Disney unveiled a slate of new ride announcements and updates over the weekend during the biggest fan event of the year. In addition to the Disneyland announcements and new Disney World announcements on stage, we also learned details from reveals of models and concept artwork in the Imagineering pavilion. The key theme across all of the announcements is that Disney is listening to fans.
Some of the announcements were in reaction to specific fan complaints, and others clearly incorporate knowledge of what fans are looking for. The announcements happened quickly on Saturday night, and many fans haven’t paused to realize how far we have come in the past 7 years. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including the seasonal Disneyland treats that replaced its anniversary offerings, and a big apps change just made at the theme parks.
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Disney Demonstrated They Are Listening to Parks Fans
The Disney theme parks leadership now seems to understand that Disney fans are a category of fandom. They have made specific announcements that value characters and stories of the theme parks in a way equal to the Disney films. Disney just held D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California. During the event, there are big presentations with announcements about the future of the theme parks and movie studio. We are specifically focused today on the contents of the big theme park presentation.
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Disney has come a long way in understanding their fan audience. In 2019, the D23 Disney Experiences panel spent five minutes focused on the launch of Disney merchandise shelves in Target and on the Target website. Bob Chapek, then parks chairman, standing next to the CEO of Target, said to a room of 7,000 Disney fans: “Something magical is happening at Target…you’ll find fun Instagrammable moments and interactive content and of course an assortment of high-quality Disney Store products all in one place.” This felt like more of a business update than a fun presentation for the most passionate fans.
This was the same era that Disney was spending multiple billion dollars on building two of the same Star Wars-themed lands in California and Florida. The lands were meant to be a flagship location for the new version of the Star Wars movies that started with the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie. This era of the theme parks focused on injecting the current Disney intellectual property that Disney CEO Bob Iger amassed into the theme parks. Some of these projects were big hits with fans, while others lacked some Disney Parks magic and felt like they didn’t exist in the context of the Disney theme parks.
Flash forward to 2026, and the set of announcements that we heard feel very different. The announcements this year build on a slate that feels bespoke and fitting within the established parks fandom. We learned more about the upcoming Cars expansion area, Monsters Inc. land, Indiana Jones ride, two new Avengers Campus rides, and more. These are expansions based on movies, but done in a creative way that fits into the parks. Disney has found a way to balance these additions based on popular movies with the fandom of the theme parks in these announcements. They are now achieving both the addition of popular movies while doing it in a way that fits the theme parks.
Today, I believe that Disney leadership sees fans of Disney theme park history as a legitimate bucket the same way that they see fans of Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney Animation. Being a fan of Disneyland or Walt Disney World is finally being recognized as being a fan of a specific history, attractions, and memories tied to the theme parks.
This approach is coming to life in many ways. It means that in the near term we can see Disneyland bring back my favorite fireworks show that specifically features the sounds of Disneyland attractions, and in the long term, see them commit to redoing Tomorrowland and pushing off Avatar.
When I heard that “Remember…Dreams Come True” was returning during a media briefing ahead of the presentation on Saturday, I was overjoyed. This is a fireworks show that highlights all the lands of Disneyland with musical medleys featuring favorite attractions. It is focused on rides and not movies. A part of Disneyland I thought was gone forever was returning, and I realized that Disney was finally valuing Disneyland the same way that I do.
Yes, I am a fan of all of Disney, but it is the feeling created by walking into Disneyland, the place that keeps me excited. It seems like Disney is once again ready to celebrate this special place as the heart of the company. People are not fans of Disney; they are fans of specific characters, franchises, and yes, theme parks. Disney clearly is recognizing that the fans of the theme parks are a big enough group that, if they lean into delivering for these fans, they will keep the core of the fandom energized and passionate about the parks.
In addition, announcements “for fans” now matter to far more people, because the core fandom and understanding of small issues has become so widely known through the internet. Parks Chairman Thomas Mazloum publicly shared on stage that they are finally going to fix the Yeti inside Expedition Everest. Showing a sense of humor and deep understanding of the fandom, he mentioned “Disco Yeti” on stage, a reference to the current state of the figure, which stopped moving and now just has a strobe light on it.
