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Disney Pushes Plans For A New Local Theme Park!

Mickey and Minnie on ride with background of new Disneyland theme park
Credit: Disney / Canva Editing

In 1955, Walt Disney opened a theme park in California that changed the world. In the decades after, The Walt Disney Company has expanded its number of theme parks across America and worldwide.

Walt Disney with Matterhorn Model

Credit: Disneyland Resort News

Since then, Disneyland Resort has expanded to include Disney California Adventure in 2001 and even recently expanded the original theme park to include Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

disney castle disney100 100 years of wonder decor

Credit: Disney

Walt Disney World Resort in Florida has grown into an empire of its own. The global vacation destination includes Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In addition, the theme park resort has two water parks, Disney Springs, and dozens of hotels.

Exterior Shot of Cinderella Castle

Credit: Disney

Disney has also expanded to build resorts in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

Related: Here’s a Sneak Peek Into Disneyland’s Newest Hotel

Recently, Disney has announced plans for its new project in California, titled DisneylandForward.

What is DisneylandForward?

In 2021, Disney announced the new plans for a massive expansion of Walt’s original dream.

Disneyland Forward expansion artist rendering

Credit: Disney

DisneylandForward would expand Disneyland Resort, adding attractions to its existing parks, developments to its Downtown Disney area, and potentially a third theme park.

A New Disneyland Theme Park?

Since the original DisneylandForward announcement, Disney has been relatively quiet. However, that changed earlier this month (September 2023) when an environmental impact report was released. The new 17,000-page document contained many exciting information for plans in the area.

Guests dining

Credit: Disney

According to the report, one expansion area will include three outdoor family rides, two indoor family rides, two “round” rides, one outdoor thrill ride, and an indoor thrill ride.

Related: Disneyland vs. Disney World: Where To Travel First With Your Toddler

To the south, the expansion will include three outdoor family rides, two indoor family rides, two “round” rides, one outdoor thrill ride, and one indoor thrill ride.

disney magicband

Credit: Disney

In addition, there were hints that a Skyliner, similar to the one currently at Walt Disney World, could be added to help guests get between the parks, resorts, and parking lots.

Disney Skyliner

Credit: D23

These dozen planned rides (perhaps even more) are enough to populate an entirely new theme park. For comparison, when Disney MGM Studios (Disney’s Hollywood Studios) opened in 1989, it only contained five attractions.

MGM Opening

Credit: Disney

When Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, it only had 16 attractions (and some of those were character meet and greets).

Related: Disney Investing Enough To Build 7 New Theme Parks

But in addition to the expansions including enough attractions to warrant an additional theme park, there’s also a plan to build an entire new area where its current Toy Story parking lot sits.

Disneyland forward rendering

Credit: Disney

Although the initial plans show the parking lot being turned into an entertainment district similar to Downton Disney or Disney Springs, there is a section titled “theme park experience” on the plans. Although this line is vague, documents show that Disney is reserving the right to turn that parking lot space into an official third theme park.

Disney Park fans have been starving for a new Disney theme park in the United States for decades. Even if not built in Florida, a new Disneyland theme park is worth getting excited about!

About Steven Wilk

Steven has a complicated relationship with Disney. As a child, he visited Walt Disney World every few years with his family. But he never understood why kids his age (and older) were so scared of Snow White or Alien Encounter. He is a former participant of the Disney College Program (left early…long story), and he also previously worked in Children’s publishing, where he adapted multiple Disney movies and TV shows. He has many controversial opinions about Disney…like having a positive view of Michael Eisner, believing Return of the Jedi is superior to The Empire Strikes Back, and that Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge should have never been built (at least not at Hollywood Studios). Every year for the past two decades, Steven has visited either Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Aulani or went on a Disney Cruise. He’s happy to share any and all knowledge of the Disney destinations (and he likes using parenthesis a lot…as well as ellipses…)