Mouse Extra

For today’s posting we head back to Lou Mongello’s Rumor Mill, which he publishes entirely too infrequently for us, and take a look at what may be the end of what is the internet’s most popular current buzz…

Big news: I have heard from a number of reliable sources that Night Kingdom has, in fact, been put on hold and shelved, at least temporarily, and there are no plans to continue with the add-on nighttime experience at this time. But like everything in Imagineering, no good idea is ever dead, so who knows if it may come back in the future. But for now, it seems that the discussions and debates over Night Kingdom can come to an end.

While I can not confirm this as absolutely true, I can tell you that the Night Kingdom chatter has certainly slowed, in fact it has all but stopped.  Mr. Mongello makes a lot of sense here.  The economy is failing.  There is little doubt about that.  And Disney has already taken many preemptive steps to stem the effects on its theme parks.  It is hard to imagine at this point the Disney brass giving the green light to a massive and expensive project.

Many people never actually believed that Night Kingdom was in serious discussions at Imagineering.  The concept of an ultra-expensive boutique park like that of Sea World Discovery Cove has always been something Disney has admired, and they may go to that idea again soon.  For all we know, these plans may not have been cancelled and may actually never have been intended to be funded anytime soon to begin with.