Disneyland hoping to move forward with ambitious plans
Disneyland hoping to move forward with ambitious plans
$2.5-billion theme park expansion proposed for Anaheim resort
Hey there, ATP paid subscribers! Tomorrow (Friday January 26), please plan to join the monthly “What’s the Attraction” discussion thread. I’ve previewed this year’s most anticipated North American coasters, my honorable mention picks, new coasters in other parts of the world, and intriguing attractions on the way. Now, let’s talk about your 2024 park plans. Will you be visiting any of the parks to try the new rides? Do you have other park journeys in the works this year? Let’s share.
Disneyland is the original Disney theme park, the place that Walt personally championed, oversaw, and nurtured. It was so popular that the once-sleepy farming community of Anaheim, California exploded with development that eventually hemmed in the property on all sides. Disney had to build berms around the perimeter to keep the real world sprawl from disturbing the carefully curated fantasy at the “Happiest Place on Earth.” So you’d be forgiven for assuming that the 490-acre resort, which includes Disney California Adventure, three hotels, and the Downtown Disney dining and shopping district in addition to Disneyland Park, must be completely built out.
Turns out, that’s not the case.
According to Josh D’Amaro, chairman, Disney parks, experiences and products, “we still have enough room to build another Disneyland there.” The company intends to capitalize on the available space. On January 23, it revealed that it is prepared to spend as much as $2.5 billion or more on new theme park lands, attractions, hotels, eateries, and retail locations over the next ten years as part of a major expansion of the storied resort.
The eye-popping number was part of the details that Disney shared about its proposed DisneylandForward plans at an Anaheim City Council workshop held on Tuesday. Disney is negotiating with the city to get the variances it would need to develop the property. The agreement would be in effect for the next four decades. The company is committing a minimum of $1.9 billion and as much as $2.5 billion or higher during the first ten-year phase of the expansion.
So, what what would those kinds of Disney dollars buy? At the presentation before the city, company officials name checked the World of Frozen land that recently opened at Hong Kong Disneyland and is on tap for Tokyo DisneySea as a possible addition. They also cited the Zootopia land and attractions that just debuted at Shanghai Disneyland. New lands that would take inspiration from Marvel’s “Black Panther” as well as the Pixar hit, “Coco,” were also in the mix at the meeting. Previously, Disney has included “Toy Story,” “Tron,” “Tangled,” and “Peter Pan” as potential IPs to be mined for the California resort’s expansion as well.
In 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger teased an “Avatar” experience would be coming to Disneyland. That was followed by a story from D23, Disney’s official fan club, promising that the land would be on the scale of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, part of Florida’s Walt Disney World. That would seem to indicate that Avatar Fight Of Passage, the wild attraction at the East Coast park, as well as that land’s stunning bioluminescent flora could be in the offing.
The acreage needed for the expansion would be carved out of existing parking lots on the west side of the property. These include surface lots across from Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and adjacent to the Disneyland Hotel and soon-to-be-renamed Pixar Place Hotel. The lots would be replaced by vertical parking structures. The costs to construct those buildings along with road reconfigurations and pedestrian bridges would be in addition to the billions earmarked for the new attractions.
If, as D’Amaro claims, there is enough room to build another Disneyland, that would mean roughly 100 acres is in play. Just because Disney could build a third park, that doesn’t mean it will. While everything is in flux, including whether the deal moves forward at all, the company has indicated that the new lands and attractions would likely be additions to the existing theme parks.
$2.5 billion is one heckuva lotta dough. But it pales in comparison to the $17 billion The Mouse is pledging to drop at Walt Disney World. Both of the stateside expansions are part of Disney’s pledged $60-billion investment worldwide in its parks and experiences over the next decade. Yup, that’s a mountain of money that even Scrooge McDuck would have a hard time wrapping his feathered head around.
What would you most want to see added to the Disneyland resort? What do you make of the tens of billions of dollars Disney will be spending at its parks?
So 3-4 “Galaxy’s Edge” worth of rides and theming? Maybe a little less if they built a few more rides that GE could have used. Interesting if it happens.
Funny enough, I’m in the Disneyland resort as I read this, and I can say, there’s definitely a need for expansion- this place is packed, even at the end of January! I look “forward” (see what I did there) to watch the resort’s progress in the decade to come. I just hope that with all the modern bells and whistles at their disposal, Disney maintains the level of charm and detail that is unique to the original Happiest Place On Earth!