Dear diary, guess what? We’re getting the MONSTERS INC. DOOR COASTER we’ve always wanted!
We just wrapped up our second day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event… and boy, was it a doozy. I’m feeling oh-so giddy from all of those theme park announcements. They’re all active projects in development — NO BLUE SKY! Before I get carried away with that new nighttime parade, Villains, Cars, Coco, and my Dr. Seeker bereavement, let’s start with the daytime activities.
Today’s (and every day’s if I’m honest) outfit intentions were to be comfy yet stylish, while celebrating the original message of Disney’s Animal Kingdom with this pre-opening t-shirt I recently dug up from eBay. The original park’s concept was dedicated to animals of the past, present, and mythical. We know our front-and-center dragon isn’t a thing –shameless Beastly Kingdom loveletter plug-, but it’s tough to imagine DAK with no dinosaurs… more on this later.
I started my day out by continuing show floor explorations. I was committed to check out the collector vendors over in the D23 Emporium side; sift through some boxes of old posters and lithographs, maybe find a grail or two… to me, there are few things in life that are better than a good vintage find. Anyway, this is how I splurged the rest of my D23 budget on a 1992 Disneyland Paris map. Maybe I’ll share my haul after the weekend wraps up?
Since today’s program included D23 Mousequerade: The Ultimate Disney Costume Contest, the entire convention center was extra vibrant with attendees showing off their creative costumes and cosplays. Here are just a few of my favorites I noticed roaming around:
What’s that? Why, yes, I’m back with more Muppets! This afternoon hosted a session with Nina West and Dani Iglesias at the Spotlight Stage sharing details on the Making of Clue: The Muppets Board Game. It’s a Muppets whodunnit, duh! The game releases on October 8th and I cannot wait to own this silly little thing. The sculpted weapon game pieces are worth the price alone.
Dani shared that The Muppets were granted special permission to use the candelabra from The Haunted Mansion. Well what do you know, we received a Muppets Haunted Mansion news item after all! …Sort of. I’ll hold out hope for that attraction overlay for D23 2026… or maybe Destination D23 next year? I won’t let this go.
The hosts asked a few Muppet trivia questions for a prize: a poster of the game’s cover art. While trivia is fine and dandy, I wish we could go back to the days where all attendees received prints or posters at sessions such as this. Especially since this was one with lower attendance; there were easily only 100-200 people at this one.
At the end, Dani briefly touched on Muppets 70, a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the career and legacy of Jim Henson in 2025. More info and how they’re celebrating will be shared in the coming months.
Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. We’ve done just what we set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and you. – Jim Henson
P.S. hi, hello, I require access to Nina West’s entire wardrobe.
Parks Panel Highlights
Josh D’Amaro shared the biggest news coming to Disney parks at this evening’s Horizons: Disney Experience Showcase. The entire presentation was sprinkled with lively musical performances, hysterical Deadpool appearances and… get ready for it… solid, concrete theme park announcements that are in active development. There was a ton of news dropped today, especially for Walt Disney World and you can read all about them here, but I’d like to quickly touch on a few of my highs and lows from the presentation; my diary, you know.
- Patrick Warburton reprised his Soarin’ Chief Flight Attendant role for this year’s panel opener. The Mickey Ear hat guy is back, too! If you haven’t watched this yet, please do yourself a favor:
- Between mentioning D’Amaro’s tight sweaters, asking Josh to fix Expedition Everest‘s broken “disco” yeti, and talking about far-off theme park ideas, Deadpool was not holding back. I love when Disney can poke fun at themselves, the entire bit was rather refreshing for this panel.
- Dinoland demolition (that hurt to type out) is imminent: We finally saw more concept art for the Tropical Americas, including the Indiana Jones attraction replacing DINOSAUR, the Encanto-themed area and attractions taking over Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama. I’m conflicted. I’ll completely miss Dr. Seeker and those massive Dino animatronics, but this new Indy ride looks pretty incredible. The new area looks vibrant, lush and beautiful, and those Encanto attractions will certainly breathe new life into the area; how could I even compare that to the current state of Dino-Rama? I just really wish dinosaurs weren’t going completely extinct at DAK.
- Cars in Frontierland? Yeehaw! I’m still not 100% sure how I feel, but my gut feeling is excitement. The concept art shown looks like it’ll be a good fit for Florida and Frontierland, I look forward to learning more. I am relieved this isn’t going to be a carbon copy of DCA’s Carsland (I ADORE Carsland and that sweet, sweet neon, but I prefer when WDW and Disneyland offer something different from each other!) Is this really what was beyond Big Thunder all along?
