A crane towers over Magic Kingdom and is visible from across the park. Construction walls run from Liberty Square to Frontierland as Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land are being built. This post offers a current look at the state of projects as of late 2026 and covers how these reimaginings and expansions will affect Walt Disney World vacations and the guest experience between now and the early 2030s.
Most of the construction centers around the Piston Peak and Villains Land projects, in a large expanse of land spanning from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to Haunted Mansion. However, there are also other projects around the park that have given rise to construction walls in Frontierland and Tomorrowland, with more likely to come.
As basic background, the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and Liberty Square Riverboat all closed in July 2025. Walls went up along a portion of the waterfront, and demolition took place throughout the remainder of last year and into early 2026. During that process, we frequently remarked on how the construction impact was minimal on Magic Kingdom park guests. Well, that has changed as of late 2026.
The construction site was there, but it did not look like a gigantic crater that commanded guests’ attention. It was only prominent along the waterfront promenade, where the brown scrims replaced what was once a lovely view. It helped that there was a good amount of foliage between Frontierland and the project site, and the walls were largely offset from the main thoroughfare.
Blend-in brown lived up to the name, and the project was fairly unobtrusive. We shared more or less this same sentiment in multiple posts, and in response to readers asking about the construction impact. Given the many changes in the last several months and just how noticeable construction is now, we figured this was a topic worth revisiting in order to reset expectations.
One big change that makes the construction much more noticeable is the closure of the Frontierland promenade. With this former waterfront area closed (and now almost fully demolished), the construction walls have moved out into the main thoroughfare. Some of the foliage that still existed as of early 2026 is also now gone, clearing the view.
Along with this, a few kiosks that previously lined the walkway have been demolished and construction walls have crept out to swallow up their footprint. One result is visible construction walls lining the walkway from Haunted Mansion all the way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, whereas they were previously in scattered sections of this stretch.
Another result is that, if you’re on the steps of one of the buildings, like Diamond Horseshoe, Liberty Tree Tavern or Pecos Bill, you have a view of the construction. Not just that, but you can see all the way to the backside of Magic Kingdom, and it becomes evident that there really is a gigantic crater where the Rivers of America used to be. Here are some photos showing what it looks like when you walk from Haunted Mansion to Big Thunder:
The steps that lead up to the aforementioned restaurants in Liberty Square and Frontierland give you a couple feet of elevation. For quasi-aerial views into the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater, head to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad queue.
This attraction reopened back in May, so it never offered views into the demolition. And on the one hand, the coaster being back up and running means it is no longer adding to the construction impacts. So that’s a plus!
On the other hand, Big Thunder offers the biggest views into the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater, and no amount of words or photos can truly do it justice. Like Lakeshore Lodge from the Settlement at Fort Wilderness, this is something you cannot fully appreciate until you see it in person. For better or worse, it is truly breathtaking.
Up until recently, the only sign of construction visible was the top of a vertical retaining wall that’ll separate the new Piston Peak landscape from the existing Frontierland. That, and a construction site bustling with activity as crews lay the groundwork, literally and figuratively, for vertical construction. It’s been fun to watch the work, which was only visible from Frontierland and Liberty Square.
Then a new tower crane appeared on-site a couple months ago, rising over the project site and most of the rest of Magic Kingdom. It’s visible from within the park and beyond, and is larger than the crane that was used for the retracking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It’s the same type of tower crane that was used for the Encanto show building in Tropical Americas, which has come down.
I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Magic Kingdom since that crane appeared, and I swear that I notice it from a new location almost every day I’m in the park. Once you get a bit of elevation or an unobstructed view of the horizon, it pops up. That’s true whether you’re on the far side of Tomorrowland, at one of the monorail loop resorts, or at the Main Street Train Station.
Tower cranes are used to do the heavy lifting up to the highest reaches of construction sites, including but not limited to steel beams and other bulky materials. On Walt Disney World projects, they’re typically used during the primary vertical stages of a project, often when a show building is being built or other structures are erected.
During my most recent visits to Magic Kingdom in November 2026, the tower crane was very active. I’ve seen it in use prior to this, but more recently, it’s been in use throughout the day and moving around quite a bit.
