Can you believe it? It has been a little over a full year since New Fantasyland had it's grand opening December 5, 2012. (interesting to note it would have been Walt Disney's 111th birthday) And in a matter of months the largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom will be completed! So lets stop and take a moment to look back over the history of this momentous expansion.
Across the five years it took the Imagineers to developed New Fantasyland, the expansion under went numerous amounts of changes, some of which have completely change the look of the expansion. One of the biggest changes in the history of New Fantasyland came with the addition of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster, so lets take a look at what it would have looked like. 'Old New Fantasyland', as we will call the designs of New Fantasyland before the addition of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster, consisted of: Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Pixie Hollow, Cinderella Chateau, Hundred Acre Wood, Aurora's Cottage, Mickey (Barnstormer), a meet a greet in a forest clearing and much more. Here is a link to the blue-print of what it would have looked like.
Cinderella's Chateau would have been an immersive, hands on meet and great, similar to Enchanted Tales with Belle. You would be able to meet Cinderella in her childhood home and you would encounter the step-mother, step-sisters and the Fairy god-mother. Your little knights will have the chance to be knighted and your princesses would help the Fairy god-mother transform Cinderella's dress for the ball.
In Aurora's Cottage you would have the opportunity of meeting Aurora and her three Fairies in their cottage in the woods, it would have been allot like Cinderella's Chateau. But this time you would make birthday cards and help the fairies throw a surprise birthday party for the princess.
Pixie Hallow was intended to shrink the guest to the size of a pixie and you could experience their world form the view of a fairy. As well there would be a themed play ground and a meet and great were you could meet the Pixie's them selves. Here is some concept art of what the attractions would have looked like.
When the Imagineers presented their designs of "Old New Fantasyland" to Tom Staggs (Chairman of Walt Disney Company Parks and Resorts) he asked them if their was any attrition or something of that sort that they wanted to building but could not for some reason. And they decided the the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster was definitely the one they wanted. Tom Staggs approved it and they started working on developing the ride. Funny thing to note the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster was one of the first ideas they came up with but they had no idea how to execute it so they left it and move on. But they went back and pulled out their old designs and know in matters of months the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster will be opening up, with it's totally unit ride design that has never been done in the history of amusement parks.
After the addition of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster they had to do some moving around to fit it in and so they dropped Cinderella Chateau, Aurora's Cottage, Hundred Acer Woods(they moved part of it across the path in front of the line up and redid the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh line up) and Pixie Hallow. In addition to that they had to do some reorganizing in Story Book Circus. At one point instead of having the two big circus tents and Casey Jr. Splash N Soak in Storybook Circus they would have had an enlarged meet and great area that seams to be inside of a forest clearing. In addition an attractions that was assumed to be called '"Cheese" the mouse attraction' but that idea was dropped and the current design for the expansion was developed. Here is a link to a picture of the dropped character meat and great area and the '"Cheese" the mouse' attractions. As well as all of this Disney added a Tangled themed restroom area on your right hand side (if you were heading toward Liberty Square) or basically were the old Skyway stations and stroller parking was and Princess Fairy Tale Hall in the old Snow White Ride.
So lets move on from the past of Fantasyland Expansion and talk about the impact this expansion is having on the Magic Kingdom. So like I said earlier the Fantasyland Expansion will double the size of Fantasyland, but I did not say by how much; at the completion of the expansion it will have added eleven acres to the existing ten acres so by that Fantasyland will quite literally have doubled it's size! "This is the largest expansion of the most popular land in the most popular theme park that we have, so excellence was the only option." said Jim MacPhee(senior vice president of Walt Disney World Parks), "We first began talking about this project five years ago, so its been a labor of love for some time. We have over 1,300 construction workers here for about three years. Almost 1,000 cast members were involved in one way or another, between Imagineers and teams from food and beverage, merchandise, attractions, horticulture, management and highly skilled maintenance positions." As well as impacting the Magic Kingdom in size it also costed a hefty price to build. Disney would not say how much it costed but Dennis Speigel (president of International Theme Park Services Inc) estimates the price tag "is exceeding $600 million."
