WDW News & Rumors: Epcot Kites & Jet Skis, DuckTales Attraction, Runaway Railway Delay
This week’s news & rumor update covers the Virgin Trains high speed rail to Walt Disney World, the potential delay of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, a DuckTales attraction potentially coming to Epcot, plus kites & jetskis being featured in the Epcot Forever fireworks.
We’ll start with the thing most of you probably care about least: the Virgin Trains (formerly Brightline) high speed rail. This project is slated to run from South to Central Florida, and Virgin has stated its intention to build stations at Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport, a project the company plans to compete within a 3-year timeframe.
Via Orlando Sentinel, Virgin Trains indicated the company signed signed a letter of intent with Disney late last year, and that they’ve had an excellent relationship with Walt Disney World, which is a big supporter of the project. Also last year, Virgin secured rights to issue $1.75 billion in tax-free bonds, which is sufficient to start construction from the current run of Virgin Trains between Miami to West Palm Beach, which began operations last year.
Virgin is also pursuing a link to Tampa, with construction possibly starting while the tracks from West Palm Beach to Orlando are still under construction, according to company officials. The company is now seeking another $950 million in bonds, which it states would be instrumental in completing construction for the Orlando link.
Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has said that Virgin Atlantic airline delivers more passengers to Orlando from Europe than any other airline, and that Orlando is “very important” to Virgin. He has stated that Virgin Trains could move passengers from Virgin cruises in South Florida to Walt Disney World.
As for our thoughts on the potential for high speed rail connecting Walt Disney World to South Florida, we’ll believe it when we see it. We are incredibly bullish on high speed rail, and its potential for transforming the way Americans think about public transportation. We are also realists. This has been proposed countless times in the past, and never come to fruition.
The Virgin project has considerably more enthusiasm, and Branson is clearly someone who executes on his visions. It’s a project about which I want to be excited, but I’ll stick with ‘cautiously optimistic.’ The United States’ record with high speed rail projects is far from good, and the sad reality is that most people simply don’t care.
There’s also the issue of where Walt Disney World actually stands on the project. While advertised as a perk, Disney’s Magical Express exists to create a captive audience, and that’s not something Disney wants to lose. Presumably, in order for Disney to wholeheartedly support the project, it’s going to have to bring more cruise and day-guests from South Florida than it will cause people to do ‘split-trips’ between Walt Disney World and other destinations along the rail.
If/when it becomes operational, it seems unlikely that Virgin Trains will replace Disney’s Magical Express. Even assuming the station is located down by the All Star Resorts and is connected by buses to the parks and hotels, train frequency and having to transfer will make it less efficient than Magical Express (and that’s saying something!), at least at first. Nevertheless, we’re optimistic about the long-term implications of Virgin Trains, and how it could facilitate travel throughout Florida.
Speaking of trains, BlogMickey has shared a rumor making the rounds that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will miss its projected Fall 2019 opening date, and be delayed to “Early 2020.” No explanation is offered for the delay, but they note that Walt Disney World has been reticent to post much about the highly-anticipated attraction, and it isn’t even mentioned in the recent Disney’s Hollywood Studios 30th Anniversary post. (In fairness, neither is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.)
We have no reason to doubt this rumor…but we also have no additional insight or substantiate it. We haven’t heard the slightest thing about Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway this calendar year, at least not about the Walt Disney World version of the attraction.
Now that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has an opening date, one of the more common questions we’ve been receiving is when will Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway debut. Our assumption has been that the Fall 2019 date is inaccurate, but we assumed the attraction would debut before then, not after.
For months, there have been credible rumors that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway would be cloned in Disneyland’s Toontown as well as Disneyland Paris. If Disney is already this confident in the attraction, it stood to reason that executives have had a chance to experience a semi-finished version, and not just via ‘the Dish’ at Walt Disney Imagineering. It now sounds like our assumption was off-base. Irrespective of whether it makes the Fall 2019 opening or not, you can probably rule out a ‘Summer 2019’ opening at this point.
Next, we’ve got interesting new details about forthcoming Walt Disney World nighttime spectaculars via industry veteran Brady MacDonald. In an interview with Coble, managing producer of Epcot Forever, many new details were revealed.
Epcot Forever will feature “special effects-enabled kites capable of airborne choreography.” This is a first for an Epcot nighttime entertainment show (but not a first for Epcot generally–Skyleidoscope, anyone?). The illuminated kites will be controlled by two-man teams aboard eight Jet Skis, with a driver and kite performer aboard each. The movement of the Jet Skis will create the wind required to keep the kites aloft.
Epcot Forever will include classic EPCOT Center attraction music, with fan favorites such as “One Little Spark” from Journey into Imagination, “Magic Journeys,” and much more. Per Coble, “the pyro is the star,” and the goal is to “make sure the music we’re creating will complement the payoff that our guests will be seeing.”
