It’s been a busy decade for Walt Disney World.
We conclude our ongoing series about favorites memories from the past four decades at The Most Magical Place on Earth with one of the resort’s most exciting periods to date. The 80’s were awesome with the arrival of Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The 90’s were a blast with the landing of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the 2000’s were a unique time of transition where kids’ attractions were given a chance to shine.
You could say the greatest earmark of the 2010’s was a bold commitment to expansion.
I have to admit that writing the last article was a bit of a challenge—the 2000’s were a time where Disney had to struggle through a CEO change and the repercussions of several poorly-received projects. Michael Eisner stepped down as CEO, succeeded by Bob Iger, and though Iger’s tenure as CEO certainly spurred its share of controversy (particularly regarding his aggressive stance on increasing visibility of intellectual properties), you can’t argue with the results. The last ten years have marked ten exciting years of explosive growth at Walt Disney World, including four major park expansions, dozens of new attractions, several resorts, and acquiring of the Star Wars franchise.
While fans off all ages got to enjoy some pretty neat advancements at Walt Disney World, the biggest winners of all were children and teens. It’s rather fitting that we conclude our series across the decades with 2010’s kids (who are, at the time of this reading, possibly still kids!).
What were some of 2010’s kids favorite wins at Walt Disney World from the last ten years? Here’s a few that stand out.
1. Fantasyland gets an INSANE makeover
When people think of Walt Disney World, they almost always think of two places: Cinderella Castle and Fantasyland.
Fantasyland is probably Disney’s most iconic land of all—after all, both Disneyland and Walt Disney World opened with Fantasyland. While the land’s timeless charm has kept it as one of the Magic Kingdom’s most popular hotspots, by the 2000’s, the land was starting to feel distinctly dated.
I’ve written before about how I didn’t use to be a fan of the Magic Kingdom. It was my least favorite of all Walt Disney World’s parks, and part of the reason I didn’t get much out of it was that I didn’t care for Fantasyland. Even as a small child, I preferred Tomorrowland and Adventureland. Fantasyland just felt too sugary, too tailored to small children, too stuck in the 70’s.
I have since changed my tune, and a key factor was the arrival of New Fantasyland in 2012.
After 40 years of little change, in the early 2010’s, Disney announced a massive overhaul of Fantasyland that would see the classic land transformed into an immersive fairytale wonderland. While pains were taken to preserve classic attractions like It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, and the carousel, the changes were sweeping and resulted in the land doubling in size. Instead of singular attractions peppered through an enchanted village, Fantasyland was divided into neighborhoods—mini-lands where guests could experience the worlds of Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Dumbo like never before. The expansion would even solve one of the park’s longest-running complaints– giving Dumbo a covered queue complete with a children’s play area.
I was admittedly skeptical at first, but when we finally saw what Disney had done—WOW. New Fantasyland doesn’t just make you reminisce childhood memories—it straight up makes you feel like a kid again. If you have any familiarity at all with Disney films, there is so much to take in and see. I went from completely skipping Fantasyland on most Magic Kingdom excursions to lingering there with my husband, just wandering through to explore, linger in the gardens, discover new Easter eggs, or watch Gaston brilliantly troll guests outside his tavern.
New Fantasyland brought us The Beast’s Castle, Ariel’s Grotto, Storybook Circus, and even The Seven Dwarves Mine Train (an excellent upgrade on traditional kiddie coasters). The land also introduced some of Disney’s most incredible character greet experiences yet—things that would have blown my mind as a kid, like getting to meet Ariel in her grotto or shoot arrows with Merida. If that’s not enough, the expansion also brought us one of Disney’s most popular restaurants for families, Be Our Guest.
2. Norway gets Frozen
Okay, 80’s and 90’s kids, this one may sting a little…
I’ve never really viewed Epcot as a non-kid-friendly park— Future World, in particular, has always held appeal to kids, particularly those with curiosity about space, history, and innovation. At the same time, it’s hard to deny that by the 2010’s, Epcot was starting to feel a little stuck in the 80’s. The park was slowly being forced to move away from its sponsorship-based model, and it was becoming harder and harder to convince parents to visit World Showcase with kids.
As a huge fan of Norway’s Maelstrom, I was among many fans who weren’t thrilled to hear about Disney’s plans to overlay the ride with a new attraction based on Frozen. Though I’d hated Maelstrom as a kid, I’d fallen in love with its weirdness, its quirky heavy-metal-meets-tourist-documentary feel.
Personal preference aside, I totally get why Disney did it, and there’s no question that Frozen Ever After proved one of the park’s most successful attractions in decades. Indeed, with Anna and Elsa’s arrival, Epcot’s quietest little land quickly became its most popular, racking up multi-hour lines that increased the park’s popularity dramatically. Soon the pavilion received more elements from the Frozen series, including character greets (I particularly liked the wandering Vikings) and a new village section based on Arendelle.
The arrival of Frozen at Epcot may have been controversial—it’s understandable that many wanted the land to stay one of the more adult-oriented areas of the park. However, Walt Disney World is ultimately a family destination, and at the same time that I bemoan the loss of Maelstrom, I appreciate that Disney found ways to draw a new generation of kids to World Showcase.
