It's time for Disney World to scrap Tom Sawyer Island and make it something else
By Brian Miller
Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom is an easy attraction to miss but it is time for Disney World to rethink this outdated island.
To get to Tom Sawyer Island you need to take a ferry. It's a quick ride across the river and once you are there, the island is yours to explore. Most of the time without many other guests. It's a great place to have a picnic at one of the tables scattered around the area.
There are caves to explore, some rather tight and dark, there is an old fort complete with animatronic chickens, and a wooden bridge that connects both islands together.
Tom Sawyer Island is a pretty cool place, especially for kids but it's outdated and because of that, it might be a good time to update it to something more relevant.
If we are being honest, this would have been an absolutely wonderful place to put the Moana water walkthrough instead of EPCOT. I love the attraction at EPCOT but it might have fit better in Magic Kingdom although the island is much bigger than the area the attraction takes up at EPCOT.
What might work over there? Well, as much as it pains me to say it, that island would make for a fantastic waterfront dining area that would overlook frontier land and the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure as well as Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Maybe Imagineers could make a small New Orleans themed area that would tie in with Tiana's.
No? What about an ELEMENTAL-themed area? The land is big enough and Disney could section the islands into the four elements from the film.
They could do a Tangled-themed area or maybe an animatronic dinosaur land that guests could walk through. Or, Disney could make the islands home to Tinker Bell and her pixie friends, maybe even a Peter Pan "Lost Boy" themed area.
There is a lot that Disney could do with that part of the park because frankly, it's being wasted as Tom Sawyer Island and as much as I enjoy the area, I still forget it is there half the time I visit.