Disney’s First Coco Ride Construction Starts Soon!

Disney has filed the first construction permits for the brand-new Coco boat ride that will be built backstage at Disneyland Resort, revealing that demolition will soon begin at California Adventure to make way for this upcoming attraction. This post shares details, concept art, and everything we know about the plan–plus commentary and our take on this addition for the park.

By way of recap, the Coco-themed boat ride was announced last year during the “Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase” or Parks Panel presentation at the D23 Expo. Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro offered a sneak peek at concept art for future expansion plans at Disneyland. Or more accurately, at Disney California Adventure.

This was one of several blockbuster announcements for Parks & Resorts at the D23 Expo, during which D’Amaro revealed several ‘shovel to soil’ projects that will come online in the next 5 years, including over a half-dozen additions that will debut before the end of 2025. He and head Imagineer Bruce Vaughn delivered on their promise to showcase concrete details and stop teasing ‘Blue Sky’ possibilities.

Honestly, the Coco boat ride is the project that felt “least real” to me at the time. Although that sounded very promising, it also had the fewest details of any major project announced at the D23 Expo. Not only that, but the start date was simply 2026. It was entirely possible that another D23 Expo would arrive before construction even began–again, if it even began.

Thankfully, Disneyland has since provided more clarity and answers to questions about the Coco boat ride at Disney California Adventure, with new concept art and an accelerated timeline…

As Disneyland Resort continues to add new experiences to Disney California Adventure, the company has since shared that the upcoming attraction themed to Pixar Animation Studios’ “Coco” will be built near Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier, in areas that are predominantly backstage today.

Most significantly, Disney revealed that construction on this Coco attraction is now set to begin backstage in Fall 2025! That means this project is being fast-tracked, with construction now beginning in 2025 as opposed to 2026.

While it’s entirely possible that this will be moving back-of-house facilities and other prep-work, that counts when it comes to Disney timelines. We’ve seen other projects announced at D23 get off to a slow start as this phase of work unfolded.

The latest development on that front is that Disney has filed a confidential confidential permit with the City of Anaheim for demolition. Although the specifics of this permit are confidential for now, Disney has confirmed (via journalist Scott Gustin) that this is initial site prep work for the new Coco boat ride. We should have full details very soon.

Prior to this, The Orange County Register reported that Walt Disney Imagineering had submitted early plans for work on the upcoming Coco attraction with the Anaheim Public Works department.

The Coco boat ride itself will be constructed in the area where there is currently a backstage access road connecting to Disneyland Drive. Construction work will be focused on a backstage location bordered by Disneyland Drive, Katella Avenue, Downtown Drive, and the backside of Incredicoaster.

The plans submitted to Anaheim Public Works concern the public right of way along Disneyland Drive and Katella Avenue on sidewalks, curbs, gutters, trees, planters, landscaping, irrigation and fencing. These plans do not show the outline of the ride building, but it’s expected to be squeezed between Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta, the DCA parade storage building and the Incredicoaster track.

The OCR also reported that the gate between Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens will become a walkway to Disney California Adventure’s portion of the DisneylandForward expansion. According to the paper, guests would cross a themed bridge over Disneyland Drive to get between Pixar Pier and the new area south of Pixar Place Hotel.

The paper’s reporting on the DisneylandForward expansion is interesting, as it more or less aligns with what Disney had previously released about DisneylandForward. Above is a “map” from Disney that was publicly shared as part of the pitch for the proposal.

That was released way back in 2021, and it’s essentially accurate to what Disneyland has been doing, right down to the recently-confirmed Eastern Gateway parking structure. However, we should note a couple of things.

First, that Eastern Gateway’s revival was hardly surprising. That was previously announced and cancelled prior to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and was always the inevitable parking lot expansion.

Second, DisneylandForward was not–and is not–a construction plan! It was a glorified zoning proposal to give Disneyland more autonomy over what to build on the company’s land without needing constant approvals from the city and assorted Anaheim stakeholders.

In a nutshell, the main thing Disney committed to do in exchange for approval of DisneylandForward was a minimum investment in the parks over the next decade. And just based on the announcements at D23, they’re going to uphold their end of the bargain.

