It’s a great time to be a Walt Disney World fan. The parks are on the precipice of starting a 5-year plan that’ll result in new lands, rides, and entertainment between now and 2030. The previous development cycle is finished, and everything is open. On top of that, pent-up demand is over and as a result, there are more discounts. The phased reopening is finished, and things are finally back to normal. Well, for the most part.
Ironically enough, this is similar to how the companion piece to this post, Truly Terrible Decisions by Walt Disney World, started out. It’s admittedly odd that two polar opposite articles can focus on some of the same things, but the reality is that recent announcements for Walt Disney World have been mixed bags of good, bad, and puzzling.
This is perhaps best exemplified in this year’s newest addition, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which (spoiler alert) made neither list. As we’ve said before, it’s a “warts and all” attraction, with some of the best Audio Animatronics we’ve ever seen from Disney, great music, quirky characters, and other highlights. However, it also makes several perplexing decisions, serves up a jumbled story, has way too much dead space, unacceptable unreliability, and more. Depending on who you ask, it can be awful or awesome, which is probably because it contains aspects of both.
Suffice to say, this has not been a perfect year for Walt Disney World. But the question I ask with these year-end reflections is whether, at the end of the day, Walt Disney World is in a better place than it was a year ago? For me, it’s an easy yes. But perhaps I’m biased because we’re fresh off our first family Christmas trip with Baby Bricker, which was fantastic and filled with fun and memorable experiences.
Even taking a step back, I think it’s true that 2024 has been better than 2020-2023 for all of the reasons touched upon above: lower crowds, bigger & better discounts, fewer price increases, more entertainment, and a greater sense of normalcy. That’s not all. We’ll break down other positive changes that occurred this year over the course of this article.
This isn’t to say that things are perfect. The years of 2020 to 2022 were really tough, and Walt Disney World is still recovering from that dark time. Many fans rightfully point out that the comeback has been too little, too slow…or too late. When Bob Iger returned to the CEO seat 2 years ago, he suggested he’d fix things. That remains a work in progress, and one that could be happening with a lot more urgency.
Speaking of which, this post is also a sequel, of sorts, to What Bob Iger Needs to Fix at Walt Disney World & Beyond in 2024. That was written on the one-year anniversary of Disney’s Bob Swap, and is more or less what the title suggests–a wish list of changes management should make as it sought to clean up Chapek’s mistakes and rebuild.
Thirteen months later, I’m pleased to report that a lot of that has happened or progress has been made towards achieving the entries on that list. Not everything pertained to the Disney Parks, and not everything is visible from a guest facing perspective, but here are the entries that I think we can arguably say have had positive progress made:
- Put Creativity First
- Make an Actual Announcement for Walt Disney World
- Make an Actual Announcement for Disneyland
- Quiet Controversy
- Brand Deposits Over Withdrawals
- Improve Cast Member Morale
- Improve Guest Satisfaction
- Choreograph Iger’s Succession Plan
Again, not all of these have been 100% accomplished–and whether progress has been made at all is debatable in some instances. “Put creativity first,” for example, is nebulous. But I’d argue that the movies released this year have been, by and large, much better and more ambitious than in the previous 2 years. Disney+ is more of a mixed bag, but there are signs of life there, too.
Anyway, on with the list of decisions Walt Disney World has gotten right this year…
Repairing Relationships
This was a big year for Disney repairing relationships with the two biggest states where it does business. Things were already on the right path in California prior to the start of this year, but it had been a rocky road there for several years due to tensions between that state and Disneyland. That was a bitter battle at the time, and one that cost Disney dearly in not being able to reopen its Anaheim parks.
Since then, both CEO Bob Iger and Disneyland President Ken Potrock went to extensive lengths to fixing the relationship with the city and the state. Disney did a great job of community outreach in both the City of Anaheim and California as a whole, which culminated in the approval of DisneylandForward. That paved the way for billions of dollars in investments, the first round of which was announced at D23. (Disneyland Resort got the better slate from an upside vs. downside perspective!)
