• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Magic Kingdom Expansion

Dave

Dave

TS Founding Member
Obviously a big buzz around theme park fans at the moment is the WDW Magic Kingdom expansion. This in particular involves a new roller coaster based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Found this video showing a concept of the cars for this rollercoaster (i know sure it's been seen before, but its not on TT).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I9LEhApDYY&feature=related[/youtube]

This extension certainly seems to be an exciting development.
 
^that was my first thought as well, though clearly that thing will open before Orphan Rocker.
 
Old news, we've had this in RCT for ages :p

In all seriousness I look forward to seeing it. I'm not sure how good the swinging will actuallly be compared to a proper suspended coaster but it'll be a novel ride experience.
 
Update time! This could be a tad picture heavy:

DatelineDisneyWorld725-IMG_0743.jpg


DatelineDisneyWorld725-IMG_0790.jpg


DatelineDisneyWorld725-IMG_0784.jpg


DatelineDisneyWorld725-IMG_0786.jpg


i0TSlfuLrrdwc.JPG


iFfzTfYM6U64G.JPG


iuvErmTrxrZam.JPG


inm8oWpa5NebX.JPG


iM6EqcoP68NUO.JPG


iuPztl6ali2eI.JPG


iGtqMtA9yJS8W.JPG


i03g5qPGeziUf.JPG


ijr0qX0ZTUBze.JPG


ij6n63xfqbcmc.JPG


iPoDMcIyriyf8.JPG


ibihLHZOLtZOLw.JPG


iE7WJgtFjPfeh.JPG


ixpfJK6lfHPa7.JPG
 
Will it open at the beggining of next season? Its coming along really well! :)
 
I believe part of it will be open mid season 2013, with the entire area open in 2014.
 
Wdwmagic report that it'll open 6th December with soft openings in November for pass holders. Snow White will open 2014
 
I believe Disney announced a bit more about openings yesterday. Apparently the new Little Mermaid dark ride will officially open 6th December - previews starting November 19th - along with the Be Our Guest Restaurant and Gaston's Tavern (Food locations), Ariel’s Grotto and Enchanted Tales with Belle (Meet & Greets) and a gift shack.

Then the Fairytale meet & greet - le sigh- and Seven Dwarves' Mine Train are planned to open sometime in 2013 and 2014 respectively. :)
 
This project... doesn't look great. It's a shame that Florida's getting the budget version of Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, usually it's the other way round.

They have so much space, so I don't see why this ride has to be so underwhelming. They could have built a massive new mountain for the park, a new icon.
 
Sam said:
It's a shame that Florida's getting the budget version of Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, usually it's the other way round.
Click to expand...

I though Expedition Everest was Florida’s BGMR? While I agree that what we've seen so far looks underwhelming I think what they're aiming for is something different; a hybrid between the old Snow Wight ride and a family roller coaster. I look forward to seeing the results although I’m sceptical as to how effective the above the track swinging concept will be.
 
I'm still a WDW virgin, but I was thinking the whole expansion looks really exciting and will add a whole new dimension to a Fantasyland area. Sure, the coaster doesn't look all that, but you don't expect large coasters in these areas of Disney parks
 
Don't get me wrong, the area looks nice. And the Little Mermaid ride in Anaheim looks fantastic. In any other park, this would be stunning.

But the Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world. Different standards apply than to any other park. I really think any major rides they add should be on a scale far exceeding this. They should be aiming to create the greatest rides on earth.

Just after Big Thunder, Space and Splash mountain, this feels like a bit of a backwards step. :)
 
It probably feels like a backward step because they have had to split a massive budget over the entire resort. Not only have they had to re theme Mickey's Toon Town, but they've also invested in the Test Track revamp and are probably trying to save as much as possible for the planned Avatar area in Animal Kingdom.

From what we've got so far however, the entire area is looking great.
 
Danny said:
It probably feels like a backward step because they have had to split a massive budget over the entire resort. Not only have they had to re theme Mickey's Toon Town, but they've also invested in the Test Track revamp and are probably trying to save as much as possible for the planned Avatar area in Animal Kingdom.
Click to expand...

::)

That doesn't make sense. They've got four parks, with four times the stream of income of a single park, therefore the budget should be four times as big for all the parks put together. If they had one successful park or a hundred successful parks, the budget for each one individually should be consistent. ::)

It's not a question of Disney not having the money - they're choosing to make this underwhelming and invest relatively little in it (before you jump down my throat, I mean relatively little given that it's the most visited theme park on planet earth).
 
Not everyone would agree with you on classing it underwhelming, although there are some aspects I can agree on.

The Little Mermaid's ride layout for example is near enough the same as the version in California, albeit with the exception of the queue line and ride exterior. I'm not sure why they haven't invested out on getting their own layout to make it a completely different ride experience to the one in California.

I'm not a huge fan of the whole circus aspect and I know I'm not the only one either from looking at Orlando websites. People feel this was a cheap makeover and actually the pulling of the plug for what was a great little area in the form of Mickey's Toon Town. From what I've seen, it looks to be a cheap way out for Disney to say they've improved on something, but yet it looks to be a step backward.

But apart from that, they're going to town on the theming on the rest of the area, something Disney [on the vast majority of times] do brilliantly. From what's been shown on the plans, the theming certainly doesn't look anything near underwhelming and it'll undoubtedly get Disney put in the media and bring in the extra numbers. Not that they need extra numbers anyway.
 
The project has a budget of $250+. It is aim at Yong Kids and as such doesnt really apeal to me but i think perfect the age group its aimed at. The new coaster is meant to be a step between the kiddie Barnstormer coaster and the family Thunder Mountain, the coaster looks set to be highly themed and certainly more so than most other kids coasters. The coaster though doesnt open until 2014.

Back in the late 90's Disney World got very worried about IOA opening and the imapct it would have on their parks so they prepared a massive investment programme that invloved huge new E-Tickets for each of the four Parks (Beastly Kingdom at AK, Fire Mountain at MK, cant remember what was planned for the studios and Epcot) but IOA didnt have any impact on Disney World and IOA performed no where near the level it was expected to it just took away guests from the orginal universal park. So most of these plans where dropped. A similar thing has happened with Harry Potter and while it has been a huge success for Universal it hasnt hit attendance at Disney World. Disney arent going to spend money when they dont need to.

What Disney need to keep an eye on though is that Universal and investing big money over the next few years and Seaworld also adding new stuff as well. Plus parts of some of the parks are starting to look dated ie alot of future World in Epcot, Parts of the Studio's and Tomorrow land in MK for example and they need to update these areas otherwise it will eventually effect guest numbers.

Having said that Disney are investing Big money still with $250m Spent on Fantasy Land. $500 planned to be spent on the huge Avatar Land (Weather you like or dislike the film i am sure it will feature some amazing theming and top draw E-Ticket attractions) plus there are rumours that Disney is planning huge makeovers for Tomorrow land at MK (will be done at same time as DL to save on costs with duplicate attractions) plus last week their were rumours that Imagineers have drawn up plans for a complete make over (based over 3 years) for The studios much like they did with California Adventure however it unlikly they will spend the $1.5billion that was spent on the 5 year Califirnia Adventure Make over.

Looks like an exiting time in Orlando over the next 5 years or so
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top