Walt Disney World has several new lands, attractions, entertainment, restaurants, resorts, reimagined rides, and more on the horizon at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. This ranks the top 10 additions that fans and first-timers alike should most excited to experience in 2025.
Walt Disney World is beginning a new development cycle in 2025 that will result in $17 billion of spending on new lands, rides, restaurants, and resorts. That’s the good news. This will bear fruit over the next decade, and result in massive new additions between now and 2035.
The bad news is that there’s not as much on the “coming soon” side. At least, not in 2025. There are plenty of additions–and some that we’re really excited to experience–but the next brand-new ride doesn’t open until 2027. In the meantime, there’s still a lot coming in the next 2 years, including ride reimaginings, new restaurants, and much more. That’s what this list takes a look at–the mostly smaller-scale reimagined rides, restaurants, and entertainment offerings being added between construction cycles at Walt Disney World in 2025…
10. Spaceship Earth Lounge – In Spring 2025, the Spaceship Earth Lounge will open. Walt Disney World says this elegant lounge will honor the intertwined history of Spaceship Earth and EPCOT itself, celebrating the legacy of the icon’s past while admiring its future.
As for the menu, Disney’s chefs have created delicious culinary creations to complement the setting. With sweeping views of World Celebration Gardens and a unique perspective of the nightly fireworks, this intimate lounge invites you to raise a toast to the enduring spirit of EPCOT.
I recently toured the Tomorrow Tower Suite on the Treasure, and it honestly didn’t do much for me. There were some fun details and gorgeous art created for it, but as a whole, it was nothing all that special. I dunno, I guess since we have a nice West Elm showroom near us, I’m not impressed by this type of thing? I’m expecting more of the same from the Spaceship Earth lounge. It’ll be nice looking, but the views will be the highlight. That’s what I’m looking forward to–taking “aerial” night photos of EPCOT from a fresh perspective.
9. Construction – Yes, I’m looking forward to construction walls. Or progress walls, as we call them around these parts (we definitely don’t normally call them that–I feel icky just writing that).
Dino-Rama is the first thing to get walled-off, and I couldn’t be more excited to see that go extinct. Honestly, I’m also looking forward to the Big Thunder closure. As painful as it might be to lose that for 1-2 years, watching that enormous crane replace roller coaster track will be an attraction unto itself for dorks like me.
Bigger picture, I’m looking forward to this development cycle. It will involve growing pains and painful goodbyes, that much is undeniable. But so did the last one. I love Cosmic Rewind, but still miss Universe of Energy. Ditto Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Rail with Great Movie Ride. Or even the Streets of America and, most importantly, what they held at Christmas-time.
I also think that the attraction rosters in the parks are better today than they were prior to the last development cycle. Nostalgic as I might be, there were a lot of great additions, and there’s a reason why so many of the rides with the longest wait times are less than a decade old. Same goes for popular restaurants and resorts, too. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s on the horizon take shape, warts and all.
8. All Things Villains – Disney delayed “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure” until Summer 2025 and announced the new “Villains Unfairly Ever After” for Summer 2025. Both of these shows are coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so we essentially know what the plan is for that park next year.
I guess I’m looking forward to the Little Mermaid show. Although at the same time, I worry the refreshed ‘Musical Adventure’ will pull too much from the show on the Disney Wish, which I view as inferior to the decades-old show that occupied this space. And more than anything, I’m frustrated that it’s taking so long to bring this show back, and that feeling overshadows my enthusiasm for the reimagined Little Mermaid show.
Villains Unfairly Ever After is a different story. I’m looking forward to the show itself, but also what it represents and how Disney might be using this stage show to do market research for the upcoming villains land. In which case, I’m hoping this is the tip of the iceberg with villains offerings at Walt Disney World in the next couple of years. Bring back Villains After Hours, make more consequential changes to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, etc. The stakes are high for Villains Land in Magic Kingdom–Imagineering needs to nail it.
7. Reimagined Resort Rooms – One of my seemingly unpopular opinions, at least judging by the reader comments, is that most of the room refurbishments that Walt Disney World has done in the last 8 years are actually good. At least, compared to what was done in the ~5 years before 2017.
To be sure, they are not perfect. Criticism about rooms being too bland and sterile is well-taken, even in the rooms that have been upgrades on balance. With a couple of notable exceptions (such as the Incredibles rooms at the Contemporary), redone rooms have gotten even better since the opening of Disney’s Riviera Resort. That leaves a 2-3 year gap when new styles were good, but not great.
