They state: "Seven Dwarves coaster is 100% confirmed. It will be placed right in the center of the land, roughly where Dumbo currently stands, extending out into the center of the midway. It will NOT be completely indoors, though at some point in the ride you do enter the mine. It was described to me as roughly 2/3 outdoors, 1/3 indoors.
Dumbo is definitely still moving to his new Dumbo's Circus mini-land. The existing Dumbo *will* be one of the two ride systems. Aladdin's Carpets will *not* take the place of the other as originally planned. Zamperla is currently building the second ride.
The Barnstormer looks to be keeping its name, though it will somehow be tied into a Goofy as a circus performer theme.
Pixie Hollow, as well the Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella meet and greets are scrapped completely.
Snow White's Scary Adventures, the exising dark ride, will close forever sometime around February 2011. The space will be repurposed as a meet and greet location to make up for the lost spaces cut in favor of the new coaster.
Fantasyland will still be completed in two phases, with Dumbo's Circusland likely to be the first section finished (even though it's about the only section not even started as of yet.)"
Heres the link if you guys want to check it out!
http://www.amusementinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?92-New-Fantasyland-coming-in-2013-to-Magic-Kingdom/page19
So how do you guys feel about the closing Snow White's Scary Adventures, and the addition of the mine train coaster?
Do you think its a good idea to have no Pixie Hollow and not have meet and greets for Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty?
I felt that the Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella Meet and Greets/Shows were too similar to each other and too girl centric. I believe that Beauty and the Beast has a similar one as well so that will stay. Either way, I would find it hard to keep up the show year after year and doesn't seem to have much of a repeat factor.
I do not want to see Snow White's Scary Adventures taken away since it is one of the last "Dark Ride" that the Magic Kingdom has. Disneyland, on the other hand, strangly, has this kind of ride in spades. Yes, I want the cheesy, black lit, pop up mannequin ride to stay.
Mine Coaster sounds cool!
I still think getting rid of Tootown Fair was a bad idea because where is Mickey's House now? Where does the mouse live? Evictited? I would have rather see them fix up the land and perhaps put a Roger Rabbit Toon Spin like ride. Perhaps with the Fab Five who are actually pretty absent from attractions. Perhaps the villan can be Pete or Mortimer the Mouse?
No mention about whether they are still going forward with the Little Mermaid submarine voyage, is that one still a go, or not? Personally, I wish they'd bring back 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but alas...
They are once again swapping a classic dark ride with a highly dubious thrill one. Some have had problems with Scary Adventures, but I always loved its' simple charms. It was the first ride I went on as a little kid that gave me a true sense of accomplishment and told me that I could conquer that spooky Haunted Mansion after all. I also like that it seldom ever has the horrendous line that Peter Pan does. Its' replacement? Sure, it sounds solid on paper, but how significant a coaster can they possibly make on the old Dumbo spot. I fear we will just be getting Barnstormer 2.0 or perhaps another Primeval Whirl. I mean how themed can it be? Only 1/3? On what is sure to be a relatively short coaster, we'll be lucky to get 30 seconds of anything interesting. Plus, the lines are sure to be longer. We're also losing the only Meet and Greet that I was actually interested in: Cinderella's. WDI supposedly had an amazing new effect planned where you could see the Fairy Godmother change Cinderella into her ballgown right before your eyes. So much for that.
Pixie Hollow is no big loss. I am no fan of major chunks of the theme parks being dedicated to direct-to-video cash grabs.
Toontown Fair was an idea that was never fully realized. It clearly paled in comparison to the far superior version at Disneyland. I too would have liked to see it expanded with the inclusion of a Roger Rabbit style ride, but its' current incarnation was simply lackluster.
The Little Mermaid should be a nice dark ride, but it continues to showcase WDW management's stinginess by simply cloning existing rides from the West Coast instead of making new ones. I would have much preferred to see the long dormant Beauty and the Beast ride finally built. Speaking of which, the new restaurant is the only part of the expansion that I am truly excited for.
