Walt Disney World has filed curious permits for a trio of locations at Magic Kingdom that likely relate to Cars construction. While unconfirmed at this point, it’s our expectation that these involve the demolition or removal of the venues to lay the groundwork for the closure of the Frontierland shortcut.
On their face, it seems that these are fairly routine construction permits. Walt Disney World filed the new Notices of Commencement for addresses on Caribbean Way at Magic Kingdom that correspond to locations in Frontierland. The permits are assigned to Buena Vista Construction Company as the contractor, which is Walt Disney World’s in-house team.
Scope of work is listed as the generic and vague “provide labor, material and/or electrical for construction.” Expiration is the default one year, giving BVCC until late February 2027 to complete the “construction” project. The addresses correspond to three separate food & beverage and merchandise locations along the Frontierland thoroughfare: Big Al’s (merchandise), as well as Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart (both snack stands).
At the risk of stating the obvious, it is highly unlikely that Walt Disney World is actually constructing something at three separate stuff & snack stands in Frontierland. Kiosks, we might add, that abut the (former) waterfront walkway, which abuts the construction zone for Cars and Villains Land in Magic Kingdom.
Some might speculate that Imagineering is preparing to retheme the permits to Cars or otherwise make them blend into Piston Peak. However, this would be incredibly early for that; it’s something we’d expect, if at all, towards the tail end of the project. Beyond that, this isn’t an Imagineering permit and it being assigned to BVCC suggests it probably doesn’t involve creative changes. Meaning it’s maintenance or improvements to all three for some reason, or…
Much more likely is that Walt Disney World is preparing to remove the stands. We’d say this is a near-certainty.
As for the why of this, our best guess is that it’s a precursor for closing the Frontierland “shortcut.” Our recent construction update covered the ‘Creek of Piston Peak’ Taking Shape in Cars Construction at Magic Kingdom. In this, we shared aerial construction photos (such as the one above, courtesy of bioreconstruct) revealing a snaking shape that looks like the stream that’ll separate Frontierland proper from Piston Peak.
In actuality, there’s vertical rebar in the middle of this structure and that’s likely laying the groundwork footers for the base of the mountain structure with ride show building covered with rockwork. This should be what delineates the Creek of Piston Peak water feature to the left and the mountain covering a show building to the right. The point here, though, is that construction is about to get very close to the promenade.
As you can see from the Fun Map that Walt Disney World previously released, there’s a rushing river that runs between Frontierland and Piston Peak National Park, along with a number of water features throughout the land. Notably, there’s also a waterfront promenade on the existing Frontierland side of the map. This is also in the model of Piston Peak National Park that we were shown during a media briefing last year.
Given that, we know this walkway will exist again in the future. What’s unclear is whether the current boardwalk will remain or be replaced. It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising for Disney to tear out this waterway out of necessity during construction, and rebuild a new walkway in its place–or even slightly closer to the Frontierland thoroughfare to free up a bit more space for the stream (which was seemingly added to the project later).
Another possibility is that construction is simply getting too close to a guest area, and Disney needs to close this walkway temporarily out of liability or whatever concerns until construction progresses past a certain point. I’m sure there are other additional explanations (staging? site access?) as to why construction might dictate the temporary or permanent closure (and replacement) of this walkway.
Circling back, the reason this would impact Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart despite all of those being on the other side of the walkway along the main thoroughfare is because Operations needs an offset.
That walkway isn’t just a peaceful promenade or fun Frontierland shortcut, it’s important for crowdflow. This is something we discussed back before Disney Starlight Night Parade debuted, but that Frontierland “shortcut” is needed as a bypass corridor for parades (that’s why it’s been dubbed a shortcut!). Meaning that if it closes to accommodate construction, the Parade Audience Control (PAC) team needs an alternative route to wave through guests behind parade viewing.
This will be doubly necessary once Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens in Spring 2026.
With just Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, maybe PAC could try to require a crossing towards Adventureland during breaks, but with both, it strikes me as more necessary to offer a guest flow corridor along that side of Frontierland, which also connects all the way to Haunted Mansion and Fantasyland. Requiring guests to cross to Adventureland makes the path much longer and more convoluted, and I just can’t see Walt Disney World do that except as an absolute last resort.
In a nutshell, that’s why we strongly suspect this permit has been filed. Removing those kiosks will free up space behind parade viewing, which can then be used as a makeshift bypass. That, in turn, enables Walt Disney World to take the Frontierland “shortcut” offline to accommodate construction. There’s not a better explanation from my perspective, so by process of elimination, it’s this.
This wouldn’t be the first time in the last year that we’ve seen a project of (loosely) this nature in Magic Kingdom, either! One of the big fan controversies last spring was the changes Walt Disney World made to the Emporium, which made it feel emptier, among other things. That was also for a makeshift Starlight bypass.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Although we’re pretty confident that Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart will all be removed in short order to accommodate a parade bypass, we are far less certain about the future of the former waterfront walkway or Frontierland “shortcut.”
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, this boardwalk is one of my favorite places in all of Magic Kingdom. One of my big hangups with this whole Cars project originally was losing the waterfront and this walkway. The big reassurance offered by the Fun Map and last year’s big Piston Peak reveal was that Walt Disney World was preserving the peaceful promenade and the ambiance it added while walking past the main drag of Frontierland.
I don’t expect that to change with this closure and construction, even if that does end up entailing demolition and replacement of the walkway. We already know it’s coming back, so if Disney opts to tear it out temporarily, that’s not a huge concern.
My bigger worry is about the size of the stream, or the Creek of Piston Peak. As we’ve mentioned previously, Fun Maps have exaggerated features, and there wasn’t much of a visible water feature in the original art. So either it’s concealed in that art, something changed, or the Fun Map isn’t true to life. My fear is that the rushing river shown in that art is actually a tiny trickle.
My hope here is for whatever outcome produces the widest waterway along a peaceful promenade. I’m not particularly concerned with how that’s accomplished or what changes are made to accommodate construction in the next couple of years.
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the permits for Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart? Think this is actual construction on these kiosks, or removal/demolition? Will you be disappointed if the peaceful promenade closes? Do you likewise love this tranquil shortcut around Frontierland? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!