What's coming next to Disneyland, Disney World, and more

I can already hear complaints "now why didn't they just change Splash to Lion King in first place?"

Ignoring how it's clearly building it from scratch rather than overlay.

Okay Monsters Inc land is a surprise, I'd have thought Zootopia instead.

I love how after months wondering how Disney counters Epic Universe, they announce a score of WDW stuff already set for construction.

Any word were Monsters is going at DHS?

"World of Frozen will open in 2026" is 2026 a typo? Not 2025?

Nope. They said 2026.

Woah!

Magic Kingdom along with WDW won the night!

To think Magic Kingdom having a Villain’s Land on top of all the other existing attractions!!!

And a return of a brand new nighttime parade.

Truly worthy of being the world’s most popular theme park.

Monsters Inc ride looks to be in the grand ave area. But this attraction is begging to be put in launch bay.

I really hope they find a way to keep tom sawyer. Although riding the riverboat will be less cool now without the animatronics and forest.

If they gave us new soarin and figment refresh, this could have been a 10/10. But all of the wdw announcements rival Epic and im happy theme park wars are back.

I thought HKDL were promised an Avengers ride not a Spider-Man themed tower of terror clone. This is not what the HK govt signed up for.

Interesting that DLP is choosing to stay a construction zone for a 2nd year in a row..

Wow looks awesome and I'm especially glad that DCA is getting serious attention. 4 new attractions! I would've been happy with just Avatar but hey I'll take it. I just don't have an idea where Coco would be going?

@Robert: I too fear for the fate of TSI. My hope is that if it is indeed razed to make room for a Cars area that WDI is still able to leave some element of the river and greenery of the island. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would expect a new e-ticket attraction to only be accessible by a river raft so it would seem a natural assumption to think that part of most of the river will be filled in. I know that TSI takes up a valuable footprint in terms of size but it’s such a beautiful area of the park that will be missed by this guy.

Still no word if the Avengers ride will have any audio-animatronics or real sets? I'm hoping for something more akin to a Rise of the Resistance mix between real and screens, but worried it's going to be more like Islands of Adventure Spider-man. Are Coco and Avatar part of Disneyland Forward area? I can also see Coco fitting into the space by Monsters Inc. at CA Adventure. Love the Moster's Inc coaster art, and that Indiana Jones will not be a direct copy. So many announcements that start construction soon! I'm excited for the future. But also realizing we may never again see a new non-IP ride in a US park. Finally, I can't wait to see the Walt animatronic. Brought a tear to my eye.

@upsidown: as a Floridian who lives in Jacksonville I’m jealous that DL is the only one getting the Walt AA show! Maybe they could do a version of it one day at Hollywood Studios in the preview center where they used to show “One Man’s Dream” short film…

While i'm not a fan of the "making everything IP" direction they have taken things, this is unquestionably a massive amount of investment in the American parks.

The big question now is with consumer spending slowing down, high debt levels, combined with the staggering cost of visiting WDW and Orlando in general...are they going to follow through with all of these projects the way they were announced or are they going to chintz out and cut things over the next few years? Considering Chapek is no longer in charge I have more confidence they will follow through but there definitely is a recent track record of the things they announce not living up to expectations.

Also its pretty funny how they acknowledge their last D23 was cringe, with Josh D'Amaro making sure to point out that these projects are real and either under construction or ready to start construction.

Fingers crossed we don’t have another pandemic before construction is begun and/or completed on these.

If any imagineers are reading this PLEASE incorporate a double hammerhead maneuver into one of the Stark Flight Labs test flights.

If any Imagineers are reading this please bring back package pick-up.

My thoughts:

Avatar-Love that it's not a clone of what's at Animal Kingdom. I'm expecting this will be using the Shanghai Pirates system.

Coco-Could be good depending on the scope of the environments, really wonder where it's going to go (along with Avatar).

Walt Disney AA Show-Mixed bag for me. I'm not opposed to the idea, but the fact that you can see the turntable for Mr. Lincoln gives me little hope that the sets will impress.

Disney Starlight-LOVE that MK is finally getting a night parade again. There's been a huge hole in my heart ever since SpectroMagic closed.

