Disneyland About to Make Rapid Progress on New Ride We’re Most Excited For

Disneyland has kicked off a major round of construction for the addition of four new rides and a complete overhaul of major infrastructure that impact all theme park resort guests. We’ve been closely tracking the major milestones for these new rides as they happen. Now, the project that we are most excited about has begun in earnest. We have new photos for the key construction projects moving forward now.

At Mickey Visit, we bring you the latest Disney news, including a look at big theme park changes and policy changes. Now, let’s dive into what we’re seeing with the construction of one of Disney’s newest rides and the exciting info we have heard about the work. You can see info on all the newest Disneyland rides coming here. See details on a new ride closure here.

READ MORE – These 10 Disney Rides Have Changed Dramatically Since Their Opening

Disneyland is Making Rapid Progress on New Ride

Two years ago, Disneyland received approval from the city of Anaheim for their expanded DisneylandForward plan. The plan gives them the framework for the rezoning and theme park expansion on land that Disneyland already owns.

The previous Disneyland president shared with me that this approval was meant to allow for the next 30-40 years of resort expansion. The rezoning has now unlocked quite a bit of work and expansion, including the addition of four new rides.

There are also four new rides coming to Disney California Adventure, including an Avatar area, an expansion to Avengers Campus with two new rides, and a new Coco boat ride.

There is also a new 6,000-spot parking structure and a massive new entrance from the Harbor Boulevard side that is coming soon.

Work is already visibly moving forward on the two new Avengers Campus rides, with what appears to be the structure almost completely closed in and the roof complete.

Here’s a look at the current visible construction from inside Avengers Campus. The view is far better in our next photo.

You can also see the below photo from last week shot from an airplane departing from SNA. The same person captured this aerial footage of the land expansion. That is quite a substantial building that looks almost complete from the exterior.

The construction of the building began back in August 2025. After years of waiting for the ride, it is amazing how quickly the structure flies together once they say “go”.

Now, turning to the ride that I referenced in the title that we are most excited for coming to Disney California Adventure. Disney has now begun work on the new Coco boat ride that will be located between what is today Paradise Garden Grill and the far edge of the Incredicoaster.

Here’s a look at a visual aerial map of an earlier guess of where the new ride will be located. Based on the construction you can see below, the building looks like it will be even further out towards the road.

Disney has said that the new boat ride will draw inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion and will take guests on a journey alongside Miguel to the Land of the Dead. The ride will feature the latest in Audio-Animatronics technology and the beloved music from the film.

Disneyland previously shared with us that the new Coco boat ride would begin construction in Fall 2025 in backstage areas. Originally, we had heard the ride would begin construction in 2026. Now, we have reached 2026 and the construction of the ride is very much in progress.

The area just outside these gates of Disney California Adventure is now fenced off and work has begun to clear the site. We address the specifics of these closures and impacts to guests in our look at 8 Disneyland construction closures impacting guests.

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We’ve reliably heard that work on the Coco boat ride is going to move at a rapid pace. They are already clearing the ground now as you’ll see in the photos below, but expect to see work jump to the next phase of construction quickly. We expect to see the building for this new ride coming together in a way comparable to the last six months of construction of Avengers Campus.

Disneyland is about to hold their last scheduled runDisney event, the Disneyland Half Marathon on the weekend of January 31, before that offering goes on hiatus. The route for that run goes past and around this specific construction site (see map below). I wonder if they are waiting for that event to pass to truly kick into high gear.

Disneyland is in a bit of a catch-up mode right now to get back in a place of opening new additions every year. There was a pause during the pandemic era that slowed down both building and design of new attractions. Clearly they recognize that and are fast-tracking what they can to get back into that cadence. What we know now is just the beginning of the exciting additions to the entire resort.

Now, here are the construction photos showing the current status of the Coco construction.

First, a look towards the edge side gate where you can see lots of trees that will likely have to be removed.

Next, a view into what has already become an active construction site. You can see that they’ve already cleared the sidewalk and torn up part of the road into that turn area.

In the above photo you can see even more clearly the current status of the work there.

Previously I wrote about expected opening timelines for these new rides coming to Disney California Adventure. Much of what I wrote there still applies.

Here’s what I initially said. Looking at it now, it’s clear that Avengers will remain opening first (likely in 2027), but that Coco will be soon after it.

Coco new ride opening prediction – This new ride has the largest range of opening date possibilities. I could see it jumping Avengers and opening in 2027 or opening in mid to late 2028 just ahead of the new movie debuting. This is also the most recently announced project for Disney California Adventure which could signal that it will be the later of those two years.

What is most amazing about all of this is the small space that they are able to fit the new attraction into. We hope that doesn’t mean that the ride itself will be too short. Putting this new ride in the same sentence as Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion demonstrates their grand ambitions.

I also remain amazed by the Disneyland Imagineering team for their creative use of space to be able to keep adding new capacity to the parks while losing very little. Yes, we’ll be sad when Monsters Inc closes, but compare that to the ongoing work in Magic Kingdom or any of the other closures at Walt Disney World to create space for their additions and the closure seems quite mild.

Overall, we are quite excited about the grand ambitions around the additions coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Seeing visible progress and hearing that it is going to be moving at a brisk pace has us so excited.

Stay tuned to Mickey Visit for more of the latest Disney news and planning resource.

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