Disney World's 2025: New shows, Magic Kingdom parade, other changes
"The Little Mermaid's A Musical Adventure" is set to premiere at Hollywood Studios sometime next summer. Credit: Walt Disney Co.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World has shared additional details about previously announced attractions for 2025, including expanded names, storylines and time frames. It tossed in shows, lounges and dropped a little Dinosaur ride data, too.
But opening dates? The company is not being precise at this time, giving more of, well, a seasonal outlook.
Disney now says that Spaceship Earth Lounge will open in spring. The company uses words like "elegant," "intimate," "secluded" and "breathtaking" to describe the area, which will have views of World Celebration Gardens and nightly fireworks.
Things will pick up in the summer, according to Disney’s latest schedule. That’s when visitors will see, in no particular order, two new shows, a fresh parade and a reimagined ride.
At Magic Kingdom, a parade now known as "Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away" will spotlight characters from "Moana," "Frozen," "Encanto," "Peter Pan" and more. The units are tied together through the Blue Fairy "as she waves the transformative magic of starlight throughout the parade." It will be the first (non-holiday) nighttime parade at this theme park since the Main Street Electrical Parade stopped rolling through the park in 2016.
Summer will bring a double feature of stage shows to Disney’s Hollywood Studios with "Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After" and "The Little Mermaid — A Musical Adventure."
The villains show will center on the Magic Mirror’s realm. The production takes over the former home of Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, which closed in October.
The return of a "Mermaid" show to the park comes with new sets, live performers and puppetry again. Added to the mix: "Kiss the Girl" and "Daughters of Triton."
This show was announced in late 2023 with a summer 2024 opening scheduled. The new attraction essentially replaces the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" show that closed down for the pandemic with the resort in 2020 but never reopened.
A final summertime debut will be the re-reinvented Test Track ride at Epcot, although a press release from Disney World states that guests may see cars on the track in early 2025. There will be a new storyline and a new/old title sponsor, General Motors. GM helped bring the attraction to the park for its 1998 debut, but sponsorship shifted to Chevrolet from 2012 to 2024.
Disney has said this Test Track version would be inspired by the World of Motion attraction that operated in that location when Epcot opened in 1982.
Back at Magic Kingdom, visitors can look for the "Pirates of the Caribbean"-inspired "immersive lounge experience" late in the year, Disney says. It has repeatedly called it a "tavern," although recent mentions indicate it will be open for all ages.
"Zootopia: Better Zoogether!," a 3D show in the Tree of Life Theater at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, also is expected for late in year (Disney says "winter"). It will replace "It’s Tough to Be a Bug!," an opening-day attraction with the park in 1998 that has no announced closing date yet.
Elsewhere at Animal Kingdom, Disney plans to replace DinoLand USA with a Tropical Americas theme featuring "Encanto" elements and an "Indiana Jones" attraction in place of the standing Dinosaur ride. But now the company says 2025 is the year to visit "before it goes extinct." (The official website gives no schedule but there is unrelated ride description with the heading of "a race against time.")
Disney World posted on site that TriceraTop Spin, DinoLand’s carnival style/Dumbo-esque ride will close permanently Jan. 13 as part of the Tropical Americas plan. The land is scheduled to open in 2027.
The latest round of updates was about beginnings, not endings. But in addition to Tropical Americas, Disney World is working on a full-blown villain land and two "Cars" attractions in Frontierland for Magic Kingdom plus the "Monsters, Inc." land and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster makeover with Muppets for Hollywood Studios, so additional closings such as Magic Kingdom’s Tom Sawyer Island could litter the 2025 landscape as well.
