Any theme park fan is excited by new attractions coming to their favorite park. There’s a lot new coming to Walt Disney World over the next few years, which means there’s a great deal to get excited about. Unfortunately, in order to build something new means the least wonderful thing to happen in theme parks, construction walls.
Nobody likes construction walls. They block off parts of your favorite park from access, and while Disney World always does its best to make them a bit less of an eyesore, there’s only so much that can be done. Dealing with one set of annoying construction walls is no fun, but there are going to be a lot more than one set of those walls at Walt Disney World over the next several years.
This isn’t about whether or not everything that’s on the way to Walt Disney World is better or worse than what was there before. I’ve written extensively on how torn I am, very excited for what is to come, and frustrated we’re losing some classic attractions. The issue here is what happens in between, when there’s simply nothing there at all.
A Lot Of Walt Disney World Is Going To Be Closed For The Next Few Years
At D23 last summer, Disney Experiences shifted away from talking “blue sky” concepts and focused on real attractions and lands that were planned for Disney Parks around the world. There’s a lot on the way over the next several years. Multiple new lands were announced, with new ones coming to Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Each of these was going to require a major construction effort, and because of that, I sort of assumed that Disney World would focus on one at a time, with construction on the next not starting until the previous job was finished, or at least close to being done. How wrong I was.
The first walls went up at Disney’s Animal Kingdom earlier this year as most, though not quite all of Dinoland U.S.A., was shut down as work began on the new Tropical Americas land, set to include attractions based on Encanto and Indiana Jones. Those walls were then joined this week by the blocking off of Grand Avenue at Disney’s Hollywood Studios following the end of Muppet*Vision 3D. The area formerly given over to the Muppets is now set to be transformed into a new Monsters, Inc. land.
But wait, there‘s more. The third, and least popular of the major land redevelopments, begins in a little over a month. A large portion of Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland will be locked off following the Fourth of July weekend as it begins a transformation into a new Cars-themed area called Piston Peak.
This means in less than a month, there will be three major lands behind construction walls at three of Walt Disney World’s four theme parks. Even Epcot isn’t entirely immune; while construction walls recently came down, the park’s Test Track attraction has been closed since last year for redevelopment. However, that ride is expected to reopen soon, meaning Epcot will be the one place guests can avoid the dreaded construction walls.
It’s Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better
Major construction in three of the four Disney World parks is a lot to see happening at once. The issue isn’t simply that these attractions are being removed and guests won’t be able to experience them. The removed attractions simply reduce the places guests can go. Fewer attractions mean longer lines for the ones that remain. Construction walls will shrink the walkways, making the entire park feel more crowded.
And the reduction in space doesn’t stop there. We know that two other major attractions at Disney World are scheduled to close sometime in 2026. We’ve been guaranteed that Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom will remain open through this year, which indicates it will close sometime in 2026. Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios is also set for a 2026 closure so it can begin a retheming into a Muppets attraction.
None of these major construction efforts will be done before these two additional rides go down. The only attractions currently closed that are expected to be open by then are the previously mentioned Test Track and the new Zootopia: Better Together 3D movie that is currently going into the former It’s Tough To Be A Bug theater in Animal Kingdom.
It’s hard to argue that anybody visiting Walt Disney World over the next couple of years isn’t going to end up with a significantly subpar experience. With so much closed, the simple act of walking around the parks is going to be a lot less fun than usual. There will be a lot less to do almost everyplace you turn.
It’s rare for there not to be something under construction, closed for refurbishment, or otherwise unavailable at Disney World on any given day, and I understand the desire to get to work on all these projects at once; the sooner they start, the sooner they’re done. This is just a lot to have closed at once.
The Long Term Future Of Walt Disney World Is Bright
While the massive construction all happening at once is going to make Walt Disney World a bit of a rough experience for the next couple of years, that doesn’t mean that the outlook for the resort in the long term isn’t wonderful.
Because all this work is happening simultaneously, a lot of it is going to be done very close together as well. We’ll see major openings of one brand-new land after another, and there are some absolutely incredible attractions on the way.
The Monsters Inc. Doorcoaster is a roller coaster I thought we’d never see, and it will be the first hanging coaster in a Disney park. The new Tropical Americas land in Animal Kingdom will finally bring representation of a major global area that the park has been missing. The new Cars area, combined with the upcoming Villains land expansion, will transform the most popular theme park in the world in a way that will serve it for decades to come.
