WDW UPDATE: River Removal, Queue Shakeups & Villains Rising!

Big changes are rolling through Walt Disney World, and not all of them will sit well with Disney fans. Disney just got the green light to drain the Rivers of America, clearing the way for new lands—but at the cost of a beloved piece of Magic Kingdom history. Meanwhile, the virtual queue system is vanishing for two major attractions, making room for standby lines and even more Lightning Lane options. And that’s just the start! From villainous takeovers to construction shake-ups, here’s everything you need to know about the latest WDW news…

Virtual Queue Vanishing: Standby Returns for Two Big Attractions

Disney is making another major shift in its park operations—this time with the virtual queue system. Starting February 25, 2025, two of Walt Disney World’s high-demand attractions, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, will no longer require a virtual queue. Instead, both rides will offer a traditional standby line, while guests looking to skip the wait can opt for Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Lightning Lane Premier Pass.

While virtual queues do a good job managing capacity on newly opened and highly popular attractions, it often caused frustration for guests who have to secure their spot at precisely 7 AM or risk missing out entirely.

With virtual queues disappearing from these two attractions, standby lines will likely see longer waits, especially in the early weeks. However, this move simplifies the guest experience—allowing visitors to join the line at their convenience rather than anxiously refreshing the My Disney Experience app for a boarding group.

What do you think? Is the return of flexible standby lines a welcome change, or do you prefer the structure and shorter waits of virtual queues?

River’s of America Removal Approved

While Josh D’Amaro received massive cheers from the D23 Expo crowd when he announced a new Cars-themed land and new Villains Land would be coming to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, he “forgot to mention” that the price of those lands would be the removal of the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer’s Island, and the Liberty Belle riverboat.

That’s right, the beloved Magic Kingdom waterway needs to be filled with dirt to accommodate Lightning McQueen, but the state of Florida had questions about all that water (specifically whether removing the man-made river would create flooding and drainage problems in the surrounding wetlands), so it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing so far for the project.

We’ve kept our eye on the ball as Disney and the Florida South Florida Water Management District ping-ponged the permit back and forth for the last six months, but on Feb. 17, 2025, Disney’s application was finally approved.

So, what does that mean?

If you’re a Rivers of America fan, this is most definitely bad news. The approval gives Disney the green light to proceed with the expansion—including the Cars-themed land and two new attractions—so if you’re looking forward to new experiences at Magic Kingdom, you’ll get them, but at the expense of a beautiful bit of Magic Kingdom history. 

The permit approval also means that Disney will likely soon be breaking ground on the Villains Land expansion and its two new attractions since it makes sense for the two major Magic Kingdom projects to run in tandem. 

And speaking of villains…

Happy Villaintine’s Day!

The villains are popular, that’s for certain. So much so that Disney’s Hollywood Studios celebrated Villaintine’s Day on February 13th with a hoard of Disney villains in the park. Guests were even gifted Villaintine’s Day cards to share with fiends and family (see what we did there).

But don’t worry if you missed them because they’ll be back this summer when the all-new “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After” show will bring even more villainous mischief to the stage:

Step into the darkly delightful world of “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After,” where Disney’s most infamous baddies take center stage in a show that’s as wickedly fun as it is spellbinding. 

The day after Villainstine, Feb. 14, it was Ariel and Eric’s turn to celebrate Valentine’s Day and promote their upcoming new show: “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure.”

The reimagined stage version of the beloved animated movie will also debut this summer at Hollywood Studios featuring “favorite songs, stunning visuals, and theatrical magic.”

More Construction Disruption

Another big project announced during D23 was the Tropical Americas expansion in Animal Kingdom, which is expected to open in 2027 with an all-new Encanto-themed ride and an Indiana Jones attraction replacing Dinosaur.

Fun Fact: Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland and Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom share the same exact track and ride vehicles, so that swap was a no-brainer for Imagineering. Hopefully, they’ll change up some things for the new Indy attraction… but the facades look very similar, don’t they?

Closures in DinoLand U.S.A. began in January, and at this point, the Boneyard and Dinosaur are the only attractions remaining. Also still open are Dino-Bite Snacks and Restaurantosaurus, though they are soon to be extinct.

You can find out more here:

DinoLand’s Extinction Near: Big Changes For Walt Disney World

The Muppets Shuffle

Over in Hollywood Studios, Muppets fans are already mourning the loss of Muppet*Vision 3D, PizzaRizzo, and Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano to make way for a new Monsters Inc. themed land, even though Mama Melrose’s doesn’t officially close until May 11, 2025, and Muppet*Vision 3D and PizzaRizzo will be open until June 8, 2025.

While we have no issue with the new land – and are even looking forward to the suspended roller coaster recreating the door vault scene from the movie – the loss of the popular Muppets-themed area is a hard pill to swallow… especially since there are underutilized areas in the park that seem better-suited to Monsters Inc. – we’re looking at you, Pixar Plaza.

The good news is that the Muppets aren’t moving out altogether; they’ll just be moving across the park to take over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster from Aerosmith, who let’s be honest, probably should have retired years ago.

Jalen Hurts Went to Disney World!

After his team’s 40-22 win, Super Bowl LIX MVP, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, headed from New Orleans to Orlando, where he— along with a very sporty Mickey and Minnie—were the stars of a parade down Main Street, U.S.A.

Since 1987, Super Bowl all-stars have celebrated their victories at Disney parks the day after the Super Bowl, with the location of the big game determining which resort they’ll visit. Last year, Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrated at Disneyland following his team’s win in Las Vegas.

Since the next two Super Bowl games will be played on the West Coast (2026 at the home of the San Francisco 49ers and 2027 at the shared home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers), the victory parade won’t return to Florida until 2028 when the game will be in Atlanta.

New Stars at Nemo & Friends

Walt Disney World provides care for thousands of fish and marine mammals who live inside The Seas with Nemo & Friends in Epcot, but Disney will now focus even more on the needs of Florida’s manatee population through a collaboration with the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), that transitions from a long-term permanent manatee care residency to short-term acute critical care that’s designed to rescue, rehabilitate, and release manatees back into the wild. 

Epcot’s previous resident Manatees, Lil Joe and Inigo, recently relocated to the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Currently, guests can see Cider and Mino in the manatee habitat until they’re released back into the wild.

“What excites me most about transitioning from long term manatee care to shorter rehab care is that we get to help more manatees,” said Disney Clinical Veterinarian Dr. Jen Flower. “These animal are in trouble…and the more manatees we can rehabilitate and release, the more we’re contributing to the manatee population in the wild.”

According to Disney, the manatees at Epcot will “continue to serve as ambassadors for the species, educating guests about the urgent conservation needs of manatees and the steps we can take to protect these gentle creatures in the wild.”

Closed For Refurbishment

Magic Kingdom:

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: Jan. 6 – TBD 2026
• Astro Orbiter: Jan. 13 – Summer 2025
• The Hall of Presidents: Jan. 20 – TBD 2025

Epcot:

• Test Track: June 17, 2024 – TBD 2025
• Grand Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros: Jan. 6 – March 15, 2025

Animal Kingdom:

• Kali River Rapids: Jan 6 – March 2025
• It’s Tough to be a Bug changing to Zootopia: Better Zoogether: March 17 – Winter 2025

This & That

And a dash of Pixie Dust…

Disney Starlight Parade

We’ve been granted our wish… a look at another of the floats for the new Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away nighttime parade, which will debut this summer in Magic Kingdom – This time featuring the Disney princesses.

We’ve already seen concept art featuring the Blue Fairy and characters from Peter Pan, Frozen, Moana, and Encanto.

Even the performer’s costumes will be sparking with thousands of lights.

A Charming New Popcorn Bucket

A new musical carousel-themed popcorn bucket debuted at Magic Kingdom last week, complete with a tiny sword in the stone. The Prince Charming Regal Carousel Popcorn is available for $30 at popcorn carts across the park.

 

 

 

 

 

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