Indiana Jones-Sorry to see Dinosaur go, but at least it's not a clone of what's at DLR.

Encanto-Anything will be better than what's currently at Dino-Rama.

Monster's Inc-Surprised to see this concept resurrected from the dead. Hope that this doesn't have the same head-banging issues the usual Vekoma inverts have. Think Harryhausen's will have some unique sushi options.

Cars at MK-Sorry Robert, but as someone who hasn't bothered with Tom Sawyer's Island in years, I won't shed any tears for it.

Villains Land-Just hook it into my veins.

Interesting that DLR gets a huge investment, almost all of which goes to DCA. Obviously, DCA is where there is room to increase capacity, and with four new attractions, becomes much more of a full-day+ park, like DL. I'm not disappointed that DL didn't get more, because that park has a higher density of quality rides than any other park on the planet. But it will be nice, when deciding where to spend a day (DLR is local for me), to have DCA be a true equal.

Jonah, this confirms to me that the DisneylandForward expansion is happening in phases and that the DCA expansion phase comes first. Which makes sense, because logistically that's an easier expansion that the one for Disneyland. So I would bet that we get the World of Frozen expansion for Disneyland at the 2026 D23.

I am surprised that we did not get more news about the 70th anniversary, save for a confirmed that, yes, there will be a 70th anniversary celebration.

So much to digest

First to think, this all started with the boy who lived going to Universal instead of Disney.

Yes, all of this could have, should have, would have announced last year's D23 but Disney had other fires to put out I guess (Shareholder Proxy battles, Stemming Streaming Losses and cleaning other chaos created by the Chapek era)

More Cruise Ships (considering there are still 3 that have yet to hit the water!) and Monstropolis did surprise me though, the rest did not.

Although more Marvel did not surprise me, but doubling down on Spiderman did as I thought they would use other Marvel Properties more

I am also surprised that Encanto and Coco seem to be boat rides instead of trackless rides given how invested Disney has been with them as of late.

Finally not seeing Iger on stage makes me wonder if Josh D'Amaro is the favourite to succeed him as CEO

@Jyau: I still think Disney Entertainment cochair Dana Walden has the inside track, but Josh would be a worthy choice.

Disney won't replace TSI with Cars or anything else. It's iconic. I'll bet those new Cars attractions are going to be built in the "Beyond Big Thunder" area along with Villains Land.

My head's swimming just thinking about what it's going to cost me to experience all of this once it's built. I guess that's the idea.

Better start saving now.

Tell me again, how many kidneys can I sell?

My head's swimming just thinking about what it's going to cost me to experience all of this once it's built. I guess that's the idea.

Better start saving now.

Tell me again, how many kidneys can I sell?

Cool stuff, and I look forward to seeing all this... when I'm 75.

Well, that was probably the most exciting D23 parks presentation since the event started, and definitely since the 2017 presentation. While I can't say that any one announcement blew me away (except perhaps that they're actually going for Villains Land), it's great to see that Disney has a ton in the pipeline. Hopefully it all comes to fruition, but given the path of some of their past announcements, until the dirt starts moving I'll remain cautiously optimistic about most of these.

As for some thoughts on the specific attractions...

Avatar: I personally couldn't care less about the IP, but I'm excited for what could become the best dark ride at the resort (and likely best at DCA) if it's a Shanghai Pirates attraction. I'm still expecting this one to be a ways off and probably the initial portion of the Disneyland Forward expansion.

Coco: I've got a hunch this is the same concept developed for Beyond Big Thunder but repurposed for DCA. Should be a nice all audiences attraction. As for where it's going, my guess is they tear out Goofy's Sky School and the surrounding structures for the ride and a small external area with a restaurant and gift shop.

Walt Disney: Probably a better fit for Disneyland in this day and age than Mr. Lincoln, but I'm glad they'll be running both shows.

Disney Starlight: I'm always a fan of the nighttime parades (daytime parades, on the other hand, are meh to me), but I'm kind of surprised they're getting something brand new rather than just taking Paint the Night. Hopefully that means the latter is planned to return to Disneyland soon and just hasn't been announced yet.