The round of room redos announced for 2025-2026 are at the hotels last redone right around the time when Disney started getting good at room redesigns, making massive functional improvements. The upcoming projects are soft goods refurbishments, meaning they’ll freshen the fixtures and make stylistic updates without gutting the rooms or changing anything layout-wise. From my perspective, this is all that needs to be done, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the outcome at one of our favorites, Pop Century, as well as a few other resorts. Then there are the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside, which I’m more nervous about than anything.
6. Pirates of the Caribbean Tavern – A new Pirates of the Caribbean-themed tavern is set to open in late 2025 in Adventureland at Magic Kingdom. This brand-new experience will extend the classic story and offer a welcoming haven for all pirate-kind, big and small. The tavern will invite bandits and buccaneers-to-be from every corner of the seven seas to raise a toast to the pirate life.
Walt Disney World has described this as a first-of-its-kind experience, but we expect it to be pretty similar to Oga’s Cantina in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, except themed to pirates instead of space pirates. Beyond a couple pieces of concept art and Imagineering revealing that it’ll feature the beloved Barker Bird Audio Animatronics figure, there’s not much that’s known about the tavern that’s taking over Pirates League and a portion of the gift shop.
After loving the Haunted Mansion Parlor aboard the Disney Treasure, I’m even more enthusiastic for the Pirates Tavern. If it’s even half as good as that, it’ll be a fantastic addition. At the same time I’m worried about Magic Kingdom getting its first real bar. Not in a pearl-clutching way, but more in a logistical one. Oga’s Cantina falls kinda flat for me, and that’s largely a byproduct of its high demand and Disney’s desire to churn people through the location. The same could happen here, making this less of a pleasant hangout and place to actually eat a real meal of food (which Magic Kingdom badly needs), and more a one-and-done attraction. So here’s hoping Pirates Tavern is not popular, I guess?
5. Zootopia Better Together – In Winter 2025, Zootopia: Better Zoogether will debut in the Tree of Life, replacing It’s Tough to Be a Bug. The concept for Zootopia: Better Zoogether has guests visiting the different biomes you only glimpse in the film, traveling along with Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and other characters. That’s all Disney has revealed thus far.
A winter opening timeframe would mean sometime between January and early March, meaning this could debut any day now! It’s safe to say that will not happen. Given that Disney hasn’t said much at all about Zootopia: Better Together, much less shared a closing date for It’s Tough to Be a Bug, this suggests to us they actually mean Zootopia: Better Zoogether is opening in Late 2025.
I feel almost hypocritical for being such a zealous advocate for saving MuppetVision 3D, arguing that it has aged well–better than Monsters Laugh Floor. At the same time, my reaction to It’s Tough to Be a Bug closing could best be described as ‘meh.’ Don’t get me wrong–it’s a good show that has also aged well (hence the hypocrisy). It just doesn’t resonate with me, personally. I’ve enjoyed doing it over the years, but I’m also over it.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing what Imagineering cooks up with Zootopia: Better Zoogether. This show has tremendous potential and should reinvigorate interest in the Tree of Life. I also suspect it’s not the last we’ll see of Zootopia at Walt Disney World, as this franchise has tremendous potential for a fully-fledged land.
4. Something for Summer – I fully expect Walt Disney World to do an ‘event’ for Summer 2025. We made the case for a return of Summer Nightastic long before last year’s D23 Expo, during which announcements were made that could be incorporated into such a celebration. So it seems possible.
At the same time, it’s fair to note that I also thought all of the signs were there for an EPCOT summer festival last year, and boy was I wrong about that. While I maintain that EPCOT should’ve done something–anything–for the slow summer months, they opted against it for whatever reason.
I think it’s safe to say that Walt Disney World has at least one more card up its sleeve for Summer 2025. From what I’ve heard, there are still a couple of surprises in store. What, exactly, those are and how exciting they’ll actually be remains to be seen. The Disney Dreams That Soar drone show was the surprise hit of last summer, so perhaps it’s time to finally do something bigger and better with that concept. I hear Animal Kingdom could use a nighttime spectacular, and that park staying open after dark in the summer might be nice!
3. Test Track 3.0 – Part of Walt Disney World’s summer marketing campaign will probably revolve around Test Track 3.0, which will open by late Summer 2025. According to Walt Disney World, Imagineers and Chevrolet are reaching back into history for inspiration from the original World of Motion, and are bringing that spirit of optimism to the next iteration of Test Track. They’re seeking to push innovation forward and celebrate humanity’s enduring drive on the thrilling road to a brighter tomorrow.
