New rides are in various stages of development and construction at Disney theme parks globally in a sweeping expansion effort that will introduce new lands and experiences. The lineup contains new attractions based on some of Disney’s most beloved classic characters and new superstar franchises alike.
Disney has announced 19 new rides coming to its theme parks, taking guests into the worlds of Coco, Spider-Man, Encanto, and The Lion King, among other stories. We have details, concept art, and estimated opening dates. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including Disney World’s Christmas party dates and a big change for gift cards at Disneyland and Disney World.
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Disney “Turbocharging” Expansion with New Rides
Walt Disney Imagineering is currently following a directive from Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro to “turbocharge” growth in California, Florida, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai with bold new attractions.
Lately, we’ve seen Disney reimagine existing rides into new experiences, such as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets and the upcoming overhaul of Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. Some of the projects described below fall into this category, but most of them are new rides that Disney is building from the ground up, and will change how guests vacation with Disney.
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Reflected in these new rides is an intentionality to deliver experiences across age groups: gentler rides geared toward young guests, new roller coasters, and some projects that even defy description because nothing like them currently exists.
We’ve already taken a look at the new, big-picture lands in Disney’s future. Today, we’re focusing on the rides.
Avatar Sequels Ride
A new boat ride based on 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water and 2025’s Avatar: Fire and Ash is coming to Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort.
This ride will feature calm moments and thrilling ones, like the scene pictured above featuring an encounter with a Tulkun, a whale-like creature. This is not a clone of Na’vi River Journey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The new Avatar boat ride is part of a larger Avatar land, replacing Disney California Adventure’s Monsters, Inc. ride and the existing Disneyland Resort transportation hub.
Mickey Visit predicts the new Avatar boat ride will open in 2030 or 2031. A lot of dominoes have to fall before then as part of a big-picture master plan for Disneyland Resort.
Possible Maleficent Roller Coaster
A Maleficent roller coaster might be coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Walt Disney Imagineering is building a huge new land in the park, known for now as Villains Land, based on the classic antagonists of Walt Disney Animation Studios films.
Imagineering hasn’t formally announced any specific attractions for Villains Land. However, the only publicly released concept art for Villains Land clearly shows a roller coaster track in two different places, with part of the track resembling the thorns from Maleficent’s fortress in Sleeping Beauty. Elsewhere in the artwork, Maleficent is shown in her dragon form.
Villains Land replaces part of what was formerly Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America at Magic Kingdom. It also expands the park’s footprint into what was previously undeveloped property.
With an entire land being built, we expect more than one ride to be part of the plans.
Mickey Visit predicts Villains Land will open in 2030 at the soonest. We anticipate Disney sharing more details during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in August 2026.
Coco Ride
A new boat ride based on Pixar’s Coco is coming to Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort.
The family-friendly indoor ride will venture into the Land of the Dead with Miguel, Dante, Pepita, and other familiar characters from the movie. The ride will feature state-of-the-art Audio-Animatronics figures, and Imagineers are taking inspiration from classics like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean for this new experience.
The Coco boat ride is now under construction and will be located in what was previously a backstage area near Incredicoaster.
Mickey Visit predicts the Coco ride will open in late 2028.
Wreck-It Ralph Ride
A ride based on the 2012 animated film Wreck-It Ralph is coming to Tokyo Disneyland.
This family-friendly blaster ride repurposes the park’s Buzz Lightyear attraction, which closed permanently in 2024. Riders will use their blasters to help Ralph and Vanellope fix “glitches” in the Sugar Rush video game code.
The Wreck-It Ralph ride will open in spring 2027.
Avengers Infinity Defense
Avengers Infinity Defense is a big-budget, high-tech ride coming to Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort.
In Avengers Infinity Defense, dozens of superheroes from across the multiverse unite against King Thanos, a new variant of the familiar Marvel villain that hasn’t appeared in the movies.