All in all, there is nothing here that will come close to the innovation contained in the Harry Potter ride. A ride which is truly amazing.
It is also sad to note that when the expansion is finished in late 2012, Fantasyland will actually have the same number of rides it had... in 1993. For the past 2 decades, the land has had less rides than it did during the first two decades. I could also cynically point out that this revision is actually removing four attractions(1 ride and 3 M&Gs)for just 1 ride. I remain highly skeptical.
As for the m&gs, the current snow white area will include them. Not to mention Ariel's and Beauty and Beast's one.
Even if there are the same amount of attractions as 1993, the themed area should be much better(They're spending over 300 million on this). I view this as a great expansion to rival Potter.
And by doing this, how exactly are we making this land more boy-centric? They are still adding a coaster that is related to a princess. I think this is a big flaw in their behalf. To make the land more boyish, add rides based on Hercules and the Hunchback, but only in addition to the princess m&gs. Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and Frontierland are all pretty much boy-centric as they are. I think it would be smart to add a new ride in these areas and leave fantasyland the heck alone.
As for the toowntown fair, I know I was always thrilled for it when I was a child. i enjoyed meeting the characters in the judge's tent. It was always a highlight of my trip. However, being older, I do know that it doesn't fit well in MK and lacks the theming of the better in Disneyland. So here is my proposal, I suggest that they simply move toon town into the animation courtyard/mickey avenue portion of DHS. There is ALOT in this land that could use some changing and I'd love to see the toon town aspect brought into here. It's really time to get rid of the Narnia exhibit, the LM show, the playhouse disney live, and to restore the Magic of Disney Animation to its former glory. What better way to revive this land than to incorporate actually animated characters in a revival of the toon town concept, but just better.
And I still don't understand their reasoning to give dumbo his own mini-land complete with a circus coaster. Dumbo is my favorite of the three exactly alike attractions, but I don't think it is a neccessity to have two of them. In my opinion, without the m&g's, and no further plans besides the coaster, I feel they might actually ruin what could have been a beautiful fantasylandl. But I guess the perfect fantasyland will always be a fantasy.
And second, don't anybody get all worked up about this claim until Disney themselves confirm it. Amusement Insider is not a direct source as is Screamscape. Both can be accurate, but can never be 100% sure. don't fret yet people!!
- Mine train is something I have always thought sounded cool.
- I would miss the Snow White's Adventures, and I think they could have two rides using the theme since one is more focused on the Dwarves.
- I'd rather them retheme the dark ride to something new than turn it into a meet and greet personally. A couple of meet and greets are plenty for one area of the park.
- Pixie Hollow is not big loss. There is already a Peter Pan ride, and I just don't see any pixies other than tinkerbell being that big of a deal. They can always do something smaller with Tink if they felt the need (maybe a greet that is near the Peter Pan ride), but not a whole section based on pixies.
- I think keeping the dueling dumbos is great to keep lines down, but I think that the Aladdin round and round would probably fit better in Fantasyland too. Flying Carpet with a genie is more fantasyland material. The camels shooting water make that ride better stand out some from the dumbos too (maybe moving Aladdin to Fantasyland would also make more room for something new in Adventureland).
Funny how people did not seem to like the original plans and called them to girly, but now that Disney is responding by changing the plans there are people who are not thrilled with them changing the plans. I guess this shows Disney they have to be confident they are making a great business decision for the park and know that some people will like it and some people will not, but you just have to go for it. Hopefully more people like it than don't, and maybe most of the ones who don't will grow to like it.
First, these revisions, if true, are a downsize. The nicely themed Meet & Greets will be gone. The catch-all M&G area that would be placed in the existing Snow White area will not be the same as what was originally proposed. It is bound to be somewhat generic.
