Disney Canceled 4 BIG Projects in Magic Kingdom

In 2024, Disney announced several MAJOR expansions for Magic Kingdom, the first since the New Fantasyland expansion in 2012.

A brand new Cars expansion is coming to Frontierland featuring two new rides — this expansion will take the place of the existing Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Another big expansion will include an entire land inspired by Disney Villains. However, we’ve seen projects promised for Magic Kingdom before, including four that ended up getting canceled.

So here are some projects that Disney once promised for Magic Kingdom that just didn’t work out.

Fantasyland Forest

In 2010, Disney dropped details about an expansion to Fantasyland that would include Fantasyland Forest. This would be the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom’s history and would give visitors a chance to step into their favorite Disney fairy tales and have more immersive encounters with Disney princesses. 

In Fantasyland Forest, each princess would have her own themed village. At Dreams Come True with Cinderella, a country chateau would serve as the setting for meeting Cinderella where you could dance with her or train to be one of her Royal Knights.

You would also be able to visit A Birthday Surprise for Sleeping Beauty set inside Briar Rose Cottage where you’re invited to join in on Aurora’s Sweet 16 party thrown by the three fairies.

These two parts of Fantasyland Forest, though, were not meant to be and those ideas were eventually scrapped. However, parts of the project eventually became part of New Fantasyland like Enchanted Tales with Belle, Be Our Guest Restaurant, Gaston’s Tavern, and Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

Pixie Hollow

The second part of the Fantasyland expansion was supposed to include Pixie Hollow, an area where visitors could meet Tinker Bell and her friends. This would have been similar to the Pixie Hollow meet and greet area in Disneyland.

However, Pixie Hollow in Magic Kingdom never happened.

Willis Wood Theater

Disney announced a new indoor theater coming to Magic Kingdom at the D23 Expo in 2017. The new entertainment venue concept was based on the iconic Willis Wood Theater in 1920s Kansas City, where Walt Disney lived after he left Marceline, Missouri.

This new theater would have been located right off Main Street, U.S.A., and would host world class entertainment. However, it never happened.

Western River Expedition

Before Disney World had Pirates of the Caribbean (and that is a whole dramatic story in and of itself), another boat ride was considered instead. Western River Expedition was a concept by iconic Imagineer Marc Davis that would take visitors through a prairie wilderness to a classic western town to escape from bandits — complete with going down a waterfall. It was also one of the original scrapped ideas for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

However, Davis didn’t just want this as JUST a ride — he wanted an entire area dedicated to the concept with other attractions like hiking trails, live pack mules, and a runaway train ride (and we know that THIS ride eventually did make the cut). However, the expenses of such an ambitious project PLUS the cost of having to bring Pirates of the Caribbean to Disney World pretty much made sure the expedition never happened. But we did eventually get Big Thunder Mountain Railroad from it, so a win is a win, right?

So what does this mean? Well, it means that plans don’t always go according to what Disney announces. However, in considering Disney’s recently announced plans for Magic Kingdom, we were promised that every announcement was for projects already in process. Does that mean that the Cars expansion and Villains Land will look exactly like their concept art? Probably not, but we’re still looking forward to seeing what the final versions end up becoming.

Check back with AllEars again soon for more.

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Which canceled Magic Kingdom project would you like to see make a return? Let us know in the comments!

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