scaling back on princess-related stuff. But - who knows...that's the fun of rumors!

 

[WaltD4Me]

There have been rumors on the West Coast for a couple of months that the Princesses would be scaled back and replaced with more attractions. Nothing specific.

I don't know if this is telling, but at the Walt Disney Family Museum's Disneyland 55th Anniversary Celebration, a couple of Imagineers talked about future plans for all Disney Parks. When speaking about the WDW Fantasyland expansion, they spoke only about The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast sections. That got me to wondering if Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were in jeopardy.

I can understand Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, there is more to their areas than the expanded meet and greets. Personally I think the Ariel ride looks like it would appeal to everyone, not just little girls and the Be Our Guest restaurant? That sounds amazing! and it doesn't have to be princess heavy like CRT, with all the great characters in that movie, there is alot they can do to make it fun for everyone.

I wasn't a fan of the expanded Meet & Greet areas anyway, but someone said something I didn't think of. They said it was bad enough to stand in one long line to meet three princesses and they weren't too excited about the thought of having to wait in indivual lines, which is a very good point. Plus from a Disney perspective, from what I could tell on the plans, there didn't seem to be a way to dump people into a huge gift shop after meeting Cindy or Aurora or whoever on the way out.

 

[cxcelica]

It sounds like "scaled back" maybe the wrong choice of words according to what they are really doing. It seems like they are replacing and maybe rearranging.

I see what you are saying. In this economy as soon as you hear we are going to be "scaling back" you automatically think, they have no money and job cuts are just around the corner. In reality it seems from the rumors that they are nixing some of their previous ideas in order to replace them with new ones that they feel will be more popular (i.e. perhaps a little more boy friendly etc.). No problem with that. Of course this is just all rumors, who knows what is really going to happen.

 

[Spaceace5150]

It seems like some of the other words being thrown around are only nice ways of saying scaled back. But only time will tell...

 

[doconeill]

"scaled back" to me would be them saying, "We know we announced all these things, but it proved to be too expensive so we're cutting out a lot of things and we're just going to build the restaurant and Little Mermaid ride, and then we'll just repaint Toontown."

This sounds more like they are rethinking the themes, etc. but still plan to go ahead with the same scale of changes.

And of course, this could all change in the next 5 minutes.

 

[lugnut33]

Maybe they should open up a Pinocchio type Pleasure Island to appeal to he boys?