Walt Disney World guests have a lot to look forward to in 2026. In fact, all four Walt Disney World parks will open new or updated attractions in 2026. In this article, we’re going to share the opening dates we already know and predict when each attraction without set dates will open.
There are many unanswered questions about when Disney World’s new rides will open we’d like to tackle with some predictions, based on Disney’s history of theme park construction and other projects in development elsewhere. These are in addition to the bigger new rides also coming. At Mickey Visit, we cover the latest Disney news, like the return of a popular Disney World hotel perk and a Disney World sit-down restaurant closing for a lengthy refurbishment.
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Disney World’s New Rides and Attractions for 2026
On the heels of an eventful past few years and on the cusp of a turbocharged era of massive expansion in the years to come (more on that at the bottom of the article), 2026 shouldn’t be counted out when it come to new Disney World attractions.
Disney World will debut attractions in the coming months based on:
- Bluey
- Star Wars
- Toy Story 5
- The Muppet Show
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+
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and more. We’re going to dive into all of them below.
While Disney has announced specific opening dates for a handful of these new attractions, many of them remain undated. However, based on Disney’s history of attraction openings and the current progress of the experiences in question, we can guesstimate when these new 2026 attractions might debut so you can plan your trip accordingly.
2026 Disney World Rides Opening Dates
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, the interactive dark ride at Magic Kingdom, closed in August 2025 for a major refurbishment.
When Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reopens, handheld blasters will replace the stationary ones and ride vehicles will be upgraded with new video monitors with real-time scoring updates.
Additionally, a new scene at the beginning of the ride at the beginning of the ride will introduce Buddy, a new Audio-Animatronics character. She’s excited to train you on how to use your blaster before you embark upon your mission. These are just a few of the many new effects we’re excited to see in this updated version of the ride.
Disney has said Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will reopen sometime in spring 2026, but has not specified an exact opening date.
In March 2026, Disney released a 15-second commercial promoting the changes to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. The ad said the attraction is “relaunching soon.”
While this still doesn’t provide specific clarity, the fact that publicity is in motion toward the general public, and not just hardcore Disney fans as it has been the past few months, implies the ride will reopen sooner vs. later when contemplating what “spring 2026” could mean.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reopening prediction – April 2026
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Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom closed in January 2025 for refurbishment. This iconic roller coaster has now been closed for over a year. This is one of the longest refurbishments in recent memory for a classic Walt Disney World attraction, and we know fans can’t wait to get back onboard “the wildest ride in the wilderness.”
During the downtime, Disney replaced the entire track, installed new effects during its lift hill scene, and made general improvements to the ride experience.
Disney has said Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will reopen in spring 2026, but hasn’t revealed an exact opening date. The current state of the outside of the attraction, though, may provide a clue.
The photo above was captured in mid-February 2026. While it’s hard to tell how much work is left on the attraction itself, we’re interested in the exit pathway, enlarged for clarity in the inset photo. It’s not in any walkable condition for guests to access safely.
When Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was last open, the exit pathway was adjacent to the Rivers of America. That waterway is no longer there as Disney builds Piston Peak National Park, an upcoming area with two new rides themed to Pixar’s Cars.
While it’s true that Disney may be able to simply put up some construction walls along that side of the exit walkway coming from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, what’s perhaps not as clear in the photo above is the significant elevation changes of this area, from where the path’s perimeter formerly dropped off into the Rivers of America.
For these reasons, we think Disney still has some work ahead of them along this pathway before Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is ready to reopen. Additionally, that’s just what we can see. There’s no way of knowing the kind of state the interior of the attraction is currently in.
If Disney sticks with its previously announced “spring 2026” reopening for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we think it will be in the later part of the season. As WDW Magic reports, Disney recently filed a local permit related to the coaster’s construction site that expires on August 31, 2026, which may or may not indicate an extension of the project’s timeline.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopening prediction – May 2026
Soarin’ Across America is a new, limited-time version of the Soarin’ ride at EPCOT that will specifically highlight aerial views of the United States of America. The current version, Soarin’ Around the World, spans the entire globe. The attraction’s original incarnation, which recently returned to Disneyland Resort for a limited engagement, focused just on California.
