Animal Kingdom expansion! About This Page:

[Littlefairy24]

Ok I read on the DIS boards that Animal kingdom is going to expand to include Australia, or add dragons, and/or take out the wildlife express. There is a blog about the Australia expasion which i find very intriguing and interesting!!! Australia adventure would be awesome i think!!!! Any thoughts anyone?? Can anyone confirm this for me??

[FanOfMickey]

I have not heard anything about an expansion, but I think Australia would be a wonderful addition.

[Littlefairy24]

its all over the DIS boards. i think Australia would be awesome too!!!!!

[iamgrumpy]

This is what I think started the discussions... Wesh's Website which is a news story based on an UNOFFICIAL blog about Disney and is speculation until something official is announced by Disney... BLOG Article

I find it interesting to think about but will wait and see what actually materializes!

[chezp]

I'd love to see this happen - it sounds wonderful and I hope it's something Disney announces one day.

[ilovedisney247]

That would be great!

[Colexis Mom]

Interesting!

[Griffin]

I don't really see how Australia would fit into the Animal Kingdom theme? I don't know, I'm not a fan of change

[DVCBird941]

I would not mind more things to do at AK. Sounds interesting. Thanks for the info

[KMB733]

Interesting to see what comes of this.

[disney]

well there are alot of animals that come from austraila this could be a good change but it is a wait and see till disney releases anything on it .

[Littlefairy24]

i think it would be awesome!!!!!

[carters_mom]

I definitely would love to see new things offered at Animal Kingdom, I still think it lacks a little in comparison to the other parks.

[Dave Marx]

Wow! Talk about trying to conjure something out of thin air!

If construction has been approved and site clearing work has begun, then the folks who carefully watch Reedy Creek Improvement District for the approval of environmental permits, building permits, etc. have dropped the ball.

I find the blog to be glaringly inconsistent in one particular matter - the need to move Festival of the Lion King anywhere. If they're converting Camp Minnie Mickey to another purpose (Australia or otherwise), then FotLK might need to move (or be closed altogether), and someplace near Africa would seem awfully logical as a new home for Simba and Company. However, if Australia is going up into that inaccessible area behind Asia and Africa, then FotLK doesn't have to go anywhere. Which is it?

My guess is that Disney would convert Camp Minnie Mickey to a new purpose before building something new in the outback, and that's probably what the blogger's been thinking too, until his most recent post. The problem is, he hears there's some ground being cleared up by Wildlife Express, so he decides to fit his theory about an AustraliaLand (something he's been talking about for years now) into that corner of the park. Meantime, he forgets that there's no "problem" to be solved regarding FotLK if Australia isn't going into Camp Minnie Mickey.

You know how sometimes a cigar is just a cigar? I'm willing to bet they're just clearing space for some prefab office or storage structures, not a new land. Disney does that sort of thing all the time.

Disney is a pretty logical company. They don't move attractions that don't need to be moved. They don't violate their basic hub-and-spoke layouts until every square foot within that layout has been used. There's significant space between Camp Minnie Mickey and Africa, and the greeting areas at Camp Minnie Mickey could easily be contributed to that space without moving Festival of the Lion King. There's also space between Africa and Asia (enough for one attraction, not an entire land). More likely, that area would be used as entry to that "remote" space out by the railroad, when and if it is converted into public space.

Next, since it is a publicly traded company, construction on projects as big as a park expansion are not started on the sly. The investing community needs to know. There's no strategic reason to keep it secret once they're ready to break ground (secrets are pretty hard to keep at that point).

Now, we know that the real Australia is in a relatively inaccessible part of the world, but does that mean Disney's version has to go into a relatively inaccessible part of the World?

[Two4Disney]

How cool! We were just talking this morning about how it's too bad you can't walk to Animal Kingdom from the Lodge and one reason may be because they had plans to expand the park - an expansion that seemed stalled. Looking forward to this!