D23 Is Over: Here's What Disney Actually Announced, and What It Means for Your Trip

I said last week I'd watch the D23 parks showcase so nobody up here had to stay awake until one in the morning for it. It ran Saturday night out of the Honda Center in Anaheim. Here's what got announced, and more to the point, which of it should change a trip you're thinking about.

Start with Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, since that's the one people have been waiting on since 2024. It's officially called Villains Land, and it gets two rides. The first is a Maleficent coaster that sends you racing through the thorns around her mountain fortress. The second is a dark ride hosted by the Evil Queen's Magic Mirror, where you cross into a "Mirror Realm" and run into a pile of villains along the way. Disney says it's built with physical sets and practical effects rather than a wall of screens, which is good news if you've got a kid who gets queasy on screen rides. The whole land hangs on a story about a corrupted wishing well.

What Disney did not say: when it opens. Same for the Cars area.

Speaking of which, Piston Peak National Park finally has ride names. Cars Ridge Run Rally is an off-road race with a vehicle whose tires and suspension react to the ground under them, climbing a snow-topped peak and tearing through a geyser field before a last stretch past Lightning McQueen and Mater. The second one is Miss Fritter's Daredevil Spin-Along, a demolition derby hosted by a school-bus-sized Miss Fritter. If you read my construction update from July, this is the detail that was missing.

EPCOT got the biggest cheer of the night. Journey Into Imagination is being rebuilt with Figment, and Dreamfinder is coming back. Spaceship Earth is also getting its first real overhaul in close to twenty years.

Over at Animal Kingdom, the Yeti on Expedition Everest is being brought back to life. No date on that, but after twenty years of "disco Yeti" jokes, plenty of people I book for will care. The Indiana Jones ride going into Tropical Americas is now called Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and Harrison Ford's likeness will be used for the animatronic, a first for a Disney attraction. The Encanto ride next door is Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto, with no height requirement, so the little ones can ride it.

Now the announcements that actually come with a year attached, because those are the ones I plan around.

Parts of Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios open in 2027: a theater show with Mike and Sulley, Harryhausen's restaurant from the movie, shops, and a Monsters University alumni club. The door coaster comes later. And the Carousel of Progress reopens in late spring 2027 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston voicing Mom and Dad, updated scenes, and an Audio-Animatronic Walt Disney to open the show.

On the California side, Disneyland's Tomorrowland is getting reimagined with no timeline yet, and the two new Avengers Campus rides at Disney California Adventure land in 2028.

So what do you do with all of it?

If your trip is this year or next, nothing here touches your plans. Book it. Almost none of this opens before 2027, and the parks are plenty of park without it.

If you were holding out for Villains Land or Cars, keep holding, but don't build a date around them yet. There's still no opening year, and I'm not going to let you plan a vacation around a press release.

2027 is the year worth circling. Monstropolis and the Carousel of Progress both have real windows, and the good Walt Disney World resort rooms for a new-land opening stretch go early. If that's your family, get on my radar now and I'll flag dates the second they're real.

None of this planning costs you anything. Disney pays me, not you, so your trip prices out the same as booking it yourself, except somebody's watching the calendar for you. If you want to talk through whether to go now or wait, reach out. First conversation is free and there's no pressure to book.