Magic Kingdom Announcements: From Parade to Piston Peak; From Train to Time Frames

News this week and last has broken out about happenings at the Magic Kingdom, and they include some very important dates. Last week was an announcement of Disney Starlight Parade’s opening date. Plus they showcased the finale as well as the order of the parade floats. We’ll talk about that and the implications of this date to its nightly schedule and what it means to thousands of pass holders who will want to go to the Magic Kingdom alongside all other tourists.

But first we look at some big announcements that came about from around Frontierland as well this week. At the top of those announcements comes the fact that the Rivers of America, Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer’s Island will close in a few weeks on July 7th. We’ll explore some very cool details that will come to this new mini-land within Frontierland.

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Let’s begin with insights released this week on the new Cars project coming to Frontierland.

•  Originally the subtle design of Liberty Square and Frontierland had something of an architectural chronology as you moved from upstate New York via the Haunted Mansion to the Southwest of Big Thunder Mountain. It wasn’t perfect–but the original design did follow that aesthetic, and even the building numbers reflected the year in the 1800s that the building might have been seen.
• Conceded has been that with Splash Mountain–now Tiana’s–that historical timeline was messed up. In some ways that happened earlier with the Country Bears, whose presence was always either the Southern Country or Northwest Woods.
• Imagineers are now saying that all of this is a mix of themes that come under a thesis of ‘chasing your dreams in the American Wilderness and writing your own folktale.’ 
• You board this attraction to experience the “fastest lap in the West”.
• This is tied to Piston Peak National Park. Imagineers spent time in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado to get the thematic sense of what this might look like.
• That said the “Parkitecture” is a reflection of National Park “rustic” found throughout the west and not necessarily just Rocky Mountain National Park. And because it’s Cars, it’s more “Car-itecture” rather than “Parkitecture”.
• Imagineers have conceded that they are pulling from Piston Peak National Park as seen in Planes: Fire & Rescue, but that is more in terms of location and thematic look rather than plot or characters.
• This parks look and feel is reflected at Disney California Adventure, but even goes back to Bear Country at Disneyland, where signage showed J. Audubon Woodlore welcoming you into that corner of the park–long before there was a Splash Mountain.
• Taking this up a notch is the presence of Ranger J. Autobahn Woodlore is based on Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore, a former foil to Humphrey Bear and Donald Duck in earlier Disney animated shorts. This character is a tremendously humorous character that is a responsible park ranger. He will appear in the pre-show as an animatronic. Remember that the old animatronic of Lightning McQueen will also show up, specifically at least at the conclusion of the ride.
• Released with all of this info was a new “fun map” of this part of the park. Sam McKim was the Imagineer was the artist responsible for this map for several years and it was sold outright as a big map you unfolded and carried throughout the park. This new map is in that same spirit of design. Note that Sam’s name is what is found in McKim’s Milehouse which opened recently as a DVC lounge.

• The riverboat landing remains. It would be curious as to what is the ultimate purpose—seating, character meet ‘n’ greet, photo.
• Two of the biggest differences between the first map and this “fun map” is surrounding the rivers and the mountains. The mountains seem less in terms of high-scaled peaks. There is still the Piston icons in the mountain, in fact more than one, but it slightly flatter. This may be essential because the vehicles are supposed to go up the mountain. And if you choose to create condensed scale on the mountain as is done elsewhere, then the scaling seems off when vehicles pass through those peaks and yet they remain at the same scale.