It was a similar story with Walt Disney World and the standoff with the State of Florida. This had been more public and bitter, and costly in a different way than a closure of the parks. It’s probably unnecessary to rehash all of this since it was more recent and high profile, but it resulted in lawsuits (plural), Disney losing control of its special district and self-governance, that being replaced with an openly hostile board of a new special district, and the company threatening to end investments in Florida as a result.
After a lengthy battle, cooler heads finally prevailed. Disney and DeSantis settled. A compromise was reached on the composition of the special district board. Things have improved so much that the district is assisting Disney with its permitting process, rather than being antagonistic. Regardless of how you assign blame in that, the dispute was decidedly “not good” for Disney and it definitely “is good” that Disney has done the hard work of repairing the relationship, irrespective of whether the company was right or wrong in the first place.
The bottom line is that Walt Disney World is absolutely huge for Florida’s economic engine, just like Disney and Disneyland are integral to California as a whole and Anaheim in particular. It is mutually advantageous for the company and the places it does business to have good working relationships. Everyone loses and no one wins when these states and one of their largest businesses are at odds.
Resuming Routine Refurbishments
This year has seen an uptick in refurbishments across Walt Disney World. While this has resulted in complaints from guests visiting during some of the closures, we view this as a major positive. (We do agree that Walt Disney World should schedule routine maintenance with much more advance notice, ideally in lump-sum schedule updates ~6 months in advance.)
As we’ve pointed out on multiple occasions, there was a lot of deferred maintenance and proportionately fewer closures in the last few years due to pent-up demand and budget cuts. Walt Disney World also lost a lot of seasoned maintenance Cast Members during the closure, many of whom took early retirement or simply didn’t return.
This is precisely why “Maintenance & Unexpected Downtime” made the list of Top 10 Guest Complaints About Walt Disney World! Ride breakdowns remain an issue and, in our view, these unexpected closures are worse than routine refurbishments because you can’t plan around them.
Better regular refurbishments is very much still a work in progress. Walt Disney World simply cannot accomplish 3-4 years of postponed projects in the span of ~6 months. Several attractions are overdue for refurbishments and will probably get them in 2025 or 2026–the tricky thing will be timing to avoid having too many “big” rides down in each park. It’ll help that pent-up demand is exhausted, staffing has improved, and the money spigot in Burbank has been turned on for Parks & Resorts, allowing for more projects of this nature to (finally!) happen.
Sure, regular refurbishments and routine maintenance is not as exciting as brand-new attractions–and many of you may lament more rides being closed during your vacation–but refurbishments are very much a necessity for maintaining appropriate attraction standards and ensuring that breakdowns don’t continue to happen at a more frequent rate. I don’t think anyone is “excited” for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to be closed for over a year, and although the near-term impact will be negative, this is an unequivocal positive in the long-term. This is an underrated entry in the list that more fans should view favorably!
Killing Genie
There is no consensus as to whether Genie+ as it existed by mid-2024 or Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is better. Line-skipping is always going to create winners and losers in equal measure. That’s the nature of the beast because queueing is a zero-sum game. Attraction capacity is fixed and finite, and didn’t change between the two systems. There is no magical system where everyone gets to wait in shorter lines.
The only meaningful way to actually alter the equation is by actually increasing capacity. The best way that’s done is building more attractions. Other ways to increase capacity are adding entertainment, extending operating hours, or just giving guests other things to do that either pull them away from rides or dilute the distribution of guests throughout the day. Everything else is rearranging the deck chairs, and having different guests come out ahead or behind. Walt Disney World finally got the message on all this, and it’s reflected in the D23 announcements.
With all of that said, the problems with Genie+ were two-fold. The first was that the brand was about as toxic as the name Bob Chapek, and it needed a complete and total overhaul. The botched launch and scattershot changes over the following 18 months had poisoned the well. The second is that Genie+ worked way too well for power users, and by extension, less so for a lot of average guests. Part of that was probably due to the first reason–this blog alone had dozens of articles about hacking Genie, which worked really well and made sense if you followed along closely. For everyone else, it was confusing and the ‘rules’ became something of a moving target.
