Welcome back to theme park wizard and today’s video will be focused on the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The Magic Kingdom has a ton of projects happening right now from Thunder Mountain to two new massive lands coming later this decade.
Thunder Mountain is undergoing its extensive refurb that has been going on since last year. It is now scheduled to reopen in early May with brand new track and a brand new scene. This will be a much needed capacity boost for the park and activate a corner of the park that has been quite silent. May makes sense as a reopening time as they likely want to get far enough ahead on the Piston Peak and Villains projects that they can reopen Thunder Mountain which uses part of the construction zone.
Piston Peak hit a massive milestone in its construction as concrete has been poured and the site has gone vertical. Concrete has been poured at the base of the new creek that will surround the mountain and a retaining wall has gone vertical as well. This new creek will kind of form a boundary between Frontierland and Piston Peak and will hopefully make the difference in theming a little less jarring. The concept art shows many trees, shrubs, and rocks surrounding both sides of the creek and if that comes to fruition, then you should not be able to notice Frontierland from Piston Peak and vice versa. When this is done if this turns out to be anything like our Grizzly Peak at Disney California Adventure, then Magic Kingdom is in for a treat.
A possible new ride patent filed by Disney may give a hint as to what the ride system may look like for the Piston Peak rally race attraction. This patent has images of ride vehicles maneuvering a rugged landscape with different obstacles and different types of terrain. The description for this patent describes, “A ride system that may [include] uneven terrain, a plurality of ride vehicles positioned on the track, and a fleet controller.” (USPTO) The patent also states that the user of the ride vehicle may have the ability to select which path the vehicle goes on and that there could be multiple paths available. This is an exciting element to the ride and could drastically increase its re-rideability. We have something similar here on Radiator Springs Racers where there are two paths, but ours is chosen at random.
The patent also gives us a potential look at the ride path for this new attraction. The image shows a separate load and unload area which is fantastic and a path that goes around the perimeter and over the mountain structure. I am curious if this pans out of the queue will be indoors in portions of the mountain or completely outdoors.
Over at the Piston Peak construction site, you can see they are starting to shape the foundation for the eventual mountain and E ticket attraction. Once they finish grading the space, they will begin to dig the foundation and lay rebar and then eventually do the concrete pour. While there is no opening date or even year for this new land yet, the speculation is leading to a 2028 opening. Piston Peak will need to be open first before the much larger and more anticipated land behind it can open to guests.
A lot of talk has been going on about Villains Land as of late due to a new rumor article that came out from Drew Tailor of The Wrap. The initial chatter started from Len Testa when he made a post on the WDWMagic forums that he heard at some point Josh D’Maro told Imagineers to scrap all their initial plans for Villains Land and go bigger and bolder. Then came an exclusive article from Drew detailing the changes that he has heard about what has gone on with the project. Drew claimed that while they initially wanted a dark tone for the land and looked to Dark Universe for inspiration for Villains Land, things changed and they suddenly wanted something more family friendly and instead looked to the Isle of Berk for inspiration. Gone was the high thrill Maleficent coaster and in is a family friendly coaster themed to The Emperor’s New Groove, specifically the pull the lever scene from the movie. Maleficent supposedly has moved over to the main E ticket attraction for the land which could be a boat ride. This boat ride would use the same tech as the Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean ride which is what the new boat ride in Pandora will be using at California Adventure. A hades themed dinner show could be in the land and that would be a pre-fix meal. A big reason for the change was lightning lane sales. A Slinky Dog Dash type of coaster can allow all ages of guests to go on and buy more Lightning Lanes then something more thrilling like Tron. Lastly, the article did mention an Ursula spinner attraction that was once long ago proposed for the revamp of Paradise Pier at California Adventure. It seems there is a lot of California Adventure influence coming to the Magic Kingdom. I guess ideas never really do die at Disney do they? What do you think of the rumored changes?
Looking at the current state of Villains Land, grading continues on the site and Disney filed new drainage permits that will show us how large the buildings in the land will be. In these permits you can see several buildings. The two buildings at the bottom are for the Piston Peak attractions. The small building to the north of that is likely an extended queue for The Haunted Mansion or a new restroom building. The five buildings north of that are all for Villains Land. The most northern building is right on the railroad tracks so it is likely a new train station. The two large show buildings are likely the maleficent ride and the hades dinner show. The concept art showed the coaster as being outdoors, so if they kept that same plan then the small rectangular facility building toward Piston Peak is the likely coaster station or a small show scene on the coaster. The small building to the very left of the permit image is so small and isolated, I believe that it is part of the backstage for the theme park.
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin reopened today at the park. The attraction received some massive upgrades including new blasters, new projections, and even an all new scene with a new animatronic character named Buddy. Buddy helps you with practice before you go off and fight Emperor Zurg. The ride POV’s of the attraction look very good and it looks like a brand new ride that will last decades to come.
Lastly over at the Magic Kingdom, Cinderella Castle is being repainted back to its classic colors. The process is almost done and the castle is looking beautiful so far. I am not sure if there is an end date for this project but I feel like this could wrap up in the next couple of months.
Well that just about wraps up this update on the Magic Kingdom. Let me know in the comments do you like this park by park updates or do you rather have one large Disney World resort update? Also are you on board with the rumored changes to Villains Land or do they have you a bit worried or disappointed? Big thank you to our Patreon members and Youtube members for supporting the channel. Consider becoming a member for exclusive perks and more! Consider subscribing to the channel for more theme park updates because I have many every single week. Until then, stay curious, stay magical and I will see you in the parks!
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