Disney World Changes in 2026: What’s New, What’s Gone and What’s Coming Next

Updated August 16, 2026, with announcements from Disney’s Horizons: A Carousel of Progress presentation at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.

There is a lot of construction at Walt Disney World in 2026.

Some of it is good.

Big Thunder Mountain is back after a substantial refurbishment. Buzz Lightyear finally has blasters that don’t feel like they survived a yard sale. Soarin’ has a new film. Hollywood Studios is putting animation back into a park that still has the word “Studios” in its name.

And after Disney’s D23 presentation on August 15, we know considerably more about what comes next.

Disney named both attractions planned for Piston Peak. Spaceship Earth is getting its first major reworking in nearly two decades. The Yeti at Expedition Everest is apparently going to live again. We know the new name and story for the Encanto attraction at Animal Kingdom, and Harrison Ford is returning as Indiana Jones for the ride replacing DINOSAUR.

We also learned more about Carousel of Progress, including who will voice John and Sarah and when Disney expects the radically rewritten attraction to reopen.

There is a lot to be excited about.

But after the last couple of years, I have become wary of treating construction as synonymous with progress.

We’ve watched Disney drain the Rivers of America and bulldoze Tom Sawyer Island. Muppet*Vision 3D is gone. DINOSAUR is gone. Huge pieces of several parks are construction zones. And Carousel of Progress, one of the few attractions at Walt Disney World with Walt Disney’s direct fingerprints on it, is closed for a much more radical reworking than we initially realized.

Some of what Disney is building may be terrific. The question is what the parks lose while getting there.

Here is where Walt Disney World actually stands in August 2026, including the biggest announcements from D23.

Disney World Changes in 2026 at a Glance

Park | What’s Changed in 2026
Magic Kingdom | Big Thunder Mountain and Buzz Lightyear reopened with major upgrades; Cinderella Castle has its classic-looking colors back; Carousel of Progress is closed until late spring 2027; the former Rivers of America area is becoming Piston Peak with two newly named Cars attractions
EPCOT | Soarin’ Across America replaced Soarin’ Around the World; Disney has announced a major reimagining of Spaceship Earth focused on human connection
Hollywood Studios | The Muppets replaced Aerosmith at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster; Muppet*Vision is gone; The Magic of Disney Animation opens September 14; Monstropolis construction is underway
Animal Kingdom | DinoLand U.S.A. and DINOSAUR are gone; Tropical Americas is under construction for 2027; Disney revealed major new Encanto and Indiana Jones details and announced plans to revive Expedition Everest’s Yeti

Magic Kingdom: Some Welcome Restoration and One Enormous Loss

Magic Kingdom may be the best place to understand the strange moment Walt Disney World is in.

Disney has done real preservation work on some classic attractions. At the same time, it has removed one of the largest pieces of atmosphere and open space the park ever had.

Big Thunder Mountain Is Back

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened May 3 after an extensive refurbishment.

This was more than paint and routine maintenance. Disney did substantial work on the attraction and added new effects, including a new version of Rainbow Caverns inspired by Disney history.

This is the sort of investment I like seeing.

Big Thunder is still Big Thunder. Disney did not decide that the old mine train needed Lightning McQueen driving it or that Frontierland desperately needed a recognizable movie character in every scene. They took an attraction people already loved, repaired it and gave it more to do.

You can read Disney’s description of the Big Thunder refurbishment here.

Buzz Lightyear Got a Needed Upgrade

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin reopened April 8 with handheld blasters, always-on lasers, interactive targets, updated ride vehicles and a new character named Buddy.

The old fixed blasters were one of those things you tolerated because the ride was old enough that they were part of the package. The new system fixes an obvious weakness without trying to turn the attraction into something fundamentally different.

Again: good.

There is nothing wrong with updating an old attraction. Disney parks have always changed.

The interesting question is whether the thing that returns still possesses the qualities that made people care about it in the first place.

Cinderella Castle Looks Like Cinderella Castle Again

Cinderella Castle’s repaint is complete, replacing much of the pink and rose-gold 50th-anniversary palette with grays, creams, blues and gold inspired by its more traditional appearance.

I like it.

We said essentially that when Disney announced the change. The classic-looking castle is elegant and fits Main Street and the rest of the park better.

