As we noted back in April, the Magic Kingdom parking lot is going through another transformation that will see an expansion to parking and the loss of a Hidden Mickey pond. Before we jump into the latest photos, let’s take a look at the permit that outlines the changes that we can expect to see.
Hidden Mickey Pond
We’ll start with the Hidden Mickey pond. If you’ve never seen it, you’re not alone. It could only be seen well from an elevated position such as Google maps, or in the My Disney Experience app.
As you can see in the permit image below, the pond will be expanded to take up most of the green space around it to create better drainage in the area. It also looks like work will take place in the Scar lot to create drainage from the “Center Ditch” through the “South Ditch” and into the newly expanded pond.
Parking Lot Expansion
This work will free up the wooded area between the Scar and Simba lots for a parking lot expansion. As seen in the permit image below, the space is currently marked for fill/stockpile. The exact wording in the permit calls for an 11-acre expansion of the Magic Kingdom parking lot, “…provide treatment for a proposed parking expansion within the Magic Kingdom Guest Parking Lot. That expansion is a part of this permit and will remove an 11.4 acre wetland and replace that same area with a paved parking surface.”
We recently took to the monorail to get a look at the land clearing, and we’ll later supplement the article with a photo from the air. As you can see in the photos below, the forest that use to seperate the Heroes and Villains parking lots has been completely removed, allowing us to see both at the same time.
Our friend @bioreconstuct took to the air and captured a wonderful overview of the land clearing taking place.
As always, keep checking back with BlogMickey.com for the latest on this project and many more from around the Disney Parks.
A way to control the number of visitors you can control the number of parking spaces
The headline is confusing. I thought WDW was actually clearing a forest near MK. They’re just clearing a wooded area of the parking lot.
I was a Disney fan, but no more. The greed of this company is unfathonable, like they need more people and a larger parking lot. The parks are so crowded you can’t enjoy them now.
We don’t need another parking lot. The ecology is messed up enough. Animals have nowhere to go. Disney’s CEO is rich enough with his 60 million a year.
Totally agree! We were at Disney World this weekend and not only was it over crowded but so many of the rides were not working. Test Track was down again, Big Thunder Mountain closed with half our party in the cave part of the ride, Splash Mountain closed. Other rides were just limping along. Don’t get me started on the parking and cleaniness of the place. It was the worst time we have ever had at the parks and won’t be renewing our annual passes!!! Get a grip Disney executives you ask for more and more money from us and are not even maintaining the place. Forget more parking and try to get the place up and running like it use to run..