Future Plans For WDW's Fantasyland

[DisneyJedi]

10/13/10 Fantasyland Expansion Video Update
http://www.wdwnewstoday.com/2010/10/14/ ... eo-update/
(via disneyreport.com)

So... is Mad Tea Party undergoing refurbishment?

[WonderlandFever]

The Mad Tea Party is already finished. They just changed the paint scheme and roof originally it was thought it would get a glass roof but it didn't.

[Big Disney Fan]

The Mad Tea Party is already finished. They just changed the paint scheme and roof originally it was thought it would get a glass roof but it didn't.

Yeah, it's disappointing they didn't get a glass roof, but I'm also disappointed that they didn't change out the designs of the cups either. That design of simple lines and spirals and starbursts and whatnot are a bit outdated, if you ask me. They should redo the cups to look like the ones in Disneyland, partly since now all of the international cups (in Europe and Asia) have the same design, too.

[WonderlandFever]

Agreed! I would have rather them put heads of all the characters all over the roof and interior lol oh well.....

[Big Disney Fan]

Do we know what the final list is for Fantasyland? It just all seems a bit of a jumble.

[Disney Duster]

Well, I heard this is the final list:

Fantasyland West:
- Castle Walls
- Belle Meet and Greet, village, Gaston's tavern, and Be Our Guest restaurant with restrooms, merchandise, and a quick service food & beverage location
- Ariel's Undersea Adventure D-ticket OmniMover dark ride with Ariel Meet and Greet
- Snow White-themed mine train/dark ride hybrid (D-ticket), intricately themed. (This has not been officially confirmed but supposedly will be constructed on the site proposed for the Cinderella and Aurora Meet and Greets. Snow White may also have her own Meet and Greet, perhaps the dwarf's cottage.

Snow White's Scary Adventures may close as early as February 2011 and instead be an all princess Meet and Greet location. How sad.

Fantasyland East:
- Pixie Hollow no longer included in expansion, no one knows what that area will be now
- Barnstormer gets rethemed as "The Great Goofini" 9so it's still Goofy, but with a circus theme)
- Dumbos move to the area depicted in concept art and model, where it is adjacent to the Speedway. It will feature an interactive standby queue as well as a Fastpass queue.
- Casey Jr. Food location to be constructed
- Tents may or may not stay, but the houses and Donald's boat will be demolished
- A water play area will take the place of Donald's Boat
- Toontown Railroad stop re-themed with restrooms added to the side of it.

I am sooooo dissapointed. First, why can't they add things without removing other things? Someone suggested that Snow White's mine coaster, and a cottage if she will have one, could go where Pixie Hollow was going to go, and so Cinderella and Aurora could keep their Meet and Greets.

Next, Mickey and Minnie and Donald need a place to live, so hopefully they are still taken care of. Question, though, why didn't Goofy get his own home?

And finally, the Barnstormer should probably be changed to Casey Jr., and the Casey Jr. Food Stand would just make sense then being next to it. Goofy is not known for being a circus anything!

[Super Aurora]

I am sooooo dissapointed. First, why can't they add things without removing other things? Someone suggested that Snow White's mine coaster, and a cottage if she will have one, could go where Pixie Hollow was going to go, and so Cinderella and Aurora could keep their Meet and Greets.

Then again, the cinderella and Aurora stuff could be where pixie hollow is as well. You'll never know.

I'd imagine it has the Snowwhite ride installed cause, new fantasyland is lacking in rides department.

[Big Disney Fan]

Well, I heard this is the final list:

Fantasyland West:
- Castle Walls
- Belle Meet and Greet, village, Gaston's tavern, and Be Our Guest restaurant with restrooms, merchandise, and a quick service food & beverage location
- Ariel's Undersea Adventure D-ticket OmniMover dark ride with Ariel Meet and Greet
- Snow White-themed mine train/dark ride hybrid (D-ticket), intricately themed. (This has not been officially confirmed but supposedly will be constructed on the site proposed for the Cinderella and Aurora Meet and Greets. Snow White may also have her own Meet and Greet, perhaps the dwarf's cottage.

