Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World has reopened from refurbishment after a multi-month closure, with zero advance notice or fanfare. This offers the latest news and what has not changed, plus our commentary about the future of the Liberty Square show in the 2030s and beyond and why a reimagining is inevitable.
Let’s start with the original announcement about the closure. Until today, this was the only thing Walt Disney World had revealed about the refurbishment: “The Hall of Presidents will temporarily close for refurbishment on January 20, 2025, and is expected to reopen later in 2025.” There was no specific end date to the project, which wasn’t necessarily surprising; it was typical for this type of project and consistent with HoP closures in the past.
At the start of the last refurbishment, it was a similar scenario, with the company issuing a similar statement. The difference then was that Disney would later (also quietly) confirm that President Biden would be added to the Hall of Presidents and that the attraction would reopen later in the year. That summer, Walt Disney World shared a behind-the-scenes look at Hall of Presidents and the new Joe Biden Audio Animatronics figure that would be installed. The attraction would go on to reopen without fanfare on August 3, 2021.
The biggest difference here is that Walt Disney World already has an Audio Animatronics figure of Donald Trump from ~8 years ago. He also recorded dialogue for Hall of Presidents then. As you’re no doubt aware, Trump is only the second president in U.S. history to be elected for two non-consecutive terms. More significantly for our purposes, he’s the first to do so since the Hall of Presidents opened at Walt Disney World.
Given that, it was unclear whether Imagineering would reuse his prior recording and Audio Animatronics figure, or make additional updates. Our expectation was that Imagineering would simply reuse the existing Trump AA, which was updated to look more true-to-life during the last refurbishment. We also expected that his dialogue would be reduced to just the oath of office, consistent with the shortened format introduced for the Biden presidency (removing the speech–just having the current POTUS deliver the oath of office).
In other words, there’d be changes from pre-2021, but they’d be utilizing existing assets–no new film, newly-recorded dialogue, advanced Audio Animatronics, etc. Hall of Presidents isn’t exactly a marketable attraction around which many people book trips, so investing in another big-budget refurbishment seemed unlikely.
Theoretically, Walt Disney World could’ve done a quick refurbishment, having the attraction closed for a month or perhaps less. From the beginning, we cautioned against expecting this, suggesting that the refurbishment may last longer than “necessary.” There are few things Walt Disney World loves more than saving on operating expenses, and they likely budget around a 6-8 month closure of this attraction every 4 years.
Even more recently in the face of rumors to the contrary, we reiterated that the likely plan was for Walt Disney World to quietly reopen Hall of Presidents. After all, the lobby to the attraction had reopened in recent weeks as a place for guests to beat the heat–a strong signal that the venue as a whole had been turned over from construction teams to park operations.
In all likelihood, the Hall of Presidents would post hours without fanfare and simply be operational again. With the summer heating up and Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat all about to permanently close in one week, and Starlight debuting, we had hoped Hall of Presidents would reopen before Independence Day.
That’s exactly what has occurred. Walt Disney World quietly reopened Hall of Presidents this morning (June 29, 2025), giving no advance notice that the historic Liberty Square attraction would operate today.
The company simply updated the attraction’s DisneyWorld.com page to add operating hours when the clock struck 9 am this morning. With that, Hall of Presidents is open from 9 am to 9 pm for the remainder of this month. No hours are posted yet for July 2025, but we assume those are still being loaded into the site.
Walt Disney World also updated the description for Hall of Presidents, rebutting “rumors” and confirming that the current president will still have a speaking role: “Watch the curtain rise to reveal startlingly realistic Audio-Animatronics replicas of every President of the United States—together for the very first time. Hear a speech delivered by George Washington and a recorded performance of the oath of office by President Donald Trump.” (Emphasis added.)
If you’ve followed the various updates on this blog, you know there are air quotes around rumors because those never had any basis in reality. From what we had heard (repeatedly), that was a purely speculative attempt at connecting dots that are not there mixed with a bit of partisan cynicism or wishful thinking, as the case may be.
There were credible rumors about Hall of Presidents long before the election, but those died a while ago–before last November. None of the rumblings about the Muppets takeover, format change, or lack of a speaking role were accurate once 2025 rolled around. As we discuss below, the show is likely safe in its current format until 2029. It changing at some point is inevitable, but not anytime soon.
What’s most interesting here is that Walt Disney World just had a big ‘dates drop’ for refurbishments late last week, only two days before Hall of Presidents reopened! In our post about that, Walt Disney World Reveals Major Magic Kingdom & EPCOT Ride Refurbishments for 2025-2026, we even touched on Hall of Presidents, mentioning that the attraction could still reopen at any time with no notice. This should nevertheless underscore just how delicately Disney is handling this controversial attraction.
We hope Hall of Presidents never goes extinct. It’s a fantastic piece of Disney history and a great “counterprogramming” option in Magic Kingdom. One of Walt Disney’s passion projects was Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. This debuted at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and still exists to this day at Disneyland. The Hall of Presidents built upon the show’s legacy–expanding it to all presidents–when it opened in 1971 at Magic Kingdom.
Walt Disney had no direct involvement in its creation, but his fingerprints and legacy are all over it. In 1956, Walt Disney announced plans for a Liberty Street at Disneyland to be located behind the east side of Main Street. Included in this unbuilt expansion would’ve been a hall of presidential figures as mannequins. Walt wasn’t satisfied with the presidents being simple wax figures, so he tasked his team at WED with coming up with something more ambitious for the World’s Fair.
A lot has changed since then, and the actual Hall of Presidents attraction has evolved considerably in its 50+ years. The Hall of Presidents adopted its current structure in 1993 when President Clinton was added. He became the first sitting president with a speaking role in Hall of Presidents. With the benefit of hindsight, this was a colossal mistake. It’s also a bell that Disney could still “unring” if they so desired.
Regardless, Hall of Presidents is an iconic attraction with a rich history that ties to both the opening of Walt Disney World back in 1971 and the company’s founder.
It’s historic, significant, and deserves a space in Magic Kingdom. It’s also one of the rare attractions with a longer runtime than its wait time. A perfect opportunity to get off your feet and take a breather for a bit.
Closing Hall of Presidents would be a mistake. And we expect exactly that to happen sometime in our lifetimes. I’d be shocked if Hall of Presidents survives the 2030s in its current form. This is hardly a bold statement, and the same sentiment that animated all of the speculation about the attraction format being altered or reimagined.
Hall of Presidents has turned into a powder keg for Walt Disney World, as should be obvious by the way the refurbishments have been handled over the last few election cycles. Giving no prior notice for the attraction’s reopening or promoting it in any way–especially when a wide-ranging refurbishment update was just released two days ago–should underscore how controversial Hall of Presidents has become.
As for its future prospects, one possibility is that Liberty Square will either be redeveloped into something else, or absorbed into Frontierland and Fantasyland. This seems unlikely. One thing that Imagineers have revealed in the Piston Peak development process is the care they’re taking to preserve sightlines from Liberty Square, viewing the land as its own version of Cape Code (at Tokyo DisneySea).
More likely is that Hall of Presidents will be reimagined to take on a different tone. At this point, Hall of Presidents is likely safe until 2029. Waiting until then gives Disney time to make the announcement in early 2028 ahead of a (hopefully!) less polarizing election. It avoids the inevitable general public controversy that would accompany a reimagining announced after one of the candidates wins–controversies that will accompany every single election for the foreseeable future if Disney delays the announcement until after Election Day.
If Hall of Presidents is going to change, my sincere hope is that it’s a mostly lateral move–another meaty show that can still be appreciated by patriotic Disney fans. From that perspective, the option that would be best-received among WDW diehards is the “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” stage show that’s debuting in 2025 for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary. If that’s popular (and why wouldn’t it be?) in California, it could be brought to Magic Kingdom to run in tandem with Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
In my view, this would be the ideal solution. Although it would require a significant upfront investment, it would have far fewer Audio Animatronics, so Walt Disney World would like the lower operating and maintenance expense. It would also be uncontroversial, as Walt Disney and Abraham Lincoln are among the two most popular Americans of all-time. Finally, it’d be a fantastic legacy attraction.
While there’s a lot of time between now and 2029 or the mid-2030s, and plenty of good ideas could be born between now and then, replacing Hall of Presidents with Walt Disney – A Magical Life and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln strikes me as the perfect compromise that respects the legacy of this space, the company’s founder, and our great nation’s history. If replacing attractions were a democratic process, I’d vote for this option.
Well, assuming “maintain the status quo and keep Hall of Presidents intact” weren’t running for reelection. I would also be perfectly fine with eliminating the speaking role–even the oath of office–for the current president. If that’s going to happen, it just needs to be telegraphed long before the election. With Disney’s reputational woes due to accusations of political bias, the company really cannot afford to be viewed as politicizing the Hall of Presidents.
Ultimately, the Hall of Presidents should unify Americans around our nation’s founding, the formation of our Constitution, and our hard-fought struggles along the way. The attraction is about the office of the presidency, and not the current occupant of that office.
Hall of Presidents showcases how the United States has risen to solve common challenges and collective problems through the lens of the presidency. Anyone paying attention would know it’s not about individuals, and it should be an antidote to political tensions.
What it should be and what it is are, sadly, two different things. It’s understandable that many people want escapism out of Walt Disney World, and Hall of Presidents is a non-starter for them irrespective of their political persuasions. Beyond that, there has been a chorus of (apolitical) complaints for decades that Hall of Presidents is overly long, boring, and dry.
My take, as always, is that not everything needs to be for everyone. Trying to cater to every guest with every attraction is a fool’s errand that makes everything bland. There are plenty of rides and shows we almost never do because they’re not for us. It’s perfectly fine that Hall of Presidents is not for everyone. So long as it keeps the air-conditioning, it’s going to appeal to many Walt Disney World visitors.
However, I’m also a realist. It’s patently obvious that in this hyper-partisan era, many people simply cannot separate the office from its current occupant. We can talk about how guests should behave or what they should appreciate until we’re blue in the face. It’s another fool’s errand–good for online discourse, but not much else.
At some point, Walt Disney World will determine that Hall of Presidents is more trouble than it’s worth, and that low satisfaction coupled with lack of demand and the problems with that attraction necessitate a closure or reimagining. Honestly, I’m surprised that point hasn’t already been reached. Disney has been walking on eggshells with Hall of Presidents for a while–as evidenced by the reopening with zero fanfare–so if you enjoy the current format, you might want to see it and say your goodbyes before it’s too late.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Pleased that Hall of Presidents has reopened in time for Independence Day? Will you be visiting the attraction while saying goodbyes to Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat? Hope the show does or does not change formats in the 2030s? If it’s going to change, does it need to be announced long before an election? Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts and commentary? Keep the comments civil and non-partisan; avoid insults or endorsements of political candidates, or perpetuating pointless culture wars. Respectfully arguing about the attraction is totally fine, but don’t debate politics, attack people or troll for controversy. We will be heavy-handed in deleting any comments that cross the line, irrespective of viewpoint.
