868 · Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress: History, Debate & What's Next
WDW Radio: Your Guide to the Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise and More Disney Magic!
Lou Mongello - Disney Expert
4.8 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
868 · Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress: History, Debate & What's Next
The Carousel of Progress reimagining announcement sparked one of the most passionate Disney fan conversations in recent memory.
Some fans are excited. Others are heartbroken. Many are somewhere in between.
And all of it makes complete sense - because this attraction isn't just a show. For a lot of us, it's a memory. A person. A moment that lives somewhere deep.
But before you land on how you feel, there's a story you need to hear. One that starts not with the announcement - but in the 1950s, with Walt Disney himself, and an idea that never made it off the drawing board. Because when you understand where Carousel of Progress actually came from, and how many times it has already changed, what Disney just announced looks like something very different.
In Episode 868, we trace the complete history - from Edison Square to the 1964 World's Fair to every revision across six decades - and into every detail of what is coming in 2027. The new scenes. The Walt Disney animatronic. The off-planet finale drawn from John Hench's original concept art. The fan reaction breakdown. And the case, built on Walt's own words, for why the carousel moving again after 30 years might be exactly what he always intended.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. |
| 0:06.7 | Well, the robins are back. |
| 0:08.6 | That's a sure sign of spring. |
| 0:11.3 | What year is it? |
| 0:12.7 | Oh, just before the turn of the century. |
| 0:16.3 | There's a great big beautiful tomorrow. |
| 0:20.7 | Signing at the end of every day |
| 0:23.5 | You wrote, now is the time, now is the best time, now is the best time of your life |
| 0:30.1 | And so we wrote that song, and they loved that |
| 0:32.8 | Ooh, how to summer we've had in years? |
| 0:37.5 | Well, we've progressed a long way since the turn of the century 20 years ago. |
| 0:42.4 | Progress is something we can't take for granted. |
| 0:45.3 | Progress takes a lot of people wanting it and willing to work for it. |
| 1:01.6 | Disney just announced the biggest change in the history of Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress and Disney fans are having feelings. Some are excited, some are heartbroken, some are already calling it a |
| 1:08.8 | mistake because after more than 30 years, one of Walt |
| 1:12.2 | Disney World's most beloved attractions is about to become something entirely new. |
| 1:17.7 | But here's a question I don't think anybody's stopping to ask. Is Disney changing Carousel |
| 1:22.3 | of Progress? We're finally doing exactly what Walt intended. This week, we're going back to Disneyland and the 1964 World's Fair, |
| 1:31.3 | to Walt Disney himself, to the full history most people don't know, |
| 1:35.3 | and to every detail of what's coming in 2027. |
| 1:38.3 | We're looking at how the internet is reacting, |
| 1:41.3 | and why I think the most interesting reaction is the one that holds |
... |
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