4. Streets of America or Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge?

Once upon a time, Disney really expected for its "Studio" park in Florida to be a real, working movie studio first and a theme park second. When it opened in 1989, the park had only two rides – the Great Movie Ride, and the multi-hour, multi-modal Backstage Studio Tour that whisked guests through the park's real production facilities and backlots by foot and by tram.

Obviously, it quickly became clear that the Disney-MGM Studios wasn't really going to be a global hub of moviemaking... but it was a popular park with guests, who had to cram into its relatively low-capacity footprint. By the end of the park's first year, the New York Street set was annexed from the tram tour and used to expand the park's pedestrian footprint. It didn't have any rides, but like a pressure release valve, it gave guests more to see and do. In 2004, Disney added a studio flat representing San Francisco to the end of a cross street and thus renamed the space "Streets of America."

The 1989 New York street set lasted 27 years until it fell to make way for Disney's billion-dollar answer to the Wizarding World... Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Yes, the Streets of America are now part of the streets of Black Spire Outpost, a remote trader's village on the Outer Rim planet of Batuu where the Resistance has set up a base camp to hide away from the nefarious First Order. Few would argue that Galaxy's Edge wasn't worth the loss of the Streets of America...

...But whether it was worth the loss of the Streets' iconic "Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights" that brought the Streets to life every holiday season...? Maybe that's the question for you to answer...

5. Pacific Wharf or San Fransokyo Square?

It's hard to say that San Fransokyo Square replaced Pacific Wharf in the way that the rest of the lands on this list did... but in some ways, the new, IP-based, Disney Animation-oriented land is very much a reinvention.

Basically, Pacific Wharf was a part of California Adventure since its 2001 opening. Even though it was "just" a food court (stylized to resemble Monterrey's Cannery Row or San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf), Pacific Wharf was one of the more detailed, beautiful, "timeless" areas in the park. Even though it was upgraded to full "land" status in 2012, Pacific Wharf was still "just" a food court, wedged between Cars Land and Paradise Pier, meaning it couldn't really fit a ride even if Disney wanted it to (unless they wanted to displace picnic tables for a spinner). 

Disney's semi-annual D23 Expo in 2022 will probably always be remembered as the D23 when Disney didn't announce any new rides at all. But they did announce that Disney California Adventure was receiving a brand new land...! Well, kinda. Disney Animation's 2014 film Big Hero 6 takes place in the vibrant, multiversal metropolis of San Fransokyo – a version of San Francisco hybridized with Japanese culture, cuisine, and architecture. It's a near-future cityscape of incredible technologies, reigned over by floating wind turbines, and filled with "solar punk" solutions to what ails us. And unlike nearly everything that's come to Disney California Adventure since 2013, it actually makes sense in a park themed to California!

But excitement was quickly quelled when Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro finished the sentence, explaining that the park's version of San Fransokyo would amount to Disney's newest tool in the era of mandated IPs: "label slapping." Basically, Pacific Wharf would be renamed San Fransokyo Square. Sure, it would get oodles of new decoration, a new J-pop soundtrack, a Baymax meet-and-greet, new torii gate towers to its existing bridge, and (of course) a new gift shop. But this not-quite-a-new-land would still "just" be a food court.

Don't misunderstand – San Fransokyo Square is fun, and colorful, and vibrant, and – based on the same restaurants that have always been there now selling out of Mobile Orders – making more money than Pacific Wharf did. (In other words, it works, which is why Disney continues to "label slap" popular IPs onto existing things like Tiana's Palace, Pixar Pier, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, and more). But will it move the needle on the park's startlingly stagnant attendance? More to the point, is this "transformation" of Pacific Wharf a plus, a minus, or something in between?

6. Dinoland or Tropical Americas?

At the same D23 that spawned San Fransokyo Square, Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro and Animation head Jennifer Lee together launched into a very odd segment in which they showed detailed concept art... for things they were not announcing. Among their "this isn't official, it's just an idea" non-announcements were some airy, Blue Sky ideas, and one very concrete one.

In a first for the company, Disney basically said, "You all don't like Dinoland at Animal Kingdom, and neither do we. So we're telling you out loud that we're considering replacing it with Moana and Zootopia, but those are just examples, so who knows what - if anything - we'll actually do. But isn't it nice that we fully said out loud that we'll probably close Dinoland eventually?"

The idea that Zootopia - a movie that definitely has animals, but definitely is not about animals - might get a permanent land at Animal Kingdom created a year of disagreement and strife among Disney fans... only for us to find out at this year's smaller Destination D23 event that Disney didn't even go that direction.

Instead, Disney has verbally confirmed that they're not moving forward with the technically-never-announced Moana and Zootopia replacement for Dinoland. Instead, they have settled on what seems like a much more natural choice: that Dinoland will be transformed into a new land celebrating the "Tropical Americas" (basically, Central and northern South America). That, as far as we know, is locked in. What's relegated to more Blue Sky "possibilities" now is what IPs will populate the land. (Disney cites Encanto and Indiana Jones as potentials, which really ought to be as good as confirmed because those are clearly why they chose the "Tropical Americas" distinction to begin with.)

So even though this concept is still somewhat loose, it seems almost certain that Dinoland itself will make a fairly easy transition to a South American village, with the Dinosaur dark ride making its long-demanded transition to a version of Indiana Jones Adventure. Meanwhile, the not-so-beloved Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama looks to be the future home of the Casita from Encanto (albeit, likely housing only a meet-and-greet since the space can't fit a showbuilding).

If it happens, the Tropical Americas land will fit well with Animal Kingdom's precedents (like Asia and Africa), but it'll depart majorly from Disney's. Long gone are the days of "Tomorrowlands" and "Fantasylands" that can contain multiple IPs. Instead, Cars Land, Avengers Campus, Galaxy's Edge, Zootopia, The World of Frozen, Toy Story Land, Pandora, and everything else they've created in the last decade have been single-IP "Living Lands." The return of a more flexible, broadly-stylized space that can contain multiple different stories within it will be refreshing...! But it's still possible that by the time this concept becomes "official," it'll be called "Villa Madrigal: The World of Encanto."