Originally published at: Disney World's Rivers of America to be replaced - Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
Contributed by Ruben Bolling
6 Likes
As I said in the earlier topic, it may be a matter of catering to changing tastes. They might be …
I do agree that it’s sad and perhaps unnecessary if they have other land to develop besides Frontierland. Also, if it’s anything like Tom Sawyer’s Island in the Anaheim park then Grad Night will be very different.
4 Likes
I’ve been to DisneyWorld quite a bit over the past 15 years and I’ve rarely seen anyone riding or enjoying the riverboat. I didn’t know it was still running.
It might be a big favorite for some people but ultimately, they have a product to sell. For example, I and my entire family couldn’t care less about the Avatar stuff but apparently it’s awesome.
I do hope they keep the Liberty Square stuff. There’s certainly a way to incorporate it into the Old West theme. The Hall of Presidents is an iconic location. Plus, personally, Liberty Square has my favorite lesser known places to nosh that is insanely good - Liberty Tree Tavern.
3 Likes
Part of that may be changing interests on the part of guests but a big factor is neglect and cost savings on the part of the parks. Not sure about the island at Disney World, but at Disneyland there have been many features that have been gradually removed or closed off to guests over the years. A few of them include the small treehouse on the island, teeter-totter rock, and Fort Wilderness, which used to be a pretty cool log fort but which eventually succumbed to termite damage and was replaced with a much less impressive fort built from treated milled lumber and that’s entirely closed off to guests.
When the island first opened in 1955 guests could even fish for real catfish and river perch on a fishing pier, or take a ride to it on one one of the actual keel boats that were used in filming the hugely popular Davy Crockett tv show. Is it any wonder that many families find the current incarnation of the island to be less interesting?
2 Likes
3 Likes
When Disneyland opened, there were about 20 “Western” TV shows putting the world of Tom Sawyer and Daniel Boone into kid’s eyeballs every day.
That riverboat has now been running longer than the actual Mississippi paddleboat era, which was only about 50 years. When the ride opened, the last commercial riverboat was about 80 years in the past, the 1870s.
Now, when it closes, the end of WW2, and everybody coming home to buy a car from the newly-civilian army truck factories, and build the highway system - THAT will be 80 years in the past.
4 Likes
I don’t think the problem is that the Old West era was too long ago to feel nostalgic about anymore; “Pirates of the Caribbean” has been a consistently popular attraction and that’s set at least a century earlier. “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad” also remains popular despite being set in the Old West, not to mention other theme parks like Knott’s Berry Farm.
The big problem is that Disney gradually took all the fun stuff out of the Rivers of America and didn’t replace it with anything compelling.
6 Likes
Yeah, the last time that Disney tried making a big-budget Western it wasn’t the fault of the genre that it failed, the problem with The Lone Ranger was with the terrible implementation by Bruckheimer. Other Westerns that came out in the 2010s did much better. Movies such as The Hateful Eight, (2015) True Grit, (2010) The Revenant, (2015) and Djanjo Unchained, (2012) all came out around the same time, did well in theaters and won or were nominated for Oscars.
4 Likes
“But it was a period piece with Johnny Depp comically staggering around like a drunkard while wearing a silly hat and dark eyeliner! How could it possibly go wrong??”
1 Like
It would significantly lower the risk of contracting amoebic meningoencephalitis.
I recently watched a YouTube video which explained why Disney needs to close the Rivers of America. I can’t find it now but basically:
(1) There’s no room to build a walkway between Big Thunder Mountain and the river and still have enough room for the riverboat.
(2) They can build a walkway past the Haunted Mansion but the often-overflowing HM queue would bottleneck the path.
(3) If they close off the back side of the river and make it a smaller loop, there’s no way to get the riverboat out to its dry-dock facility which is outside the park.
Basically, the design of the Magic Kingdom prevents good access to “Beyond Thunder Mountain” without moving a major attraction or closing most of the river and losing the riverboat.
1 Like
I was a Disneyland AP holder for a few decades before the COVID shutdown. I never renewed it after that. Trips to Disneyland were no longer fun and relaxing, they just became complicated. Can’t do anything without installing a privacy sucking app on your phone, up-charges for everything, every single thing has to be based on existing IP, and most of the quite corners where you could just sit and enjoy a churro or a corn dog have been gutted.
Disneyland did reduce the footprint of the Rivers of America when they built Starwars Land, but hopefully they won’t get rid of it completely.
1 Like
That’s a shame. Where there’s a will there’s a way, and I’m sure they could have found a solution to keep the river if it had been a priority for them. For the Star Wars expansion in Disneyland they rerouted the river and the railroad to make space. Anything’s possible if you throw enough money at it.
From my perspective one blessing in disguise for Disneyland has been that they’ve always been limited for space (at least compared to Magic Kingdom park) and therefore had to get very creative with how to squeeze all the fun stuff into a finite space as efficiently as possible. The result is that Disneyland park has a footprint of about 85 acres or so, and Magic Kingdom is about 107 acres, but Disneyland has more rides and is much more walkable. At Magic Kingdom they’ve got huge walkways, are much more spread out, and in my opinion have a bit less charm as a result.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
