Up, Incredibles & Moana Adventureland Expansion Revealed for Tokyo Disneyland, Replacing Jungle Cruise & More
Five years after the major project that added Beauty and the Beast mini-land and ride, plus Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland expansions, the Oriental Land Company (OLC) has unveiled brand-new concept art for future expansions in both parks. This breaks down the redevelopment of Adventureland, with Up, Incredibles, and Moana replacements for Jungle Cruise and more.
Let’s start with background, which is mostly the same ground previously covered in Port Discovery Expansion & Aquatopia Replacement Revealed for Tokyo DisneySea. If you’ve already read that, scroll down to the new concept art for Adventureland that shows what’s being replaced and added.
This reveal comes via OLC’s 2035 Long-Term Management Strategy, released to investors on April 28, 2025. Along with this, OLC reported record results for the most recent fiscal year, likely fueling the desire for further expansion beyond that Wreck-It Ralph and new Space Mountain attractions currently under construction in Tomorrowland at Tokyo Disneyland.
This 10-year plan for Tokyo Disney Resort reveals that the goal is to “provide moving experiences and surprises that cannot be found anywhere else in the world through development unique to Tokyo Disney Resort.” This will be accomplished via the “dynamic restructuring of our theme park sites including possible large-scale development such as area-wide redesign.”
OLC further states that the goal is to “constantly enhance the appeal of our theme parks by redesigning attractions and entertainment programs, offering time-limited special versions, and utilizing previously unused intellectual property and new technologies.”
To accomplish this, they plan to create new facilities and experiences, while also revamping existing venues and expanding services in pursuit of comfort and convenience to respond to changes in guests’ behavior and needs within the parks.
Nothing here is stop-the-presses news. OLC began offering vague summations of its medium and long-term plans in this report from 2016 when first announcing the Fantasyland/Tomorrowland expansion (Beauty and the Beast and Baymax) for Tokyo Disneyland and Soaring: Fantastic Flight for Tokyo DisneySea. This 10-year plan is pretty close to what they presented as their long-term vision almost a decade ago.
In that 2016 document, OLC indicates that the long-term plan for Tokyo Disneyland is “area-based development for each themed land, to take place in stages, is intended to leave a lasting impact.” While I’m not going to comb through every OLC report over the last decade, the vibe we’ve gotten from all of them has been a mix of place-making and replacing/revitalizing existing attractions, not outright expansion.
Even back then, Oriental Land Company indicated that leaning more heavily on tourists is only one of its medium-term goals (as of 2017), and not the main one. Rather, the top priority is to “foster medium to long-term fans (repeat guests),” which OLC ties directly to the aging population and declining birthrate.
That was in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, which were to be instrumental in helping Japan achieve a new record number of inbound tourists. That did not happen in 2020 for reasons that should be obviously. That year and 2021 set record lows, with international tourism only starting to recover in late 2022.
However, Japan did set a new record for inbound visitors last year, and the data I’ve seen thus far in 2025 suggests the country will be breaking that record. Cumulative visitor numbers for 2025 reached 10.5 million in the quarter through March, up 23.1 percent, marking the fastest pace on record to surpass 10 million, according to the government-affiliated Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).
The JNTO has incredibly aggressive long-term goals for inbound visitors that, frankly, I’m not sure are even remotely sustainable given the current strain in some locales. But that’s a bit beyond the scope of this post. The point here is that OLC wants a bigger slice of this international tourism pie, as these guests are far and away the highest spenders.
Enter the redevelopment and expansion proposal for Adventureland:
One of the goals of the aforementioned redevelopment projects has been to make Tokyo Disneyland unique.
When the park was originally built, it was done checklist-style with clones of areas and rides from Magic Kingdom or Disneyland. That’s quite literal, and how the park today has become a ‘bizarro’ version of those castle parks, with vestiges of the past that are long-extinct in the domestic parks.