But as we wrote in Cinderella’s Castle Returns to Classic Colors, But Disney’s Magic Kingdom Still Feels Less Magical, a fresh coat of paint doesn’t replace a river.

The Rivers of America Are Gone

This remains the Magic Kingdom change I have the hardest time accepting.

The Rivers of America, Liberty Belle Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island are gone. Their former home is becoming Piston Peak National Park, a Cars-themed expansion of Frontierland.

Before the river disappeared, we made one final visit to Tom Sawyer Island.

It reminded me why the place mattered.

There were caves to wander through, a fort, a barrel bridge, a mill, picnic tables and people simply sitting around. I found someone eating lunch while working on his laptop. Kids could run around without being strapped into a ride vehicle or shuttled through a queue.

It was inefficient space by modern Disney standards.

That was part of its charm.

Tom Sawyer Island felt like an older version of Disney: still commercial, certainly, but less optimized. You crossed the river on a slightly smelly motorized raft and then had permission to waste some time.

The river itself mattered even if you never crossed it.

It gave Liberty Square and Frontierland water, reflections, breezes and distance. The Liberty Belle moved through the landscape. The island gave you somewhere to look across to. The park felt bigger because part of it wasn’t immediately accessible from the walkway in front of you.

After Disney drained it, we wrote Paving Paradise: Disney’s Rivers of America and Liberty Belle—What We Lost When Magic Kingdom Changed.

My opinion hasn’t improved with time.

A park needs more than rides. It needs kinetics, landscape, quiet places, things happening in the background and corners that reward wandering. The Rivers of America provided all of those at once.

D23 Made Piston Peak Sound Much More Ambitious

I will give Disney credit for what it revealed at D23.

Piston Peak does not sound like a cheap Cars overlay.

The headliner is now officially called Cars Ridge Run Rally. Disney says the attraction will use newly developed ride vehicles with actual tires and suspension responding to the terrain beneath them.

Riders will climb Piston Peak, encounter a snowy summit, descend through the landscape, cross a geyser field and race toward the finish while Lightning McQueen and Mater cover the action.

The second attraction is Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along, built around the demolition-derby school bus from Cars 3. Disney says Miss Fritter herself will appear as a huge, school-bus-sized Audio-Animatronic.

The surrounding land is supposed to include forests, waterways, waterfalls, geysers, trails, a visitor lodge and National Park Service-inspired “Parkitecture.”

You can see Disney’s newly revealed Piston Peak plans here.

I am more interested in Piston Peak today than I was yesterday.

The scale model looks lush, and Disney seems to understand that replacing the Rivers of America creates an obligation to provide more than ride capacity. The mountains, water, trees and moving landscape may restore some of the visual depth that Frontierland just lost.

I still wish Disney had built it somewhere else.

Cars can produce a great attraction. Cars already has one of Disney’s best attractions in California.

It can’t give Magic Kingdom its river back.

Carousel of Progress Is Closed—and D23 Confirmed How Much Is Changing

Carousel of Progress closed July 6.

Disney has now announced that the new version will debut in late spring 2027.

When Disney first announced that it was investing in the attraction, I was delighted.

We published A Greater Big Beautiful Tomorrow: Carousel of Progress Gets a New Lease on Life and treated the news as one of the rare encouraging preservation stories in a year filled with closures.

I was especially happy that Disney planned to update the final scene, which had been showing its age for a very long time.

Then Disney told us what it is actually doing.

This is far more than a final-scene refresh.

The familiar historical sequence is being replaced.

The new version begins in the summer of 1969, with the family watching the moon landing. The next scene jumps to Halloween 1985. The third takes place on New Year’s Eve 1999. The final scene depicts a possible future with robots and space travel.

The existing early-1900s, 1920s and 1940s scenes will be gone.

Those are exactly the scenes I wrote last year that I hoped Disney would leave alone.

This changes my feelings about the project considerably.

Carousel of Progress has never been valuable merely because the theater rotates and everyone sings “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”

Its structure tells a story.

You meet essentially the same American family at the beginning of the 20th century and watch technology gradually change their lives. Electricity, appliances, communication and entertainment that seem miraculous in one era become ordinary by the next. The family remains recognizable while the world around them changes.

Starting in 1969 creates a very different attraction.

The historical portion becomes recent nostalgia—moon landings, the 1980s and Y2K—rather than a century-long journey through the transformation of ordinary life.

I understand Disney’s stated goal. They want today’s guests to recognize the eras being depicted.