- Meghan Trainor performed Feed the Birds following the announcement of a Walt Disney audio-animatronic in development for Disneyland. I hope this version of the song becomes available somewhere, it was a really beautiful tribute for both Walt and the Sherman Brothers.
- Okay, but the biggest news for me is the surprise(?!) announcement of a Monsters Inc.-themed land for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, including that suspended coaster! We’re finally getting a door coaster!! I’m having trouble formulating the words for just how much this means to little me. Monsters, Inc. was and is one of my favorite Pixar films. I’ve dreamt of stepping into Monstropolis, and this coaster was something I vividly imagined for WDW upon watching the film at my local movie theater at 9 years old. From reading rumors online for years and years, knowing the project was actually in development at one point, only to be indefinitely shelved… to this evening when Billy Crystal appeared on stage to announce the big news. It all struck a chord. Not ashamed to say this theme park geek was in tears. Do you know how many times I’ve googled “Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster” in my lifetime? A lot.
- Don’t get me wrong, I was also entirely beside myself when the intro to Hunchback of Notre Dame‘s Hellfire dropped, followed by green smoke effect and the Magic Mirror taking over the stage. The crowd went WILD. THE VILLAINS LAND IS HAPPENING AT MAGIC KINGDOM!! So pointy! So layered! The concept art is beautiful and just ominous enough, I can’t wait to hear more about what’s in store for the two major attractions, dining and shopping venues. Universal’s Dark Universe AND Disney’s Villains in Orlando? Pinch me.
- Incredibly excited for the Coco boat ride coming to Disney California Adventure. Here’s hoping we see something Coco in EPCOT’s Mexico pavilion one day, maybe?
- I think we’re all surprised there was no big announcement for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland? Sticking a pin in that for later…
- Please don’t hate me, but I’m completely jealous that Disneyland Paris is getting a Lion King-themed flume ride (and land!). I sort of wish we had that in Magic Kingdom, keeping Tiana’s Bayou Adventure exclusive to Disneyland. Crazy blue sky thinking here, I know. What’s done is done?
- Can you believe we’re getting FOUR MORE Disney Cruise ships?! By 2031 there will 13 ships across Disney’s fleet. Bring it on, bon voyage, and all that jazz. (We also heard more about the Moana stage show for the Disney Treasure, involving a 50-foot tall Te Fiti puppet. WOW.)
- Last but certainly not least, we’re getting a new nighttime parade at Walt Disney World! Rejoice! The resort has not seen a new nighttime pageant since SpectroMagic (RIP) in 1991. The Main Street Electrical Parade returned one too many times in my opinion, but even that hasn’t wheeled down Magic Kingdom’s parade route since 2016. It’s been too long, and I cannot wait for evenings at Magic Kingdom filled with Disney Starlight parade AND Happily Ever After — yum.
You get a poster, and you get a poster, we all get posters! Something that is glaringly amiss are panel handouts; this was especially apparent at this year’s Experience showcase. Historically, a gift of some sort is something included with your attendance. Just at the last Expo in 2024, everyone at the Parks, Products & Experience panel received a Disney pin of Lina-Bell, a concept art print for the Avengers E-ticket attraction, and a box of pastries from Porto’s Bakery. This year, you only received a [throwaway] light-up wristband on your way into the Honda Center, something which only works with the presentation’s tech. D23 tickets cost more than ever before, but we’re walking away with less freebies which helped justify the price, if only a little. What do you think?
Alright, let’s see here… vintage shopping, huge theme park news involving life-long dreams coming true, AND [small] Muppet news? Today was a great day.
For more, watch Ryno and I’s recap of the Horizons Experience Showcase here!
We’ll have much more content coming at you over the next few weeks covering all of the announcement excitement. In the meantime, thank you, dear reader, and please let me know what you’re most excited for! I’ll be back with my final diary entry for day 3, where I hope to have finally met Bluey and Bingo, and explore some more of the floor experiences… YES CHEF? I just need to start waiting in lines. Okay~ TOODLES!
Theme Park Correspondent for The DIS | Chloé loves kitschy dark rides, roller coasters, a good background area music loop, hot Butterbeer, and all things Halloween. You’ll mostly find her wandering around Orlando’s biggest theme parks snapping pics and sharing tips… or probably talking about The Great Movie Ride.
