5 Ways Disney World Is Changing in 2025

Disney World changed so much in 2024.

If you thought the transition into Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass, the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree was a lot for one year, hold on tight because 2025 is going to be full of changes throughout all of Disney World.

2025 is right around the corner, and there is so much on the horizon for Disney World. Before you plan or visit Disney World in the new year, you are going to want to keep five changes in mind.

Hotel Water Park Perk

A new hotel perk is set to debut for guests of Disney World hotels in 2025. On the day of check-in, those staying at a Disney World hotel will get a free ticket to visit either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon.

This new perk is a great way to wait for your room to be ready. Right now, only Blizzard Beach is open, and if Disney World continues to follow the trend from previous years, Typhoon Lagoon will be the water park open for the summer months.

We have our fingers crossed that Disney will consider opening both water parks over the busy summer months to help with crowd control, as many hotel guests will want to take advantage of this brand-new perk.

A New Nighttime Parade will Debut

Finally! Magic Kingdom will be home to an all-new nighttime parade, Disney Starlight, which is set to open in the summer of 2025.

This new parade will be performed nightly and will make its way from Frontierland to Main Street, U.S.A. It will feature state-of-the-art technology to tell brand-new stories inspired by popular movies, including Peter Pan, Encanto, Frozen, and more.

While Disney shared two pieces of concept art back in August, they recently released new concept art of a float that features everyone’s favorite wayfinder, Moana.

Three New Lounges will Open

Both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom will get new lounges, which are expected to open in 2025.

In the Magic Kingdom, a lounge inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean is currently in the works. This new lounge will draw inspiration from the iconic attraction and the movies.

A location and exact opening date have yet to be announced, but we are looking forward to exploring and checking out this new lounge sometime next year.

Additionally, there will be a new lounge area exclusive to Disney Vacation Club members in Frontierland called McKim’s Mile House. DVC members and their guests will get to enjoy this relaxing space to rest and grab refreshments in the former home of the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade.

The pirate-themed Magic Kingdom lounge is not the only lounge that an attraction will inspire. EPCOT will soon be home to a Spaceship Earth lounge. This lounge will pay homage to the park’s icon, nicknamed the EPCOT ball.

The new lounge will be inspired by Spaceship Earth’s “stories, shapes, and enduring legacy.” It will feature rich textures and warm metallic tones for a “mysterious and elegant intimacy.”

Two New Shows will Debut

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is home to tons of entertainment offerings like Fantasmic!, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!, For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, and Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage. In 2025, Hollywood Studios will welcome two more shows to its extensive line-up!

While it was expected to open this year, it was confirmed that The Little Mermaid – A Musical Spectacular will open in the summer of 2025 in the Animation Courtyard.

This new show will replace The Voyage of The Little Mermaid, which never re-opened after the parks closed due to the pandemic. While the story of The Little Mermaid will stay the same, the show will be brought to life in a new way and will feature live actors and puppets.

Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy closed in October to make way for a brand new Disney Villains stage show.

The show is also set to open in the summer of 2025. The new show will transform the theater into “the mysterious, reflective realm of the Magic Mirror.” Throughout the show, villains like Captain Hook, Maleficient, and Cruella de Vil will make appearances.

Closures and Construction Galore

It was announced that Disney World would eventually be home to eight new attractions. Unfortunately, in order to build these new attractions, the rides, attractions, and lands need to be close enough to accommodate construction.

Magic Kingdom

In the Magic Kingdom, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will close for a year-long refurbishment starting January 6th, 2025. We have already seen construction scrim go up near the attraction. Disney says it “will reopen with a little bit of new magic in 2026.”

Construction for the new ‘Cars’ expansion in Frontierland is expected to start in 2025. While no closing date has been announced, Tom Sawyer Island, the Rivers of America, and the Liberty Square Riverboat’s days are numbered.

EPCOT

Currently, Test Track is closed in EPCOT, but we have some good news! It is set to re-open as a third iteration of the attraction in 2025. No opening date has been announced yet.

As previously mentioned, construction on the Spaceship Earth lounge will start soon. Hopefully, it won’t last too long, as the lounge is set to open next year.

Hollywood Studios

While there will be construction at both of the previous buildings for The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, there will likely be even more construction to make way for the all-new ‘Monsters, Inc.’ land.

Disney has yet to announce where this new land will go, although it is rumored that it will replace either the Muppets Courtyard or the Animation Courtyard. Regardless, construction is expected to begin in 2025.

Animal Kingdom

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is about to see a ton of changes throughout 2025. The first phase of closures was announced for DinoLand U.S.A., which is being transformed into a new Tropical-Americas-themed land that is set to be completed in 2027. The last day to experience TriceraTop Spin, Fossil Fun Games, and Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures will be January 12th.

The Tree of Life will say goodbye to It’s Tough to be a Bug and welcome a brand new show called Zootopia: Better Zoogether. No closing date has been announced to accommodate this re-theme, but the Zootopia show is expected to open in the winter of 2025.

There you have it! While change can be scary, as Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world”, and the same goes for Disney World.

To stay up to date on all the latest Disney news, make sure to continue to follow along with AllEars!

If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!

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