Walt Disney World’s aim with the move from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and its suite of other queueing changes is better balance. Policies and systems that feel fairer to the majority of guests and don’t advantage or disadvantage anyone too much. From what we’ve experienced over the last several months, they’ve done a good job of threading the needle with all of these changes. That much should be obvious by very few fans loving LLMP or hating it too much. The reactions are less extreme, which alone is a signal that it’s a better compromise. Another signal is like a 90% drop on Lightning Lane posts here, since there simply isn’t as much to talk about or hack!
Bringing Bluey to the Parks
There’s very little middle ground with Bluey. Either you only have passing knowledge of what it is, or it means the world to you. This is probably because, unlike animated movies with huge marketing campaigns and theatrical releases, this is a cartoon aimed at small children. So it’s easy to miss if you’re not the target demo, unless you seek it out. (I’ll be honest–I kept confusing Bluey with The Bear in the Big Blue House when it first blew up!)
Regardless, there are several reasons why the move to bring Bluey to the parks in 2025 is such a great decision. First, because Disney has had a bit of a dry spell lately with original movies, while this year’s box office results have been much better, that’s with sequels. No new (important) characters. Bluey helps fill a gap that was otherwise only really occupied by Encanto. Second, because Bluey is ridiculously popular–an international sensation and streaming chart-topper. The reasons for bringing popular things to the parks should be self-evident; no one is questioning Universal’s decision to create Super Nintendo World (well, unless they’re envious).
Finally, because Bluey doesn’t belong to Disney. This required negotiating with the franchise’s rights holders, and getting a deal done. While there are some understandable apprehensions about how Disney’s meddling could hurt Bluey, my personal take is that it’s nice to see Disney working with third parties when it makes sense. It certainly makes sense here, and if handled correctly, Bluey could be a huge win for Walt Disney World and families with small children in the next few years. But again, maybe I’m biased because that’s us.
Good Ideas Never Dying
Less than a week after we published our list of the Top 10 Walt Disney World Rumors We’d Bet Against, which included the infamous Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster as entry, Disney officially announced the attraction. To my partial credit, I did say this: “I also think that there’s truth to the notion that good ideas never really die in Imagineering and that applies to this concept. So I still think there are decent odds this gets built somewhere, someday.”
This is the most obvious example, but not the only one. There have been rumors of a Villains Land or Dark Kingdom or Fire Mountain coming to Magic Kingdom for decades. Since at least the late 1990s. It’s my understanding that although Imagineering had great pitches, management always got cold feet about the darker tone in the castle park.
And I hate to give them any credit here, but the same could be said to some extent (a much lesser one) about the Island Tower and Lakeshore Lodge. To be clear, I don’t love or even like either of these concepts. But I do appreciate that Imagineering has pulled from the past in trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
More broadly, it’s good that Disney and Imagineering takes time to incubate ideas and ruminate on them, rather than acting impulsively with the flavor of the month. Some fans have criticized Cars Land as being based on an “outdated” franchise. While there are plenty of problems with the concept, I couldn’t disagree more about this one. When it comes to permanent additions, I only want Imagineering using movies and characters that stand the test of time. (If anything, I’m slightly worried that the jury is still out on Encanto–that it’s too new for a ride!)
Suffice to say, I won’t be the one complaining if unbuilt attractions from the pages of old Imagineering books suddenly come to life. I just wish these good ideas that never die weren’t themselves killing off other good ideas that already came to life!
Tropical Americas
Tropical Americas will come to Disney’s Animal Kingdom featuring the Encanto Magical Madrigal Casita Dark Ride and Indiana Jones Adventure. It’ll have mini-areas based on both, along with Pueblo Esperanza or the “Village of Hope.”
On the one hand, I’m still sad that Walt Disney World never went all-in on dinosaurs and gave the awesomest animal the land they deserve. (See the ‘Terrible Decisions’ post.) On the other hand, Dinoland was not good. Tropical Americas will undoubtedly be a massive upgrade as compared to what was there before.