While it remains to be seen exactly what that means, it’s cause for optimism. The previous Test Track was showing its age, and I don’t think it’ll be missed by many fans–not even those of us who originally liked the updated attraction. Test Track 3.0 is a low-floor, high-ceiling kind of project…and one being paid for by someone else, so it’s not even coming at the expense of another (higher priority) Walt Disney World project. Win-win!
The reopening of Test Track will also mark the first time (save for like a weeklong window) of EPCOT being free of construction walls. So that might be exciting to some of you. Personally, I’m more of an “EPCOT is always in a state of becoming” kinda guy. A wall-less EPCOT is almost a foreign concept to me, and I don’t know how I’d handle it.
Joking aside, part of the reason I’m looking forward to this project wrapping is to see what’s next. EPCOT is not actually done, but overdue overhauls need to be done one-at-a-time from a park capacity perspective. So the question is…what’s next? Spaceship Earth? Journey into Imagination? The Seas with Nemo & Friends? My money is on Spaceship Earth, which was already overdue for an overhaul 5 years ago when its reimagining was shelved. It’s time.
2. Disney Starlight Night Parade – Saving the best for second-to-last, the biggest 2025 addition in all of Walt Disney World is Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, a new nighttime parade coming to Magic Kingdom in Summer 2025. Not even Test Track 3.0 can compete with this from the perspective of hype–the two are miles apart.
Disney Starlight will use 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,” “Moana” and more.
I am beyond excited for Walt Disney World to finally get a night parade again–to the point that this rivals the #1 entry for me, which is silly when you contrast their scale. But more than anything that’s gone missing from Walt Disney World in the last decade, I miss the night parade. The thing is, so many of my formative memories of Walt Disney World revolve around nighttime entertainment.
When Sarah and I first started visiting WDW together, we watched SpectroMagic whenever we were at Magic Kingdom. Every. Single. Night. So much about the Walt Disney World fan experience is chasing moments and memories from the past, trying to recapture fleeting feelings or what makes us nostalgic for the past. Sitting at the end of Main Street, hearing Jiminy Cricket’s voice, the lights going dark and the music starting, and waiting for the first float to approach is one of those meaningful memories for us.
Now that we have a daughter, this desire has been dialed up to 11 for us. I cannot wait to see the new Disney Starlight night parade reflected in her eyes–literally and figuratively. It’ll be like a trip down memory lane for us as we remember those bygone days of watching SpectroMagic, melded with a brand-new memory of whatever this night parade has in store for us and our family.
1. Epic Universe – Theme park fans don’t need to be sold on Epic Universe. The excitement is palpable, and it’s so obviously #1 despite not being “at” Walt Disney World that the rest of this list is almost meaningless. In terms of hype and potential, there are several specific attractions or entire lands at Epic Universe would make the cut over almost everything Walt Disney World is doing in 2025.
That’s among theme park fans, though. Disney fans need a little more “selling,” especially those who have been to Universal Orlando and been underwhelmed with the themed design or found there’s very little they could ride. These concerns are very valid, and something that many Universal fans gloss over. Large swaths of the two current parks are nothing special–they’re barely better than Dino-Rama.
Epic Universe is different than the existing gates. It’s Universal Creative flexing its creative muscles, and picking up where they left off with the Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter (plural) and Super Nintendo Worlds (also plural). Those lands reflected a paradigm shift for Universal, and although individual attraction output in the intervening years has been uneven, the creative and commercial success of those lands is the better comparison. Epic Universe is going to be a whole park of Harry Potter and Mario lands…literally and figuratively.
Disney fans are only doing themselves a disservice in dismissing Epic Universe out-of-hand. Both for its own experience and the colossal influence it will on theme parks for decades to come. Many of the people at Universal Creative bringing Epic Universe to life are ex-Imagineers, and many of the people at WDI who will bring Villains Land (etc.) to life will end up being ex-Universal Creative. The influence of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on new Disney lands can still be felt; anyone who wants a sneak peek at the future of Walt Disney World should take a drive up I-4 and see what all the excitement is about.
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Your Thoughts
Which attractions or entertainment coming to Walt Disney World in 2025 are you most excited to experience? Even as a Disney fan, are you most excited for Universal’s Epic Universe or are you uninterested in that new gate? Does Disney Starlight Night Parade take the cake for you, or something else? Agree or disagree with our list? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
