Disney World Replacing Rivers of America or Muppet*Vision 3D Would Be a Mistake

You might think you’ve never used or enjoyed Rivers of America if you’ve never ridden the Liberty Belle or boated over to Tom Sawyer Island. The fact is anybody who’s ever been to the Magic Kingdom has benefitted from that man-made river. Perhaps you’ve appreciated the gorgeous views made possible by it—idly watching people bound across the island’s barrel bridge as you’re waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion, or gazing at Big Thunder Mountain’s reflection or the sparkle of fireworks shining off of it at night. If you’ve ever strolled alongside the river as you head from Liberty Square to Frontierland, or stared out at it as you ate a snack on its banks, it made a mark on your vacation. If you’ve ever just been glad to see a little bit of nature in the Magic Kingdom, something that doesn’t reflect the Florida heat back at you as the large expanses of concrete found in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland do, the Rivers of America has made your trip better.

Notice I didn’t really say anything about Tom Sawyer Island here. Look, I love the place—it’s on Paste’s list of the best Magic Kingdom attractions, ahead of a lot of the park’s newer, flashier, and more popular stuff. Exploring its caves and fort felt truly transportive as a kid, and I still get a kick out of revisiting it today. And Disney’s foreign parks still show how amazing a well-made walkthrough exhibit can be, from the multitude of walkthroughs at Disneyland Paris, to the amazing Fortress Explorations at Tokyo DisneySea. I am generally for more walkthroughs at Disney World, and not less. But I don’t think there’s any way to salvage Tom Sawyer Island at this point; its reputation is permanently soiled, its relevance almost nil, and if sacrificing it would help salvage at least a shortened Rivers of America and riverboat ride, that’d be totally fine by me.

Of course that opens up the problem of what to do with the smaller island that would exist at the middle of the shortened river; perhaps Disney could crib from Disneyland Paris, whose Big Thunder Mountain Railroad boards on the mainland and then takes riders under the river and onto the island, where the actual mountain sits, by using similar tunnels to have one of the new Cars rides make use of the island. That has to cost a whole lot more than just bulldozing the whole area and starting fresh, but I’m pretty sure Disney could afford that. 

Theme parks aren’t just about rides and attractions. When done well, all design elements of a park—its architecture, its interior design, its soundscapes, its natural beauty, and, yes, its attractions—work together to further the theme and, most importantly, create the unique identity and charm of a park. The Rivers of America is so fundamental to what Disney’s so-called “castle parks”—of which the Magic Kingdom is one—are trying to do that one without a river wouldn’t even feel like part of the same tradition. It wouldn’t just lose an invaluable feature that makes the park more pleasurable, it would lose a fundamental part of its identity. And Disney pretty clearly realizes this; when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was added to Disneyland in 2019, its Rivers of America was shortened but not closed. And Disney’s currently adding a major water feature to the soon-to-be-renamed Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris; after that’s done and the Rivers of America are gone, the Magic Kingdom would be the only Disney park without a large body of water in a central location. Even if the concept art for the new Cars land shows a number of smaller, disconnected water features, it doesn’t look sizable enough to preserve what makes the Rivers of America special, and Disney attractions often wind up looking noticeably different than their concept art, anyway.

It’s unthinkable, then, that Disney would get rid of a major defining landmark of its most visited theme park—even more unthinkable than, and just as tragic as, closing Muppet*Vision 3D. Both shouldn’t be lost to “progress” when there are other, unused places new attractions can be built. Disney should be adding to a park like Hollywood Studios, which already doesn’t have enough to do, even after adding two major new lands in the last decade, instead of replacing what’s already there. And they should be preserving the Rivers of America, without which the Magic Kingdom would be far less magical.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and more. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.