As Winter comes to a close and Spring approaches, I welcome you to the third article of my monthly 2025 series where we discuss everything of importance coming in the month ahead! In comparison, March at Walt Disney World is shaping up to not be as busy as January was, but there's certainly more to talk about as opposed to February.
With that being said, here's everything projected to be happening at the Walt Disney World theme parks in March of 2025. Hope you enjoy!
March 2025
March is typically the month where the weather starts to become noticeably warmer, and the crowds also start to get more heavy. With it being the headliner month for Spring Break vacationing, the following dates are the most important ones you'll need to keep in mind.
Wednesday, March 5th
Our monthly timeline begins at the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, also known as EPCOT!
The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival will kick off its annual Springtime debut the first week of March, and will be lasting until June 2nd. This year marks the festival's 30th anniversary, so there's a little bit more in store for us than there normally has been during past festivals. For those that weren't aware, Flower and Garden was EPCOT's original seasonal festival when it debuted all the way back in 1995!
For a quick rundown, beyond just the new food offerings and new lines of merchandise that will be available, there's some more noteworthy additions that will make this year's festival just a little bit more unique. For starters, a new exhibit is expected to debut inside CommuniCore Hall to help commemorate the festivities. Unlike the Disney on Broadway exhibit for Festival of the Arts, we don't have any concept art to work off of here, but we do have a brief description from Disney...
"There’s a new activation getting ready to bloom at CommuniCore Hall! Get a bee’s eye view at CommuniCore Hall, with a new gallery that is larger than life! Grab a bite at the Farmers Feast and learn more about how Disney’s Horticulture team brings topiaries, flower towers, and more to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival."
If this exhibit is anything like the former one from this year's Festival of the Arts, I'm sure it'll be great. Disney finally seems to be addressing the glaring issues that many guests have had with CommuniCore Hall, and we love to see it. Without unique and entertaining exhibition spaces, it's a rather lifeless and sterile building. Seeing Disney get creative with the space to make it fresh and exciting is exactly what the multipurpose flex space should be used for, and it's great that CommuniCore Hall is finally living up to its true potential. Hopefully that tradition continues with this year's Flower and Garden Festival.
Aside from CommuniCore Hall, other noteworthy additions include the return of the popular butterfly garden situated in between the Imagination Pavilion and The Land Pavilion. According to Disney, this year's garden will showcase "the language of emotions as shown in plants" and will be inspired by Disney and Pixar's Inside Out.
Finally, in between the Imagination Pavilion and the World Showcase, the Yacht and Beach Club will be getting some well-deserved representation! Younger guests will be able to burn off some energy at a new nautical-themed playground called the "Playalong Bay Play Garden." As for food, guests can grab a bite to eat nearby at two new outdoor kitchens, fittingly called "Yacht Grub" and "Beach Grub."
The 2025 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever. Be on the look out for a vlog coming your way sometime shortly after the festival debuts for all the latest happening!
Friday, March 14th
Hopping over to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Kali River Rapids will reopen after its two-month annual Winter refurbishment.
I mentioned this back in my January article when the attraction closed temporarily in the middle of the month, but this refurb came as no surprise. Being a complex water attraction, Kali River Rapids requires annual care and upkeep, and closing the attraction during the colder and less-crowded Winter months at the beginning of the year makes a lot of sense from an operational standpoint. As the weather begins to warm up and Spring Break crowds start to roll in, a March 14th reopening date is perfect timing.
Saturday, March 15th
On that same note, heading back over to EPCOT, the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros will be reopening from its two-month long refurbishment. The attraction closed temporarily back in early January, and details regarding this refurb still remain fairly scarce. There's been no exact reasoning from Disney for why the closure took place, but a timeframe of only two months doesn't necessarily signal anything substantial.
Again, probably nothing major that'll be coming out of this refurb, but it'll be nice to have this underrated EPCOT gem back open and operational again. Its reopening date makes sense too, as Spring Break crowds begin to flock to the parks in the middle of the month.
Monday, March 17th
Alright, this date is important.
Back at Disney's Animal Kingdom, It's Tough to be a Bug! will permanently close. The show will have its final day of operation the day before on Sunday, March 16th before closing forever. This is all in preparation for the new Zootopia show coming to the the Tree of Life Theater later this year. More specifically, the show is planned to debut in "Winter 2025."
"The newest show coming to the Tree of Life Theater features Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, and all their friends from Walt Disney Animation Studio's Zootopia. The show, “Zootopia: Better Zoogether!” will take guests on an adventure through different biomes seen in the film and opens Winter 2025."
I've already discussed my thoughts on this new addition in more detail in a separate article when the closing date for It's Tough to be a Bug! was announced back in early February, so if you'd like to give that a read, click here!
