Disney World Takes a Step Back to Take Three Steps Forward

It was the end of an era at Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Florida resort over the weekend. Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that entertained visitors to Disney's Hollywood Studios for more than 34 years, closed after its final guest performance on Saturday night. It's the latest long-running experience to get shuttered at Disney World.

Earlier this year, guests saw its Test Track adrenaline booster ride close down. Animal Kingdom also surrendered some of its capacity in 2025, nixing a few original experiences including the TriceraTop Spin flat ride and the It's Tough To Be a Bug 3D show inside the park's signature Tree of Life focal point.

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The closures will continue, with the Magic Kingdom gated attraction in Florida getting in on the clearance sale. Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat, along with the Rivers of America that both experiences cross, will run dry after July 6. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland will pause the following month, for less than infinity, to see if it can go beyond with its intergalactic target blasting ride.

The endings don't end there. Two of Disney World's most thrilling rides, Dinosaur and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, will close early next year.

There's never a good time to take down a handful of high-volume attractions, but Disney knows what it's doing. It's shuttering a lot of experiences to use the space as a fresh easel for its next generation of experiences. You probably don't want to bet against the House of Mouse.

Disney's leisure business has some surprising momentum right now. The media stock giant came through with a blowout fiscal second-quarter report last month, and Disney's theme parks business was the biggest reason for the stock's 24% surge in May. Its domestic parks and experiences business delivered a 9% increase in revenue through the first three months of this calendar year. Disney's operating profit came through with a 13% gain. The company's announcement of plans for a new licensed theme park in Abu Dhabi also turned heads.

This is a sharp contrast to how its largest rival Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) fared in the same three months. It experienced a 5% top-line slide for its theme park operations with a sharp 32% drop in the segment's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

Unlike Disney's high-flying shares, Comcast stock rose a mere 1% in May. That's a stunning contrast, and one to monitor now that Comcast opened its Epic Universe theme park a few miles away from Disney World.

Image source: Disney.

There will be a lot of closures this year through early 2026, but this should be a case of addition through subtraction. Disney knows it will upset some fans with retiring some long-running attractions, but it's betting on making things better. In late 2023, it boosted its goal of investing $30 billion on its theme parks and cruise ships business over the next decade to a cool $60 billion.

Almost everything closing now will be replaced by experiences that should be even more popular. In the case of Test Track and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, the two rides will return with enhancements. Test Track's redo promises nods to the original attraction it took over. Buzz Lightyear's makeover is about looking ahead, updating the moving laser shooting gallery with detachable blasters, targets that are more responsive after being hit, and different-colored lasers so you don't get lost in a sea of red dots as before.

The other attractions will open as new experiences. You won't have to wait long for the updated Test Track and a Zootopia-themed takeover for It's Tough To Be a Bug. They will both make their debut later this year. The refreshed Buzz Lightyear dark ride will reopen next year, while the Muppets will take over for Aerosmith as hosts of the soon-to-be former Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Tropical Americas will replace DinoLand at Animal Kingdom in 2027 with an Indiana Jones attraction, Disney's first Encanto-themed ride, and a one-of-a-kind carousel.

The timeline gets fuzzier after that. The closure of Muppet*Vision 3D over the weekend will clear the way for an area themed to Pixar's Monsters franchise, including a suspended roller coaster. The resurfacing of Frontierland's throwback attractions will be replaced by a Cars-themed land, and eventually the long-overdue area dedicated to Disney's signature villains.

In short, Disney has stocked the pond with years of attendance-boosting attractions. When it doubled the segment's budget to $60 billion, the entertainment behemoth mentioned that 70% of that should go to increasing capacity. The balance will go to infrastructure and tech improvements. This is a lot of money, averaging $6 million a year. You have to go back to pre-pandemic times for the last time Disney posted an annual profit larger than $6 million. However, Disney knows you have to keep raising the bar and rejuvenating guest experiences to keep folks coming back.

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Rick Munarriz has positions in Comcast and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.