More people than ever would call themselves a Disney fan or a casual Disney fan. Where in the past some of these things would be niche, today bigger audiences of people know about these small details. Social media and the internet have dramatically expanded the number of people paying attention to the details.
Disney is also acknowledging that Tomorrowland needs work and improvement to reflect Walt Disney’s original vision for the land. The Disneyland leadership was candid with us during a briefing, even acknowledging fan comments. Disneyland President Jill Estorino called out comments she had read online about Tomorrowland being “tired” and having “very little tomorrow” in it. “You’re right.” In that same briefing, they referred to Disneyland as Walt’s park and said that they wanted to respect his original vision for the land in the work. I see how passionate these leaders and Imagineers are about delivering work that connects to the fans.
Disney is bringing this same approach to Walt Disney World. They are listening to specific complaints to improve rides and recognizing that Disney fandom exists. They are going to bring a long-requested update to the Figment attraction in EPCOT. Fans of the original version of the ride have been complaining about the current iteration for years, and Disney is actually committing to make the improvements that fans are asking for. They are making a similar choice by restoring the original Jules Verne-themed version of Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris.
Disney again continued with the same positive choice that we saw in the huge slate of announcements from 2024. There were no duplicate rides announced between any of the theme parks. As I mentioned in passing above, I believe it was a mistake for Disney to build two identical Star Wars lands in the US. While they saved money on development, they decreased the need for park fans to visit both US destinations. People are more mobile than ever, so it is important that Disney develop a distinct set of products between Walt Disney World and Disneyland. There is a real opportunity to push Disneyland to more of a multi-day destination and expand the size of the audience who would consider it, beginning with keeping it as something unique from Walt Disney World.
This was the first appearance of Thomas Mazloum as theme park chairman and the first set of announcements made under the leadership of Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro. These are the priorities from the new leadership. In earnings calls so far this year, we have heard Josh D’Amaro talk about centering the fans in the company. This set of announcements about the theme parks demonstrates that his comments about fandom are not just talking points. This set of announcements was a demonstration of the team actively choosing to bring fandom to the center for the future of the theme parks.
On Sunday morning, Mickey Visit was among a group of media outlets who were invited to a conversation between Josh D’Amaro and Ginnifer Goodwin. After the presentation, D’Amaro shared with a group that he was personally excited about finally committing to fix the yeti. He shared that when he was made the VP of Animal Kingdom, his mom called him and said “now you need to fix the broken yeti”. He got the teams together and learned about what was causing the problem, but wasn’t able to get the approvals done to make it happen at that time. Sunday morning, he was beaming when he shared that they were going to get it done. This small parks detail remained a priority for him once he became CEO. D’Amaro didn’t forget about this theme park fix, and he chose to spend some of the theme park budget to address a problem that is reportedly costly to fix.
Thomas Mazloum struck a perfect tone on stage during his first appearance in front of fans and inspired real confidence that he is being honest in his goals to deliver exciting offerings with fans at the center of the parks. Having spent some time with him personally, I am also excited to see the work that he does to more deeply bring hospitality back into every parks experience.
Disney shared a quote from Mazloum that captures the essence of his presentation: “I think what you’re going to see, and what I hope you will see, is how much we’ve really made sure that we always put our fans and our customers and our guests in the center of our decision-making, and I mean all of them. We truly, truly believe in Disney Experiences. If we do it right, if we have a great experience, if we listen to them, genuinely listen to them, not only will they come back, but they will bring the next generation with them.”
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There will continue to be areas for Disney to improve, but I am very happy with the trajectory that the theme parks are now on. I walked away from the weekend invigorated by the reality that Disney leaders are listening and that they are working to bring guests to the center of decisions. There is a real sense that the Disney theme parks division and Disney overall are headed in the right direction.
We will continue to cover every area of improvement with deep honesty and a keen eye, but it feels so good to feel great about where things are headed. For any Disney leaders who stumbled onto this article looking for an area of improvement, see my recent dive into where I hope Disney goes to improve loyalty and recognition of that loyalty among fans.
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