Second, the space that would be repurposed for the new coaster is not that significant. Big Thunder sits on about 2.5 acres of land. The area where the M&Gs would have been is probably around 1.5 acres. That is more than double the size of the Barnstormer. However, the land would be quite narrow considering that space needs to have walkways built on either side of it. So unless they decide to give the coaster some height, like the Matterhorn, I don't expect it to be anything mind-blowing.
Third, management DOESN'T always know what they are doing. Management were the ones who desecrated the Imagination pavilion in Epcot while they fell over themselves trying to keep Kodak as a sponsor. Management were the ones who shuttered Pleasure Island for another strip mall. Management were the ones who opted to remove Beastly Kingdom from the original plans for the Animal Kingdom which led to less attractions for the park which has led to the inability to fix Expedition Everest.
Increasingly, it seems to me that when WDW management is faced with two choices that involve sparing no expense or taking the cheap way out, they always take the conservative and frugal approach. They did this with the recent Space Mountain refurbishment. They did this with the Animal Kingdom. They are doing this with the Fantasyland expansion.
It fascinates me that we are still feeling the repercussions from the early failure of EuroDisney. The expense of that park led Eisner to cut back on all future parks. That meant Beastly Kingdom would be removed... for M&Gs. The Imagineers who designed that land would go work for Universal and design The Lost Continent. J.K Rowling is looking to make attractions on her popular books. One of the reasons she decides to go with Universal is that she is impressed with the look of said land at Islands of Adventure. Disney quickly approves Fantasyland expansion to answer the challenge of the much-hyped Wizarding World. WDW management decides to cut back on this expansion. I see a sad pattern forming.
It saddens me further to see that Disneyland management is willing to spend. The Eisner/Pressler era is clearly behind them. On top of the complete redo of California Adventure, they are already talking about completely revamping Tomorrowland with a possible new Tron ride. Plus, WDI is also designing a new E-ticket to go in Frontierland at the site of the old Big Thunder Ranch. It is rumored to be either a stagecoach ride or a new water ride.
As Rob said above, WDW management is just not as proactive as they once were.
For the record, the dwarf coaster rumor (along with the Snow White closing) appeared on Jim Hill's website back in 2008.
http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2008/10/09/disney-world-postpones-fantasyland-s-facelift.aspx
And please note: Even when it was announced, Pixie Hollow was always discussed as a bluesky concept. Its omission from the final design is not really breaking news.
This smells a lot like a rehashed rumor and (at this point) seems to lack credibility. At least enough for one to blanche at the assertion that it is "100% confirmed."
And third, you are the only person I know who did not like the Beastly Kingdom concept which if I am correct is still onboard whenever Disney wants to give a green light to it.
Now, I am definitely with TH on this issue. I find it hard to believe they would just get rid of Snow White, one of the classic Disney rides of Disney.
"In a post on screamscape.com linking to amusementinsider.com, these rumors are true."
I assume what he really meant to write was:
"ACCORDING TO a post on screamscape.com linking to amusementinsider.com, these rumors are true."
I Respond: I don't think anyone here is claiming that the Diseny company would not replace an existing attraction. But some of us are saying that the "rumor" that Disney intends to close the existing Snow White attraction has been floating around for (at least) two years and that there seems to be no indication from a credible that (to date) any net-talk related to such a closure remains nothing more than a rumor.
First, I don't like Beastly Kingdom as a new area concept for animal kingdom and I think the name sounds kind of rediculous. I feel special to be the only person you know who does not think it is cool, but there are probably others.... or atleast would be if it were a more well known subject (most park attendees don't even know about Beastly Kingdom). I admit it is tempting just to say I don't like it to get people all in a tizzy too though..... (I know, I know,.... I should not enjoy that).
Second, the earlier post was a pretty passive post in response to the post saying that the rumor we were all commenting on was not 100% confirmed. I was basically saying that most of us realize that, and to comment your opinion on the rumor does not neccessarily mean you buy it as fact just yet.