Disney hints at more changes to come at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Jan 09, 2024 in "Magic Kingdom"

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Posted: Tuesday January 9, 2024 4:33pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a post on the official Disney Parks Blog announcing the upcoming closure of the Country Bear Jamboree, Disney hinted that more announcements are coming for Magic Kingdom.

Here is Disney's tease at the very end of the post:

"Hold your horses, we're not done yet. We have a lot of growth and investment planned for our theme parks in the coming years and look forward to sharing more announcements about Frontierland … so y'all come back now, ya hear?"

Disney has previously shared blue sky concepts for major additions at Magic Kingdom, including an all-new land behind Big Thunder Mountain, which would include Disney animation IPs, including Coco, Encanto, and villains.

Beyond Big Thunder Mountain Blue Sky concept art

However, Disney's comment today mentions Frontierland, which seems to rule out the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain concept outlined above.

A more likely project may be a retheming of Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. Imagineers were spotted touring the area last year, and its location near the former Splash Mountain ride, which will soon open as Tiana's Bayou Adventure, makes it an ideal candidate to be rethemed to Princess and the Frog.

Pecos Bill cafe overview

Disney has already opened Tiana's Palace eatery at Disneyland ahead of Tiana's Bayou Adventure, so could Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom receive a similar update at Pecos Bills Cafe? It certainly seems like it is a real possibility.

Concept art of Tiana's Palace eatery at Disneyland

Discuss on the Forums

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WaltWiz1901Feb 22, 2024

Nowadays, WDI (and most other theme park designers) use the ticket levels to determine the scale and scope of an attraction. I could go on, but S.W. Wilson has explained it in detail better than I could:

Cmdr_CrimsonFeb 22, 2024

So, this announcement got really quiet...Any word on any movement on the old Pirates League section?

BocabearFeb 08, 2024

Well I would say maybe $100 ($99.99) to enter, then cost of rides...Plus parking, it would be more than we currently pay but under the $150 which sounds WAAAY too steep.

Fido ChuckwagonFeb 08, 2024

If they change to that model the general entrance fee is not going down. So you’re looking at $150 to enter MK to start plus the cost of the rides.

freediverdudeFeb 08, 2024

I could see horrible price creep if they changed to that model. Let's say they start with $49.95 to enter the park, and $10 for each ride. Before you know it, the entrance fee would be $59, then $69, etc., until you're right back up to what we pay now, only without any ride access.

Fido ChuckwagonFeb 06, 2024

Like Country Bear Jamboree lol.

Smiley/OCDFeb 05, 2024

Yes! Then they can change it from Lightning Lane to Eric Adams lane…

MisterPenguinFeb 05, 2024

Ticket costs and class was initially pegged to how expensive the ride was to make. After a while, they were also used to dissuade folks from rides with lines that were too long (because of popularity, or, because of low throughput) by bumping them up a tier or two, and conversely, to encourage people to go on rides that lost their popularity by bumping down their ticket level. The prototype of Genie+!! Today, WDI uses the tier levels by whatever mystical process they have. But they don't advertise their internal ranking. Guests use it for any ride that's very popular with a long line.

JMcMahonEsqFeb 05, 2024

You know I hadn't thought of it that way. But that actually gave me the thought of just completely simplifying fast pass/genie plus, to an EZ Pass congestion pricing model. Each ride has a regular entrance, and the express lane entrance. Based upon time of day/year or number of people in the express lane line, the posted price would fluctuate.

Tom P.Feb 05, 2024

🤔

Smiley/OCDFeb 05, 2024

You pay one price to enter and are given a MB…that will be used like an E-Z pass to be scanned at the entry point of each attraction…everyone pays on the way out…I see disaster…”I’m telling you, I NEVER rode Tiana…there’s a mistake!”

BocabearFeb 05, 2024

I think the base ticket was like $16.95 and that gave you entrance to the park, and a couple coupons for Main Street transportation and the train I think but nothing else... I had some older relatives that loved it...they just wanted to see the park and shop...

JMcMahonEsqFeb 05, 2024

It's an interesting thought. I would also say it somewhat fits in to the modern trend that most younger people find it better, either through micro transactions, or targeted audience entertainment type offerings, to buy what you want, as opposed to overall package deals. The whole trend to "cutting the cable cord" started when people starting feeling like they were paying too much for too little content that interested them. Go back to the late 90's/20's cable companies were adding channels like mad. It was a numbers game, offer more shows, more content, more channels. But as prices went up, people started asking why they were paying so much for 200+ channels, when half of them were cooking or travel channels people didn't watch, or that my sister didn't want to pay for 17 sports channels including one dedicated to cricket. I could see some potential market value in offering basically an ala cart experience at the parks. I don't ride roller coasters, would i pay a cheaper price for a park ticket that doesn't get me mountain access at MK....absolutely. I would have done the same thing when our kids were too young to ride them too. You could probably also get some tracton with locals who don't want to spend $200 bucks for a day at the park, but might spend $100 to go eat, drink, and watch the fire works.

TheCoasterNerdFeb 05, 2024

that's why E tickets are called that - the E ticket was for roller coasters, technologically advanced, or new attractions and were more limited/expensive