Changes at Magic Kingdom Could Force Beloved Rides and Restaurants To Change To Fit In

With Magic Kingdom ungoing significant changes, fans are worried that Disney could remove even more of their favorites from the park. With Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island set to disappear to make way for the new Cars and Villains Lands, there is also a major concern about how changes in the theming could lead to further closures.

Liberty Square at Walt Disney World Resort — Credit: vmpyr_david, Flickr

Take, for example, the Columbia Harbour House Restaurant, which sits in Liberty Square, overlooking the area that the Rivers of America once occupied. With Piston Peak now occupying the location that once contained the river, fans are worried that the restaurant could undergo a retheming or disappear altogether.

According to Uncle Walt’s Little Known Facts on X (formerly Twitter), the restaurant’s backstory is directly tied to being near the water.

A split image shows Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion at a theme park. The left side features a wooden Liberty Square sign near brick walls and barrels labeled "tea," possibly its last glimpse before Disney removes Liberty Square for Cars Land. The right side displays the illuminated Haunted Mansion at night, surrounded by a fence and trees. — Credit: Disney

“The Columbia Harbour House restaurant’s backstory portrays it as a colonial tavern along the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War, run by Harold Stalmaster and Priscilla “Cilla” Lapham, characters inspired by Disney’s 1957 film Johnny Tremain.

In an unofficial storyline, the Harbour House served as a tavern where pirates met Little Leota from the Haunted Mansion, who drank rum and sang “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).” Each dining area is named after a New England port town, including Charleston, Cape Hatteras, Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis, Long Island, Cape Cod, Portsmouth, New London, Newport, Marblehead, Salem, and Plymouth.

It's hard to have a Harbour House when they don't have a Harbor or, much less, even a river anymore. I can't help but feel that this won't last much longer in its current form. Conversion to something else has to be in the future, if Liberty Square even survives. https://t.co/7KZ32CZ1z0
— Savethemagic (@Savethedmagic) November 8, 2025

Now, there is no more Hudson River to overlook, and the restaurant feels out of place in a western national park. One fan responded to the restaurant’s backstory by wondering if it would survive into the new Magic Kingdom.

“It’s hard to have a Harbour House when they don’t have a Harbor or, much less, even a river anymore. I can’t help but feel that this won’t last much longer in its current form. Conversion to something else has to be in the future, if Liberty Square even survives.”

A vibrant image of the haunted mansion at Walt Disney World, showing the eerie, gothic architecture of the building surrounded by lush green landscaping under a cloudy sky. — Credit: Becky Burkett, Inside the Magic

However, if the Columbia Harbour House is out of place because its theming requires a river, what does that mean for the Haunted Mansion, which is intended to fit in with Liberty Square? With the new Piston Peak breaking right through Liberty Square and separating the Haunted Mansion from the rest of the area, the storyline of the mansion is surely impacted.

While Disney has not made any announcements about changes to either the Columbia Harbour House or Haunted Mansion, that doesn’t mean the aesthetics of the two attractions won’t be disrupted by the changes coming to the park.

A tilted gravestone inscribed with “Master Gracey laid to rest,” behind a black fence at night, surrounded by dim lights and brick walls, with flowers at the base and a haunted, eerie atmosphere. — Credit: Hamilton! Flickr

Whatever happens, Disney fans won’t be happy if any changes come to the Haunted Mansion, even if it’s just to make it fit in with Piston Peak. It’s the unforgivable Disney sin.

What do you think of the changes coming to Magic Kingdom? Let us know in the comments.