Snow White's Scary Adventures may close as early as February 2011 and instead be an all princess Meet and Greet location. How sad.

Fantasyland East:
- Pixie Hollow no longer included in expansion, no one knows what that area will be now
- Barnstormer gets rethemed as "The Great Goofini" 9so it's still Goofy, but with a circus theme)
- Dumbos move to the area depicted in concept art and model, where it is adjacent to the Speedway. It will feature an interactive standby queue as well as a Fastpass queue.
- Casey Jr. Food location to be constructed
- Tents may or may not stay, but the houses and Donald's boat will be demolished
- A water play area will take the place of Donald's Boat
- Toontown Railroad stop re-themed with restrooms added to the side of it.

I am sooooo dissapointed. First, why can't they add things without removing other things? Someone suggested that Snow White's mine coaster, and a cottage if she will have one, could go where Pixie Hollow was going to go, and so Cinderella and Aurora could keep their Meet and Greets.

Next, Mickey and Minnie and Donald need a place to live, so hopefully they are still taken care of. Question, though, why didn't Goofy get his own home?

And finally, the Barnstormer should probably be changed to Casey Jr., and the Casey Jr. Food Stand would just make sense then being next to it. Goofy is not known for being a circus anything!

Well, I actually devoted a thread to bringing Toontown (AKA someplace for guests to find Mickey and Minnie reliably; that is a concern with some people, you know) to WDW. It's right here: http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27007. They could/should revive the old Mickeyville concept for this.

And the ironic thing is that when WDW was being built, the Imagineers never actually intended for Snow White or any of the other Disneyland dark rides to be replicated for Florida. They intended to theme the dark rides to different Disney movies than in California. In the case of Snow White, they considered replacing it with Sleeping Beauty. But Roy Disney intervened and insisted that they remain true to Walt's original Disneyland thinking where the dark rides where concerned. Hence, WDW, too, would have the same rides as in Disneyland (Mr. Toad, Peter Pan and Snow White). They did, however, see to it that the rides in Florida were not just copied verbatim from California. Of course, Mr. Toad is gone now, but that's another story.

As for the Casey Jr. coaster, the only obstacle to using the preexisting track is the low clearance of the overhead portions of the track, which would hamper the height of the train's rather smokestack.

[Disney Duster]

Super Aurora, yes, I hope that happens, but I think it just makes more sense for Cindy And Aurore to go where they originally were planned. And yes, they (might be) adding a mine coaster because of the lack of rides. It better be exciting like Big Thunder Mountain and not just a Barnstormer II. Then it would be rather pointless.

Big Disney Fan, so Casey Jr. couldn't fit his smokestack in? Then it's okay for it to be...ugh..."The Great Goofini". Barf.

[Big Disney Fan]

Big Disney Fan, so Casey Jr. couldn't fit his smokestack in? Then it's okay for it to be...ugh..."The Great Goofini". Barf.

I don't know, I kinda like the name "The Great Goofini". I think it's clever. At least it shows that the Fab Six aren't fully getting the shaft here.

And as for Casey Jr.'s smokestack, it just seems a little tall for it to fit. Apparently, the clown concept didn't go over well with anyone. Here's what Jim Hill said on the subject:

Given that the Barnstormer (where it stands now) is so close to where the new Dumbo Circus area is supposed to be built, the Imagineers (for a time, anyway) toyed with retheming this coaster as the Casey Jr. Circus Train. The only problem with that idea is that... Well, in order to be recognized as the Casey Jr. Circus Train, the front car of this roller coaster would have to resemble the character as seen in that 1941 Walt Disney Studios animated feature. And given that the Casey Jr. Circus Train has this very distinctive, rather tall smokestack, that meant that WDI was suddenly dealing with all sorts of clearance issues at Wiseacre Farm. Which led one wag at 1401 Flower Street to reportedly say: "Couldn't we just shortened the smokestack and call this the Casey Jr. Jr. Circus Train."

