Disney Unveils Revised 2025 Expansion Plan, Contemplates New Theme Park

With 2025 being the year that is set to begin all of the major expansions across the Disney parks and cruise line ships, many fans are wondering what that means for Disney. Will Disney World get a fifth gate? What changes are coming? What has been announced? We will take a look at what Disney CEO Bob Iger has set out for the next 10 years, even if he will not be here to see it through.

Bob Iger stepped back into the role of Disney CEO after prior Disney CEO Bob Chapek had a less than stellar performance as the leader of the company. Disney cut Chapek loose with little warning, bringing back Iger, who thought he was officially retired from the House of Mouse. In the end, Iger’s contract has been extended until 2026, but his disappearance should not affect the $10 billion that is set to go into the theme parks.

On February 7, 2024, The Walt Disney Company’s First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call was held, where Iger and The Walt Disney Company spoke out on what is to come over the next 10 years of theme park expansions. Bob Iger confirmed that of the $10 billion, 70% of the expansion additions are coming in the next 10 years.

During the call, Jessica Ehrlich, an analyst with Bank of America, said, “You announced there, Hugh, for the first time I’ve heard you say this, that in parks, 70% of the 60 billion in capex that you outlined over the next 10 years like — I’m sorry that 70% of that will go to incremental capacity.

So, like over 40 billion in new parks and attractions. Can you give us some color on timing and location? There’s been speculation that you may open a fifth gate in Florida.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger took on the question.

Iger replied, “You know, we’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be. You can pretty much conclude that they’ll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment and, thus, increased capacity, including on the high seas, where we’re currently building three more ships. And in a business that is obviously extremely positive to us, we may look expansively, at least in the next decade, in that direction.

I’m not going to really give you much more of a sense of timing, except that, you know, we’re hard at work at getting these things, you know, basically conceived and built. And we’ve got a menu of things that will basically start opening in ’25, and there’ll be a cadence every year of additional — basically additional investment and increased capacity.”

Disney World May Add a 5th Gate

Interestingly enough, when confronted with the question of a fifth gate, Iger did dance around the subject but did not turn down the option. He did note that increased capacity was coming, which could be a reference to a fifth gate, at Walt Disney World, but it can also mean expansions at any of the other Disney parks.

When it comes to Magic Kingdom, Disney did dive into their plans to build out Beyond Big Thunder, which would expand the Magic Kingdom with new lands. The concept art for a Coco section and villains section were shown. Disney also shared a Moana-themed land which seems more fitting for Animal Kingdom, but analysts such as Brayden from Mickey Views have speculated that Moana would be a good fit for Magic Kingdom, keeping the character in the “princess” park. It also would work well to build out Moana in the parks as Disney is doubling down on the IP, announcing Moana 2 and with a confirmed live-action on the way.

When it comes to Disney World, we have also heard of changes coming to the parks like Test Track getting a major upgrade to Test Track 3.0 which could be in the large budget, as well; Disney’s Animal Kingdom will see some major overhaul with It’s Tough to Be a Bug turning into a Zootopia attraction and DinoLand U.S.A. getting rethemed entirely. Disney did not confirm what the retheme would be, but Indiana Jones was a popular option, as the Dinosaur attraction could easily be swapped to Indiana Jones Adventure as we see in Disneyland (thanks to both rides sharing the same track), as well as Encanto. 

That being said, we know that Disneyland Paris is gaining Arendelle: World of Frozen, which does not have an opening date yet, and may be included in that $10 billion budget, as it likely will not open this year due to the lack of updates. Disney is also pushing forward on their cruise ships. While the Disney Treasure will sail at the end of 2024, the Disney Adventure will set sail in 2025. That is only one of three ships Iger confirmed on the call.

We can clearly see that Disney is looking to expand pretty evenly when it comes to the $10 billion. Universal’s Epic Universe is estimated to cost around the $1 billion mark, and while it will likely be over budget, Disney’s grand $10 billion sum could very well fit a similar cost for a new park.

Will Bob Iger Bail on a 5th Theme Park at Walt Disney World?

When Disney expert Brayden from Mickey Views heard what Bob had to say, he was not as optimistic regarding how Disney will spend the money at Walt Disney World.

“Iger said annually they will open experiences that increase capacity at the parks, which is spurious. Tiana is existing capacity. Everything after that will take years to build and hasn’t started. Most projects in the works are replacements to existing attractions, not net-adds. Due to past lack of investment and a focus on mitigating maintenance costs, most investment at Walt Disney World will go towards replacing attractions that are falling apart, use outdated tech they no longer want to maintain, or are already sitting empty. Playing catch-up.”

Due to past lack of investment and a focus on mitigating maintenance costs, most investment at Walt Disney World will go towards replacing attractions that are falling apart, use outdated tech they no longer want to maintain, or are already sitting empty. Playing catch-up

— Brayden (@SirBrayden) February 10, 2024

It seems Brayden believes that the money will not be spent on things that will be too experience-changing for guests, however, that is not confirmed, just speculation. Brayden did use Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as a cut-through way to “increase capacity” as it was already existing. We should note, however, that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will be open in 2024, before the 2025 expansion plans begin, which means that the ride change is not included in the $10 billion budget.

That being said, he is correct in noting that there is nothing else coming down the pipeline to increase expansion, and even if we do hear of something, it will take years to come to fruition.

Do you think that Walt Disney World needs a 5th gate?

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