Rumors straight from the Imagineers

STAR TOURS: As rumored, the rehab is about to start. And you know why? Because Tokyo Disney (Oriental Land Company) wanted their own version so they poured in some money. And George Lucas has been VERY involved. The new version sounds REALLY cool. Apparently, the original Star Tours was supposed to be updated every three years or so with a new film (ha!). So now, they're creating a new 3-D film (yes, everyone will have to wear 3-D glasses). The new film will be set in the time between Star Wars Films 3 and 4 (so, after Queen Amidala's death but before Luke finds Obi Wan and blows up the Death Star). But here's the cool part -- they're saying that the ride will now have hundreds of versions, so guests will never know what they're getting into....they're going to film about 25 openings, about 25 middles, and then 25 endings, so your ride will never be the same...this is one way to make sure it stays fresh for MUCH longer.

WDW's Fantasy Land (in the Magic Kingdom): is getting a MAJOR expansion (yes, expansion). And where will that expansion go, you ask? In Mickey's Toon Town Fair, a place that was originally designed to be only a 3-year entry. Apparently, Imagineers are adding "The Enchanted Forest," a place, according to the head story exec, where Princesses seem to always run into (to much laughter). So, yes, it sounds like it will definitely be a heavy does of princesses, but with lots and lots of room for kids and whole families to have tons of fun. Looks like it will include musical shows, story times, birthday parties, lots of character meet-and-greats (of course). We'll see if it turns out to be as cool as their promising. And the area between the castle and the Carousel is being transformed into a castle courtyard, complete with brand new theming and shrubbery.

A The LITTLE MERMAID dark ride is going into both WDW and Disneyland. Yep, it's taking over the space once occupied by the Subs (mermaid attraction idea).

The next major Disney theme park will be on 2,000 acres in Shangai.

The Disneyland Hotel is getting a top-to-bottom rebuild. And the entire courtyard/recreation area is being torn down and rebuilt. Basically, Disney's almost rebuilding this hotel from scratch.

Disneyland Paris is getting a whole new TOYSTORY Play Place land, which looks like it's kind of like the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area, but more expansive and with actual attractions. We can probably expect to see some form of this in Florida soon, to replace the "Honey" play area.

Disney has purchased land in Washington D.C. to build a major resort/water park/themed area....basically, the head designer said that since Disney failed twice to build an American History-themed park, this was their attempt to "do it" right. The designs showed a very, very large historical-type resort hotel with an adjacent water part. They said, however, this plan was in the very early stages.

The POP CENTURY resort is back on track to be finished now, but the remaining hotels will be Animation Suites hotels, which are described as vacation suites for families on a budget -- and completely new concept for Disney.

The Tree House Villas have all been replaced and are ready to be occupied by Disney Vacation Club members.

On the Cruise Ships, the areas for age-specific programming are being expanded, but the cool part is the new ANIMATOR'S PALETTE restaurants -- guests will actually draw cartoons when they sit down. These cartoons will be given to the "magic people." Then later, during the meal, those actual drawings will come to life and be animated on the walls next to each table.

Also, the Turtle Talk with Crush is coming aboard the new Cruise Ships, and Crush will be swimming all around the Animator's Palette to interact with guests.

Hong Kong Disney is getting site-specific attractions based on existing ones here in the states -- for example, instead of Haunted Mansion, they'll be getting the Mystical Manor, where a curse is released inside the house and all manner of supernatural things occur.

Out of all those, I'm interested in seeing what they do with Star Tours, the ride could definitely use some TLC, the gift shop is better than the ride currently.

haha ouch, that's pretty sad.

i'm excited to see the little mermaid ride actually, i hope they don't do the same thing they did with nemo though. i loved it, it was really cute, especially how they make the end point an actual aquarium where you can watch dolphins and other sealife in the giant tanks--was pretty amazing. but it's disney world, they have to have some sort of new thoughts in mind.

it sounds a lot like nemo's ride. 'going to actually take people under the sea'.. well you do go under water i believe. a lot of what you see is done with technology but if i remember correctly, you can see real fish swimming along with the holographic (right word i hope) nemo characters.

it would be neat if they did a sort of small museum with the ride that incorporated the characters of the little mermaid and trivia i guess? maybe it'll just be like any normal kiddie ride and just be a ride, haha.

update: okay, wasn't going to do this, but i found a video of the plans that were going to come of the new little mermaid ride. here it is:



very cute! =) kids will love it.

Yeah, I think that video shows up on the Little Mermaid DVD.