Who will make the bigger dent in 2012, Anaheim's Cars Land or Orlando's New Fantasyland?
Arguably, the most attention-getting display at the recent D23 Expo was the massive scale model of the New Fantasyland coming to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It was the first display as you walked in the door, and at its side sat a prototype swinging mine car from the area’s last-minute centerpiece, the Seven Dwarfs coaster.
Disney California Adventure’s Cars Land, the model of which was the highlight at D23 ’09, had several giant character cars on display this time around, as well as a giant wall projection of the busy construction site. Visitors stood behind a railing and safety tape, as if they were viewing the site from a construction platform.
The projects are the most expensive, most expansive, and arguably most important, additions their respective resorts have made in recent memory, if not in history. I can’t think of any expansions Disney has undertaken wider in scale, short of creating an entire park from scratch.
The stakes are huge—notwithstanding the fact that, by the time they’re completed, the projects will end up costing more than $300 million apiece. The New Fantasyland is designed to stem the flood of guests to Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Cars Land is the crowning piece of a top-to-bottom overhaul, which should ultimately determine, once and for all, if DCA can stand on its own, and not continue to survive solely on Disneyland’s leftovers.
Let’s put the two projects head to head, to see which has a better chance of achieving its goal:
Every element of Cars Land is expected to open (at least officially) on the same day, some time next summer. New Fantasyland will open in stages, with the first elements unveiled late next year and the last, the Dwarfs coaster, perhaps not until 2014. Cars Land receives the advantage of more to show on opening day, while New Fantasyland can stretch out its marketable festivities across multiple dates. The disadvantage to WDW’s approach, however, is that come opening day #1, there will be giant construction walls smack dab in the middle of the New Fantasyland. And each successive unveiling will seem a little less special than the one that came before it (“Hooray! Let’s rush to Disney World! They opened the second Dumbo!”).
Advantage: DCA
Cars Land’s opening will kick off the busy summer season. New Fantasyland, at least its initial offerings, will debut in the fall. Typically, one might think DCA had the highly favored spot, getting the spotlight during the year’s busiest season. But theme park rides aren’t like blockbuster movies. So many WDW visitors plan their summer vacations during the preceding fall, that New Fantasyland’s publicity should be sufficiently well timed, though there may be a brief lag in effectiveness.
Advantage: DCA (slight)
Cars Land will add three new attractions (Luigi’s Flying Tires, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, and Radiator Springs Racers). New Fantasyland will bring four rides (Little Mermaid, Dwarfs Coaster, Great Goofini, and a second Dumbo), plus a new restaurant with show, storytelling venue, character meet-and-greet, and water play area.
Advantage: WDW
Although all three of Cars Land’s new rides will be wholly original and unique to DCA, New Fantasyland—except for the still-being-designed Dwarfs Coaster—should look vaguely familiar. Little Mermaid already debuted at DCA. Great Goofini is just a rethemed Goofy’s Barnstormer, repurposed like the rest of the Storybook Circus from the old Toontown Fair. Elements of the Beast’s Castle are based on the fireplace room from DCA’s animation exhibit. And the new Dumbo will be a mirror image of the old one, which will sit next to it.
Advantage: DCA
Cars Land is being built on a former corner of the old parking lot. New Fantasyland will marginally extend the Magic Kingdom’s footprint (a Beauty and the Beast building is under construction on land originally envisioned for the Matterhorn). Most of its acreage will come from absorbing the submarine lagoon, Pooh playground, Ariel meet-and-greet, Toontown park, Donald Duck boat, Barnstormer, and—worst of all—the Snow White dark ride.
Advantage: DCA
Cars Land is designed to be a desert, New Fantasyland a forest. I know which environment I’d rather spend time in. According to one cast member who’s walked the construction site: “Cars Land looks impressive, but it’s going to be very hot and stuffy during the summer. The new land has the same problems that hinder Toontown. No shade, a lot of concrete, and a high façade, which will prevent air circulation.”
That said, Anaheim—due in part to the limited amount of space it always has to work with—has a better track record at creating lush, immersive environments, rather than the oversized walkways and less personal offerings of Florida.
Advantage: WDW
If history is any guide, both projects could have a tough time achieving their goals.