This is precisely why OLC redeveloped Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, replacing legacy attractions with the Beauty and the Beast area, Happy Ride with Baymax, and more. It’s also part of the motivation for the Wreck-It Ralph ride and new Space Mountain–and probably more to come in Tomorrowland.
It’s thus unsurprising that OLC is now turning its attention to the other side of the park. We’ve been expecting some degree of redevelopment in Adventureland and Westernland for a while.
As part of the 10-year plan presentation, Oriental Land Company shared concept art for a wholesale reimagining of Adventureland at Tokyo Disneyland. This proposal appears to show the removal of Swiss Family Treehouse, Jungle Cruise, Western River Railroad, and Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!”
If this concept art were to come to fruition, it would probably also mean the removal of Theater Orleans, Country Bear Jamboree and more in Westernland. Both of the stage show venues are on the periphery of the plans, but Theater Orleans is vacant (and absent from the concept art) and Country Bear Jamboree is right behind the Tiki Room. So it makes sense to lose all of that–and everything in between–as part of this development if the space is needed.
Attractions and areas that appear to be safe are Pirates of the Caribbean and its adjacent mini-New Orleans Square streets (minus Theater Orleans), Crystal Palace, and the Coral Landing sub-land of Adventureland.
Coral Landing was one of the first areas added to Tokyo Disneyland in the early 1990s. Its strikingly similar to Typhoon Lagoon at Walt Disney World, which is because some Imagineers worked on both projects. Anyway, I mention Coral Landing because it’s the original example of OLC wanting unique areas for Tokyo Disneyland–the initiative dates all the way back to then.
Not pictured in the concept art is anything in Westernland or the Rivers of America. However, these two lands are interconnected–so it’s difficult to visualize how removing Jungle Cruise happens without a domino effect that has major ramifications for this whole side of the park.
From this concept art, it looks like Adventureland will add an Incredibles roller coaster, Paradise Falls Up-themed attraction, and Moana boats in the middle.
The Paradise Falls rockwork could conceal a large show building, and there’s the space for that with the removal of Jungle Cruise and Western River Railroad. The roller coaster is more or less in the place of the Tiki Room (and connected facilities), while also winding through Adventureland and under walkways, a la Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The Moana boat ride would replace Swiss Family Treehouse, which has yet to reopen post-COVID closure. This attraction actually looks a lot like Aquatopia (which is being replaced at Tokyo DisneySea), making me wonder whether any of the ride system could be salvaged for this project. On the far side, there are a bunch of new buildings, which I assume is restaurants and retail. Tokyo Disneyland needs more of that in both parks.
Unlike the Port Discovery proposal, I’m hesitant to read too much into this Adventureland concept art. This reminds me more of the original blue sky daydreaming session for Dinoland that, ironically enough, revealed a Moana boat ride and Zootopia expansion.
Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part, but I suspect this more impressionistic artwork is more about showing investors what is possible with an Adventureland redevelopment, as opposed to being concrete plans for what will happen.
My expectation is that expansion at Tokyo DisneySea will happen first. The Port Discovery project is lower hanging fruit, and Fantasy Springs has exposed just how badly more capacity is needed in the second gate. Not only that, but the Tomorrowland projects are currently in progress, so Tokyo Disneyland will get a boost in 2026-2028 as a result of those. There’s also the 50th Anniversary on the horizon, and that will be a huge driver of attendance in the back half of this decade.
Accordingly, all signs point to Tokyo DisneySea expansion being the medium-term project in the late 2020s. Adventureland expansion is more likely in the 2030s.
With that said, large scale redevelopments of Adventureland and Westernland are absolutely on the table, and have been for a while.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but Cars Land replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island was first pitched as a project for Tokyo Disneyland. My understanding is that Imagineering was rebuffed and it went nowhere, but that was over a decade ago. A lot has changed since.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if OLC goes with a project that somehow retains the Western River Railroad. Going with a plan that removes that would explode the scale and scope of this, and means that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Rivers of America are also in play. Maybe even Splash Mountain (unlike other fans, I remain skeptical that there’s any sense of urgency to remove this on OLC’s part–it’s incredibly popular and directly monetized with paid line-skipping).
