Disney announces new cruise ship, park attractions

Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal discusses takeaways from Disney's D23 expo, plus Emmy nominations among streaming services.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, shares of Disney up just slightly here after the company announced upcoming plans and projects in the works for its theme parks. That is D23 Expo. New characters and rides will soon make their ways-- way to the theme parks. Joining us to discuss the latest from this weekend's conference, we've got Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal, joining us from LA today. Allie, a lot of news to get through to on Friday. What's the top headline coming out of this?

ALLIE CANAL: Yeah, a lot of things happening from the studio side to the park side. I want to focus on the parks. Like you mentioned, there were a lot of highlights from this moment. New meet and greets for some of these characters. For example, Figment, he was a fan favorite. The crowd erupted when they said that character will be making its way back to Epcot. Other characters from "The Mandalorian," as well as "The Hulk," will be at Disneyland California. Disneyland Cali also expanding Avengers Campus to include elements of the Multiverse.

And then we also got an update on Tiana's Bayou Adventure. This is the ride that will be replacing Splash Mountain, set to open late 2024. A big emphasis here will be on music. It will also be focused on the soul of New Orleans. Then on the cruise ship front, a sixth cruise line joining Disney's fleet, titled the Disney Treasure, focused on adventure. And speaking of adventure, Disney has a new Bahamas vacation location, titled Lighthouse Point. Now, a cool element here is that 90% of the energy on this island will actually be powered by solar. So I thought that was an interesting update that Disney provided.

And then, finally, Disney revealed some possible, quote unquote, "blue sky projects." So important to distinguish that these are ideas, not tangible plans, but the leadership team noted that we could see park expansions at Magic Kingdom to include the worlds of "Encanto" or "Coco" or an area that's exclusively run by villains. The crowd went crazy over this idea.

Of course, the parks, they've continuously been an important driver for Disney's bottom line, generating $7.4 billion in the third quarter, as attendance continues to surge post-COVID. New technologies like the Genie+ service, the Lightning Lane products, they've also helped boost average per capita ticket revenue.

But one thing that I did hear after the presentation was that those blue sky ideas are just that, ideas, and universal plans to open a new park in Orlando just down the street from Walt Disney World in 2025. So there was a bit of a disappointment that we didn't get some concrete plans on those park expansions.

AKIKO FUJITA: Allie, Disney also hoping to make a big splash at the Emmys tonight. Hulu heading into tonight's ceremony with 58 nominations. You've got Disney+ getting 34 total nods. Who's the big favorite?

ALLIE CANAL: Yeah, well, I'm calling Hulu my sleeper network for the Emmys tonight. As you mentioned, 58 nominations, whereas some really strong shows this year like "Dopesick," "Pam and Tommy," "The Dropout." If we take a look at some of the other networks here, you'll see that HBO leads the way, keeping up with years past, 140 total nods, up from last year's 130. Netflix next with 105 nominations, including a Best Drama nod for its breakout series, "Squid Game."

Now, this will battle HBO's "Succession" for that top award. And in my opinion, this is going to be the most competitive category, especially after the "Squid Game" phenomenon. But the Netflix show, it's going to be a bit of an underdog here, compared to succession, which last won this award in 2020. In fact, succession is the most nominated show with 25 nods, followed by Apple TV's "Ted Lasso" and HBO's "The White Lotus" with 28 nominations each. So a wide range of shows, a wide range of networks.

Last year, Netflix was able to beat HBO for the first time when it came to total wins. They're probably going to struggle to accomplish that this year since they don't have "The Queen's Gambit" or "The Crown." But we'll have to wait and see. The Emmys kicks off tonight on NBC and Peacock at 8:00 PM Eastern and 5:00 PM Pacific.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Allie, tough to beat "Succession." I mean, that is such an incredible show, right? Well produced, well acted. Certainly going to be rooting for that one tonight. Thanks so much for that.