FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Orange County Tourism & Business Correspondent Date: April 15, 2026
Walt Disney World Enters Its Most Consequential Season in a Decade — and Central Florida’s Economy Is the Biggest Winner
A Florida-born man takes Disney’s helm for the first time in history. A $60 billion expansion plan accelerates simultaneously across three theme parks. A summer of openings, rebirths, and upgrades promises to pull millions of new visitors to the heart of the Sunshine State
The Magic Kingdom’s Biggest Shake-Up Begins at Home
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL — The Walt Disney Company is in the midst of a leadership transition, an infrastructure surge, and a creative renaissance — and all three are unfolding simultaneously across the 25,000 acres of Central Florida where the company has planted its most consequential flag for the past 55 years.
The story begins not in Burbank, California, but in Orlando. On March 18, 2026, Josh D’Amaro — the man who spent the most consequential chapter of his career as President of Walt Disney World Resort — became the Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, succeeding the legendary Bob Iger at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. It is a transition that carries particular significance for Florida: for the first time in the company’s modern history, the person running the Walt Disney Company spent years walking these very theme parks, managing these very cast members, and shaping the guest experience at the resort that now sits at the epicenter of the largest expansion in Disney history.
D’Amaro, a 28-year Disney veteran, does not arrive at the top job as an outsider parachuting into the parks business. He built it. Under his leadership as Chairman of Disney Experiences — the segment that encompasses all theme parks, resort hotels, the Disney Cruise Line, and consumer products — the division generated $36 billion in annual revenue in fiscal year 2025, its highest total ever, and became the company’s primary engine of profit. He oversaw more construction activity than any prior leader of the parks division, and he did so with Central Florida at the center.
His vision for what comes next is not modest.
$60 Billion and the Largest Theme Park Expansion in History
The Scale of What Disney Is Building Across Florida
The number that has reordered the entire Central Florida tourism conversation is this: Disney has committed to a decadelong, roughly $60 billion capital investment plan in its global theme park and resort footprint, with Walt Disney World receiving the most significant share of domestic investment. This commitment, articulated by former CEO Bob Iger during an earnings call and now fully accelerating under D’Amaro’s direction, encompasses new themed lands, new attractions, new resort hotels, and new entertainment infrastructure stretching from Magic Kingdom to Hollywood Studios to Animal Kingdom.
For Florida’s construction industry, hospitality workforce, hotel market, restaurant sector, and small business community, what Disney is building across these four theme parks is not simply a source of tourist excitement. It is a sustained, multi-year economic stimulus of a size that no single private company in the state’s history has previously attempted.
“We have massive new projects underway across our parks,” said Walt Disney World Portfolio Executive Creative Producer Michael Hundgen. “We’re reinvesting in this incredible lineup of classic attractions and entertainment. We are in an unprecedented era of growth.”
The construction cranes visible at three of Walt Disney World’s four theme parks right now are not the peak of that activity. According to Disney’s own statements, the capital spending is backloaded toward the second half of this decade — meaning everything happening in 2026 is the opening chapter of something significantly larger to follow.
Spring 2026: The Returns That Matter Most to Florida Families
Big Thunder Mountain Rides Again — May 3, 2026
After sixteen months away from guests — the longest closure in its 43-year history — Big Thunder Mountain Railroad returns to Magic Kingdom on May 3, 2026. The roller coaster, closed since January 2025 for a ground-up track replacement and story enhancement, reopens with a completely retracked course, refreshed passenger trains, and a brand-new narrative sequence that was previously absent from the Florida version of the attraction.
Riders will now descend through the newly created Rainbow Caverns — a subterranean show scene built with phosphorescent pools, shimmering iridescent stalactites and stalagmites, and an ominous atmospheric audio element signaling that guests are not entirely welcome in the mountain’s depths. The sequence draws direct inspiration from the beloved Nature’s Wonderland mine train at Disneyland in the 1960s, threading a piece of Disney’s earliest California history into one of Central Florida’s most-ridden attractions.
Perhaps the most significant detail of the reopening: the height requirement has been lowered from 40 inches to 38 inches — the result of new ride vehicles, redesigned restraints, and the smoother dynamics of the freshly laid track. For families with young children, two inches is the difference between riding and watching. That change alone will send a wave of newly eligible young guests onto Big Thunder’s tracks this summer.
Buzz Lightyear Gets a Serious Upgrade
Magic Kingdom’s Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin quietly reopened on April 8, 2026 following months of refurbishment with a package of improvements that fundamentally change how the attraction plays. New ride vehicles with visible-beam handheld blasters replace the aging originals. Targets have been redesigned for clearer feedback. A new scene introduces an original character named Buddy. For a generation of guests who grew up competing with siblings and parents for Galactic Hero status, the upgraded attraction restores the competitive joy that made this dark ride a perennial queue-filler.