Absolutely nothing was confirmed in terms of expansion locations or even specific projects for DisneylandForward. Everything in concept art, public pitches, and everything else, has been very cleared labeled as examples.

These are the kinds of attractions and lands that Disney could build if DisneylandForward is approved. There have been no commitments. It’s all just illustrative, with a bunch of placeholders.

With all of that said, if DisneylandForward is going to entail an expansion of Disney California Adventure over Disneyland Drive, the most logical location for that is via the parade gate between Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta and Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind.

Assuming all of the above to be accurate, above is a rough overview of what this would look like. The blue area is the flyover that would connect the current DCA to the expansion, and a portion (but not the entirety) of a potential park expansion.

Disney has been using Fantasy Springs from Tokyo DisneySea to illustrate this new area, and that more or less works back here, right down to the long corridor that feels disconnected from the existing park. If this is the plan–and that’s a big if–we still view this as a 2030s project. The second half of the 10-year plan, given how much is on deck for the remainder of this decade.

In orange is the show building for the Coco boat ride. This is my rough approximation of its location and size, not anything official. This is pretty compact by modern Disney show building standards, perhaps unrealistically small. For reference, the Little Mermaid dark ride is about the same size, but Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is larger.

This location and size operates under the assumption that Disneyland is not eliminating parade storage or the parade route, which would be a major feat. That would also explain why Anaheim Public Works is involved, as maintaining the parade buildings and route necessitate pushing the building closer to Disneyland Drive.

Even so, my orange area might be a bit too close to Disneyland Drive–the minimum setback is probably greater than that, and Disney might not want to lose the backstage road. The issue is that the building needs to be a certain size to accommodate a modern attraction that’s up to code, and it’s like a game of Tetris trying to squeeze it back here while not giving up much of importance that’s currently there.

We could be wrong about this location entirely. It’s possible that DCA loses its parade route and the building ends up being more behind Incredicoaster, with queue and a garden in a portion of the orange area.

Or more likely, that some of these existing backstage facilities are consolidated or move. Disney previously worked magic backstage behind Toontown “making space” for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and our expectation is for something similar here. So that show building might end up being larger and moving closer to Katella Boulevard.

It’s a bit amusing that Disneyland constantly squeezes the most out of every inch of its limited real estate and gets new attractions without major sacrifices. Meanwhile, Walt Disney World–the massive Florida Project that promised the blessing of size–constantly is replacing existing attractions despite ample expansion pads. Amusing, I guess, if you’re a Disneyland fan. Sad if you’re a WDW diehard.

If you’re wondering what to expect from the Coco boat ride, the attraction will be filled with the characters and music from the beloved movie, as you join Miguel on a trip to the land of the dead.

Walt Disney Imagineering will draw inspiration for the attraction from beloved classics, like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. “We’re bringing our skeletal cast of characters to life in a big way through the latest Audio-Animatronics technology,” D’Amaro said at D23 Expo. “These figures will appear in ways you’ll have to see to believe.”

I’m totally on board with a Coco attraction. It’s easily one of the best–and arguably the very best–animated film in recent memory, rivaling Moana, Inside Out, Frozen, and Zootopia. Coco has stunning visuals and beautiful music–scenery and sounds that seem tailor-made for a theme park attraction. The concept is tantalizing. Describing it as a spiritual successor to Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion definitely captured my attention and imagination.

This boat ride sounds fantastic. Coco absolutely would lend itself to such an attraction, which is a big part of why this is so exciting–because you can just imagine what a Pirates plus Haunted Mansion inspired Coco ride could be like. I only hope the size of the budget and building are sufficiently large to accommodate an E-Ticket attraction. My other hope is that this is one of those “good ideas that won’t die” in Imagineering, and they finally found a home for it after trying to make space in EPCOT.

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Your Thoughts

What do you think of the Coco boat ride coming to Disney California Adventure? Thoughts on the locations for the ride? Excited that construction and demolition are already getting started? Think DCA will be able to preserve its parade route? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!