Why Rivers of America Is Worth Saving.
Walt Disney World is gearing up to demolish Tom Sawyer Island and commence construction on the Piston Peak ‘Cars’ area of Frontierland this month. The Rivers of America will not be saved, let’s be clear about that. This is not a last-minute plea for Imagineering to change course.
It’s instead aimed at addressing the aesthetic and artistic merit of this area of the park for posterity and precedent. My real hope is that the fans who have been dismissive about the ‘value’ of the Rivers of America can understand why places like this are an asset to theme parks.
Because this isn’t a conversation confined just to this one replacement–it’s an ongoing one that’ll continue in the years to come. That’s true generally, but also more specifically with regard to the Rivers of America, which is on the chopping block elsewhere in addition to Walt Disney World.
This comes against the backdrop of the in-park areas that Piston Peak National Park will replace permanently closing. Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and Liberty Square Riverboat will all close on July 7; the last day to experience any of these attractions and locations is today (or “was” if you’re reading on Monday).
I wanted to offer a closing ‘love letter’ to the Rivers of America, and the best tribute I can offer is making a case for it (yet again), and sprinkle that essay with my favorite photos I’ve taken of the RoA over the years. So you can either read what I have to say or simply scroll and enjoy the visuals if you’re sick of this debate.
From the outset, let’s make a few stipulations. I’ve seen much of the debate about replacing Rivers of America with Piston Peak revolve around a few points, which strike me as (respectfully) missing the point. With that in mind, I’ll agree to all of the following points and address them in turn:
- Tom Sawyer Island and Liberty Square Riverboat are not popular.
- Cars Rally Racers and the family-friendly ride will be popular.
- Magic Kingdom will be more popular with Cars than Rivers of America.
- Pixar’s Cars franchise can fit Frontierland.
Let’s start at the top. It’s no secret that the Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island don’t have the hourly throughput numbers as most attractions in Magic Kingdom. Eliminating them reduces operational and maintenance expenses on attractions and areas that are underutilized and don’t offer as much operational ‘bang for buck’ to the company.
Because of this, some fans will likely be entirely okay with this decision to eliminate the Rivers of America–as is their right. Many longtime fans have probably never even been over to Tom Sawyer Island or done a lap on the Liberty Square Riverboat. Others probably have done so infrequently over the years, and will do these new Cars attractions more. This is necessarily true–hence the ‘underutilized capacity’ term.
There should really be no argument that the guest throughput of Piston Peak’s queued attractions will be higher than what it’s replacing. The Cars Rally Racers attraction will likely fall somewhere between Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON Lightcycle Run over time, making it a top 5 attraction in terms of utilization. These are obvious points, not “gotchas.” It’s silly to pretend that any reasonable Disney fan advocating for the Rivers of America believes otherwise.
The more controversial stipulation is #3, which is that Magic Kingdom will be more popular with Cars than Rivers of America. I’ve heard some detractors of the Piston Peak plan claim this is the beginning of the end for Magic Kingdom. While I’m somewhat sympathetic to that line of argument (more on that in a minute), I don’t believe it.
If Imagineering delivers, Piston Peak will be a marketable addition and Cars Rally Racers will appear in ad campaigns. It’ll be on billboards, commercials, promoted social media posts, and so forth. Rivers of America isn’t on any billboards. Aside from saying their goodbyes, a large number of guests are not booking trips specifically to see it. Disney has metrics showing that Cars will move the needle; the same cannot be said for the Rivers of America.
From my perspective, this also at least partially misses the point. Theme parks are not just the sum of their ride rosters, to be raced around and checked off one by one. They are as much defined by the spaces in between; by the absence of attractions, too.
Viewing theme parks checklist style, with each ride being viewed in a vacuum is how you end up with studios parks where everything is housed in a big soundstage and the theme is “movies” or something nebulous because it’s the most efficient route. This approach yields the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, Disney California Adventure 1.0, and areas of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Moreover, this line of reasoning is antithetical to Animal Kingdom, Tokyo DisneySea, EPCOT Center, Disneyland Paris–and the other best versions of castle parks. As much as I love Disney’s Hollywood Studios and think it can have a great sense of place, this is largely true in the areas that did not faithfully re-create the backstage experience. At least, aesthetically.
