Theme Park Projects
Since its 1952 inception, Walt Disney Imagineering has created eleven theme parks, a town, four cruise ships, dozens of resort hotels, water parks, shopping centers, sports complexes, and various other entertainment venues. Currently, WDI is developing a number of new projects, including an expansion of Fantasyland in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Outside of the theme parks, a complete overhaul of Disney Stores was planned in 2009 with the help of Apple’s Steve Jobs. Disney was hoping to move away from the traditional retail model and toward more of an interactive entertainment hub.
In mid-July 2009, blueprints and concept art for a Fantasyland expansion leaked online, and Disney confirmed the rumors at the September D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. Some aspects of the refurbishment will be open as early as 2012, and it is set for completion in 2013. The expansion, which will double the current size of Fantasyland, will feature a greater focus on the Disney Princesses. Belle, Ariel, and Snow White will all have dedicated sections within the land where guests can experience highly interactive character meet-and-greet sessions in immersive movie environments. There will be two new restaurants, the full-service Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Beast’s Castle and the quick-service Gaston’s Tavern. The current Ariel's Grotto area will be expanded to include a new attraction called The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure. In the middle of the expansion will be a new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, featuring a new ride system that allows mine carts to swing back and forth. Snow White's Scary Adventures will be replaced by Princess Fairytale Hall, where Cinderella, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Aurora will have meet and greets. The expansion will also feature an updated Dumbo ride with a doubled guest capacity and an interactive queuing system that will keep guests entertained while they wait for one of the park’s most popular attractions, as well as a rethemed version of Goofy's Barnstormer known as "The Great Goofini".
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Famous quotes containing the words theme, park and/or projects:
“Only the most acute and active animals are capable of boredom.—A theme for a great poet would be God’s boredom on the seventh day of creation.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Therefore awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the Park a-maying!”
—Unknown. Sister, Awake! (L. 9–12)
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)