Disney hasn’t shared many details about the actual ride system for Avengers Infinity Defense, but the vehicles and artwork shared so far suggest that it may be similar to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Islands of Adventure. If that’s the case, guests might expect a thrilling ride blending physical sets with screen-based elements.
This ride is part of a huge expansion of Avengers Campus, which also includes another new ride we discuss further into the article.
Mickey Visit predicts Avengers Infinity Defense will open by late 2027.
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Lion King Log Flume
A log flume based on the original 1994 version of The Lion King is coming to Disney Adventure World, the newly renamed and reimagined theme park formerly known as Walt Disney Studios Park, at Disneyland Paris.
This ride will adapt the template of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Splash Mountain to tell the story of Simba growing up to become king of the Pride Lands with Audio-Animatronics figures, music, and water plunges. However, Disney is building this ride from scratch, as Disneyland Paris never had its own Splash Mountain or Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The ride is part of a new Lion King land, joining the recently opened World of Frozen, bringing fully immersive story worlds to this theme park.
Mickey Visit predicts the Lion King log flume ride will open in 2028 or 2029.
Monsters, Inc. Roller Coaster
A suspended roller coaster based on the door vault chase in Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. is coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.
The coaster recently reached a significant milestone in its construction.
The door vault coaster is part of Monstropolis, a new land that partially expands the footprint of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as well as replaces the park’s former Muppets Courtyard area, including Muppet*Vision 3D, which closed in 2025. We recently walked the construction site with Imagineers, who shared how they’re putting more details into the land’s architecture than audiences saw in the film.
Mickey Visit predicts the Monsters, Inc. roller coaster will open in 2028.
Avengers “Tower of Terror”
A drop tower ride themed to the Avengers is coming to Tomorrowland in Hong Kong Disneyland.
This ride will adapt Disney’s ride system previously used for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission – BREAKOUT! to tell a new story. Concept art depicts Spider-Man saving riders from the clutches of Doc Ock. Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Thor will also be part of the story.
Disney is building this ride from the ground up rather than repurposing an existing ride, as Hong Kong Disneyland does not already have a drop tower ride.
Encanto Ride
A ride based on Disney’s 2021 animated hit Encanto is coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
This family-friendly ride will take place inside the Madrigal family’s Casita on the day that Antonio receives his gift of talking to animals. Disney hasn’t shared details about the ride system, but the attraction will be some form of a modern Fantasyland-style dark ride.
The Encanto ride is part of the new Tropical Americas land, which replaces and expands the property formerly belonging to DinoLand, U.S.A. The Tropical Americas land also includes two more rides, which we discuss below.
The new Encanto ride will open in 2027.
New Space Mountain
A new version of Space Mountain is coming to Tokyo Disneyland.
Unlike many overhauls of classic attractions, Disney is building an entirely new roller coaster inside a completely new mountain, next to the park’s original Space Mountain, which permanently closed in 2024 and was later demolished.
Disney says the new version of the ride will share a message of “our connection to our planet” and “how special it is in all the universe.”
The new Space Mountain will open in 2027.
Spider-Man Roller Coaster
A new Spider-Man roller coaster is coming to Shanghai Disneyland.
The coaster will contain at least one indoor show scene, but is likely to be mostly outdoors, a departure from Disney’s norm. The ride vehicles in the concept art seem to be the same as the spinning vehicles of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
This roller coaster is part of a new Spider-Man land, but so far, the coaster is the only attraction Disney has revealed for this area.
Mickey Visit predicts the Spider-Man roller coaster will open in 2028.
“Off-Road” Cars Ride
A new thrill ride based on Pixar’s Cars is coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
Guests will ride in a four-person, open-air car that mimics an off-road race. It’s part of a new area in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland called Piston Peak National Park. Celebrating the beauty of U.S. national parks, Piston Peak replaces part of what used to be Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America.
This ride is not a copy of Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure, and Piston Peak National Park is not a copy of Cars Land.
