Walt Disney World got most of the D23 attention, but Disneyland Resort made three significant announcements of its own: new Coco ride details, a Tomorrowland reimagining, and Avengers Campus expansion updates.
Here’s everything shared during the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress showcase.
Quick Summary
- The Coco ride is a boat ride with no height requirement
- The story picks up one year after the film and connects to Coco 2
- The queue sits in Pixar Pier as a “casa museo” honoring Héctor
- Tomorrowland at Disneyland is getting a reimagining, no details yet
- Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab both open in 2028
- Avengers Campus will reconnect with Cars Land
The Coco Ride
Work is underway on the first Coco attraction at any Disney park.
The announcement followed a live performance of “La Llorona” by Grammy-winning band Los Lobos. Neil Patrick Harris hosted, joined by Imagineers Ali Rubinstein (Senior Vice President, Global Creative & Development Studios) and Emily O’Brien (Portfolio Executive Creative Producer, Disneyland Resort and Tokyo Disney Resort).
The ride was first announced at D23 2024. Here’s what’s new.
Storyline
The attraction picks up one year after the events of the original film.
You’ll see familiar characters including Miguel, Dante, and Héctor as the story revisits Miguel’s trip to the Land of the Dead.
Imagineers are working with Pixar to connect the ride to both the first film and the upcoming Coco 2.
Queue and Location
The queue sits in Pixar Pier, next to Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind.
It’s designed as a “casa museo” honoring the music of Héctor Rivera, Miguel’s great-great grandfather.
Ride Experience
You’ll board a boat and travel through Miguel’s memories of the Land of the Dead alongside music from the film.
There’s no height requirement, so the whole family can ride together.
Technology
Imagineers are drawing on classic attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, using the latest Audio-Animatronics technology to bring the film’s skeleton characters to life.
Construction is already in progress near Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier. No opening date has been announced.
Why a Boat Ride Is the Right Call
The Pirates and Haunted Mansion reference isn’t just flattery — it’s a technical statement about what kind of ride this is.
Boat rides are the highest-capacity dark ride format Disney builds. A continuously loading flume moves far more people per hour than a trackless system or a coaster, which matters enormously at Disney California Adventure, a park with chronic capacity problems on busy days.
Boats also suit the material. The Land of the Dead in Coco is a vertical city of bridges, lights, and water. A slow-moving boat gives you time to look up, which is exactly what an environment built on scale and detail needs.
And the skeleton characters are an animatronic gift. Haunted Mansion’s best figures are skeletons because bone reads clearly in low light without the uncanny-valley problems that human faces create. Coco’s entire supporting cast is skeletons. That’s a rare alignment between story and the technology’s actual strengths.
No height requirement plus high capacity plus a beloved film is about as commercially sensible as a new attraction gets.
Tomorrowland Reimagining
Disneyland Resort confirmed Tomorrowland in Disneyland park is set for a reimagining. Chairman Thomas Mazloum shared the news during the closing moments of the showcase.
The plan is to keep the elements guests love most while adding new attractions and open spaces. The stated goal is to bring back the sense of optimism and possibility that shaped the land when Walt Disney first opened it in 1955.
No specific attractions, timeline, or budget have been shared. Disney says more details will come in the years ahead.
This Is the Vaguest Announcement of the Weekend
Be clear about what was actually said here: a land will be changed, at an unspecified time, in unspecified ways, for an unspecified amount of money.
That’s not nothing — confirming intent matters — but it’s several steps behind Villains Land, which at least got a story, two attractions, and a scale model without a date.
The underlying problem is real. Tomorrowland’s fundamental difficulty is that a land about the future becomes a land about a past idea of the future. Disneyland’s version has been reworked repeatedly — 1967, 1998 — and neither reset held. The 1998 attempt in particular is widely regarded as a failure.
“Optimism and possibility” is the correct diagnosis. Whether Disney can deliver it, and what it does with the existing attractions, is entirely unanswered.
Avengers Campus Updates
Disney superfan John Stamos took over hosting duties for the Avengers Campus segment, joined by Walt Disney Imagineer Brent Strong and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
Two attractions are in development. Both open in 2028, and Avengers Campus will reconnect with Cars Land as part of the expansion.
Avengers Infinity Defense
You join as a new recruit, starting with a pre-mission briefing from Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani.
Your mission: reassemble the Avengers to stop King Thanos.
The attraction features on-screen heroes reprising their roles:
- Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
- Anthony Mackie as Captain America
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man
You’ll travel through physical sets and media scenes set in locations like Asgard, Wakanda, and New York City.
Stark Flight Lab
You sit in two-person “gyro-kinetic pods” that roll along a track and stop in front of a giant robot arm, simulating what it’s like to train as a flying Avenger.
The ride features high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, and Brie Larson as Captain Marvel reprising their roles.
The Cast List Is the Real Story
Getting Downey, Hemsworth, Renner, Mackie, and Vellani to record for park attractions is expensive and logistically difficult, and Disney has not always managed it.
Avengers Campus opened in 2021 leaning heavily on lookalikes and generic Avengers rather than the film cast, and that showed. Web Slingers uses a Tom Holland-free Spider-Man. The land has felt like a Marvel-adjacent space rather than the MCU.
Two attractions with the actual cast changes that. It’s also a signal about the budget these projects are getting.
“King Thanos” is a notable choice — a variant from the comics rather than the film’s version, which gives the attraction a villain that doesn’t contradict the movies’ ending.
The 2028 date is four years out. A lot can move in four years, and 2028 dates announced in 2026 have a history of becoming 2029.
The Bottom Line
Disneyland Resort’s D23 slate: a high-capacity Coco boat ride with no height requirement now under construction, a Tomorrowland reimagining with no details attached, and two Avengers Campus attractions opening in 2028 with the actual MCU cast recording for them.
The Coco ride has construction underway but no date. Avengers has a date but is four years out. Tomorrowland has neither.
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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!
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