Should Fantasyland get "full-sized" dark rides?

[Mojave]

This is more a thought experiment, I know there is no good reason to do it and it would be costly.

Over in DCA, The Little Mermaid promises to be a lavish, highly-themed, $100million attraction. It will have a fairly high capacity Haunted Mansion omni-mover style ride system.

Meanwhile, in the "new" Fantasyland, now 25 years old!, you have high capacity, but shorter, less themed attractions. Each of the castle buildings takes up the same space as The Little Mermaid attraction will take, but contains two or three attractions, not to mention restrooms, a restaurant and a shop.

My question: should WDI consider putting a single, highly-themed dark ride in each castle building, using the higher capacity omni-mover system?

Obviously, that would mean removing 3 attractions. Would that be sacrilegious? Could they later be re-added in other parts of Fantasyland, say the Motor Boat Cruise or the Fantasyland Theater areas? Do children prefer these shorter, less themed attractions to the more lavish TLM/HM style ones?

[mycroft16]

Actually, I have a really cool plan for Frontierland that involves knocking down the Fantasyland Theater. It leaves room for a MASSIVE dark-ride which I would love to set as Beauty and the Beast and have it on 2 levels. The same building is large enough to hold a second equally large Frontierland dark ride. This way removing the fantasyland four is not required.

[Zoe Necrosis]

Nah.

[Coheteboy]

If money was of no issue, I'd move Toon Town to DCA and let that space be an extension of Fantasyland. The backstage areas could be remodeled, perhaps even making the theater occupy much of the toon town space, leaving more areas IN fantasyland for actual attractions.

BUT... i think it's nice to have small rides too. Small does not = kiddie. Variety... it's all about variety and Disneyland's got it.

DCA is really hot or really cold. There isn't a proper luke warm yet.

[Axerion XIV]

Maybe just have 1 giant ride with all the classic Disney characters. You could go through in chronological order.

[AshleyJaded]

Maybe just have 1 giant ride with all the classic Disney characters. You could go through in chronological order.

I think this would be called

"it's a small world"

hahahah

[sediment]

This is more a thought experiment, I know there is no good reason to do it and it would be costly.

Over in DCA, The Little Mermaid promises to be a lavish, highly-themed, $100million attraction. It will have a fairly high capacity Haunted Mansion omni-mover style ride system.

Meanwhile, in the "new" Fantasyland, now 25 years old!, you have high capacity, but shorter, less themed attractions. Each of the castle buildings takes up the same space as The Little Mermaid attraction will take, but contains two or three attractions, not to mention restrooms, a restaurant and a shop.

My question: should WDI consider putting a single, highly-themed dark ride in each castle building, using the higher capacity omni-mover system?

Obviously, that would mean removing 3 attractions. Would that be sacrilegious? Could they later be re-added in other parts of Fantasyland, say the Motor Boat Cruise or the Fantasyland Theater areas? Do children prefer these shorter, less themed attractions to the more lavish TLM/HM style ones?

Removing three attractons and replacing them with one? Who are you, Paul Pressler?
<zing!>

[Legacy]

One of the greatest aspects of Fantasyland is the child-like simplicity of the place, particularly that core area where the dark rides reside. Putting in a grand epic ride on the scale of the new TLM ride wouldn't fit as well. If you could do something of that scale on the "outskirts" of Fantasyland, say, near "it's a small world" or Fantasia gardens, it would work fine, although it probably shouldn't tie into one of the classic animated films, again, to prevent it from creating an overwhelming affect on the smaller dark rides.

[Robert Cook]

My question: should WDI consider putting a single, highly-themed dark ride in each castle building, using the higher capacity omni-mover system?

Perhaps something like this will happen someday, but like you I don't see a pressing need for it now. And while the Omnimover system is great for an attraction like the Haunted Mansion, I think that the little cars are perfect for Fantasyland as it is today. The Omnimover could never be used on Peter Pan's Flight without ruining the experience, and may end up being a compromise to The Little Mermaid (as originally conceived) as well.

Obviously, that would mean removing 3 attractions. Would that be sacrilegious?

I suppose that it depends on which animated features will be bereft of their rides. For example, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio are seriously classic animated features. Then again, these are the most lackluster dark rides in Fantasyland, and removing Peter Pan's Flight would hurt more because it's such a great ride (all my opinions, of course).

