Today kicked off Disney’s Destination D23 event in Orlando Florida. As D23 Expo’s smaller, off-year cousin Destination D23 is a two day event where Disney presents news about the various upcoming projects through panels at the Contemporary Resort. But just because it’s the smaller event doesn’t mean that Disney doesn’t have big news to share! And this year, Disney is live streaming select events to fans world-wide- including the Destination D23 parks panel!
After opening with a musical tour of the Walt Disney World resort parks to celebrate 50 years of Magic Kingdom and an introduction from D23 Fan Club Vice President Michael Vargo, the first presentation was “Connections: A Look at the Future of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products”. Presented by Disney Parks Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro, let’s take a look at what was revealed for the various Disney parks around the world! From new details on already announced projects to a very cool brand-new project from Imagineering, there’s a lot to cover.
Disneyland Paris
March 6th will be the official kick-off date for Disneyland Paris’ 30th anniversary. Special looks at the decorations and costumes for the park’s characters were shared and they do look a bit similar to the “EARidescent” touches at Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration. Just in time for the anniversary at DLP, parades and nighttime shows such as Illuminations will make their return!
News and construction photos were also shared for Paris’ branch of Avengers Campus. Good progress is being made and they expect the new area to open in Summer of 2022!
Hong Kong Disneyland
As previously announced, Hong Kong Disneyland will soon be home to a Frozen-inspired land. This new section of the park will include two ride through attractions, though specific details were not shared as to what these rides will be like. Construction does seem to be coming right along on this new area!
Tokyo Disneyland
At Tokyo Disneyland, they are hard at work on a new section of the park called “Fantasy Springs”. This new area will incorporate experiences and sights from movies such as Tangled, Frozen, and Peter Pan! A look at the progress on this area of the park was also shared with audience members.
Shanghai Disneyland
Celebrating Shanghai Disneyland’s 5th anniversary, the park is looking forward to a brand-new Zootopia themed area! Included in this new land will be a new attraction featuring some very impressive animatronics- as is par for the course at this park!
Audience members were treated to a special look at one of the animatronics, Yax the Yack from Zootopia. Much like the video of Tokyo Disneyland’s new Beauty and the Beast animatronics, it’s like the character has been taken directly from the movie! I do hope that these impressive types of animatronics will make their way to the US parks one day soon.
Footage was also shared of Shanghai Disneyland’s new nighttime show, Illuminate!, was also shared with the audience. This very cool nighttime show even includes sequences featuring Marvel characters!
Disney Cruise Line
Joined on stage by Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony, the Vice President of Creative and Advanced Development for Disney Live Entertainment and Disney Imagineering, Josh D’Amaro had some more news to share about the newest Disney cruise ship, the Disney Wish.
Setting sail in Summer of 2022, it’d been previously announced that one of the entertainment offerings on board would be a version of the popular Aladdin stage show. However, Shelby and Josh had news to share about two new shows that will premier onboard the Wish.
The first new show will be Disney “Seas” The Adventure featuring Captain Minnie Mouse! Captain Minnie, along with friends from Princess and the Frog, Frozen 2, Finding Nemo, and Moana, will help Goofy discover the power of imagination and help him to believe in his dreams. This new show will conclude the first day of sailing on the Disney Wish.
In addition, a newly reimagined version of The Little Mermaid stage show will be featured. The story will start with a group of people finding a “magical treasure chest” that unlocks only with the power of the voice of one of the people in the group. As it opens, they will all take on roles within The Little Mermaid. Puppetry will also feature in this show and, having seen other live Disney shows, I think it will be lots of fun to see what they do with that!
The audience was treated to a sneak-peak as a cast member for the new production came on stage to sing the show’s new version of “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” Though the backing music wasn’t audible for the first bit to those watching from home, the song has a jazzy feel to it. It’ll be interesting to see what else gets changed up for this beloved classic!
As for more Disney Wish news, it was also shared that construction on the ship is pretty much done! Now they are hard at work on the interior of the ship and the experiences that guests will get to enjoy on their trip.
