As Disney Parks Enter A New Era, There’s One Trend I Hope We Never See Again

Last week, we saw a major shakeup in the entertainment industry as Josh D’Amaro took his place as the CEO of The Walt Disney Company. And since D’Amaro’s previous job had been as head of the Disney Experiences division, which handles the Disney Parks, we saw a game of musical chairs as people all through the division got promotions to fill D’Amaro’s old job, and all the jobs below it that were open as a result.

This means the landscape of executives at Disney parks are very different now than they were a week ago, and while I’m not really expecting this change in leadership to have massive repercussions, the Disney Parks are very much in a “It’s not broken, don’t fix it” place right now, if I could make one request, there is one thing I’d love to see the new regime never do again.

Please Don’t Open Unfinished Lands At Disneyland Anymore

While most of the highlights of Bob Iger’s tenure as CEO of Disney surround the movie studios he acquired, he did more than his share for Disney Parks as well. While he only saw one new park open during his time there, Shanghai Disneyland, we saw many of the existing parks undergo radical transformations, including major overhauls of both Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris, which is about to change its name to go along with the redesign, becoming Disney Adventure Park.

The addition that Bob Iger will likely be the most attached to, however, was the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. A whole land dedicated to one of the biggest franchises in the world was one of the biggest moments in theme park history.

Today, I think Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is pretty great, but what it is today isn’t nearly what it was the day it opened, because Galaxy’s Edge opened with only one of its two major attractions, and the one that is by far the lesser of the two. Rise of the Resistance would go on to be, in my opinion, the best ride at Disneyland, but the decision to open the land without it made it far less amazing at the beginning.

We’re Still Waiting For Avengers Campus Phase Two

If this had been a one-time situation, I’d let it go, but then two years later, we had the same thing happen when Avengers Campus opened up. In that case, we were told from a much earlier point that the land would only open with the planned Spider-Man ride, and that an anticipated Avengers Quinjet attraction would be part of a future “phase two.”

And here we are, five years later, and “phase two” has been completely redesigned at least once, and is only now even under construction. There’s a lot that I love about Avengers Campus, but it has always felt half done. It’s going to be at least another year before the current construction is done, and it’s a safe bet that the two attractions being built will open separately, so it could be even longer before all work is complete.

Avengers Campus is a prime example of why opening half-finished lands shouldn't happen. Sometimes you run into problems that result in delays that you didn't expect. Then those delays cause additional delays, and then you find yourself with a major theme park land that's spent half a decade not finished. You can avoid this problem by just doing it right the first time and finishing the job.

With Walt Disney World currently undergoing major construction on three different lands at three different parks, I really hope the people in charge don’t do to the Cars-inspired Piston Peak or the Monsters Inc. land at Disney's Hollywood Studios what they did with Galaxy’s Edge and Avengers Campus. Please wait until these lands are ready before debuting them to the public.