At the time of writing this, you still have about two and half weeks remaining until Flick and his friends migrate out of the Tree of Life. While I will miss an original Animal Kingdom attraction, I'm cautiously optimistic for what will come after it. I believe a November opening date for Zootopia: Better Zoogether! is most likely, considering that Zootopia 2 will hit the big screen Thanksgiving weekend. I would imagine Disney would want to time the opening of the show concurrently with the film, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Sometime in Late March
Those are the only four concrete dates we have for the month of March, but that doesn't mean there isn't more happening. Over at Disney's Hollywood Studios, construction on the new Monsters Inc. land replacing Grand Avenue is expected to begin work. Yes, you read that correctly.
But wait - isn't all of Grand Avenue closing at a later date? Also yes.
Back in late January, Disney gave us the closing dates for the experiences you can currently find over in Grand Avenue. Starting on Saturday, May 10th, Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano will have its final day of operation before closing forever the following day on Sunday, May 11th. As for Muppet*Vision 3D and PizzeRizzo, those will remain open for about another month before closing permanently on Sunday, June 8th, with your last day to experience both of them on Saturday, June 7th.
So, what kind of construction work could possibly be starting in March if nothing is closing until May at the earliest? To make an educated guess, let's take a look at the concept art down below.
See where Harryhausen's is? (The white building with the two chopsticks holding up an eyeball.) That's what Mama Melrose's will eventually be reimagined into. But that's not important (for now). What's important is the "empty" space in front of it where the green and magenta-colored trees are located.
Currently, the empty park space in front of Harryhausen's is where the Stage 1 Company Store is currently situated, which has been closed for years. The store has only been open for special occasions, with the most recent examples being for the park's 35th anniversary back in May of last year and for Disney's Jollywood Nights. During these occasions, the store has sold exclusive lines of merchandise for guests visiting, but that's about it. Other than that, the store has not operated during regular park hours for years. The reason being is simply unknown.
Let's go back to the concept art. Clearly, Disney needs to remove this store in order to match the concept art's vision. When they say work will begin before the end of the month, I would imagine their first order of business would be to completely demolish the Stage 1 Company Store in order to open up the area for heavier future construction.
Another possibility is for Disney to begin work on the Door Factory suspended rollercoaster that will be located all the way in the back of the land. Arguably requiring the most construction time, Disney may also want to begin work there, too.
That's not to say we're going to see vertical construction begin on the coaster this month, because that seems out of the question. The footprint of the major E-Ticket attraction will bleed into what is currently backstage parking for Cast Members, so land clearing and site prep must begin first before construction even has a chance of going vertical. If everything goes quickly, we could see some major vertical work begin as early as sometime this Summer, but that's only a guess.
We don't have an exact opening date for when this entire land will be finished, but my estimate is sometime in 2028. Considering the Tropical Americas over at Animal Kingdom is targeted for a 2027 completion date, another new land opening the following year seems likely. If you'd like to see a more in-depth overview about the scope and scale of what construction will soon look like, I'd highly recommend watching my video here!
The Future of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom
Alright, and one more thing to wrap up this article. Similarly to my recent February article, let's discuss something that could potentially happen in March. No guarantees though.
So what's the deal with Frontierland? More specifically, what's the current status of the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island? Well, we don't really know.
Back in the middle of February, the Florida government (SFWMD) finally approved Disney's ambitious permits for demolishing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island in favor of constructing two new attractions based around Disney and Pixar's Cars. This permit also grants Disney permission to spearhead future development of unused land where the proposed Villains land will go in the coming years. Considering the almost 6-month delay of getting these problematic construction permits approved, you'd think Disney would have announced a closing date for this section of Frontierland by now, but they haven't.
The reason? No idea. Obviously, I'm not itching for these two classic Magic Kingdom attractions to close by any means, but I'm shocked that we're still waiting on an official closing date.
As for when we could see the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island bid farewell, I still think March is a possibility, but it's becoming increasingly unrealistic with each passing day. If it does close this month, we're probably talking very late March. If it doesn't, April almost seems like a sure bet, but even that's not guaranteed. According to Disney, work was supposed to begin on this project in "early 2025." While I'd certainly qualify January and February as being in "early 2025," I don't think I can categorize March in the same timeframe.
In short, the clock is ticking on the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, and they're bound to close soon. I'd be shocked if Disney kept these attractions open into the Summer, but at this point, who knows.
That's all for March 2025! I know article content in February was fairly scarce, but I'm planning on adding more articles all throughout the upcoming month. Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope you found the content in this article informational.
This is great and timely information - thank you! You do a terrific job keeping us informed on all things happening at WDW!