When Disney announced last year that it planned to spend $60 billion over the next decade to expand its theme park and cruise businesses, double the amount spent over the previous decade, the company’s stock price instantly dropped.

Wall Street wanted specifics that the company wasn’t prepared to give. Disney fans were excited for a hot second — and then they too started to demand answers, venting on social media about feeling baited. Was Disney being hypothetical about the expansion (as it has been on occasion in the past), or was this for real?

On Saturday, Disney finally showed its hand.

The company is building four new cruise ships — on top of four others it had previously announced — almost trebling the size of its current fleet by 2031.

The Magic Kingdom, Disney’s flagship theme park in Florida, will undergo the largest expansion in its 53-year history, with one new “land” devoted to classic Disney villains and another focused on Pixar’s “Cars” movies. The Disneyland Resort in California will add two superhero-themed rides, a water-based “Avatar” attraction, the company’s first “Coco” ride and a Main Street, USA, show starring an animatronic Walt Disney.

“We’re dreaming big,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, which includes theme parks, Disney Cruise Line, video games and consumer products. “We’re investing in every part of our portfolio and pushing boundaries as we turn what-ifs
into reality.”

Disney is also working on a “Monsters, Inc.”-themed suspended roller coaster (with cars that hang under the tracks), a ride-through “Encanto” experience, a “Lion King” water ride and a major “Spider-Man” roller coaster. The project list, which includes new nighttime parades and elaborate outdoor pageants that Disney calls “spectaculars,” goes on and on.

D’Amaro detailed the projects — they’re all happening, he insisted, nothing conceptual — during a three-hour evening presentation at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, a three-day gathering in Southern California. (D23 is a reference to 1923, the
year Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood.)

One important caveat: The ships and expansions detailed on Saturday, while vastly expensive, do not add up to $60 billion. That sum also covers still-secret rides, resort hotels and shopping and dining areas that Disney is planning for the longer term, along with technology and infrastructure investments.

New York Times News Service