Memorial Day and Beyond: The Summer That Transforms Hollywood Studios
A New American Landmark Opens at EPCOT — May 26, 2026
At EPCOT, Soarin’ Across America debuts on May 26, 2026 — a completely new film experience replacing the global version of Soarin’ with an immersive aerial journey across the American landscape. The timing is deliberate: the attraction opens as the United States prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, offering both domestic families and international visitors a sweeping, cinematic tribute to the country’s geography, diversity, and scale at precisely the moment when national pride is at a collective high point.
For Central Florida’s international tourism market — which draws tens of millions of overseas visitors annually through Orlando International Airport — a patriotic summer experience at the world’s most attended theme park destination carries substantial marketing value.
The Walt Disney Studios Courtyard Opens — May 26, 2026
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a portion of the resort that has been surrounded by construction walls since September 2025 is finally ready to welcome guests. On May 26, 2026, the outdoor courtyard area of the former Animation Courtyard officially reopens as The Walt Disney Studios — a reimagined outdoor space modeled on the real Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California, where animated films have been made for more than eighty years.
The courtyard is not merely an aesthetic upgrade. It introduces one of the most charming new details added to any Disney park in recent memory: a Disney Animated Character Walk of Fame, where beloved characters have pressed handprints, footprints, and signatures into individually crafted cement slabs across the paved grounds. Ursula’s trident, Yen Sid’s celestial motifs, Moana’s flowing script, and dozens more characters from across Disney’s century of animation are permanently embedded in the walkway — a direct homage to the celebrity handprint tradition Hollywood Studios maintained from its opening day in 1989.
The courtyard’s Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! show opens the same day, transforming the former Disney Jr. Play and Dance soundstage into a high-energy live production proven popular at Disneyland Resort since its West Coast debut.
The Magic of Disney Animation Returns After 11 Years — Late Summer 2026
Inside the building that was previously occupied by Star Wars: Launch Bay, the attraction that opened Hollywood Studios on its first day back in 1989 makes its return in late summer 2026. The new Magic of Disney Animation looks nothing like the original tour — it is an entirely fresh concept — but it recovers something the park lost when the original version closed in 2015: a dedicated, immersive celebration of the art form that built The Walt Disney Company.
Topped by a new Sorcerer Mickey hat installed overnight on April 13, 2026, the Roy E. Disney Animation Building-inspired structure houses six distinct character meet-and-greet areas themed to different departments of the real animation studio — story, color, character design, layout, effects, and the final result. An audio-animatronic Olaf hosts drawing classes. A dedicated children’s play area called Drawn to Wonderland offers an Alice in Wonderland-inspired indoor playground with musical instrument flowers, a Mad Tea Party playset, and the Tulgey Wood exploration maze based on Mary Blair’s original concept artwork. A short film experience connects everything to the Emmy Award-winning “Once Upon a Studio.”
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets — Summer 2026
After thirty years of launching guests from a fictional Hollywood recording studio at zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds, the Aerosmith era of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster ended in spring 2026. The reborn attraction — Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets — opens in summer 2026 with The Electric Mayhem taking over the preshow, guitar courtyard, and the entire ride narrative. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Animal, Fozzie, Scooter, and Dr. Teeth join guests on a VIP road trip to the biggest concert of the band’s career.
The courtyard exterior receives a new guitar wrap inspired by Electric Mayhem’s signature visual style, featuring a gold piano key as a nod to Dr. Teeth. Inside, the preshow reveals the band in the middle of cutting a new record before Scooter urgently redirects them toward the venue. The high-speed launch coaster format is unchanged — it is still one of the fastest zero-to-sixty moments in any Disney park — while the new soundtrack and visuals represent the most significant creative reinvention of this attraction since opening day.
Animal Kingdom’s Newest Resident: Bluey Comes to Florida
Bluey’s Wild World Opens May 26, 2026
For families with children under ten, few characters on the planet currently command the level of passionate devotion that the Australian blue heeler Bluey does. The television phenomenon that turned an animated dog family into a global cultural force makes its Walt Disney World debut on May 26, 2026, when Bluey’s Wild World opens at Conservation Station in Animal Kingdom’s Rafiki’s Planet Watch.
Guests ride the Wildlife Express Train out to Conservation Station, where Bluey and her sister Bingo lead interactive dance-and-play experiences incorporating games from the television series adapted with animal-themed twists. Photo opportunities and encounters with characters native to Bluey’s homeland of Australia complete the experience — connecting the beloved fictional Heeler family’s world to real wildlife and conservation themes that Animal Kingdom has championed since opening in 1998.