My potentially unpopular opinion is that I love to watch this. I realize that crane towering over the park contributes to visual blight, and two lands are adjacent to a major construction zone. I get that many fans dislike that and the way it temporarily spoils sightlines and reduces immersion. All valid points, but I still think it’s really cool to watch these next big additions take shape, almost in plain sight.
Aside from the tower crane, the most visible feature from the ground is the retaining wall that runs parallel to the Frontierland and Liberty Square promenade, extending up across from the entrance of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
The wall now forms a barrier to separate Piston Peak from Frontierland and Liberty Square, and appears to be complete. Grading and infill work remains ongoing, as does installation of infrastructure and utilities. Along with that, crews have started forming foundations.
That’s where the project presently stands, at least based on what I can ascertain (and understand) from the queue of Big Thunder. Here are more photos from BTMRR into the project site as of mid-November 2026:
It’s easy to see how the combined Piston Peak and Villains Land project is the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history, but I’m still not sure the photos convey just how vast and expansive this project site is.
That’s much more evident when you’re on an elevated porch in Frontierland and look out on a sea of nothingness that extends beyond the park. Same goes for waiting in line at Big Thunder, with only dirt and construction equipment between you and Haunted Mansion.
These photos also undersell just how much work is actually happening. These are just static images that mostly look like a scattering of trucks and equipment dotted among the dirt, mixed with some concrete and (sometimes) rain run-off. There’s really a lot more happening that’s evident up close once you watch for a while.
When addressing impact, it’s probably worth pointing out the obvious: this will go from a Massive Magic Kingdom Crater to a mess of steel, rebar, and concrete in 2027 and 2028. Construction will undoubtedly go vertical in earnest next year, and the nothingness will be replaced by show buildings, mountains and the rest of the landscape taking shape.
A lot of that will be visible from ground level, much more so than the retaining wall poking out above the construction site today. This work will also likely be louder, and will unavoidably occur during regular park hours. I personally think this will be a ton of fun to watch take shape, but it’s at least worth acknowledging that we’re going to see much more construction in the next two years than we can see currently.
Finally, they don’t really give any context to what’s coming. Since it’s still mostly dirt and a retaining wall at this point, it’s hard to envision just how this horizon will take shape. For that, contrast the aerial construction photo and Piston Peak model above, which are very roughly the same angle ‘above’ Liberty Square.
Speaking of which, D23 debuted a detailed 225-square-foot scale model of the entire Piston Peak National Park project. As we wrote in that post, that model is going to change minds about this Cars miniland, as it looks absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t seen photos or video of that model yet, we’d highly recommend checking it out.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to watching the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater go from a vast expanse of nothingness to a varied and mountainous landscape. A big part of the appeal in watching this take shape is the contrast between what it is now (crater) and what it’ll become (mountains). Those two things are practically the exact opposite of one another!
In addition to the Piston Peak National Park construction, there are more walls up for the next month-plus in Frontierland for another project: the first-ever refurbishment of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure closed for routine refurbishment beginning Monday, November 2, 2026. Construction walls went up around the front of the attraction, and scaffolding is visible at the top of the lift hill. Here are a few more photos:
The attraction has a reopening date of Friday, December 18, 2026 on the calendar, although that’s always subject to change. Our hope is that this overdue refurbishment of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a consequential one, addressing broken Audio Animatronics and effects, and even fleshing out show scenes with new props.
As far as construction impact, though, it’s minimal. There’s a limited amount of wall, and whatever work is happening inside the attraction is not visible or audible from outside. More consequential is the lost capacity, as this is one of Magic Kingdom’s main mountains. That’s a big reason why water rides typically have refurbishments in the winter months, when the temperatures are lower.
Over in Tomorrowland, there are likewise walls up around Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.
Carousel of Progress closed on July 6, 2026 for a major refurbishment, with plans to reopen in late Spring 2027. The reimagined ride will begin with a new intro scene featuring an advanced Audio Animatronic of Walt Disney. The 1900s, 1920s, and 1940s eras are being completely replaced by the 1960s, 1980s, and 1999.
Here are more photos of the walls around Carousel of Progress:
Somewhat surprisingly, there are only walls around the entrance and exit of the attraction, and from even a moderate distance, you may not even realize that Carousel of Progress is closed.