The new Soarin’ Across America is part of Disney Celebrates America, a campaign throughout the entire Walt Disney Company honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Disney has said Soarin’ Across America will open at EPCOT “by Memorial Day” 2026. This year, Memorial Day is Monday, May 25. Historically when Disney opens new attractions on Memorial Day Weekend, the rides tend to open at the top of the weekend rather than on the holiday itself. If that’s the case with Soarin’ Across America, the new version of the ride could open on Friday, May 22. Or, it could be even earlier. “By Memorial Day” isn’t the same as “on Memorial Day.”
Disney has stated that Soarin’ Across America will be open by May 25, 2026, if not earlier.
Soarin’ Across America opening – Late May 2026
Disney has not specified how long Soarin’ Across America will be operating at EPCOT, but it is a temporary engagement rather than a permanent replacement.
Ordinarily with attractions that debut as part of multi-month campaigns, we could simply assume it would run for the duration of that event. In this case, though, Soarin’ Across America is not debuting at the start of the campaign it’s part of. Disney Celebrates America kicked off on Veterans Day 2025 and continues through Independence Day 2026. With Disney having promoted Soarin’ Across America since fall 2025, the new version of the ride will undoubtedly stick around longer than just a few weeks.
It’s worth noting that Soarin’ Across America will also debut at Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort. For the west coast, though, Disney has already announced a firm opening date of July 2, 2026.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will introduce a new mission with Din Djarin aka the Madalorian and Grogu aka “baby Yoda.”
This will be a permanent replacement of the ride’s current storyline, which focuses on Hondo Ohnaka, a character from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Whether the Audio-Animatronics figure of Hondo in the pre-show will still be part of the attraction remains to be seen.
This new storyline will also come with upgraded technology for this 2019 attraction. The real-time image rendering inside the Millennium Falcon windows will look smoother than ever.
Each rider on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is assigned a role within the ship’s crew: pilot, gunner, or engineer. Typically the engineer position is lamented as the most boring assignment, with little to do other than push a button when you’re told. That will change with the new version opens, as the engineer will now be responsible for looking after Grogu!
Disney has already officially announced the new version of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run on the same day the new movie The Mandalorian and Grogu releases in theaters.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run new mission opening date – May 22, 2026
The changes to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will also debut that same day at Disneyland Park in California, where they arrive shortly after a more fluid timeline for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge debuts.
For the second year in a row, Walt Disney World will host a campaign called Cool KIDS’ SUMMER with family-friendly activations. This year, Cool KIDS’ SUMMER takes place from May 26 – September 8, 2026, and some of the festivities will only take place during that period rather than sticking around permanently.
A temporary new attraction for Cool KIDS’ SUMMER is Jessie’s Roundup, coming to the Diamond Horseshoe in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. The Diamond Horseshoe is currently home to table-service dining, but has been used for entertainment purposes over the years. Its saloon-like interior style is similar to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue over at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
To celebrate Toy Story 5, Jessie’s Roundup inside the Diamond Horseshoe will feature character appearances by Jessie and Woody, as well as dancing and crafts.
We anticipate Jessie’s Roundup being a win for families with young kids visiting Magic Kingdom this summer. It’s indoors with air conditioning, the venue is already themed perfectly to Jessie, and it provides a unique way to interact with characters beyond the typical photo-and-autograph routine.
As a bonus, the Diamond Horseshoe is somewhat easy to miss, meaning it’s unlikely to be mobbed with huge crowds even with special entertainment happening.
The Diamond Horseshoe will discontinue its restaurant service starting May 16, 2026. Table-service dining will return sometime in fall 2026 after Cool KIDS’ SUMMER is over.
Jessie’s Roundup opening date – May 26, 2026
The hit animated series Bluey will make its Walt Disney World debut at Disney’s Animal Kingdom later this year.
Bluey and her sister Bingo will make appearances at Conservation Station, which guests access by riding the Wildlife Express train from the park’s Africa area.
