New Aerial Images Reveal Extensive Site Clearing for Cars-Themed Piston Peak at Magic Kingdom

TrainsOfDisney2 hours ago

“They” referring to the same parent company. Thought that would be obvious.

DisneyHead1233 hours ago

I am in my “Put my cellphone in the toaster and that bread I was holding in my purse” era, ha ha, so glad my bleary brain didn’t make that up. It seems like it would make a fantastic dark ride!

lazyboy97o3 hours ago

Nobody was trying to make a lesser version of Pirates of the Caribbean. The Magic Kingdom version was created with the intent of it being a tighter and more cohesive narrative, how they’d do it without the design constraints of a site selected for a walkthrough. Thunder Mesa always included a rain away mine train ride. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad wasn’t a pitch to build one portion of the bigger complex that had been originally planned. There is no “they”. The people who chose the attractions for the Magic Kingdom were not at the Aspen retreat.

britain3 hours ago

I’ve always thought that the whole “Florida already has enough Caribbean/Pirate stuff so let’s do Western River Expedition” logic has been retold incorrectly. Marc Davis WANTED to do WRE as a big way to top Pirates AND compensate for no Painted Desert / Rainbow Caverns at WDW. Put the “we’re too close to the Caribbean” line more in the context of someone making a “Don’t you think East Coasters would LOVE more Wild West stuff” pitch. Plus remember, at the time of designing the Magic Kingdom, Pirates of the Caribbean was synonymous with New Orleans Square in the mind of a lot of imagineers. And it would seem odd to build a fake New Orleans one state away from the real one. It was only when the crowds demanded that Pirates was added to WDW that Davis said “Fine, but let’s reimagine the whole first act setting.”

Jambo Dad3 hours ago

I have read that too.

Incomudro3 hours ago

Yes, exactly! And it's not as though the pirates of the time frame depicted in the ride still existed when they constructed the park.

TrainsOfDisney3 hours ago

later they built an park themed to the exotic locations in California in….. California. The Anaheim themed area was extremely realistic!!!

Incomudro3 hours ago

I'm not disputing what you are saying, but I'm disputing Disney's logic at the time. They weren't going to put a PotC in WDW because Florida's geographic location puts it near the Caribbean? That's ridiculous.

owlsandcoffee6 hours ago

It was an afterthought, if I'm reading you correctly. If you want my summary of someone else's research of the hearsay and such: WED had no intention of putting Pirates into WDW initially. Florida was near the Caribbean; it wasn't really novel for where WDW is. They were going to build Western River Expedition, considered by many of us nerds to be Marc Davis's unrealized masterpiece, where BTMRR is now. It was basically "POTC, but cowboys" since the Western Frontier was more "exotic" for lack of a better word. POTC was built in a bit of a rush after the park opened because people were asking for it. At the time, WRE was still very much intended to be built, so Marc didn't want POTC to compete with it. He redesigned POTC to make a shorter, faster, less atmospheric version. My read of things is that his intention was to fit all of the vibes and such into WRE. WRE got scrapped due to a combination of factors: POTC taking some of the budget and being similar, the Energy crisis, and Tony Baxter apparently doing some politicking to get his ride BTMRR built on the same ground. I'm not saying Tony killed WRE, mind you; some people like to rag on this person or that. But the point is the ride was killed by a thousand cuts, one of which was the half-baked POTC that was built.

Haymarket20087 hours ago

I think that IP deserves a mini-land at the very least. I’m not sure if incorporating the IP wholesale into Villains Land would be the best use of the franchise, imho.

Haymarket20087 hours ago

You are correct! It was planned as a part of the original 1971 Fantasyland ride lineup but budget dictated that the California lineup would be best. Sleepy Hollow was the replacement for “Mr. Toad”. I think Sleeping Beauty was also planned?

Fox&Hound8 hours ago

A Nightmare Before Christmas presence in this land is a no-brainer. Ride, costumed characters, merch, food options- it all works.

MisterPenguin8 hours ago

Don't forget Club Villain, which I enjoyed. https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Club_Villain

Notes from Neverland8 hours ago