Disney’s Flashy New Rides Won’t Open For At Least 2 Years. What We Can Expect Before They Open.

We've written extensively about the new rides coming to Disneyland and new rides for Disney World that were announced at D23. These are big and exciting additions that will redefine the theme parks.

Those new additions, however, are at least a couple of years away from debuting. Though some new additions are coming in 2025 and 2026 that we'll cover below, there will also be big gaps without a popular new attraction to drive attendance. In the past decade, we've seen new attractions do a lot of the heavy lifting to drive demand for guests who have never visited or have not visited in a long time.

Before we dive into what Disneyland and Disney World have announced for those periods and what could be announced, it's important to consider the different buckets of guests that different offerings are tailored toward.

How Disney Parks Drive Attendance

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There are a couple of distinct groups that visit the Disney theme parks. Each of these groups is impacted by additions and offerings at the theme parks in different ways.

Here's a simplified look at the visitors to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

1. The local – Often an Annual Passholder or Magic Key Holder. Even the smallest changes can motivate another visit to the theme parks. They have the easiest time motivating a park visit because they are just a drive away and in many cases, their admission is already paid.

2. The every year visitor – This visitor has an annual family tradition of a Disney vacation. They fly or drive a long way in and stay in a hotel for multiple nights. They often visit in the same season each year.

3. The every couple years visitor – This visiting group enjoys Disney vacations and has fond memories of the theme parks. Their trips are motivated by the pull of something new or strong nostalgia for the parks. This group is heavily impacted by additions and park changes.

4. The once-in-a-lifetime visitor – This group is doing their rite of passage trip to a Disney Park. They may only go once and they are going to go big. The trip is more motivated by external factors than by Disney theme park changes. This type of visitor makes up more of the guests at Walt Disney World than at Disneyland.

So, from the above group, you can see that buckets one and three are the most impacted by major additions. The rest of course are interested in special things going on, but they don't rely on changes to the parks as much to drive visits. Bucket One looks for new things constantly and the new thing can be as small as a new food item and Bucket Three looks for major new attractions or substantive changes to the parks to draw them back and to motivate a trip two years after their most recent trip rather than three years after.

Using that as a jumping-off point there are four different ways that Disney drives theme park attendance.

Marquee new attractions – As we have mentioned, nothing gets all of the key Disney markets more excited than a brand-new attraction tied to a character or story that they know. This is the best case scenario for a resort and can shift attendance dramatically.

This includes major launches like the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster, and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. These major additions drive attendance both in the period immediately after they have opened and in the years following as they become marketable elements for all potential guests for years to come.

There is an entire new set of these attractions in different stages of development as we mentioned above from lands themed to Monsters Inc. and Avatar to a new Coco ride and Marvel-themed additions. These offerings are coming but they likely won't be ready for at least two years – some will take far longer. See links at the top of the article for everything that's been announced.

Rethemed offerings and attractions – Disney Parks have now been around for a long time and in some instances, they are relaunching different offerings at the parks with new themes.

In the past year we've seen rethemes of areas of Disneyland to drive demand like the relaunch of existing restaurant spaces as Tiana's Palace or San Fransokyo Square. This year we'll also see a new version of Test Track at EPCOT. The switch from Splash Mountain to Tiana's Bayou Adventure fits somewhere between this bucket and the previous one because it's a retheme but there are marketable elements here.

These offerings provide something new for the local and yearly visitors, while also keeping the theme parks fresh and connected to current Disney intellectual property and movie franchises for the future. All of these offerings stack up to be a brand new experience for guests who haven't visited in a while.

New shows and celebrations – Disney will rely on new entertainment and special seasonal offerings to drive specific interest in different times of the year.

Some examples are the Food and Wine Festivals at both Disney California Adventure and EPCOT, the holiday celebrations for Halloween and Christmas, the new fireworks and World of Color show for the Disney100 celebration at Disneyland, or the surprise return of the beloved Main Street Electrical Parade for a limited time. We can also include the new Magic Kingdom nighttime parade in this bucket (more below). The Paint the Night parade also falls into this category, but it may have a bigger impact on driving visits than other comparable offerings.

These shows and celebrations lean into the Disney Vault strategy to pull out special offerings for a limited time to get people to the parks during that window to see them. Sometimes the draw of the special offering is strong enough that it will bring in new guests and other times it will just encourage guests to visit at times of the year that were historically less in demand or behave in a way that benefits Disney such as staying later into the evening and enjoying dinner at the theme park before seeing a show or nighttime parade.

New foods, merchandise, and characters greets added in the parks – In addition to the bigger festival throughout the year mentioned above, there are also moments in time when new characters or food items are rolled out in order to drive locals and Annual Passholders to visit the theme parks. This is most common at Disneyland where the Magic Key Annual Passholder population is far more central to attendance goals than the Walt Disney World Annual Pass population.