The Magic Kingdom desperately needs to update Fantasyland, but when Disneyland did the same thing nearly 30 years ago, few people noticed. Amid a big publicity blitz, attendance actually went down. My hunch is that components of Fantasyland are so basic, integral and kiddie-oriented, that most guests will enjoy new additions, they just won’t book a vacation to Disney World because of them.
DCA, of course, has an even spottier success rate. Except for the World of Color (a show), new rides at DCA have failed to significantly boost attendance, despite addressing the park’s glaring needs—for kids (Bug’s Land), for a traditional dark ride (Monsters Inc.), for an established E-ticket (Tower of Terror), etc.
Advantage: A Wash
Examining their components one by one, DCA appears better positioned to achieve its goal—until you realize that the magnitude of the parks’ goals are so vastly different. DCA’s is offensive and short-term, WDW’s defensive and long-term. New Fantasyland is only trying to freshen up a park that’s already the most successful theme park in the world. In a way, it’s as much a maintenance project as an expansion project. No one expects the new area to entice an extra million visitors. It just has to help protect existing volumes, into the future.
Cars Land, though, may be Disney’s last, best hope to save DCA and to change people’s mindset about Anaheim’s beleagured second gate. Its prospects for achieving such a turnaround are significantly less likely.
But, while DCA has the most to lose, it also has the most to win. WDW should have remodeled Fantasyland 20 years ago. But if Cars Land is a success, Disney may finally be ready to start thinking about what it’s going to do about a third gate.
Advantage: WDW
The end of the summer season typically means a cutback in the number of characters walking around Disneyland, and 2011 will be no exception. This Labor Day weekend is expected to be the final opportunity for Anaheim guests to meet Boba Fett, Captain Rex, and the Stormtroopers, before the characters head back to Florida.
One source indicates that the Star Wars walkaround characters might return for the Christmas season. “Anyone who has seen them in Tomorrowland can tell you that they are a definite hit with the guests,” he says. “If TDA (Team Disney Anaheim, the Disneyland corporate office) can get the hint on how popular they are, we might get them back, and maybe add more characters. But this is entirely up to the guests. If you want to see Star Wars characters in Tomorrowland, contact Disneyland and let them know.”
The announcement during D23 that Disneyland’s Plaza Gardens will be converted into a Princess Faire has been greeted with mixed reactions. On the plus side, little girls do love their princesses, and the move frees up the Fantasyland Theatre to once again host musicals.
Old-timers, however, are sad to see Plaza Gardens go. It’s one of the few quiet spots left in Disneyland, which decades ago was filled with corners that allowed guests to escape from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. “But,” says one longtime Disneylander. “TDA does not see that. It seems every inch of the park has to make money.”
So, too, the concept art unveiled at D23 makes the new Faire appear deceptively larger than there’s room for. Unlike previous expansions over the past few years, there’s no adjacent backstage areas near Plaza Gardens that can be usurped.
The fear, of course, is that the Princess Faire will expand outward, toward the Hub and castle. “Think how Astro Orbiter intrudes into the space of Main Street and the Hub,” laments the cast member. “So much for the Castle being the entrance to Fantasyland.”
Worst of all, several Disneylanders have expressed doubt that the park will keep its promise and retain big bands and swing dancing after the changeover.
I typically don’t refer readers to articles on other sites, but in this case I’ll make an exception—since I wrote the article. Called “Mickey Mouse vs. the Future,” it’s in the current issue of Open Skies, the in-flight magazine for Emirates Air, and weighs claims that Disney parks are too old-fashioned and nostalgia-oriented to thrive in the distant future, with great insight by Disney Imagineers, always-quotable blogger Jim Hill, and MousePlanet’s own business guru, Jeff Kober. Give it a look on pages 56 through 66 of the August 2011 issue.
(Send an email to David Koenig)
David Koenig is the senior editor of the 80-year-old business journal, The Merchant Magazine.
After receiving his degree in journalism from California State University, Fullerton (aka Cal State Disneyland), he began years of research for his first book, Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland (1994), which he followed with Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation & Theme Parks (1997, revised 2001) and More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland (1999) (All titles published by Bonaventure Press).
He lives in Aliso Viejo, California, with his lovely wife, Laura, their wonderful son, Zachary, and their adorable daughter, Rebecca.
