“Night Kingdom” No More?
About a month ago rumors popped up on the internet about a possible new Disney experience for Walt Disney World. While I didn’t talk about the “Night Kingdom” on the blog myself yet, I did try to follow and get informed about the possible new project. Rumors , forums and news sites talked about a new gate or experience during night time where a possible encounter with animals would be the central concept. Animal Kingdom quickly became the rumored park that would be a nightly experience where a more adult orientated public, with a little more than your normal average to spend, would be the target audience.
Also Downtown Disney has been part of the rumor mill. Already oriented to a more mature group expansion here for a nightly experience targeting a more adult audience makes sense.
Now, while some park employees at Animal Kingdom claim ground is being prepped for a new secret Disney project, rumors emerged that the Night Kingdom park/experience has been shelved. The original plans for the project have been put on hold but a core group of imagineers might be going back to the drawing board to see what road the project could go into.
Anybody knows more? Let us know here!
March 15th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I’d love to hear more about this project, whether it is a go or not. I have no inside scoop, it just sounds very interesting. I don’t go to theme parks but I’d be interested in checking this one out although it might be out of my price range.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
From what my meager sources can reveal is that the “Night Kingdom” was in the early stages of development and may go forward at a later date, albeit in a drastically different form. Disney has been looking for ways to increase attendance at Animal Kingdom for years, i.e. the construction of Expedition Everest. Currently Magic Kingdom is a “Full Day Park” i.e. new guests will be able to spend a whole day there seeing attractions, and EPCOT is currently almost a “Full Day Park” as you can see most of what you want in 75% of a full day (with fireworks), MGM is also almost a “Full Day Park” i.e. you could arrive around opening and see most of what you want by 4 p.m. precluding long lines, hence another “75% Day” park . . . Disney wants guests to be able to spend a whole day at their parks so that when planning their vacations families don’t say, “we will spend 1/2 day at Animal Kingdom, and half a day at MGM . . . ” this means less time in the parks, more time traveling between parks, and less time buying merchandise as well . . . ” When we look at Animal Kingdom this is more of a true “half-day park” you can see the big stuff like bug’s life, EE, the safari ride, (I omit kali water rapids as it is not themed) as well as count down to extinction and the other small rides in half a day with fast pass, other than a lot of vegetation and regular zoo exhibits there isn’t an interesting environment to walk around in like at EPCOT, at least yet, . . . there is land clearing in Animal Kingdom related to anticipated creation of an “Australia” land, and possibly an Antarctic area with polar bears and penguins a la blizzard beach with an E-Ticket attraction, and plans for a nightime parade, . . . the whole “Night Kingdom” experience was trying to squeeze more entertainment basically out of the Animal Kingdom which closes much earlier than the other parks . . . there are rumors that the entrance area of AK, which is underwhelming and confusing may be redone to be more err, “grand”, i.e. feature a marketplace type street which would also be well suited to parades, and of course have the off shot to Australia, . . . the current entrance to AK is what you would expect at an major metropolitan zoo and not something exclusively disney like. The niche that is still missing at WDW is something for young to middle age adults and teenagers to do after 8 or 9 p.m., paradise pier has become less popular, so the idea was to sort of re-theme this experience into a botique type park, with higher admission price but would take a while to turn a profit considering the small number of guests to be admitted. . . Disney lawyers are little bit worried about letting guests ride a “zip-wire” over alligators a la indiana jones or even interacting a little more closely with animals. What MAY materialize is a new theme park with has a theme that is a cross between Halloween and Fantasia which opens later in the day, but stays open much later at night, think 2-3 am, where guests can ride attractions that are big more fast-paced like an Orlando version of Indiana Jones attraction in Disneyland, interact with witches and wizards, a sort of “choose your own adventure type Place”, . . . now the thinking is to beef up AK more while these ideas cook on the back burner
April 15th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I work for Disney currently, and have been employed with the company for almost five years. I can say that the rumors about DAK (animal kingdom) posted by ChesireCat are false. There are no announced plans to make any changes to DAK entrance. The entrance is designed to make guests feel as if they are in a tropical paradise-not a theme park. The addition of a market place would diminish the experience… Due to the sleep cycles of the animals, DAK will not have extended hours… evening parades and spectaculars would also disturb the animal life. “Night Kingdom”…which has never been announced as an official Disney project- would have to take place in a different area of WDW. Disney Imagineers “Bluesky” many different ideas and projects that never are used…or can be shelved for years and years. No announcements of a night, fantasia, or any other like theme park have ever been made by Disney… most of these are simply rumors started by hopeful guests and cast members.
Any new projects put forth by Disney will be announced publicly…until that happens, anything can and will be changed.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I have just gotten back from my 27th walt disney world vacation, and im only 13 and i live 3 hours away by flight, impressive, no. Any way on my way to DownTown Disney the bus driver was telling me of Disney filling in a gap in Animal Kingdom, between everest and dinoland and after that he told me of DownTown Disney bulding a section just for teens which starts construction next week. Then he told me of Night Kingdom, which by the way is not the exact name for it yet, was going to be built along with a hotel leading into the park. The park is being built near fortwilderness, im not sure,but it is being built now and on tuesday of April 22 2008 they will announce 3 new theme park one of which will be Night Kingdom one of them, opening in 2011, and the other two which i dont know the names of willnot be built untill another 15-20 years. Anyway Night Kingdom is already in construction no longer no more.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
[...] Kingdom rumors have been going for a while and although I thought that’s it, those plans are shelved, the rumors are alive again. This time you can find some info on the always great screamscape.com [...]