Some examples include the addition of limited-time characters in Avengers Campus or Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge around the timing of new movies. The Deadpool characters in Avengers Campus were a hit all summer. There were also other characters added and introduced throughout the year. Over 30 unique characters were added at Disneyland Park in the calendar year 2024.

The various changing menus at Disneyland also drive extreme interest. As a subset of the holidays offering, there are over 320 new Disneyland Christmas food offerings in 2024. These all create a limited-time feeling and a ticking clock for locals to experience all the aspects of the celebration. You couldn't possible try all of that food in one visit. A Disneyland executive once told me in the early years of Instagram that they could put a picture of a new themed cupcake on social media one day and then they could track the increase in attendance to buy that item the following day.

Marketing promotions – Sometimes these promotions are combined with new rides or new in-park offerings, but sometimes they are simply a national campaign to drive interest in the parks.

In the past, promotions like “What Will You Celebrate” and “Year of a Million Dreams” were more focused on the marketing elements and had limited in-park offerings. They haven't had an overall marketing message like this for a while. This is likely due to the bifurcation of media consumption which allows Disney to target potential guests with specific marketing messages designed for their exact demographic and platform of consumption.

Discounting and special offers – To drive demand when there aren't new offerings, Disney can also pull levers to lower prices.

This has become a tool that is used consistently to bring guests to the parks at times of the year that are traditionally slower. For instance, Disneyland used a three-day summer ticket offer last year to entice locals and nearby visitors to visit during a summer when Pixar Fest was the only draw. The biggest downside to this style of drawing attendance is that it can pull existing guests to this period meaning that these aren't necessarily new guests but guests shifted from other times of the year when they would've been paying full price. Continuing with the three-day ticket example from this summer, we reported that October at Disneyland was then slower than the previous years largely because those interested in Halloween visited during the September period when the Halloween celebration was already ongoing that was then included in the ticket offer.

So, let's use these buckets as the lens to look at what Disney World and Disneyland is planning for the next few years.

Disney World 2025 Plans

We already know  that several “new” Disney World rides and attractions are coming online in 2025. These are all in the buckets of rethemed rides or new shows and celebrations. Those new offerings are:

• Reimagined Test Track at EPCOT
• New nighttime parade “Disney Starlight” at Magic Kingdom
• Zootopia Tree of Life Show at Animal Kingdom
• Villains stage show at Hollywood Studios
• The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure at Hollywood Studios
• Pirates of the Caribbean Lounge at Magic Kingdom
• New lounge inspired by Spaceship Earth at EPCOT

These are all in addition to the standard EPCOT Festivals and holiday offerings across the resort. Generally, the overall schedule fills the year well, but a new attraction usually remains a major pull and driver of growth. The late Spring to Summer season is typically the one most reliant on new offerings to drive attendance.

This is a wide set of offerings across the theme parks but there is no big ticket item that will break through. That means that Disney will need to find a way to package all of these offerings into a bigger message to promote to the world as a set of new things. Sometimes with the right message, the whole can be greater than the sum of all its parts.

The nighttime parade in particular will have the necessary effect to draw locals and other guests in Orlando to Disney property for a visit in 2025. There will be potential Disney guests in Orlando in 2025 that aren't there for Disney because the new Universal Epic Universe Park officially has an opening date.

So, in 2025 we'll see all of these smaller additions pop up at Walt Disney World and likely some bigger marketing message put on top of all of them to drive park interest.

In 2026, there is also not a lot announced right now and none of the major additions are expected to debut. The key addition that year is the change to the Star Wars Millenium Falcon attraction to make that story more exciting.

Disneyland 2025 Plans

At Disneyland in 2025, there are a couple of key additions that will drive park attendance and interest. You can see our listing of all the new Disneyland rides here.

• Tiana's Bayou Adventure – this ride actually opens in November 2024, but because so late in the year will drive 2025 trips also
• “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” coming to Main Street Opera House – first ever show to feature an Audio-Animatronic of
• Disneyland's 70th Anniversary Celebration – will feature returning favorite entertainment and hopefully something new too

These are all in addition to the wide array of offerings that will likely return next year. Minus Pixar Fest from last summer, I would expect all of these events that ran in 2024 to return for 2025. Food and Wine Festival, Disneyland After Dark Events, Lunar New Year, and more. All of this in addition to the ongoing infrastructure work on big projects like the improvement of the Haunted Mansion and new park entrance gates which don't drive attendance but do improve the guest experience.