I don’t think every historical attraction needs to begin within living memory to be relatable.

Kids somehow manage to understand Haunted Mansion without having grown up in a Victorian mansion. Pirates of the Caribbean does not require firsthand experience with 18th-century piracy. Main Street U.S.A. does not need a Starbucks drive-through to explain itself.

Good storytelling makes an unfamiliar period understandable.

Carousel already did that.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston Are the New Mom and Dad

D23 brought one genuinely interesting addition to the Carousel news.

Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis will voice Sarah, while Bryan Cranston will voice John.

Disney also showed more of the new 1985 scene and reiterated that practical sets, physical props and painted backdrops will remain a major part of the attraction.

I’m glad to hear that.

Curtis and Cranston are excellent performers, and nothing about their casting worries me.

My concern remains the rewritten structure of the show.

Disney has published a detailed look at all four new Carousel of Progress eras.

And Then There’s Walt

The new show will begin with a Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic in a scene inspired by the television program in which Walt introduced Carousel of Progress before the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

I liked this idea when Disney first announced it.

I still think it could work.

But with the scale of the rest of the rewrite, I’m more cautious about it now.

There is a subtle danger in turning an attraction created by Walt Disney into an attraction about Walt Disney.

Walt’s presence is already everywhere in Carousel of Progress. He developed the show. His optimism powers it. The Sherman Brothers wrote the song for him. The attraction’s faith that technology could make ordinary life better is inseparable from Walt’s view of progress.

He doesn’t need to become another piece of intellectual property.

In our earlier article I joked that perhaps Walt himself was Disney’s newest IP. I would rather that joke not become the organizing principle of the attraction.

There is a version of this refurbishment that could be wonderful. The Walt introduction could provide historical context. The physical sets and Audio-Animatronics could look better than they have in years. The future scene could finally imagine a future again.

There is also a version that emerges as a slick nostalgia show about 1969, 1985 and 1999 and has less to say about progress than the attraction it replaced.

Disney says it intends to preserve the family, practical sets and “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.” I’m glad.

I will be considerably happier if the heart of the attraction survives along with them.

Villains Land Is Still Coming

Beyond Big Thunder Mountain, Disney is developing its large Villains-themed land with two major attractions plus dining and shopping.

This is one of the projects I am genuinely curious about.

A Villains land gives Imagineering a broad theme and a chance to build an environment with its own architecture and atmosphere.

Strangely, D23 did not tell us a great deal more about it.

Disney reiterated that Villains Land is under development and that it will contain two major attractions, dining and shopping, but Piston Peak received far more concrete detail during the presentation.

So Villains Land remains one of Disney World’s biggest announced projects and one of its largest unanswered questions.

EPCOT: It Was Quiet Until Disney Announced a New Spaceship Earth

After years of walls and demolition in the center of EPCOT, much of 2026 has been almost restful by comparison.

Then D23 gave us a fairly consequential piece of news.

Soarin’ Across America Is Here

Soarin’ Across America debuted May 26, replacing Soarin’ Around the World at EPCOT.

The ride system is unchanged. The new film flies over American scenery and landmarks as part of the country’s 250th anniversary.

I like the basic idea.

Soarin’ is a ride built around the sensation of flying over landscapes. Changing the film periodically is almost the ideal way to refresh it. Disney can create something new without ripping down the pavilion and starting over.

We’ve been considerably less enthusiastic about EPCOT’s larger transformation.

When we visited Journey of Water Inspired by Moana, I liked the attraction more than I expected. It is interactive, educational, attractive and a pleasant place to cool down.

My problem was everything EPCOT demolished and all the years of construction required to arrive at a park whose central redevelopment ultimately produced surprisingly little new attraction capacity.

Journey of Water is a good attraction.

I still miss the Fountain of Nations.

Spaceship Earth Is Getting a Major Reimagining

This was one of the biggest Walt Disney World announcements from D23.

Disney says Spaceship Earth will receive its first major update in nearly 20 years.

The current attraction is organized around the history of human communication. Disney says the new version will broaden that idea into a story about human connection, carrying the attraction into the internet age and beyond.

You can read Disney’s announcement here.

I am cautiously optimistic.

Spaceship Earth deserves investment.

The ride still contains some of the best physical show scenes at Walt Disney World, and its trip through the development of writing, printing, mass communication and computing remains one of the clearest expressions of what EPCOT used to be interested in.

