Disney is preparing to spend $60 billion on its theme parks worldwide, but an expansion plan for Walt Disney World, or any of its other parks, has not been made public.
There has been a sprinkling of news and hints from company officials, including refurbishment of DinoLand at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and blue-sky talk for a land of some sort “beyond Big Thunder” at Magic Kingdom.
Attractions experts say the investment could mean original rides and lands for Disney World, such as a villains-driven domain; cloning of recent international projects based on “Frozen” and “Zootopia”; or even a fifth theme park, which would be WDW’s first since Animal Kingdom opened in 1998.
Putting more money into theme parks is a “no-brainer,” Walt Disney Co. Bob Iger has said. The billions earmarked for attractions will go into properties around the globe, including Disney Cruise Line, he said.
“If you look at the return on invested capital of that business over the last 20 years, particularly over the last 10, the track record is extraordinary,” Iger said in a recent interview at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference.
“We have thousands of acres of land still to develop. We could actually build seven new full lands, if we wanted to, around the world,” he said.
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In May 2023, Iger suggested the possibility of withdrawing investment in Florida amid the company’s standoff with Gov. Ron DeSantis. Tensions began after Bob Chapek, then CEO of Walt Disney Co., vowed to fight for repeal of the Parental Bill of Rights law, which opponents dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The governor and Florida Legislature later dissolved the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney World’s governmental body. The replacement, called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight, will have influence over future expansion plans.
Whatever gets built, Disney is probably thinking big, said Brian Morrow, owner of Kissimmee-based B Morrow Productions, an attractions-design studio.
“I definitely don’t see – particularly in the Disney and Universal category – any change by building lesser lands or less grandiose environments,” Morrow said. “That’s really how [guests] are making some of their decisions. … ‘How amazing is it? How new is it?’”
But he’s not expecting another theme park, the long-awaited “fifth gate,” to be announced for Walt Disney World.
“Personally, I couldn’t imagine a reality where another full park gets constructed in Orlando,” Morrow said. “There’s a lot of infrastructure cost and high [capital expenditure] cost in developing new properties. But we have plenty of parks in Orlando that just could be bigger or have more things to do or be expanded.”
Dennis Speigel, CEO of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services, anticipates fresh, big ideas for Disney World, including a new theme park, and he expects movement soon.
“I’m a confirmed believer that in a short period of time, we’re going to see Disney announce another gate,” he said. “I think they will announce something within the next 24 months, for sure. … From what I’ve heard, this has been being worked on now for the last five, eight, 10 years.”
Speigel points to the availability of land and intellectual property, the growing tourism market and the 2025 opening of Epic Universe, Universal Orlando’s third theme park now under construction, as motivating factors for Disney.
“An announcement of attraction expansion is one level of announcement, but a new gate is a whole different stratum and sends a different message to tourists,” he said. “Disney needs to get this announcement out there to remain the dominant force in Orlando, the mecca of the theme-park industry.”
Expansion would probably follow a familiar pattern, said Len Testa, who runs the Touring Plans, a vacation-planning site.
“Attractions that are most popular, the highest-rated, are super-headliner rides based on beloved multipart movie franchises. Those are the kinds of rides that bring people to Central Florida,” he said.
Lands at Disney and Universal parks are based on “Cars,” “Star Wars” and the “Harry Potter” series.
During a D23 Expo session in September 2022, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, floated a handful of ideas for Magic Kingdom, specifically in the area “beyond Big Thunder,” the Frontierland roller coaster. He mentioned ideas based on the “Coco” and “Encanto” films as well as Disney’s lineup of animated villains.
Testa said he believes the villain land will happen.
“People love the villains, and the villains can do things,” he said. “They can interact with guests in a way that regular characters can’t. Like they can be sassy in a way that other characters can’t.”
He imagines separately ticketed villain events in addition to a land of their own.
“That would sell a lot, so I think that has some legs,” he said.
In another session of D23, Disney’s official fan club, officials announced that Animal Kingdom’s DinoLand area would be remade with a “tropical Americas” theme. Details were sketchy, but there were oblique references to “Encanto” and Indiana Jones. The Dinosaur ride running in DinoLand shares a ride system with the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction in Disneyland.
Testa expects a full-blown, revamped DinoLand, once the site of Primeval Whirl, a coaster that closed in 2020 and demolished in 2021.
“I think, again, you’re going to see a big thrill ride, you’ll see a family-friendly, possibly dark ride, possibly water-based ride, sort of intermediate thing like Na’vi River Journey [at Animal Kingdom], and then you’ll see a third ride, which is, you know, the Magic Carpets of Aladdin [at Magic Kingdom] or something like that,” he said.
Duplicating rides or lands from other Disney parks might soothe those who cry out “be fair to Florida” when Disney World is not the home base of announced projects.
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“A lot of feedback I’m getting is about the attractions and lands being built overseas. Those parks seem to be updating far better and quicker than what we have here in Florida,” said Michele Atwood, owner of The Main Street Mouse, a theme park website, and author of Disney-related books.
A World of Frozen land opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in November, followed by a “Zootopia”-themed land at Shanghai Disneyland in December. Fantasy Springs, which will have elements from “Tangled,” “Frozen” and “Peter Pan,” opens at Tokyo DisneySea in June.
“A lot of folks would like to see WDW follow suit with those updates, including myself,” Atwood said.
In recent years, Disney has completed projects at Epcot, including Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure ride, a “Moana” walk-through attraction and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which became the home of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a land with multiple attractions. Tron: Lightcycle/Run, an indoor-outdoor coaster, opened at Magic Kingdom, where Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the reimagined Splash Mountain attraction, is scheduled to debut this summer.
Iger is open to duplication. While Pandora, the World of Avatar opened at Animal Kingdom in 2017, there are plans to add one at Disneyland in California.
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“That doesn’t mean we can’t put one in somewhere in Asia and somewhere in Europe, for instance,” he said at the Morgan Stanley conference. “We opened up a Frozen land in Hong Kong in November – tremendous response to that. … Build it with excellence and they will come.”
Creating more options makes sense, but it also could overwhelm a vacationing family with time restrictions, Morrow said.
“Also in the industry, and the entertainment industry as a whole, there is a surge of what I would call the smaller experiences happening. These are the things that take two hours to do, not eight hours to do,” he said.
“They might be in a theme park/might not be in a theme park kind of experience. I think is something people are really interested in,” Morrow said.
Universal is developing that sort of attraction elsewhere. It plans to open a kid-oriented park in Frisco, Texas, and a year-round Halloween offering in Las Vegas. Morrow also points to Area15, a multi-stop art and entertainment district in Vegas that announced a second location would come to Orlando.
“Think many parks, many experiences with multiple attractions … but it doesn’t take all day,” he said.
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