Disney faked the ending.
Thomas Mazloum, the chairman of Disney Experiences, had already said goodnight. The band was playing. And then host Neil Patrick Harris stopped him on stage and called in a debt: "You made me a promise. You swore if I were to host this show you would restore my favorite animatronic character of all time to his former glory."
Mazloum's answer landed like a bomb in the Honda Center: "Yes - we are taking a new journey into imagination at EPCOT with Figment. With Figment AND Dreamfinder."
Then, in case anyone missed what that meant: "I'm so happy to tell you this. We know how important this is to you. We heard you."
Dreamfinder - the bearded, blimp-piloting inventor who originated the attraction alongside Figment - has been gone from Journey into Imagination for more than two decades. Getting him back has been the longest-running fan campaign in EPCOT's history. Disney answered it as a post-credits scene, live, in front of a packed Honda Center.
That was the last of roughly two dozen announcements at "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress," the Disney Experiences showcase held Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim - night two of D23, following Friday's movie slate. Here is everything, park by park.
Walt Disney World
The Carousel of Progress is getting its cast. The reimagining announced earlier this week now has voices: Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston will play Mother and Father. The show moves its timeline forward - beginning in the 1960s and running to the present day and beyond - and Disney showed first-look art of a new 1980s scene. The debut date is late spring 2027.
Villains Land has a name, a story, and two rides. The name is exactly what everyone guessed: Villains Land. Imagineers confirmed it will be built on the scale of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - "one of the most ambitious lands we've ever created."
The premise: you stray from the safe path into a dark forest and find a broken, twisted wishing well. Someone made a wish so evil it corrupted the well, cracked it open, and soaked the surrounding forest in poison magic. The villains have come, one by one, to claim it - Cruella, the Evil Queen, and Dr. Facilier among them - each conjuring a lair whose architecture reflects its owner. Disney's framing is pointed: "These aren't villains hiding in the shadows. They're powerful, sophisticated, elegant, and they have impeccable taste."
The two attractions: a coaster with Maleficent, racing through the enchanted briar around her mountaintop fortress, with "elements we've never attempted before on a Disney coaster" - and a dark ride beneath the Evil Queen's palace, down into the catacombs, where the Magic Mirror pulls you through the glass into a mirror realm populated by villains he conjures.
Glenn Close turned up in character as Cruella de Vil to complain that Maleficent - "that overstuffed purple handbag" - was getting a ride before she did.
Monstropolis opens next year, before its coaster is ready. The Monsters, Inc. land at Hollywood Studios got the deepest tour of the night. Confirmed venues: The Glob Theater, home of a new show called Welcome to Monstropolis hosted by Mike and Sulley; Archie's Scare Pig Pizza; the Monsters University Alumni Club; the Scareporium gift shop; and - the one fans have wanted for 25 years - Harryhausen's, the restaurant from Mike and Celia's disastrous date, with the sushi chef appearing in animatronic form and a menu Disney says is unlike anything else at Walt Disney World. The Alumni Club's Elite Scarer's Club honors the legendary scarers of years past.
The show's theme song, Welcome to Monstropolis, was written by Randy Newman - the first song he has ever written specifically for a Disney theme park.
The door coaster will launch riders 40 feet in the air in four seconds before firing them into the door vault. It isn't finished - and rather than wait, Disney is opening the rest of the land next year without it.
Indiana Jones is coming to Animal Kingdom, with Harrison Ford's face. The attraction is called Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and Ford appeared to confirm the headline himself: he is the physical model for the animatronic, "fear of snakes included." Imagineers said it's the first time in any Disney attraction anywhere in the world that Ford's likeness will be the face you see.
The story is set in the 1950s, before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You explore a Mayan temple, learn the culture and its connection to nature, and then the myth turns real: a portal drops you into the Mayan underworld, guarded by a giant mythological serpent called Tsukan, for a chase to escape before time runs out. Expect monstrous bats, larger-than-life scorpions, fire - and yes, snakes. Imagineers promise a confrontation at the end that is "jaw-dropping in every way." The temple facade is being built now.
Encanto's ride is named, and anyone can ride it. Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto puts you inside Casita on Antonio's gift day. The entire original voice cast of La Familia Madrigal has returned. The ride vehicle is Casita itself - furniture assembled into a moving vehicle, sofas and chairs and a piano, reacting like a character as you travel room to room, up into Antonio's bedroom-turned-rainforest. More than 50 animals appear across the attraction, vetted by Disney's Parks Animal Sciences team for accuracy to Colombia. Crucially: no height requirement.
The Tropical Americas carousel will feature 22 unique hand-carved animals drawn from Disney and Pixar stories.
Cars is coming to Magic Kingdom with two attractions. Piston Peak - the Frontierland expansion themed to America's national parks - will hold Miss Fritter's Daredevil Spin-Along, where the demolition-derby school bus from Cars 3 appears as a bus-sized animatronic hosting her own derby; and Cars Ridge Run Rally, an off-road race: a bouncy climb to a snow-covered peak, a camelback plunge back down, and a sprint through a geyser field - including one Imagineers have named Old Tank Full - to a finish line where Lightning and Mater call the play-by-play. Construction is fully underway, as anyone who has stood in the Big Thunder Mountain queue lately has noticed.
The Yeti is being fixed. After nearly two decades in strobe-lit stasis, the Expedition Everest animatronic is being brought back to life. Disney marked the occasion by bringing out Gloria Gaynor to sing "I Will Survive" as a farewell to Disco Yeti.