Between that and the attraction’s tucked away location, the impact of this one is close to zero. Obviously, there’s the loss of capacity, but Carousel of Progress wasn’t a big people eater in the first place.
Although we’ve dubbed this the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater, the silver lining is that these projects do not have an adverse impact on the guest experience beyond aesthetics and a minor amount of lost capacity. Despite the naming similarities, this is not even remotely comparable to the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit that made navigation through the former Future World tedious and unpleasant.
The critical difference here is that the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater replaces a waterway, which you could not walk on. By contrast, the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit cut off the main artery of the park with construction walls, and created a maze of temporary walkways for guests to traverse. That was rough, and the underwhelming end result added insult to injury.
With the Magic Kingdom projects, there’s undeniably visual blight, along with some degree of lost capacity. But for the most part, navigating the parks is not more difficult and it doesn’t feel like a sea of construction walls or that there’s “nothing to do” since so many attractions are closed.
Aside from the waterfront shortcut (which ran parallel to the main walkway), every path that was open two years ago in Magic Kingdom is still open today. At no point are you sandwiched between two construction walls as you attempt to navigate the park. Right there are two major differences between this and the EPCOT overhaul.
At this point, the only refurbishments or reimaginings are Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Carousel of Progress, which is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even though Magic Kingdom is the most-attended theme park in the world, it also has a robust ride roster and can afford for a few attractions to be offline simultaneously. This isn’t Animal Kingdom.
When it has come to other significant construction projects in the last several years, we’ve raised the question of whether the park in question should be skipped. We did this during the height of the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit before any new rides opened, and before that with Disney’s Hollywood Studios while the back half of the park was out of commission for construction of two new lands.
Even right now, we have an article addressing Should You Skip Animal Kingdom? That’s more about DAK being down to 5 rides than anything else, as construction is not particularly invasive to the guest experience.
We see no reason for such an article about Magic Kingdom. Even with the Rivers of America gone and a couple rides down for refurbishment, it still has the highest ride count of any park at Walt Disney World. The Massive Magic Kingdom Crater and that crane are certainly visible from a large area of the park, but this is nothing like past projects.
The only reason we’re even raising this question is to dismiss it out of hand. Magic Kingdom remains a full day park and, if anything, is still a 1.5 to 2 day park. Even if Space Mountain ends up going down for a lengthy refurbishment or more happens in Tomorrowland, we’d still recommend visiting Magic Kingdom.
Ultimately, I’m really looking forward to seeing Piston Peak rise above Magic Kingdom once work finally does start to go vertical. It’ll definitely be more impactful from a guest perspective than any of the other Walt Disney World projects (and arguably already is), but at least the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater is on the periphery of the park, as opposed to the dead center like the EPCOT incarnation.
As I’ve learned more about this project and the Imagineers bringing it to life, I’ve gone from quite critical to skeptical but hoping for the best. Now, I’m somewhere between cautiously optimistic and flat-out optimistic. I cannot overstate how great the model looked, and really hope Imagineering finds a home for it at Walt Disney World.
Piston Peak is going to bring a detailed and dynamic landscape to Frontierland, and will add depth and dimensionality to the environment that wasn’t there before. Obviously, it’ll be very different from what was there before, but it should be a huge asset to this half of Magic Kingdom, literally and figuratively.
My other hope is that Walt Disney World continues to allocate as many resources as possible towards the Beyond Big Thunder expansion. Given that and the practical reality that the Massive Magic Kingdom Crater on the west half of a park is only going to become more noticeable as show buildings and rebar for rockwork go vertical in 2027, we should all want the best and quickest conclusion to this construction as possible.
Minimize the guest impact and have Piston Peak open ASAP. As far away as it seems today, having Piston Peak National Park open by or before Summer 2029 would be a win, especially since that would mean three major brand-new E-Ticket rides in 2028-2029 (Encanto, Monsters Door Coaster, Cars Ridge Run Rally), along with a few secondary attractions, and a high-profile reimagining via Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent. The next few years are gearing up to be an exciting time for Walt Disney World fans!
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the impact of construction on the guest experience in Magic Kingdom? Have you seen the tower crane on-site in Piston Peak? Surprised at just how vast that Massive Magic Kingdom Crater really looks in person? When do you expect to see vertical construction on the Cars land? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
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