WDW Resorts - Update & Rumor Thread

[OrlLover]

Personally I think being “Key West” themed is kind of hard to determine. All they did was paint the wood and put in some new furniture as well as change the check in desks. What do you guys think about the refurbished lobby ?

 

[SkiBum]

Personally I think being “Key West” themed is kind of hard to determine. All they did was paint the wood and put in some new furniture as well as change the check in desks. What do you guys think about the refurbished lobby ?

Aside from poor word choices (seriously, if you are going to use "bad" language, at least use it appropriately!), I think that this fellow takes his Old Key West resort a little too seriously. Although, if they made the Wilderness Lodge generic, I would probably find a way to stage a protest.

 

[OrlLover]

Aside from poor word choices (seriously, if you are going to use "bad" language, at least use it appropriately!), I think that this fellow takes his Old Key West resort a little too seriously. Although, if they made the Wilderness Lodge generic, I would probably find a way to stage a protest.

I do think the old wood looks better but I’ve also seen pictures of remodeled homes in Key West and they look more contemporary like the new lobby.

 

[UNIrd]

I think it looks stunning. The old lobby definitely looked... old.

 

[Nick]

For the BoardWalk area...

Jellyrolls Reopens Today at Disney's Boardwalk

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

 

[SeventyOne]

So WDWPro leaked kind of a bomb a month ago and it got zero traction. He has a good if not perfect record, but his desire to monetize his leaks has largely kept him off mainstream sites and I think that makes many in the community consider him less trustworthy. That said, among other scoops, he absolutely nailed the "real" lightsabers at SW hotel, and this scoop supposedly from the same source:

Rumor: Major Adventureland Expansion at Disney World in the Works

Featured Image Courtesy: Theme Parks and Entertainment / Not a work of The Walt Disney Company Two sets of alleged insider information have been circulating

thatparkplace.com

tl;dr

• Floridian Way being reworked (this confirmed) to build a new super-premium El Dorado themed hotel south of the Grand​
• New expansion to AdvLand with 2 rides, 1 probably an E-ticket​
• New hotel would have an exclusive direct gate in/out of that expansion​

Could be nothing, could be dropped before it gets out of blue sky. But definitely interesting, and fits the current Disney direction.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

So new hotel north of Grand? Cuz south would be near Poly. Yeah remember this rumor and it explains them finally completing the walkway from MK to GF.

 

[GAcoaster]

Yeah, the new hotel there is an old rumor (pre-pandemic).

 

[belloq87]

That plot is the most prime expansion real estate at MK, and it would be great to see it finally used for attractions.

Not expecting it any time soon.

If only we could get Journey to the Center of the Earth there...

 

[Nick]

So Floridian Way being redone is not a rumor by any stretch. It’s happening and here’s a visual from the permit. Three roundabouts will be added.

The road is being rerouted to go BEHIND the Cast Parking. The reason for this is that the current location of the new hotel is off to the left of the third and final roundabout. That's the reason for all of this work. They aren’t just spending money because more locals live behind MK now, they also need better roads for the higher traffic they will be seeing from a new resort.

As for an actual Adventureland expansion, I’ve heard nothing in the way of that happening. The hotel was slated to be on the other side of the road with its own entrance into MK, but that’s a relatively old rumor.

 

[HandsomePete]

I'm torn between taking that article apart point by point or just laughing at how bad it is. It's really a masterclass of having a whiff of accuracy (like the Society of Explorers and Adventurers bit - congrats on being 2% right and 98% wrong), but being so far off base that it's completely worthless.

That plot is the most prime expansion real estate at MK

It really isn't - it ranks well behind damming Rivers of America on both sides and taking the back half of TSI. Things have actually been proposed for that land while the front just looks usable to hacks staring at Google Maps.

