Inside Walt Disney Imagineering's Decade of Struggle: Budget Cuts, Cancelled Attractions, and a $1.8 Billion Cruise Ship

A sweeping new feature from The Wall Street Journal has pulled back the curtain on Walt Disney Imagineering, revealing a decade of internal struggles that have shaped—and in many cases, constrained—the creative direction of Disney's theme parks and cruise ships.

The investigation paints a picture of a legendary creative division caught between artistic ambition and corporate mandates, with Imagineers repeatedly pushing for original concepts only to be overruled by executives focused on leveraging existing intellectual property.

The End of Original Stories

Perhaps the most striking revelation involves the near-complete shift away from original attraction concepts that defined Disney parks for decades. While classic attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise emerged from Imagineering's creative freedom, that tradition has largely vanished since the 2010s.

Barbara Bouza, who served as president of Walt Disney Imagineering from 2020 to 2024, told the Journal that the desire for original stories remains strong among Imagineers. "At every all-hands meeting, I would be asked if we'd get to create new Imagineering original stories again," Bouza revealed.

The shift traces back to Bob Iger's first stint as CEO beginning in 2005, when "focus on franchises" became the guiding creative principle. The result has been a parade of IP-driven attractions: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Pandora – The World of Avatar, multiple Frozen-themed experiences, and countless rethemes of existing attractions to incorporate film characters.

A $40 Million Bargain That Became a $1.8 Billion Money Pit

The Journal's investigation also exposed the dramatic cost overruns on Disney's newest cruise ship, the Disney Adventure. When Disney acquired the partially-built Global Dream from bankrupt Genting Hong Kong in 2022 for just $40 million, executives believed they had scored an incredible deal. Initial estimates put the completion cost at around $1 billion—less than half what Disney typically spends to build a new vessel from scratch.

Then the Imagineers got to work.

The challenge was unprecedented: the massive ship had been designed for casinos, lounges, and adult entertainment, not families and Disney characters. Former Imagineer Justin Newton, who oversaw the retrofit before joining SeaWorld owner United Parks & Resorts, described the undertaking in stark terms: "It was like trying to turn a Honda into a Hummer."

The final cost? Approximately $1.8 billion—nearly double the original estimate. The project also ran behind schedule, forcing Disney to delay the maiden voyage from December 2025 to March 2026 and refund or reschedule thousands of reservations.

Despite the overruns, Imagineering leadership maintains the retrofit was worthwhile. "The Adventure will be Disney's biggest and most immersive ship, and retrofitting it saved years of work compared with building it from scratch," said Walt Disney Imagineering President Bruce Vaughn.

The Projects That Never Were

The investigation revealed several major attractions and refurbishments that were killed during the turbulent Chapek era, when budget constraints and lack of trust between executives and Imagineers reached a peak.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was originally designed with five different missions, offering guests variety and replayability. Due to budget and time constraints, the attraction opened with only one mission at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. A second storyline featuring Din Djarin and Grogu won't arrive until May 2026—years after the attraction's 2019 debut.

Disneyland's Tomorrowland was slated for a massive refurbishment, with rumors pointing to a $600 million reimagining of the entire land. Disney executives deemed it not worth the investment. As former Imagineer Theron Skees, who spent 23 years at WDI before leaving in 2020, put it: the dream Disney job "wasn't fun anymore."

Avengers Campus E-Ticket: A major attraction at Disney California Adventure would have sent guests aboard a Quinjet to fly alongside the Avengers in an epic adventure to Wakanda. The project was cancelled because "senior parks executives didn't trust Walt Disney Imagineering could deliver projects on time and on budget."

The Chapek Effect

The Journal's reporting details how Bob Chapek's tenure, first as Parks chairman beginning in 2015 and then as CEO from 2020 to 2022, fundamentally changed Imagineering's culture. Chapek believed WDI had not been held to the same disciplinary level as the rest of the company and implemented strict budget and schedule oversight.

Bob Weis, who served as president of Walt Disney Imagineering from 2016 to 2022, wrote in his memoir "Dream Chasing" that "Senior financial executives were visiting WDI daily, sitting down to approve or disapprove budget items, even tiny ones, line by line."

The post-Shanghai Disneyland period saw significant downsizing, with buyouts offered to Imagineers who had been with the company at least 20 years—resulting in a massive loss of institutional knowledge and experience. The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse, with 411 Imagineers laid off in 2020 after being furloughed.

The aborted Florida relocation added to the chaos. When Disney announced plans to move Imagineering's headquarters from Glendale, California, to Lake Nona, Florida, many left the company. When the plan was cancelled in 2023, "some people were screaming with joy and others were crying because they had bought a house," recalled former Imagineer David Kalbeitzer.

A Glimmer of Hope

Despite the frustrations, Imagineers told the Journal they're currently most excited about one specific project: Villains Land at Magic Kingdom.

While the land will feature characters from classic Disney films including Snow White, Peter Pan, and Aladdin, it's not based on a specific film. That distinction makes it "the closest thing to an original land in Disney's U.S. parks in 25 years," according to the Journal.

With Disney committing $60 billion to parks, cruise ships, and related technology over the next decade—nearly doubling the investment of the previous ten years—and Bruce Vaughn back at the helm of Imagineering, there's hope that the creative division might reclaim some of its former autonomy.

Whether that hope translates into the kind of original storytelling that defined Disney parks for generations remains to be seen. But for now, the Imagineers keep dreaming—and keep asking when they'll get to create something truly new.

Until next time, keep believing in magic. — Behind the Wish