What Construction Means for Your Visit
Disneyland is deep into construction on its east side, and D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, which wrapped August 16, gave the clearest picture yet of how this all fits together. The short version: Eastern Gateway is still on track, but it’s now just the first stop in a much longer construction sequence, and that sequence pushed the Avatar-themed land further out than most fans expected.
What’s actually happening, and when
The multi-year construction of Disneyland’s new Eastern Gateway arrival experience began with preparatory work on June 8, 2026, with major vertical construction on the parking structure expected to accelerate in the coming weeks. This is the first concrete milestone under DisneylandForward, the roughly $1.9 billion rezoning and expansion framework the Anaheim City Council unanimously approved back in May 2024.
The South Manchester Avenue cast member parking lot closed to employees on June 28, 2026. A demolition permit was filed June 9 targeting the Team Disney Anaheim East administrative building, a roughly 70,732-square-foot office structure most guests never noticed but that occupies land the new arrival experience needs to cross.
At D23, Disneyland leadership confirmed there are no delays or changes to the Eastern Gateway timeline. It’s still expected to come online in 2028.
What’s being built
The new Eastern Gateway transportation hub will sit on a portion of the current Manchester Cast Member parking lot, on the east side of the resort. Once complete, it will include:
Roughly 6,000 parking spaces in an eight-story, approximately 3.2 million square foot parking structure, including hundreds of electric vehicle chargers.
A dedicated pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard, connecting the new garage directly to a redesigned esplanade arrival experience, and providing public foot access across Harbor Boulevard that doesn’t currently exist in this form.
Shuttle and rideshare staging areas, plus security screening built into the arrival sequence rather than bolted on afterward.
Dedicated access off Disney Way, aimed at reducing the traffic bottlenecks that have built up around the resort’s current parking and drop-off infrastructure over the past two decades.
Early concept art shows a mid-century modern aesthetic for the new marquee and arrival signage, continuing the retro styling Disney has been rolling out across the Downtown Disney renovation.
Why Disney is building this first, and what D23 clarified about everything after it
Here’s the part that’s now much clearer than it was in July. Disney used D23 to lay out the actual construction order for everything tied to this expansion, not just Eastern Gateway:
Avengers Campus is first out of the gate. Both Stark Flight Lab and Avengers Infinity Defense, the two rides doubling the size of Avengers Campus, are now confirmed to open in 2028.
The Coco-themed boat ride comes next, with no official opening year yet, but realistically landing around 2029 given the Avengers Campus timeline.
Eastern Gateway is expected to come online around the same window, 2028.
Then Disney shifts its full development focus to reimagining Tomorrowland, which was the actual headline announcement to come out of this D23, arguably bigger news than the Eastern Gateway update itself.
Only after Tomorrowland does Disney return to the Hollywood Backlot for the Avatar destination.
The logic connecting all of this: the current transportation and parking infrastructure sits on land that Avatar needs to occupy. Before that land can be freed up, the new Eastern Gateway parking structure has to be operational to absorb the vehicle and shuttle capacity the current setup handles. Eastern Gateway itself needed the Team Disney Anaheim East building demolished and cast member parking relocated first. Each step unlocks the next one. It’s slow, unglamorous groundwork, but it’s a real sequence, not a delay tactic.
What’s new is that Tomorrowland now sits in that sequence ahead of Avatar, which effectively pushes Avatar’s start date out to 2029 or 2030 at the earliest, with a realistic opening somewhere around 2032 or later. Disney did show a detailed physical model of the Avatar land at D23’s Imagineering pavilion, which is a genuine signal the project hasn’t been quietly shelved, but the timeline slip is real regardless of that model’s existence.
One related update: Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue, which needs to close to make room for Avatar, got another reprieve. Its permanent closure has been pushed from early 2026 to sometime in 2027, and possibly later still, since Disney found a way to resequence projects without it needing to close on the original timeline.
The realistic timeline
Putting it all together: Avengers Campus expansion opens 2028, Eastern Gateway opens 2028, Coco likely follows around 2029, Tomorrowland’s reimagining comes after that, and Avatar isn’t expected to open until 2032 or later. If you’re the kind of reader who tracks Disney’s multi-year expansion plans closely, the honest framing is this: DisneylandForward is not, at this stage, an active expansion of guest-facing attractions you’ll experience anytime soon. Treat any excitement about Avatar as a 2032-or-later conversation, and watch for more Tomorrowland details to be the next real construction news out of Disneyland, likely before Avatar gets any further updates at all.
What this actually means for your visit right now
This is the part that matters for anyone with a trip planned in the next year or two, separate from the long-term attraction timeline:
Expect increased traffic on the Harbor Boulevard corridor near the resort, particularly as demolition and early construction staging continues through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. If you’re driving in, build extra time into your arrival window, especially on peak days.
Cast member parking disruption has ripple effects on staffing logistics, which can indirectly affect things like operating hours or staffing-dependent experiences during the most disruptive construction phases, though Disney hasn’t signaled any specific guest-facing changes tied to this yet.
If you’re staying at a hotel across Harbor Boulevard from the resort, some early reporting suggests walking routes may get less direct during the construction window, since the current most-direct paths may be affected by staging areas. Disney’s official messaging on definitive walking routes for off-site hotel guests hasn’t been finalized as of this writing, worth checking specifically if you’re staying at a hotel along Harbor and relying on walking access.
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue is safe for now. If you were worried about squeezing in a ride before closure, you have more time than originally expected, likely into 2027 or beyond.
None of this affects park operations directly, at least not yet. This is parking lot and arrival-infrastructure construction, not construction inside Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure. Rides, entertainment, and the resort’s day-to-day guest experience inside the gates aren’t part of this phase.
The honest bottom line: if you’re visiting in the next 12 months, expect some added friction around arrival and parking logistics, nothing that should change your plans, but worth building a little slack into arrival time. If you’re the kind of Disneyland fan who’s been waiting for Avatar news specifically, D23 confirmed the project is still alive, but also confirmed it’s further out than most people hoped.
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