That was only one man's opinion, however; I'm just telling you what I read.

[WonderlandFever]

Mickey's Toontown Fair shuts down officially February 11

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2 ... on-update/

[Big Disney Fan]

Well, that reinforces my disappointment about its closure and where Mickey and the gang can live. Now they are indeed going to be evicted. Poor Mickey and Minnie...

[David S.]

Aw gee. That is so NOT swell.

"Save my house", said Mickey Mouse!

What a lump of coal for Toontown fans right before the holiday.

Merry Christmas to you too, "TDO".

Sadly, this will be Mickey's Toontown Fair's last Christmas to decorate the Houses for the Holidays (if TDO even bothered this year - I won't be back in O-town until Dec 28th so I haven't seen the MK yet since the Christmas decorations went up).

And even before I heard this bad, sad, news, I wanted to comment on the whole "Great Goofini" thing.

As much as it is nice to have some remnant of Toontown stay, it seems like keeping the Barnstormer themed to Goofy but with a circus theme would clash with the nearby Dumbo. After all, Dumbo and Goofy never interacted in a DAC. It just seems sort of random that Goofy gets to stay and the other Fab 5 members don't, and of course the cynic in me supposes this could be a way of "repurposing" Barnstormer on the cheap.

The tents are what most people who had issues with Toontown disliked, NOT Mickey and Minnie's elaborate and charming houses. Yet there are rumors that some of the tents may be staying (such as the large retail space) since they can be easily re-themed to the circus.

So, if they are OK with having Goofy included with Dumbo's circus area, why not just keep Toontown (AND THE HOUSES) intact, and give it a backstory where the fair has left town, but now the circus is in town instead. They could call it "Mickey's Toontown Circus"

Between this and the Snow White dark ride possibly closing, it looks like it's time to start planning in earnest my long-awaited Disneyland/West Coast trip because I feel their Fantasyland as it is NOW is much better than what WDW's will be even when this project is finished. DL will still have the new Mermaid ride, just in DCA across the street. And their Toontown will still be intact, and the DL Fantasyland will STILL have 6 attractions missing from the MK.

Kinda ironic that Walt's original park has so much less space than the MK and WDW, but they make SUCH BETTER USE of the space they have out in Cali.

Everything new at WDW ALWAYS comes at the price of something else, even though they have 30,000 acres of land and Walt's well-known WDW quote of "There's enough land here to hold ALL the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine".

TDO is a joke!

[Big Disney Fan]

TDO is a joke!

No, money is a joke! You can't live with it and you can't live without it.

I sometimes wonder why we love money too much!

[WonderlandFever]

I really hope that since the princesses are going to the Exposition Hall like originally planned that means that SWSA will remain and not be turned into a princess meet and greet area.......I'm just so against losing that!!

[Prince Charming 12]

[quote="David S."]

Sadly, this will be Mickey's Toontown Fair's last Christmas to decorate the Houses for the Holidays (if TDO even bothered this year - I won't be back in O-town until Dec 28th so I haven't seen the MK yet since the Christmas decorations went up). [end quote]

The Christmas decorations are setup on Mickey and Minnie's homes again this year so take your final walk through and pictures while you still can. I did! I always liked those oversized outdoor Christmas lights.

I would be disappointed to see the Snow White attraction close too, but I was rather hoping for an upgrade to it as part of the expansion project. I just feel that the current version is technologically obsolete and so much more could be done with this attraction, if it was given a refresh.

[Disney Duster]

Big Disney Fan, what's the link to the Jim Hill article you got that from?

I actually like the Casey Jr. Jr. idea! I definately like it more than the Great Goofini.

