Imagineering has filed the first permits for the not-so-Beyond Big Thunder project encompassing Cars and Villains Lands expansions to Magic Kingdom. This post covers details about the permits, implications for the Walt Disney World Railroad, Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island–plus speculation about a future in-park hotel and more.
During the Parks Panel at the 2024 D23 Expo, Walt Disney World announced two all-new Cars attractions in a reimagined area of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. This is not Radiator Springs or a clone of Cars Land from Disney California Adventure, but it’s sizable enough for us to consider it Cars miniland at minimum. Along with this, they officially announced Villains Land expansion at Magic Kingdom.
Subsequent to D23, Walt Disney World revealed that the Cars area will actually replace the Rivers of America, meaning that Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat will permanently close. This news let a lot of the air out of the tires, so to speak, from Walt Disney World’s otherwise blockbuster D23.
These first permits were filed with the South Florida Water Management District almost immediately after Walt Disney World’s ‘clarification’ about the location of the Cars land. The timing of all this was clearly purposeful. As discussed in our Beyond Big Thunder post, we were advised by Imagineering back in early April that the permits would be filed in the coming weeks. They presumably reconsidered, as those would’ve let the cat out of the bag that the Rivers of America would be filled in to some degree.
The “to some degree” part of that was anticipated. As explained at the time, it was highly likely that the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island would both be “condensed.” From a purely operational and crowd flow perspective, one of the obvious goals of the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project was eliminating the Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion dead ends. We just did not know at the time that this meant completely filling in and losing the entire Rivers of America.
Anyway, the new mid-August 2024 permits filed with the South Florida Water Management District relate to stormwater displacement modifications and construction laydown yards. There are low-lying areas to the northwest of the Rivers of America, necessitating additional work to establish usable gravel laydown yards in the first place.
Water management permits are always the first to appear for a project of this nature. Think of approval on these as a necessary prerequisite for beginning substantive construction–this type of permit is required is when waterways are going to be rerouted or water is displaced.
Basically, before the Rivers of America can be drained, Disney needs to explain how they are going to replace the lost stormwater runoff capacity. Such is the nature of construction in the swamps.
As for the gravel laydown yards, there will be three in total around the northwestern perimeter of Magic Kingdom. Two will be located beyond the berm, meaning outside of Magic Kingdom guest areas, with the third laydown yard that should be visible from within Magic Kingdom along the northwestern banks of the Rivers of America. These gravel laydown yards will be used for construction equipment, heavy machinery, materials staging, earth-moving, etc.
Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America have no closing date at present. Walt Disney World has only indicated that work will kick “into high gear” in 2025, but before then, that “guests will have plenty of time to experience the charm and nostalgia of Frontierland as it is today.”
If you want to review the permit package for yourself, you can do so on the SFWMD site by searching for 407 Basin Stormwater Modifications. Fair warning: it’s over 1,000 pages in total spread out over numerous PDFs. And this isn’t even the “exciting” stuff. There will likely be many more “meatier” permits filed in the months and years to come as Imagineering brings the Cars and Villains Lands to life.
As a bit of color commentary and context, these types of staging areas are common for large-scale construction projects at Walt Disney World. It might seem shocking that the gravel laydown yards are like triple the size of the actual expansion area, but that’s not uncommon–especially since this isn’t a single uninterrupted staging location.
There have been similar laydown yards for all sorts of major expansion projects, from New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom to Pandora – World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. The one for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land was similarly massive, dwarfing the size of the expansion itself.
What’s more interesting about these staging areas, in my opinion, is that they should result in land that was previously marginally suitable for construction to become suitable for building. Meaning that the staging areas themselves could be construction sites in the future.
This could simply mean this area is an expansion pad for the Villains Land. Should it be well received, Walt Disney World might greenlight another attraction to be built in this space. That would certainly make sense, especially with Villains Land being more of an open concept land instead of another single intellectual property expansion.
Equally likely, from my perspective, is an in-park hotel overlooking the Villains Land. To be clear, this is purely speculative–I’ve heard zero credible rumors about a hotel being part of the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project. I just know how Walt Disney World management salivates at the prospect of more high-dollar hotel inventory, and this would certainly check that box–and in a highly desirable location.