No surprise about the music, as we already expected that to be the case. In fact, we suspected that this show would be dripping with nostalgia, with music carrying the weight of the show and potentially masking technical limitations due to construction in World Showcase Lagoon.
What is a bit of a surprise is the jet skis and the kites. Separately, we’ve been hearing that most pyro will be launched from behind World Showcase, which is being done because work on the lagoon will necessitate it. From that, we surmised that “other stuff” also wouldn’t be happening on World Showcase Lagoon, either. We also expected Walt Disney World to budget only however much it costs to mix a soundtrack from existing music together for Epcot Forever.
That Epcot Forever will be a more substantive show is great news, and we love the idea of jet skis and kites. Tokyo DisneySea regularly uses these to great effect for its daytime harbor shows and while the concept might sound hokey, they’re mesmerizing. Illuminated kites at night could be even better. Who knows, maybe Epcot Forever will be so popular that the interim show will become the permanent one? (We don’t expect that, but we can dream…)
Finally, there’s a rumor that Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure at Epcot is going to be replaced with an interactive game featuring characters from the DuckTales reboot on Disney XD. This would conclude a 7-year run for the Agent P game, which has had a run over twice as long as the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure that it replaced.
In the DuckTales attraction, guests would encounter Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Webby, and Scrooge McDuck throughout Epcot. As with the latest iteration of Agent P, the DuckTales game would be playable throughout World Showcase, and guests would be able to use their own phones via the Play Disney Parks app.
My reaction to this is mixed. On the one hand, I think both versions of the World Showcase adventures are highly underrated attractions, and provide a viable solution to guest complaints that there’s nothing for kids in World Showcase. The Agent P version has been long overdue for a replacement, and I absolutely love all things Disney Afternoon, including DuckTales. Walt Disney World investing a bit on infrastructure to give this game renewed appeal sounds great to me.
So why the ‘mixed’ reaction? If this DuckTales attraction does come to fruition, that means it’ll have a similarly lengthy run, effectively blocking the inevitable, long overdue reboot of Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers from getting its own World Showcase adventure. On second thought, scratch that. Rescue Rangers deserves its own themed land with multiple attractions.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of these rumors? Surprised by a delay on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, or that Epcot Forever will be more than just pyro and an emotional soundtrack? Think this high speed rail will actually end up connecting to Walt Disney World? Interested in a DuckTales World Showcase adventure? Any questions we can 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!
I definitely agree with you on a Rescue Rangers land! Gadget’s Go Coaster is a cutely designed attraction but we need more!
I’m not holding my breath for it in the US parks, but I think we can hope for Tokyo — they just released a range of Rescue Rangers merchandise at Disney Store Japan not too long ago, so there’s gotta be a big following over there!
I am really excited about the Epcot Forever show and the possibility of hearing some classic Epcot Center tunes while being in Epcot. That said, “Magic Journeys” is my least favorite Epcot song by far. I am hoping that “Tomorrow’s Child”, “Universe of Energy”, “Listen to the Land” or similar songs will be included too.
It’s not just you , Laura. We had the 1983 Epcot cassette tape and nearly wore it out. Magic Journeys was by far my least favorite song. But it Listen to the Land is in the soundtrack, that makes up for it. 🙂
Huge YES to a Chip and Dale themed land!!! They are my favourite characters and I feel they are so underrated. Disney could do so many fun things with the mischievous munks.
I’m really hoping the rumor about Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is wrong. We have been very excited for it to open and expected it to be open on our trip. We have allocated two days of our trip to Hollywood Studios so we can hopefully see that ride and Toy Story Land as well as the shows and maybe get a peek at GE. Have an early dinner at Sana’a booked so we can escape the craziness of HS and go somewhere quiet and relaxing after lol
Performers on the lake sounds scary. Wouldn’t there be alligators and snakes in the water?
I absolutely love the Agent P game at Epcot and my kids do, too! As a big fan of Duck Tales in the 1990’s, I think the new version is terrible. Agent P is so clever. Our family will miss him.
+ 1 on the Rescue Rangers fully themed land! I would even accept it as an addition to Animal Kingdom even though it makes way more sense at the Studios.
High speed rail is great for airport city connections so MCO-WDW makes a lot of sense. However, inside an urban area like Orlando, the trains have to go over or under the roads. That’s the issue with the existing Brightline system from Miami to WPB and will be on the extension as well. The trains never get a chance to run at full planned speed because they have to the grade crossings. Also, because of Florida Man, the 15 pedestrian fatalities Brightline/Virgin had in the first year and a half of operation may be the norm and not an exception.
“have to” slow for “the grade crossings”. Yeah left out the important part.
ha, Florida Man always up to no good!
My god the picture of the costume Disney afternoon characters hit me square in the nostalgia feels. Sigh.
Of course. All the expectations were for MIckeys Train ride to open late August and GE to open in December. Our trip is August 26th… At the very least I was happy that the train ride would eat a lot of people, and I figured if we couldn’t see GE we could do the new train ride. sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. As a fam that purposely visits Disney during 1-2 crowd lvls I’m preparing myself and our family for a very different trip this year.
