Last year, Disney announced that it was committing $60 billion to expand and improve its various parks and resorts. On Wednesday, during its Q1 earnings report, Disney CEO Bob Iger demurred in giving specifics but said that they were “already hard at work.”
“Basically, determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be, you can pretty much conclude that there’ll be all over – meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment and thus increase capacity including on the high seas, where we’re currently building three more ships,” Iger said.
Disney currently has parks in the U.S. (Walt Disney World and Disneyland), Asia (Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland) and Europe (Disneyland Paris). It has five ships in its Disney Cruise Line fleet (Disney Magic, Disney Wonder, Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy and Disney Wish), with several more on the way. The Disney Treasure launches at the end of 2024.
Iger hinted at the company investing heavily in the Disney Cruise Line model. “We may look expansively at least the next decade in that direction,” Iger said.
When asked about timing, Iger refused to give any details. But he did say when to start looking for these new additions.
“I’m not going to really give you much more of a sense of timing except that, you know, we’re hard at work at getting these things basically conceived and built,” Iger said. “And we’ve got a menu of things that will basically start opening in ‘25. And there’ll be a cadence every year of additional basically additional investment and increased capacity.”
Next year is important because that is when Universal Studios Orlando will be opening its new cutting-edge theme park Epic Universe, with lands devoted to the Nintendo properties, the “Harry Potter” franchise, the Universal Monsters franchise and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Disney has not concretely announced a response to this new park, but it seems like things will start to happen soon.
