While we didn’t get any major news about Disneyland Forward or the much needed makeover of Tomorrowland, there were a few surprise announcements at this year’s D23 Expo that will hopefully make us Disneyland fans happy.

By now, you’ve all probably seen the news stories about the new attractions and shows coming to the Disneyland Resort, but as a so-called Disneyland expert, I wanted to share my thoughts…in no particular order. If you missed any of the announcements, I’ve included links.

First, we heard some good news for Critter Country in that construction has progressed enough for us to finally get an opening date for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: November 15th. Hopefully, that also means that the dead end in that side of the park will be gone as well. I also hope that our version is not plagued with the technical difficulties of its East Coast counterpart. Either way, I’m excited to SPLASH through the bayou with Tiana.

Next year is the 70th birthday of Disneyland, and while it’s premature to expect any major announcements about the celebration, we did get one little tidbit that could be related to the party and that’s the brand new show coming to the Main Street Opera House, “Walt Disney-A Magical Life.”

While some may think that an audio-animatronic figure of Walt Disney is sacrilegious and not an appropriate way to tell his story, I trust the imagineers to do this well. There is no way they would screw this up. Can you imagine?

I am excited that this show will breathe new life into the Opera House, but also glad that “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln” is not disappearing completely.

Another update is happening way in the back corner of Disneyland Park, though not quite to Disneyland Forward. We are (already) getting an update to Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run that will include The Mandalorian and Grogu.

I’m not sure that it’s quite time yet for an update to that attraction as the lines are still significant, but the popularity of Mando can’t be argued with. As with the new show at the Opera House, I’m hoping we will still be able to experience both versions of the attraction.

That is all the news for Disneyland Park. As I said earlier, there was nothing about Tomorrowland or even a new parade or fireworks show. I would say that things are a little disappointing on this side of the esplanade.

So, let’s move south into Disney California Adventure where there was news of at least FOUR new attractions in the works. We all expected news of the new ride in Avengers Campus that has been teased for a while, but the others were unexpected and maybe a little puzzling.

Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger teased a new Avatar project coming to the Disneyland Resort, but I assumed, as did many, that this would be part of Disneyland Forward. We now know that this new land is coming to California Adventure.

I am among the 1% of the world that isn’t a fan of the Avatar films, but more attractions in the parks is almost always a good thing, especially one this immersive.

While there is a bit of room to expand behind Avengers Campus, we know that is saved for a greater purpose. So, where will the blue people go? Are we hearing about things related to Disneyland Forward without calling it Disneyland Forward, or are we saying goodbye to an existing area or attraction? Will the bulldozers pay a visit to Hollywood Land or maybe the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail?

As if that wasn’t enough, we are also getting a Coco boat ride?? I love Coco so this excites me, plus boat rides usually have massive capacity and that’s always a good thing for California Adventure. When, where and how are the questions. This seems to be a stand-alone attraction that doesn’t really fit in any of the existing areas of California Adventure, so I’m at a loss to as to where it will be. Could Pixar Pier be expanding? I guess I’ll just have to let the Imagineers figure it out.

Finally, the announcement we all came for and that’s the new E-ticket attraction at Avengers Campus. I’m excited to hear even more about Avengers Infinity Defense, including what ride technology will actually be used.

Three attractions will really fill out the land…I’m looking at you Galaxy’s Edge…but wait, there’s more. A FOURTH attraction? That’s right, we are also getting a nausea-inducing attraction called Stark Flight Lab. With each ride vehicle only holding two guests, this one may have capacity issues, along with the clean up issues.

I enjoy Web Slingers and Guardians of the Galaxy-Mission: BREAKOUT! is one of my favorite attractions at California Adventure, so I’m excited that they are expanding Avengers Campus in a big way. The great thing is that both of these attractions will likely go in what is now a backstage area, so for a while at least, construction walls shouldn’t disrupt our park experience.

While we always want more out of the D23 Expo, this year Josh D’Amaro promised that any announcements he made would be about projects that WILL BE coming to Disney Parks. The days of unkept promises or vague blue sky ideas seem to be over and we’re all happy about that.

Hopefully, we will hear more soon about the expansion of the Disneyland Resort, but until then, I am satisfied with the little bit of love that we’re getting here on the West Coast.