The final portion of the current attraction has never felt as complete as the ascent.

A serious effort to finish the story and carry it forward could be excellent.

“Human connection,” however, is broad enough to mean almost anything.

I hope the cavemen, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, monks, printing press and other historical scenes remain part of a coherent journey rather than becoming scenery surrounding a more generic message about all of us being connected.

The appeal of Spaceship Earth is specificity.

It tells you how people preserved ideas, transmitted knowledge and gradually built systems that let information travel farther and faster.

Disney has not yet announced when Spaceship Earth will close for the refurbishment or when the new version will open.

This is now one of the Walt Disney World projects I will be watching most closely.

Hollywood Studios: Disney Is Putting Some “Studios” Back While Erasing Part of Its History

Hollywood Studios has spent most of its life trying to decide what it wants to be.

It began as a functioning production facility and theme park. Over the years, Disney stripped away most of the studio infrastructure and many of the attractions celebrating filmmaking, then filled the gaps with individual franchise lands.

Some of the 2026 changes oddly move the park a little closer to its original identity.

Others continue the purge.

The Muppets Have Taken Over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opened May 26.

Aerosmith is gone. The Electric Mayhem is now trying to make it across Hollywood for a concert, with the familiar launch and indoor coaster serving as the ride underneath the new story.

I’m sure it is fun.

My objection was never that the Muppets couldn’t make a funny roller coaster.

It was what Disney traded for it.

We Already Said Goodbye to Muppet*Vision 3D

Before it closed, we made a last-chance visit to Muppet*Vision 3D.

It was old. Some of the technology was showing its age. It was also pure Muppets: terrible puns, chaos, practical effects, Statler and Waldorf insulting everyone from their balcony, and the peculiar warmth underneath Jim Henson’s comedy.

More importantly, families could experience it together.

Muppet*Vision was one of Jim Henson’s final projects and retained his direct creative fingerprints. Disney removed it to make room for Monstropolis and moved the surviving Muppet presence to Disney World’s most intense roller coaster.

We later explained why we think moving the Muppets from 3D glasses to G-forces misses the point.

A small child who loves Kermit could watch Muppet*Vision.

The same child may not meet the height requirement for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, let alone want to go upside down in the dark.

The new attraction may be entertaining on its own terms. Its existence doesn’t make Muppet*Vision less of a loss.

The Magic of Disney Animation Opens September 14

Here is a Hollywood Studios development I find much easier to like.

The Magic of Disney Animation opens September 14 in the reworked Walt Disney Studios area.

Disney says the experience will include animation-focused activities, drawing, character encounters and spaces inspired by the animation process. The building itself takes cues from the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in California.

There is something almost revolutionary in Disney putting an attraction about Disney animation into Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The original park let guests see actual animators working. Disney gradually removed most of that production identity.

I’m not expecting the new experience to recreate the old working studio. But animation is a subject worthy of an attraction in its own right. It does not need to pretend that the art form only exists as a delivery system for characters Disney can sell.

Monstropolis Is Going Up

Meanwhile, construction continues on the Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis.

Structural steel is already rising.

The centerpiece will be a suspended coaster based on the door-vault sequence from Monsters, Inc., including what Disney says will be the first suspended coaster and first vertical lift on a Disney ride.

The surrounding city will include places drawn from the film’s world, including Harryhausen’s restaurant and the Glob Theater.

This could be spectacular.

It is also being built where Muppet*Vision and the surrounding Muppets area used to be.

Both statements can be true.

Animal Kingdom: D23 Gave Us Some of the Best News of the Night

DinoLand U.S.A. permanently closed February 2, taking DINOSAUR, Restaurantosaurus and the remaining land with it.

I have mixed feelings about DinoLand.

The Chester and Hester carnival section always felt underbuilt compared with the astonishing environments elsewhere in Animal Kingdom. But DINOSAUR was a substantial attraction, and the larger land had its own weird logic and history.

Now it is gone.

Tropical Americas Is Coming in 2027

Disney is replacing DinoLand with the 11-acre Tropical Americas area, Pueblo Esperanza, scheduled to open in 2027.

The plans sound promising.

Imagineers have emphasized that they are drawing from the architecture, landscapes, wildlife and cultures of Central and South America rather than treating the area as a bare collection of movie attractions.

