CEO Bob Iger and Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro confirmed last week the company is moving forward with expansions to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks. The expansions aren’t breaking news, but the Disney execs made them official to a select group of reporters at Walt Disney Imagineering in California.
Disney World’s big-ticket new attraction this year will be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, an exciting, more-than-a-makeover upgrade to the bones of Splash Mountain. The log flume plunge ride is expected to open around the unofficial start of summer at the end of May in Magic Kingdom.
Also expected to open this year at Disney are a reimagined Country Bear Jamboree show at Magic Kingdom (summer) and a revamped The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure show (fall) at Hollywood Studios.
Disney may not be working on a new theme park in Florida, but these retooled attractions and expansions are part of the company’s $60 billion investment in its theme parks over the next 10 years. Back in September, Disney announced its plans to invest $17 billion just in the Florida parks.
Since that Florida investment announcement at Destination D23, Disney World has opened the Moana-themed Journey of Water attraction and a new nighttime fireworks show at Epcot, and added new locations and characters to Star Tours. Plans are in place to revamp Epcot’s Test Track (closing June 17) and to open a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed lounge in Magic Kingdom.
It was at Destination D23 that D’Amaro teased a “beyond Big Thunder Mountain” expansion at Magic Kingdom. At the time, D’Amaro said the growth would be similar in scale to Pandora: The World of Avatar and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
To media last week, Michael Hundgen, site portfolio executive, confirmed the size will be about the same as Galaxy’s Edge’s 14 acres. The expansion would include the area west of Frontierland.
Disney has not said what lands or attractions will go in the expansion. But D’Amaro and Iger did confirm an overhaul of Dinoland U.S.A. at Animal Kingdom is coming soon.
Instead of the prehistoric-themed opening day carnival, the area will be transformed into the Tropical Americas with attractions based on IP like Indiana Jones and Encanto.
There aren’t more details about these expansions beyond confirmation that Disney is working on them, and no new attractions have yet been announced to open in 2025. These facts have been a subject of criticism among fans and investors.
During a virtual shareholders meeting last week, a preselected question asked, “Why hasn’t Disney prepared anything, or placed more than just a handful of attractions to be ready for this (Epic Universe) in 2025 at Disney World?”
Iger responded that “just couldn’t be further from the truth.” The CEO also said the company has known about Universal’s new theme park plans for over a decade and then detailed all the projects that debuted at the Florida parks these last 10 years.
Still, Universal is opening an entirely new theme park plus three new hotels — all of it well under construction and taking shape at the resort’s south campus.
It’s presumptuous to assume Disney World would add another theme park at the same time Universal Orlando does (also, can you imagine the traffic?). But the lack of information about new experiences coming next year and beyond the scheduled ride revamps continues to leave fans frustrated.
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Chelsea Zukowski
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