PDA

View Full Version : Move Autopia, Expand Fantasyland (idea on Lucas thread)



Morrigoon
03-23-2002, 07:35 PM
Somebody on the "should disney part ways with Lucas" thread suggested that Autopia would fit into DCA better than it does in DL. Interesting idea. One one hand, it's a long-time citizen of DL and one hates to mess with that. On the other hand, it really would fit in with DCA, and what's more: it would make room for an expanded Fantasyland!

So this thread is an imagineering thread: what would you do with the freed up space if Autopia moved to DCA (this includes any currently underutilized area of FL as well)

For starters, if FL is going to be expanded, I'd like to see the Motor Boats open back up. It would be perfect for a Pooh theme, but the Bears have already been scrapped to make way for that :(. Motor boats really doesn't need a theme, it's a nice ride on its own. You know what would be cute though? How about a fab five picnic theme? Add in some character scenes (AAs or other 3-d model types, not painted flats!). They could recreate a few different Mickey cartoons; the Hawaii one, the hunting one, etc. It would be an inexpensive redress, but what kid wouldn't want to go on the Mickey ride! (Robin Hood overlay could work as well)

Next, in the newly emptied space, a return of the Pirate ship! Surrounding that would be a New England-style fishing village (think Pete's dragon here!), possibly complete with cave. This would obviously be a very SMALL village, and it could house the obvious gift shop, as well as a place selling fish n chips (unless the pirate ship was once again a restaurant).

Think of this expansion in terms of two back to back L shapes _||_

On the other side, a "street" (for lack of better terms), of "houses" fitting back into the whole "princessy/girlish" fantasy thing. There could be a Cinderella ride (riding in silver pumpkin coaches - made more open for better viewing of course). Also a Mary Poppins ride (I could write pages on the possibilities THERE!). I think you could even pop in a Mulan ride, as long as you used her house as the front. The whole garden/nice house thing should transition well enough.

Another possibility would be an Alice hedge maze like they have at DLP. That's loads of fun and good for the whole family (takes up its fair share of space though!)

As far as space, I'm thinking you could double up the Cinderella and Mary Poppins attractions the way Alice and Toad share space. If not, they could build both low down, and on top, behind the "fronts" of the cinderella and mary attractions, they could put the Alice hedge maze. It could start "between" the other attractions. All they'd have to do is theme the back side of the building fronts to fit the maze.

So what would your ideas be?

cemeinke
03-23-2002, 08:10 PM
I really like the idea of moving the autopia to DCA. It's perfect for the California theme, and would be a ride the kids would love over at DCA. Heck you could even run a portion along Harbor Boulavard for some authentic california theming, driving with the real cars. Yeah it's lame but as a kid who wants to drive that could be very cool.

The real bonus of moving the autopia though is freeing up a huge amount of space. A space made even larger when you consider an empty sub lagoon and non-existant motorboat cruise. Really it frees up space for a whole new land. With that much space there are tremendous opportunities.

Some plagerized ideas I'd enjoy seeing, an "undersea" land where you could put things from Little Mermaid, Atlantis, or 20,000 leagues. You could maybe even do some cool transition from Fantasyland undersea to Discoveryland/Tommorrowland undersea, sort ofplaying out the transition from fantasy to Science Fiction.

A Villans land could also be cool, maybe create a villans dungeon/castle as a weinie. Instead of an Alice hedge maze, make a thorn maze ala Sleeping beauty. A dragons lair would also be cool. A couple dark rides telling stories from the Villians perspective would be fun too.

Oh yeah, and while we're at it, rerout the monorail so it goes more directly to the tomorrowland station and add a stop in DCA, maybe above the new Autopia Queue.

TerryTiger
03-25-2002, 08:56 PM
I think Fantasyland is fine as it is. With Tomorrowland in such sad shape and the new Pooh ride going to Critter Country instead of Fantasyland (Pooh REPLACED Mr. Toad in Florida), even suggesting that FL needs expanding is ridiculous. The whole Fantasia Gardens (where the Motorboats used to be) along with an empty Sub Lagoon allows plenty of room for a new attraction when the time is right. Now is NOT the time tho. Fix Tomorrowland/Discoveryland first. If you compare Disneyland's Fantasyland to the one at the Magic Kingdom in Florida, you will realize ours is far superior and has many more attractions (ie. Storybook Land, Casey Jr., Pinnochio, Alice, Matterhorn, Mr. Toad...), not to mention Roger Rabbit in Toontown which also doesn't exist in Florida.