For those of you who dont follow the Rumor board..

[OrlandoMike]

Fantasyland in Orlando is gonna double in size!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08W5Os-Wnj0

 

[ConcKahuna]

Yup, toontown goes caputnik.

 

[wallyb]

Poor Mickey!

Evicted.

 

[ConcKahuna]

For some tart who's not even old enough to vote!

 

[rpmdfw]

Poor Mickey!

Evicted.

From what I understand, it's not so much an eviction as a forced relocation. Scott read somewhere that Mickey & Minnie's homes would be relocated to near the front of the park.

Now WHERE that might be I have no idea.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I also read that Mickey & Minnie will be relocated. If I had to guess I would say Exposition Hall. We shall see.

I watched the video of the announcement 3 times and read through the text article from the Sentinal. I wonder how much of these concepts will be carried through to the actual, completed, working attractions? Because I just can't see some of it working very well.

I will say the 2012 opening date works quite well for my employers. Princess will be 6 and the new baby girl will be 2 or 3. The PERFECT ages to enjoy all of this expanded pomp and circumstance.

DS, on the other hand, is not interested.

 

[rpmdfw]

I watched the video of the announcement 3 times and read through the text article from the Sentinal. I wonder how much of these concepts will be carried through to the actual, completed, working attractions? Because I just can't see some of it working very well.

Attractions?

Didn't see a lot of those. Just the Little Mermaid one.

Can someone please tell Disney that character meet-and-greets are NOT atttractions!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The part about Dumbo not having a queue is rather deceptive. Everything has a queue.

The Mermaid thing sounds IDENTICAL to the Nemo ride at Epcot. I thought it was going to be more of a submarine thing like they have at DL, but then I read that the ride vehicles will be the same design as Haunted Mansion.

There will be what? 4 meet and greets? Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Ariel? Or not Ariel? I wasn't clear on that. It just seemed like they were describing an experience designed for SMALL groups of kids - not for 40 bazillion kids in a queue that stretches for 2+ hours. Make a card for Sleeping Beauty and yell surprise? How many people will be allowed in each group for that? I am guessing they allow a group into a sort of pre-show area, the kids make the cards, then you move to the meet & greet? That sounds like it will be BRUTALLY slow. Because some obsessive-compulsive kid in each group will launch a rage that they haven't had time to finish their card.

The "Be Our Guest" restaurant sounds kind of cool. But I am not clear on how big it will be. They said 3 rooms. And I am not clear on how (or if) it is tied in with the Belle meet & greet. The Belle thing sounds to me like they are just moving Belle from her story garden to a new location.

I have already read comments about the fabulous new "villain" restaurant. I am personally under the impression that Gaston's Tavern is a CS place, NOT a TS character meal. Like Pinocchio's is a CS place. But again, we shall see!

DS will be 15 by the time this stuff is finished, so I am pretty sure NONE of it will really matter to our family.

 

[wallyb]

From what I understand, it's not so much an eviction as a forced relocation. Scott read somewhere that Mickey & Minnie's homes would be relocated to near the front of the park.

Now WHERE that might be I have no idea.

Well - glad they're not getting kicked out completly.
Those princess are pushy girls.

 

[ConcKahuna]

Well - glad they're not getting kicked out completly.
Those princess are pushy girls.

 

[rpmdfw]

Well - glad they're not getting kicked out completly.
Those princess are pushy girls.

Trust me; they're NOTHING compared to the parents and grandparents of the "little princesses" that come to see them.

 

[OrlandoMike]

The Mermaid thing sounds IDENTICAL to the Nemo ride at Epcot. I thought it was going to be more of a submarine thing like they have at DL, but then I read that the ride vehicles will be the same design as Haunted Mansion.

Unfortunatly, the loading and unloading situation with the subs makes it almost impossible to have such an attraction in Florida. If they put in the sub's, it would be considered a whole new attraction, and would have to be ADA compliant. Also the ride capactiy on the subs is very low, compared to an Omni mover system which is very high. I'm confident it will be an "E-ticket" when finished!