Disneyland Paris: Lion King flume looks much better than Tiana's Bayou Adventure (sorry, not sorry). Water shows are whatever, so hopefully there's more to it than just fountains and screens. Surprised Frozen isn't opening until 2026...was pretty sure they wanted it for next summer.

Tropical Americas: Great area, but would have been better in Magic Kingdom. Encanto kind of works in Animal Kingdom due to Antonio, but it's not a film I consider animal-centric. A likely Mystic Manor-esque dark ride should be awesome, however. Disappointed by Indy...I love the ride, but it has no place in Animal Kingdom.

Monstropolis: Yes! I've been wanting this concept since it was first rumored for DCA, and if it's anything like I'm expecting it's got a strong shot at the title for WDW's best roller coaster (note that I haven't ridden Guardians or Tron yet).

Cars: Surprisingly, I don't hate this. It's not my first choice of IP, but if they've got a thematically appropriate version of Radiator Springs Racers it could wind up being quite good.

Villains Land: Probably the only thing on this list I'd make a special trip for, assuming it actually lives up to the hype. If they've got a large thrilling roller coaster (which looks to be the case from the concept art) and a headliner dark ride on par with Rise (which I'd hope is in the plans), this definitely could be the thing that breaks Magic Kingdom's reputation as a "kids park." I didn't think Disney would actually do it, but I'm glad they are (even though I'm expecting early 2030s at best for this one to open).

Shanghai Spider-Man: Looks like China's answer to Cosmic Rewind.

Hong Kong Spider-Man: Looks like China's answer to Tower of Terror.

Avengers Infinity Defense: Very optimistic for this as it appears to be a motion base ride. It's taken far too long to build (should have opened with the land), but I'm glad it's only a few years away. Definitely will be making another visit to DCA once it opens (I usually just do Disneyland on my annual visits these days).

Stark Flight Lab: That came out of left field, but if it's anything like the former Knights' Tournament at Legoland California it could be a very wild flat ride. Presumably the different profiles will be used to offer varying intensify levels so more guests can handle this one. Capacity might be an issue, but at least it's the B/C ticket of the land rather than a headliner.

Glad they're doing the South America expansion in phases so some of us can enjoy Dinosaur while it lasts. Still annoying they're replacing an entertaining original property with one that's on its last legs. But hey, at least Dino-rama won't be an eyesore is a beautiful park for much longer.

Monsteropolis coaster is a cool idea. Where it's gonna go is a good question. The only real estate they can free up is Muppet land, the Indiana Stunt show or the Launch Bay area. Curious to see who gets the ax.

That Cars Land. Tom Sawyer's island dies for it but Autotopia lives to see another day. Unless they're sticking it between Pirates and Tiana's, I'm genuinely curious to see how people react to Disney put one of the last running steamboats out of commission.

Hopefully that villans land looks as good as that preview.

Beacher, Disney said that the Cars attractions in the Magic Kingdom will be going into a "reimagined" section of Frontierland, which is Disney code for "replacing something else." Process of elimination leaves TSI and the Rivers of America as the only likely location for them. Disney just redid Tiana's and Bear Band. Thunder isn't closing, and there's not enough room anywhere else.

Not a word about Figment. I'd have bet my last dollar this was his year to hear something....ANYTHING. Nope.

These new rides have tremendous potential but are there any further concrete details? The Monster’s Inc inverted coaster ride, if done well like Arthur’s at Europa Park, could be the rare ride that merges a classic dark ride with some family thrills. The Villains coaster could be extraordinary if it actually provides a thrilling new coaster merged with well themed surroundings (the reason many who have been to Phantasialand consider it their favorite park). The Stark flight lab looks like Sum of All Thrills 2.0 which, if merged with Marvel themed live action or animation could be a great addition. Also, hoping Encanto is a US version of Mystic Manor. Any ideas regarding the new Avengers ride system? A next generation Back to the Future/Simpson’s ride?

Robert, thanks for explaining. But it's hard for me to believe they would take out TSI - and what else? Would the river be gone? No more riverboat?