Certain aspects of the Disneyland 70th remain a question mark. We just learned that Paint the Night and the Pixar daytime parade from last year will be returning. I assume during the 70th celebration. That still leaves us waiting to learn more information about a potential fireworks show and World of Color change. I would also love to see more of a wildcard here that breaks the mold of previous anniversary offerings. And, perhaps finally another new show at the Hyperion Theater in Disney California Adventure. There's still plenty of time for these announcements to be made. I assume one big batch will come at the end of this year and then more will come in the lead-up to the launch of the celebration. We also don't even yet know if the celebration will be yearlong or just next summer.

What Else Could Be Announced

On either coast, there are still additional offerings that can be announced to drive attendance and interest in all of these buckets. Not everything that drives attendance has to be expensive. Sometimes it is just about creating big marketable moments that connect with fans.

I'd like to see another ride overlay or bigger change announced for 2026. At Disneyland, they successfully used a quick changeover from California Screamin' to Incredicoaster to drive attendance both during the opening period and for the time following.

In a similar vein, I'll again throw my favorite wild idea into the wind which is to retheme Rockin' Roller Coaster from Aerosmith to Taylor Swift. The cost of the rights would be high, but the impact would be dramatic and could be rolled out immediately. The cost is in dollars, not time. They already have a connection with Taylor Swift based on the streaming of her movie on Disney Plus. Now imagine the fervor around a roller coaster with her songs. “Wait a minute, I love that idea…how about some backstage passes” is a simple enough storyline that can be carried over from the current ride. Aerosmith could also be swapped out for another Disney-owned property like the Muppets or Marvel. This has been rumored in the past.

We could see them try something similar for Disneyland even if it's temporary. Perhaps Taylor Swift Space Mountain?

It's more likely they'll lean into improving Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge as they have already announced that they will be debuting the new Millenium Falcon experience that year which is the same time the first new Star Wars movie in 7 years will be released. More on Star Wars below.

One specific area we would love to see further evolution is for both the Christmas and Halloween seasons. October and December are the two most popular months for multi-day trips based on data from ticket sales via Disneyland's largest travel partner. That said, 2024 ticket sales in this category are down. It could be because of a pull forward from the ticket offer for visits in September or because people are tiring on some of the Halloween offerings which have not changed dramatically. I'll be following closely to see if attendance during the holidays at Disneyland is also slower.

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For Disneyland, there is an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the Halloween and holiday offerings to look at other opportunities to have substantial additions. The Haunted Mansion Holiday has been around for over 23 years, and the Christmas Parade is nearly 30 years old. While both have evolved over time, they could certainly benefit from a refresh I'd love to see some substantial new offerings to bring in new demographics and grab previous visitors. They have done a fantastic job with Viva Navidad and the Festival of Holidays to broaden the definition of what the holidays could look like at the resort. I look forward to the next round of innovation for these events. The recent announcement of new entertainment featuring Coco and Encanto is a good start.

For Disney World, there are two key holiday elements missing that could make a stronger marketing impact. The Osborne Festival of Lights and Cinderella Castle Dream Lights turned Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom into destinations for the holidays. Ever since the Dream Lights didn't come back after the 2020 closure, there has been a commotion each time the holiday information is announced with fans hoping they'll return that year. The Osborne Festival of Lights would be more difficult to bring back because the location of that display has largely become Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, but they should get creative and think about how they can be even more of a destination for the holidays.

Beyond the holidays we'll likely get some other festival offerings at the theme parks to drive attendance. We could see things like expanded Star Wars: Season of the Force, the return of Summer of Heroes themed to Marvel, or more Pixar Fest.

Speaking of Star Wars, we were just reflecting on the weirdest things in Walt Disney World's history for an upcoming article (join newsletter below to get this when we publish). Star Wars Weekends came to mind. These were a season of Star Wars fun at Hollywood Studios that brought irreverence to the Star Wars brand with dance-offs and the Disney characters in Star Wars costumes. They were a ton of fun. They went away when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and became far stricter on how there characters were used in the parks. This feels like a big opportunity for one of these festivals to break the mold and drive real attendance. Disneyland already does this with Star Wars Nites but there's room for expansion of the concept. We talk about the reverence for Star Wars as a big reason for Disney's biggest mistake with Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. I'd like to see them fix some of these mistakes alongside the debut of the new Millenium Falcon ride.

There are plenty of ideas out there for Disney to push through the next two years before their major new attractions come online. I hope that they lean into the fun for marketing to create special experiences that only Disney can do. Sometimes offerings only need to feel big to create real interest.

Looking at the buckets outlined above, Disney needs to balance all these categories to drive attendance from locals, annual visitors, and those who visit less frequently. Ensuring that the next two years are compelling will be crucial to keeping all groups engaged. They need to do this while maintaining an overall great experience for those who visit every year and once in a lifetime. Balancing all of these different categories is never easy, but becomes even more difficult and important when one marketing message doesn't work for every group.

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