Consumer Products, Games, and Publishing
For the more eagle-eyed and invested Disney fans, you may be familiar with the S.E.A- the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. This “secret society” has a story told throughout the Disney parks through rides such as the newly-updated Jungle Cruise, Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor, Tokyo Disney’s Tower of Terror, and other rides and experiences. Now, S.E.A’s story will be told through a new series of books from Disney Publishing. Launching in April 2022, the first book by Julie Kagawa will be entitled Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl.
Disneyland
As Destination D23 is based in Orlando, most of the big news was reserved for WDW but we did get a few peaks at what’s in store for the other coast’s park!
As had been previously announced, Mickey’s Toontown will be reimagined starting in March 2022. More open, grassy and play areas will be added to the area as it gets ready to welcome the new-to-Disneyland Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction. Once construction on the new ride’s building is complete, the rolling hills that hid the behind-the-scenes buildings outside of Toontown will be reinstalled as well.
The Disneyland Hotel is also soon to be home to a new Disney Vacation Club tower. Bhavna Mistry, an Imagineer who leads the design of many Disney resorts, came on stage to share more details about this new “home” for DVC members. This new tower will take its cues from the colors of Disney movies, with a pool and children’s play area inspired by an artists’ pallet. Rooms will have elements of classic Disney movies- with an example given of what a room inspired by the colors and art of Sleeping Beauty may look like.
Downtown Disney, the shopping and entertainment district right outside Disneyland will also see some new improvements soon. The area’s AMC theater will be closed at the start of 2022 as part of a multi-year project in redeveloping the area. The new area will include a new space with an open lawn that will host events as well as be a place for families to relax. New dining and shopping options will also be built in this area.
A few other announcements were made regarding the Disneyland resort at the Destination D23 parks panel, but more on that later…!
Walt Disney World
Starting with a round of applause for Cast Members around the world, Josh D’Amaro began the “Magic and Endless Possibilities” portion of his presentation- mostly focused on what’s next for Walt Disney World.
Epcot
In Epcot, a new section of the park called “Dreamers’ Point” near the famous Epcot Ball will include a new statue of Walt Disney, the resort’s “original dreamer.” Audience members got to see a short video of Imagineer Scott Goddard at work on the miniature version of the statue that will join the likes of the iconic “Partners” and “Storytellers” statues of Walt in the Disney parks around the world.
Close to “Dreamers Point” will be a new restaurant for Epcot, the “Connections Cafe and Eatery.” Serving as a compliment to the nearby Creations Shop, it’s meant to tie together the idea of connections in the newly dubbed “World Celebration” neighborhood of Epcot.
In news that many have been waiting for, we have new details for the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster! Starting with new renderings of what appears to be the ride’s queue area, you will be welcomed to the Xandar Gallery by Nova Prime as played by Glenn Close!
This sure to be new-fan-favorite coaster was also confirmed to be opening in Summer 2022! I can’t wait to experience this new ride- perhaps a trip for Epcot’s 40th anniversary needs to happen… Hmm!
Magic Kingdom
Still under construction, not much was able to be shared about the Tron roller coaster- the newest addition to Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. All that was said was that the new ride would be “coming soon”- a bit of a disappointment for a ride that many believed was originally supposed to open to celebrate Magic Kingdom’s 50th anniversary earlier this year.
Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser
Though a panel diving deeper into the new (and expensive!) Star Wars hotel/experience is planned for later in the event, the Destination D23 parks panel had a first look at some new details for the Halcyon! After a live demonstration of Disney’s “real” lightsaber, Josh D’Amaro brought Imagineer Scott Trowbridge on stage to talk about this immersive experience.
As the Starcruiser Halcyon is very near completion, Josh was able to share the first video of the Lightsaber training experience and the bridge of the ship with the audience. Similar to what is seen in the movies, the Lightsaber training involves deflecting beams shot at guests with the saber. As for the bridge of the ship, it was revealed that passengers will be able to press the buttons and even help fly the ship and defend it from other ships they may encounter during their voyage! In a big geek-moment for any Star Wars fan, you may even be chosen to launch the ship into Hyperspace.
A new character for the world of Star Wars was also revealed during this panel. Guya, the “biggest star in the Galaxy” will be on board the Halcyon to perform for the passengers as they dine. But Josh and Scott teased that it is a bit odd for such a huge star to be on such a relatively small cruise. So what is her true purpose on board…? We’ll have to wait and see! Those who wish for another sneak peek of this new character can tune into Disney’s holiday special on November 28th to learn more about Guya and see her perform!
