A Disney theme park just completed a new phase of a multi-year expansion. This was a transformation so extreme that the park changed its name. As part of those changes, more new attractions are on the way in the future, including a first-of-its-kind new land and ride that has already garnered a lot of attention.
Disney shared updates on new rides currently under construction, based on some of the company’s most beloved animated films. Keep reading to see what’s coming. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including popcorn buckets available right now at Disney World and all the roller coasters coming to Disney theme parks.
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1. Disney’s First Lion King Ride
Disney Adventure World is officially the new name of the theme park formerly known as Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. In tandem with the renaming, two new lands called World of Frozen and Adventure Way just opened. A future land will transport guests to Pride Rock from The Lion King, which Disney first announced at 2024’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.
This land’s centerpiece will be an indoor-and-outdoor log flume thrill ride with Audio-Animatronics figures, similar to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Splash Mountain at other Disney theme parks. Riders will see the story of Simba unfold as the hero goes from cub to king.
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The upcoming ride based on The Lion King differs from Disney’s approach to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in a significant way. When creating both versions of that ride for Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida, Imagineers were converting an existing ride, Splash Mountain, into a new attraction.
Disneyland Paris doesn’t have, and never had, Splash Mountain, so Disney is building this Lion King ride from the ground up. Thanks to newly revealed details, we can start to see how Disney is approaching this ride when starting with a blank slate.
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Disney Adventure World’s The Lion King ride will have three waterfall drops. The final drop will be 16 meters, or 52.49 feet, tall, about the same height as the final drop of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Pride Rock itself, standing as an architectural icon of the ride building, will be 37 meters, or 121.39 feet, tall. For comparison, Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Paris is 50.9 meters, or about 167 feet, tall.
The behind-the-scenes photo above shows that Imagineers have created maquettes, or miniature sculptures, of Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki, and the hyenas from The Lion King. Maquettes are traditionally part of early development work for full-size Audio-Animatronics figures, so riders might see all of those characters as Audio-Animatronics in the ride.
Disney says the log flume’s water effects will be appropriate for its Parisian climate. Unlike the typically warm weather of California and Florida, this attraction will have to contend with winter temperatures. To mitigate this, only one of the ride’s drops is outdoors. We could also see Disney lessening some of the spray and splash effects during colder parts of the year.
The entirety of the new Lion King land will take up 30,000 square meters, or 7.41 acres. In addition to the log flume ride, the land will have multiple dining locations and a shop. Imagineers are taking inspiration from the East African country of Tanzania in creating the new land.
Beth Clapperton is the creative director for the project. Her career includes 30 years at Disneyland Paris, and she was recently the creative director of Marvel Avengers Campus there.
Members of the original Lion King film crew visited Walt Disney Imagineering’s headquarters to see the artists’ development on the ride. Newly revealed photos show Don Hahn, producer of The Lion King, above, and Andreas Deja, supervising animator of Scar, below, both looking at scale models of the ride with Imagineers.
While Hahn and Deja undoubtedly provided valuable insight from their experience creating the movie during their visit, it’s our understanding that they are not an active part of the ride’s creative team. This differs from Deja’s role as a consultant on the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom.
Disney revealed the new details and photos shared in this article in the new book Adventure Has a New Name: The Making of Disney Adventure World. We received a review copy of the book while visiting Disneyland Paris for the opening of the new expansion. This is a hefty coffee table book with incredible photography and artwork. This follows a long line of other great coffee table books about Disneyland Paris put together by the same team. As of now, the book will only be sold at Disneyland Paris.
While visiting Disney Adventure World’s grand opening, we were able to see Imagineers’ test drop for the upcoming Lion King ride set up backstage, pictured above. It’s not in the location where the ride will be, but it’s interesting to see how Disney is preparing for Disneyland Paris’s first log flume ride.
2. Disney’s First Up Ride
The world’s first ride based on Pixar’s 2009 film Up is currently under construction at Disney Adventure World in Disneyland Paris. The ride itself will be pretty simple, but because this is Disney, there will be a lot of extra theming and details packed into the experience.
The Up attraction will be a traditional swing-type ride, with individual seats hanging from metal chains that are lifted into the air and gently spun in a circle. Disney first announced this attraction in spring 2025 and just shared new details.
Within the backstory of the Up ride, riders are part of the Wilderness Explorers, the scout program that the young boy Russell belongs to in the movie. Today, Wilderness Explorers have an opportunity to earn their aviation badge, hence the flying.
Even if guests don’t pick up on the story, the basic concept of the ride still echoes Carl tying balloons to his house and journeying into the skies.
Within the queue, guests will see some of the artifacts from the film, including Carl and Ellie’s “adventure book” scrapbook and the couple’s aviation goggles.
This ride will be located in Adventure Way, a newly opened land at Disney Adventure World that also includes a Tangled-themed teacups ride. The attraction will integrate the story of Up within the elegant charm of Adventure Way’s garden aesthetic with ornamentation in its ironwork of Carl, Russell, Dug, and Kevin from the film, as well as balloons from Carl’s house.
Mickey Visit attended the grand opening of Disney Adventure World and toured all the new attractions. See our coverage for what’s inside the two new lands and a review of the park’s upscale character dining.
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