For Disney adults, the expo called D23 is like the Super Bowl, Eurovision, and the moon landing wrapped into a single event. Every two years, tens of thousands of Mouseheads convene in Anaheim, California, to binge on celebrity worship, historical panels, racks of exclusive souvenirs, and new project announcements.
In 2023, the Disney Company declared that it intended to spend some $60 billion upgrading its theme parks and cruise line within a decade, tackling what many customers view as a long period of benign neglect and mismanagement in its products.
That austere period has been succeeded by more projects than the Disney parks have ever undertaken at once, according to the company. On Saturday evening, August 15, at the city's Honda Center for a crowd of some 14,000 cheering devotees, the Walt Disney Company held its much-awaited presentation about the biggest coming investments in its theme parks.
The D23 announcement event, called "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress" and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, was 2 and a half hours of jovial but cringey comedy bits, vague marketing slogans, and musical performances from the likes of Los Lobos and Sheryl Crow. In between the stretches of razzle-dazzle and filler, the company managed to release very few surprises about current improvement projects.
At a previous D23 in 2019, the company rashly unveiled a number of projects, including a Mary Poppins ride and a repurposing of EPCOT's long-closed Wonders of Life pavilion, that sputtered on the drawing board by 2020 and were never completed or mentioned again. This time, we're seeing bulldozers and cranes that suggest that a fair number of the announced projects will truly see the light of day in some form.
Magic Kingdom
On the D23 expo floor, fans were shown a giant table model of the Cars-themed Piston Peak area, which is now under construction to replace the demolished riverboat and Rivers of America area. The model confirmed an extension of Frontierland's Western theming. At the Horizons event, the area's main new racing ride over a snow-peaked mountain and past fake mud and geysers was described several times by Imagineers as a "bouncy" and it finally got a public name: Cars Ridge Run Rally. A secondary family ride themed after a demolition derby will be called Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along. The model made that look not like a bumper car ride but something closer to a carnival-style turntable-based ride. No opening date was announced.
Villains Land's opening date is still years away; the land is still being cleared and prepared. Imagineers said its size will be comparable to 2019's Star Wars expansion at Disney's Hollywood Studios and that they're trying to make it so immersive even the food will be themed. Examples of trees from its Dark Forest, which are reminiscent of Snow White's Haunted Forest, were revealed on the expo floor, and Horizons revealed plans for a "thrilling" new roller coaster themed to Maleficent's thorny realm and a boat ride through the catacombs of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At Horizons, Glenn Close made a hilarious scenery-chewing appearance as her onscreen character Cruella De Vil to complain there was no ride about her, but it doesn't seem that idea is part of the plans. No opening date announced; independent reports say it won't be ready until at least 2030
The venerable Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, a Disney staple since the World's Fair of 1964–65, is currently shut down for a major update. The Imagineering pavilion at D23 showed some concept art for new Incredibles-style sets and costumes for the robotic narrators. At Horizons, it was announced that actors Bryan Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis have provided voice talent for the all-animatronic indoor show and that time period of its second act would be changed to the 1980s (rendering pictured below). Opening "in 2027."
A rebuild of the 51-year-old Space Mountain is widely rumored but was not confirmed.
EPCOT
Imagineers teased a new version of the much-maligned ride in the Imagination pavilion. It's promised to feature the Dreamfinder and Figment, two characters invented for EPCOT's opening that have seen a resurgence in popularity with nostalgic fans. This will be Disney's fourth attempt to get the ride right since 1983. No date or details announced.
A new version of the classic Spaceship Earth ride, which is currently about the history of communication, will see changes to every scene and it will add the theme of "human connection." A similar update of the ride was announced in 2019 but didn't materialize. No date or details announced.
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Just as the park's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge expansion originally opened in stages, the park's new Monstropolis expansion that's now under construction will open without its marquee ride, known among fans as the "door coaster." A name for that ride was not announced, but Imagineers implied they need more time to complete it. The rest of the Monsters, Inc.-themed land, which promises "lots of dynamic movement" (we assume in the décor), Harryhausen's Restaurant with an animatronic octopus chef (rendering pictured above), and a new indoor show (replacing Muppet*Vision 3D) called Welcome to Monstropolis, will open "in 2027" without the coaster.
Disney's Animal Kingdom
The 11-acre Tropical Americas area was already known to be under construction, but its main indoor ride, which is promised to be "quintessentially Disney" and appropriate for all ages, was announced as Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto (rendering pictured above). Like Tiana's Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom, it will be about throwing a party and the ride will cruise past many animatronic animal characters, but these animals will be endemic to Colombia, the setting for Encanto. The old Dinosaur ride is being changed into an Indiana Jones adventure set in a Mayan temple. That was already widely known, but its name was officially announced as Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, to be set in the 1950s, and its climax was revealed to be an encounter with a giant (Disney) snake. Harrison Ford served as the model for its Audio-Animatronics, unlike Disney's two other big Indiana Jones rides, which were noticeably populated with pale lookalikes for Indy. The new area's third ride, a merry-go-round, was announced as El Carrusel de los Animalitos. That one will feature 22 new hand-carved vehicles based on animal sidekicks from Disney's animated films; a few examples were on display and they were downright adorable. This area is rumored to open next year. No opening date was announced.
The enormous Audio-Animatronic Yeti positioned at the climax of the Expedition Everest roller coaster has not worked since shortly after its 2006 opening and Disney fans have spent years wishing it was functional again. At Horizons, Imagineers twice promised they are "bringing the Yeti back to life.” Is that the same as fixing it? No date was announced.
Disneyland
A radical rebuilding of Tomorrowland was quickly teased. No dates or details.
Disney California Adventure
The expansion of Avengers Campus is now under construction, and it was already known that its two rides will be the roving motion simulator ride Avengers Infinity Defense and robot arm ride Stark Flight Lab. The only tidbit provided at Horizons was that movie actors Robert Downey, Jr., Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Anthony Mackie, and Chris Hemsworth have filmed material for the attractions.
A new, family-appropriate boat ride based on the Land of the Dead in Coco (rendering pictured above) will be completed in time for synergistic marketing alongside the upcoming movie Coco 2 (2029), which was also touted at D23. This attraction was already publicly announced. No name or opening date announced.
A new Avatar-themed land has already been announced, and there was a model of it on the expo floor that depicted it alongside the Disneyland Monorail. It looks completely different from the design of the Avatar land at Animal Kingdom and has an apparent slow-moving water ride, but all Imagineers would say at Horizons was that it's “coming in the future.”
Jason Cochran is the author of our award-winning Frommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando guidebook.
Frommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando
Preparing for an Orlando vacation can be a full-time job, and it costs a small fortune. Most other books on the market make the problem worse, burying vacationers in endless pages of pointless details unquestioningly cheering for the high-priced theme parks and resorts. But this lightweight, fact-pa...
Get the bookFrommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando
Preparing for an Orlando vacation can be a full-time job, and it costs a small fortune. Most other books on the market make the problem worse, burying vacationers in endless pages of pointless details unquestioningly cheering for the high-priced theme parks and resorts. But this lightweight, fact-pa...