For part one of this story, click here.
On Monday, March 12, the Storybook Circus area of Orlando's Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World soft-opened a few attractions mid-morning. The land and attractions are scheduled to open for regular business on March 31, but like most attractions, they were finished early enough to allow for testing by the ride operators AND for "soft opening" testing to the general public.
The newly-constructed Dumbo, the Barnstormer, and the train depot were all open for business. To judge by the theming of the attractions and the little details scattered around the land, Disney has a winner on its hands here. Today's update will be the second of three parts, heavy on the pictures, and lighter than usual on the commentary. The Barnstormer is next door to Dumbo. In fact, it's quite close to the one spinner which is open.
It's the same coaster; with tracks now painted sky-blue. Gone is the farm theme of the previous version; now it's all about barnstorming aviation (hence the red/white tower) and the Great Goofini as a daredevil.
FastPass will go on the right. See the wait times displayed on the left?
It's a digital display, designed to LOOK analog.
The backside of that same sign—the idea is that they ‘reused’ the Goofy’s Wiseacre Farms
sign from the old attraction to make it. I love those touches. The ride itself appears unchanged.
In the queue we encounter a human-sized cannon (complete with fuse that glows/fizzes every so often), a circle for strapping on a person for a knife-throwing demonstration, and a crashed rocket that landed off-target. The "targets" line the entire walkway; they are actually the shade structures for the line (they look a bit like similar shade blades at the Tomorrowland Speedway).
Barnstormer line. Note the "target" design shade structures.
Wheel of Peril. | Real smoke drifts out of the crashed rocket.
The fuse sputters with a light every so often, as if lit.
Posters around the outside of the Barnstormer.
Across the walkway, Goofy has previously crashed through one target.
You can’t see it here, but this pole is anchored by FAKE sandbags. Neat touch.
He and the plane crash through the tower at the top, and again through the billboard at the end (in this respect, it's similar to the old Barnstormer theme).
Should there be a sound effect here? I feel I should know this monkey.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Two photos were edited together for this one shot.
The blue cars are now red. And have gold trim.
There's no barn anymore, though, and no chickens. The whole ride is outdoors. In some ways, it’s even more lightly themed than before, though there are some extra daredevil devices in the exit area.
The clucking chickens were right here.
Numbers on the trains apparently reference 1939, the date of Goofy's first cartoon short (I didn’t see this one myself).
Follow this link to the rest of what is now to be seen in the New Fantasyland.
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