Disney has a LOT of big plans for the next decade or so.
Disney Parks are getting bigger over the next decade
The company is planning on spending a WHOPPING $60 billion to expand the Parks, Experiences, and Products segment of the company. Although some of that money will go towards expanding Disney Cruise Line and other products, a LOT of that will also go to expanding its theme parks, with many projects already underway. So if you can’t keep track of all of Disney’s CURRENT list of upcoming theme park expansion projects (because it’s a LOT), we’ve got you covered.
Disney World
Magic Kingdom Expansion
Disney has confirmed that it’s planning a HUGE expansion for Magic Kingdom, the biggest it’s ever done for that particular park. For the expansion, Imagineers are looking to tell stories “beyond Big Thunder Mountain.” The scale of this expansion would be similar to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Pandora, and would include new attractions, restaurants, shows, and more.
Possible Land Expansion in Magic Kingdom ©Disney
Although Disney has not yet revealed what these plans entail, it has mentioned Imagineers’ “what if” ideas that have been floated around, including Coco, Encanto, or Disney villain-themed land. (Disney, we just want to let you know that it is TIME for a villains-themed land).
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Re-theme of Dinoland, U.S.A.
Over in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Dinoland, U.S.A. will be going away to be replaced by something else. At first, Disney mentioned that the new land could be themed around Moana or Zootopia (maybe something similar to the new Zootopia land at Shanghai Disney Resort). However, more recently, we learned that Disney is leaning more towards theming the area to Encanto and Indiana Jones.
©Disney
This makes it likely that the Dinosaur ride (which is basically the same ride as Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure) will get an Indy update. Disney has not yet confirmed these ideas yet, though.
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DisneylandForward
In 2021, Disney announced its DisneylandForward initiative, which is a project where Disneyland will work with the City of Anaheim to re-zone specific parts of Disneyland property to be used for new lands. There are still a lot of hoops that Disneyland has to jump through to make this happen, but some ideas for those new lands have already been suggested.
©Disney
The following have been mentioned as ideas for new lands in Disneyland: Tangled, Peter Pan, Frozen, Zootopia, and more. These concepts are already being used in some of Disney’s international theme parks.
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Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea
Tokyo DisneySea is getting a new port and it will include THREE new lands. This massive expansion will include lands based on Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan. There will also be a brand new hotel INSIDE the expansion. There will be new rides and restaurants in each of these lands, too.
©Disney
Fantasy Springs is set to open on June 6th, 2024. This will be the biggest expansion at Tokyo DisneySea since it first opened in 2001.
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Frozen in Disneyland Paris
Disney is ALL about bringing Frozen to theme parks around the world. That includes Disneyland Paris Resort, which is also getting its own Frozen-themed land. We imagine this version of Frozen could be similar to the one in Hong Kong Disneyland.
©Disney
Disney has announced that this new land will have a new attraction, food and beverage locations, a merchandise shop, and a meet and greet with Elsa and Anna.
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Just a note, but these are the lands and expansions that Disney has already announced. Who knows what else the company has planned for its theme parks around the world? We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more updates, though, so stay tuned to DFB for more.
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Expansions don’t cut it. WDW needs a 5th Gate. WDW is a Cash Cow for them, time they reward their guests !
Seeing will be believing. Alot of empty promises from Disney in the past and present.
FWIW, there is a LOT of unused land behind Magic Kingdom.
Of course I have no information on whether they have plans to use any of it as theme park or guest areas.
At least at one point, it was used as a “dump” for recyclables. I have no idea whether this is still true.
Disney is not what it used to. Used to a park ticket costed double what currant parking is. Walt never meant the parks to be outside of most peoples price range.
I thought Animal Kingdom had a fluent theme around animals. Africa has attractions that revolve around the various animals in Africa . Asia has attractions associated with animals found in Asia. Pandora has attractions that showcase the Banshee and the unusual animals of Pandora. Dino land has dinosaurs as its theme. What animal does Encanto have. And Indiana Jones is just an inexpensive and easy way to redo an existing ride. These two IPs don’t have animals to use to keep the fluency animal theme . Using lands as a theme rather than animals is a cheap trick. Zootopia would be much more appropriate. But then Disney would actually need some imagination ,creativity and talent to provide something Walt would be proud to have in Animal Kingdom.