@beacher: I’m hoping that, given the mountainous setting of the new Cars e-ticket ride, they are able to keep much of the greenery of TSI and hopefully enough of the waterway that it still creates the same feeling of a natural, wooded area in Frontierland rather than just paving over the entire Rivers of America. I’m also hoping that the Liberty Belle steamboat is able to be honored and repurposed in some way. Maybe set it up in permanent dry dock as a restaurant or -god forbid- lounge that serves adult beverages!!! (Gasps in horror)

As with most of these big announcement drops, there were some that were exciting, some that were surprising, some that were disappointing, and some that were expected, but not announced.

I think the biggest thing that was missing here was the lack of announcements for EPCOT. It seems that Imagineers are standing pat that the recent reimagining of what was FutureWorld puts a bow on the massive renovation of the park. They did officially announce a full reimagining of TestTrack (3.0), but the short timeline (opening in 2025) suggests that there won't be major changes to the ride system and probably very limited work done to the theming. Aside from that, the only other announcement for EPCOT was a Spaceship Earth lounge, taking over the old corporate lounge area, which will probably be limited to D23, DVC, AP, and/or Disney Visa members. No announcements regarding Play Pavilion, Spaceship Earth updates, Imagination, or the previously announced Mary Poppins area for Great Britain, which is a HUGE disappointment for a park that got a massive renovation that ultimately underwhelmed because of cutbacks from Chapak and COVID.

On the other side of the coin, I think the biggest surprise announcement was the Monsters Inc addition to DHS. Unlike EPCOT, the recent additions/renovations to DHS have been extremely popular and well received (Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land). While DHS is WDW's smallest park by area, it still contains the highest number of true thrill rides, yet in addition to bringing an updated experience to MF:SR (Mandalorian and Grogu), they're carving out space for a new IP land with what appears to be a pretty massive new coaster. It does sound like this is going to take over the Animation Courtyard, which means Disney is not removing any major attractions to make this addition (like Muppets, Indy, or RnR, particularly given Aerosmith's announcement that they're retiring), so Monsters Inc will essentially be further increasing the capacity of a park that already feels packed all the time. I do think this coaster could be really cool, but I would have much rather seen this go into MK (perhaps to replace Laugh Floor and/or the old Stitch attraction) instead of continuing to pack an already overcrowded DHS.

I have to say the I was pretty disappointed with the Avengers CAMPUS additions. While Disney did not officially detail the ride system, it's pretty clear they're using Spiderman/Transformers-style motion base vehicles for the new attraction themed around Thanos, which apparently abandons the really cool Quinjet/Wikanda concept (with a potential FOP-style ride system) that was originally proposed when the land was first announced. I feel that attraction design has gone beyond the motion base ride system, so I certainly hope Disney has some tricks up its sleeve to make this ride more than what you can experience a few miles up the street (Transformers at USH) just with an Avengers skin. The Kuka Arm attraction could be the biggest disaster in Disney's history. I don't necessarily have a problem with the attraction or its concept, but putting it in Avengers CAMPUS is going to be a debacle. These Kuka arm attractions (King Arthur's Challenge at Sea World is a few hours down the road) can be pretty cool in terms of giving guests a unique and unpredictable experience, but the design massively limits capacity as Disney should know first hand from using them at EPCOT (Sum of All Thrills). That EPCOT attraction often had lines longer than TestTrack because only 2 guests could be on each arm at a time (if I recall they had 4 arms in Innoventions, so 8 people at a time). Even if Disney utilized 16 arms, they're only going to get a maximum of 32 guests per cycle, and with a typical cycle time of 3-5 minutes (@2 minutes riding and 1-3 minutes of turnover), you're looking at a maximum throughput of maybe 500 guests per hour, which is just woeful for a park the size of DCA. When you put Avengers theming on an attraction like this (especially with Robert Downey Junior reprising his role as Tony Stark for videos likely to be shown in the queue and preshow, it's going to instantly make it more popular, meaning the capacity will never come close to meeting the demand. It's like someone in accounting said, "We have these Kuka arms sitting around collecting dust over at EPCOT, can you Imagineers come up with a use for them on a budget", and low and behold we end up with this Tony Stark abomination.

