Huge Changes Are Coming to Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom… But They Won’t Solve It’s Biggest Problem

The biggest issue the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks have currently is capacity. So while we’re excited for upgrades to Animal Kingdom, it’s sad to know so much money is going in without more guests having the chance to do so.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Disney Parks experts Vash Sky and Culture Casino to discuss how one might fix Disney’s Animal Kingdom. One of the biggest issues the park faces is that it simply needs more rides. There aren’t enough attraction to justify higher capacities. That means the park is full, even when the parking lot is not. That’s a real issue because that’s wasted infrastructure. With keen capex investments, Animal Kingdom would be a huge theme park that could increase capacity by about 50%… and then one would consider perhaps revenue might be somewhat equivalent. One could presume that because Animal Kingdom reached capacity on reservations already in the month of March. For those of you keeping track, no, March isn’t one of the busier months of the year.

In our discussion of what should be done at the park, we recommended adding expansions to new areas so that greater capacity could be made available. That would increase return on investment dramatically. For example, one might put in an Australia expansion between African and Asia and tie it in with Disney’s uber-popular Bluey show on Disney+. Though Disney doesn’t own Bluey, surely they can afford the park licensing for North America!

Instead, however, we’re getting a redo. Once again, Disney Parks is choosing to destroy existing property accessible to guests and replace it with the same number of attractions. As we’ve talked about in the past, this always results in capacity either staying the same or decreasing… and then Disney charges more for higher income guests that rarely visit. That has been their strategy and it seems to remain their strategy.

For me, I’d definitely rather see an indoor Antarctica pavilion with a “relaxation station”. Charge me huge amounts of money — I’ll pay it for a massage chair, an ice-cold cup of lemonade and wonderful air conditioning in the middle of a Florida July day. I’ll guarantee you there’s no better way to increase guest satisfaction.

Instead, however, Disney is going with a fine idea that I think will work sufficiently. They’re allegedly going to change the Dinosaur-themed area to South America. That allows them to add a few animal exhibits, talk about the Amazon rainforest, and (financially more important) bring in Encanto for a themed area. They can also retrofit their Dinosaur ride with a dinosaur franchise in Indiana Jones.

3D flyover of the "Project RO Trailer Compound" at Disney's Animal Kingdom pic.twitter.com/rkhW8NzW6n

— Brayden (@SirBrayden) March 19, 2024

Now while I think all of that is fine, I have to say that it’s rather short-sided to destroy a dinosaur-themed area of the park rather than upgrade it. I don’t know if you all have heard, but even if dinosaurs aren’t strictly Disney IP, they’re evergreen hyper-popular interest to little boys all over the planet. Kick out the junky carnival rides in Animal Kingdom and put in a giant experience where kids can see a huge T-Rex animatronic… you can’t print money fast enough for how well that would do.

So if you want to do a South America expansion, I’m happy about that. Plop it in east of Everest and I think it’s a winning idea. If you need to bring Indy over for the Dinosaur ride (because it’s cheap as the Florida version is a reskinned Indy from Disneyland), so be it. Make him on the hunt for dinosaurs instead. I don’t care. Just don’t keep doing this thing where you continuously destroy what already exists and give us less fun in its place but with prettier, more expensive facades. It just really sucks to go into a Disney Park and realize there’s twelve total attractions worth doing and they’re all backed up an hour in line… and even if you buy a “Lighting Lane,” that sometimes stretches out past the normal line.

So overall, I’m happy to see Disney spending money to upgrade a Florida theme park. I hope it’s better than Epcot. I hope it’s on par with Pandora. But with all the land available at Walt Disney World, consider me skeptical when we keep seeing that expansion land unused. Is there rumor at hand that Disney might actually use an expansion pad? You bet. James Cameron might be able to make it happen.

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