Next Interactive Game at MK: Adventureland

Two separate blogs this week have reported on insider details of another NextGen game taking shape in the indeterminate future in the Magic Kingdom: "Pirates Adventure: Jewels of the Seven Seas" is said to be Adventureland specific, and include the kind of real-world physical effects we know from the Kim Possible Adventure. You trigger the event, and something physical happens in the real world.

If true, this would be separate from Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom (which is assuredly not going away - it's too popular to leave). The news was first broken by wdwfanboys.com, who had access to plans from a third-party contractor. They quoted, in part:

• Touching a skull activates the movement of the mouth of a talking tiki idol, which will reveal a jewel in his mouth.
• Touching a blunderbuss activates the movement of sails that cover a bird cage, the sails will open to reveal an animated parrot.
• Touching the fuse of a cannon activates an air cannon in the water as well as a light and smoke effect.
• Touching a piece of parchment activates a skeleton captain emerging from the water.
• Touching a snake charmers basket activates a spitting snake.
• Touching a vase activates an image on a nearby tapestry.
• Touching a shark tooth activates circling shark fins in the water
• Touching a sand dollar activates a mechanical giant clam
• Touching the carvings on a shelf will activate cannon blasts on ships in a bottle causing one ship to sink

Then, two days later, Theme Park Insider posted more info about the game, including its name: http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201205/3044/

I believe in this rumor and think it's not idle chatter. It's somewhat daring for Disney to float TWO interactive games in the same park, but then again, shocking us is what Disney does best. They don't have games in all their parks yet, but we've also heard second-hand about a coming DHS game.

Part of the reason I think this is true is that we've seen things appear in Pirates of the Caribbean for a few weeks and months now, and knew it had to do with the NextGen initiative somehow. Now we know. It's for another game, where we don't know yet how you play, who plays it, when it's played... but we know it will be in Adventureland (possibly also in the Jungle Cruise).

None of those "extra boxes" were there a year ago!

These interactive games are polarizing for some fans, but I think they are overall good. They add value for the local and constant visitor, and for that matter, they help the once a year visitor too (think: DVC, whose numbers are swelling weekly).

Kevin Yee is the author of numerous independent Disney books, including the popular Walt Disney World Earbook series and Walt Disney World Hidden History.