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878 · D23 Disney Parks Announcements: Sightlines Into Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy
The loudest cheers at D23 weren't necessarily for what Disney was building next. They were for what Disney was willing to bring back, repair, and finally acknowledge.
In a presentation built on a little faith, trust, and pixie dust, Disney asked fans to believe in an ambitious future, but this time it also showed its work. Models, progress, priorities, restorations, and even the things Disney chose to address directly revealed a much bigger story than any single attraction announcement.
In WDW Radio # 878, we look at the D23 2026 Disney Parks announcements through a series of "sightlines" that connect Villains Land, Piston Peak National Park, Dreamfinder, the Expedition Everest Yeti, Spaceship Earth, Tomorrowland, Monstropolis, Tropical Americas, Disney Cruise Line, and much more. And the sightlines stretch well beyond the U.S., from Disneyland Paris and the return of its Jules Verne-inspired Space Mountain to new Tomorrowland, Avengers, and Spider-Man experiences coming to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
When you step back, it starts to look like a very Disney story of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. Yesterday is being honored through attractions, characters, and experiences fans refused to let go of. Tomorrow is taking shape through ambitious new lands, technologies, attractions, and global expansion. And fantasy is where Disney is creating entirely new places and stories for us to step inside.
We also explore what changed the perspective on some of these projects, why "no height requirement" may be one of the most important phrases of the night, why the sequence of these projects may matter as much as the projects themselves, and what Disney did not announce... and why.
This isn't simply a recap of D23 2026. It's a closer look at what Disney is building, what it is preserving, what it is asking us to trust, and what all of it may mean for the way we experience the Disney Parks around the world in the years ahead.
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LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.
🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.
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877 · Disney Worldbuilders Interview with Leslie Iwerks
Disney Worldbuilders asks a question most of us have never thought to ask... where does a Disney world actually begin?
Not the land. Not the ride. The moment before any of it existed, when it was still just a feeling inside one person's head.
This week I sit down with Leslie Iwerks, director of The Imagineering Story and Disneyland Handcrafted, to talk about her ambitious new documentary. Disney Worldbuilders brings together Bob Iger, Josh D'Amaro, James Cameron, Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Pete Docter, Jennifer Lee, and Jared Bush for a series of remarkably candid conversations about how deeply personal ideas become stories, characters, and physical worlds that millions of people can walk into.
I had the privilege of screening the film before its release, and it is even better than I hoped.
In our conversation, Leslie shares:
Why so many of today's most influential creators were Disney fans first, and what that says about the parks
How personal struggles and childhood memories shaped stories like Frozen, Inside Out, and Zootopia
The brutal note Jared Bush received on an early version of Zootopia, and what pulled it back from the edge
Why Kevin Feige's favorite detail in any Disney land is a construction wall
Why story and technology have always worked together at Disney, going back to Walt and Ub
What creative failure, uncertainty, and rejection can teach the rest of us
How great leadership protects storytellers and creative risk
Why honoring Disney's history cannot mean being afraid to evolve it
The moment Leslie filmed that became the emotional heart of the film

Leslie also reflects on her grandfather, Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, and her father, Disney Legend Don Iwerks, and how their legacy of combining storytelling and technology continues through Disney's worldbuilders today. She does not just study world builders. She comes from them.
Disney Worldbuilders premieres at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on August 16 and begins streaming on Disney+ on August 20.
Subscribe to WDW Radio so you never miss an episode. Then tell me this: What Disney story, character, attraction, or world first made you believe that something impossible could become real? Share your answer in the WDW Radio Clubhouse at WDWRadio.com/Clubhouse, or leave me a voicemail at 407-900-9391.
📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391
✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com
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LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.
🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.
Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!

Two years ago, Disney made us nearly 50 promises at D23 Expo 2024. This year, they have to keep them.
So what will Disney actually reveal at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event?
I'm going park by park, resort by resort, and all the way around the world with my predictions for the Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase. Villains Land. Piston Peak. Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. Space Mountain and Tomorrowland. Journey Into Imagination. Spaceship Earth. Monstropolis. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Tropical Americas. Expedition Everest. Avengers Campus. Pandora at Disney California Adventure. Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Disneyland Abu Dhabi and more.
I don't think this is another year of dozens of brand new promises. I think this is the year Disney has to show us what is real, what has changed, when we might actually experience it, and what may be quietly slipping away while nobody was looking.
Do we finally find out what Villains Land is really going to be called? I have a theory, and it starts with a mountain. Could Figment and Dreamfinder finally return to EPCOT, and what if the answer isn't the one we've all been asking for? Is Tomorrowland quietly undergoing a complete transformation? Does Disney's Animal Kingdom finally get a nighttime spectacular? And what is the one surprise that nobody sees coming?
Some of these are possible. Some are wild cards. And some are simply fun to dream about. That is part of what makes D23 so special.
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✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com
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LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.
🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.
Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!

875 · The runDisney Companion: Your Race Day Guide from Fantasy to Finish Line
Before sunrise at Walt Disney World, thousands of people round the bend toward Cinderella Castle and fall in love with running in a way most guests never will. That is runDisney - and whether you are eyeing your very first 5K or chasing your next Dopey, there has never been one book to take you from registration to the finish line. Until now.
In WDW Radio #875, Lou Mongello sits down with Lisa DiNoto Glassner, founder of The Castle Run, to talk about her brand new book, The runDisney Companion: Your Race Day Guide from Fantasy to Finish Line and Beyond. It is the guide so many runners wished they had - part race day handbook, part love letter to the runDisney community, and part a collection of hard-won lessons that reach far beyond the finish line.
Lou and Lisa get into everything that makes a runDisney race work, from the 5K and 10K to the Princess Half Marathon and the full Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. They cover how to survive registration morning, why entering through a charity can be the smartest move, how to start training from scratch, how doable a 5K really is, the one mistake nearly every new runner makes, and why getting to the start line is harder than getting to the finish line. Plus the dozen life lessons at the heart of the book, why the community cheers louder for the last finisher than the first, and Lisa's simple challenge to anyone still on the fence - if you love Disney, you owe it to yourself to do a 5K.
There is a powerful personal story behind the book too, one of grief, running as healing, and the courage to walk away from one life to begin another. But at its core, as Lisa says, it is not about running at all. It is about the courage to step up to the starting line, before you know how the story ends.
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LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.
🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.
Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!

874 · The Walt Disney World Time Capsule - What Would You Put in the Box?
It is 2076. Someone digs up a sealed time capsule in Walt Disney World. What did we choose to leave them?
This week on WDW Radio, we build a Walt Disney World time capsule - a snapshot of the parks exactly as they exist in 2026. And there is one rule attached to it that changes every single answer.
One attraction. One resort. One song. One snack. One smell. One sound. One price. More than a dozen categories in all, spanning Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom, and the Walt Disney World resorts - and none of them are as easy as they sound.
Along the way: the real time capsules Disney has already buried at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and the wonderfully surprising things they chose to seal inside them. The pick that broke the rule in the very first category. And the one thing we each wanted to make sure went in that box, no matter what.
Plus a final item that is not an object at all.
So what would you put in the box? Call the voicemail and tell me, and I will play your answers on a future show.
📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391
✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com
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WDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nights
Events & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!

LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.
🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.
Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!