When Walt Disney World announced the major expansion of Fantasyland Disney lovers were filled with excitement but as people really took a look at the plans the excitement ebbed some. The idea of an expansion was great. The plans for the expansion met some criticism though.
The original announcement in 2009 was an ambitious project. Unfortunately everything announced centered around a Disney princess. All the would be Disney princesses who visit the Magic Kingdom were sure to be pleased. All the little pirates were sure to be disappointed. There were lots of unhappy people who complained about the total lack of attention to the male visitors of Disney World.
One other thing concerned Disney lovers as they waited for details of the expansion. They wanted to know where these new Fantasyland attractions were going to be. Guests love to see new rides. They hate to see old rides closed.
In 2011 Disney revealed some more details regarding the expansion. The imagineers also revealed some modifications to the plan.
Part of the January 2011 announcement included a location for all the new attractions. Not everyone was happy with the location because Disney was not going to close just one attraction to make room for the expansion. They were going to completely close Mickey’s Toon Town Fair!
Mickey’s Toon Town Fair, in fairness, was a bleak area. Donald’s boat was there as a play area. There were meet and greets with Mickey, Minnie and a few others. The only truly irreplaceable attraction, at least to Grumpy, was the Barnstormer, a child friendly rollercoaster.
Of course Disney was not going to drop the meet and greets with the world’s most famous mouse and his friends. They were simply moved to a new location, The Town Square Theater.
That left only one major concern for Grumpy, what about the Barnstormer? Disney had good news for lovers of Goofy’s coaster. It was not being shut down it was only being re-themed to the Great Goofini.
Now that the world knew where the Fantasyland expansion was going to be there was still the lack of attractions for the young boys who were in the Magic Kingdom. Disney had some announcements to give them some excitement too!
Several of the announced attractions were being completely cancelled. Those attractions were the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty attractions (which were primarily meet and greet anyway) as well as the entire section that was to be devoted to Pixie Hollow.
A new meet and greet was announced for the Disney Princesses and Tiana from The Princess and The Frog was added to list of princesses. The new location created some controversy. Snow White’s Scary Adventure was being closed down and remodeled into the Princess Fairytale Hall Meet and Greet.
The closing of any Disney attraction generates sadness and this one is particular. Snow White’s Scary Adventure was one of the original Walt Disney World attractions. However, at least in Grumpy’s eyes, if anything had to go this was a prime candidate. There was very little to separate this ride from a typical carnival ride.
There was some very good news for Snow White fans though. After cutting out Pixie Hollow and the princess meet and greet areas Disney replaced them with a Snow White themed rollercoaster, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster.
In addition it was announced the Casey Jr. the train would be given his own spot in Fantasyland.
That left a final attraction list of:
- The Storybook Circus the new double Dumbo ride.
- Barnstormer
- Casey Jr. Roundhouse
- Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid
- Scuttle’s Scavenger Hunt
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Be Our Guest Restaurant
- Princess Fairytale Hall
- The Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train
