Originally Posted By land fan What if Disney gave you a billion dollar budget (DCA style) to spend on The Magic Kingdom for major improvements? Here's what I would do: Power wash and paint the whole park, spruce up all the landscaping, (spending a bundle on flowerbeds and topiaries), upgrade most of the E-tickets including a new and improved Space Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain would get a big time upgrade with new show scenes and special effects featuring Audio-Animatronics that actually work. Also the queue would get a good power washing. I would upgrade POTC the way it should have been created right from the beginning: more like Disneyland's. Longer, more detailed, and yes, (hang on to your mouse ears!) another drop. The queue and show building exterior would remain the same. I'd like to add a restaurant overlooking the ride but we are on a budget. Now here is where the bulk of the bucks would be spent: Fantasyland. The Pooh Playground would be sent packing and sold on E-bay for about 50 bucks or donated to the nearest Mc Donalds. In it's place would be a fantastic E-ticket ride. A roller coaster for the whole family called Fantasia Mountain or a Villains Mountain. Or instead a large show building could be built that could host 2 new dark rides. One of which would be called Mr. Toads revenge, a new and improved version of an old favorite, and maybe a Beauty and The beast attraction. Or perhaps a Pinoccio or an Alice in Wonderland ride like at Disneyland. The possibillities are endless! And to satisfy Disney, there would be plenty of retail space in this large new show building. Tomorrowland would probably reqire a billion dollars on it's own to be overhauled correctly. I have tons more ideas for for attractions and parades but far too many to list. What would you guys do?
Originally Posted By Honest John You Have some pretty good ideas. I would add a new E ticket pronto. Something like Indiana Jones ride for Adventureland. I would remove Hall of Presidents and replace it with a Legend of Sleepy Hollow dark ride. There would be more live entertainment including an outdoor stage in Tomorrowland where bands could play. No dj's. I'd also re-do all Tomorrowland facades with the help of some big time Hollywood production designers that spcialize in futurism and science fiction.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris I would add attractions. They are what I go to the parks for. Anything else is pretty much a waste of money for me. Main Street: Some kind of keystone cops style chase ride, similar to the car chase ride Imagineering was prepping for TDS's American Waterfront. Muppets wouldn't fit into the MK so make it a period specific thing. Adventureland: No brainer here.....Indy. EVERYBODY wants it and the MK has room to spare. If anything, make it BIGGER and BETTER!!! Frontierland: WRE. Just the way Marc wanted it with the train running through and re-route BTMRR to run over and around the top of it. Make it a MASSIVE backdrop to FrL and a HUGE weenie. Hang political correctness. Disney is never afraid to do their own thing on their own property. WHy should they bother here? Of course, at the very back of the WRE plateau would be, Geyser Mountain. Make this specific to WDW, kinda like how DL is the only MK type park with the Matterhorn. This combination would do the unthinkable and for the FIRST TIME a FrL section of the park would be THE MUST BE area! Phase two would see Fantasyland and Tomorrowland receiving the same loving care and attention.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I don't ponder too much about armchair imagineering anything. To me, it's ultimately an exercise in frustration or disappointment. I pay Disney to entertain me; it's not my job to think about how they should do it. I want them to give me what I didn't even know I wanted. That's magic.
Originally Posted By Honest John Some people need their magic spoon fed to them I guess. We do pay Disney to entertain us, a lot of money I might add. What do we get? American Idol? More of what I don't want.
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 I think all of the ideas are great. I just wish that,It's a Small World", would look like DL's. I know with all the rain that FL has it would not be ideal. I just think it is much better at DL.
Originally Posted By brotherdave Remember that It's a Small World, Pirates, and most of the other earlier attractions in the Magic Kingdom were designed by many of the original Imagineers that helped create Disneyland. In their minds, they felt like they were improving some of what they felt were Disneyland's bigger flaws, whether they actually needed them or not. Marc Davis, the main show designer for Pirates in Disneyland, also did the same for Florida. He supposedly HATED the lengthy grotto scenes and going back up the waterfall at the end. Thus, we ended up with the version that we now have at the Magic Kingdom, which many feel is inferior to the Disneyland version. Yet Marc felt he had 'improved' it. It all depends on one's viewpoint, I suppose.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 " I want them to give me what I didn't even know I wanted. That's magic." Perfectly put!
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Actually, brotherdave that is not true. I have been to the Davis home and spent time with Alice. According to Marc's widow and many Disney historians Marc was incredibly disappointed the company wanted basically a cliff notes version of the seminal CA ride. She placed a HUGE folio in my hands FILLED with Marc's sketches and designs and told me how excited he was at the opportunity to create what he thought would be a large and more advanced version for WDW. Like most things at WDI, however, it's the accountaneers that scuttle the best laid plans.
