D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is now under a month away — August 14–16 in Anaheim — and Disney has revealed what's coming to the show floor. The short version: it's the largest show floor in D23 history, and for Walt Disney World fans, one pavilion matters more than all the rest.
First, an honest distinction
What Disney announced today is the lineup — the exhibits, pavilions, and experiences that will fill the convention floor. It is not the wave of new-attraction announcements themselves. Those come from the panels during the event, chiefly the Disney Experiences Showcase on Saturday, August 15. So think of today as the map, not the treasure. The treasure is still four weeks out.
That said, one piece of today's news is a genuine tell about how big the park reveals could be.
The one that matters: "Horizons," Imagineering's largest pavilion ever
Disney confirmed that the Walt Disney Imagineering parks pavilion at D23 will be called Imagineering: Horizons — and that it will be the largest Imagineering pavilion in the event's history, built to give guests "an inside look at attractions, technologies, and projects currently in development" around the world.
If that name rings a bell, it should. As we flagged in our D23 preview, "Horizons" is the name of the beloved EPCOT attraction that ran from 1983 to 1999 — the spiritual successor to the Carousel of Progress, and Disney's most iconic ride about looking forward. Disney choosing that name for its biggest-ever parks showcase, in the same year it closed the Carousel of Progress for a rebuild, is not an accident. It's a company signaling, loudly, that it wants to talk about the future of its parks.
You don't name your largest-ever Imagineering pavilion "Horizons" and build it bigger than any before it unless you're planning to fill it. The scale of the pavilion is itself the hint.
What else is on the floor
The broader lineup is stacked, even if most of it isn't parks-specific:
- Walt Disney Archives: Uncrated — a brand-new exhibit pulling rarely-seen props, costumes, and puppets out of the archives.
- Mundo Pixar & a Pixar 40th-anniversary pavilion — life-size film sets, artist demos, and sneak peeks at upcoming films.
- The Avatar Experience — a bioluminescent walkthrough of Pandora with a 4D moment (worth noting for Animal Kingdom fans, given Pandora lives there).
- Lucasfilm and Marvel pavilions, a major Disney+/Hulu experience with a 4D theater, and Talent Central, where Imagineers and artists sign prints.
- Over 50 panels and shows across the weekend, plus a Disney Princess concert kicking things off at Disneyland Resort on August 13.
Why this matters for Walt Disney World
Disney World has a lot of unfinished stories heading into this event, and the Horizons pavilion is exactly where updates on them would live. Among the threads worth watching:
- Monstropolis — Disney has confirmed the Monsters, Inc. land at Hollywood Studios but never revealed what The Glob Theater's show actually is. August is the likely moment.
- Piston Peak — the Cars-themed Frontierland expansion is deep in construction with no ride names or firm opening year announced. A prime D23 candidate.
- Villains Land and other in-development projects Disney has teased but not detailed.
- And the wildcard: whether Disney addresses the Space Mountain rebuild rumor one way or the other.
What to do
If you're attending, the show-floor experiences and Convention Center panels have standby queues — the big Honda Center showcases are Ultimate-Pass-only. If you're following from home like most of us, the date to circle is Saturday, August 15, when the parks announcements land. We'll be covering whatever Disney reveals — and we'll finally find out how much "Horizons" was hiding.
Details accurate as of July 16, 2026, and confirmed by Disney. Panel content and announcements are at Disney's discretion; this covers the show-floor lineup, not the event's park announcements, which come August 14–16.