Conservation Station was previously one of the most overlooked and undervisited sections of Walt Disney World. Bluey’s Wild World changes that calculus entirely.
What Is Rising Across Four Construction Sites
Magic Kingdom’s Largest-Ever Expansion
Two adjacent construction projects currently occupying a substantial footprint in Magic Kingdom represent the most ambitious single-park expansion in the 55-year history of the resort.
Piston Peak National Park replaces the former Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island with a Pixar Cars-themed wilderness area modeled on the aesthetic of America’s great national park lodges. Vertical construction began in late March 2026 — the first steel rising skyward after nearly a year of demolition and site preparation. Two Cars-based rides are confirmed: one an off-road thrill experience, the second a family-friendly attraction. A visitor lodge and ranger headquarters will anchor the food and retail landscape with thick timber beams and panoramic scenic overlooks that make the architecture feel as immersive as any ride.
Disney’s commitment to this land extends even to the trees. Construction crews have been marking and preserving heritage oaks and other mature trees from the former Frontierland riverbank area for potential relocation within the new land — a continuation of a Disney tradition that dates to the original construction of Magic Kingdom itself, when the 135-year-old Liberty Tree was transplanted from another section of the property.
Adjacent to Piston Peak, Villains Land is taking shape behind Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion. Cleared and under active planning, this dedicated realm for Disney’s most iconic antagonists will include at minimum two major attractions, themed dining, and shopping. It is the first dedicated villains-themed land in any Disney park worldwide — a concept that generations of Disney fans have requested for decades and that D’Amaro’s team is now turning into physical reality.
Hollywood Studios Goes Vertical on Monstropolis
This week, construction crews working on the south side of Disney’s Hollywood Studios achieved a milestone that has been anticipated since the project was announced: vertical construction has begun on the Monsters, Inc. suspended roller coaster that will anchor the new Monstropolis land.
The first steel support columns for the coaster are now in place, rising from a footprint that once served as parking infrastructure adjacent to the former Muppets Courtyard — itself permanently closed in 2025 to make way for the expansion. When complete, the coaster will carry riders in seats positioned beneath the track — the first suspended coaster ever built inside a Disney theme park — through a fully enclosed, indoor experience inspired by the climactic doors-chase sequence from the 2001 Pixar film.
Beyond the coaster, Monstropolis will include immersive dining, retail, and a theater show whose details remain under wraps. No opening date has been set, but the pace of vertical progress signals a 2027-2028 target.
Tropical Americas Rises at Animal Kingdom
On the site where DinoLand U.S.A. stood since Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, something entirely new is taking shape. Tropical Americas, Disney’s ambitious 11-acre replacement land, surrounds guests in the fictional village of Pueblo Esperanza — a Central American rainforest settlement with layered cultural architecture, lush landscaping, and a design philosophy that prizes lived-in authenticity over theme park shorthand.
Two anchor attractions are confirmed for the 2027 opening. An Encanto dark ride — the first attraction anywhere based on the 2021 Walt Disney Animation Studios film — brings guests inside the Madrigal family’s magical Casita beginning the moment Antonio receives his transformational gift. An Indiana Jones ride replaces the former DINOSAUR attraction with a new Florida storyline separate from the version operating at Disneyland. A critter carousel, character-animal hybrid sculpture mounts replacing traditional horses, and one of the largest quick-service restaurants on the entire Walt Disney World property — housed inside a sprawling hacienda building repurposed from the former Restaurantosaurus — complete the picture.
Disney Springs Gets an Adult Playground
LEVEL99 Brings Something Genuinely New to the Entertainment District
Not every headline from Walt Disney World in 2026 involves a theme park ride. At Disney Springs — the entertainment and shopping district that has undergone a nearly complete transformation over the past five years — LEVEL99 is opening in spring 2026 at the site of the former NBA Experience in the West Side complex.
LEVEL99 is an immersive, physical gaming venue unlike anything currently operating in Central Florida’s entertainment market. More than 60 themed challenge rooms present mental and physical puzzles for adults, teens, and competitive groups. Competitive duels, collaborative art hunts, and a two-story bar serving handcrafted cocktails, locally curated beers, and the venue’s signature Detroit-style pizza round out an experience that fills the one gap Disney Springs had not yet addressed: genuinely competitive, active, social entertainment for guests who have outgrown queue-and-ride as their primary entertainment mode.
The Workforce Behind the Magic: 80,000 Floridians and Counting
Walt Disney World is not simply Central Florida’s most visited attraction. It is the largest single-site employer in the state of Florida, with approximately 80,000 cast members drawing paychecks from an operation that runs 365 days a year across four theme parks, two water parks, dozens of resort hotels, Disney Springs, and the sprawling infrastructure that keeps it all functioning.