I'm very happy to see that Avatar in California will utilize a unique ride system, which sounds like the Shanghai Pirates system. I think Disney has finally begun to realize that its fans don't want clones, and are willing to travel around the world to experience unique Disney attractions, and they followed through with this announcement to offer something very different than WDW. However, it's odd to me that they are choosing a water-based ride system for the new Avatar attraction, but also creating a Coco boat ride. My guess is that these 2 attractions/lands are slated for the expansion into the Toy Story parking lot, but absolutely no detail was provided by Disney to describe how guests would get across the street, which to me is the most critical aspect of the Disneyland Forward project. I understand that those types of details don't really excite a massive arena crowd, but it doesn't do any good to announce all these grand plans for attractions across the street from DCA if there's no way for guests to get across that street. Also, unless the Avatar land is HUGE, there is probably more space on that parcel for additional attractions that Disney didn't bother to announce. That leads me to believe that while they announced a 2026 groundbreaking for the project that this work won't be completed until 2028 at the earliest.

Speaking of what they didn't bother to announce, the MK announcements were a massive nothingburger in my view, since they had already announced much of this as part of the Beyond Big Thunder announcement a few years back. The year's Villains land announcement had zero details, and was now seemingly linked to a completely unnecessary and unwanted Cars Land that will take out one of the most picturesque parts of WDW. While the Villains Land grabbed all the headlines, it's the ripping up of Frontierland that should be the story here. Also, the details for the Cars Land are pretty sketchy, and it's unclear what type of ride system will be used for what appears to be an outdoor e-ticket attraction.

Finally, the DAK additions, while expected, fell pretty flat for me. I am happy to hear that the conversion of Dinosaur to Indy will bring DAK a unique attraction and not a clone of Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The Encanto portion of the Tropical America's renovation could also be really good, but the lack of details regarding the main attraction leads me to believe this could be a relatively mediocre Fantasyland-style dark ride instead of a true e-ticket that DAK needs to balance crowds since Indy is just replacing Dinosaur. My hope is that the animal team is able to incorporate some real animal exhibits and experiences into this new area so that it fits into the heart of DAK. The park doesn't really have a lot of South American animals, so it would be cool to have another continent represented in the park's collection. Also, the conversion of Tough to be a Bug to Zootopia was an obvious transition, but it will be sad that Pixar's second film will be completely stripped from the parks.

Overall, some good, some meh, and some cringe, but since none of this will be ready until 2026 or later, we'll have to hold judgement until the final products are unveiled. Also, as we all know, a few of these projects will never be built or go through massive redesigns between now and 2030, but these announcements certainly create some buzz, which is their primary purpose.

so looks confirmed we're losing Rivers and TSI for the Cars stuff. I'm sure this will be met with calm reactions....

Lots of cool attractions in store! I'm excited!

With Avengers Campus..(and the new Avengers attraction) Part of me wonders if there's a way to merge general Marvel with the MCU.

While the MCU will (hopefully) still be turning out blockbuster numbers a few years down the line...having these attractions tied directly to Phase 1 (or at least a good amount of it) seems like it could limit it?

In a couple of years, Doctor Doom will be the big bad, Fantastic Four is on the way, X-Men will be making their debut, I'm expecting to see a live action Miles Morales in the near future, etc. There's going to be new characters... These attractions seem like a couple of years away, by that time, there's going to be a host of another characters.

Just curious if there was a way to anticipate or maybe make things a bit more general Marvel to fill in the gaps. There are some major Marvel characters missing just because they haven't made their MCU debut yet.

With a more general Marvel approach, they could also incorporate these characters without necessarily relying on the film slate. Even with a 75% MCU, 25% Regular Marvel, you could get some of the others in the mix.

Since most of these announced attractions at least the ones stateside will not be ready in time for 2026 when the USA hosts the World Cup (of Soccer) then they should be ready (most of them hopefully) by 2028 when LA hosts the Summer Olympics

Meanwhile over at Universal: ..."expediting Epic Universe Phase 2" whatever that may entail

Oh what a good time to be a theme park fan!

Exciting updates! Nice to see Disney building actual rides.