What’s Disney’s New Timeline for Park Updates?

From 2017 until today, Disney has carefully laid out a path of theme park expansion and improvements.

Now that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is nearly here, the upcoming schedule is currently bare.

So, what’s Disney’s new timeline for theme park updates?

We obviously have no idea, but it’s fun to speculate, right? So, let’s take a guess!

Coming in 2024

We know what’s coming this year, at least in a general sense.

Disney hasn’t announced the opening date for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure yet, but it could happen any day.

Presumably, the attraction will open in time for Memorial Day Weekend, which takes place on May 27^th.

You can glance at the calendar and realize how soon that is…but it’s also far from guaranteed.

Historically, Disney prefers to open its attractions in this timeframe to provide new options for holiday crowds.

However, all Disney has indicated about Tiana is that it’ll open this summer.

Technically, summer starts on June 20^th and ends on September 22^nd.

So, I’m escalating the timeline to say May 27^th. Call it a hunch. I’m not basing it on any inside information, though.

If I prove a bit ambitious, I apologize in advance. And it’s possible because Disney could take a different approach.

As a reminder, another Magic Kingdom attraction with massive throughput is currently undergoing a change.

The former Country Bear Jamboree closed in January 2024. Later this year, its replacement will arrive.

Called Country Bear Musical Jamboree, it’ll be a modernized version of the show, presumably with some refreshed Bears.

While the attraction is open, Cast Members only possess a few hours overnight to clean them.

This unprecedented downtime provides the opportunity to perform some spring cleaning.

When the show returns, it’ll include an all-new soundtrack for the first time ever, not counting an old holiday season iteration.

Disney has reinvented some of its classic songs to fit the theme of the Country Bears.

This attraction will return this summer, which brings us back to that Memorial Day/June 20^th debate.

Coming in 2025?

Once Country Bear Musical Jamboree and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure open, we enter uncharted territory.

Since the start of 2016, Walt Disney World has offered a new attraction/themed land each year.

I generally don’t mention 2016 when I say this because it was a rough year for Disney.

Events like Rivers of Light didn’t quite go as planned, but one thing did. Disney opened Frozen Ever After.

Then, in the following years, park fans gained the following:

• 2017 – Pandora – The World of Avatar
• 2018 — Toy Story Land
• 2019 — Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
• 2020 — Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• 2021 — Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• 2022 — Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
• 2023 — Tron Lightcycle / Run
• 2024 – Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

So, you can understand why 2025 looks different on paper. That’s shaping up as Disney’s gap year.

We’ve got a couple of potential caveats to that, though.

When Disney re-themes an attraction, it doesn’t take as long.

We’re witnessing that right now with the Tiana conversion, but if we go back a bit, Disney California Adventure provides a better example.

In January 2017, that park closed Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and I can still hear the fan outrage when I close my eyes.

Only four months later, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! opened.

Imagineers CAN move fast when they need something up and running.

That brings me to the reimagining of Test Track, one of EPCOT’s three most popular rides.

Frankly, it’ll be bad for business here as long as Test Track remains offline.

We’ve got some recent history to provide a timeline here.

The previous version of Test Track closed in April 2012 but reopened that December.

Could Test Track 3 debut in 2025? I think so.

2026

Of course, if Disney is performing a more comprehensive overhaul – and renderings suggest building reconstruction – 2026 becomes likelier.

That brings us to a second possibility for 2025 or, more likely, a phased approach to both.

Disney is preparing to start something at Disney’s Animal Kingdom akin to what it just did at Disney California Adventure (DCA).

Starting with the aforementioned Mission: BREAKOUT! conversion, Disney rebuilt most of that park on the fly.

DCA transitioned from a California theme park to one celebrating all things Pixar and Marvel.

Several themed lands turned into new experiences or “neighborhoods,” like the recently completed San Fransokyo Square.

We know that DinoLand U.S.A. will turn into the Tropical Americas, a more thematically appropriate area.

How long will that take? Therein lies the rub. But I would argue that Disney could take a piecemeal approach, just as with DCA.

In that scenario, flipping DINOSAUR into Indiana Jones Adventure shouldn’t take more than a year.

Ostensibly, if Disney were willing to do that, which isn’t guaranteed, we could have a new ride at Animal Kingdom next year.

Realistically, Disney probably wants to perform a more detailed makeover, though.

In that scenario, the marketing campaign for Animal Kingdom in 2026 is an entirely new themed land, the Tropical Americas.

I again circle back to 2016, when nighttime at Animal Kingdom was supposed to revolutionize the park. That…didn’t happen.

Encanto, Coco, and Indiana Jones experiences will, though. So, the timeline I’m envisioning here is straightforward.

Disney probably builds its 2025 marketing campaign around one or both Test Track 3 and Indiana Jones Adventure.

For 2026, the new and improved Animal Kingdom with Encanto experiences can and will sell tickets.

What Lies Beyond…

In this scenario, Disney has solved its short-term marketing campaign, albeit with half-measures.

I dunno how much the updated Test Track and Indiana Jones Adventure will move the needle.

However, Encanto will, Coco might, and a Zootopia-themed land would as well.

Disney technically hasn’t confirmed Zootopia, but it’s an expected Animal Kingdom change.

So, let’s slot that in for 2027, although I’m not sure Disney can build that whole thing in three years.

Presumably, some construction will be required to create the space, which delays any project.

With Animal Kingdom, well, you can imagine the conservation considerations park officials must evaluate before proceeding.

You don’t want to disrupt the wildlife any, which dramatically slows the speed of progress.

Realistically, I think 2028 is the likelier timeline for Zootopia, and even that may be pushing it.

Then, we have the bigger question, what lies beyond Big Thunder Mountain?

Disney has promised an unprecedented Magic Kingdom expansion, one that will require a massive overhaul of that land.

Thankfully, since no biomes are involved, it’s a simpler form of repurposing the land.

Still, a massive overhaul of Magic Kingdom is no small feat. I don’t think it’s coincidental that Disney tempered expectations.

A Reasonable Disney Expansion Timeline

The company has indicated that most of its “turbocharging” expenses at the theme parks will come in years six and beyond.

That’s 2029 or 2030, a reasonable timeline for Magic Kingdom.

Now, I believe that Disney was trying to provide a timeline it knew it could meet easily.

So, I personally think that a Magic Kingdom expansion will take four or five years. But I’m an optimist by nature.

Let’s all agree that we’ll be thrilled if a new, better version of Magic Kingdom is operational in 2030.

That’s a realistic Walt Disney World expansion schedule as I envision everything at the moment.

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