Those 80,000 roles span the full spectrum of employment — from entry-level hospitality and food service positions accessible to recent graduates to executive leadership roles competing for talent with global corporations. The company’s cast members earn an average of $18 to $25 per hour inclusive of benefits, generating wage income that flows through Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Lake counties into housing markets, local restaurants, neighborhood businesses, and school district tax rolls.
An Oxford Economics study documented that Disney’s Florida presence supported 263,000 total direct and indirect jobs — representing one in every 32 Florida jobs — and generated $6.6 billion in tax revenue in fiscal year 2022 alone, including $3.1 billion flowing to state and local governments. As the current capital investment cycle drives construction employment, contractor activity, and eventual operating expansions, those figures are trending upward.
The company’s supply chain in Florida spans more than 2,500 small and mid-sized businesses — specialty food producers, entertainment technology firms, costume manufacturers, architectural firms, civil engineering companies, and dozens of other sectors that together deliver the experiences visible inside the parks every day.
Disney Lakeshore Lodge: A New Resort Joins the Portfolio in 2027
Beyond the theme parks, Walt Disney World’s accommodation expansion continues. Disney Lakeshore Lodge — a brand-new resort hotel under development on the property — is targeted to open in 2027, following the successful December 2024 debut of the Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas and Bungalows. Lakeshore Lodge adds premium accommodation capacity at precisely the moment when the opening of multiple new themed lands will drive fresh demand for on-property stays from guests who want maximum access to the resort’s growing entertainment portfolio.
A New CEO with Deep Florida Roots — and Bigger Plans Ahead
Josh D’Amaro’s Promise to Florida
The significance of Josh D’Amaro’s ascent to the CEO role cannot be overstated for Florida’s tourism economy. D’Amaro served as President of Walt Disney World Resort from 2019 to 2020, managing the resort through its pandemic-forced closure and the consequential decisions around its reopening. He knows every corner of this property, every challenge facing its cast members, and every opportunity embedded in its 43-square-mile footprint.
His first public statements as CEO-elect were unambiguous in scope. At Disney’s March 18 shareholder meeting, D’Amaro cited Walt Disney’s own inscription on a door along Main Street USA — “It takes people to make the dream a reality” — and committed the company’s direction to the cast members and creative professionals whose daily work generates the experiences millions of families travel to Florida to encounter.
On the business side, Disney’s parks and experiences division under D’Amaro’s prior leadership attracted roughly 145 million visitors annually worldwide and accounts for approximately 60 percent of The Walt Disney Company’s total operating profit. That performance, more than any other metric, explains why the board chose a parks executive to lead a media and entertainment conglomerate at this particular moment in history.
His upcoming agenda for Walt Disney World includes not just completing the current construction wave but initiating the projects that will define the second half of the decade — the “backloaded” investments that Disney has telegraphed are coming but not yet fully revealed. For Florida, that means the economic activity generated by the current expansion is not a ceiling. It is a foundation.
About Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort is located in Orange and Osceola counties in the heart of Central Florida, approximately 25 miles southwest of downtown Orlando. Spanning 25,000 acres — roughly twice the size of Manhattan — the resort encompasses four theme parks, two water parks, more than two dozen resort hotels, Disney Springs, and numerous additional entertainment and recreation venues. Walt Disney World opened October 1, 1971, and has hosted more than one billion cumulative guests across its history. The resort is operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, a division of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). For guest planning and information, visit disneyworld.com.
Press and Media Contacts
Walt Disney World Resort Communications Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830 disneyexperiences.com royalpress.disney.go.com
Visit Orlando — Official Tourism Authority 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32821 visitorlando.com | 407-363-5872
Orange County Economic Development 201 S. Rosalind Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32801 ocfl.net/economicdevelopment
This press release was independently written using publicly verified sources including official Disney Company SEC filings, The Walt Disney Company leadership announcements, Disney Parks Blog, IAAPA conference reporting, Attractions Magazine, ABC News, FOX 35 Orlando, and current trade and consumer media coverage. All facts reflect publicly available information as of April 15, 2026. Economic impact statistics are drawn from Oxford Economics research released in November 2023 and updated company reporting through FY2025. This release is not sponsored, authorized, or affiliated with The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries.
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Projects on this scale are made possible through the collaboration of industry leaders like the ABC Florida East Coast Chapter Empowers South Fl Real Estate Developers.
The demand for high-end construction extends beyond theme parks and into the residential sector, as evidenced by the work of Marc Elkman Luxury Boca Raton Developer.
For a broader look at how these massive developments impact the local community, check out the latest FLORIDA BULLDOG: News Summary April 2026.