Disney says guests can “play and dance” with the characters, which may imply there won’t be traditional meet & greet opportunities with Bluey and Bingo.
Conservation Station has historically been a relatively quiet area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, especially considering the train ride required to get there. We anticipate the area receiving a lot more traffic once Bluey arrives, and we’re interested to see how the venue handles these bigger crowds.
Disney has said Bluey and Bingo will debut at Conservation Station in summer 2026, but has not provided a specific date. The characters have been advertised in tandem with Cool KIDS’ SUMMER, which kicks off May 26, 2026, but it’s unclear if the Bluey experience will open on that same day.
In any case, we think Disney wouldn’t have communicated Bluey and Cool KIDS’ SUMMER in the same publicity blitz if the two topics weren’t happening around the same time. For this reason, we predict Bluey may debut with the onset of Cool KIDS’ SUMMER in late May, or if not then, very shortly afterward. Regardless, we expect Bluey to stick around after Cool KIDS’ SUMMER is over on September 9, 2026.
Until then, Conservation Station and the Wildlife Express Train remain inaccessible, having closed on February 23, 2026, to prepare for Bluey.
Bluey at Conservation Station opening prediction – Late May 2026
In 2025, an indoor stage show called Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! premiered at Disney California Adventure in Disneyland Resort. Later this year, the show will open a duplicate version at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World.
The show features Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Daisy, and Pluto in a call-and-response audience format similar to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ television series.
The production will debut inside a building known for hosting preschool-geared productions in the past, most recently Disney Jr. Play and Dance!
Disney says that Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! will open in summer 2026 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but has not announced a specific opening date.
Like the Bluey experience coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the show has sometimes been promoted as part of Cool KIDS’ SUMMER, but has not been formally attached to that campaign’s May 26, 2026, start date. Also like Bluey, we expect Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! to be a semi-permanent addition to Disney World’s offerings beyond the limited-time run of Cool KIDS’ SUMMER.
Complicating an opening date for Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! is the ongoing construction immediately surrounding its venue. The theater is located in an area of Disney’s Hollywood Studios currently walled off and inaccessible to guests. This plaza was formerly called Animation Courtyard and is in the process of becoming a reimagined space known as The Walt Disney Studios.
The marquee attraction in The Walt Disney Studios will be called The Magic of Disney Animation. We’ll have more to say on that attraction later in this article, but Disney has said that The Magic of Disney Animation will open in “late summer 2026.”
However, Disney has said that Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! will open before The Magic of Disney Animation.
Additionally, as mentioned with Bluey, it would be misleading for Disney to advertise Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! hand in hand with Cool KIDS’ SUMMER if the show was not going to operate until the end of the summer.
Aerial photography shows that the outdoor portion of The Walt Disney Studios area might be almost ready to welcome guests. Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! will be located in the building in the bottom right corner in the photo above. The building with the two gray columns in the middle of the photo is the future home of The Magic of Disney Animation. The building on the left is home to The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure, which remains open during construction.
In the outdoor portions of The Walt Disney Studios area, landscaping is already installed and foundations are in place for signage. Disney may be planning to open the plaza itself, including Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!, earlier in the summer while still maintaining a late summer opening for The Magic of Disney Animation.
Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live opening prediction – Late May 2026
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith permanently closed on March 2, 2026, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Imagineers are currently transforming the attraction into Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets.
When the ride reopens, the existing track will remain in place. The story will instead incorporate Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, the Electric Mayhem band, and other favorites Muppets.
While refraining from announcing a specific opening date yet, Disney has said Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets will open in summer 2026. No matter when within summer this attraction opens, that’s an extremely fast turn-around compared to previous transformations of rides.
Taking an existing attraction and shaping it into a new experience is a relatively typical strategy for Disney. At Disneyland and Magic Kingdom, Splash Mountain recently became Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, DINOSAUR is in the process of becoming a new Indiana Jones ride. In each of these instances, the “ride” remains the same, but the experience becomes very different.
However, for both Splash Mountain and DINOSAUR, at least a year of downtime was/is required for Disney to transform the attraction into its new iteration.