This strikes me as a way to ‘sell’ the project internally, as the room capacity would be incredibly valuable and help recoup the costs of the expansion. In fact, there’s already pretty much a blueprint for this: Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea, which is also at the back of that park and has a hotel overlooking the new land. Even though such a Magic Kingdom hotel wouldn’t be on the monorail line, it could probably dethrone Grand Floridian as the flagship Walt Disney World resort.
Speaking of speculation, it’s also safe to expect that the Walt Disney World Railroad will close for another few years.
In case you missed it, Walt Disney World Railroad closed for the construction of TRON Lightcycle Run in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. It went down on December 3, 2018 and did not reopen until December 22, 2022 after being closed for 1,481 days (but who’s counting?!).
It’s entirely possible that the Walt Disney World Railroad goes down even longer this go-round. Back with the last closure, we heard so many fans complain that it was poor planning by Disney to take the trains offline so long. That is incorrect. It was entirely by design–a feature, not a bug.
Taking the Walt Disney World Railroad down under the pretext of construction offered the company considerable operational cost-savings. It also resulted in minimal pushback from guests and fans since it was visibly obvious that building the new roller coaster interferes with the railroad.
To be clear, I have zero insight into Walt Disney World’s plan for closing the railroad to accommodate construction of the Cars and Villains Lands. I’m simply sharing what happened in the past, as that’s probably the best predictor of the future.
What we do know is that starting in 2025, the railroad tracks will be between the gravel laydown yards and the construction site on Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America. It’s entirely possible, if not probable, that the WDW Railroad will need to be taken out of service to facilitate work and vehicular traffic back and forth across the tracks from the staging area to the site.
Longer term, the construction of Villains Land will almost certainly necessitate a closure. Not only is there the same issue with staging to site access, but the Villains Land will actually be built directly alongside the Walt Disney World Railroad. While it’s possible this new land manages to stay inside the berm, we wouldn’t bank on it.
That could mean that a track re-routing is necessary to accommodate Villains Land. More optimistically, there could be another station added at the far back of Magic Kingdom, about halfway between the existing Frontierland and Storybook Circus stations. Getting super speculative and combining the two points above, having an in-park hotel with a railroad station (similar to Disneyland Paris, but on the backside) would be savvy.
Ultimately, it’s good to see these ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ projects kicking into high gear so soon after their official announcements at the 2024 D23 Expo. While we can certainly debate whether Cars should be replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island in the first place, it’s good to see them moving in an expeditious manner regardless.
At least for me, it would be worse to announce all of this, then have Disney sit on their hands for a few years, only to have the best part of the project–Villains Land–fall through due to the delays. The second phase of Disney projects is infamous for never happening, and that’s usually because work doesn’t start until the first phase is open. I’m glad that is not happening here.
Unfortunately, this does mean that “saving” the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island is an absolute lost cause. We’ve had readers ask us whether petitions, emailing Walt Disney World Guest Communications, etc., are good ideas. Our response is that we always recommend contacting the company to respectfully express your disappointment and explaining how the company’s decisions and practices will impact your vacations and future business (or lack thereof) with Walt Disney World.
While I don’t see any value in petitions, contacting Walt Disney World over this is a good idea. But it’s not going to alter the trajectory of the project. It’s way too late for that. The wheels are already in motion, and have been since 2022. This decision is not going to be undone.
On a positive note, hearing from diehard fans who are displeased by projects like this is precisely what gives the company pause and serious consideration before proceeding. Meaning that contacting the company will not change this decision, but it may be what helps save Carousel of Progress, Journey into Imagination, or Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room (random examples–not suggesting any of them are currently on the chopping block).
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Your Thoughts
Excited that Imagineering has already filed permits for the Cars and Villains Lands in Magic Kingdom? Or were you hoping that there was still time for a change of plans if enough fans voiced their displeasure with the closing of Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America? Are you optimistic that this will usher in an era of expansion at Walt Disney World? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