So to finish it off New Fantasyland comes with a legend! Lets stop for a moment while I tell this story. "Once upon a time, we had a great need for stories and there was a wonderful land were all these stores actually took place. But as we grew older our childhood dreams changed from wishing upon a star to wanting to grow up. And so we did, soon evil villains took the chance and placed a cures on this land by taking one cymbal from every story. They tool a feather from an elephant that taut him to believe in himself, a rose from a beast that showed him that even a beast can find true love, a antler to remind us the importunes of humility, a trident from a mermaid that showed her a new dream,"(Fantasyland Story) and an apple from Seven Dwarfs that showed us the power of jealousy. Slowly we forgot these story and quickly evil villains seized the opportunity and put a curse on the lands. The curse blocked the lands from our vision and "they hide it within a crystal ball," were it has been hidden for years. The lands have always excited there all along but know we have a chance to save this land by traveling through them and unlocking their meaning.
But some of us have all ready gone and concurred some of these stores and liberated them from their cures but their is one last land that is held down by the darkest and strongest curse by far. This land is symbolized by an apple and is in the heart of this once forgotten enchanting land. If it is unlocked the crystal ball will be shattered for ever and all that will be left is a shield that ones held all the symbols; and it will be a reminder to us that we must always believe in dreams.
This last curse will summon all of the warriors around the world to come and help brake it. The only way to brick this curse it to have faith and trust that dreams really do come true. Once the curse is broken the once forgotten lands will be awakened and a land that seams to only be in our greatest dreams will be reveled. Welcome to New Fantasyland, the enchanted forest were dreams come true!
So lets move on from the past of Fantasyland Expansion and talk about the impact this expansion is having on the Magic Kingdom. So like I said earlier the Fantasyland Expansion will double the size of Fantasyland, but I did not say by how much; at the completion of the expansion it will have added eleven acres to the existing ten acres so by that Fantasyland will quite literally have doubled it's size! "This is the largest expansion of the most popular land in the most popular theme park that we have, so excellence was the only option." said Jim MacPhee(senior vice president of Walt Disney World Parks), "We first began talking about this project five years ago, so its been a labor of love for some time. We have over 1,300 construction workers here for about three years. Almost 1,000 cast members were involved in one way or another, between Imagineers and teams from food and beverage, merchandise, attractions, horticulture, management and highly skilled maintenance positions." As well as impacting the Magic Kingdom in size it also costed a hefty price to build. Disney would not say how much it costed but Dennis Speigel (president of International Theme Park Services Inc) estimates the price tag "is exceeding $600 million."
So to finish it off New Fantasyland comes with a legend! Lets stop for a moment while I tell this story. "Once upon a time, we had a great need for stories and there was a wonderful land were all these stores actually took place. But as we grew older our childhood dreams changed from wishing upon a star to wanting to grow up. And so we did, soon evil villains took the chance and placed a cures on this land by taking one cymbal from every story. They tool a feather from an elephant that taut him to believe in himself, a rose from a beast that showed him that even a beast can find true love, a antler to remind us the importunes of humility, a trident from a mermaid that showed her a new dream,"(Fantasyland Story) and an apple from Seven Dwarfs that showed us the power of jealousy. Slowly we forgot these story and quickly evil villains seized the opportunity and put a curse on the lands. The curse blocked the lands from our vision and "they hide it within a crystal ball," were it has been hidden for years. The lands have always excited there all along but know we have a chance to save this land by traveling through them and unlocking their meaning.
But some of us have all ready gone and concurred some of these stores and liberated them from their cures but their is one last land that is held down by the darkest and strongest curse by far. This land is symbolized by an apple and is in the heart of this once forgotten enchanting land. If it is unlocked the crystal ball will be shattered for ever and all that will be left is a shield that ones held all the symbols; and it will be a reminder to us that we must always believe in dreams.
This last curse will summon all of the warriors around the world to come and help brake it. The only way to brick this curse it to have faith and trust that dreams really do come true. Once the curse is broken the once forgotten lands will be awakened and a land that seams to only be in our greatest dreams will be reveled. Welcome to New Fantasyland, the enchanted forest were dreams come true!
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