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Credit: Inside The MagicThe word that will come to define the Walt Disney World Resort in 2026 will be construction. While Disney World made dozens of announcements this week, hoping to bridge the gap between these massive construction projects, the question that remains is whether it will be enough to get people into the parks next year.
However, it won’t be easy to mask the size and scope of the construction projects happening at Disney World in the coming years, and it will be even harder to convince guests to come to parks that have lands shut down due to these projects.
Disney World currently has major projects underway at over a dozen of its resort hotels, as well as at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. But that leaves an even bigger question for Disney World as it tries to convince guests to spend thousands on a trip to its Resort: when will these projects be finished?
The answer is, no one knows for sure, and that’s a problem for Disney. With no major announcements providing guests with a timetable for completion, it’s challenging to plan a vacation around these construction projects.
Despite not receiving direct answers from Disney, former Imagineer and frequent Disney critic Jim Shull thinks he has a timeline for when guests can expect to walk into these new lands, and it’s not going to make people happy. Looking at an overhead map of Magic Kingdom and laying out the potential area for the new Villains Land, Shull said that Disney Imagineering has “many years of work ahead of them” before guests can enter those lands.
While also examining the map, Shull believes that Disney is still at least a year away from clearing the land and commencing work on Villains Land. So, when can we expect them to be finished?
A realistic timetable for completion suggests that we’ll see the Tropical Americas Land at Animal Kingdom in late 2027 or, more likely, 2028. That project is further along than the other three, as it just had its first vertical piece lifted into the air this week.
Next up would be Monstropolis, which could open as early as 2028 or as late as 2029. The two Magic Kingdom projects would open last, with Piston Peak coming in at some point in 2029 and Villains Land following, possibly as late as 2031.
While all these are Shull’s best guess, it’s as close to a realistic timeline as we have. The next big question is whether Disney would open two new lands in one year or spread them out so that guests have to come back twice to experience them. That’s a different discussion.
For now, we’ll have to be content with a former Imagineer’s best estimate of a timeline, as we await official word from Disney World on these massive projects.
Which Disney World project are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments.