Magic Kingdom Expansion Confirmed!

[idieh]

My question would be "what do they plan to put there"? Will the new land be like Fantasyland, with several attractions in a small space or Asia; a large space with a few attractions? Also, the industry trend seems to be toward mega coasters and e ticket rides. This would be getting away from the MK=family theme and appealing more to teens and young adults. One of the things I love most about the MK is its emphasis on "family fun".
I guess time will tell...
Doug

 

[skier_pete]

Boy is this thread going OT?

First of all, I'd like to see some sort of link to prove these statements were made...but I will give the benefit of the doubt to the OP. Even so, there is nothing new being said . Yes, Kris Theiler works for Disney, so that is certainly true. But her two comments:

MK expansion: This has been "in the works" for at least two years to my recollection, an expansion of Fantasy Land: Previous claims have include a "Little Mermaid" ride where 20,000 leagues used to be (YEAH!), replacing Snow White with Beauty and the Beast dark ride (BOO!), and a Snow White & Seven Dwarves Mine Car Roller Coaster (YEAH!). Supposedly this is all still "in the works" but been delayed because of economic conditions. This discussion says nothing about timing, which would be the only new info if there was any.

The pay-for-FP has been discussed a bazillion times by Disney as well, and in about 10,000 threads here. Again, the comments in the OP are so vague on this as to be meaningless:

"Disney is constantly looking at ways to improve and change Fastpass including even charging for fastpass "

No duh! This statement says nothing at all. It doesn't say they are planning on charging, or that they are implementing changes, just that they are "constantly looking".

Calm down folks.

SkierPete

 

[Joolish1313]

I also agree with skier_pete. I'd like to see where these comments were reported.

As for the expansion, let's play the wait & see game. Once Disney wants the public to know, they'll annouce it.

The Fastpass improvements: well, wait & see.

I would love to see something in the 20,000 leagues area or in the Toon Town area (I think there's space to the left, behind the entrance banner, but don't quote me on it).

 

[kcb]

I read on "another" website that the expansion would be the enchanted forest and it would be located where toontown and 20k is. (or in the case of 20k, used to be.)
I guess goofy's barnstormer could be reconfigured to be a mine train.

 

[CanadianGuy]

RE: FP Changes

Always been talk on this point and frankly - I'm a 'watch and see' guy on this one. Talk is cheap. Action is what costs money.

RE: MK Expansion - Is There Enough Room?

In a word - yes. In two words - yes, absolutely.

There is ample room to expand MK in Florida with some creative thinking and approaches to how to do it..

The map below shows a number of colored areas that could easily be used with bridges or walking paths over the Railroad tracks in some cases ... some internal backstage areas might have to be relocated or better 'hidden' with fake facades or artful landscaping but there is a huge amount of land that is useable when you look closely..

The 'yellow' highlighted areas behind Cindy's castle would be trickiest because some fireworks are shot from that area for Wishes and other nighttime spectaculars at MK and there needs to be a safety 'cushion' so that shell fallout and so forth doesn't land on guests pending wind direction and so on.

I didn't highlight it - but the Magic Kingdom lake area below Space Mountain and behind Carousel of Progress could be used for 'pier like' area and possibly even hosting a new evening show involving water, fireworks and whatever.. kinda like Fantasmic..

All that said - there is enough room for expansion for at least two or three entire 'lands' if they think creatively.. I suspect they are talking about something much less ambitious however in which case space is the least of their concerns.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

Boy is this thread going OT?

First of all, I'd like to see some sort of link to prove these statements were made...but I will give the benefit of the doubt to the OP. Even so, there is nothing new being said . Yes, Kris Theiler works for Disney, so that is certainly true. But her two comments:

MK expansion: This has been "in the works" for at least two years to my recollection, an expansion of Fantasy Land: Previous claims have include a "Little Mermaid" ride where 20,000 leagues used to be (YEAH!), replacing Snow White with Beauty and the Beast dark ride (BOO!), and a Snow White & Seven Dwarves Mine Car Roller Coaster (YEAH!). Supposedly this is all still "in the works" but been delayed because of economic conditions. This discussion says nothing about timing, which would be the only new info if there was any.

The pay-for-FP has been discussed a bazillion times by Disney as well, and in about 10,000 threads here. Again, the comments in the OP are so vague on this as to be meaningless:

"Disney is constantly looking at ways to improve and change Fastpass including even charging for fastpass "

No duh! This statement says nothing at all. It doesn't say they are planning on charging, or that they are implementing changes, just that they are "constantly looking".

Calm down folks.

SkierPete

Beat me to the punch and well said. Pete has hit the nail on the head.

I highly doubt we'll see a massive expansion that uses all the remaining available space. It's too ambitious for the time being. We may see things done incrementally over time - a very long time.

 

[MineMail]

I could definitely see a bridge over the railroad that brings guests to a new area. Hadn't noticed the area behind Space Mountain that CanadianGuy pointed out. (Thanks for the map view, btw.)

As for the FastPass, what about a reservation system, similar to what they do for ADR's? Make it a feature for WDW Resort guests only. Reserve your FP's a day in advance (with enforced times) for key attractions and you can set up your own touring plan, more or less. I don't know how many tour groups actually stay on site, though. The point about 30 people reserving the same ride at one time is a good one. Perhaps they could limit the number of Reservations given per time slot.

The machine-distributed FP's could still be available, but the number of tickets being distributed would be reduced based on these Reserved Fast Passes.

Mixed bag, I guess: once you get this system going, it could eliminate the need for FP machines entirely, which would be bad for the general public.