Long-term, I do think the writing is on the wall not just for Adventureland, but for most of Westernland.
Unlike Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland is space-constrained. The Rivers of America is a huge piece of underutilized real estate. I really don’t want to lose it for the exact same reasons I don’t want to lose the area at Magic Kingdom, but it does feel like an inevitability.
However, it does not feel like an inevitability between now and 2035. Redeveloping both Adventureland and Westernland simultaneously would take too much of Tokyo Disneyland out of commission, and that park badly needs capacity. The attendance dynamics as a result of having two attractions down in Tomorrowland have already been suboptimal, so it’s hard to imagine OLC going for the all-at-once approach with Westernland and Adventureland.
This is especially true since construction would occur during Tokyo Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary. That will be a blockbuster event, and even right now it’s safe to predict that Tokyo Disney Resort will set new attendance records in 2033. They simply need the capacity, and this is the type of ambitious multi-land project that cannot be completed in the timeframe between the opening of Space Mountain and that milestone.
It’s also not as if Imagineering couldn’t build Paradise Falls around the Western River Railroad. They’ve already done exactly that in the past on multiple occasions, most recently with TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom. Before that, the same happened with the original Splash Mountain. It’d be trickier here, though, because the sole station is directly above the entrance to Jungle Cruise.
I don’t know how that works out. There are a couple of options, the first of which is going smaller-scale and being done by 2033. The second is going big, but not starting work until 2034 or 2035. I’d hazard a guess that OLC will choose the smaller, fragmented approach–that’s the smart move.
Ultimately, the jury is out for me on redevelopment plans for Adventureland and/or Westernland at Tokyo Disneyland. Whereas I think Imagineering probably has great plans for Port Discovery on the shelf that they can dust-off, and OLC will provide the budget to ensure that’s a massive improvement, I’m less optimistic about developing Adventureland.
My potentially controversial opinion is that I’m perfectly fine losing Jungle Cruise. I think one version of that ride should exist somewhere in the world for posterity, but I’m fine losing it just about everywhere else. That’s especially true at Tokyo Disneyland, where there isn’t room for expansion and the ride has a large footprint.
I’m far less comfortable losing the railroad and, with that, Big Thunder Mountain and the Rivers of America. That almost assuredly will happen in my lifetime, but I’d like them to stick around for as long as possible. I’d happily sacrifice Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, and the Swiss Family Treehouse if it meant saving the railroad and rivers–they’re simply too valuable from a placemaking perspective, especially since Tokyo Disneyland is already a concrete jungle as compared to Tokyo DisneySea.
As for the proposed replacement attractions, it seems too early to offer comprehensive commentary because, like so many other floated Tokyo Disneyland expansion proposals of the last ~15 years, a lot will probably change. What I will say is that Up and the Incredibles are popular franchises with Tokyo Disneyland guests, but I’d probably bet on dark rides as opposed to thrill rides (unless BTMRR is on the chopping block). Guest demographics differ at Tokyo Disneyland; the most popular attractions in Fantasy Springs are slow moving boat rides. It’ll be interesting to see how this concept continues to evolve.
Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Adventureland expansion and redevelopment proposal? Disappointed to be losing Swiss Family Treehouse, Jungle Cruise, Western River Railroad, Enchanted Tiki Room w/ Stitch, Theater Orleans, or Country Bear Jamboree? Or do you view all of this as underutilized capacity in a space-constrained park? What do you think of anything else covered here? 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!
Putting IP like Incredibles in Adventureland is an atrocious idea, it doesn’t even come close to fitting the theme. It’s an even worse thematic fit than Cars in Frontierland.
I understand and begrudgingly accept the injection of IP into everything, but the shoehorning that goes on and thematic stretches are just too much at times. It’s painful to see a whole land potentially tarnished because the illusion is ruined by something that just doesn’t fit.
