Mark your calendars and pack your mouse ears
Details revealed for D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event
Every two years, the Disney faithful gather for a multi-day meetup during which the company celebrates its storied history, dishes about where it is at, and tries to whip its adoring acolytes into a frenzy with all of the (hopefully) cool stuff it will be unleashing. This year’s confab, D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, will be held August 9 to 11 in Disneyland’s Anaheim, California hometown.
I’m not sure whether the “ultimate” in the name refers to the event or to the Disney fans it attracts. It’s probably both. I do know that the biennial gathering has grown in popularity. To accommodate the crowds of attendees, it will now take place on a grander stage in the expansive Honda Center as well as at its longstanding home at the Anaheim Convention Center. Leading up to the expo, the company will present other events, including D23 Day at Angels Stadium.
Highlights of the event will include the Disney Entertainment Evening Showcase on August 9 at which the spotlight will be on the company’s umbrella of movie studios, Disney+, and other creative content and media channels. The 2024 class of Disney Legends will be feted on the final evening at a ceremony hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The cavalcade of notables will include Harrison Ford, Miley Cyrus, and James Cameron.
Of note to park fans, former Imagineer Joe Rohde will be one of the honorees. Among his many accomplishments, he was the chief visionary for Disney’s Animal Kingdom and (speaking of Cameron) also led the team that developed Pandora – The World of Avatar. I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Rohde a number of times, including at Aulani, the lovely resort he masterminded on Oahu in Hawaii, where he grew up. I always found Rohde to be incredibly passionate, erudite, a supremely gifted storyteller, and an absolute joy to be around.
Another park-related Legend will be 50-year Disneyland cast member Martha Blanding. She is one of the first Black women to serve as a VIP tour guide at the California resort as well as Disneyland’s first Black female manager. With the honor, Blanding will become the first Black Disney parks employee to be named a Disney Legend.
But park fans will especially want to take note of the Disney Experiences presentation on August 10. That’s where Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney parks, experiences, and products, will hold court about what’s on tap at the parks. I was at last year’s Destination D23, the similar, but smaller event that the company stages at Florida’s Walt Disney World in the intervening years. Rather than providing many actual details about major, future park projects, D’Amaro mostly hinted at aspirational concepts at that panel, as well as the presentation the exec gave at the 2022 D23 event.
I’m guessing that attendees at this year’s event will finally get the lowdown about what’s on the way to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and other parks across the globe. By that time, the Anaheim City Council should have made the final decision about the company’s proposed $2.5-billion DisneylandForward plans. The Mouse has stated that it will drop a cool $17 billion at Walt Disney World over the next decade. Plans for the U.S. parks are part of a larger $60-billion investment Disney has pledged to spend on its parks and experiences in the next ten years. Disney recently clarified in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that half of that amount, or $30 billion, will be targeted to the parks with the balance going to new Disney Cruise Line ships as well as technology and maintenance.
That’s a lot of dough, and the clock is ticking on the ten-year timeline. That’s why this year’s D23 parks panel promises to be a doozy.