You know, they still said they are going to put Mickey, Minnie, and maybe Donald somewhere else, so they are not forgetting about the Fab Four. I would not mind the place Pixie Hollow was supposed to go becoming the homes of all Fab Four. That would be so great! And what if there was even some room for Snow White or Cinderella?

David S., do you really think Disney World could hold all of the rides, or ideas for rides, that have ever been made? At least up to the stage of concept art this Fantasyland expansion came to?

[Big Disney Fan]

Big Disney Fan, what's the link to the Jim Hill article you got that from?

I actually like the Casey Jr. Jr. idea! I definately like it more than the Great Goofini.

You know, they still said they are going to put Mickey, Minnie, and maybe Donald somewhere else, so they are not forgetting about the Fab Four. I would not mind the place Pixie Hollow was supposed to go becoming the homes of all Fab Four. That would be so great! And what if there was even some room for Snow White or Cinderella?

The link to the article is here: http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... -hall.aspx.

Now, to answer some questions:

First of all, they're not called the Fab Four. The only "Fab Four" I know of are the Beatles. Mickey and the gang's nickname is "Fab Five" (or "Six", if you insist on including Daisy).

I kinda like the Great Goofini; has a ring to it, and it shows that there is an attraction themed to any of the Fab Six.

Jim Hill brought up a good point of Casey Jr. being the theme of the Barnstormer. It is a good idea in theory, but it would be problematic for any elevated portions of the track.

And physically, when all is said and done, I don't think there won't be any room for Mickey and the gang's home here. I'm sorry, but I just don't see Main Street as the ideal spot for Mickey and the gang.

[Atlantica]

I am still gutted that Pixie Hollow isnt going to be built anymore. I thought that would have been a wonderful inclusion to Fantasyland, I really did.

It all seems a bit of a mess at the moment to be honest .... the initial plans sounded amazing, but now ? Not so much.

Disney should have been 100% sure of what they were actually going to be able to do before they released the big announcement to the public to be honest. Not the random, "People, we are doing thissss !!!" and then the switch to "People, we are doing .... well, some of the stuff we said before, but not all of it. And kind of a lot of changes along the way too...but what the heck !! You guys will still come visit "

[David S.]

David S., do you really think Disney World could hold all of the rides, or ideas for rides, that have ever been made? At least up to the stage of concept art this Fantasyland expansion came to?

I don't know if it could hold EVERYTHING the Imagineers have EVER thought of, since they have cabinets full of thousands of ideas that never have seen the light of day. BUT, in most cases where something in one park closes to make way for something new, yes, I think both could fit.

Look at when Toad closed in 1998 to make way for Pooh. Disney acted like it "had" to close Toad to accomodate the new ride, when in reality they had all the land that is currently being used for the new FL just sitting there, a small portion of which could have been used to build the Pooh ride.

Same thing with Toontown. Especially with Pixie Hollow canceled, those Houses could stay without taking any land away from the rest of the expansion. Heck, if they really wanted, they could have added the Pinocchio, Alice, Casey Jr, StorybookLand, (a new) Toad, and Matterhorn rides from DL, and still kept Toontown.

There is a LOT of unused land in the MK and at ALL the parks. Epcot still has expansion pads for new Future World pavillions and at least 7 new countries, yet they tore down Horizons for Mission Space, and World Of Motion for Test Track, instead of using one of these pads.

A few years ago, Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends closed at Animal Kingdom to make way for.... an empty theatre!

Then when you consider the fact that the parks could expand outside of their existing footprints, and the fact that WDW itself only uses a fraction of it's available land, than yes, IMO it is wasteful that they have to keep tearing down things whenever they open new ones.

I keep thinking of how relatively small and landlocked Disneyland is, yet Walt found a way to fit MORE attractions into Disneyland than there are in the entirety of the much larger acreage of the Magic Kingdom (such as building most of the Alice dark ride on the SECOND FLOOR of the building already housing Mr. Toad, as a way of squeezing an extra dark ride into Fantasyland - both rides which are sadly missing from the MK!)