Dr.Girlfriend
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From orlandosentinel.com
New Fantasyland or just plain fantasy? Look at (alleged) plans starring plenty of princesses
posted by Dewayne Bevil on Jul 17, 2009 1:56:15 PM
Yes, the Internet is abuzz with the (alleged) blueprint for an expansion of Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom (We first saw them at the Soft-Opening side of the Disney Report site.) Truth be told, it launched discussion here at Theme Park Rangers World Headquarters as well.
Whether this is approved or pie-in-blue-sky or jumping-off-spot or trial balloon or just plain (very elaborate) ruse, it's still fun to talk about. (Disney, for their part, as usual, doesn't officially comment on rumor or speculation. But lets!).
Blow up the image above and orient yourself. Cinderella Castle is not shown -- it would be off to the bottom-left, but the round thing in the corner is Cinderella's Carrousel. The round image center-bottom is Wild Tea Party, and you can see the Indy Race Car track to the right of that.
This graphic puts a New Fantasyland atop the old structure, moves a few things and prompts a bunch of questions. Here are a few things we tossed about:
+ What does this mean to Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toon Town? Homeless? How does Barnstormer fit into these plans?
+ The idea of Dueling Dumbo rides (upper right) is fun ... but why are two areas designated "DUMBO"?
+ Like much of Disney in the 21st century, it's princess-heavy, noting a Cinderella attraction, an Aurora attraction and big Little Mermaid attraction (dig that lower-intestine-style queue!).
+ We like the idea of a Be Our Guest restaurant, especially if it's decorated with dancing plates and utensils. But we don't believe for a second that Gaston's Tavern would serve anything stronger than root beer.
+ The area marked as "Castle Wall"? What the Tink? Hard to imagine separating the old homestead from Fantasyland, but maybe we're being too literal?
+ And what of the other current attractions such as "it's a small world" and Peter Pan? That feels a little Lower Fantasyland right now.
+ Reason to believe: something HAS to be in the works somewhere, right? At this point in time, there's no announced projects for any of the Disney World parks (we're not counting Space Mountain revamp until they're more specific). And there is the matter of a whole handful of Harry Potter scheduled to open next year at Universal's Islands of Adventure.
+ Reason to believe, part 2: Ranger Matt points out that it reminds one of the Disneyland Hong Kong style: lots of gardens to walk around in, lots of characters to meet.
+ But what would boys do back there?
Discuss.
Filed under: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Ads by Google
Disney® Resort Vacation
Comments
More reasons to believe: Other than solid rumor about DCA's The Little Mermaid coming (and going in abandoned/hidden 20K spot), I just had lunch with MK art director Alex Caruthers as part of the dine with an imagineer program and asked him about TLM and his immediate response: 'was that announced?' He literally did say that there were ambitious plans for that particular area.
And with what he's already been doing with Adventureland as of late, I believe now is the time for them to make the Fantasyland leap and bring what's essentially a long corridor (or two if you include the abomination that is ToonTown) into a more immersive experience.
On the flip side, he also said during that very same meeting that it's not uncommon for projects to literally be ready to go live and be dropped at the last second for whatever reason. And here, we are obviously years before anything from these plans could come to fruition.
So is it real? I'd undoubtedly say yes. Aside from the incredible and meticulous detail, it also happens to line up perfectly with satellite photos. Do I believe it's *the* plan? Not necessarily. Nor do I think it's all or nothing, nor is it going to be done all at once (I think TLM will probably be the first to arrive).
If it's a hoax produced outside the company, then whoever did it needs to be hired stat. That's a whole lot of man-hours for a late April Fool's joke.
***I'm personally not sure if I would be excited for a big overhaul of Fantasyland like this. Where WOULD IASW go? And Peter Pan? You can't can classic attractions like that.
From orlandosentinel.com
New Fantasyland or just plain fantasy? Look at (alleged) plans starring plenty of princesses
posted by Dewayne Bevil on Jul 17, 2009 1:56:15 PM
Yes, the Internet is abuzz with the (alleged) blueprint for an expansion of Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom (We first saw them at the Soft-Opening side of the Disney Report site.) Truth be told, it launched discussion here at Theme Park Rangers World Headquarters as well.
Whether this is approved or pie-in-blue-sky or jumping-off-spot or trial balloon or just plain (very elaborate) ruse, it's still fun to talk about. (Disney, for their part, as usual, doesn't officially comment on rumor or speculation. But lets!).
Blow up the image above and orient yourself. Cinderella Castle is not shown -- it would be off to the bottom-left, but the round thing in the corner is Cinderella's Carrousel. The round image center-bottom is Wild Tea Party, and you can see the Indy Race Car track to the right of that.
This graphic puts a New Fantasyland atop the old structure, moves a few things and prompts a bunch of questions. Here are a few things we tossed about:
+ What does this mean to Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toon Town? Homeless? How does Barnstormer fit into these plans?
+ The idea of Dueling Dumbo rides (upper right) is fun ... but why are two areas designated "DUMBO"?
+ Like much of Disney in the 21st century, it's princess-heavy, noting a Cinderella attraction, an Aurora attraction and big Little Mermaid attraction (dig that lower-intestine-style queue!).
+ We like the idea of a Be Our Guest restaurant, especially if it's decorated with dancing plates and utensils. But we don't believe for a second that Gaston's Tavern would serve anything stronger than root beer.
+ The area marked as "Castle Wall"? What the Tink? Hard to imagine separating the old homestead from Fantasyland, but maybe we're being too literal?
+ And what of the other current attractions such as "it's a small world" and Peter Pan? That feels a little Lower Fantasyland right now.
+ Reason to believe: something HAS to be in the works somewhere, right? At this point in time, there's no announced projects for any of the Disney World parks (we're not counting Space Mountain revamp until they're more specific). And there is the matter of a whole handful of Harry Potter scheduled to open next year at Universal's Islands of Adventure.
+ Reason to believe, part 2: Ranger Matt points out that it reminds one of the Disneyland Hong Kong style: lots of gardens to walk around in, lots of characters to meet.
+ But what would boys do back there?
Discuss.
Filed under: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Ads by Google
Disney® Resort Vacation
Comments
More reasons to believe: Other than solid rumor about DCA's The Little Mermaid coming (and going in abandoned/hidden 20K spot), I just had lunch with MK art director Alex Caruthers as part of the dine with an imagineer program and asked him about TLM and his immediate response: 'was that announced?' He literally did say that there were ambitious plans for that particular area.
And with what he's already been doing with Adventureland as of late, I believe now is the time for them to make the Fantasyland leap and bring what's essentially a long corridor (or two if you include the abomination that is ToonTown) into a more immersive experience.
On the flip side, he also said during that very same meeting that it's not uncommon for projects to literally be ready to go live and be dropped at the last second for whatever reason. And here, we are obviously years before anything from these plans could come to fruition.
So is it real? I'd undoubtedly say yes. Aside from the incredible and meticulous detail, it also happens to line up perfectly with satellite photos. Do I believe it's *the* plan? Not necessarily. Nor do I think it's all or nothing, nor is it going to be done all at once (I think TLM will probably be the first to arrive).
If it's a hoax produced outside the company, then whoever did it needs to be hired stat. That's a whole lot of man-hours for a late April Fool's joke.
***I'm personally not sure if I would be excited for a big overhaul of Fantasyland like this. Where WOULD IASW go? And Peter Pan? You can't can classic attractions like that.
