amusement and theme parks

Setting the Record Straight: No, Disneyland Is NOT Moving to Nevada

Disneyland is not moving to Nevada—only Disney’s film studios may expand there. The Anaheim park is staying and set to grow.

Published

1 year ago

June 10, 2025

Rod Washington

Last Updated on June 10, 2025 by Daily News Staff

Disneyland Is NOT Moving to Nevada

The internet loves a good rumor, but here’s what’s really happening with Disney’s future plans

If you’ve been scrolling through social media lately, you might have stumbled across some eye-catching headlines claiming Disneyland is packing up and heading to Nevada. Before you start panicking about your next family vacation plans, let’s break down what’s actually happening – and what’s pure internet fiction.

The Latest Rumor Mill

Recent weeks have seen a fresh wave of claims that Disneyland is relocating to Las Vegas, with some sources even suggesting specific timelines like “starting at the end of October.” These stories have been spreading like wildfire across TikTok and other social platforms, racking up millions of views and causing genuine confusion among Disney fans.

But here’s the truth: Disneyland is absolutely not moving anywhere.

@stmblog
Disneyland is not moving to Nevada—only Disney’s film studios may expand there. The Anaheim park is staying and set to grow. ♬ original sound – STMDailyNews

Where These Rumors Come From

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this type of misinformation. Back in 2020, a satirical website called “Uncle Walt’s Insider” published a completely fictional story claiming Disneyland would move to Texas. That piece was pure satire – meant to be humorous, not factual – but it fooled enough people that major fact-checking organizations like Snopes had to step in to debunk it.

The current Nevada rumors follow a similar pattern, often originating from satirical or entertainment-focused social media accounts that blur the line between comedy and news reporting.

The Real Story: Disney Production vs. Theme Parks

Here’s where things get interesting – and where some legitimate confusion might arise. While Disneyland the theme park isn’t going anywhere, Disney has been exploring opportunities to expand their film and television production operations in Nevada.

The Silver State has been actively courting entertainment companies with attractive tax incentives, and there have been discussions about Disney potentially establishing production studios or filming operations there. But that’s a completely different conversation from relocating Disneyland itself.

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As one Reddit user perfectly summarized: “For those that didn’t read the article, they are talking about filming… Sony and Disney are looking to open production studios in Southern Nevada.”

What’s Actually Happening at Disneyland

Instead of moving, Disneyland is doing the exact opposite – it’s expanding right where it is. The DisneylandForward project, which received unanimous approval from Anaheim city officials, represents a massive multi-decade expansion plan that will bring:

New attractions and experiences

Additional hotels and dining options

Enhanced shopping areas

Improved parking infrastructure

More entertainment venues

This isn’t a company preparing to relocate – it’s a company doubling down on its Anaheim home with billions of dollars in long-term investments.

How to Spot These Rumors

When you see headlines about major theme park relocations, here are some red flags to watch for:

Check the source: Satirical websites and entertainment accounts often create fictional content for engagement

Look for official statements: Major business decisions like this would involve official Disney announcements, not just social media buzz

Consider the logistics: Moving an entire theme park would be one of the largest business relocations in history – it wouldn’t happen quietly

Follow the money: Disney’s recent investments in Anaheim expansion show their commitment to staying put

The Bottom Line: Disneyland is not moving to Nevada

Your Disneyland vacation plans are safe. The Happiest Place on Earth isn’t going anywhere – it’s just getting bigger and better right where Walt Disney originally envisioned it in sunny Southern California.

While Disney may explore new production opportunities in Nevada or other states, that’s about making movies and TV shows, not about relocating the iconic theme park that millions visit each year.

So the next time you see one of these relocation rumors pop up in your social media feed, you’ll know exactly what to think: it’s just another case of internet fiction masquerading as fact.

Have you seen other Disney rumors circulating online that you’d like us to fact-check? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll help separate the magic from the misinformation.

This blog post addresses the rumor head-on while providing your readers with the context they need to understand both the false claims and the real Disney developments happening in Nevada. The tone matches your community-focused approach while maintaining that authoritative voice your readers trust for accurate information.

child education

Toy Story 5’s ‘Lilypad’ is an indictment of the world that birthed the ‘iPad Kid’

Toy Story 5 introduces “Lilypad,” a kid-friendly tablet that sidelines Woody and Buzz—and spotlights how the “iPad kid” debate is less about bad parenting and more about work, childcare costs, and a broken social safety net.

Published

7 days ago

July 8, 2026

The Conversation

A 10-year-old boy wearing a pink costume sits in the corner of a room and plays on his tablet. — Some parents call tablets the ‘square au pair.’ Danielle Villasana/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Aarushi Bhandari, Davidson College

In the trailer for “Toy Story 5,” a little girl named Bonnie is playing with her toys when a package arrives in the mail.

She opens it to find Lilypad, a tablet for children.

