Disney World’s “Carousel of Progress” now to include progress

Disney has announced that its iconic Walt Disney World attraction “Carousel of Progress” is getting a major upgrade, updating its animatronic-presented history of how technology affects American life.

The attraction was originally created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. It’s a circular, segmented theater, in which seated guests are rotated through four scenes, with animatronic figures discussing the progress of technology over the years. When the New York World’s Fair closed, the attraction was moved to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1967, then to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, in 1975, where it’s been running ever since.

The four “Acts” have depicted the typical American father John and his family (1) at the turn of the century; (2) in the 1920s; in (3) the 1940s; and then “Today.”

When the show was created, showing the new technological marvels of each of these timeframes may have made sense to 1960s audiences. But in 2026, all three past eras are in the distant past, before the lifetimes of almost all guests. And even with various minor updates over the years, the “Today” era currently features such new innovations as car phones and laser discs.

Len Testa writes on his Touring Plan blog:

The new show will be the most significant change Carousel of Progress has had since moving to Disneyland in 1967. The new show will still revolve (see what we did there?) around a four act structure, with each act based in a specific year of a different decade. The decades for the new show are:

1969 – Replacing the current scene from 1901, this new scene features the family watching the moon landing.
1985 – Replacing the current scene of July 4 sometime in the 1920’s, this scene will be set on Halloween.
1999 – Replacing the current scene of Halloween in the 1940’s, this is New Year’s Eve.
2169(?) – Replacing the current scene of New Year’s Eve in the late 1990’s, we see the family at some point in the “distant future”.

Also, the family’s mother, Sarah, will be the main narrator instead of John (sure to enrage the anti-”woke” warriors).

As beloved an attraction Carousel of Progress is for traditionalist fans, it has not been attracting crowds, and a newly updated version should generate a lot of interest.

Testa notes:

Carousel of Progress is a large capacity theater show that is rarely full. The show can handle upwards of 3,000 guests per hour but plays to nearly empty audiences much of the day.

Our guess is that Disney’s making this change now so guests visiting Piston Peak and Villains Land in 2028 and beyond, will have something new to draw them over to the other side of the park. That 3,000-guest-per-hour will come in handy when the Magic Kingdom is crowded.

Here is a video from @Guide2WDW about the planned update.