 

[Timrobb]

do we know when this all will start?

I am wondering if Fantasyland will be down during our trip in May . .

Anybody hear anything?

 

[OrlandoMike]

do we know when this all will start?

I am wondering if Fantasyland will be down during our trip in May . .

Anybody hear anything?

The majority of the work will not be in the current Fantasyland, but over in the Toontown area. I would assume the impact on Fantasyland will be minimal untill they actually have to take the Dumbo ride out to move it, that is if they are keeping the current infrastructure and moving it.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Really, Pooh and Peter Pan are not that technologically advanced, but I still love those rides. So I suppose Mermaid could still be rather simplistic and be a good attraction.

I don't imagine the construction will disrupt things too much.

 

[ConcKahuna]

The majority of the work will not be in the current Fantasyland, but over in the Toontown area. I would assume the impact on Fantasyland will be minimal untill they actually have to take the Dumbo ride out to move it, that is if they are keeping the current infrastructure and moving it.

Yup! Contstruction is due to start in January.

Unfortunatly, the loading and unloading situation with the subs makes it almost impossible to have such an attraction in Florida. If they put in the sub's, it would be considered a whole new attraction, and would have to be ADA compliant. Also the ride capactiy on the subs is very low, compared to an Omni mover system which is very high. I'm confident it will be an "E-ticket" when finished!

Another issue is upkeep. Heat + Rain + water = algae.. When 20,000 LUTS was open before, pro divers had to be paid weekly to hand-scrub the algae off of everything in the attraction. That's one reason why "Submarine Voyage" was able to re-open in DL and 20kLUTS was able to open in Tokyo -- they are just cheaper to run in the dryer/cooler climates.

 

[rpmdfw]

Another issue is upkeep. Heat + Rain + water = algae.. When 20,000 LUTS was open before, pro divers had to be paid weekly to hand-scrub the algae off of everything in the attraction. That's one reason why "Submarine Voyage" was able to re-open in DL and 20kLUTS was able to open in Tokyo -- they are just cheaper to run in the dryer/cooler climates.

Wasn't it chlorinated?

Because I don't live all that far from the Magic Kingdom. And we've got a swimming pool. We have Heat, Rain, & Water and don't have algae.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Wasn't it chlorinated?

Because I don't live all that far from the Magic Kingdom. And we've got a swimming pool. We have Heat, Rain, & Water and don't have algae.

Chlorine doesn't kill all algae "species".
My former employers and my current employers have both struggled with algae in the pools. My former boss had a pool service and they still had issues. My current boss is awesome at keeping the pool clean and keeping the water treated, but he has still had some algae issues.

 

[mickeysaver]

I love the proposed plans for the expansion, but I do wish that they had included Snow White, Jasmine, and Tiana. They all deserve to be treated like royalty too! Even without those inclusions, the plan looks great to me. I look forward to seeing all of the details layered in so that the "fantasy" part of Fantasyland really comes to life.

As to the issue of moving around Mickey and Minnie, I have heard through various rumor mill sources that they are indeed moving to Exposition Hall. The work is supposed to be starting very soon on creating their new meet & greet areas there. I had heard that they were supposed to be doing a rehab of Exposition Hall with a different merchandising set up before all of this news broke. The new merch layout was supposed to create a better flow of traffic inside, which could definitely use some improvement. I also wondered why the MNSSHP pins were not being sold at Exposition Hall this year. With the proposed changes coming to Exposition Hall, it makes complete sense now as to why they would cut down on the traffic in and out of there, even for something as small as pin sales on party nights. I wonder if they will close the services down there for a bit anytime soon?

 

[OrlandoMike]

Chlorine doesn't kill all algae "species".
My former employers and my current employers have both struggled with algae in the pools. My former boss had a pool service and they still had issues. My current boss is awesome at keeping the pool clean and keeping the water treated, but he has still had some algae issues.

Never had a problem with algae in my pool here in Orlando, and as far as 20K goes, the majority of the attraction was located in an air conditioned building anyway....