In outlining plans to spend $60 billion over the next ten years on its theme park division, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro spoke about where the new expansions could go.

“We stand alone when it comes to scale,” said D’Amaro. “And while our scale is impressive, we have no shortage of space or regions of the world in which to tell new stories.”

Disney says has over 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space across its existing sites – the equivalent of about seven new Disneyland Parks. A report from the New York Times says that Disney is not looking at expanding in any new cities or areas.

Earlier this year, D’Amaro was asked about the possibility of Disney following Universal into the regional parks business. D’Amaro said that Disney would continue to focus investing on the “core assets”, aka their existing properties.

In a press release announcing that Disney would focus on its existing properties, Disney says that it has “the largest physical footprint of any global theme park travel business, with 12 parks across six sites around the world”. Disney said that its theme parks welcome approximately 100 million guests per year. Walt Disney World Resort is twice the size of the island of Manhattan, Disneyland is the most “Instagrammed” place on Earth, and tens of millions of guests travel on Disney’s transportation networks each year. Disney also notes that Magic Kingdom has been the #1 attended theme park on earth for decades.

At last year’s D23 Expo, D’Amaro unveiled plans for a project that would expand Magic Kingdom beyond the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction and into wooded areas north and west of the Rivers of America. While D’Amaro didn’t provide any new details at this month’s Destination D23 event, Imagineer Bruce Vaughn confirmed that planning continues for the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain project, and said that the scope of the project is going to be massive. He likened it to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Pandora – The World of Avatar. Vaughn actually said that he thinks the project “could be the biggest thing we’ve done in the Magic Kingdom, probably even bigger than New Fantasyland”, noting that Disney is exploring ideas for new attractions, new restaurants, and new shows.

Somewhat more concretely, D’Amaro and Vaughn announced plans to bring a Tropical Americas land to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the current concept calls for an Encanto-themed area and an Indiana Jones reskin of the DINOSAUR attraction. A timeline wasn’t given for the DinoLand USA reimagining, but with $60 billion in theme park division money set aside for the next ten years, we absolutely believe that this is one of the projects that will be included in that spend. The Beyond Big Thunder Mountain project above and the DinoLand USA reimagining projects are both good examples of how Disney will likely retheme existing spaces and expand to new areas when “turbocharging” their theme park development.

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!