Disney has filed two separate construction permits at Magic Kingdom, one for Tomorrowland Terrace and one for McKim’s Mile House, the Disney Vacation Club member lounge, though there’s a good chance neither means much beyond routine upkeep.
If your heart just skipped a beat hoping for a big Tomorrowland Terrace reopening announcement, I’d pump the brakes a little before getting too excited.
The Tomorrowland Terrace permit covers “general construction” at 1355 Monorail Way, the venue’s address, filed by Disney’s Facility Asset Management team and contracted to Buena Vista Construction, Disney’s in-house construction arm. It expires September 17, 2027. The McKim’s Mile House permit is a bit more specific in its wording, filed separately by Disney’s Sourcing & Procurement team and calling for labor, materials, and electrical work tied to construction, expiring one year from filing. Disney hasn’t announced any work at either location, and because both permits came through FAM and Sourcing & Procurement rather than Imagineering directly, that’s usually a signal pointing toward general maintenance rather than a themed overhaul.
Tomorrowland Terrace has one of the more winding backstories of any dining spot in Magic Kingdom. It opened back in 1973 as the Plaza Pavilion, serving straightforward hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza for decades. In 2005, it got rebranded as the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station with an Asian fusion-inspired menu, though it struggled with lackluster turnout and eventually shifted to seasonal, overflow-only operation. By November 2011, it dropped the Noodle Station name and became simply Tomorrowland Terrace, and Disney added mobile ordering there in 2017. These days, the space barely functions as a walk-up restaurant at all. It’s used almost exclusively for dessert parties tied to Magic Kingdom’s nighttime fireworks, with the upper level occasionally open for seating earlier in the day before crews close it off to prep for that night’s event.
McKim’s Mile House has a much shorter history by comparison, since it only opened last year, replacing the old Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade. It’s a Disney Vacation Club member lounge, a members-only rest stop tucked into Frontierland where DVC owners can grab a drink and take a break from the parks without leaving Magic Kingdom.
It’s also worth noting Disney filed a third permit today too, this one for Adventureland, with an expiration date stretching almost two full years out, a notably longer runway than either of these Tomorrowland or Frontierland filings.
Permits like these show up constantly across Walt Disney World, and most of them really are exactly what they look like on paper: routine maintenance keeping decades-old infrastructure running smoothly, nothing more dramatic than that. Still, a Tomorrowland Terrace that’s spent the better part of a decade functioning as little more than a dessert party backdrop is exactly the kind of underused space Disney has re-imagined before, so it’s not entirely unreasonable to keep half an eye on this one even while expecting nothing.
We’ll keep tracking permit filings around both of these spots as more details emerge, so check back with Theme Park Scope for updates, and follow us on social so you don’t miss it.
Do YOU think Tomorrowland Terrace deserves a real second life as a full-time restaurant again, or has its dessert-party era earned a permanent spot?
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