Suffice to say, there’s a reason so many of Imagineering’s recent lands have been a departure from this style. Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are far from perfect, but they’re a stylistic breath of fresh air for DHS. The legacy lands at that park that are best, in my view, are Hollywood & Sunset Boulevard and Echo Lake. Many fans would agree, and that’s largely for the atmosphere. Guests feel the difference, even if they don’t realize it and it isn’t surfaced by satisfaction surveys.
Even Universal has realized this! So much of the praise heaped on Epic Universe isn’t about the attractions (although it does have several excellent and envelope-pushing rides), it’s about the sense of place. Ministry of Magic only has one ride and one show, but the newest Harry Potter land is such a triumph of design that guests enjoy simply being there.
The same can be said for Celestial Park, Dark Universe, Super Nintendo World, and Isle of Berk–every single land. Epic Universe has its issues, sure, but the bones of the park are positioning it for long-term success. They’ve been working at getting away from their soundstage-style for the better part of two decades now, trying to be more like old school Disney, design-wise.
Few areas at Walt Disney World excel from a being there perspective quite like the Rivers of America, Liberty Square Riverboat, and Tom Sawyer Island. These are incredible assets to Magic Kingdom not just for the guests who actively utilize these attractions. They offer serenity and delightful atmosphere even to guests who stroll along the waterfront promenade, stopping for a moment to catch their breath and take in the view. It’s impossible to quantify this. That’s precisely what worries me.
Sometimes Disney’s decision-makers view the parks as figures on a spreadsheet, and from that perspective, it’s easy to overlook “underutilized” things that are incredibly important to the Disney theme park experience from a holistic perspective. A fairly persuasive argument could be made that every guest who walks through Frontierland and gazes over at the Rivers of America, hears the Liberty Square Riverboat, and has their stress-levels drop by a percentage point or two has “utilized” these offerings.
It may not click in the moment, but it’s the “little things” we treasure just as much as a ride on Big Thunder; small details or quiet moments that become indelible parts of our memories from visits to the parks over the years. These little things might seem superfluous on paper, especially when the alternative is expanding the park and growing capacity by thousands guests.
By viewing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island as underutilized real estate that’s expendable, Disney is missing the forest for the trees. Spaces like these are what help make our days in the parks special and separate Disney from the competition. They give us little moments to pause and absorb the big attractions and experiences we’ve enjoyed. These things and places are what keep us coming back.
There’s a long term price to be paid for viewing the parks from the perspective that every square foot must be put to its most efficient use, have its capacity maximized, or be directly monetized. That’s too myopic of a view, and ignores the practical reality that guests form impressions based on the totality of their visit, with those little things or counterprogramming adding as much as the E-Tickets.
If everything is go-go-go, the guest experience as a whole can suffer. And that’s true even if the individual attractions replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island end up having higher guest satisfaction scores. There are some things that are impossible to quantify–that guests just absorb, even without realizing it. This is precisely why we value atmospheric entertainment–the energy can be felt subliminally even if not consciously. It brightens the mood, even if unknowingly.
It’s the exact same idea with the Rivers of America. There’s no guest satisfaction “metric” for how many guests per day walk along that waterfront promenade, pause for a deep breath, smile and take a photo. It could be an indelible moment burned into their memory, or, more likely, a fleeting bit of happiness. It is striking the delicate balance of experiences and emotions that makes Magic Kingdom, well, magical.
In other words, atmosphere can matter as much–maybe more–than a guest adding another notch to their ride tally. It was important to their day as a whole. It was a much-needed reprieve from the often stressful nature of the world’s most popular theme park. This has long been my perspective on the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island–that they are invaluable assets that serve as counterprogramming to give guests an expand from the paved pathways and hustle and bustle of Magic Kingdom.