Spaceship Earth is being updated. The EPCOT icon hasn't been meaningfully touched in nearly 20 years. The new version broadens the story from human communication to human connection - "new magic to every scene," while staying, in Imagineering's words, classically EPCOT.
Disneyland Resort
Tomorrowland is being reimagined. Mazloum's own closing announcement, ahead of Disneyland's 75th anniversary and looking toward the park's centennial: Tomorrowland will be rebuilt "with optimism you all have been longing for" - new attractions, more open spaces, "new places for you to dream about the future." No timeline or specifics were given.
Three beloved shows are coming back. Remember... Dreams Come True returns in February 2027, refreshed, with projections on the Rivers of America, over it's a small world, and down Main Street U.S.A. An updated version of the original World of Color begins at Disney California Adventure, also in February 2027. And the Magic Happens parade returns in time for summer 2027.
Avengers Campus doubles, with the movie cast. The DCA expansion is built on the last backstage parking lot, and the long-standing dead end between Avengers Campus and Cars Land will open very soon. Two attractions arrive in 2028: Avengers Infinity Defense, where you're recruited, briefed by Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and sent to assemble the team against King Thanos - Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, and Jeremy Renner all reprise their roles, filmed on the London set of Avengers: Doomsday. The second is Stark Flight Lab, flight training with Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, and Brie Larson as your instructors.
The first Coco ride anywhere is coming to Disney California Adventure. You enter through a Casa Museo dedicated to the music of Hector Rivera, then travel by boat through the Land of the Dead inside Miguel's memory, about a year after the film. Like the Encanto attraction, it will have no height requirement. In a nice touch, D23 attendees were invited to write their favorite Disneyland memory on a card - those cards will be planted within the roots of a tree inside the finished ride.
The international parks
Disneyland Paris gets two firsts. Hyper Space Mountain closes in 2027, replaced by Space Mountain: De la Terre a la Lune - "From the Earth to the Moon" - returning the attraction to its original Jules Verne inspiration, including the original soundtrack. And the park is building the first Lion King attraction anywhere in the world: a flume ride through the Pride Lands retelling Simba's journey from cub to king, including a new take on his final confrontation with Scar.
Tokyo Disneyland gets a brand-new Space Mountain: Earthrise, the anchor of a reimagined Tomorrowland, with a new launch sequence and, Imagineers promise, a perspective on Earth no previous Space Mountain has offered. Tokyo also gets Sugar Rush: Sweet Rescue, a Wreck-It Ralph ride where you help Ralph and Vanellope restore the sugar bugs while King Candy interferes - opening next spring.
Hong Kong Disneyland is getting a new Avengers Pavilion that will transform the Stark Expo skyline in Tomorrowland, plus a Quinjet landing platform for character encounters. Inside: the Avengers Research Testing Labs, Peter Parker, and more than 120 vertical feet of new storytelling technology carrying guests to Asgard, to Wakanda, and through Sling Ring portals.
Shanghai Disneyland is building the first land anywhere dedicated exclusively to Spider-Man, home to the Shanghai division of WEB, with more than 20 murals created in collaboration with local Chinese artists - and a roller coaster whose final piece of track is already installed.
Disney Cruise Line
The fleet reaches 13 ships by late 2030. Three have launched since the last D23 - the Treasure, the Destiny, and the Disney Adventure, the line's first ship in Asia.
The Disney Believe, the fourth Wish-class ship, revealed its character icons: Tinker Bell on the bow, Woody and Buzz on the stern (drawing "Believe" in crayon, because of course they're toys), and Moana as the Grand Hall icon.
Also announced: an entirely new class of ship debuting in 2029, sized between the classic ships and the newer ones to reach ports the fleet can't currently visit. Disney showed a teaser but no details. On the West Coast, sailings from San Diego are doubling; in summer 2027 the Disney Wish sails to Europe for the first time, and the Magic and the Wonder return to Alaska.
Also announced
The Imagineering Story is getting a second season. Leslie Iwerks is filming now - and this time Disney let her inside while projects are being built, with access to the creative process the company says it has "never given anyone before." Initial episodes debut in early 2028.
Cars: Lightning Racers, a new series for Disney+ and Disney Junior aimed at younger fans, will feature an original song, "Built to Last," performed by Sheryl Crow - who has been with the franchise since the first film twenty years ago.
What it adds up to
Mazloum said Disney is working on more projects simultaneously than at any point in its history, and the run-sheet backs him: two new lands at Magic Kingdom, a land at Hollywood Studios, three attractions at Animal Kingdom, two at DCA, two Space Mountains rebuilt on opposite sides of the world, first-ever rides for The Lion King, Coco, Encanto and Spider-Man, a new class of cruise ship, and an entire Tomorrowland reimagining at Disneyland.
But the loudest the room got all night was for a bearded man in a top hat who has been missing for over twenty years. Disney noticed that too. "We heard you" is not a phrase the company uses often - and using it as the last line of the night was not an accident.
Sources
Primary source: the Disney Experiences showcase "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress," Honda Center, Anaheim - announcements and quotes taken from the show's own audio. Proper nouns and attraction names verified against published coverage from Disney Parks Blog, BlogMickey, Laughing Place, Disney Food Blog and AllEars.
Photos: The Adventurist's Log.