The iconic toys from the series – Woody, Buzz Lightyear, the Potato Heads, Forky and Slinky Dog – then watch in dismay as Bonnie casts them all aside in favor of the bright tablet screen. Rex the dinosaur exclaims, “What? Extinction? Not again!”

The film zeros in on a uniquely 21st-century phenomenon: the “iPad kid,” a term used – often disparagingly – to describe a generation of children who grew up enchanted by screens.

A lot of the discussion around tablet use among kids shames parents, framing it as an example of lazy or bad parenting. Yet factors such as long working hours and lack of access to affordable childcare compel many parents to rely on tablets.

As a scholar of the attention economy – and also as a mom to a 4-year-old – I’ve noticed a disconnect between the resources U.S. society offers parents versus what’s expected of them in the digital age.

’ Woody, Buzz and the gang must prove that traditional toys still matter when Bonnie becomes captivated by a high-tech tablet named Lilypad.

The pandemic and the ‘square au pair’

When the first “Toy Story” came out in 1995, many single-income families could still afford to comfortably raise multiple kids. It was more common for new parents to live near their extended families, such as grandparents, to provide childcare support. Federal policies provided some low-income families with cash assistance that helped ease the cost of transition to parenthood.

Since then, parenting has become a lot more challenging. Single-income households with kids under 18 have steadily declined as wages have stagnated, forcing both parents into the workforce. At the same time, it’s harder to qualify for government benefits.

And even when moms do earn a paycheck, working moms experience what sociologists call the “motherhood penalty” – career disadvantages, such as lower wages and promotion barriers, due to childbirth – even as U.S. parental leave policies remain weak.

So it’s hardly a surprise that fewer Americans are choosing to become parents under these conditions. But those who did have kids in the years leading up to 2020 ran smack into the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lockdown that started in March 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic led to closures of schools and many workplaces. Many parents either worked from home or provided critical work in grocery stores and hospitals. Kids stayed home and schools transitioned to remote-learning models.

It’s important to remember that many institutions with social legitimacy and authority encouraged the use of tablets during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

School systems around the world normalized their use for remote learning. Children as young as 4 were given tablets, which gave their parents space to complete their own remote work and other household tasks, with some moms referring to it as “the square au pair.”

In this sense, the tablet became a form of school-sanctioned childcare.

Economic activity was minimally disrupted. Productivity hummed along. And the kids? Comfortably distracted.

For some households, there’s little choice

When lockdowns ended, tablets remained integrated into the education system. In 2021, 4 in 5 U.S. households with children had a tablet. Beyond schoolwork, kids also use tablets for activities, such as video games and watching TV.

The adverse impacts of excessive screen time in general has been well documented for decades. But scholars have only recently unpacked the specific harms of interactive tablet use among young children.

Children who use tablets are more likely to experience emotional dysregulation and dependency on screens. Researchers have also found tablet use among kids to be significantly associated with ADHD diagnoses.

At the same time, research shows screen time use among children is tied to social class.

Parents from working- and middle-class households are more likely to rely on screens compared to high-income parents, who can hire childcare services, such as full-time nannies.

Parental education is also a factor. Americans generally have little grasp of digital hygiene – knowledge about best practices to minimize negative effects of screens. But households with parents who didn’t graduate from college are even more in the dark.

And while schools hand out tablets, most of them fail to provide students and families with a comprehensive education on the adverse impacts of excessive screen time.

In other words, this isn’t a Generation Alpha problem. Most people – adults included, with or without children – aren’t properly educated and informed about their choices around technology use. Yet adults continue to be shamed if they hand their kid a tablet. All the while, parents navigate the added burdens of challenging the educational status quo around tablets.

Frankenstein’s village

When work is the only sturdy pillar in a society where government benefits for low-income people, family ties and community institutions have eroded, tablets replace the metaphorical village – the web of social support that helps families thrive.

In pursuit of jobs or affordable housing, many young parents move farther from their extended families and the communities where they grew up. The working parents who are forced to rely on daycare – sending kids as young as a few weeks old – end up spending an exorbitant amount of money on the service.

A woman plays with two infants on a colorful mat in a daycare. — Some parents have no other option but to send their infants to expensive daycare – often staffed by underpaid workers who are moms themselves. Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Meanwhile, the persistence of traditional gender roles ensures that many moms still go home to a second shift: Working women continue to disproportionately cook, clean and care for children. No matter how overworked or exhausted some parents are, they cannot afford to hire help as the inflation and cost-of-living crises hit historic highs.

Big Tech takes advantage of this crisis with a “solution” that ultimately treats children as products, manipulating their emotions and mining their data. As I argue in my book, “Attention and Alienation,” children’s dependency on screens is a key component of the attention economy.

The earlier a life is monetized, the longer it is profitable.

“Toy Story 5” and its critical take on the tablet may be helpful. But it will take more than a blockbuster movie to protect small kids from the harms of too much screen time. Instead, I think it will require strong parental leave policies, expansive and affordable childcare access, fair wages and shared household labor.

In other words, there needs to be a full rehabilitation of the village.

Aarushi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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