Spaces like this also play a role in elevating the cultural role of theme parks, and reinforce our viewpoint that theme parks are not only folly for children. Theme parks as art. One of my favorite hidden gem books is Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance. This is one of the most academic and esoteric books about theme parks, and it spends a lot of time examining the design intentions of Disney Parks as symbols of Americana, and the cultural value they offer beyond consumerism. I believe that the Rivers of America fit squarely in this analysis, as a deceptively simple man-made “natural” environment that speaks to something deeper in us. I fear that this deceptive nature means we also won’t appreciate the full extent of what it offers until it’s gone.
Admittedly, it’s also a matter of nostalgia and sentimentality for those of us who lament the loss of the Rivers of America. This waterfront promenade is one of my favorite places in all of Magic Kingdom, and we have so many memories of this waterfront walk late at night with a cool breeze coming off the Rivers of America, or early in the mornings as the sun flitters through the trees. It is one of those places in the park that allows us to slow down, take a deep breath, and soak up our surroundings. Maybe that makes me biased, and overly sensitive to losing the Rivers of America when the average guest reaction will be: “Who cares? Bring on Cars!”
However, Disney is also biased as evident from lessons learned by the late 1990s and early aughts. The company recognized what a mistake not looking at the parks holistically was, and that’s precisely how we got Cars Land at DCA, World of Frozen, and pretty much the entirety of the Disney Adventure World overhaul. Looking back at the portions of opening day DCA that were good and are still around, they’re mostly well-themed, atmospheric locations–Grizzly Peak, for instance.
This is precisely why I’m receptive to the spirit of the argument that losing the Rivers of America could hurt Magic Kingdom’s popularity in the long-term. To be clear, I don’t actually believe that this will happen as an immediate or direct result of this decision. Magic Kingdom will become more popular in the 2030s than it is today.
The concern is with the line of thinking that views the parks as the sum of their individual parts, wait times, and Lightning Lane sales data. Taken to its extreme, this thought process is the one that gives rise to massive E-Tickets in big square show buildings. It’s how the atmosphere is gradually eroded, all in the service of the ride roster or maximizing every square foot of real estate.
Even this concern feels hyperbolic, honestly. The truth is that Walt Disney World has great bones, and was designed tremendously well nearly six decades ago. That there are a lot of cuts that can be made to the ‘fat’ (superfluous serenity and design) before that bone is hit.
We just saw this play out with Island Tower at the Polynesian. Its exterior is ugly; plain, cheap-looking, and discordant with its surroundings. If Seven Seas Lagoon were originally designed as a bunch of Island Towers in the 1970s, there would be no love for the area. No one would have nostalgia because it’d be utterly forgettable.
And yet, it doesn’t destroy the skyline because the bones of Seven Seas Lagoon are so strong that you can overlook it. To the extent that it succeeds, Island Tower does so by leeching off the quality of and love for its surroundings. Irreparable damage to Seven Seas Lagoon would take many more Island Towers, because the original design is just that good.
It’s a similar story with Magic Kingdom or even EPCOT; the bones are so good that it’s hard to imagine any single misguided decision dooming the park. At least, for me. Some fans have identified losing the Rivers of America as their tipping point, and while I hope they’re overreacting, I cannot fault them for the sentiment at this point.
Although this argument strikes me as hyperbolic, it nevertheless worries me because of how quickly fans are to excuse poor decisions or design. It looks fine. It’s good enough. For me, it’s concerning that we as a fandom often make excuses or do not hold Disney to its own high standards. (An issue I’ve had since the Court of Angels controversy and “it’s just stairs” debate.)
As a reminder, Disney itself returned to these high standards only after a series of decisions so poor in the late 1990s and early aughts that they culminated in a series of theme parks that were infamously not up to Disney quality. They were so bad that the tipping point was reached, normal guests noticed, and their attendance suffered as a result.
My view is that great placemaking, themed design, and those “unnecessary” details are precisely what makes Disney, Disney. We all have so many superlatives for why Walt Disney World is a special place, and it usually isn’t just a ride roster. It’s the little things that elevate the theme parks to an art form. It’s precisely what makes us the source of ridicule for outsiders who dismiss Disney as “kids stuff” and us as adults with juvenile interests.
Looking towards the future with a more optimistic eye, my final stipulation on my list is that Cars can work in Frontierland. I would hazard a guess that this is where I lose most fans of the Rivers of America. Many are rightfully worried about loud googly-eyed zooming around the wild west. On its face, this Pixar franchise in Frontierland seems utterly discordant.
My view on this is that Imagineering has worked its magic in the past, taking movies and characters that seemed at odds with their respective parks and lands, and making them feel incredibly cohesive. We saw this with Pandora in Animal Kingdom, as well as arguably Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT. With the exception of the Rat Ride, all of those were met with fierce fan backlash when originally announced. (Especially Pandora–it was just mostly pre-social media, so many fans have forgotten or missed it entirely.)
While thematic cohesiveness of those additions is up for debate, my underlying point is that framing devices and choosing the right canvas can work wonders. In the case of Cars in Frontierland, they’ve picked Piston Peak National Park as the setting. This could work. It could work well! Better than Cars in Future World or Tomorrowland, if you ask me.
When it comes to matters of timeline, lore, setting or story, my perspective is more ‘relaxed’ than many fans. The frontier is an American spirit. That sense of rugged individualism, manifest destiny, big folklore, and western exploration–all of it is as much an ethos as it is an era.
As America gets older and the 1800s are further in the rearview mirror, the case could be made that the bygone era of the U.S. National Parks are part of that spirit. It was a different time in America, but one that embodied a similar sentiment as the “go west, young man” age. Our National Parks are America’s Best Idea, and their spirit and landscape is at home in the modern American understanding of the frontier.
The America of today is further removed from that automotive boom and heyday of the western ‘Great American Road Trip’ than Walt Disney was from the Old West when he dreamt up the concept of Frontierland. At least as far as the passage of time is concerned, the middle of the last century is already older than the Old West was in the 1950s. I could go on and on–and do here: Can the Cars Franchise Fit Frontierland?
But the thing about this is that it only works…if it works.
Pandora could’ve been a trainwreck; a jarring break from the harmonious areas of Animal Kingdom. Ditto all of the changes at EPCOT. You might even contend that some entries on that list were failures, not success stories. I’d argue that Walt Disney World has made plenty of other thematic missteps. Just because Cars can fit Frontierland does not mean it will.
Piston Peak National Park is the right setting, but Imagineers must now nail the design, landscape, soundscape–literally everything. It’s going to be a very tough needle to thread; far more difficult than choosing an obvious thematic fit for any given land. (Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Toontown, for example, had no such concerns; nobody is truly worried about Monstropolis being an eyesore in DHS.)
The bottom line is that if we’re losing the Rivers of America, it had better be worth it. The marquee Cars attraction needs to be as good as Radiator Springs Racers. The themed design of the area must be superlative and in keeping of the rugged spirit of Frontierland. The new area must have great kinetic energy and atmosphere.
Since this project was first announced, I’ve been reassured that Imagineering understands the assignment. The new Fun Map looks promising and Imagineering’s explanation of their inspiration and how they’re working to ensure thematic integrity and sightlines is promising.
This Cars miniland is in capable hands. The project team clearly loves Disney history, classic animation, and Walt Disney World as a whole. They “get it” and will do everything in their power to lovingly create a land worthy of the American West and spirit of Frontierland. They realize they cannot deliver two overly-short attractions, a sea of concrete and some trees, along with a concept that feels at-odds with Frontierland.
This has gotta be strong. They have to make the skeptics (like me) concede we were wrong about ever questioning the wisdom of replacing the Rivers of America. The hesitation for me at this point is that we’ve been burned many times in the past. Beautiful concept art to sell fans on projects, with the finished product being a sad shell of the promise. Budget cuts and value-engineering into oblivion. You get the idea.
