Expert Predicts Disney World Will Announce 5th Park | the disney food blog (2024)

Disney has a LOT of lofty goals for the future, including plans to spend a whopping $60 billion to expand its parks and cruise line.

In Disney World, we’re already seeing the addition of at least one new attraction — Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, an update for a classic attraction — The Country Bear Jamboree, a re-theming of an entire land — Dinoland USA is going away, plus an expansion at Magic Kingdom. But one thing Disney World fans have been craving for a LONG time is a fifth park. Well, that very well could be a possibility for Disney World.

Universal Orlando just released a LOT of new details about its Epic Universe — and well, to say that it’s going to be “epic” is an understatement. The new park will feature five NEW themed lands, with five new restaurants, plus two new hotels nearby. This is going to create a LOT of stiff competition for Disney World, perhaps for the first time since Universal Orlando opened, and Disney built Hollywood Studios (then called Disney-MGM Studios) to compete back in 1989.

Well, now experts are predicting that Disney might want to finally get around to building a fifth park in order to properly compete with Universal, especially with Epic Universe opening in 2025.

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The speculation about a fifth Disney World park has been going strong for, well, decades. Animal Kingdom — the fourth Disney World park — opened in 1998, and Disney fans have been asking “what’s next?” ever since. Instead of announcing a fifth gate, though, Disney has embarked on expansions and transformations in its existing parks — the “New Fantasyland” Magic Kingdom expansion that opened in 2012, the addition of the Pandora land in Animal Kingdom in 2017, the openings of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios in 2018, and a transformation of many areas of EPCOT that should be complete this year.

But in early 2023, Disney confirmed that a fifth theme park for Disney World was at least on the drawing board, as it was included in a comprehensive land-use plan approved by the Reedy Creek Improvement District (that’s the former name of the special district that governs most of Disney World’s land — it’s now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and is controlled by a board appointed by Florida’s governor, rather than by Disney). The plans approved last January allow for the building of one additional “major” theme park and two additional “minor” theme parks.

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And Disney keeps hinting at BIG plans. At the D23 Expo (a huge Disney-sponsored fan convention) in2022, Disney executives talked about future ideas to expand the Magic Kingdom to include Coco, Encanto, and/or Villains-themed lands, and a re-theme of the Dinoland U.S.A. area of Animal Kingdom.

Then in September 2023, the conversation about expansions and re-themes continued at the Destination D23 fan gathering in Orlando. Disney Imagineer Bruce Vaughn said that the future expansion plans for Magic Kingdom are the “largest ever” for the park. Disney execs confirmed during this panel discussion that the additions would include attractions, restaurants and more — on a scale similar to the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge project. And, we saw concept art for the transformation of Dinoland U.S.A. to a land themed around the Tropical Americas.

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But none of this new art Disney has been teasing us with for the past couple of years is for a potential fifth theme park. Still, many believe an announcement will be coming soon. “You’re going to see a big announcement. … They’re going to add a fifth park,” Dennis Spiegel, owner of International Theme Park Services, told the Orlando Sentinel.

And Disney DID pledge to accelerate capital investments in its parks and cruise line in September 2023. “We have a wealth of untapped stories to bring to life across our business,” said Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro. Disney confirmed in a statement that Disney Parks has over 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space. And we do know that there is still quite a bit of undeveloped land at Disney World. While some of that land cannot be developed or is set aside for conservation, there is still a lot sitting in “reserve” for future development.

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Disney has NOT confirmed anything about a potential “fifth gate,” but with the amount of money being pledged to its theme parks, the company has some big plans, including plans for Disney World. If an announcement is made, we’ll be sure to share it with you (you know, once we’re done LOSING OUR MINDS!), so stay tuned to DFB for more.

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What do you think? Do you think Disney will announce a fifth park soon? Let us know in the comments!