Carousel of Progress Costumes, Maquettes, and Poster Revealed at D23

Rover is at D23. Walt Disney Imagineering is giving fans their closest look yet at the Carousel of Progress overhaul, with two new character costumes, a pair of maquettes, and the new attraction poster all on display at the fan event.

The Carousel of Progress D23 display covers costumes from two of the four new scenes, plus concept art for the 1960s and future acts.

Here’s everything revealed.

Quick Summary

• Two new character costumes are on display, from Act 1 and Act 4
• Act 1 is set in summer 1969 as the family watches the Apollo moon landing
• The finale is set in a distant out-of-this-world home
• Two maquettes appear at the same scale as those on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World
• Rover, the family dog, is displayed between the costume mannequins
• The new attraction poster tributes the original Disneyland design

The Costumes

The display features costumes from two of the four new scenes coming to the attraction.

On the left, a 1960s outfit — the first act of the updated show, set in the summer of 1969 as the family watches the Apollo moon landing.

On the right, a costume from the future scene, the show’s new finale set in a distant out-of-this-world home.

The 1969 Choice Is the Right One

Setting Act 1 at the Apollo moon landing is a considerably better decision than it might first appear.

Carousel of Progress has always been about optimism toward technology. That’s the entire thesis of “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — that the future is coming and it will be better.

July 1969 is the single strongest moment in American history to make that argument. A family gathered around a television watching humans walk on the moon is the purest possible expression of the show’s premise, and it’s a moment the original attraction couldn’t use because it opened in 1964.

It also lands emotionally in a way the previous 1940s act didn’t. The moon landing is within living memory for a large portion of the audience and mythologized for everyone else.

The Maquettes and Rover

Also on display are two maquettes shown at the same scale as those seen on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World, the television program that helped bring Carousel of Progress to a wider audience.

The maquettes give fans a sense of the character figures as they will appear in the new scenes.

Rover, the family dog, is also on display between the two costume mannequins.

Rover getting his own display placement is a small thing that will matter to people who love this attraction. He’s been part of the show since the beginning, and putting him between the two costumed figures signals he survives the overhaul intact.

The New Attraction Poster

The new poster is displayed as the centerpiece of the exhibit.

The design carries the tagline “From the Good Old Days… to the Possible Future” and is styled as a tribute to the original poster created for the attraction’s Disneyland debut.

The poster features John and Sarah in a mid-century modern setting, with Rover at their feet and a futuristic cityscape behind them.

“The Possible Future” Is a Careful Phrase

Look at that tagline again: “From the Good Old Days… to the Possible Future.”

The original attraction’s framing was more confident. Progress was inevitable, tomorrow was great big and beautiful, and the future was a destination you were traveling toward.

“Possible” is a hedge, and a thoughtful one. It’s a 2027 attraction acknowledging that the future is something we might build rather than something arriving on schedule.

Whether that reads as maturity or as lost nerve depends on your temperament. It’s a deliberate word choice either way.

The display also includes concept art images showing Act I and Act IV environments, offering a glimpse at the visual direction for the 1960s and future scenes.

What’s Coming to Carousel of Progress

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress closed at Magic Kingdom on July 5, 2026, for its biggest overhaul since arriving in Florida in 1975.

The updated show will include:

• A new opening scene featuring an Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney
• Act 1 — Summer 1969, the Apollo moon landing
• Act 2 — Halloween night, 1985
• Act 3 — New Year’s Eve, 1999
• Act 4 — A vision of the future

The attraction is expected to reopen in 2027. Construction walls are already in place at Magic Kingdom.

The Walt Figure Is the Biggest Swing

An Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney opening the show is the most significant thing on that list, and the most fraught.

Disney has been extremely cautious about depicting Walt in animatronic form. The figure revealed at Destination D23 in 2025 drew a genuinely divided response — some found it moving, others found it uncomfortable.

Putting it at the front of Carousel of Progress is defensible. This is the attraction Walt personally developed for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and it’s the one most directly tied to his own voice about the future.

If there’s a right place for that figure, this is it. Whether audiences agree is a question that gets answered in 2027.

What This Tells Us About the Overhaul

The costumes and concept art suggest Imagineering is updating rather than replacing.

The scene structure holds — a family, a dog, a living room, four time periods, the same song. What changes is which decades those periods represent, sliding the whole show forward by roughly thirty years.

That’s the conservative choice, and it’s probably correct. Carousel of Progress is the oldest continuously operating attraction in the Disney catalog and one of the last things Walt personally shaped. Reinventing it would have been a fight nobody needed.

The Bottom Line

The Carousel of Progress D23 display shows costumes from Act 1’s summer 1969 Apollo moon landing scene and the Act 4 future finale, two maquettes at Walt Disney’s Wonderful World scale, Rover, and a new attraction poster tributing the original Disneyland design with the tagline “From the Good Old Days… to the Possible Future.”

The attraction closed July 5, 2026 for its biggest overhaul since 1975 and is expected to reopen in 2027 with a new Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics opening scene.

With D23 running through Sunday, more may still be revealed.

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Meet the Author: Nate Bishop

I’m a die-hard Disney fan with 38 years of visits under my belt, having stepped into Disney World 120+ times. Proud to be a Disney Annual Passholder, a Vacation Club member since ’92, a Castaway Club Member, and a runDisney enthusiast. Oh, and I’ve graduated from the Disney College of Knowledge. Need Disney insights or planning tips? I’m your guy!