If the finished Piston Peak looks like the Fun Map, it’s going to be a triumph that makes all the above concerns sound like the silly rantings of a lunatic. But that’s still an “if,” and a rather large one, at this point. Here’s hoping the executives get out of the way and give Imagineers the resources needed to make this essay sound idiotic in a few years. I’d love nothing more than to sound silly; this is one situation where looking idiotic would be a massive win.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
How do you feel about Walt Disney World retiring and replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island with Cars? Has your opinion on Piston Peak evolved or improved at all since Imagineering revealed the Fun Map, plus more about sightlines and inspirations for the area? Do you think the two all-new Cars rides coming to Magic Kingdom are “worth it”? Do you agree or disagree with our sentiment? 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!
The idea that theme parks aren’t just a list of rides to be checked off and that senses of place are critical I think misses the point, or at least, goes in the direction of a “chicken or the egg” debate. My view at this point is that parks are EXACTLY a list of attractions to check off these days, whether or not they were in the past. I’d also argue that this is a result of the last 5 years of decision making by Disney, and whether or not it’s intentional, it’s now created a self-fulfilling feedback loop.
Not to be the guy that always harps on costs, but given what it does run these days to do a WDW visit (compared to, say, pre-COVID), the only real way for a majority of folks to feel like they got their money’s worth out of the visit is to completely maximize the experience by checking off as much as they possibly can, even ponying up more cash just to do it (I’m looking at you Lightning Lanes). And so “sense of place” or areas to slow down and escape from the craziness of the rest of the park sound appealing, but they’re quite literally a waste of time and money. Every minute you’re not min/maxing the attractions you can hit in one visit is a minute of decreased value compared to the cash spent to hit the park. If someone shells out the required money and doesn’t feel they were able to get most of the value out, that’s a person that doesn’t come back. And so if the way folks determine value is “did I get to check all the boxes we wanted to?” then creating a scenario that reinforces that behavior is exactly the right way to go.
And the self-fulfilling part of this is that, all things considered and based on the metrics they care about, that tradeoff has worked for Disney. Visitor behavior adjusted to the “new normal,” people have ponied up the increased costs, and they’ve adjusted their behavior accordingly, Disney has measured that behavior and is making adjustments to help reinforce that behavior, expecting that people will continue to take the “more money if given more boxes to check” deal that they’re taking so far.
Quite literally the only real metric Disney cares about in the park is “how much current and future income can we extract from everyone that wants to come?” If there’s an attraction that doesn’t accomplish that, it’s potentially on the chopping block (RIP MuppetVision). The Cars attraction will extract far more money that RoA or TSA ever could, and since most folks are just in “check the box” mode as it is, it creates another important box to check.
Increase revenue + maximizing capacity + giving people what the information says they really want = a complete no-brainer decision to execute this project. This site being mostly hard-cores is the outlier of people attending – every time there’s been a significant change, we’ve all been “oh, this is a step too far,” or “wow, I loved X, how could they kill it?” In reality, there doesn’t seem to be a single decision yet, no matter how much we believe it adverse to the park experience, no matter how awful of an idea we collectively think it is…there’s no decision to date that has led to a decrease in revenue from the parks. There’s a zero percent chance that this decision leads to that decrease either, and until the parks stop printing money, and Disney starts to take a hit to their pocketbook, there’s a zero percent chance that decisions like this won’t continue.
TLDR – Disney changed visitor behavior with their jacking of costs in the last 5 years, and all their metrics and information points to giving people more reason to perceive value with all the money they’re spending. The vast majority get no perceived value from senses of space, but rather from checking all the boxes. Replacing low-capacity attractions with high-capacity ones that are a critical box to check is just the logical decision to continue to extract increased costs from visitors.
Here’s a hypothesis for you: Encouraging the “Check the box” mode is what leads to aggressive guest behavior.
I second Jack’s remark.
You make your points well so that I felt doubt going on to read more people who were firmly on the side of, “They can’t get rid of Rivers of America!!!” But I do think box checking makes for a stressful vacation. And it doesn’t take into account those of us who are locals and/or annual passholders who don’t need to check off boxes & can just drop by the parks to have a relaxing few hours rather than a chaotic full day.
