As we kick off 2025, we wanted to compile a series of articles looking at the year ahead to get an overview of what to expect. In this article, we’ll take a look at what Walt Disney World has officially announced for Magic Kingdom, along with some of our own predictions on what 2025 has in store for the world’s busiest theme park. This will be a living article, updated as we learn more about what’s planned for Magic Kingdom in 2025! (Updated Jan. 30, 2025)
Magic Kingdom 2025 Preview
The world’s busiest theme park. Magic Kingdom is Walt Disney World’s oldest theme park, and it’s about to undergo a major facelift. 2025 will be a somewhat odd year at Magic Kingdom. For some of the year, it’ll be business as usual (sort of). Then, there will be an all-new nighttime parade, injecting interest and crowds into a theme park that really doesn’t need it. At some point, it is believed that the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island will end up closing to make way for an expansive, multi-year construction effort that will be the largest expansion that Magic Kingdom has ever received. Let’s take a closer look at the details.
I considered going month-by-month, but that started to simply turn into a crowd calendar of sorts, and that’s not the goal of this article. Instead, we’re going to try and preview the notable events happening at Magic Kingdom throughout the year to give you a better idea of how to plan your visit and what to expect.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Refurbishment | Most of 2025 into 2026
UPDATE (Jan. 30): Following the full removal of the roller coaster track during the first two weeks of the project, Walt Disney World has installed the first new pieces of track! The pace of this project has been impressive, and we stopped by Magic Kingdom to capture photos of the new track piece being installed!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is closed for refurbishment at Magic Kingdom and won’t reopen until sometime in 2026. The 45-year-old roller coaster is receiving a full track replacement, among standard refurbishment work as well.
Officially, Walt Disney World says that guests can expect some “new magic” when the ride reopens in 2026, and the prevailing bet is that Disney will finally introduce some projection effects in the finale lift hill of the attraction as seen at Disneyland.
In terms of our commentary, we expect that the closure of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be a significant one for operations. As of right now, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is still operating with a Virtual Queue due to unreliable uptime. In a perfect world, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure would’ve opened the standby queue around when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closed, soaking up some of the guests that would otherwise be clogging the walkways or in line for other attractions.
In terms of coverage of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment, we expect to be able to ride the Liberty Square Riverboat for a portion of the refurbishment timeframe before it closes. More on the Rivers of America in a bit. For now, let’s move on to something brand new coming to Magic Kingdom next summer!
New Nighttime Parade | Summer 2025
Starting sometime in Summer 2025, there will be an all-new nighttime parade called Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away rolling down Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom. Details are still somewhat scarce for the new parade, but Walt Disney World has released some concept art.
UPDATE (Jan. 18): Walt Disney World has released new concept art of a Princess float and a photo of the light-up design for the parade costumes.
Moving on to a bit of commentary about the new parade, we have a few expectations, none of which have been officially confirmed by Disney. First, we expect that the parade will debut sometime around Memorial Day Weekend. Historically, the end of May kicks off the Summer season for Walt Disney World, and we’d expect that they would want to take advantage of a full summer of attendance boost thanks to the new parade.
Additionally, they will very likely want a new parade rolling down Main Street USA as early in the year as possible to dangle a carrot for guests who otherwise might skip Walt Disney World this year with Universal Epic Universe opening May 22, 2025.
I expect that crowds will be significant thanks to the new parade, with the opening weeks being extra busy as locals flood Magic Kingdom, combined with guests who would book a visit specifically for the new parade. Seasonal crowd dynamics should still be in play, which means that the end of Summer might be your best bet to see the new parade with “minimal” crowds.
Of course, if you visit too late into late Summer and find yourself at Magic Kingdom once Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party has begun, you will likely find yourself battling larger crowds on the non-party days when the new parade runs.
In 2024, September and October had the lowest average posted wait times with August only slightly higher. In fact, average posted wait times had a steady decline since March 2024, bottoming out in September and October before ticking upward in November. In 2023, September had the lowest average posted wait times of the year.
Summer 2024 was noticeably “slower” than Summer 2023, which could be exactly why we’re seeing Walt Disney World push quite a few new offerings in Summer 2025. When you combine that with the fact that Epic Universe is opening in late May, we expect that the second half of the year will be quite popular in Central Florida, but we’re starting to drift outside of the scope of this article. Time to talk about something else that is new and coming to Magic Kingdom in 2025.
Pirates of the Caribbean Tavern | Late 2025
Guests looking for some swashbuckling fun will have to wait until “late 2025” to visit the all-new Pirates of the Caribbean-themed tavern. The new tavern will take over the former Pirates League offering and a portion of the gift shop that guests exit through at the end of the ride. The new tavern will have at least two rooms for guests to enjoy, each sprinkled with a little bit of magic and Easter Eggs for Pirates of the Caribbean fans.
