At Disney's Animal Kingdom, Expedition Everest yeti has been stuck in place since 2006. It broke a few months after the ride opened, and its location made repairs so hard that Disney's Imagineers, the company's design team, used strobe lights to make it look like it was moving.
Fans nicknamed it the Disco Yeti.
Thomas Mazloum said, "We are bringing the yeti back to life." The creature debuted as the largest and most technically complicated audio-animatronic, a life-size robot, that Disney Imagineering had built up to that point.
The repair is a small part of Disney's decade-long investment plan, but it points to Mazloum's larger strategy.
He also announced that Dreamfinder and Figment would return to Epcot in Florida and that Tomorrowland in California would get a major overhaul. "They're small, they're immediate, but they're meaningful," he told CNBC, because people grew up with those stories.
Mazloum took over the parks role after Josh D'Amaro became Disney CEO. He is balancing giant projects aimed at occasional visitors with faster, smaller updates for annual passholders and frequent guests.
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"Our job is to listen carefully and then find a way to harmonize the different needs and wants," he said. He added that the simplest way to frame his job is putting fans and guests at the center of decision-making.
Disney Experiences, the division that includes parks, cruises, and consumer products, posted nearly $10 billion in revenue in the fiscal third quarter.
That was up 10% from the same quarter a year earlier and a quarterly record. Mazloum said the fan-focused strategy is paying off.
Domestic park attendance rose 3, helped by Disney's Cool Kids Summer promotion, which added a unique "character encounters, dance parties, air-conditioned lounges, and free water-park admission" for hotel guests on check-in day.
Guest spending rose 4%. That is a good sign for the high-spending loyalists Mazloum wants to keep happy.
He is counting on those frequent visitors to steady the business through economic uncertainty and uneven travel demand. Last month, Comcast reported softer theme-park attendance, especially in Orlando, while Disney's domestic attendance and guest spending went the other way.
Long-term, Disney needs big attractions to pull in people from different states and other countries, and those projects include Avengers Campus expansion, Villains Land, a Frontierland retheme built around Cars, and Tropical Americas land. Big franchise names have powered parks for years, and Disney's library keeps growing.
At the same time, frequent visitors often care less about a new land and more about live entertainment, character greetings, seasonal food, festivals, parades, and nighttime shows, so Disney is bringing back "Remember Dreams Come True" fireworks at Disneyland, the original "World of Color" at California Adventure, and "Magic Happens" parade. It recently refurbished Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Muppets-themed Muppets Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
The Carousel of Progress renovation wraps up in late-spring 2027.
The Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis land opens in 2027.
Gavin Doyle of MickeyVisit.com said the new announcements show Disney is listening to what fans want. The reaction in the room, he said, was cheering and thunderous applause because people feel Disney hears them.
None of this means Disney doesn't still have to worry about the economy. Travel spending can wobble, and theme parks are a big-ticket purchase.
Observation: Mazloum's plan is to lean on the people who love these stories the most, and for your portfolio, that is the question that matters. Can nostalgia keep bringing fans back in a year when travel demand is uneven?
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