Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << I just dont see how the new area (with the exception of Little Mermaid) will have that sort of reaction unless you have children. >> Or are a child at heart.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: I'm with YOU, Kennect, duckling! This whole expansion project is gonna' be a lot better than some ducklings are willing to admit. Not everything about it is gonna' appeal to everybody. But enough of it will appeal to the majority. And before we start putting down the Company for coming up with more interactive meetings and greetings for little girls, I'd be willing to bet there's more than just a few men who would get a thrill out of making birthday cards with Princess Aurora. Just ask Prince Phillip what it does for him!!! He even risked his life by fighting a big ol' dragon just for the chance to meet 'n greet her!! You don't hear HIM complaining, do you? I'll bet he'll be right at her side to encourage many a sweet little duckling to make all kinds of birthday cards! It'll be a long held memory for them to cherish until they're old and molting!!!
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: I think those who complain about the meetings and greetings are a group made up mostly of individuals who don't particularly enjoy Disney characters to begin with. They'd rather not bother with such an idea. Fortunately for them, the park has plenty of other attractions for them to take part in. They should be happy for what's going on with this Fantasyland expansion because it will mean a certain other group of Disney fans--those who DO appreciate characters in an interactive environment--won't be as likely to compete with them while waiting in lines for OTHER attractions that they'd rather do instead. ORWEN: It's really a win-win situation, if you ask me. Those who like meeting the princesses will have that experience greatly enhanced--while other attractions scattered around the park are still gonna' be there for those who don't appreciate feminine royalty. It's just another way to include a wider range of guest appeal. So nobody needs to feel threatened by this Fantasyland expansion.
Originally Posted By dshyates Its not that I dislike the character meet and greets, but they are more like icing on the cake. And this expansion plan has LOTS of icing and a tiny little cake.
Originally Posted By Hista98 In my defense I'm excited overall It's high time the MK got some TLC. There are certian thingds i would like to see done diffrently but i will wait til it's done to see how it is and see what others think of this new expanison. sorry if i was kicking a dead horse.
Originally Posted By brotherdave My question is couldn't they have made the new Fantasyland makeover just a little bit more balanced? In other words, have some things that boys might be interested in as well as the girls? Dumbo fits the bill of appealing to both. But, by and large, with very few exceptions, this whole new redo will appeal mostly to under 10 girls. Sure, Little Mermaid will probably wow the whole family, as might the new BatB restaurant, but let's face it, there's not much for younger boys to like here. What about Pinocchio (yes, he has a counter service eatery, but that' it)? A small attraction, maybe even a dark ride clone, would help appeal to the boys here. Aladdin? Tarzan? Jungle Book? Lion King? Robin Hood? Even Alice in Wonderland with all of the crazy characters there! These all have appeal for both boys and girls, but at least gives the boys something to do here outside of Dumbo. I have an 11 year old son who won't set foot into Fantasyland now after I told him about what will be added. Little Mermaid ride - maybe. Gaston's Tavern - ok. But the rest - forget it. He said he'll stay in the other areas of the park, though he might ride Peter Pan's Flight or Snow White's Adventures or see Philarmagic, but none of the "Princess" stuff appeals to him. And I know that if he were 5 years younger, it STILL wouldn't appeal to him. He'd rather spend more time in Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square. Heck, he'd even rather just shop on Main Street (something he hates to do when we're at the park) vs going into "Princess Land" as he's calling it now. Sorry, but Disney needs to appeal to ALL ages and both genders. My feeling is that it's ok to have the princess themes, just balance it out with stuff that younger boys might like, too.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy One obseveration about this new FL -- it's almost like they have taken the original Storybookland concept from DL and blown it up to life size.
Originally Posted By brotherdave ^^^Which into itself is not a bad thing, per se. It just needs "balanced" more. What if they added Skull Rock and Capt Hook's pirate ship into the Pixie Hollow area? Now THAT would be something cool for everyone!!
Originally Posted By brotherdave A few more "C" ticket dark ride (like Disneyland) would certainly help round Fantasyland, too.
Originally Posted By HMButler1979 ""Branding the Magic Kingdom as the "kids" park is a relatively new thing in Disney history - and really only started to happen in the 1990s. Disney seems to have decided that their Disneyland-style parks are now all geared towards Fantasy - hence the characterization of most of the themed lands. But that wasn't always the case, and hopefully, won't be in the future."" This is SO true. Managment and marketing started re-writing Disney history and re-labeling MK as a "kids" park after DAK opened. They wanted to start diffrentiating all 4 parks and this was the way marketing wanted to do it. Hence, trips to hell replaced w/ stuffed bears, subversive Tiki ceremonies replaced with Iago and Zazu, beyond hyped character dining at the castle and Crystal Palace, the hard ticket events, etc etc. No other DL style park has bent over for little Brittanys and Brandons like this park.
