Walt Disney Imagineering has filed another permit tied to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom, adding a new technical layer to the sweeping reimagining already underway in Tomorrowland. The filing calls for electrical work and names Solotech, an audiovisual technology company whose services include audio, video, lighting, and systems integration.
The Orange County permit does not identify specific equipment being installed, so it would be premature to say that Disney has confirmed new speakers, lighting effects, projection, or other show technology. What it does confirm is continued electrical work involving a contractor that specializes in those systems as Disney rebuilds the Carousel of Progress for its planned 2027 return.
The project is already much larger than a routine refurbishment. The version that closed in July is giving way to a substantially reworked show.
Another Carousel of Progress Permit Adds to the Project
The new Orange County filing covers Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress and contracts Solotech for “electrical work.” Solotech describes its services as including audio systems, lighting, projection and video, among other audiovisual technologies.
That makes the contractor noteworthy, but the permit itself remains broad. It does not disclose which scenes Solotech will work on or specify the exact technology involved. The filing therefore offers evidence of technical work behind the scenes, not confirmation of a particular new effect.
This isn’t the first construction paperwork connected to the overhaul. Inside the Magic previously reported on permits filed ahead of the attraction’s closure, including set-installation work, and later on construction walls surrounding the attraction.
Disney Is Rebuilding the Show Around New Decades
Disney has confirmed that the Carousel of Progress changes will alter the eras visited by the Progress family. Instead of beginning around the turn of the 20th century, the new version moves the timeline forward.
Disney’s official preview says the show will begin in the 1960s, with a scene centered around the 1969 moon landing. It will then move into the 1980s and New Year’s Eve 1999 before ending with a vision of a more distant future.
That retires familiar early-period scenes. Inside the Magic previously examined elements being removed from Carousel of Progress and the scale of the 2027 overhaul, a sensitive issue for guests who value the attraction as a link to Disney history.
The attraction has changed before. Disney’s own history notes that the show moved to Magic Kingdom in 1975 and was reworked again in 1994, restoring its original theme song. The current project continues that pattern of revision, but with a much larger chronological shift.
Walt Disney Will Become Part of the Attraction
Before Disney revealed the new decades, the company had already announced one of the most consequential additions: an Audio-Animatronic figure of Walt Disney.
Disney confirmed the figure at Destination D23 in August 2025. Walt will appear in a new introductory scene inspired by the 1964 television special about the New York World’s Fair, where the original attraction debuted before later moving to Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.
Disney has also said the Sherman Brothers’ “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” will remain part of the experience. The Progress family and the attraction’s rotating-theater concept likewise remain central to the show.
Disney isn’t replacing Carousel of Progress with unrelated intellectual property. It is keeping the attraction while rewriting much of the journey inside it.
Why the Changes Remain Difficult for Some Disney Fans
Inside the Magic has previously covered the divided reaction to the Carousel of Progress overhaul. For guests attached to its early-20th-century scenes, the issue isn’t simply whether the attraction survives. It’s how much of the version they associate with Walt Disney’s original concept survives with it.
The permit adds technical work to already confirmed changes involving scenes, decades, figures, and sets. But there is a line between what the paperwork shows and what fans might infer.
Electrical work by an audiovisual specialist could support many parts of a theme-park production. Until Disney identifies the systems, claims about specific new effects remain speculation.
For now, guests visiting Magic Kingdom will continue to find the attraction temporarily unavailable. Disney’s official attraction page lists Carousel of Progress as closed beginning July 6, 2026, and says the company expects it to reopen in 2027.
What Happens Before the 2027 Reopening
Disney has not announced a specific 2027 reopening date for Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. That leaves Imagineering a broad window to complete the new scenes, Walt Disney figure, show systems, testing, and final preparations.
The Solotech permit provides one more piece of that construction picture, but not a complete blueprint. Future permits could reveal additional contractors or categories of work, while Disney has said it plans to share more about the attraction as development continues.
Until then, the clearest takeaway is also the narrowest: another specialized contractor is now tied to the Carousel of Progress reimagining, and the work is explicitly electrical. Exactly what guests will hear, see, or experience because of that work remains unconfirmed.
When the theater begins rotating again in 2027, however, guests won’t simply be returning to a refurbished version of the show that closed this summer. They’ll be stepping into a newly structured Carousel of Progress, one that Disney is trying to move forward without severing its connection to the past.