The way WDW has tended to favor deleting existing content instead of expanding into empty space reminds me of a PC user with a really large storage drive who insists on using only ~25% of the available space because it somehow makes performance “better”.
I wish there wasn’t such a fixation on deleting existing things, when available space is still seemingly abundant. It makes the past decision to acquire such an abundance of space in the first place seem a bit dubious.
The difference with Tokyo is that you know the replacements will be better than what was there before. You don’t get that reassurance with the domestic parks.
The removal of ROA for cars doesn’t seem so bad anymore! Removing Jungle cruise and the railroad is appalling!
I honestly am shocked by this. I can’t say that Adventureland in Tokyo is a particularly great and cohesive land, and honestly, neither is Westernland. But I’m honestly shocked at how easily it all seems to be thrown away.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be-if there’s anywhere in the world where IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT IPs, Tokyo is it-but there’s a reflexive gasp that comes from old school park fans to changes like this regardless of context, or so it seems to me.
I’d be lying if I said Jungle Cruise, the Treehouse, and a mediocre Tiki Room 3.0 were rides I truly thought were among the pinnacle of the park. I liked the railroad, and perhaps that will prove salvageable. And while I don’t like the idea of removing the river, I will say that TDL is the place where you could easily miss it entirely if you didn’t know where to look for it, so from that perspective I suppose, begrudgingly, that I get it. But I do wonder what the balance of experiences will be like when this is all over.
I’m a little shocked that Pirates of all things is staying, as while most places recognize POTC as a signature attraction, I didn’t really get the vibe that it was an untouchable classic there.
This is a lot to digest. I’ll be watching from the sidelines as all of this comes (or doesn’t) to fruition. That said, it took a long time for the redone Fantasyland and new TDS ports to come to be-far longer than initially promised-and they came about in very different forms, so there may well be significant changes by the time this all happens.
I’m hopeful that, when the dust settles, they’re able to salvage the Western River Railroad, at least portion of the Rivers of America, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. Selfishly, I would also like to see Country Bears saved, and I think the argument can be made for that given the show’s resurgent popularity. It has basically become a TDL IP in the last decade.
Everything else I can accept losing–and think the park would probably be better for it. I just hope they get the mix of IPs right, and that the attractions are well done. I can handle another drawn out timeline to get it right–especially since they don’t put walls up or close attractions and then revisit plans, like the US parks seem to do. Measure twice, cut once.
Well know they’re trying to make the park unique. It bothers me no matter where it’s at in the world when old classics are replaced for example tiki room and the jungle cruise. sometimes things don’t need to be changed. As you said Japan’s population is getting older, not younger and some of these rides like roller coasters are not made for us older generation. Just my thoughts.
“As you said Japan’s population is getting older, not younger and some of these rides like roller coasters are not made for us older generation.”
This is a big reason why I’m skeptical they’ll end up doing a roller coaster. Or if they do, it’ll likely skew more towards Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom than Incredicoaster at DCA.
It’s an interesting point you’re making, and the subtext is that in the years to come, older people will still be into Disney stories/characters/experiences (which I agree with).
My assumption growing up in the 1980s and visiting my grandparents in nursing homes was that “when you get old, you just stop liking rock-n’-roll and color movies and video games and interesting foods”. As a kid I assumed that when I was 85, like my grandparents’ generation I’d be listening to Benny Goodman, eating liver & onions and jello casseroles, watching old Humphrey Bogart films, and playing bridge and canasta and bingo.
But within the next 20-25 years, nursing homes are going to be full of people who still love Michael Jackson and Madonna and Guns n’ Roses, with video game consoles in the common areas, screenings of Michael Bay films and 1990s Rom-Coms, and a variety of different “ethnic” foods on the menu.