@Jack – I don’t think I disagree with your idea there. I’d just argue that, at this point, aggressive fan behavior isn’t something that’s remotely showing up on the metrics the park cares about. Or, if it is showing up, they view that as an acceptable tradeoff for their cash printing machine. I think your point is one of a number of negative outcomes of a focus on “how can we maximize income extraction?” with these park decisions being another one. But until all of what we perceive as negative outcomes start hitting the company in their pocketbooks, they’re completely willing to take that tradeoff.
@Gina – We already know where the opinion of Annual Passholders ranks at the parks – as close to the bottom as it gets. APs are part of that “unfavorable attendance mix,” and from behavior the last 5 years, they don’t seem to mind all that much if some APs drop out. To this point, the APs, the hard-core fans…they’ve mostly all just been going back anyways. What percentage do you think are cancelling over RoA/TSI going away? Disney knows a captive audience when they have one, and so far fan behavior has been on the order of “thank you sir, may I have another?”
thank you for this very nostalgic and accurate view of Rivers. it’s actually one of the areas I prefer. the historical value as well as the calm atmosphere gives me the same feeling inside as Main Street. new rides and fantasy has its place however Walt himself set out, with Rivers of America and the steamship to bring back the excitement and feeling of America starting out–the days of Mark Twain and spirit of adventure. To me, with the removal of this area as well as the downplay of the American Experience area ( fife and drum no more!) MK is no longer a Walt place but a superficial place for joy rides. It lost the depth and class which kept it from being defined as an amusement park.
All of the points you’ve made are solid, but I would add another: sometimes it’s nice to have options that aren’t particularly popular that you can just hop right on. That also bumps guest satisfaction scores. It’s really nice being able to go to Disneyland and MK and be able to just walk right into/onto the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Treehouse, etc. Is anyone booking vacations for those experiences? No, but getting to do something without having to wait for it also is a net win for park guests.
What concerns me is that WDW in particular seems to view these attractions as less desirable, opening them later and closing them earlier than other attractions, and between this and Muppetvision, it sure seems like there might come a time when all of these are straight up removed in favor of things that will sell lightning lane.
Whether these attractions are utilized by most guests or not, they add a great deal to the park experience, and it seems like many are missing that.
This is a great point also.
Your photos are magical! Thanks for sharing. I hope a new riverfront is part of the eventual plan for Beyond Big Thunder/ Villians Land. Maybe there will be another beautiful spot in the works then.
Why not just tear down the Castle because it doesn’t make enough money or have enough interest? Wipe out Main Street because it supposedly doesn’t represent what people want to see now? There’s talk in the article about ride volumes. But then I’ve read that supposedly they lose money on the entrance tickets and make it up on food and drink? Which is it? Epcot was designed to change. But not the Magic Kingdom. Who they cater to now I have no idea. Everything that is unique should be destroyed. Sad sad sad.
We were there on the 4th and never made it on the riverboat or TSI but just seeing them was such an additive part of our experience. The folks on the boat looked so happy as they soared above us as we strolled the promenade. The lines for the raft to TSI were pretty long (both ways) which is what prevented us from going over.
The raft is amazing but getting over and back is a time investment. If TSI were turned into a peninsula and “plussed up”a bit (with Dole Whips at an expanded Aunt Polly’s, thematic consistency be damned), so many more guests could enjoy it. And then they could run the riverboat in shuttle mode. And still have room to build something cool back there, connecting Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder. But alas….
Let me point out they already have this ride at WDW MK and it is really, really lame – Tomorrowland Speedway!!!! It has long been overdue for a real, entertaining refurb. So no, I’m not cutting any slack to Disney or the imagineers.