Josh D’Amaro also shared that Disney’s long-standing relationship with the Make-A-Wish foundation will result in many Make-A-Wish children and families being among the very first to experience this brand new Star Wars experience! Though the official first sailing of the Halcyon will be March 1, 2022, these kids will get to take their own adventures in a galaxy far, far away before the grand opening.
Magic Band+
As revealed earlier this year, the Magic Bands used for everything from hotel entry to dining reservations at Walt Disney World will be getting “plused” with new technology. Launching next year, the Magic Band+ will have all the same features as its predecessors but with a few extras! In addition to synced lights with what’s going on around you, the new Magic Band+ will feature gesture recognition and haptics that will add to the storytelling in the parks. This is potentially Disney’s answer to the interactive wands in Universal’s Harry Potter theme parks.
In addition to these new features, Magic Bands will also finally make the leap across the country and debut in Disneyland in 2022 as well! It will be interesting to see how Magic Band+ is used in a park that, traditionally, welcomes more passholders and local/returning visitors than WDW does. If the additional experiences unlocked by Magic Band+ are worth it, it may catch on pretty nicely… Or it may be seen as another extra expense for frequent Disneyland visitors that they don’t want to deal with. We’ll see how it works out!
Project EXO
As for some brand-new news, the curtain was lifted just a bit on what Disney Imagineers are working on next… And it is very cool. (At least to me!)
Disney has been talking for quite some time about ways they are bringing more and more characters to life in their parks. For the most part, this has meant normal human sized and shaped characters are the only ones you can meet in the parks- from the Princesses to Chewbacca they can be limited in size and scope just for practical reasons.
Though it was shown again at this Destination D23 parks panel, those who are interested in such things may remember video of a Baby Groot free-standing and free-walking animatronic. Those who visited the Galaxy’s Edge booth at D23 Expo a few years ago may remember a droid wheeling around that they were able to interact with and who was able to pick out its own path to avoid running into guests. But now they’re working on something even bigger.
Dubbed “Project EXO”, this project seeks to bring to life even bigger characters from Disney’s catalog of stories. With the help of Imagineers Jonathan and Richard, Josh brought out the early working concept for a “full body exoskeleton” that will help Cast Members bring these bigger-than-life characters to the parks. Pointing out that the skeleton is specifically engineered to redistribute weight and provide help at the joints of the performing Cast Member, this could be great for their comfort as well!
3D printing also plays a part in this new development, using lattice-like structures to both mimic muscle movement underneath the costume as well as to reduce the weight of the costume even further by making structures like the example hands lighter. Hand that are even articulated and able to pick larger objects up or give a high-five or a fistbump!
Even just this example costume is amazing to me. This project has the potential to bring, as was said in the presentation “too many to count” characters to life- and in a much more interactive and fun way for guests. My initial thought was how this could improve the character meet-and-greet for Ralph from Ralph Breaks the Internet! It will be very interesting to follow this project and see how Disney implements this in the parks in the years to come.
Returning Experiences
To wrap up the Destination D23 parks panel, Josh D’Amaro brought Cast Members and characters on stage from all of the various shows and experiences that were not able to immediately reopen with the parks after the shutdowns necessary due to the global pandemic. But he didn’t stop there! He went on to announce the return of many beloved shows and parades making their return to the parks soon.
For the Disneyland Resort, 2022 will mark the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade in time for its 50th anniversary (despite quite a few “glowing away forever” tours in the past)! Additionally, nighttime spectaculars World of Color (California Adventure) and Fantasmic! (Disneyland) will return in the new year as well!
At Walt Disney World, 2022 will also mean the return of Fantasmic! to Hollywood Studios after an extended absence and refurbishment of the stage used for the show. The Festival of Fantasy parade will also re-debut in 2022, and the Cinderella Castle Stage show Mickey’s Friendship Faire will return with updates to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the park.
And, of course, there was the promise that other favorites will be returning soon as well!
We’ll bring you more news as we hear it from the Destination D23 event, but don’t forget that you can watch selected presentations live on D23’s Youtube channel as well.
See ya real soon!