Could they later be re-added in other parts of Fantasyland, say the Motor Boat Cruise or the Fantasyland Theater areas?

That former Motor Boat Cruise location has been begging for expansion for decades, and I've long-envisioned a ride based on The Little Mermaid or another more recent animated feature going in there, but it looks like Disneyland will be deprived for the sake of DCA (I frame the situation in these terms because I think that this attraction belongs in Disneyland thematically).

As for the Fantasyland Theater, I'm a bit more hesitant because it would be nice to have such a facility inside the park for various purposes, even with the Hyperion Theater at DCA (I still view them as separate parks, although this may change someday). I'd develop the Motor Boat Cruise location first.

Do children prefer these shorter, less themed attractions to the more lavish TLM/HM style ones?

I didn't as a child, but I liked them in a different way, and still do.

Actually, I have a really cool plan for Frontierland that involves knocking down the Fantasyland Theater. It leaves room for a MASSIVE dark-ride which I would love to set as Beauty and the Beast and have it on 2 levels. The same building is large enough to hold a second equally large Frontierland dark ride. This way removing the fantasyland four is not required.

This is a wonderful idea! The thing about dark rides is that they're indoors so they lend themselves to such an efficient type of space utilization. The combined areas of the Fantasyland Theater, the theater where the Hunchback of Notre Dame show was staged, and the remnants of the old Mine Train ride form quite an enormous amount of contiguous underutilized area inside Disneyland. And as an added bonus, this combined area is adjacent to some backstage area that could potentially be reallocated for attractions later on. And we could raze Mickey's Toontown to make even more room.

I also agree with your idea of creating a Beauty and the Beast ride because it's one of my favorite animated features, and aside from walk-around characters and representation in shows, it doesn't have a physical presence in the park. I kind of expected at least something in Storybook Land (like in its Paris counterpart), but for some reason WDI skipped this movie during the last major renovation of this area in Anaheim.

I think this would be called

"it's a small world"

hahahah

Eventually! Just wait! You may laugh now but you'll cry later.

[Mojave]

Removing three attractons and replacing them with one? Who are you, Paul Pressler?
<zing!>

No, no, no, remove five attractions and replace them with two. Much better odds.

[JerrodDRagon]

The 2 rides DL needs is Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. (and of course people say no because of HM but we all know a Nightmare Before Christmas ride would always be busy)
We all now that the biggest waste of land (note I love the look of this part of the part but it is a lot of space) Is the Rivers of America and Pirates island.

[AshleyJaded]

Eventually! Just wait! You may laugh now but you'll cry later. [/QUOTE]


I know I'm actually horrified by the changes!
but oh well there's nothing in my power that can be done!

[Mojave]

The 2 rides DL needs is Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. (and of course people say no because of HM but we all know a Nightmare Before Christmas ride would always be busy)
We all now that the biggest waste of land (note I love the look of this part of the part but it is a lot of space) Is the Rivers of America and Pirates island.

The Hub is a lot of wasted space too. They could easily put a nice big rollercoaster right there. And a water park in the lakes in front of the Castle.

[Squirt_101]

I think the simplicity is what makes Fantasyland a really special place to hang out in the park. The fact that so many memories and happy times happen in that one place, that it makes up for the lack of high lavished rides. Plus, I think highly lavished rides may overwhelm some children.

[Robert Cook]

We all now that the biggest waste of land (note I love the look of this part of the part but it is a lot of space) Is the Rivers of America and Pirates island.

It's one of the largest thematically-integral chunks of land, but I wouldn't say that it's wasted. There is a greater amount of land that is either currently unused or underutilized throughout Disneyland, which includes the very large contiguous area described earlier, as well as several potential backstage expansion areas. It should be no big secret that Disneyland has fewer attractions now than at some points in its history, and that it has more total area inside the park now than it has ever had before. There are plenty of things that can be done--major projects--before we'd need to eye the Rivers of America area greedily. Regarding the topic at hand, it's probably not the most ideal location for Fantasyland dark rides anyway....

The Hub is a lot of wasted space too. They could easily put a nice big rollercoaster right there.

Yeah, the rollercoaster could stretch all the way down Main Street and over the train station. We could then rename the park Walt's Berry Farm.