The fastest example of this approach in recent memory was when The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror closed at Disney California Adventure in January 2017 and reopened an astounding four months later in May 2017 as Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission – BREAKOUT!
The opening date of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets is a bit tricky to predict because we don’t know how extensive the work inside will be different from what came before.
We know the story still takes place at G-Force Records, so the queue likely won’t look radically different. The pre-show will have at least one new Audio-Animatronics figure, Scooter, but the Aerosmith version of the pre-show already closed months before the ride itself, so work may have already been ongoing for that.
Since Disney has said Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets will open in “summer 2026,” it’s natural to assume Disney would want it ready at the beginning of the season as soon as school get outs, but that hasn’t been the case with previous Disney World summer openings the past two years. In 2024, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opened at Magic Kingdom on June 28. In 2025, the reimagined version of Test Track at EPCOT opened on July 22.
Disney has not committed to promoting Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets in tandem with the Memorial Day Week launch of the new mission on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and the Cool KIDS’ SUMMER activations. Additionally, Disney’s language of promoting the coaster has stuck with having a “summer 2026” launch while actively saying The Magic of Disney Animation will open in “late summer 2026.” This indicates Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets may land somewhere in between the two timeframes of Memorial Day and late summer. We could see it pulled up to the Memorial Day / early June period, but to be safe we wouldn’t count on it being open by then.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opening prediction – July 2026
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the complex that once housed Star Wars Launch Bay will be transformed back into a new version of The Magic of Disney Animation, a longtime attraction that closed in 2015.
The aesthetic here will be modeled after Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
The new iteration of The Magic of Disney Animation will showcase the artistry of animation with hands-on activities like drawing classes hosted by an Audio-Animatronics figure of Olaf from Frozen, an indoor playground, and character meet & greets.
This pavilion-style attraction is part of the aforementioned larger project called The Walt Disney Studios, which also includes Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! While Disney has said that show will open in “summer 2026,” the company has been firm in saying The Magic of Disney Animation” won’t arrive until “late summer 2026.”
With Disney’s verbiage of a “late summer” opening for this attraction and based on all the reasons above for how the company is communicating about its other new attractions, we predict The Magic of Disney Animation to debut in August. Disney would likely prefer to roll it out at the same time as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, but the difference in language for each attraction’s opening timeframe indicates that may not happen.
The Magic of Disney Animation opening prediction – August 2026
Bonus: Cinderella Castle Transformation
While not a new attraction in the sense of the other experiences listed above, there’s one more item coming in 2026 that we’d be remiss to not include here.
Cinderella Castle will return to its original white-and-blue color color scheme, replacing the look Disney introduced in 2020 with pink, deep blue, and gold accents.
When Disney announced the new color scheme for the castle at Destination D23 in 2025, the crowd of Disney fans erupted in cheers. It was the loudest applause we heard all weekend, which says something considering the event was packed with lots of exciting announcements.
Disney isn’t simply reverting the castle back to its pre-2020 look, but rather attempting to restore it to its original, pristine design from Magic Kingdom’s opening day in 1971.
The last time the castle was significantly repainted was during the pandemic shutdown of March – July 2020. Of course, during that period, painters could work during any time of day, even with obstructive equipment, since there were no guests inside the closed park.
Work began in January 2026 on Cinderella Castle’s new paint job. As it currently stands, the castle is in limbo between old and new, as seen in the photo above. Parts of the majestic edifice display the new white color, while others remain with the old pink shade.
With the entire back side and some of the front already completed in just over a month, it seems this project is progressing fast.
Cinderella Castle repainting completion prediction – April 2026
What’s Coming to Disney World in 2027 and Beyond
Looking ahead beyond 2026, an array of large-scale projects are currently under construction at Walt Disney World. These include:
- Tropical Americas, a new land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with rides based on Encanto and Indiana Jones
- Monstropolis, a new land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with a Monsters, Inc. roller coaster
- Piston Peak National Park, a new area of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom with two new Cars rides
- Villains Land, new at Magic Kingdom
Check out our separate coverage where we dived into the details of all four of these major projects and predicted when they may open!
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