We’re learning more this week about just how Dumbo’s future home at Magic Kingdom will shape up with the Fantasyland expansion.
Previously, Disney leadership shared concept art of what would become the new “Storybook Circus” part of Fantasyland. The area will be themed on the popular Dumbo ride, and will utilize the existing attraction, but will also add a second carousel to ease congestion in what is always a crowded area. This week, however, we’re also learning more about where the ride will be situated, and how it will function.
Storybook Circus will be located in the area that was previously home to Mickey’s Toontown Fair. The two Dumbo rides will be positioned so that the cars fly toward one another, thus making one of the carousels the first ride in Disney history that will fly clockwise. Because of concerns for capacity, as well as the popularity of the ride, Imagineers are coordinating the move of the old ride and opening of the new one so that one of the rides is opened at all times throughout the expansion.
Also in the area of Storybook Circus will be Casey Jr., the locomotive from the animated film, Dumbo. Casey Jr. and other circus animals will have their new home near the existing training station. And with the confirmation that Storybook Circus will be located where Toontown previously was, it appears that Goofy’s Barnstormer Rollercoaster, which is being re-themed as The Great Goofini’s stunt plane, will not be moved.
Imagineers will also continue to use the large circus tents that were erected for Toontown as retail outlets for the new area.