What Didn’t Disney Announce at D23 and Why?
The 2024 D23 Expo has come and gone, delighting fans with plenty of huge announcements.
However, Disney skipped over some potentially big reveals as well, which left some insiders scratching their heads. So, what happened?
Let’s talk about what Disney didn’t announce and whether we should read anything into it.
The Lion King…in Paris
In the aftermath of the Olympics, Paris is having a moment. I mean, it always kind of is, but this has been a good month.
For Disney as a company, Disneyland Paris has remained a constant source of frustration for more than 30 years now.
However, the matter appears to have corrected itself now that Disney has fully purchased the theme park.
Park officials no longer must clear decisions via a circuitous bureaucratic system.
Not coincidentally, Disneyland Paris is about to get much better, especially at Walt Disney Studios Park.
Historically, this place is Disney’s least successful theme park, at least based on numbers.
So, Disney will re-theme Walt Disney Studios Park into Disney Adventure World.
As part of that change, World of Frozen will open in 2026 and thereby reinvigorate the park.
The surprise announcement is that a ride based on The Lion King will open at the park.
That attraction had been strongly rumored for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, yet Disney made no announcement of that.
Does Disney’s silence indicate the end of that possibility? Absolutely not!
Bob Iger has suggested that the so-called supercharging of the parks will take a decade.
I tried to calibrate everyone’s expectations by saying that Disney wouldn’t announce everything at the 2024 D23 Expos.
Why would Disney do that? It’ll have Destination D next year and the 2026 D23 Expo.
Those events need blockbuster announcements, too!
More about The Lion King (and Coco)
Conversely, Disney might have decided that The Lion King ride wouldn’t work as well at Animal Kingdom.
This park must carefully evaluate how any new attraction will impact the wildlife, the creatures who actually live at the park.
So, at this point, let’s just assume we’re getting one Lion King ride. Any more at a later date would be a happy bonus.
Still, once that attraction opens in Paris, it’s a simple matter to duplicate at other parks.
We even have a blueprint for this, with Walt Disney Studios hosting the original version of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
A few years later, the France pavilion added a similar version of the ride.
You should keep that in mind with regards to Coco as well.
This new boat ride will debut at Disney California Adventure, but I doubt it’s the only location.
Park officials compared it to Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, rides you’ll find at almost every Disney park.
The same logic should apply to Coco, although you may not like the outcome.
After all, we’re talking about a boat ride based on a movie about Mexican characters.
Where’s a logical place for that attraction at Walt Disney World?
Yeah, you probably hadn’t considered that yet, but the arrival of Coco may signal that Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros is in trouble.
Disney already built that space for a boat ride. Switching to the Coco theme strikes me as likely, assuming the tech conversion is feasible.
The World Showcase has grown too popular to host unpopular rides, even ones I happen to love, such as Maelstrom and the Grand Fiesta Tour.
Why No Hotels?
Two of the hottest rumors surrounding Walt Disney World both involved Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and the surrounding area.
Disney has filed paperwork that suggests upcoming hotel projects close enough to Wilderness Lodge to count as an expansion.
Similarly, Disney IS doing things with the former Disney’s River Country.
Whether these changes involve the resurrection of Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge remains to be seen.
Based on what I’m hearing, I suspect that they do, but things can change at a moment’s notice, especially at Walt Disney World.
Here’s what I do know. Anaheim workers involved with the DisneylandForward negotiations directly addressed the lack of hotel space.
They indicated that Disney could build up to three new resorts on property.
The prevailing belief is that we’ll eventually get all three before the ten-year contract ends.
If so, Disney would effectively double the number of resorts here, raising the number from three to six.
You could argue seven if you count The Villas at Disneyland Hotel as a standalone property.
The point is that vast resort expansion is coming soon, and the same statement applies at Walt Disney World as well.
However, Disney has no reason to announce anything yet. The need for attendance will increase in combination with the expansion.
So, you should expect Disney to adopt a modular approach. It’ll announce new hotels when new attractions and lands are ready.
One of the unheralded reasons for expansion, one Disney has explicitly stated, is to add new inventory.
That’s why we’re getting four new Disney Cruise Line ships, too. There’s just no rush to announce anything.
Hotels only take about 30 months to build as a rule, and Disney can go even faster if needed.
Why No Logistics?
Simply stated, I suspect we’re far too early in the process. In fact, the previous thing ties into this one.
Until Disney finalizes its plans for upcoming hotel developments, it’s too soon for anything else like a Disney Skyliner expansion.
Yes, Disney knows where the developments should go, but Imagineers once knew where the Mary Poppins flat ride and PLAY! pavilion would go.
Things change. We learned this with the Brightline station that went away but recently returned.
At various points, this was a GO project, an absolutely dead project, and now it’s one progressing at a snail’s pace.
For other reasons, Disney is wildly unlikely to expand the monorail system, even though diehard fans would love that.
Then, we have Magical Express. Here’s a direct quote from a New York Times article on this very subject.
“To Disney-goers, the end of the Magical Express speaks to a larger issue: The cost of being at the happiest place on earth is going up while the perks are going away.”
Executives have indicated that Disney will alter its tactics should a theme park slowdown ensue.
During the recent earnings call, Disney projected just that, flat theme park attendance over the next few quarters.
So, now strikes me as the ideal time to restore Magical Express, but Disney has chosen otherwise, at least for the time being.
Therefore, Disney simply didn’t have any significant logistics projects to reveal.
Hopefully, that changes at Destination D next year, if not sooner.
But, as we just learned this past weekend, nothing is ever guaranteed.
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Feature Photo: Disney