Former Imagineer Joe Rohde has noted that a Tropical Americas concept fits ideas the Animal Kingdom team considered going back to the park’s early development.

That gives me some hope.

Animal Kingdom is at its best when the fictional material sits inside a convincing place. Pandora works because it feels like an ecosystem rather than a pair of Avatar rides dropped on concrete.

If Pueblo Esperanza gets that same level of environmental storytelling, it could be a worthy addition.

In 2026, though, Animal Kingdom has lost a major ride before the replacement is ready.

The Encanto Ride Is Now Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto

Disney finally gave its first Encanto ride an official name at D23: Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto.

The attraction takes place around the day Antonio receives his gift of communicating with animals.

Guests will enter Casita and board ride vehicles made to look as though pieces of furniture have assembled themselves to carry you through the house.

The journey eventually reaches Antonio’s rainforest room, which Disney says will contain more than 50 represented animals. Disney’s Imagineers worked with the company’s animal and science teams to make the Colombian wildlife accurate.

Stephanie Beatriz, Jessica Darrow and Diane Guerrero are returning as Mirabel, Luisa and Isabela.

And this is important for Animal Kingdom’s ride lineup: the Encanto attraction will have no height requirement.

Disney also named the land’s family carousel El Carrusel de los Animalitos. It will feature 22 hand-carved figures based on animals from Disney and Pixar stories.

You can see Disney’s new Encanto ride details here.

This all sounds pretty good.

A substantial indoor attraction that an entire family can ride together is exactly the sort of capacity Animal Kingdom can use.

Indiana Jones Finally Has a Name—and Harrison Ford

The attraction replacing DINOSAUR is now officially called Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent.

Disney says Harrison Ford is returning as Indiana Jones for the attraction, with Ford himself serving as the model for the new Indy Audio-Animatronic.

The ride uses the former DINOSAUR attraction as its foundation but tells a new Indiana Jones story rather than copying Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure.

Indy discovers a preserved Maya temple and goes looking for the mythical creature believed to live within it.

I remain sorry to lose DINOSAUR.

I am also extremely curious to see what Imagineering can do with that ride system, a large existing show building and an Indiana Jones budget.

This could become one of Walt Disney World’s best rides.

The Yeti Is Coming Back to Life

Then came my favorite surprise of the presentation.

Disney announced that it is bringing the Yeti back to life inside Expedition Everest.

For years, guests have encountered the enormous Yeti figure largely through lighting and the speed of the train rather than the dramatic movement originally associated with the scene.

Disney has not yet explained exactly what mechanical work it is doing or announced when the restored Yeti will debut.

But this is exactly the kind of Disney World investment I want to see.

Expedition Everest is already excellent. Joe Rohde and the original Imagineering team built a mountain, a mythology, a village, a museum-quality queue and a roller coaster that all serve the same story.

The correct response to a great attraction with a famous broken effect is to fix the effect.

Disney says more details are coming. You can read the official Yeti announcement here.

The Pattern: Disney Keeps Trading Places for Attractions

Looking at all four parks together, I keep coming back to the same concern.

Disney is very good at building rides.

A Disney park needs other things too.

The Rivers of America weren’t merely the location of the Liberty Belle. They were scenery from a dozen different viewpoints.

Tom Sawyer Island wasn’t merely an attraction with an hourly capacity. It was somewhere a kid could wander into a cave and a tired parent could sit down.

Muppet*Vision wasn’t simply an old 3D film occupying real estate needed for a newer ride. It was a piece of Henson’s work that nearly anyone in the family could experience.

Carousel of Progress isn’t merely a rotating theater containing four sets that can be swapped for newer decades.

These things create texture.

We’ve seen the same instinct elsewhere. The original Country Bear Jamboree survived, thankfully, but Disney replaced its oddball country repertoire with Disney songs. We wrote at the time about the opportunity Disney missed with the Country Bears.

None of this means Disney should freeze the parks in 1975.

Disneyland itself was never frozen. Walt changed attractions constantly.

But Walt also understood that a park was an environment.

The train, riverboats, monorails, PeopleMovers, fountains, landscaped areas, background music, architecture and places to explore gave the parks motion and depth between the E-tickets.

If every old thing has to defend itself solely by how many guests it can process per hour or how useful its characters are to the current franchise portfolio, the park gradually becomes a collection of excellent rides connected by gift shops.

That would still be entertaining.