Originally Posted By HMButler1979 ""I just dont see how the new area (with the exception of Little Mermaid) will have that sort of reaction unless you have children."" It's wont. But Jay doesn't care. He's just scared that Disney's target group is going to "cheat" on them when The Boy Who Lived moves in down the road w/ thier interactive stuff and they are under the delusion that they will want to play with interactive Princess stuff to keep them from going.
Originally Posted By brotherdave But, there still is SOME level of balance and greatness in the park. Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, Big Thunder Mountaing RR, Splash Mountain, Country Bears, Jungle Cruise, even the shortened Pirates, are all excellent atttractions. CoP, although in need of an update, is still refreshing. And Space Mountain is still a fun ride, even with its retro 70s feel. Yes, there is still some good in the old MK. But it does need some TLC and direction away from the Toons. At least Fantasyland was designed FOR the animated characters, so adding these new additions for the characters here doesn't bother me. It's just how 'cheap' some of these seem (like Aurora's birthday card crayon center!)
Originally Posted By HMButler1979 ""My question is couldn't they have made the new Fantasyland makeover just a little bit more balanced? In other words, have some things that boys might be interested in as well as the girls?"" It happened in 1983 when WDI was not held at gunpoint by marketing and Consumer Products. But now...............
Originally Posted By HMButler1979 "" What if they added Skull Rock and Capt Hook's pirate ship into the Pixie Hollow area?"" Consumer Products would have to make up a whole new franchsise to justify it. Whaddya think this is? the 80s and 90s?
Originally Posted By brotherdave <<Consumer Products would have to make up a whole new franchsise to justify it. Whaddya think this is? the 80s and 90s?>> What do you think Return to Neverland was?!!! Personally, I'd rather have THAT be the reason to bring in Capt Hook's ship and Skull Rock. But what's wrong with the original Peter Pan? It's TIMELESS, just like most of the other classic characters. If you build it, people will buy it, guaranteed!
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<A few more "C" ticket dark ride (like Disneyland) would certainly help round Fantasyland, too.>> I think this would have helped a lot - even if they were all themed to the princesses. A Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella-themed dark ride would be much more interesting to all members of the family - and they still could have had meet-and-greets as part of it. I think they took the cheap way out with this one by not adding at least one or two more actual attractions.
Originally Posted By TMICHAEL We'll walk through it once, go on LM once (or not since it will already be open here in CA) and leave. The only reason to build a Tavern is to serve beer and I doubt that will happen. Although it would be AWESOME for the dads to be able to dull the pain of endless meet and greets with an ice cold one. ;-) Other than the eye candy, there is no reason to venture here more than once if you are over the age of 12. The idea of adding Skull Rock and Capt. Hooks ship to Pixie Hollow is excellent and something that WDW should have considered to even out the blah offerings. Maybe take a page from DLP and add a smaller version of Adventure Isle for the guys. Heck, they already have the plans and props to "borrow" from Pirates Lair here on Dlands TSI.
Originally Posted By leobloom Can anyone explain what Pixie Hollow is? I understand it's a M&G with Tinkerbell, but are there other characters too? Seems like I remember seeing something about a whole group of new pixies who were undoubtedly created for artistic reasons since it wasn't good enough to just have Tinkerbell. I guess we really needed a Tinkerbell movie, too, because we didn't know enough about the ups and downs of a Pixie's life. I agree with the concern about balance---although I don't see it in gender terms. What bothers me about this expansion is how geared toward wittle kids the whole damn thing is. If I took kids to MK, you can be sure I wouldn't waste our time making birthday cards for Aurora. We'd be doing things that we couldn't do at home: i.e. Ride the rides and watch the shows. Someone mentioned that this is basically just another attempt to sell merchandise, and honestly I don't know how you can see it any other way. Space Mountain, Mansion, Pirates, Big Thunder, etc. would never have been built today because there was no corporate synergy dictating their design. I'm sure the area will look nice, but I hope Mermaid lives up to the hype. (Can you tell I'm skeptical about it? Rides that simply retell the movie aren't typically headlining E-tickets.)
