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Disney's Fantasyland to See Expansion
9/14/2009 6:49 PM EST
Tags: fantasyland magic kingdom
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This past weekend, at the D23 Expo, the Walt Disney Company announced plans to further reinvigorate aging corners of its domestic theme parks. The thought for these efforts is that the new plans will further expand Fantasyland and modernize the Star Tours rides in the Florida Orlando location.
The majority of the expansion efforts will be the Fantasyland section of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The once Magic Kingdom, which opened in 1971 and is the dearest to the hearts of the theme parks will be facing new competition with the introduction of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This will be opening next year at the nearby Universal Islands of Adventure.
The expansion of Fantasyland will include new and reworked attractions over a three-year period. Some of these changes include: 1) a beautiful area where children can dance with Cinderella; 2) celebrate Sleeping Beauty's birthday; 3) or interact with Belle from "Beauty and the Beast"; and 4) Also Dumbo, the flying elephant ride will be redesigned to include Pixie Hollow, a Tinker Bell-themed experience that opened last year at Disneyland in California.
Also confirmed at the convention by Mr. Rasulo was a major change to Star Tours. Both the Disneyland and Disney World versions of the popular simulation rides are scheduled to reopen in 2011, and will have 3-D effects. Originally, Star Tours was modeled and built around the first three "Star Wars" films. However, the updates will be slated to reflect George Lucas's three prequels. A very small amount of footage for Star Tours was shown at D23 and brought back memories of "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace," but Disney provided few specific details.
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