It would be considerably less interesting.

So Is 2026 a Good Year to Visit Disney World?

There is plenty to see.

If you haven’t been recently, Big Thunder is refreshed. Buzz Lightyear is better. Soarin’ has a new film. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster has the Muppets. The Magic of Disney Animation opens September 14.

There are also some significant holes in the lineup.

Carousel of Progress is closed until late spring 2027.

DINOSAUR and DinoLand are gone.

The Rivers of America, Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer Island are gone.

Muppet*Vision 3D is gone.

Monstropolis, Piston Peak and Tropical Americas are active construction projects.

For a first-time visitor, there is still an enormous amount to do.

For someone who knows these parks well, 2026 feels like arriving halfway through a renovation.

The D23 announcements make 2027 and the years beyond more interesting. They do not put the missing attractions back into the parks today.

If you’re trying to make better use of the attractions that are open, we’ve also just updated our guide to every Disney World and Disneyland Single Rider line in 2026.

What Disney Announced at D23 2026

If you just want the Walt Disney World portion of Disney’s August 15 presentation, these were the biggest announcements:

Piston Peak: Disney named its two Cars attractions Cars Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along and revealed substantial new ride and land details.

Carousel of Progress: Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston will voice Sarah and John. The rewritten attraction opens in late spring 2027.

Spaceship Earth: Disney announced a major reimagining that will broaden its story from human communication to human connection and carry it into the internet age and beyond.

Expedition Everest: Disney says it is bringing the Yeti Audio-Animatronic back to life.

Encanto: The Animal Kingdom ride is officially Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, has no height requirement and will take guests through Casita to Antonio’s rainforest room.

Indiana Jones: The DINOSAUR replacement is Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, with Harrison Ford returning as Indy.

Tropical Americas: Disney also named the new animal carousel El Carrusel de los Animalitos and revealed additional details about the land.

Villains Land: It remains in active development with two major attractions, dining and shopping, although Disney revealed relatively little new information about it during the presentation.

That is a substantial list.

And unlike some previous Disney presentations built around blue-sky artwork, almost everything here is tied to attractions already closed, under construction or undergoing refurbishment.

A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow—Hopefully

D23 made Disney World’s future considerably more concrete.

Some of the announcements genuinely improved my opinion of what is coming.

Piston Peak appears more ambitious than I expected. Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto sounds like the sort of elaborate family dark ride Animal Kingdom needs. Indiana Jones could be excellent. Fixing the Yeti is almost impossible to argue with.

I am intrigued by Spaceship Earth and considerably more nervous about Carousel of Progress.

That mix of excitement and anxiety seems appropriate for Walt Disney World in 2026.

I want Disney to build things.

I want Imagineers to get budgets large enough to create places nobody has seen before. I want the parks to have new attractions worth planning trips around. I want old rides to receive the kind of attention Big Thunder just received instead of slowly deteriorating.

And some of what is coming looks genuinely exciting.

Tropical Americas could be beautiful. Villains Land could let Imagineering do something strange and atmospheric. The Monsters coaster could be spectacular. Piston Peak may contain great rides. Spaceship Earth could finally have an ending worthy of its first half.

My concern is the accumulating cost.

We went to Tom Sawyer Island one last time because Disney had decided a quiet island and a river were expendable.

We went to Muppet*Vision one last time because Disney decided Henson’s theater was the place Monstropolis needed to go.

Now Carousel of Progress is dark while Disney replaces the first 60 years of its story with the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s.

Each decision can be defended individually.

Taken together, they tell us something about what Disney believes a modern theme park should be.

D23 showed that Imagineering still knows how to think big. A 225-square-foot Piston Peak model, a newly imagined Spaceship Earth, a restored Expedition Everest Yeti and an elaborate Tropical Americas are not signs of a company that has stopped investing in its parks.

The harder question is whether Disney still values the quieter pieces of those parks once they stand in the way of the next big project.

I hope it does.

The best Disney parks were never simply collections of rides.

They were places where a river could be worth keeping even if you didn’t ride the boat.

Where an island could be worth keeping even if you spent an hour doing almost nothing.

Where a slightly dated theater show could be precious because the person who created it was Jim Henson.

Where progress meant looking toward the future without having to erase every trace of the past.

Disney showed us much more of its great big beautiful tomorrow at D23.

Now we get to see how much of yesterday survives the construction.