The pandemic has definitely had an impact on the scope and scale of what Disney has been able to do for this celebration, which is furthered by the lack of clear plans beyond 2024.ĭisney typically has a clear 3-5 year plan announced (usually because it takes the company that long to build stuff), but aside from the Splash Mountain makeover and the re-opening of EPCOT's spine (and new nighttime show), there's NOTHING on the horizon for the 4 WDW parks (or even the other attractions at the resort - water parks, Disney Springs, etc.).

Yes, Disney is making additions to a few of its international parks as part of the company-wide celebration (along with Tron at MK and MMRR at DL), and they have created their museum experience at the Franklin Institute in Philly, along with the snazzy new intro-credits on their movies released this year, but there's very little else being done in the parks to truly mark this momentous occasion, certainly not to the level of past anniversaries or to the level suggested the company would do in comments by TH. However, Disney100 is a very different story.

WDW50 brought a number of new attractions (Ratatoulle, Guardians, HarmonioUS, and Starcruiser), but was an otherwise subdued celebration compared to recent resort-wide (or world-wide) celebrations, and the timing was spread out over the 18-month period that limited the impact of those additions being tied to the anniversary. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on WDW50, which not only forced the delay and/or cancellation of planned attractions, but forced the resort to make major changes to their operations (Park Pass and Genie+) that obviously impacted what the resort could do in terms of providing new offerings and incentives for guests to visit for the occasions. If you've been following this site for a while, you would no doubt have picked up on comments by TH over the past 5 years touting the magnitude of the WDW50 and Disney100 celebrations. This change in philosophy is no better exemplified than by Disney's recent anniversary celebrations. This 'pull-back' is almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic and increases in labor costs, which in turn has significantly increased the investment required to develop and build attractions. Russell Meyer Jat 9:22 - It certainly looks like that aside from Epic Universe (which for the record is no small potatoes), both major Orlando resorts are reducing the magnitude and number of new attractions planned over the next 3-5 years.

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