In terms of a timeframe, it’s tough to say when this new tavern (bar?) will open. Late 2025 could mean a lot of things, and with construction still in relatively early phases, there is still plenty of work to be done.
When it opens, we expect that the Pirates of the Caribbean-themed tavern will be a popular option with guests. The initial concept art looks good, and the idea of grabbing a drink in a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed setting really can’t fail. The only remaining question is: what will be in that drink?
The only thing that could absolutely cause the tavern to fail is if there is no alcohol. Magic Kingdom is a “dry” park in the sense that you can’t walk around with an alcoholic beverage, but the park hasn’t been truly “dry” in more than a decade. Guests can order beer, wine, and liquor at a few table service restaurants, and we expect that alcoholic drinks will be offered at the new Pirates of the Caribbean tavern as well.
In terms of logistics, we expect that the tavern will operate much like Oga’s Cantina in Disneyland. That is, guests will be able to order drinks while seated in the tavern, but the drinks won’t be available to-go. This is how the current table-service locations operate at Magic Kingdom, and it allows Disney a tighter grasp on alcohol in the Kingdom.
Rivers of America & Tom Sawyer Island Closing | Maybe in 2025
UPDATE (Dec. 20): Walt Disney World has filed updated plans for the demolition of the Rivers of America. In short, Disney is still very much moving forward with the project, but the plans still have to be approved by the State’s Water Management District before construction can begin. Therefore, I’m keeping the rest of this section as originally written until Disney gets the green light.
If you had asked me two months ago, I would’ve said that the closure of the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island in 2025 would be a sure bet, and maybe it still is, but there have been some developments that cast doubt.
Back in August, Walt Disney World announced that the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island would be closing permanently so that new Cars-themed attractions could be built in an expanded area of Frontierland. That’s still going to happen. The doubt that arises is the timeframe in which it happens.
Walt Disney World has run into a bit of a headwind from Florida’s Water Management District, which needs to approve a permit before construction in this area can begin. In short, Walt Disney World has until mid-January to submit more information requested by the state in order for the permit application to be considered complete. Then, the state needs to review the new information, which could take us into February or later before Walt Disney World gets the stamp of approval.
From there, Walt Disney World could either move quickly or slowly. We’ve already established that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be closed starting in January, and we assume that Walt Disney World will be eager to close the Rivers of America as soon as possible. If that’s the case, we could see the closure of the Rivers of America before the debut of the Disney Starlight nighttime parade. That said, construction walls around the Rivers could hinder parade viewing in Frontierland, and Disney might be keen to avoid construction walls for the opening weeks of the parade.
Of course, there is also a possibility of the permitting process taking even longer, perhaps pushing the closure of the Rivers of America into 2026, but that seems highly unlikely. Disney has a lot of work in front of them with the Cars-themed FronTIREland work and the next phase of the work, which will include the construction of a Villains-themed land. Disney has previously said that work would begin in early 2025 for Cars and Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro said that work would begin “very, very soon” for Villains Land. I don’t see either of those being true statements at the moment, but I’d love to be proven wrong.
Astro Orbiter Lengthy Refurbishment | First Half 2025
Standard refurbishments aren’t really part of the scope of this article, but the Astro Orbiter is going to be closed for a good chunk of 2025. The Astro Orbiter will be closed starting January 13th and it won’t reopen until sometime in the Summer. Here’s the announcement from Walt Disney World:
Astro Orbiter will be temporarily closed for refurbishment beginning January 13, 2025, and is planned to reopen in the summer of 2025.
UPDATE (Jan. 17): Walt Disney World has completely removed the Astro Orbiter ride during the refurbishment for a re-build of the attraction.
Astro Orbiter isn’t a major attraction, so we don’t expect there to be too much of an impact from its closure, but we might see elevated wait times at the nearby Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin or even Space Mountain.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure | Hopefully Drop Virtual Queue
File this one under “hopeful” or “speculation”. Walt Disney World has not announced an end date for the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Virtual Queue, but it can’t go on forever (can it?). The attraction is struggling with reliability, but park operations is really going to want to open the standby queue with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closing for a lengthy refurbishment next door.
As we mentioned earlier, it would be great if Walt Disney World would open the standby queue for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure once Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closes. That said, crowds will still be elevated thorough the second week of January thanks to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, so perhaps a late January opening of the standby queue is in order. Colder temperatures will mean that demand for the attraction will naturally wane a bit, which should make a transition to standby a bit easier. Hopefully it’ll happen.
Walt Disney World Railroad Temporary Closure | Maybe in 2025
Stick with me a bit for some more speculation. It is believed that in order for the construction to take place for the Cars-themed expansion to Frontierland and the upcoming Villains Land, the Walt Disney World Railroad will need to close. As of publish time, that has not been announced by Walt Disney World, but it should be on your radar.
