Walt Disney Imagineering Adds More Trailers at STOL Port for Magic Kingdom Expansion

Feb 18, 2025 in "Magic Kingdom"

Gallery / 2 Photos
Walt Disney Imagineering Trailer Compound at STOL Port Site

Posted: Tuesday February 18, 2025 7:07am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney Imagineering has filed a Notice of Commencement this week for "temporary construction trailers for site and facility improvement" at the former STOL Port site near Magic Kingdom. The permit lists an expiration date of March 31, 2027.

Walt Disney Imagineering Trailer Compound at STOL Port Site

STOL Port, once an airstrip for short takeoff and landing aircraft, has long served as a staging area for Imagineering's major Walt Disney World projects. The site has been expanded over the years, including during the development of New Fantasyland and TRON Lightcycle Run. The latest expansion is in preparation for two large-scale additions coming to Magic Kingdom—Cars Land and Villains Land, which were announced as part of Disney's future expansion plans.

Wide view of the new Frontierland, with two Cars-themed attractions replacing Tom Sawyer Island

The STOL Port expansion is part of a broader increase in Imagineering's on-site presence at Walt Disney World. In addition to these new trailers, Disney has recently repurposed the former Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser facility as project office space for the development of a Monsters Inc. Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios. At Disney's Animal Kingdom, Imagineering has also added new trailer space to support the Tropical Americas expansion, which will replace Dinoland U.S.A.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Disstevefan11 day ago

Iger is a SUUUUUUPER GEEEENIUS ;)

Casper Gutman1 day ago

You know that part in the old Roadrunner cartoons where the Coyote had run off the cliff but hasn’t looked down yet?

Raineman1 day ago

And, it won't even just be the visual mess of construction walls-the sounds of construction will add to the mess. Instead of hearing the whistle on the riverboat or hearing "Maaark Twaaaain", we'll get to hear the magical sounds of construction equipment and power tools. The sound element of theming in Frontierland/Liberty Square may be just as important, if not more important, to that part of the park than anywhere else.

Bocabear1 day ago

Carsland at DCA works so well because it is a fully realized immersive themed land....to a location we all know from the Cars movie...it is also full of eye candy and clever nods to the film, gorgously done with an amazing big attraction and a couple smaller...with many shops and QS options. I do not know the location for this new Cars attraction, it was not in a Cars movie, there has been talk of a second attraction, but nothing for sure... Villainsland we know even less about...but we do know we will have a gigantic mess in a large quadrant of the park that will drag on for literally years and years...

WaltWiz19011 day ago

moreso what I bolded. the "7.3 attractions per guest per day" model that shaped opening-day Walt Disney Studios and Hong Kong Disneyland apparently hasn't died, and the many, many systems/services/whatever that NextGen/MyMagic+ spawned have only exacerbated the problems with using said model as a guide for adding/"adding" new attractions it has nothing to do with being cheap - this is the same company whose waste and ridiculously layered bureaucracy (or is it Imagineering's specifically?) bounce between doing a simple reskin/overhaul for relatively cheap and building grandiosely phoned-in misfires for millions if not billions

Animaniac93-981 day ago

Cars Land is the best attraction in DCA. Even if the revenue from the shops and eateries in that land don't make a ton of money on their own, the existence of the land is probably a large driver in park attendance, which is important in and of itself. I think people are taking the success of Cars Land and extrapolating what it did to DCA to believe any Cars attraction or land would be an equal success at another Disney park. We know that's not the case with the two Cars rides at Disney Studios Paris, but even if the two at Magic Kingdom are not as bad, Magic Kingdom is already the most visited theme park in the world and this Cars addition won't have as large a focus on retail/dining. It comes down to the belief that new rides sell LL and merch. I think that varies based on what's ultimately built. Cosmic Rewind benefits from being the only coaster in that park, Tron the most intense in MK. This Cars ride may be the breakout family hit that Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is, or maybe it won't. That's the risk they're taking.

flynnibus1 day ago

Think of it like free financing :) Pay off attraction one... build new attraction two.. shift ILL to it... etc.

Disstevefan12 days ago

I was half kidding. Every move they make will now take into consideration LL. Getting rid of RoA, TSI, the riverboat, gets rid of a maintenance cost for something that brings in zero LL money. Forget that beauty, theme, tranquility, this is A Business! Besides that, Disney wants to erase TSI, Liberty square, HoP, Frontierland eventually anyway.

the_rich2 days ago

2 at Mk and 1 at each other park

TrainsOfDisney2 days ago

Isn’t that always a revolving door? Like there is only 1 per park correct? Maybe I’m not folllwing.

flynnibus2 days ago

Some income - yes.. but you also described labor intensive stuff that isn't high volume and doesn't run continuously all day, every day, virtually on its own. Getting an attraction that can sell ILL just prints money. Let's do some super crude math. Take something with 1400 Riders per hour.. give 30% to LL.. let's round down for the non-paid in there too.. so let's say 25% of capacity being sold. That's 350 people /hr paying $20 to ride. Assuming just 13hrs of operating a day.. that's 91k a day. That's over 33 million a year for basically no extra cost over running the ride you are doing anyways. A 300 million dollar ride can pay for itself OUTRIGHT in less than 10yrs.. on an attraction you hope will last 20+years. Nevermind all the other revenue streams like merch, etc a ride generates. That kind of 'free money' will make any exec drunk with lusting to repeat that formula.

DisneyHead1232 days ago

Presumably yes. Looks like Radiator Springs has an ILL option. Also, it’s an entire land with walkable areas, whereas I think the Disney World version will be primarily rides, with probably a store and snack area. Not trying to be depressing, just realistic. There are versions of this new dynamic I could like. It’s certainly an incentive for Disney to build great new rides.

TrainsOfDisney2 days ago

Is cars land at DCA a money making machine?

AidenRodriguez7312 days ago

Source: I made it up. There are FAR easier ways to make money off LL's than this plan. Now merch + LLs, this will sell a boatload but I still think this is them trying to update Frontierland into a new narrative about exploring the American Wilderness and kinda matching "Fort Wilderness" in a way.