3. Dance! Dance! Dance!
Video: YouTube, Jett Farrell-Vega
This is a bit of a sidebar, but in the 2010’s, Disney made it a point to make sure wherever guests went, kids could find a place to dance! Dance parties have been a thing at Disney parks for a while—I remember dancing on Disney’s Boardwalk as a kid. However, 2010’s kids who love to dance will no doubt grow up with some pretty awesome memories dancing all over Disney parks.
Toddlers could cut lose with Disney Junior at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot’s annual festivals introduced dance opportunities at parties and concerts. Magic Kingdom got parade crowds involved in picking songs for the “Move It! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party”, and Tomorrowland offered its own Incredibles-led dance party.
Probably the best place to dance in all the parks proved to be Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where kids could dance with Burudika or the African Village Band in Africa, then hop over to Asia to jump in with Bollywood Beats or join in a Bhangra dance party! Pretty cool!
4. The World of Pandora takes everyone by surprise
Let’s face it… It didn’t make any sense at all when Disney said they planned to open a land based on James Cameron’s Avatar.
Despite being one of the most financially successful films in history, Avatar just didn’t gain a massive fan following– in most cases, kids weren’t tugging on their parents’ hems begging for Navi action figures. It seemed like an off-the-wall pick, a desperate ploy to keep Universal Studios from seizing the property after their recent win with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Who knew Pandora would end up becoming one of the most successful land openings in Walt Disney World’s history?
Pandora: The World of Avatar opened to staggering success in 2017 as Disney’s first attempt at an ultra-immersive land not based on a traditional Disney property. Fans lined up in droves to get into Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the land frequently hit capacity well before people could get in– particularly to line up for the land’s flagship attraction, Avatar: Flight of Passage.
Pandora wasn’t successful because of the popularity of Avatar— it succeeded because it was genuinely, stunningly beautiful. You don’t have to know a thing about Avatar to love Pandora. It fit right into Disney’s Animal Kingdom as a fantastical celebration of nature blended with eco-focused science fiction. You’d walk in and catch yourself gaping at the alien plants, the hovering cliffs, the strange animals, the mech suit. Even more amazingly, it opened the door for Disney’s Animal Kingdom to start offering night hours with amazing shows of bioluminescent flora and fauna.
If the land alone wasn’t good enough, Avatar: Flight of Passage is hands down one of Disney’s most celebrated attractions to date. Many guests easily mark it as their favorite ride, a thrilling experience blending the flight and sensory vibes of Soarin’ with cutting edge 3D technology—and they managed to do it in a way many kids could enjoy too!
5. Happily Ever After blasts into the sky
Video: YouTube, User: The DIS
After an almost 15 year run, Disney announced in the mid-2010’s that they would be retiring the popular Wishes fireworks spectacular in favor of a new show utilizing cutting edge projection technology. While fans were wary to say goodbye to Wishes, wow, did Disney pull through with a worthy replacement.
Happily Ever After is probably one of the most visually insane fireworks / projection shows ever. Even just watching on video, the effects are positively mind-boggling, transforming Cinderella Castle seamlessly from one enchanted form to the next while classic characters swing through, dance over, and –in the case of the Genie—blast off from its spires, all under a canopy of dazzling fireworks. The show is a total tear-jerker and will definitely prove a favorite memory for 2010 kids.
6. The Disney Skyliner
With the upcoming opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (more on that later), Disney knew they needed to solve long-standing problems surrounding limited transportation between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios—a fleet of friendship boats wasn’t going to cut it.
Despite a few hiccups, the Disney Skyliner really was a pleasant surprise for families upon its opening. The system is surprisingly fast—offering similar or faster transportation times between parks compared to walking or taking friendship boats. The gondolas also offer amazing views of the resorts and waterways between the two parks. If you aren’t afraid of heights, the Skyliner is seriously fun, and I’ve seen a number of kids really enjoy their rides. It’s like an upgrade of the old Magic Kingdom Skyway!
7. Disney’s Hollywood Studios gets its first major expansion
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has always been a bit of an odd duck, housing some of Disney’s best thrill attractions while simultaneously feeling like its content is all over the place. Since opening, it long suffered from a reputation as a “half-day” park.
In the late 2010’s, Disney set out to fix that reputation, and it started with giving DHS its first major expansion.
After the success of Toy Story Mania as well as Cars Land in Disney’s California Adventure, it made perfect sense that this first expansion turned out to be Toy Story Land. It solved a significant problem for the park in offering a major draw for families with small kids, as well as offering the park’s first kid-friendly coaster in the form of Slinky Dog Dash. While the land didn’t necessarily delve into the ultra-immersive elements we saw in New Fantasyland and Pandora, it did accomplish its goal by bringing kid-approved rides and character encounters to the park.
However, it’s not hard to guess that Toy Story Land was put in place to serve other purposes tied to Disney’s most ambitious project to date…
8. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
When Disney announced their purchase of the Star Wars franchise in 2012, fans knew it was only a matter of time before the greatest saga of our time exploded into Disney parks.