 

[Condorman]

Folks, when another poster created a thread about "Fastpass 2.0", everyone jumped on their back as being a fraud.

The OP of this thread makes similarly outrageous claims without any proof or links, and everyone accepts it as face-value?

I'll believe everything once I see one thing.

BTW, the pay-to-play Fastpass that they're testing out in HKDL and DLP should make its way to WDW. Yes, Disney would charge $100+ for it, but I would be all over that. If it meant no longer having to make rope drop, or having to wait five hours to use my FP? If it was an "instant FP", meaning anytime of the day I slipped my KTTK card into the machine and it gave my a FP to ride within the next 15 minutes --- well, you can't put a price on that. Time is more valuable than money. But the only way they could make this work was to know how many of these Dream Passes they had sold, and how many would be in use at which parks each day, and therefore limit the # of regular FPs that the machines could hand out. I'm not too sure about the science behind it, but it seems to me the Dream Passes would have to be like MVMCP tickets, limited in quantity and on specific dates. We shall see.

 

[jar]

Huge difference in original posts. OP in "Fastpass 2.0" spoke of surveys, confidentiality obligations (which he gladly broke), excuses for post-counts that were inconsistent with prior excuses, and other buzz phrases like "I know a lot more but can't tell you." Then an hour after that teaser, he gave some supposed details and said that there's more to the story. All smelled very fishy. Here, OP didn't do any of that and, in fact, didn't give any details at all but the discussion just went forward from there with lots of speculation.

 

[Condorman]

Huge difference in original posts. OP in "Fastpass 2.0" spoke of surveys, confidentiality obligations (which he gladly broke), excuses for post-counts that were inconsistent with prior excuses, and other buzz phrases like "I know a lot more but can't tell you." Then an hour after that teaser, he gave some supposed details and said that there's more to the story. All smelled very fishy. Here, OP didn't do any of that and, in fact, didn't give any details at all but the discussion just went forward from there with lots of speculation.

Different posts, same nonsense thereafter. Then again, this is the rumors board...

 

[MineMail]

Folks, when another poster created a thread about "Fastpass 2.0", everyone jumped on their back as being a fraud.

The OP of this thread makes similarly outrageous claims without any proof or links, and everyone accepts it as face-value?

I didn't say a thing about whether or not I believed it, I just gave my views and ideas.

 

[doconeill]

Sounds like an "I heard from someone who heard from someone who was listening in on..." rumor.

However, could this "expansion" simply just be the long-discussed Little Mermaid attraction? A new attraction, not a replacement, would be an expansion.

I'm also a proponent of reusing all the space from the Indy Speedway.

 

[Condorman]

I just want everyone to re-read the OP's statement. They talk about it like they're a journalist with the LA Times, having overheard or been witness to a formal meeting between an SVP and some CMs, etc. etc.

No corroboration = epic fail.

 

[P.I. Squirrel]

Today Kris Theiler (VP of operations support for domestic parks and resorts) had the chance to speak to a couple of Disneyland Cast members about her experience with the company. She talked a little bit about the restructuring and how she now does double duty for both DLR and WDW. She mentioned her work on DCA including the expansion and then mentioned she was also working on the expansion in the Magic Kingdom. During a Q&A after her presentation a cm asked if she could elaborate on the Magic Kingdom project, wanting to know if it was for the park or the recent DVC expansion. Kris responded saying it is inside the park but she couldn't elaborate any further and said there would be an announcement about the project soon.

Also another small tidbit from Kris was that Disney is constantly looking at ways to improve and change Fastpass including even charging for fastpass (no surprise there.) She did mention that the "father" of fastpass believes that fastpass should always remain free as it is a service that they owe to the public however a pay system for a "magic pass" is currently being tested in HKDL.

OK, after doing much searching of the net, I gotta call bull on this.

This post has made it to all the forums, word for word, with no reference link yet.

Second, it says in the first paragraph she was speaking to DL CM's, there is nothing in the article suggesting WDW MK expansion at all.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[ilovethisplace]

A change in the fastpass system? For some reason that seems vaguely familiar. I'm going to add a couple of words to this post, Activity Tent. That is all.

 

[artesian]

But the bus driver said that they were...

 

[live4christp1]

The fast pass system might not be perfect, but overall, it is fair. I hope they leave it alone.

I totally agree! I don't like the systems at Six Flags, etc. that charge you $20 or more per person and you still have to come back when beeped, etc. That makes the price of a one day admission there just as much as a one day at WDW.

Even if WDW used this I'm sure there would still be complainers and as much as I love WDW I can't justify $140 per person per day on top of ticket cost. Sad to admit but we'd probably have to stop our annual trip to the world and make it just once every 3 - 4 years.

Please leave the Fast Pass system alone. It works just fine as it is.

Sure there have been times when we would have liked to have gotten a FP but they were all gone, we either decided skip the ride or stand in line.

 

[WDW Enabler]

To put the discussion to end once and for all...

I will ask the Boat driver and the Bus driver when I am down there in 2 weeks.

Until then, I agree....

... Wait and see. Of course Disney is always looking at "Expanding" in some way shape of form.

 

[mitros]

We need an aerial map of MK so we can really start to guess where they could add on. Sounds like a job for Robo!!

Go to Google earth,and check out the MK at WDW. You can get a Good idea what is still left, space-wise, over there.

 

[TDC Nala]

Second, it says in the first paragraph she was speaking to DL CM's, there is nothing in the article suggesting WDW MK expansion at all.

I'll believe it when I see it.

hmmm. there IS a Little Mermaid dark ride going into California Adventure. That park is also being changed and expanded.