Piston Peak will also feature one more ride, which we will share later in the article.
Mickey Visit predicts the Cars off-road thrill ride will open in 2029 or later.
Possible Adventureland Roller Coaster
A revamped Adventureland, complete with what looks like an Incredibles roller coaster, is possibly coming to Tokyo Disneyland.
In 2025, Tokyo Disney Resort’s owners, Oriental Land Company (OLC), shared the above artwork as an example of a “conceptual image of theme park area redesign” depicting an overhauled Adventureland, to be completed by 2035.
Of particular note is what seems to be a roller coaster and a mountainous setting resembling Nomanisan Island, the location of Syndrome’s lair in The Incredibles.
Crucially, this is a concept only, evidently important enough for Disney and OLC to place that disclaimer two times on the above image. The companies have not formally announced any plans for the ideas represented in the artwork.
Stark Flight Lab
A new thrill ride called Stark Flight Lab is coming to Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort.
In this attraction, riders test out new tech from Tony Stark that trains superheroes in their flight patterns. As for the actual ride, a giant robotic arm will pick up a two-person seat and fling it through the air! Different Avengers heroes will narrate each round of flights, so it will be possible for guests to get a different experience if they ride multiple times.
Stark Flight Lab is part of the Avengers Campus expansion, which also includes Avengers Infinity Defense, described earlier in this article.
Mickey Visit predicts Stark Flight Lab will open in mid-2027 or late 2027.
Indiana Jones Thrill Ride
An Indiana Jones thrill ride is coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.
The attraction will repurpose the Jeeps from the former DINOSAUR ride, which permanently closed in February 2026. Riders will join Indy for a dark, bumpy voyage through a Mayan temple.
While the ride will have a lot in common with Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure, Imagineers are telling a new story with the Animal Kingdom attraction.
The Indiana Jones attraction is part of the new Tropical Americas land, which also includes the aforementioned Encanto ride and one more ride, which we discuss below.
The new Indiana Jones ride will open in 2027.
Family-Friendly Cars Ride
A family-friendly ride based on Pixar’s Cars is coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
The ride is part of the new Piston Peak National Park area in Frontierland, along with the “off-roading” thrill ride described above. Disney has promised a less thrilling ride is also part of Piston Peak’s plans, but hasn’t shared details on the experience or what type of ride system to expect. We hope to hear new information at D23 later this summer.
Mickey Visit predicts the family-friendly Cars ride will open in 2029 or later.
Animal Carousel
A new carousel is coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.
This traditional merry-go-round is part of the new Tropical Americas land, which takes place in the fictional village of Pueblo Esperanza. So the lore goes, one of the citizens of Pueblo Esperanza is a woodcarver who fashioned his carousel’s steeds to resemble animal characters from his favorite stories.
Concept art depicts Pumbaa the warthog from The Lion King and Squirt the sea turtle from Finding Nemo, to name a few.
The new carousel will open in 2027.
Wilderness Explorers Sky Swings
Wilderness Explorers Sky Swings is a new ride coming to Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris.
Located in the park’s scenic Adventure Way promenade, this traditional swing ride is based on Pixar’s Up. The ride’s queue will set up a story of guests earning their aviation badge as part of the Wilderness Explorers program with Russell from the movie.
Wilderness Explorers Sky Swings will open in 2027.
Possible New Port Discovery Ride(s)
New rides are possibly coming to Port Discovery in Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort.
Along with the possible Adventureland makeover described earlier, Oriental Land Company shared the above image in 2025 as a “conceptual” example of a “redesign” to be rolled out by 2035. OLC’s official image is not as high-resolution as the Adventureland image, making it more difficult to call out possible futures or even which Disney franchises these changes could be based upon.
No specific attractions have been formally announced for this project, but there is more movement on this one than on Adventureland. In fall 2026, the Aquatopia water-blasting attraction will permanently close, which may or may not be connected to any long-term plans Disney and OLC may have for Port Discovery.
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