Why trains in the US suck:
Hi Tom,
Hoping that bringing Scrooge McDuck more front & center might lead to bringing back the Scrooge McDuck wallet?!? I bought mine 20 years ago at the limited edition counter at Disney’s store in New York, and its wearing out.
Seriously, what’s a better character/merch tie in than Uncle Scrooge and a men’s wallet?
huge kudos on the rescue rangers nod and i am in full agreement, lol. they still haven’t made a reference to rescue rangers in the ducktales reboot- every other disney afternoon show has gotten a nod. still waiting. in any case, my 5 year old does love the ducktales reboot ,so if this gets in before september, she’ll be thrilled.
as for mickey and minnie, it’s obvious all resources and personnel were taken away from just about every other project and put on SWGE to bump up that opening by months. disney doesn’t seem to go by it’s timelines anymore, one is way earlier than promised, the other way later with no news. and other blogs out there are documenting some of the obvious maintenance issues going on throughout the parks and how long they are out there before getting addressed. once again, it appears as if all manhours were shifted over to GE to open it so freaking early…
The franchise that Disney never really capitalized on was Gummi Bears. Can you image a Quick Tunnels ride?!?!
AMAZING! Yes, that show was fantastic. It’s too bad it’s been rather forgotten. I got DVDs of it and my kids love it.
As a professional urban planner who grew up on the i-4 corridor (and today lives about 65 miles outside of Disney World), I would kill for rail but I’m also holding my breath. I remember when we were supposed to get rail back in 08-09; a friend who lived along i-4 received an eminent domain letter in the mail. Everyone thought it was a done deal, until it wasn’t. I would love to be proven wrong though this time around.
I love the Agent P game except that they changed it to require you to use your phone. Several problems: first of all, my phone needed to be recharged about a third of the way through the day. Secondly, I do not want to hand my phone to my child. I want to use it for photos, videos, a map, adjusting FPs….and also I don’t want my child to drop it somewhere.
Surely Disney can comprehend that most 4-8 year olds don’t have their own phone!
Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers! Now there’s a show I haven’t seen in a while. I will be hearing the theme song in my mind for the rest of the day/possibly week. I’m so glad you brought it up, Tom!
I was raised with the original Ducktales and like the reboot, but I think Agent P works so well for the world showcase adventure. Having done all the missions more than once, something new would be nice. But I will miss our semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal of action.
More intelligent minds than mine have thought about this, but I don’t know why we cannot do highs-peed rail in the US. Ohio has talked about a Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland line as long as I can remember, as well as a link to Chicago. California just failed again to bring a line to fruition. I know when we compare the US to Japan or Switzerland we say the country is so much bigger and that’s why rail doesn’t work. But when compared to China? China has ~18,000 miles of high speed rail compared to a few hundred miles worth in the US.
My very cynical perspective is that automakers have poisoned the well of public opinion on high speed rail with lobbying efforts and by funding supposed analysis of such projects. Since most Americans have never experienced high speed rail in any of the places you’ve named, they are skeptical and amenable to the litany of arguments against rail.
Consequently, scrutiny of railway projects–both in terms of time and tax dollar expenditures–is incredibly high. Meanwhile, we take freeway expansion projects for granted, rarely batting an eye when they’re delayed or go over budget.
The sad truth is that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nonfiction.
I think it has less to do with the auto companies and more to do with the fact that most Americans would have to drive an hour+ from the suburbs to the cities where the train station is, park their cars for a fee, and then take a train to a destination train station that still does not have adequate buses or other transportation to where they really want to be. That, and along with lawsuits that will be filed, and the costs of acquiring private property makes it near impossible to build anything new these days. The town I live in spent nearly 3 years “studying” a 1.5 mile walking path to connect one park in town to another park before finally building it 2 years later. The cynic in me thinks that the local government probably felt this was a timely and on target when it should have taken a few months to get it done.
We don’t have high speed rail because the powers that be in our country are all tied into oil and gas and want it to stay that way. We absolutely should have our country covered in high speed rails like Europe and China but too much money in our gas guzzling SUVs and cars in general.
I actually foudn a nice high-level analysis here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/03/11/why-doesnt-the-united-states-have-high-speed-bullet-trains-like-europe-and-asia/#70ffc39bc080
It brings up good points about population density.
Chip and Dale attractions from Rescue Rangers for the win! I like DuckTales, but I love Rescue Rangers (and TaleSpin!). Once again you are so in sync with the perfect commentary!
I was beginning to wonder how you could possibly have mixed feelings about the addition of a 90s classic like Duck Tales, until I got to your final rationale. I think you have identified the perfect solution – I am 100% in favor of Rescue Rangers Land! Fingers crossed for a Monterey Jack themed, cheese-centric quick service!
If only there was high-speed rail planned between the airport and WDW- that would have the potential to cut so much travel time!