You’re correct, Disney decision making is spreadsheets and that is it. I think they intentionally tanked the attendance numbers for ROA through neglect and lack of staffing for the ride. Can we talk about the millions they spent 4 years ago refurbishing the river and mechanisms to only demolish it now? If it is bean counters causing the poor decision making, then who made that poor decision? It seems more like Disney doesn’t get Disney itself so NO, we don’t trust imagineers or Disney at all. Everything they’ve done the last 10 years has been discursive and head scratching. It’s like Kahn letting Young Benson have his way, unchecked and everything is all over the place all the time. Frozen is really lame – just a handful of gloworm like statues and one snow monster, Moana – years of construction for a walk thru mister, Star Wars is okay but why leave the 90’s building with glass block for the meet and greets so they clearly just stopped there, Toyland is meh but no where near immersive…Communicore – well, that one speaks for itself. Above all that they only send out surveys to select guests, surprise we never get them. If they keep this logic up next on the chopping block is Swiss Family Treehouse for yet another merch store, which would be a crime after taking away ROA. We give them a lot, a ton of money so no, I’m not trusting them after what they’ve done.
I was similarly skeptical and saddmed to hear of this when the news dropped. One of my favorite walks is after closing on the promenade with the reflection of the castle. If they have enough money and talent to pull off the current drawing, then it looks like there will still be a stream of sorts along a path from Tianas back to the hub. Hopefully the water features and landscaping will offer some kind of alternate ambiance. I’m not attached to the old school America section, but peaceful strolls can be a great night cap.
I have a photo taken in 1973 of my young sons standing in front of Rivers of America. I have a photo of my grandson taken on Tom Sawyer’s Island, of him holding a paintbrush he found there. I have a photo of my sons in front of Rivers of America taken in 1973 when they were selected to be guests of the day in the Liberty Square Parade.
I have a photo of myself and my friends taken in December as we took our farewell cruise around Rivers of America. I have a personal history of my time near and on Rivers of America. I am heartbroken at the loss of such a serene spot in a park filled with macadam.
Thanks for this. Lots to think about.
Where else are the rivers on the potential chopping block? Tokyo for sure (almost nothing is safe/sacred there with OLC’s vision for their castle park), but certainly they’re not considering this for Anaheim or Paris?
One good sentiment I saw was that in Paris, they just spent a bunch of money putting in a body of water in the only Disney park that didn’t have one. Meanwhile, MK fills theirs in.
what a lovely farewell. Thanks for the pictures.
I regret the loss of Tom Sawyer as I never got to see it. With the countless times I went it was either over crowded or CLOSED all together with no reason listed.
As for the “Rivers” and the riverboat….it was always busy on my visits and most of them were during what used to be called the ‘slow’ season, so I don’t know why they say it wasn’t used. It was a ‘ride’ that didn’t matter what size you were (vertical nor horizontal)-didn’t matter how old or young-it really didn’t have any stipulations. It was a wonderful time to slow down for a moment and catch your breath or grab a little shade and rest before diving back into the madness of the park.
The change is just another excuse for Disney to raise it prices. My true madness is that there is so much property that is not yet utilized. They could have built Cars and left the rest.
I agree, it was intentionally put out of commission on a regular basis. Everytime we went we tried to catch the boat but it was closed. My little one loves the fort on the island and he was very sad that he won’t be able to go on it ever again. That isn’t the feeling Disney should be going for with little kids.
Well put. Some of my all time favorite moments in Magic Kingdom have been just hanging out at Aunt Polly’s and enjoying the feel.
Homes near the shore are worth double and triple the standard price if they are beachfront. Vacation spots in the mountains are more highly prized if they are located along a lake or river. Even folks who don’t own a boat prefer a home with water access to one without. There is something about water, whether it’s a large ocean or small creek that’s exudes serenity. That’s what Rivers of America has been giving to Magic Kingdom since 1971 – a place to behold, not ride; a space that was natural, not contrived; an area that brought peacefulness to an otherwise frenzied environment. That was its own, singular type of “magic”. And once it’s been taken away, it will be gone forever. Why not do away with New York City’s Central Park and pave it over for parking? How about draining Washington, D.C.’s Reflecting Pool and just grassing it in for tourists to picnic on?
Magic Kingdom is a Theme Park, not just a simple amusement park, and part of that theme was to showcase what roles rivers and steamboats played in the development of our country. I doubt Carsland will provide any such lesson, except maybe that anything worthwhile can be discarded if there’s a buck to be made.