• The second big difference is that while there is still a river like in the original depiction. that river now stands between the mountain and the Frontierland path, rather than on the other side of the mountain. In other words, comments by guests about not having a view of the river have gotten their river back. It will be a different river, but there will be a river as you walk along the path in Frontierland.
• What also is more apparent though it was in the original map is that against the backdrop of the Riverboat platform is a set of falls coming off of the mountain. They feed into the river, and probably create a more kinetic feel to the river than before. Imagineering is fantastic with mountains, so I have big hopes that this really sets the stage as you enter through Liberty Square and continue on into Frontierland. It is reminiscent to me of the Cascade Peak you found at Disneyland.
• Cascade Peak was part of the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland, which included geysers along the trail. You see that along the car trail. Also, the climax of the Mine Train ride included the Rainbow Caverns. The initial ascent in Big Thunder offers something akin to that, but it looks like more of that rainbow pool, “hot pot” look may be along the track path out towards Big Thunder itself.
• The sounds of the falls and the greater distancing of the car path from the Frontierland path, plus other rock and foliage efforts can do much to mitigate the sound guests hear from vehicles as they walk down through this area. Remember also, that the noise these vehicles make will likely be an artificial sound rather than the natural effects of gas engines.
• The map shows the bridge like walkways that parallel the parade path through Frontierland. These were installed in the 1990s to address congestion during the parades. They are staying, fortunately, since Disney Starlight Parade begins a few weeks later. It does show a walkways that might be less jutting in and out. But it will remain.
• What isn’t shown in this map is what the second attraction is. I wouldn’t be surprised that this will be announced at the upcoming D23 event at Walt Disney World. Right now one sees a corral fence as a placeholder to where that attraction will be. They may talk more about the vehicles and track itself at that time, which was not presented in any detail this week.
• Here’s a fun insight. Looking at the entrance to the building housing the queue for that secondary attraction looks like barrel bridges similar to what you used to find on Tom Sawyer Island. I imagine there will be other homages to the island if not elements of what made that island fun when the new land is complete.
• On the backside is a quonset hut, reminiscent of the kind Sarge has in Radiator Springs. That building is used for retail. That may be the case here. Interestingly enough, other than the cars themselves, the quonset hut is really the only thing that is familiar to Carsland at DCA.
• But there ought to be some food and beverage options as well. Perhaps that might be used here. Up front as you enter you see a small building tucked up against a large Sequoia like tree that has fallen. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was some snack shop.
• Across the way will be “Old Tankful” similar to “Old Faithful”. This will add kinetics as it goes off from time to time. Curious is that there is sort of a walk way that goes around this, almost to suggest that you can circularly scale this edifice.
• Along the backside is a major path that allows guests to move from around the Haunted Mansion directly over to Big Thunder, instead of having to walk through Frontierland. This path will also separate this land from Villains Land.
• By the way, it appears that perhaps the Big Thunder Mountain rehab has reached a significant milestone of having laid the last piece of new track.
• Again, what has been here for over 50 years will be closed on July 7th. If you haven’t booked a trip to bid adieu to the old Frontierland, you better hustle. That said, they announced it back last August so this isn’t new information. It’s because of zoning issues this closing hasn’t been announced sooner. Back in February I projected that this wouldn’t probably open until 2028. Maybe earlier than later, but I doubt any year sooner.
• Also, we have not heard an opening date for Hall of Presidents, which I thought would happen around the time the other closed. The HOP offers much in terms of handling the kind of capacity that the Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer Island was providing.
• Walt Disney World Railroad will keep operating, but rather than circling the land, it will be shuttling forward and backward between the Main Street Station along the perimeter of Tomorrowland and the Storybook Circus depot. The problem is this will continue to be the situation for the Railroad until Imagineering has completed much of the major work with not just Piston Peak but with Villains Land. In that same February podcast I projected that the first part of Villains land would not open until 2029, with perhaps the second part coming in 2030. I still hold to those dates, which means it may be easily 4 years before you circle the Magic Kingdom on the Walt Disney World Railroad.

Disney Starlight Parade

We also bring big news about Disney’s Starlight Parade: First, that the new parade will begin Sunday, July 20th. That’s later in the summer than most people hoped, but we’ll talk about that in a few minutes. Secondly, we got a sneak peak about the music. It has a full orchestral feel similar to SpectroMagic. Let’s listen in on that from a release Disney made.

It’s hard for me to appreciate the soundtrack of something without the attraction or parade that goes with it. But what I’m hearing is pretty impressive.

Next there has been a reveal of the final float and the order in which these floats will appear. Let’s walk through that.

While shown in an image with Peter Pan and the Blue Fairy, Elsa comes after Encanto and before the princess float.

A parade like this has some 50 performers. Character wise, we know of some 30 characters if we assume that Anna is with Elsa somewhere in the parade. There are 26 characters in the Electrical Parade and 37 in SpectroMagic. How many other characters will be in this? That remains to be seen. It would be great if you had Alice along the route or Pinocchio. I could see more characters in the finale sequence. And we can anticipate dancers as well, probably 24-30. Totally, the number will probably be similar to the Halloween parade and the Christmas parade, which brings us to the announcement of the opening date.

This opening date seems delayed, and that’s perhaps understandable. Nightly parades are fascinating and complicated moving stages of light. But it’s only a few weeks before Mickey’s not So Scary Halloween Party Begins on August 15th (much later than the 9th last year and the 11th in 2023), but it will take up 3 nights most weeks. That means that there will be large crowds of guests to see the nightly parade on the other four nights. A similar pattern will start again when Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade begins.

We have much more in the weeks ahead. Our next podcast, will pay homage to the Muppets, past, present and future. We have much to cover in our Disneyland 70th anniversary as we go land to land lookin at the joy of the park and insights into the what has made this the Happiest Place on Earth. We’ll pay homage to the Rivers of America and to Tom Sawyer Island, and we’ll showcase the new Disney Starlight Parade just before we head out to experience for ourselves Disneyland’s 70th anniversary with all of its festivities and especially the new Walt Disney–A Magical Life. Subscribe if you haven’t already to join us in the weeks to come, and if you could, please offer a positive rating or review on iTunes.

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