Is Australia Coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando?

I wasn't too surprised to have recently seen rumors of an "Australia Land" addition to Disney's half-zoo/half-amusement park in Orlando, otherwise known as the Animal Kingdom. This theme park, despite being Disney's largest in total land area, is commonly referred to as a "half a day park." Meaning that you wouldn't want to spend more than half a day lugging the family through the half dozen or major attractions and up and down recreations of an African village.

Many visitors decide to come early and leave in the early afternoon, so that they can travel to another park on the Disney property, or so that they have time to see Universal Studio's lavishly themed Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which recently opened this year to rave reviews.

Harry Potter fans have been gushing at the opportunity to visit a faithful recreation of Hogsmeade, and Disney fan boys and girls have been wondering what the Mouse would do to try to top that. Plans for a revitalized Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando have been pared back significantly, due in part to a realization that Disney wasn't exactly sure what sort of attractions would appeal best to the whole family, meaning that little boys might not want to spend more than a couple minutes in a land themed and dedicated to princesses.

The Disney Princess label has become almost radioactive as Disney's Rapunzel re-telling was renamed "Tangled" in the US in an effort to lure little boys into the theater.

While the Fantasyland 2.0 plans cool a bit, and despite construction of a planned Little Mermaid land, could Australia be coming to the Animal Kingdom?

The blog site The Disney Blog, seems to think so and, based on unconfirmed reports, the author of blog concludes that the long rumored Australia addition to Animal Kingdom will become a reality, along with a dolphin or killer whale (aren't they dolphins too?) show and a Great Barrier Reef exhibit. And furthermore that a new sky-way will be added to the park to facilitate transportation in the spacious park.

While this may, or actually may not, happen this year, here are a couple of reasons why an Australia addition may not make a lot of sense at this point in time.

1. The World of Color Show. This west coast hit, which recently debuted at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim California, may eventually make its way to the east coast and that may mean construction of a clone of this show in the Animal Kingdom.

2. Animal Kingdom needs more rides, and the success of Expedition Everest in pulling people into the park proves this. Presumably the addition of an Australia section of the park would entail the construction of more animal enclosures before the addition of any rides.

3. An Australia pavilion for Epcot has been eye balled as an addition was well.

4. While Australia has a lot of interesting animal life, it would be hard pressed to be more popular then Kilimanjaro safari in the Africa section of the park which includes favorites such as African elephants and lions.

But if not Australia then what?

Years ago Disney toyed with constructing a "Beastly Kingdom" within the Animal Kingdom which would feature, . . . drum roll please . . . , mythical creatures such as dragons and unicorns. In fact, planning was so advanced that you can still spot some dragon references around the park. So why wasn't it built? Cost was definitely one issue. But when you look at it creatively, there is a whole pantheon of fictional Disney animals which would provide a lot of background for a land in the Animal Kingdom.

While it seems unlikely that a new addition to the Animal Kingdom will be announced anytime in the next couple years, as the Mouse's plate it full with construction projects on two continents, eventually the Animal Kingdom may get a much needed expansion.

Sources:

http://thedisneyblog.com/2010/11/28/gday-mate-australia-coming-to-disneys-animal-kingdom/