Disney is suddenly fixing the Yeti and reviving Dreamfinder. Is Josh D'Amaro listening?
Josh D’Amaro has been Disney’s CEO for five months, and D23 delivered fan wishes that have gone unanswered for decades. However, D’Amaro has been running the parks since 2020. Almost nothing new announced this weekend has a date.
Disney spent Saturday night handing fans things they had stopped expecting.
The Yeti on Expedition Everest, frozen under a strobe light since 2006, is being brought back to life.
Dreamfinder, gone from EPCOT since 1998, is returning.
Spaceship Earth is getting the reimagining Disney announced in 2019 and quietly killed.
Three beloved Disneyland shows are coming back in 2027.
Disney Experiences chairman Thomas Mazloum acknowledged the fans during the Dreamfinder announcement, saying, “We know how important this is to you. We’ve heard you.”
Has Disney started listening? Is Josh D’Amaro the reason?
D’Amaro has been CEO for five months
He took over from Bob Iger on March 18, 2026, at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting. That’s roughly five months ago.
Five months is not enough time to plan a theme park. Villains Land, Monstropolis, Piston Peak, and Tropical Americas were all announced at D23 in 2024, two years before he got the job.
The Yeti repair and the Dreamfinder revival could have been planned, but they were suddenly announced. Was D’Amaro behind all of it?
A couple of years ago, D’Amaro and Iger were touring the “Journey Into Imagination” pavilion. Was this the result of that?
He has been running the parks since 2020
D’Amaro was chairman of Disney Experiences from May 2020 until March 2026, nearly six years in charge of the parks, resorts, and cruise line. Before that, he was president of Walt Disney World, and before that, president of Disneyland Park.
He is the person who stood on the D23 stage in 2024 and announced Villains Land, Monstropolis, Cars Land, and four new cruise ships. He called it “a fearless new vision for what a Disney experience can be” at the time.
So the pipeline arriving now is his pipeline. It just isn’t a five-month turnaround. It’s a six-year one that happens to be landing in the months after he moved to the office with a shower.
Did Disney just start listening in March? No. Josh has been listening all this time. He now has the power to do something about it.
Almost nothing announced has a date
The Yeti repair has no timeline.
The Dreamfinder return has very few details.
Spaceship Earth has no closure window.
Tomorrowland at Disneyland is at the stage Disney describes as Imagineers “beginning to dream up” ideas.
Villains Land has no opening date.
The Monsters, Inc. door coaster has no opening date, but the land around it opens in phases starting in 2027 without it.
Announcements are cheap. Spaceship Earth proves it. Disney announced that overhaul at D23 in 2019, set a closure date of May 26, 2020, then shelved it after the pandemic and never mentioned it again until this weekend.
Seven years later, fans got the same project announced a second time, still without a date.
What would actually settle it
Two things need to happen.
The first is whether these projects open. Not whether they’re announced, whether guests ride them. Big Thunder Mountain reopened in May 2026 after a 16-month retrack, which is a real completed example. The Yeti and Dreamfinder need to reach that same finish line before the pattern means anything.
The second is what happens when money gets tight. Fan-service projects are the first thing cut in a bad year, which is exactly what happened to Spaceship Earth in 2020. Disney’s parks are performing well right now, with Experiences posting more than $3 billion in operating income last quarter. The test comes when they aren’t.
For now, Disney has announced a lot of things fans wanted and attached dates to almost none of them. Whether that’s a company listening or a company saying the right words at a fan convention depends on what 2028 looks like.
Hopefully it isn’t all lip service.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
CNBC and CBS News (February and March 2026), D’Amaro’s March 18 start date as CEO and his tenure as Disney Experiences chairman
Wikipedia (retrieved August 16, 2026), D’Amaro’s role history from 2018 through 2026
Disney Parks Blog (August 15, 2026), the Yeti, Dreamfinder, Spaceship Earth, and Tomorrowland announcements
Disney Parks Blog (August 2024), D’Amaro’s D23 2024 announcements of Villains Land, Monstropolis, and the Cars land
TheWrap and Variety (July and August 2026), the Pixar, ESPN, and National Geographic layoffs and the A&E sale and impairment
BlogMickey and Disney Tourist Blog (2023 and 2025), the 2019 Spaceship Earth announcement, its May 2020 closure date, and the postponement