How Disney World is preparing for the enemy at the gate ...0

In the mid- to late-1990s, Michael Hundgen was a high school student who was facing an assignment for his marketing class. The task? Come up with a product and create a marketing plan for it. An avid fan of The Lion King, which was in theaters at the time, he envisioned a villains-themed park at Walt Disney World

Flash forward a little over a quarter century. Hundgen is now a Disney Imagineer, and as executive vice president of creative for the Walt Disney World portfolio, he’s overseeing the creation of a major park expansion that will focus exclusively on characters like Captain Hook, Scar, Ursula the Sea Witch, and Maleficent.

That expansion is part of a $60 billion investment Disney is making in its parks and experiences over the next decade. And it comes at a critical time for the company.

Just nine miles down the road, Universal Orlando is preparing to open its newest theme park, Epic Universe, this May. That will heighten the stakes in the Central Florida theme-park wars, especially in the summer of 2025.

Theme parks are a critical revenue source for Disney. And while executives, including CEO Bob Iger, tout the value proposition encompassing rides, nostalgia, and an environment that can’t be found elsewhere, the steady rise of admission prices has started to scare some families.

Disney saw revenues of $34.2 billion from its theme parks last year. The division showed the strongest revenue growth of any part of the company. So as it braces for the increased competition, Disney is looking at how best to keep attendance high at those parks for the short term—and the long term.

A focus on families

Epic Universe’s collection of new coasters and thrill rides could prove a powerful lure for teens and young adults this summer. So Disney is focusing much of its marketing efforts on families with younger kids in 2025.

The company has announced a number of family-focused deals, offering 50% off kid’s tickets for stays of three days or longer; a three-day, three-park ticket that starts at $89 per day in late summer; and the return of the free-dining plan on non-discounted rooms for stays of four days or longer.

To further appeal to kids, Disney will add more character experiences for guests who gain early entry into the parks by staying at qualifying hotels. And four resorts—Wilderness Lodge, Art of Animation, Pop Century, and Caribbean Beach Resort—will increase their emphasis on the family experience, posting when Disney characters will appear in hotel lobbies and more.

“One of the things our cast has told us for years is one of the best-kept secrets of staying at a Disney resort is all the activities,” says Alison Armor, vice president of resorts operations. “We call it ‘recreation beyond the pool.’ But we don’t make it easy for guests to know exactly what’s out there, so we’re going to create programming, so they can plan their day at the park and their day at the resorts and prioritize what’s important to them.”

Near-term park changes

Beyond the hotels, Disney will also add family-focused entertainment at the parks.

Kids' zones are being added in the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, where young ones can play games or take part in a dance party with Goofy (at Epcot’s Communicore hall) or Stitch (in the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland).

“We want to have these great offers because we know [summer] is a great time for [families] to come,” says Chelsea Filley, vice president of customer experience and commercial strategy at Disney. “We want to make it so easy that’s it a no-brainer to come visit this summer.”

The summer of 2025 will see the debut of two new stage shows—Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, and The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure—on May 27 at Hollywood Studios. And a new nighttime parade, the first in 10 years in the Magic Kingdom, will debut this summer.

The refurbishment of Epcot’s Test Track is due to open later this summer, with an emphasis on the core ride, rather than the pre- and post-show elements, which were previously a bigger part of the spotlight. (Admittedly, that’s an attraction that’s too intense for some younger children.) But the kid-friendly Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will close for refurbishment in August for a refresh of the game mechanics, replacing the fixed blaster guns with handheld ones that vibrate when you hit a target. It’s slated to reopen sometime in 2026.

The longer picture

Epic Universe might be in the spotlight this summer, but Disney doesn’t plan to cede the thrill-ride audience to its nearest competitor. A refresh of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster is already well underway at the Magic Kingdom.

The Animal Kingdom park, meanwhile, will see a new ride based on the Indiana Jones films, taking over the existing Dinosaur attraction, as well as a new Tropical Americas area of the park, an expansion spanning 2/3 of an acre, which will also include a ride built around the enchanted Madrigal house from Encanto.

Over at Hollywood Studios, the area that currently houses Muppetvision 3D will become a thrill ride based on Monsters, Inc. And the Rock ‘n; Roller Coaster will drop its current Aerosmith affiliation and center around the Muppets house band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

The biggest changes will be at the Magic Kingdom. A new ride based on the Cars franchise is on the way to Frontierland, as well as the aforementioned Villains land, an idea that was initially hidden in a compilation of Blue-Sky ideas shown a couple of years ago at the company’s D23 presentation. Fans quickly took note, though, and signal-boosted the idea of a Villains land so much the company moved forward with it.

“Nobody walked out of that room without clocking that that room exploded when we showed the preview of Disney villains,” says Hundgen. “I don’t think that project would have gained that much momentum if not for the passion we heard from fans.”

Add up all the near- and long-term projects and it’s a lot, even if much of it is still a good bit down the road. (No dates have been given for any of the park expansions so far.)

It’s also just a portion of what the company is undertaking. Expansions and new attractions are also underway at Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif., and Disneyland Paris. And, as the Buzz Lightyear refresh announced in March signaled, even existing rides that are currently doing well in parks could get facelifts in the coming years.

“If you look at what we’ve done here over the past decade and what we’ll be doing in the next decade, it adds up to the equivalent of a new theme park,” says Jason Kirk, senior vice president of operations, who oversees all four Florida theme parks.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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