So, why could the railroad be closing? In short, construction will need to cross over the tracks. Walt Disney World is in the permitting phase for the early land clearing necessary to support the demolition of the Rivers of America and the construction of a Cars-themed area (and then Villains Land). Those land clearing areas, which have been designated by Disney as construction laydown yards, are all on the outside of the railroad tracks. That means that all of the construction equipment and materials will need to cross the tracks.
Now, it’s entirely possible that the early phases of construction/demolition can take place in a way that would have minimal impact on the railroad, but it won’t remain that way forever. We have to look no further than the TRON Lightcycle Run attraction to see how the Railroad could be impacted in the years to come. Long story short, I expect that we will see Railroad closures, but it’s possible that it won’t happen until sometime in 2026.
In the photo below, we can see the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom, which will be transformed over the next decade. We can see the Railroad tracks cutting through forested areas on the right (north) side of the Rivers of America. The forested areas on the right half of the image below will all be cleared as part of the work for the Cars-themed expansion and Villains Land. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Walt Disney World Railroad isn’t impacted by the work.
McKim’s Mile House DVC Lounge | Summer 2025
A brand new Disney Vacation Club lounge is set to open by Summer at Magic Kingdom. Named the McKim’s Mile House, the lounge takes over the space formerly occupied by the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade, which closed this year.
Hall of Presidents Changing | Closed Starting Jan. 20th
UPDATE (Jan. 20): The Hall of Presidents is now closed, and Walt Disney World has not announced a reopening date yet.
It is expected that Walt Disney World will simply reuse the existing Donald Trump Audio-Animatronic and perhaps even the already-recorded speech, reopening sometime in 2025. That said, Walt Disney World has not commented on the future of the attraction, which could go a different direction either this election cycle or next.
If you’re visiting in 2025, expect the attraction to be closed starting January 20th and reopen sometime in the Summer or Fall. If the work is minimal, the Hall of Presidents could be open in the Spring. Either way, the attraction will be changing in 2025.
Special Events Return
If you’re visiting Magic Kingdom in 2025, you can expect that special events will return to the theme park – for a price.
Disney After Hours
Disney After Hours, a special upcharge event that takes place after Magic Kingdom closes for the day, will return to Magic Kingdom starting January 6th. The event will take place on select nights through May 19th (suspiciously ending before Memorial Day Weekend, which is when we think Disney’s new parade will debut).
For more on Disney After Hours, including our reviews of past events, check out our Disney After Hours page below!
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party will return in 2025, although exact dates have not been announced yet. In 2024, Not-So-Scary began on August 9th and ran through Halloween night.
In terms of an announcement timeframe, we expect that Walt Disney World will share the 2025 dates in late April or early May.
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Just like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party will return in 2025, but dates have not yet been announced.
In 2024, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party ran from November 8th through December 20th. Dates were announced in late June 2024.
Early Entry & Extended Evening Hours Return
This has less to do with Magic Kingdom specifically, but the Early Entry perk that began in 2021 has been confirmed to return through the end of 2025. The perk allows guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotels (and other qualifying hotels) early access into each of the four Walt Disney World theme parks before they open. The perk is only available for 30 minutes before park open, but it does offer a small head start on the day.
Additionally, the Extended Evening Hours perk is also going to be available in 2025, and Magic Kingdom is one of two theme parks that traditionally participate in the Deluxe Resort perk. We expect that these Extra Magic Hours replacement offerings will continue beyond 2025 as Walt Disney World balances staffing costs with guest perks.
Recent Additions
Before we close out this article, we’ll take a minute to look at the recent additions at Magic Kingdom that might be new to you if you’re visiting in 2025!
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (REVIEW) – This is Magic Kingdom’s newest attraction and it’s a complete retheme of the Splash Mountain ride system to introduce Tiana
- Country Bear Musical Jamboree (REVIEW) – A completely reimagined Country Bear show has new songs but retains a lot of the charm from the shows of the past
- The Hatbox Ghost (PHOTOS) – The Haunted Mansion has a new ghost for guests to discover!
- Peter Pan’s Flight Update (PHOTOS) – Following a refurbishment, Peter Pan’s Flight has an updated Native American scene
- Smellephants on Parade (REVIEW) – A new activity is available for free in Storybook Circus
- TRON Lightcycle Run (REVIEW) – TRON Lightcycle Run isn’t new this year, but it is now offering a standby queue
- Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Single Pass – Disney rebranded and retooled it’s skip-the-line offering, and you can learn everything you need to know about it on our dedicated Lightning Lane Pass page
More Walt Disney World Previews
Looking for more info on what’s coming to Walt Disney World in 2025? Check out our other theme park previews for a deep dive into what to expect!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