Moreover, of the competing concepts for Animal Kingdom expansion and redevelopment, this is the one that I think works best. I know other fans wanted to see Zootopia and/or Moana in Animal Kingdom, but I view this as a better fit. And besides, the future is still bright for both of those franchises in Walt Disney World, anyway.
I’m particularly excited for Indiana Jones Adventure, and getting a third version of this attraction with a storyline that’s unique and fitting for DAK. The two current incarnations are among my favorite rides in the world, and I’ve heard that this could be the best of the bunch. The Encanto dark ride is more of a wild card. My fear is that expectations are for Mystic Manor: Madrigal Edition, and what we get will be more along the lines of the Little Mermaid dark ride, but with Encanto characters. Here’s hoping it exceeds expectations, and Tropical Americas ends up with two E-Tickets plus a family-friendly flat ride.
Price Increases & Discounts
I hesitated to include this one, because prices being too high and increased nickel & diming continues to be a common complaint. So it feels like very few of you will be receptive to this, or even believe me.
Regardless, discounts have increased significantly in the last year-plus. We’ve repeatedly commented on how Walt Disney World brought back the “2019 playbook” for deals with the return of Free Dining and Bouncebacks. Along with that, there have been higher percentage savings–and for more dates–in 2024 than any year since 2019. Ticket deals are more abundant, and not just for Floridians. Special offers are better now than in 2020-2022, there’s really no disputing that.
On top of that, the rate of price increases has slowed considerably. Ticket prices, in particular, skyrocketed during the pent-up demand period. However, as we’ve also pointed out repeatedly, current admission costs have not gone up since December 2022–that’s a fairly unprecedented two year stretch. (Prices have increased slightly for 2025.) The cost of Lightning Lanes did not increase this holiday season, while the value offered improved!
The reason this likely won’t be well-received is because prices shot up so much in the two-year span of pent-up demand that fans are still reeling, and there’s still a mixture of cost-cutting and increases on other things (restaurant menus, upcharges, etc). Personally, I think there’s still work to be done on this front, especially since perception is reality. If Walt Disney World doesn’t want to lose ground to Epic Universe, what might be needed is flat out decreases, not deceleration of increases.
Fixing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Mandalorian and Baby Yoda getting a brand-new mission in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was an underrated announcement at D23 Expo. (Honestly, think maybe they should’ve saved this one for 2025 Destination D23, where it could’ve made a bigger splash.) This is because, in my eyes, it’s the clearest sign yet that Disney knows Galaxy’s Edge didn’t quite hit the high notes it should’ve, and they’re giving Imagineers the freedom and budget to “fix” it.
This is a bigger deal than you might think, because Disney seldom invests big bucks in blockbuster lands or attractions that are still relatively new. This checks all those boxes. My sincere hope is that this is part of a bigger plan to give Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge a soft reboot. I’d like to see Batuu break the sacred timeline and use the setting of the land as a jumping off point for new adventures. (See Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Needs to Break the Rules for my take on all of that.)
Imagine how great Smugglers Run could be if it combined the settings of Star Tours with the interactivity and complete package of the Millennium Falcon?! Bringing a new mission with Mando and Grogu could be a complete game-changer–elevating Galaxy’s Edge as a whole along with it. I’m also optimistic that we’ll see ideas from the failed Galactic Starcruiser start to trickle out into Galaxy’s Edge.
Ending Reopening Rules
It was almost a full year ago at this point, but January 9 was a major milestone for Walt Disney World. It was then that most of the reopening rule changes were retired, with “unlimited” Park Hopping restored, park reservations mostly retired, Annual Passholders (the exception to the retired reservations rule) getting ‘Good-to-Go’ days, and the Disney Dining Plan returning.
Those were the headline changes, but there was more to it beneath the surface than that. Advance Dining Reservations became easier to book, and Walt Disney World returned to its old cadence of deals by bringing back Free Dining and other special offers. There was never a press release stating as much, but it feels like the parks have finally returned to their 2019 operations, to the extent that will happen. Before the start of this year, there was still very much the sense that Walt Disney World was in the midst of its phased reopening and getting back to normal.
