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Fantasyland is Expanding

The expanded Fantasyland was announced at the D23 Expo on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo. This is their current plans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by A News Site

Mickey Mouse's house and his Toon Town world will make way next year for a vastly larger Fantasyland, in the biggest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, Walt Disney Co said on Saturday.

The Fantasyland expansion, whose price tag was not disclosed, will open in two stages in 2012 and 2013 and builds on the popularity of the Disney Princess and Fairies franchises, which have topped $4 billion in global retail sales.

Disney theme parks Chairman Jay Rasulo said the Fantasyland project, which breaks ground next year, will be paid for from funds designated for the theme park division's annual capital expenditures.

Plans call for four Disney Princess characters -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" and Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" -- to be featured in "fantasy lands" where park visitors engage in dancing, storytelling or a birthday party with costumed characters from the films.

The expansion includes two new dining spots -- Gascon's Tavern and the 552-seat Beast's Castle. A new underwater ride based on "The Little Mermaid, will be built both in the Florida Fantasyland and at the ongoing expansion of California Adventure in Disneyland.

The second phase of the Fantasyland expansion will be an oversized world based on the fairy world of Pixie Hollow from "Peter Pan," but no other details were available because the attraction was still in early development stages, Rasulo said.

As part of the Fantasyland expansion, Disney plans to double the size of the popular Dumbo ride to add a covered "three-ring circus" waiting area with interactive games and a play area.

Disney Imagineers, who design rides and attractions, said the Toon Town attraction would be dismantled and its popular Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse houses relocated to another section of Walt Disney World.

Rasulo also announced an upgrade to the Star Tours rides at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney's Hollywood Studio in Florida to open in 2011.

Star Tours simulates a ride through space aboard spacecraft like those in the original "Star Wars" film.

The updated version features new digital 3D effects and projectors that let ride operators vary "destinations," as well as upgrades to the Star Speeder cabins, Rasulo said.

This sounds very interesting. What are your thoughts?

Oh! I heard this rumor a few weeks ago - glad it's being confirmed! I'm very excited for the new updates.

It is sad to see Toontown go.
But I can't wait to see all the updates when they finish!
Thanks for posting this! :icon7m:

Well would you look at that. Pixie Hollow is becoming VMK. But not our VMK. Hmmm...isn't Pixie Hollow pay-to-play for all of the features? Gee, if only there was a game in which you could visit the entire park online. Disney could make a lot of money off of a game like that.

Stuff like this upsets me. Instead of creating parts of an online game in the actual parks, why not just CREATE an online game based on the parks that are already there? Oh that's right, you did, but you closed it down. You could have charged for VMK! But you didn't. And now you're turning Pixie Hollow into the same concept of VMK, only it won't be as great as VMK was!

I'm finally understanding why Disney didn't think VMK had financial potential: because they doubted VMK's entertainment value. Why else would they close down a free online representation of the parks to later open up a new not-free representation of the parks (or at least a part of the parks) rather than just charging for the first one?

We all have talked about the freedom of VMK, the magical feeling of roaming the parks. We all have talked about what sets VMK apart from other online games. We get it. But Disney didn't.

I've heard about this before. I believe it's going to look much better! There will also be a second Dumbo ride with an interactive queue. It's going to be finished in 2013, so I've been told.

This is exciting news! I never liked Mickey's Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom (The Disneyland version is much better), and the Princess attractions should be amazing. Ok, I'm not crazy about Pixie Hollow: The Fairies don't really interest me. But the rest of the plans sound great!

Like Neoteny, I've never really much liked the WDW Toontown (Yes, the Disneyland one is so so so much better) because there's not really all that much to do... It WAS pretty fun to walk through the houses, but it says that they're just going to be moved, so I don't really see any reason at all to be sad about that...
An underwater ride? Oooh that sounds quite enjoyable... Although I don't really know much about it >.> It should be an improvement no matter what kind of ride it is...
Although I'm not really a huge fan of Disney Fairies, you never know, the fairy world thing could turn out to be pretty good...

Lol it might sound odd, but the thing that worries me most about the Fantasyland expansion is the train that goes around the park... Is the toontown stop just going to become the fantasyland stop? Won't they have to re-record the commentary-type-thing? Will they use the same guy? (I can never remember his name and whether or not he's still alive...)

Here are some concept art I found mysef for all of you to see/view:

Picture of new expanded Fantasyland:

http://www.vmkforums.com/gallery/dat...yexpansion.jpg

picture of the new dumbo area:

http://www.vmkforums.com/gallery/dat...asuloFeat2.jpg

and a picture of the new star tours 3-D ride of what's to come:

http://www.vmkforums.com/gallery/dat...asuloFeat3.jpg

Sorry the last two aren't as big as the first. Click them for a little bit bigger picture.

-Stitchco :1stitch:

Awesome! I can't wait to go in 2013 to see the expansion.

Mickey and Minnie's houses are moving to another section of Walt Disney World. That narrows it down a bit.. thanks :Sleeping:

The Dumbo interaction seems cool, I'm guessing it will be little 3d things like in Figment's Dream Lab, or maybe in the Soarin' line. Should keep the lil' kiddos happy. Funnily enough, I've never done Dumbo - I can't see this persuading me either :icon10m:

None of it seems to appeal to me really. Princesses and fairies.. oh joy. I think the restaurants will be diffferent, however something tells me Disney will throw some characters in there to take the edge away.

this seems intersesting. although im not huge on the Pixie Hollow it will cool to see.
I also wonder if they will be closing anything in the meantime and if they will get rid of anything.

toontown moving?!? wow sad but I hope that they make good princess atractions, Im not of magic kingdom fan so I think that putting the princess thing is good since it is all princes and pirates in MK blah blah blah.

I'm really glad that Toontown is going to be removed from Magic Kingdom. Never liked that section of the Park, especially since It was always packed with people going through.

Though I don't really like what their replacing ToonTown with. It seems more like a "Girl stop" rather than a place for both genders to visit and have fun.

Thought I'll miss ToonTown ( note I have went to DL, but as a baby so I can barely remember anything there. ), the expasion looks and sounds cool. However, it'll take awhile to open. I don't wanna wait that long....:(

~Samyz

This does sound awesome, although I did like Toon Town I realize that Disney is ever looking forward to bigger and better things.