It’s been 20 years since Disney opened a new park and that park was Animal Kingdom. There is always a lot of rumors going on at Disney especially at the moment with updates and new rides in nearly every park, but is Disney planning a 5th theme park?

In my opinion Disney will soon have to open a new park with the recent attendance reaching in the high millions each year and its only going to get higher with all the new attractions and hotels popping up.

Disney reported that its U.S. theme park attendance was up five percent year-over-year for the quarter and All together Disney parks revenue was up 13 percent to $4.9 billion.

I have heard rumors for some time now that Disney is looking to expand their Florida resort and if true then they have plenty of land to use. I imagine the best place for a new park would be near the Animal Kingdom park which would then be in between magic kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

I believe that there is a deal between Marriott and Disney and at the time of the new Marriott hotels being built told them that in the future they would have a 5th park on their doorstep and that would also open up new investor possibilities for Disney.

Disney’s 50th Anniversary is just around the corner and I doubt anything will be happening before that but I have heard rumors that after the anniversary they will be looking into names and what the new park would feature.

There is always speculation about Disney opening a fifth theme park and Disney definitely does have the space given the size of the resort and they have built enough new resort hotel accommodations to justify an additional park and are in the process of building more like the new Starwars Hotel.

As early as 1998 Disney already had a series of plans to open a follow up park to Animal Kingdom. 20 years later and we are still wondering what is going on and why there has been no new park in Orlando.

Here is one of the reasons it’s hit a setback, Michael Eisner had found it hard dealing with key Disney personnel at the upper levels of the company which was causing setbacks for a 5th park. I think that if Eisner had his way we would have already been enjoying a 5th park at Orlando.

Judson C Green, who was the financial officer at Disney and was once thought to be the replacement for Michael D Eisner, left the company in 2000 and with that exit he expressed there was a problematic direction of Disney and that they had lost interest in further expansions.

In Green’s time at Disney he did achieve his goal of setting up the expansion of Disney in China and all of his plans for a 5th gate at Orlando fell apart after he left.

With the likes of Universal Studios, which is just down the road, closing the attendance gap since 2009 and will be opening a new theme park within the next 5 years (rumored to be called Fantastic Worlds).

Universal have been buying up a lot of land around its Florida resort over the past couple of years and now has two theme parks, one water park and six hotels so Disney might not have a choice but to expand.

When Disney builds new projects they spend nearly 10 times the amount as any other company so the issue here is will a new park be worth it and see a return in investment. Considering the amount of money spent and time that goes into a new project like this it could take years to see a return in investment.

Disney is a company that likes to keep everything under wraps until the last possible moment and this might be a huge secret they are keeping, but wouldn’t it be amazing if a new park is the pipeline.

There are more reasons for than against this idea and I personally think its only a matter of time before we hear some concrete news or even better being confirmed.

Another rumor that I have heard is that the 5th park could be just like the popular Tokyo Disneysea which most people regard as Disney’s best park. It has been a massive hit in Tokyo and could be a big hit at Disney World Florida if true.

Here is the global top 10 theme parks:

As you can see all 4 of Disney’s Orlando theme parks are in the top 10 global parks and I would imagine a 5th theme park would definitely be in the top 10.

There is also speculation that Disney could be opening a new theme park somewhere else in the world. This would need a lot of research and attention to global and local markets also Disney would have to look for locations with a strong local economy and support for tourism.

I’m sure this decision would not be taken lightly because a wrong choice could cost the company billions, but that doesn’t mean they are not looking at locations.

Texas seems to be the most logical place if Disney decided to build a new park. Texas has a population of about 2.3 million has 2 airports that fly all over the world and it’s sunny 95% of the time.

Did you know? that it’s rumored that Disney looked into building on Sentosa Island, that’s where Universal Studios Singapore developed there park, but Disney deemed the site too small.

Just imagine if Singapore could ever present a large plot of land that would be enough for a Disney park then I would think that would be where the next park would be.

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Does this mean we are getting a new 5th theme park? Do you guys think a new Disney park is a good idea? If Disney do open a new park what do you think it could be called? Where in World would you like to see a new Disney park? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.







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