Originally Posted By ExpDave Since Honest John mentioned a Sleepy Hollow attraction, I'll share an idea that I've had for years, but it wouldn't fit inside the Hall of the Presidents. It would be another enclosed Disney coaster but this would be a very highly themed one (like a dark ride or Splash) based on Sleepy Hallow. The party with the song would be part of the line area, the loading area would be a barn. There would be the whistling reeds and croaking frogs on the lift hill. The whole ride would be through the hollow with trees all around and images of the headless horseman popping up in unexpected places. This could be random like TOT so that no ride is exactly the same. It would be a suspended coaster like one of my all time faves, The Big Bad Wolf in VA <a href="http://www.buschgardenswilliamsburg.com/bgw/ar_big_bad_wolf.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.buschgardenswilliam sburg.com/bgw/ar_big_bad_wolf.aspx</a> In fact if done well the trees could even help mask some of the track so you don't know exactly where you are going. Of course it would end just past the covered bridge with the pumpkin head flying at you.
Originally Posted By brotherdave Interesting info, Bob. I guess the Disney PR machine likes to make it sound like an abreviated version of the ride was his idea. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I do remember an interview with him on how he did hate the "up the waterfall" ending of the DL ride, though. Of course, Marc Davis never actually wanted POTC in Florida in the first place. Western River Expedition of the Thunder Mesa project was supposed to be the Magic Kingdom's answer to the success of Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we will probably never see that ride ever built.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I'd like to move most of the Tomorrowland Speedway outside of the berm, and retheme it to Toontown. Then I'd use the space it's in now to build some new attractions. Maybe a new dark ride for Toontown like DL's Roger Rabbit, and a new generation Journey into Inner Space for Tomorrowland.
Originally Posted By Mr X Doug, neat ideas! I could be wrong, but I think I haven't seen any comments from you outside of WorldEvents in like...forever! lol. Funny to think, when we all go at it on the WE debates, that we're all just Disney fans at heart right? Sorry...meant the post in the friendliest possible way (apologize if it didn't seem that way).
Originally Posted By ExpDave I would LOVE to see a new Journey into Inner Space! Just think what they could do now not just with effects, but going further into quantum physics. The DL attraction was incredible an update done right could be even better.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 Honestly, I would take the billion dollars and start working on the fifth theme park. Magic Kingdom is one of my favorite parks because it has something for everyone. No matter what age, gender, race, religious affiliation, Kirk or Picard fan you might be, you are still going to have a good time at that park. And if your not, If you are completely convinced that the park needs to be mowed over and re-built, I don't think a billion dollars is going to help.
Originally Posted By mickey_ring Besides reconditioning everything, bring back 20K Leagues, lengthen the Tomorrowland Speedway, put the theater back in the Main Street Cinema, theme all stores to their park "land", leave the Emporium as The character shop. I would also like the return of the Penny Arcade, Magic Shop, Adventureland Verandah, Timekeeper and the Swan Boats. And how about restoring Misson to the Moon? The inside of the Stitch building is still really the same as it was way back.
Originally Posted By disneykid90 On the note of a SLeepy Hollow dark ride. I think think it would work well with the platform that Curse of DarKastle in Busch Williamsburg is on.
Originally Posted By Disneydanny if I were given a Billion to work w/ i'd set aside at LEAST $2,000,000 alone on the Country Bear Jamboree. The attraction really needs alot of TLC
Originally Posted By ghosthost2001 you have nice ideas and it all sounds wonderful but it would cost more than a billion to redo/add or construct all you want.
Originally Posted By RandySavage Off the top of my head... Fantasyland($350mm): -Replace current Pooh ride with a Mary Poppins or Beauty & Beast dark ride. -Build Tokyo's Hunny Hunt over playful spot. -Use remaining old lagoon space to build new, more elaborate Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, with queue themed as interior of Toad Hall and using Hunny Hunt technology. Main Street($100mm): -Expand the eastern alley into "Edison Square" and move Carousel of Progress there (as originally intended in DL). -Resurrect Penny Arcade, Magic Shop, Cinema and unique and diverse retail. -Move One Man's Dream from Studios to western alley. Tomorrowland($400mm) -Complete 1994's "Future that Never Was" architectural theme throughout entire land (ie in the northern half). -Do a major Space Mountain revamp: new track, queue, vehicles and storyline. -Sprinkle humorous AA scenes throughout TTA and rename it "The Wedway Peoplemover" for nostalgia's sake. -Remove Monster's Inc theme from Laugh Floor. Rename it and make the stars alien comics who live in Tomorrowland. -Switch electric cars into the Speedway and retheme it to the Buck Rogers future of the land. -In the southeastern corner, where COP once was, I would build a $150MM highly themed EMV attraction with an ORIGINAL STORYLINE. Maybe something about helping recover a stolen alien artifact from space pirates, ie, an Indiana Jones Adventure set in the future. Adventureland ($150mm) - I would spruce up the FX in Jungle Cruise and POTC (i.e., the hissing cannon sounds). - Put in a new Tiki Birds show based closely on Walt's original. - Add a jungle-themed coaster similar to Big Thunder that glides around the jungle covered ruins and caverns of the Lost City of El Dorado (again, create an original storyline for the attraction). Frontierland: There isn't any money left in my Billion Dollar budget, but fortunately this land is in relatively good shape. With any leftovers I would spruce up Country Bears, as mentioned above. There you have it. For less than what Eisner and WDC wasted on Michael Ovitz and ABC Family Channel, all that could be done to the MK.
