People rarely enjoy seeing an attraction close at theme parks. If a ride or show you loved goes away, it can be frustrating to lose that thing you did every time you visited. But even if the attraction wasn’t on your “must do” list, there’s likely still a minor feeling of sadness when something that has just always been there goes away. Such is now the case with the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade which may be about to fire its last.
The Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade really has been there from the beginning. It was a day one attraction when Walt Disney World and Magic Kingdom opened 50 years ago. The attraction only recently reopened to guests as part of the 50th anniversary celebration, and when it did, it did so without the additional fee that had been attached; the Shootin Arcade was free to all guests.
But that free attraction may have been part of a “last hurrah,” as there is now evidence that the day one attraction may be closing for good. Currently, the Walt Disney World website lists no operating hours for the attraction from November 27 through December 11, which is as far as the calendar lists operation.
However, the arcade is not currently on the “Closed for Refurbishment” list, for those dates, and since the attraction only just opened, closing it only a couple months after it reopened to fix it up would be unusual anyway. While it’s possible this is simply a website error, what seems more likely is that the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade is about to say goodbye.
To call this a super popular attraction would certainly be overstating things. This was more likely the sort of thing you did to kill some time while waiting for your FastPass+ time or lunch reservation. Still, the fact that the shooting gallery had been around since day one certainly did give the attraction an almost historic feel.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the space. Disney World has yet to comment on this, so it’s still possible this is just a refurbishment that hasn’t been confirmed or a website issue that needs to be addressed, but if the gallery is closing, it would seem likely there are already plans for the space the attraction takes up.
Will we see a new gift shop, or possibly a space for character meet-and greets? The Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade isn’t exactly a massive structure so taking it out doesn’t give the resort a lot of extra room to play with, but one assumes that if there wasn’t a plan to do something with it, they’d just leave it alone for a while.
As of now, the Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition, the Disneyland equivalent attraction, does still exist, though it has remained closed since the resort reopened earlier this year. Certainly with Disney World closing its shooting gallery one has to wonder if the Disneyland version will be around too much longer, or if it will even reopen.
Source: Source: Cinema Blend