This year turned the page on that and opened a new chapter. Not quite 2019, for better and worse, but also definitely not 2020 to 2023, either (definitely for better there). While I don’t have insight into current guest satisfaction scores or Cast Member morale, I would hazard a guess that both have improved considerably.
Things aren’t perfect, to be sure, but there’s less friction and stress. My personal perception is that there’s less tension between guests and Cast Members, which I presume is for the reasons laid out above (fewer rules and stress points in the guest experience). Next piece of low-hanging fruit in this mission: eliminating the virtual queues for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Disney Starlight Night Parade
The all-new Disney Starlight Night Parade will continue the nighttime spectacular legacy started by the Main Street Electrical Parade, using the latest technology to tell new stories about the characters you love. All of this is brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy, in addition to beloved characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios films “Peter Pan,” “Encanto,” “Frozen,” and more.
This was my #1 announcement from D23 Expo. I know Disney Starlight isn’t as big or exciting as new lands or attractions, but we also don’t have to wait 3+ years for it and Disney Starlight is one of the few things that can actually serve as an “answer” to Epic Universe. Obviously, entertainment cannot compete with a new gate–but it does serve as counterprogramming to peel some people away from Universal.
Along with the fireworks, the night parade sets the nighttime mood in Magic Kingdom. It’s more than that, though. Walt Disney first introduced fireworks as his “kiss goodnight” to guests at the end of a long day, as a way to send people home on a high note. It’s very similar to the grand finale of the show itself, but for the guest’s day as a whole. We cannot wait to experience Disney Starlight as a family, making new memories together and rekindling old ones along the way.
Honestly, I would’ve been pretty happy with a recycled night parade from Disneyland. If they brought out Paint the Night, that would’ve been a win. Notoriously entertainment-allergic Walt Disney World management finally greenlighting a brand-new night parade after so long is a really big deal. My hope is that it signals a change in the resort’s approach to entertainment, and given other recent signs we’ve seen, I think that may very well be the case.
Greenlighting Villains Land
Years from now, Disney fans will still be talking about the energy in the room when Josh D’Amaro revealed Villains Land at Magic Kingdom as his “one more thing” announcement. Either in a bad way since it’ll be another victim in pile of unbuilt concepts, or a good way as it comes to life.
After being rumored for as long as I’ve been a fan, it’s kind of wild to see Villains Land finally coming to life at such an epic scale. Villains Land fits the mold for a perfect Magic Kingdom themed land. Even though it’s become a franchise or brand, at its heart, this is a more open concept like the existing lands, rather than a single intellectual property, movie or character. As much as I enjoy Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, I still think it feels odd and disconnected from the rest of Disneyland. So I’m glad to see Villains Land as opposed to Encanto or Coco lands.
Honestly, I also feel like the Cars Land can work alongside Frontierland more than many of you. I hate what we’re losing to get it–and really hope Disney has a good plan to make that atmosphere and alive with kinetic energy (aside from just vroom vroom vroom Cars!)–but think the idea itself has a lot of potential. A bit of an aside, but I also disagree with everyone who thinks the Cars attraction should replace Tomorrowland Speedway. It would be much more thematically incongruous over there, whereas it could work on the edge of the frontier if Imagineering nails the concept.
Villains Land, though, is an unequivocally fantastic decision and a great risk to see Walt Disney World taking. Not only that, but competing with Universal’s Dark Universe plus the fan enthusiasm for Villains Land means the Imagineers are going to bring their a-game with Villains Land. More importantly, it means that instead of proceeding with apprehension, Walt Disney World will go all-in on this expansion, giving it the budget and space needed to create something truly…well, magical feels like the wrong word.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think are the most dubious decisions made by Walt Disney World in the last year or so? Or do you think corporate leadership is playing 4D chess, and fans simply don’t “get” the decisions, are blinded by nostalgia and rose-colored glasses, etc? Anything else that qualifies as “truly terrible” for you? Feel free to vent in the comments. You won’t change the course of construction and the trajectory of Walt Disney World…but at least it’s therapeutic! Happy Festivus!
