Photo Credit: DisneyD23

D23 Expo happens every 2 years where Disney announces new additions in their parks, movies, and more. 2015’s D23 Expo brought some major surprises including Toy Story Land and Star Wars Themed Lands. This year was an amazing year of news because Disney announced so many new enhancements in their parks and resorts.First up is more news for the Star Wars Themed Lands at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Resort. It has been confirmed that the new name for these lands will be Galaxy’s Edge and will open sometime in 2019. It will first open up at Disneyland, followed by Disney’s Hollywood Studios later in that year. Next is one of the happiest and saddest announcements there was. The Great Movie Ride will be closing August 13th for a reimagined attraction called Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Now it’s sad to replace one of the best dark rides in Walt Disney World (In my opinion) this makes a lot of sense considering the parks transformation from how movies are made to stepping into the movies. It would be a nice nod for the park’s main, center attraction, also called a Weenie ( Really, look it up) to be the mouse who started it all.

The third announcement was 2 new Epcot attractions and a new film for the China Pavilion. The new attractions will be themed to Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratatouille. The Guardians of the Galaxy attraction will replace Universe of Energy, closing August 13th with the Great Movie Ride. The Ratatouille attraction will be a clone from Disneyland Paris Resort and be put right in between Morocco and France. Another new experience coming to Epcot is a reimagined Mission Space Pavilion complete with a new dining expierence that is literally out of this world.

My personal favorite announcement they made was the Tron Lightcycle Power Run from Shanghai Disneyland which will be coming to Magic Kingdom sometime around 2021. Also in Magic Kingdom, a new Main Street Theater is coming hopefully sooner then expected. Moving over to Disneyland Paris, the Hotel New York will be getting a re-theme to Marvel, which will be called Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel. Still on hotels, a completely immersive Star Wars themed hotel will be coming to a galaxy near you in the future. I suspect that Disney will put this hotel right next to Disney’s Hollywood Studios with a secret entrance for hotel guests into Galaxy’s Edge to never ruin the Star Wars immersion.

Disney Cruise Line is making a Beauty and the Beast show. A new DVC resort called Riviera will open next to Caribbean Beach Resort and they are making another Disney Cruise Line ship, on top of the other 2 that they announced a while back. Toy Story Land got an opening date of Summer 2018 and a new Gondola system called the Disney Skyliner traveling through the parks and resorts got announced as well. The funniest announcement by far was an Uber-like Service called Minnie Vans.

Last but not least over at California Adventure, Cars Land will be getting a temporary Haul-o-ween makeover and Paradise Pier is changing to Pixar Pier. One of the biggest announcements where we got barely anything from was a Marvel land in Disney’s California Adventure. Whew, that is a LOT to take in. That is 17 announcements including the boring, I mean educational stuff like the new China film. No Animal Kingdom news though. That is because Pandora – The World of Avatar just opened up 2 months before the expo.

Be sure to stay tuned to the Website for more updates and follow me on twitter @themepkhorizons

Have a magical day!