Flowing from that realization, the same is gonna be true for Disney Fandom. The Star Wars and Marvel and Disney Renaissance movies that were once labeled “for kids” are, before too long, going to form the core nostalgia for retirees. This is doubly true in today’s cultural environment when “adulting” has become a word and (especially beginning with Generations X&Y) there’s no longer the same stigma about maintaining your “childlike” interests and hobbies and personality traits as you age.
Tom, this is probably fodder for its own post at some point, but the evolution of theme parks across the globe to meet this trend and accommodate and attract aging generations/demographics (not just visiting as parents/grandparents) will be interesting. I know it’s already happening but it’s definitely going to accelerate.
“Tom, this is probably fodder for its own post at some point, but the evolution of theme parks across the globe to meet this trend and accommodate and attract aging generations/demographics (not just visiting as parents/grandparents) will be interesting. I know it’s already happening but it’s definitely going to accelerate.”
The simplified version of this is an article I’ve already done in a roundabout way and a common theme of this blog–Disney should cater to millennials far more than they currently do.
I don’t believe this simply because I am a millennial and it’s a matter of self-interest. But rather, because millennials are a huge generation–the children of baby boomers. Whether we’re talking the parents or childless kind, millennials’ tastes are going to drive culture for decades to come–just as happened with baby boomers.
If I were Disney, I would absolutely be doubling or tripling down on Disney Renaissance era movies, as opposed to whatever is hot at the moment. Some of that will have longevity, sure, but the movies from the 1990s are the safe and obvious bet.
Jungle Cruise at Tokyo was by far my favorite jungle cruise out of all the parks in the world! Their skippers are the most entertaining! Losing that would definitely take Tokyo as a whole, down a notch in my personal world rankings, especially since I think Disney Sea is already overrated. I’m all for the new rides, but wouldn’t want to lose Jungle Cruise, even though it is understandably what will have to happen to accommodate them.
One thing that strikes me in the concept art… that wide path to nowhere between the Moana and Incredibles rides. When I look at the space on Google Maps, the concept art suggests they’d only be using around half the Jungle Cruise footprint, plus a back of house building that Google Translate says is “Oriental Land Health Insurance Association.” Could they be considering another hotel with direct park access? Couldn’t be as big as Miracosta or TD Hotel, but could be bigger than Toy Story Hotel. Would be a nice location right across the street from Ikspiari. Possibility?
I love the idea of making the park unique!
I wonder, though, about the placement of an UP! dark ride… seems like a great re-theme of Peter Pan behind the castle now that DisneySEA has the high-tech Pan ride. I would like to see some new amazing rides, but as that’s a clone of what you see in the states, it seems like a great way to get turnaround on a new attraction that is goon but could be super-plussed (and unique)! A la Maelstrom->Frozen in Epcot.
I’d be surprised if they touched any of the Fantasyland dark rides. Not necessarily because they’re sacred, but because new or reimagined attractions could never be made in such small footprints today. Unless they combine multiple dark rides into one, the best we can hope for is enhancements.
I have no memory at all of the Adventureland area from our trip; odd. I’m a big fan in general of all the parks having at least some uniqueness (I was very happy to hear WDW’s Buzz Lightyear update was remaining Buzz and not Wreck-It-Ralph)., so making TDL more unique compared to the US parks sounds great to me.
On one hand, I get why Imagineering keeps putting these Moana boat rides in its concept art. They’re cute, its an obvious concept, and would be cost efficient. But if Tokyo Disneyland of all places is gonna get the first Moana ride, I want them to go all out! The movie is visually stunning, and Moana deserves a major E-ticket, wow-inducing attraction. This doesn’t have to be a thrill ride per se, but give me something with effects and animatronics and an elaborate queue to spend my multi-hour wait in and I will be a happy camper.
I will say, Up getting the dark ride treatment sounds amazing; I hope that is something that is actually on the table!
I guess this ride is going to be themed to the first half of the original Moana film — the “no one goes beyond the reef” era of Motunui. 😉