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Disney has announced new lands, rides and ships across Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Disney Cruise Line. Most of them are still some way off, but several will affect holidays from 2027 onwards.
For UK families, some of these announcements are close enough to affect a booking now. Others still need an opening date before they should influence travel plans.
Walt Disney World has three major projects due in 2027
Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is still scheduled for 2027. The land replaces DinoLand U.S.A. and will contain Disney’s first Encanto ride, a new Indiana Jones adventure, a carousel and a children’s play area.
Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto will have no height requirement, so babies and smaller children will be able to ride with the rest of the family. The Indiana Jones attraction does not have a confirmed height requirement yet. Disney hasn’t announced an exact opening date for the land or said whether all three attractions will open together.
Monstropolis will also start opening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2027. Its theatre, restaurants and shop are due first, while the door-vault coaster will follow later. That distinction matters if the coaster is the main reason your family wants to visit. Disney hasn’t announced its opening date, name or height requirement.
Magic Kingdom’s Carousel of Progress has the clearest window of the three. Its updated show is due to open in late spring 2027, with an Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney and four new periods in the family’s history. The attraction is currently closed while the work takes place.
A Walt Disney World holiday in 2027 could therefore include several new attractions, but there isn’t enough information to choose dates around Tropical Americas or Monstropolis yet. Families travelling early in the year should not assume either land will be open.
Magic Kingdom’s largest additions are further away
Disney revealed four attractions for Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, although neither land has an opening date.
Piston Peak will have two Cars attractions. Cars Ridge Run Rally is an off-road racing ride through a national-park landscape, while Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along will be based on the demolition-derby school bus from Cars 3.
Villains Land will be similar in size to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Its two main rides are a Maleficent coaster and a dark ride hosted by the Magic Mirror. On the dark ride, guests will enter catacombs beneath the Evil Queen’s palace before the mirror transports them into a separate realm filled with Disney Villains.
Disney hasn’t announced height requirements or enough detail to judge how suitable the four rides will be for younger children. There’s no date to plan around yet.
Two EPCOT classics are being reworked
Dreamfinder will return alongside Figment in a new Journey Into Imagination at EPCOT. The character has been absent from the attraction for nearly three decades, although Disney hasn’t shown how he will appear in the new version.
Spaceship Earth will also receive its first major update in nearly 20 years. The current story of human communication will expand into the internet age and take on a broader theme of human connection.
Both attractions remain open. Disney hasn’t announced closure dates or reopening windows, so there’s no immediate reason to change an EPCOT day around the projects.
Elsewhere at Walt Disney World, Disney says the large Yeti figure inside Expedition Everest will move again, but it hasn’t said when or whether the coaster will need to close. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run now has an optional Fortnite mission that links the ride with rewards inside the game. Families who do not use Fortnite can continue to ride normally.
Disneyland Paris faces a major ride closure before its 2028 parade
Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain will close at the end of 2027 for work lasting several months. It will return to its Jules Verne-inspired De la Terre à la Lune theme, with the original music in a remastered form, a redesigned queue and updated scenes and effects.
Disneyland Paris hasn’t announced the exact closing day or reopening date. Anyone considering a 2028 visit mainly to ride Space Mountain should wait for a firmer timetable.
At Disney Adventure World, work is under way on a Lion King area covering more than 30,000 square metres. Its water ride will retell Simba’s story with three drops, including a 16-metre descent from Pride Rock. New concept art shows the first Scar Audio-Animatronics figure created for a Disney attraction.
There’s no confirmed opening year for the Lion King attraction. The separate announcement for 2028 is a new daytime parade at Disneyland Park, led by Mickey Mouse and friends. Families should not assume the ride and parade will open together.
Three more Disney cruise ships are coming
Disney Cruise Line showed the first exterior view of a new class of three ships. Two are due in 2029, followed by a third in late 2030. Each will carry about 3,000 guests, placing them between the smaller classic ships and newer vessels such as Disney Wish.
The ships are intended to give Disney more flexibility to visit different ports and reach different audiences. Their homeports, itineraries, cabins and family facilities haven’t been revealed, so it’s too early to know how useful they will be for UK travellers.
By late 2030, Disney expects its wider cruise fleet to contain 13 ships. That should eventually create more choice, but the homeports and sailing dates will determine whether any of these three ships make a Disney cruise simpler for UK families.
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