Rides That Come and Go

One of the main concepts behind all of the Disney parks is the concept of constant change.  This has been a driving force at Imagineering since the parks first opened.  This means that you can't really visit a Disney park without some kind of construction going on.  Sometimes they're building a new attraction, other times they're updating an old one.  For the person planning a trip so far in advance (almost 2 years) this can be both exciting and unnerving.

The excitement comes from the fact that there will be many new rides and attractions opening between now and our visit date.  Because of the monstrous budget Disney has to spend on these attractions (compared to most theme parks), you can be sure that whatever they're building will be awesome.  The latest updates to Fantasyland including the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarves mine car ride seem particularly interesting.

The part of all of this constant updating that's unnerving is the unpredictability of knowing what might be open.  Not all updates are additions; some are drastic changes and even eliminations.  The drastic changes can be a little sad because you may have a fond memory of a particular ride that has changed.  For me this comes across most with the change of Mr. toads wild ride into the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  I've always loved Mr. toads wild ride, and I'll miss it, that's not to say that I automatically dislike the new Winnie the Pooh ride.

Sometimes an idea at Disney becomes unpopular or unprofitable and they simply eliminate it entirely.  A good recent example of this is the concept of Pleasure Island.  Pleasure Island used to be a section in the downtown Disney entertainment complex.  It was a section of this complex dedicated to adults and nightclubs.  It included some pretty interesting clubs including the Adventurer's Club and a fun comedy club.  A few years back Disney abandoned the whole concept of Pleasure Island, and promptly closed most of the clubs, now it appears to be just a hole in downtown Disney complex.

While we have a pretty good idea about what new attractions should be open for our visit, we have no idea what might close down, either permanently or temporarily, when we're there.  It's almost guaranteed that some sort of update will be going on, but you never know what.