A remodeled Hub coming to the front of Cinderella Castle

Magic Kingdom hub construction

A new parade isn’t all that’s coming to the Main Street.  Disney has announced they are going to be enhancing the area from Main Street U.S.A. up to Cinderella Castle, also known as the Hub.

Disney’s Social Media Manager Thomas Smith wrote on the Disney Parks Blog about the work being done. Thomas said there are several new elements coming, including sculpted gardens, additional pathways, expanded restaurant seating and a new viewing area for fireworks and other performances. Along with the blog post, Disney posted a fly-through rendering of what the area will look like when finished.

Magic Kingdom Park Enhancements | Walt Disney World

In the video you can see two new fountains and extra sidewalk space all around. Two new pathways will be built and they are also doubling the seating area outside of Casey’s Corner and The Plaza.

Magic Kingdom hub rendering above

Compare this screen shot of the rendering, above, to a recent aerial view, below.

SONY DSC

Expect to see construction walls, Cinderella Castle moat drained at times, and construction equipment around the area until it’s completed sometime next year.

In addition to adding more seating outside of Casey’s Corner, Disney also remodeled the inside of the restaurant and added more seating. But to make room for the extra tables, the bleachers were removed and a counter was added where the cartoons used to play. There’s no word  if the cartoons or bleachers will return once the outside expansion is finished.

INSIDE THE NEW CASEY'S CORNER

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11 Comments

  1. I love the new hub, I love the whole “parking lot with planters” astatic better then that silly fantasy garden thing they have going on for so many years. And we need more preferred viewing areas for Magic Plus, the sky is only so big and as a preferred guests I expect special treatment above the rest of the guests.
    Thankfully Disney is only taking a year to pave this thing so the walls will be much quicker gone then at the mini mine train.
    I’m also glad they removed the silly bleachers and other themed stuff that was in the way and replaced with sensible tables and chairs instead of that impractical silliness (what where those imagineers thinking back when). They should do that at the hub too, remove the statue of that odd man and that rodent, no idea who they are, they don’t belong in a park with a big hub and the removed homes of the fab 5 who clearly don’t deserve a place under new management.

    For who couldn’t tell I’m sarcastic. What is next, removing the castle? Sure MK is popular, but maybe they could and try to make their other 3 parks as popular as MK like they did with California Adventure but that would cost money and that is not the way Disney likes to see that flow.

    1. I thought you were serious through the whole thing.. oh my gosh! haha I agree 100% let’s recreate MK to the new “imagineers” if you’d call them that… it just seems they are trying to cram MORE people into the park at once.. and seeing how they raised the prices (again) they must feel pretty full of themselves of being able to make more off the folks willing to fork over the money. I plan on getting an annual pass, because I believe that is the cheapest way to do it now a days for a FL resident. It just makes me sick to think they just want more money… when they are already making MILLIONS off MK alone in Disney World though. *big sigh*

  2. A spot where I have taken the same photo with my family since I was a toddler (I’m in my 30s now) may be affected by this change. I hope we’ll still be able to stand in the same the spot, at least, even if the scenery around us changes.

  3. So Disney is finally going to acknowledge Walt Disney’s creation of the hub and spoke as actually being a really poor infrastructure design, because it just causes bottlenecks. About time. Most theme park designers have known this for decades.

    Time to remove that hub and spoke reference from the history books as a milestone of Walt’s innovation.

  4. Hahaha! You had me there for a moment! I really miss the old oak trees that used to be in the center of the hub. It’s so barren without them.

  5. Disney has constantly and will for ever evolve, can we really keep everything exactly the same just because of own nostalgia. If you look at MK in entirely since it opened its doors look how much its changed,think what it would be like now if nothing had been remodelled/updated/changed etc. What i do know is many people have been complaining for years about the bottlenecks and sheer lack of space to breath whilst watching Wishes and the parades, now Disney are addressing this.

  6. Actually I agree with both sides of this argument. Yes, this was a bottleneck and perhaps this will help allow people to get where they are going more easily. But, I also understand it is not just about nostalgia but about making sure things are done properly, and for the right reasons. A lot of changes with Disney in recent years are about generating money and while of course a for-profit has to be concerned with that, they should also make sure their profit generating schemes ALSO increase the value for the consumer which has not been the case far too many times.

  7. I think the new design looks good. It’s a major gathering spot for parades and firework shows as well as the Christmas parade concert performances. It makes sense to me to expand that area to better meet today’s demands, not that I don’t appreciate nostalgia. Even Walt couldn’t have imagined how much DW would grow or how many people would visit annually. I’m tired of the log-jam that occurs on main street as people funnel into the hub. They don’t expect to get more ticket sales out of the hub remodel so they can “cram” more people in. It’s to help the visitors they already have in their park, not feel crammed in that section. They did however expect to get more ticket sales when they expanded Fantasyland, obviously. Name one “for-profit” company that doesn’t try to increase revenue and that is still in business. 🙂