I've almost posted this a time or two before, but the fundamental issue with every description I've seen online of that empty land as an "Adventureland expansion pad" is that it is completely inaccessible from Adventureland. Remember, the river for Jungle Cruise starts at the Hub and the show building for Pirates extends nearly to the canal off Seven Seas Lagoon. There are two viable ways to reach that land. The first is through Frontierland and involves walking down the parade access road and past a bunch of back of house buildings - nothing says "Adventureland Expansion" like not actually being connected to Adventureland. The second path - between Jungle Cruise and Pirates - looks viable from inside the park, but it all goes downhill from there. The space between Jungle Cruise and the Pirates show building is not wide enough for a two lane road. The left side is awfully close that back corner of JC - can't cut a wider path that direction. The back side of Pirates has emergency exits and dumpsters - it's not a clean wall like when the fire lane adjacent to France was converted into the path back to Ratatouille. It feeds to an awkward intersection that then goes under the train tracks and oh by the way is also the route the parade takes backstage to/from Main Street.

Just an utter mess of an article from the same person who swore up and down 18 months ago that Disney was on the cusp bankruptcy.

 

[belloq87]

It really isn't - it ranks well behind damming Rivers of America on both sides and taking the back half of TSI. Things have actually been proposed for that land while the front just looks usable to hacks staring at Google Maps.

"Expansion" was the key world. What you're describing is replacement. The park would lose the Liberty Belle (as a moving attraction) and the island in that scenario.

As for the feasibility of accessing the Adventureland plot, projects have been considered for that plot before, so I'm confident Disney has an idea of how it would be accessed.

And again... I'm not expecting anything to happen there. It just makes for enjoyable "What If?" discussion.

 

[HandsomePete]

As for the feasibility of accessing the Adventureland plot, projects have been considered for that plot before, so I'm confident Disney has an idea of how it would be accessed.

I can say with near certainty that in the last decade, that land has not been considered for a single thing. Things may have been written on the internet about it, but those things would be wrong.

 

[belloq87]

I can say with near certainty that in the last decade, that land has not been considered for a single thing. Things may have been written on the internet about it, but those things would be wrong.

I mean, Fire Mountain may have been a dead concept for a long time, but that would have gone back there, right? So Disney must have figured out how they were going to get guests in there.

But this would probably be a better conversation for an Adventureland thread!

 

[UNIrd]

Could be nothing, could be dropped before it gets out of blue sky. But definitely interesting, and fits the current Disney direction.

The current Disney direction of what? Not expanding? We've barely netted new attractions across the 4 parks.

I can only hope something like this would be true but with our luck, it'll be announced at D23 2022 and then canceled by 2023.

 

[OrlLover]

The current Disney direction of what? Not expanding? We've barely netted new attractions across the 4 parks.

I can only hope something like this would be true but with our luck, it'll be announced at D23 2022 and then canceled by 2023.

Can you guys not be cynical for once ? I understand a lot of people are not happy with the direction Disney is going but it gets very frustrating when trying to have any conversations related to the parks. We are gaining some capacity with the current ongoing projects.

 

[Nick]

Can you guys not be cynical for once ? I understand a lot of people are not happy with the direction Disney is going but it gets very frustrating when trying to have any conversations related to the parks. We are gaining some capacity with the current ongoing projects.

Agreed about gaining capacity. Ratatouille and Tron are genuine expansions and although Cosmic Rewind may be a replacement, it's replacing a ride that virtually no one was riding towards the end of it's life cycle, and replacing it with a ride that will be the most popular one in the park.

However, this isn't really the thread to be debating this subject.

 

[GAcoaster]

Interesting little tidbit today-- a construction wall went up this morning along the new pathway between MK and Grand Floridian. It's off the path, along the wooded area where the rumored new hotel is supposed to be built. I don't think they're starting construction on that hotel (yet) but I'm guessing it's some sort of infrastructure for its future development. I think they'll wait until Floridian Way widening/realignment is finished and can handle the construction traffic before they start work on the hotel.

 

[Nick]

Very interesting back and forth here. WDWNT reported a rumor that Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue was being replaced with something called "Bluegrass Music Act".

Disney denied the rumor, but they declined further comment. You'd think if they 100% planned on Hoop-Dee-Doo coming back, they would've said something like "We look forward to seeing Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue return to our guests soon."

 

[alomar]

And yet again, WDWNT is called out directly by Disney for making false claims (Rumors).........