We’ve already covered the first physical milestone of Disney’s massive DisneylandForward expansion plan, the Eastern Gateway construction that broke ground this summer. But that’s just one piece of a much bigger picture. We wanted to pull together everything currently in motion across Disneyland Resort’s expansion pipeline, since it’s easy to lose track of which projects are actually under construction versus which ones are still just concept art and announcements.
Here’s where things actually stand, project by project.
Coco Ride at Disney California Adventure
This is the one we get the most questions about. Disney’s first-ever attraction based on Pixar’s Coco is coming to Disney California Adventure, letting guests join Miguel on a journey to the Land of the Dead. This was originally announced back at D23 2024, and construction to expand the DCA area for this ride began in 2026.
Here’s the honest state of things: Disney still hasn’t revealed a lot of the details fans are hungry for, including what the expanded surrounding area will look like, what kind of special effects and animatronics the ride itself will feature, or a target opening date. Given how early-stage the public information still is, we wouldn’t expect this one to open particularly soon. We’ll be watching the upcoming D23 event at Disneyland Resort in August closely, since that’s exactly the kind of venue where Disney tends to drop meatier updates like ride vehicle reveals or opening year targets.
Avengers Campus Expansion
Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure is set to roughly double in size, with two confirmed additions: Avengers: Infinity Defense and a newly announced attraction called Stark Flight Lab. Construction on this expansion is already underway.
As with Coco, most of the granular details (ride mechanics, story specifics, timeline) haven’t been fully revealed yet. What we do know is that this represents a genuinely significant physical expansion of the land, not just a new show or overlay, which suggests Disney is committing real resources and a real multi-year runway to this project.
The DisneylandForward Bigger Picture
For readers who haven’t been following DisneylandForward closely, here’s the short version: it’s Disney’s roughly $1.9 billion, multi-year plan to reshape significant portions of Disneyland Resort’s footprint, expanding beyond the parks’ existing boundaries. The Eastern Gateway project we covered separately, a new roughly 6,000-space parking garage plus a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard, was the first physical construction milestone of this entire plan, with the Manchester Cast Member parking lot closing on June 28, 2026 to make way for it.
Realistic completion estimates for the Eastern Gateway itself land somewhere around late 2027 or 2028. And notably, the next major piece tied to this broader plan, a Pandora-World of Avatar-style attraction at Disneyland, isn’t expected to start construction until after the Eastern Gateway work wraps. In other words: what you’re seeing right now with the Manchester lot closure is genuinely just the first domino in a sequence that’s going to play out over several years.
Why Disneyland and EPCOT Have Been Quieter Than Other Parks
If it feels like Walt Disney World has been getting more headline-grabbing expansion news than Disneyland lately, that’s not just a perception issue. Disney’s 2024 D23 Expo focused heavily on Walt Disney World projects (the new Tropical Americas land at Animal Kingdom, a Monsters Inc. land at Hollywood Studios, and more), largely leaving Disneyland and EPCOT out of the biggest spotlight moments.
That’s part of why this upcoming August D23 Day at Disneyland Resort feels like it could be a meaningful moment. It would be a natural opportunity for Disney to start filling in some of the gaps: firmer timelines for Coco and the Avengers Campus expansion, and potentially even new announcements for Disneyland Park itself, which was mentioned as having potential for one or two entirely new lands when DisneylandForward was first unveiled, but hasn’t had much specific news since.
Comparing This to Other Recent Disneyland Expansions
It’s worth putting this pipeline in context against what Disneyland has already delivered recently, since it helps calibrate expectations for how long projects like Coco and the Avengers Campus expansion might actually take. The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run “A New Mission” overhaul, which we covered in detail in a separate post, took roughly a year from initial announcement to its May 22, 2026 debut, but that was a reimagining of an existing attraction rather than new ground-up construction. The Galaxy’s Edge timeline expansion similarly built on existing infrastructure rather than requiring new buildings.
Ground-up new attractions and land expansions, by contrast, tend to run on much longer timelines. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, for comparison, was announced in April 2019 and didn’t open in Disneyland’s Toontown until 2023, a four-year gap even for what was, relatively speaking, a smaller-footprint addition than what’s being planned for Coco or Avengers Campus. Given that context, we’d genuinely expect both of these newer projects to land closer to a multi-year timeline than anything opening in the next twelve months.
A Quick FAQ
Is there a confirmed opening year for the Coco ride at Disneyland Resort? No confirmed opening date or year has been announced as of this writing. Given the early stage of publicly available construction details, we wouldn’t expect this to open particularly soon.
Will Avengers Campus close during its expansion construction? We don’t have confirmation either way as of this writing. Disney has, in various past expansions, managed to keep existing areas of a themed land operational while building new sections nearby, but this can vary significantly by project. We’ll update this post if Disney announces any operational impacts to the existing Avengers Campus attractions during construction.
Does the Eastern Gateway project affect current-day parking or park access? Yes, to a limited degree already. The Manchester Cast Member parking lot closed June 28, 2026 to make way for construction, which is more of an operational detail for cast members than guests, but it’s the first visible sign of this broader, years-long project actually beginning. We covered this specific milestone in more depth in our dedicated Eastern Gateway post.
Is Pandora-World of Avatar confirmed for Disneyland, or is that just speculation? Based on currently available information, a Pandora-style attraction has been discussed as part of the broader DisneylandForward plan, but it’s explicitly not expected to begin construction until after the Eastern Gateway project wraps, which itself is estimated for late 2027 or 2028. Treat this as a longer-term item on the roadmap rather than something with a firm, near-term timeline.
What This Means If You’re Planning a Trip in the Next Few Years
None of what we’ve covered here is going to affect a trip you’re planning in the next several months. Everything discussed is multi-year construction, with the Coco ride and Avengers Campus expansion both still lacking confirmed opening dates, and the Eastern Gateway realistically years away from completion.
But if you’re the kind of family that plans return trips a few years out, or if you’re weighing whether to wait for a specific new attraction before booking, here’s our honest read: don’t hold your trip hostage to any of these projects. Given how early-stage the public details still are on both Coco and the Avengers Campus expansion, we wouldn’t be surprised if actual opening dates slip further than current expectations suggest, which is genuinely normal for projects at this stage. Disneyland Resort has plenty to offer right now, from the newly opened Soarin’ Across America to the ongoing Galaxy’s Edge timeline expansion, without needing to wait on projects that are still years from completion.
We’ll Keep Watching This One
Given how much is in motion right now, from Eastern Gateway construction to two separate DCA expansions, we expect meaningful updates throughout the rest of 2026, especially around the August D23 Day event. We’ll update this post (and likely write dedicated posts for Coco and Avengers Campus individually) as soon as Disney shares anything more concrete. If long-term park expansion is something you follow closely, this is a good one to bookmark.