Nicely said, at this point my feelings wouldn’t be as eliquit. At 70something I am not as patient with the powers to be and the assign decisions that they make. For the life of me with ALL of the land at WDW there isn’t enough room to place Carsland elsewhere ? Just so disappointed for the whole soon to be leaving area was an oasis of nature and tranquility in the Disney World.
Extremely well said, Cliff! Thank you. And this is why Tom, who is right about most of this, is wrong in thinking that this won’t hurt Walt Disney World’s long-term popularity — regardless of how well Piston Peak is done and regardless of an inevitable short-term blip in ticket sales when it opens. Without the water (or, more exactly, with less water), the park will be less appealing, and hence less popular. If they botch Piston Peak, the damage will be far greater than if they nail it. But either way, more will have been lost than gained.
Excellent essay, thank you! I was recently at Europa Park with my family for the first time and all day we kept saying “Wow, (modern) Disney would never do this” as we encountered vibe-filled niches, thematic eccentricities, revenue-less water-features, and countless delightful surprises that blew our minds. These elements evoked the “old days” of flavorful details at Disneyland (Snow White’s Grotto, the petrified tree, Court of Angels, Main Street Cinema, and, yes, the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer’s Island…). The kinds of magical, inefficient, sometimes weird whimsies that bean counters could never comprehend the value of.
I don’t know if they teach about these things in “theme park design school” or if they are discussed in the meeting rooms of Imagineering nowadays. But they are an essential part of the greatest theme parks. Sad to see Magic Kingdom losing some of this and I can only hope Imagineering — organizationally, culturally — figure out how to reignite the spirit of creativity and generosity to once again offer these things to guests.
Rides like the Riverboats are important to the WDW experience because secondary and even tertiary rides that don’t have long lines serve the purpose of absorbing crowds and giving you the option of going on an attraction with a short line when everything else is crowded (the lack of such attractions are Hollywood Studios’ biggest weakness). There is also something to be said for a ride the entire family can ride together – as in everyone from great grandma down to the two year old.
Perfectly written. Even if we have some successes, the overall story is one of constantly sacrificing beauty and cohesion for misguided attraction/sales maximizing. I also don’t think it bodes well that the genesis for ROA destruction is to “cc and paste” an attraction from another park (and really, is Cars really THAT popular now or future-wise?). another great thing about ROA is how you could stand in a spot and see everything – castle, HM, Splash/Tiana, surroundings. I just can’t understand why the executives’ views stray so drastically from the original creators of the parks – the ones who made them world-renowned. Executives, shareholders, etc ..their names should be made public knowledge if that’s the only way to put pressure on them.
Cars is an older IP so the logic isn’t there to replace ROA/TS with something newer if it is Cars. And no one should forget they already have a race car ride at MK, it is a run down ride called Tomorrowland Speedway. Disney should have ripped that up and put Cars there. Frontierland does NOT make sense cause that theme is about the human drive to explore unknown lands The desert tie in, and very lose connection to Route 66 doesn’t cut it.
Great points all around, Tom. I think the same argument can/should be made for Streetmosphere and other live entertainment around Disney. The “magic” of Disney, to me, is in having a really great day at the parks. Part of that is the rides, but it would be tiring and not very memorable to just be waiting around in lines for attractions all day. The magic is equally in taking a break on a bench when you’re tired, and realizing that the marching band is coming through shortly, and you didn’t even expect/plan it and it’s a wonderful treat to listen to while resting! Or strolling past on the way to get a snack, and coming across the Dapper Dans, and stopping to just enjoy. Or lots of other little things to keep you entertained and excited between rides. Great architecture and details are a must (a feast for the eyes), as is live entertainment (a feast for the soul), as well as having lots of different types of high-quality attractions.
Its not. Its going to go from an attraction 5% enjoyed to an attraction 90% enjoy. Its just not.
A day late and a dollar short. Just like Splash Mountain was converted to Tiana’s Unnecessary Adventure, this change was also unnecessary, especially in sacrificing this location, but we’ve been here before.