While Star Wars has long had a presence at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland thanks to Star Tours, Star Wars Weekends, and Jedi Temple Training, the Star Wars buyout meant something different—it meant “Star Wars Land” was coming.
The official announcement came at D23, and fans lost it. This wasn’t just going to be a land celebrating Star Wars—Disney intended to transport fans into a specific moment in the Star Wars canon with connections to the entire saga, and to put you at the helm of that adventure. Within the year, Star Wars began a fresh invasion of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, complete with the arrival of Star Wars Launch Bay and the March of the First Order (which remains one of the most ridiculously cool things ever for a Star Wars fan).
We’ve written at length about the controversy-fraught opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disney ran into some snags with bad press regarding attendance early on due to a mix of issues including contention among Star Wars fans, guests staying home to await the opening of the land’s second attraction, and even the land’s excellent crowd control systems creating the appearance of emptiness. Despite this, the land itself was met with critical acclaim and the Walt Disney World opening went smoother (to the point Disney had to open the park early for the massive opening day crowd).
I would go so far as to say Galaxy’s Edge is a masterpiece among theme park lands. The entire land is an attraction, an all-encompassing experience of interactive elements, subtle character encounters, and mini-stories unravelling throughout the day. You could spend hours just taking it in and never step onto a ride. Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run is, in so many ways, the ride Star Wars fans have been dreaming of for decades—getting to pilot the fastest hunk o’ junk in the galaxy. Disney did a brilliant job finding ways to tie in every era of the franchise, from references to the Old Republic, appearances from Clone Wars and Rebels favorites like Hondo Ohnaka, tie-ins to the original trilogy, and a storyline with direct links to the recent films.
On top of this, kids and adults alike can enjoy so many incredible experiences, from building a real droid or lightsaber, to playing Sabaac with a shady card dealer, to interacting with elements throughout the land using the Star Wars Datapad app, and even “Batuu-bounding” as their own Star Wars character. Even the shopping and food is all made to feel straight out of Star Wars.
The real gem of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, however, is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This insanely complex symphony of ride technology did something Disney fans had never seen before—making guests the heroes of an ultra-immersive adventure across four different ride systems. If that’s not enough, it’s even more mind-blowing to realize that the story of the ride has an actual effect on events in the Star Wars canon. Rise of the Resistance proved so successful that it basically broke Walt Disney World—fans showed up in such immense crowds that they broke long-established crowd calendars and forced Disney to implement new policies on the fly! Without question, it’s definitely the new favorite attraction of many kids who got to enjoy it during those opening months.
9. The return of wandering characters
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge brought us another sweet surprise—the return of wandering characters.
Wandering characters used to be the norm at Disney parks throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Once smartphones took off in popularity, guests could take thousands of pictures a day—meaning much longer wait times for character meetings. Disney changed their policies and wandering characters disappeared.
Throughout the 2010’s, wandering characters have started to make a comeback—in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, they’re actually the norm! Guests can randomly encounter stormtrooper patrols, Rey, Finn, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Leia’s spy, Vi Moradi at any point during a visit, and they even take guests on secret “missions” sometimes. The spontaneity of these encounters can make for some pretty incredible moments (like the time I saw a young woman burst into tears of joy when she realized that Rey was standing in front of her inviting her to join the Resistance).
While we don’t know how current events will affect the use of wandering characters in the future, we hope Disney brings this trend back eventually—it made for some incredible memories for kids and adults alike!
10. Lines get WAY less boring
“10 hour lines are not a sign of success. It should be seen as a sign, frankly, of failure.”
This was a quote from Disney parks chairman, Bob Chapek, and it sums up a major philosophic shift Disney embraced this past decade—one that proved a major win for kids.
Lines are the worst part of visiting a theme park… so Disney set out to fix them.
The 2010’s saw Disney parks make some significant strides in improving queueing woes throughout their parks. The opening of New Fantasyland marked the beginning of Disney using interactive queue areas like those in Dumbo and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Interactive elements were added to queues throughout the parks like games in the Space Mountain line and trivia challenges on Soarin’. Avatar: Flight of Passage is a great example of a queue filled with story elements that keep guests engaged until the ride pre-show begins.
The biggest step forward—one Disney is admittedly still getting the hang off—is the arrival of virtual queues. Virtual queues were used heavily for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World to mitigate initial crowds, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance acted as Disney’s first challenging experiment with using the system to handle crowds on high-demand rides. While the system definitely has its issues, there’s no question that getting to enjoy hours of fun doing what you want in the parks is way more fun than standing in line—especially from a kid’s point of view.
What does the future hold for Walt Disney World beyond 2020? We are certainly facing some uncertain times, but part of the magic of Disney parks is enjoying the fruit of the creativity, determination, and ingenuity of Walt Disney’s many successors—the Imagineers, creative minds, businessmen, and dreamers who make the Most Magical Place on Earth a reality. The minds behind Disney parks have overcome challenges before, and we look forward to seeing how they do it again.
Did you enjoy this series? Check out our other entries from Disney decades past:
