WDW Rumor Tracker, Version 3

[tanc]

Not sure if there really just hasn't been any rumors or not, but will this list be updated or is it up to date?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Not sure if there really just hasn't been any rumors or not, but will this list be updated or is it up to date?

Hmmm... I'll get around to updating. Ever since the return of things after the COVID lockdown, we pretty much new what was and wasn't going to be done, unlike the heyday of five years ago when there were all sorts of hush hush projects that were getting greenlit.

So... there really isn't much outstanding rumors... except the dueling timelines of when TRON will open.

I would guess that after the beginning of the next fiscal year (Oct 1-ish, 2022) that Disney will know what kind of income they can expect and what new projects to budget for. Then we'll hear the whispers again...

 

[RSoxNo1]

There isn't a whole lot going on right now. I would anticipate some D23 leaks will start surfacing in the coming months though.

 

[MisterPenguin]

There isn't a whole lot going on right now. I would anticipate some D23 leaks will start surfacing in the coming months though.

Can't wait for stuff like what happened the year that they announced Main Street Theater and yanked the announcement of TRON Racers replacing Speedway the day before the event!

 

[Door Coaster]

Zootopia never was planned to be and never will be a DAK attraction

And now it is.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Magic Kingdom


Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary (Oct 1, 2021)

• Timeline: May 2021 to the end of 2022. [here]
  • COVID has obviously changed the timeline to Oct 1, 2021 to Spring of 2023 (a year and a half)
  • Altho, it seems the will to keep up the 50th celebration is waning. E.g., in 2022, the Holiday Parties will return which will keep day-guests from seeing Disney Enchantment which was supposed to be the special 50th fireworks show. {Added}
• 50th new fireworks show: Disney Enchantmentstarting Oct 1, 2021
  • Will include projections on Main Street (construction for that taking place August 2021)
  • HEA status
    • Disney said HEA was going away to replaced by Enchantment. But it can always come back, or Enchantment can be semi-permanent. [here]
    • And it seems HEA will be on the way back when the 50th is over (perhaps Spring of 2023). [here] {Added}
• Festival of Fantasy Parade will likely not be replaced by brand new 50th parade, but only get a float or two for the anniversary [here] NOPE {Updated}
• The MK Halloween and Christmas Parties
  • The usual Halloween and Christmas parties will be back not only in full force in 2021, but with upgrades [here] Nope.
  • MNSSHP will not happen in 2021. Replaced by Halloween-themed Disney After Hours "Boo To You" events.
  • MVMCP will not happen in 2021. Replaced by Disney After Hours "Very Merriest" events.
  • So as not to take away the 50th fireworks from day-guests, the Halloween and Christmas Parties will likely not be back until 2023. [here] NOPE {Updated}
    • OR... WDW realizes Disney Enchantment ain't that beloved nor that explicitly 50th-related, and so, the Party Nights return in 2022. {Added}

Tomorrowland

• land refresh: while the full plan hasn't been announced, this is definitely happening since it has already started with paint jobs and the closure of Stitch. However, the plans have not been finalized and there are several contenders, and so, competing ideas keep getting leaked...
  • Tomorrowland's overall refresh is likely to be done with. Power and Light's changes that were supposed to be made may now be cut. [here] Indefinitely delayed [here]
    • Power and Light refresh is taking place now (Apr-May 2022) {Updated}
• TRON Coaster has been announced at D23 Expo 2017
  • TRON Timeline: by October 2021 for the 50th [here], or.. mid 2021 [here]
    • Or... not even until 2022 [here] and [here]
    • Interior construction put on hold in 2021, but then resumed in late Summer 2021 (earlier than expected).
    • Likely to open Spring 2022 [here] Nope {Updated}
    • Now scheduled for Fall 2022 [here] and [here] {Added}
• Speedway is getting an overhaul. [Here.]
  • still a plan to overlay the Speedway (with, most likely TRON) [here]
  • Or no Tron Light Racers at all [here]
  • OR... Speedway will change... or go away. [here] {Added}
• Magic Kingdom Train
  • Very lengthy refurbishment including complete refurb of tracks, ties, and berm, as well as the tunnel for TRON.
  • timeline: not until mid-2022 [here]
  • Or... by Dec 2021 [here] NOPE {Updated}

Adventureland

• Jungle Cruise: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson will star in a Jungle Cruise movie. He posted on instagram that "we'll partner with Disney's brilliant Imagineers to help re-engineer and re-design the #JungleCruise ride in all the Disney theme parks around the world." Orlando Sentinel says Disney says there is no plan to revamp the ride.
  • A refresh is coming, not based on the movie, but to make some scenes less problematic with regard to the human population of those river jungles.
  • DONE {Updated}

Fantasyland

• Mickey's PhilharMagic to get a content update [here]
  • Still on track, in 2019 or 2020. [here] and [here]
  • A Coco segment will debut on Oct 1, 2021 (already showing in DL's version) DONE {Updated}

Epcot Entrance & World Celebration, Discovery, & Nature


World Celebration (spine/hub/festivals) The center spine and hub is now called World Celebration. It was supposed to contain these elements below which are now either cut, delayed, or altered due to the pandemic

Hub

• NE Building: The Electric Umbrella will be a rethemed QS/TS restaurant, still on track.
  • Turns out to be QS only, not TS. Called "Connections." DONE {Updated}
• Star Bucks: already moved to a 'temporary' location in between Imagination and World Showcase Plaza
  • Now relocated in Connections. DONE {Updated}

Disney Hollywood Studios

Shows

• Fantasmic!
  • Fantasmic! arena and stage received major refurbishment from 2021 into 2022. Casting was initiated but then delayed. As of May 2022, the are still blocking and workshopping the new show which will have at least one new segment, new orchestration, and projection mapping. And then rehearsals with multiple crews will need to take place. So, Spring 2022 predictions are now mid-Summer. [here] [here] [here] [here] [here] [here] {Added}

Animal Kingdom
DinoLand: There were many rumors concerning this area with one or more attractions being replaced with various rumors that kept shifting. Given the pandemic and the closing of Primeval Whirl, any rumors worth mentioning would only be those from plans made in a post-COVID world. See Version 2 of the tracker for what these all were. Though, this prescient one:

• Primeval Whirl may be gone in a year or two [here]. And... it's gone.
• The space may be used for a quick flat-ride replacement (2023 or 2024), OR... saved for a more major land addition (2025 or 2026) [here] {Added}

Rivers of Light: Show was permanently canceled during the pandemic. No info on any possible new water-stadium show.

• Or... maybe not so cancelled. [here]
• Or.. everything is now trashed and it ain't ever coming back [here] {Added}

 

[Door Coaster]

Some other tidbits:

AKL transportation project: [info]
Seeming implications of something similar to Poly's DVC stuff (new DVC studios then a tower) happening at GF in reverse order to Poly along with Yacht Club villas: [info]
Tron was very much the plan for Speedway...might be the plan again [this] and [this]
Zootopia might actually be coming to the Animal Kingdom.....but ToTBellhop has some conflicting info [this] and [this]
A proposal does exist to extend the Skyliner [info] and the "overbuilt dog leg" on the Epcot line is the jumping off point [here], with the expansion proposal heading west likely to Coronado and Animal Kingdom [here]

 

[MisterPenguin]

Some other tidbits:

AKL transportation project: [info]
Seeming implications of something similar to Poly's DVC stuff (new DVC studios then a tower) happening at GF in reverse order to Poly along with Yacht Club villas: [info]
Tron was very much the plan for Speedway...might be the plan again [this] and [this]
Zootopia might actually be coming to the Animal Kingdom.....but ToTBellhop has some conflicting info [this] and [this]
A proposal does exist to extend the Skyliner [info] and the "overbuilt dog leg" on the Epcot line is the jumping off point [here], with the expansion proposal heading west likely to Coronado and Animal Kingdom [here]

Thanks, Martin's report that an extension of the Skyliner isn't a dead issue is new to me.

However, all the others are already contained in some way in the tracker, or, they're not actual rumors/leaks but speculation, and some come from people who are not known insiders.

 

[EagleScout610]

Update since we got a name and timeframe for Splash Mountain remake?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Update since we got a name and timeframe for Splash Mountain remake?

Sure, but this thread is mostly tracking rumors, not announcement. The retheme was announced. And now we have a general time for completion announced. No rumors here.

 

[Door Coaster]

Sure, but this thread is mostly tracking rumors, not announcement. The retheme was announced. And now we have a general time for completion announced. No rumors here.

We have a general completion date, but not a closing date (for Splash). One rumor that's likely the most probable is late this year.

Also at least from the first Rumor Tracker rumors were updated with announcements: see here

 

[MisterPenguin]

We have a general completion date, but not a closing date (for Splash). One rumor that's likely the most probable is late this year.

Also at least from the first Rumor Tracker rumors were updated with announcements: see here

Do you have a link to one of our regular insiders with a good track record saying when Splash will close?

I don't keep track of guesses and suppositions. This thread would be the size of Wikipedia.

 

[Door Coaster]

Do you have a link to one of our regular insiders with a good track record saying when Splash will close?

I don't keep track of guesses and suppositions. This thread would be the size of Wikipedia.

OK, this one was pre-announcement but it's by a regular insider:

News - Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Apologies for the late reply, but allow me to expand on my previous post: From what I was told, the desicion to redo Space in Tokyo killed remaking Splash over there for good, which in turn severely hurt Orlando (They wanted to have MK's Splash cloned there, but Tokyo told them to bug off) to...

forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[MisterPenguin]

OK, this one was pre-announcement but it's by a regular insider:

News - Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Apologies for the late reply, but allow me to expand on my previous post: From what I was told, the desicion to redo Space in Tokyo killed remaking Splash over there for good, which in turn severely hurt Orlando (They wanted to have MK's Splash cloned there, but Tokyo told them to bug off) to...

forums.wdwmagic.com

While I do implicit trust that poster, there has been a lot of conflicting info from other insiders and even himself... WDW keeps changing the timeline.

But, in the next update, I'll include it.

 

[Door Coaster]

I was entirely too bored and thus did this.

Walt Disney World Rumor Tracker - The Map - Google My Maps

Walt Disney World Rumor Tracker - The Map

www.google.com

Mapped out everything on the tracker that could be mapped. The largest project on the map is the Venetian Resort project at 59 acres, followed by the Super-Deluxe (there was recently another rumor of a massive private resort with an entrance to Adventureland that I think is the Super-Deluxe, that's why I mapped the Super Deluxe at the location it is) at 55 acres. In third is the Poly retheme at 39 acres, fourth is the mysterious DAK Northern Project (32 acres) and fifth is the unknown project south of WS, at 31 acres.

EDIT: Should probs point out what the colors mean.

Green - already open
Yellow - actively under construction
Orange - on the tracker and not cancelled but not currently under construction
Very dark orange - Indefinitely delayed
Red - Official project cancelled
Light purple - status unclear
Dark Purple - Rumored project either denied by insiders or cancelled

 

[Door Coaster]

@MisterPenguin I'm sure you've heard some of these (or some variations of these) but quite a few are likely new to you.

Four new DVC sites being examined, at least two in consideration [here]
The long rumored Contemporary Second Tower might be about to become a reality [here]
Fantasmic rumored to be coming just in time for the Christmas Party [here], specifically before Thanksgiving [here]
Aspirations for a new DAK nighttime show [here]
Possibly a new nighttime parade by the 60th? [here]
End of March 2023 is the "expiration date" for Enchantment. [here] HEA expected to then return shortly after. [here]
Launch Bay is the likely site of a walkway connecting to an expansion behind Sunset, possibly the same expansion Martin hinted at. [here]
Two major projects and several smaller ones out the door by 2025 [here]
If any major Encanto related attraction is coming it will be 2025-6 [here]
Multiple items from this D23 wishlist are indeed being announced across all the categories on said list. One for sure from the Dream category. [here] and [here]
Le Cellier expansion is happening, maybe [here]
Country Bears Vacation Hoedown was considered sometime in the last decade [here] along with several show refresh proposals [here]
Harmonious might be in jeopardy [here]
Skyliner expansion has been proposed, but not in the works yet [here]
A long term expansion may go east of Storybook Circus [here]
The same Avengers E-Ticket announced (and then killed) for DCA (or a different Avengers themed E) was the "more Marvel" proposal for WoL, and would have replaced the entire building (Universal killed it for obvious reasons) [here]
Main Street Theater, long thought dead, might not only be back on but even expanded in scale. [here] (however, it'd probably need a new location because the original location wasn't viable to build a giant theater on [here])
Fire Mountain might actually be back on the table [here]
WDW Pro posted this, so take it with a grain of salt, but a very very high-end hotel (aka, probably the Super Deluxe) might be destined to go north of Grand Floridian, and may have a private entrance into Adventureland. This is also being corroborated by JoeCamel in the Fire Mountain rumor above. [here]

 

[Hakunamatata]

Lots of rumors. Hopefully D23 will be fruitful.

 

[MisterPenguin]

@MisterPenguin I'm sure you've heard some of these (or some variations of these) but quite a few are likely new to you.

Four new DVC sites being examined, at least two in consideration [here]
The long rumored Contemporary Second Tower might be about to become a reality [here]
Fantasmic rumored to be coming just in time for the Christmas Party [here], specifically before Thanksgiving [here]
Aspirations for a new DAK nighttime show [here]
Possibly a new nighttime parade by the 60th? [here]
End of March 2023 is the "expiration date" for Enchantment. [here] HEA expected to then return shortly after. [here]
Launch Bay is the likely site of a walkway connecting to an expansion behind Sunset, possibly the same expansion Martin hinted at. [here]
Two major projects and several smaller ones out the door by 2025 [here]
If any major Encanto related attraction is coming it will be 2025-6 [here]
Multiple items from this D23 wishlist are indeed being announced across all the categories on said list. One for sure from the Dream category. [here] and [here]
Le Cellier expansion is happening, maybe [here]
Country Bears Vacation Hoedown was considered sometime in the last decade [here] along with several show refresh proposals [here]
Harmonious might be in jeopardy [here]
Skyliner expansion has been proposed, but not in the works yet [here]
A long term expansion may go east of Storybook Circus [here]
The same Avengers E-Ticket announced (and then killed) for DCA (or a different Avengers themed E) was the "more Marvel" proposal for WoL, and would have replaced the entire building (Universal killed it for obvious reasons) [here]
Main Street Theater, long thought dead, might not only be back on but even expanded in scale. [here] (however, it'd probably need a new location because the original location wasn't viable to build a giant theater on [here])
Fire Mountain might actually be back on the table [here]
WDW Pro posted this, so take it with a grain of salt, but a very very high-end hotel (aka, probably the Super Deluxe) might be destined to go north of Grand Floridian, and may have a private entrance into Adventureland. This is also being corroborated by JoeCamel in the Fire Mountain rumor above. [here]

Thanks for the heads up... collating...

 

[Door Coaster]

A few other things:
Voyage of the Little Mermaid (along with multiple others) is now permanently closed [here]
Before pandemic, a possible "DHS Phase 3" (as in a new land, not updates like Mickey) was on the table [here]
Brightliner not coming to Disney Springs [official]

 

[MisterPenguin]

Magic Kingdom


Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary (Oct 1, 2021)

• Called: The World's Most Magical Celebration
• Timeline: May 2021 to the end of 2022. [here]
  • COVID has obviously changed the timeline to Oct 1, 2021 to Spring of 2023 (a year and a half)
    • Official closure announced: March 31, 2023 [link to 50th closure announcement]. {added}

HEA status

• there will be an eventual replacement for "Happily Ever After" (which replaced "Wishes")
• although... there may be rumblings that since HEA was so well received, they might just update and upgrade it instead of a brand new show. [here] Nope
• more rumblings it will be HEA with a 50th tag [here]. Nope
• HEA was suspended because of COVID, and is now back for Summer 2021 until the Oct 1 50th celebration
• Disney said HEA was going away to replaced by Enchantment. But it can always come back, or Enchantment can be semi-permanent. [here]
• And it seems HEA will be on the way back when the 50th is over (perhaps Spring of 2023). [here]
• It seems the 50th Replacement, Disney Enchantment (DE) will go away when the 50th ends (which is March 31, 2023). HEA is a likely replacement [here] {added}

TRON Coaster has been announced at D23 Expo 2017

• Now scheduled for Fall 2022 [here] and [here]
• TRON opening is now trending toward Late Fall [here] {added}
• There could be soft opening possibility mid-November for an early December opening [here] [here] {added}

Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog has been rejected by OLC (Tokyo), which WDW was counting on to share the cost. (DL's version will be rethemed, but delayed by about 8 months) [here]

• the retheme is definitely on and will open in DL and MK in late 2024 [official] {added}
• the big question now is when will Splash close for the retheme? guesses: {added}
  • During the usual January maintenance it will close and not come back
  • OR, winter of 2022-2023 sometime [here] {added}
  • OR, after the 50th [here], which now officially closes on March 31, 2023 [link to 50th closure announcement]. {added}

Disney Hollywood Studio

Fantasmic!

• Fantasmic! arena and stage received major refurbishment from 2021 into 2022. Casting was initiated but then delayed. As of May 2022, the are still blocking and workshopping the new show which will have at least one new segment, new orchestration, and projection mapping. And then rehearsals with multiple crews will need to take place. So, Spring 2022 predictions are now mid-Summer. [here] [here] [here] [here] [here] [here]
• And now: Before Thanksgiving [here] {added}
• And is October 26 before Thanksgiving? Yes, yes it is. [here] [here] {added}

EPCOT

Canada

• Predictions of a new O Canada! film are fulfilled, started on Jan 17, 2020 [here]
• The closed upstairs shop of La Boutique des Provinces is supposed to become a Food & Beverage place. [here] {added}