Is Australia on Animal Kingdom's horizon?
This topic has been around since some years now, but yesterday, The Disney Blog said that Australia is almost confirmed. It may finally come to Disney's Animal Kingdom in the near future Here's part of the article wrote by the blog (to read the whole story, please go to the original article, that contains more info):
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G’Day Mate! Australia coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom
I first reported on the development of a new land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom based on the continent of Australia back in October of 2007. It was shortly after that when the housing bubble popped for good and the house of cards banks had built on home mortgages came tumbling down threatening to take the world’s economy with it. At that point Disney turtled and postponed a number of projects until a time when the economy returned to better.
That time appears to be now. [...]
Yep, work on the rumored Australia section of the park has reportedly been approved. Although I have not yet seen it myself, my minions tell me that there has been some clearing work on the future site already. I also heard that approval has been given in the new budget to hire some additional resources that will be tasked to the project. Take those two facts, along with a couple other sources I spoke to, and I think we can safely say the land of Oz is coming to Orlando.
They way I see it, Australia is the first step in realizing the final vision of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park currently lacks any aquatic/sea-life exhibits. So picture a Great Barrier Reef exhibit and a Killer Whale and/or Dolphin show. DAK does have a few Kangaroo, but a larger Marsupial exhibit would be a great addition. The location of Australia will allow guests to walk to and from the Conservation Station and allows removal of the Wildlife Express railroad. That frees up important land in Africa which will finally allow The Festival of the Lion King to move to its rightful place in the park. Once that happens, Camp Minnie Mickey is open to be re-themed (although don’t get your hopes up for Beastly Kingdom, that ship has sailed).
This leaves one problem — transportation. [...]
My usual philosophy with Disney projects is to not believe anything is for real until the day after it opens to the public. But I feel the needs of the park and the clues from my sources are aligning to the point where I am relatively confident that Australia is on the way. Disney has to come up with an answer to Harry Potter, guests are leaving DAK after half a day or just skipping it entirely. Making DAK a full-day park needs to be a high priority for the resort if it wants to hold guests on property for four full days. Australia is the first step down that path. I report back as soon as I have more.
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As you can see, they don't say that it's something 100% sure, but almost.
Australia may feature some new shows that are way too similar to SeaWorld's. Is this the REAL answer to SeaWorld? Or is this project just still in the works?
I personally don't think that this land has been approved right now, but I think that it will be built, eventually.
The thing that makes me really sad is this phrase: "don’t get your hopes up for Beastly Kingdom, that ship has sailed". If that's true, this is awful. Beastly Kingdomme was going to be the best land of the park!
Oh, well... What do you think?
Interesting... Kind of depressing too. Australia to compete with Harry? I don't see it. Especially since the Beastly appears to be dead forever. Is good news that they're adding something new but something you could see at Seaworld?
ReplyDeleteI find the whole AK kind of depressing, in the sense that it was the last Disney park built in Orlando. I understand it was a 800mill creation and that is pretty and all. It's just seemed like they missed on something, I mean come on, MK and Epcot are 10 and 20 plus years older and most people still like them a lot more than AK. Those are older and still better... I understand teeming is not equal but look how interested people are in Harry. Even the Disney crazy lovers (everything else haters) are going.
Appears that Disney doesn't have anything that good coming. The stuff I've seen in the works falls a little short. Especially for the good ALL MIGHTY Disney! I now a lot of you love it, and love it a little more, but Disney needs to step up and answer with something new and creative and stop living all in old charm and nostalgia. Duffy? Really? I mean does Disney has something new to offer, or is it just nostalgia an old magic?
I love animal kingdom and the few rides it has but one thing that HAS GOT to go is that god-awful carnival section. Was Disney planning to make a REAL and THEMED dinosaur section but then just came up with that?!? It's the worst section of the park (with the exception of the Dinosaur indoor dark ride). I think that if they took out all of the carnival rides and replaced it with real, Disney-level theming and magic, it'd be great. And Australia better come with some rides too! If they do it right it would be a great addition but I really wouldn't think this should be called "Disney's Response to Harry Potter World"
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call it a response to potter. But why would they have a killer whale show when it meant to be Australia, if they came down here they will find it very hard to find a killer whale. If they want a whale it would have to be a humpback. If they build it it should have spiders, snakes and sharks (or Tasmanian devils if they dont want marine life)as well as the more known cute and soft animals. As well as some great rides.
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