The Disney Parks you know and love could be changing in a BIG way.
Magic Kingdom
Disney has teased potential expansion plans for NEW themed areas “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain” in Magic Kingdom and discussed a DinoLand U.S.A. re-theme in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. They’ve also talked about a $1.9 BILLION expansion at Disneyland. But those plans shared with fans have essentially just been “Blue Sky” ideas — a.k.a. nothing that is officially confirmed. But, we’ve seen hints at the expansion projects in the past, and now it seems Disney is dropping some more clues about what’s to come!
On February 7th, Disney held its earnings call (and released its earnings report) for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. We got all kinds of info about different things happening within the Disney Company, but perhaps most importantly for Disney World fans, we got an update about the potential expansion at Disney’s parks.
@Disney
In case you’re not familiar with these ideas generally, Disney previously shared some potential ideas they’re looking at to expand Magic Kingdom. This could include lands “Beyond Thunder Mountain” that are themed to Coco, Encanto, or maybe even the Disney villains.
Concept art of potential Magic Kingdom expansion
In terms of Animal Kingdom, Disney is looking at potentially re-theming the DinoLand area to feature new experiences inspired by Encanto and Indiana Jones (previously, areas themed to Zootopia and Moana had been teased for this space as well).
DinoLand USA Expansion
On the West Coast, DisneylandForward is the name for the proposed changes and new additions. At a recent Anaheim City Council meeting, we learned that Disney is committed to spending $1.9 billion over the next decade under this proposal. Disney included projects themed to Coco, Black Panther, Tangled, Frozen, Zootopia, Peter Pan, Tron, and Toy Story in its proposal.
©Disney
So now, let’s get to the updates! During the earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the potential theme park expansions, and he said, “We’re already hard at work at determining where we’re going to place our investments and what they’re going to be.” He seems to be referring to the $60 billion investment plan Disney announced towards the end of 2023. Essentially, Disney is looking to invest $60 billion the the Parks, Experiences, and Products segment of the company over the next 10 years.
©Disney
Disney also confirmed that 70% of that investment in the parks is “earmarked for incremental capacity-expanding investment,” which to us sounds like park expansions!
Iger noted that every park location will have new stuff, and those new additions will start to roll out in 2025. From there, Disney plans to have “a cadence of new stuff every year.”
Cinderella Castle
Now, keep in mind that these ideas all seem to be in the “Blue Sky” phase at the moment, meaning they are being worked on but not officially confirmed to be coming to the parks. The ideas, the potential rides, the potential lands, etc. could all change once Disney makes a more concrete decision regarding what expansions/re-themes they’d like to do.
With Universal set to open a brand NEW theme park in 2025 (Epic Universe), Disney might be feeling the pressure to deliver a new park of its own or at least some incredible new lands, so we may get more news about all of these ideas soon.
DinoLand
In the meantime, stay tuned for the latest updates!
CLICK HERE to read more about the Tropical Americas transformation in Animal Kingdom
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Haven’t believed any of Disney’s blue sky projects in years. They are all talk now.
Sounds an awful lot like the grand announcements for the Epcot over the past few years.
While I very much appreciate what has been done to Epcot and what’s being wrapped up in construction, it’s FAR from what was originally teased.
I know it will take time to start and complete the Park Expansions, but I’m glad they are finally committing to it. Up until now, it was all talk and speculation, now it’s out there and official. I just hope they start breaking ground soon and start on the expansions with no major delays.
Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice shame on me 🙂 Disney also announced they were doing a stock buyback to the tune of $3 Bn plus increasing dividend payout.
All they do is “drop clues”. They never delivery! Where’s the beef!!!
Iger is saying, “We are working really hard on thinking we might kinda sorta eventually maybe do something to the parks which may or may not come to fruition but wait for future announcements where we will excitedly tell you the same thing. After all, we’re Disney and can promise anyone!”
New park will open in 2052 lol
I would love to see some of the past blue sky ideas come to life, especially Cherry Tree Lane. I am disappointed for the most part in the Epcot update, and with Universal opening an entire new park, Disney is going to HAVE to up their game.
They need an entirely new park. Existing parks are crowded and adding new attractions to those parks will only make things worse.
Coco, Encanto, and .Zootopia will do nothing for me. The only thing I would get excited about is a Villains land. But I’m not holding my breath anyway.
More official, concrete news will come out right when EPIC Universe is about to debut their new Park. My guess is they want to take away some of the air from their seemingly popular Park. Disney is being reactive and not proactive. They need to forget about the “Joneses”, and act with care and be more customer focused. In other words, Disney, get your act together!
It kind of makes me laugh that any improvements, expansion, and additional parks, will happen overnight. Walt Disney himself started planning Disney World as early as 1959, but we all know the opening day wasn’t until 1971 (12 years). The concept of California Adventure was in 1995, but it wasn’t complete until 2001 (6 years). Disney began planning Animal Kingdom in 1989 but didn’t open until 1998 (9 years) and so on and so on.
This thing takes time my friends, try to be a little patient. Especially now with all the new building rules and regulations, permits, inspections, testing, ect. And with little Ronnie trying to be a dictator in Florida by taking over the district, I’m sure there will be even more delays.