Walt Disney World will soon permanently close one of its popular thrill rides, DINOSAUR at Animal Kingdom, as the entirety of Dinoland USA is reimagined into Tropical Americas. Here’s the latest, including predicted wait times and crowd levels in the lead-up to the extinction level event and what to expect if you’re in the park for a final farewell over the weekend.
As a reminder, Walt Disney World officially announced that the closure date for DINOSAUR is February 2, 2026. Meaning the last day to experience the attraction before extinction is Sunday, February 1, 2026.
This has been a long goodbye, with Disney first indicating that DINOSAUR would stay open after the permanent closure of Dino-Rama, which happened over a year ago. Disney then revealed that DINOSAUR would be open for the entirety of last year.
Finally, early last September, Walt Disney World set the February 2, 2026 closing date. And with that, the official countdown to extinction was on. This is obviously bittersweet news for DINOSAUR fans, but they should take solace in just how long they’ve had to make peace with the decision.
The writing has been on the wall for DINOSAUR since all the way back at the 2022 D23 Expo when blue sky “plans” were revealed to replace this year. One year later, totally different, but really-for-real plans (no air quotes) were shared at the 2023 Destination D23.
Two and a half years is longer than we expected to say goodbye to DINOSAUR, and much better than Rivers of America or MuppetVision fans received for those respective attractions and areas (not that I’m bitter or anything). At this point, I’ve made several ‘farewell’ rides on DINOSAUR over the course of the last couple years (most before the date was set).
The longer and more advance notice also increases the likelihood that out of state Annual Passholders and other non-local fans will show up in full force for one final spin in a Time Rover before that last meteor hits and wipes out the ride once and for all.
Another contributing factor to closing weekend crowds is that this is happening in winter as opposed to the summer months. January and February are extremely popular times for fans from the Midwest and Northeast to make escapes from the winter weather, whereas summer is not. No such ‘escape’ will be possible this weekend given the rare low wind chill and hard freeze watch currently in place for Central Florida, but fans wouldn’t have known that when planning trips.
That freeze might be a mitigating factor for crowds among locals with borderline interest in the final day of DINOSAUR. This might sound silly to the diehards out there, but weather is often a factor in things like this for locals; not everyone is hardcore. At minimum, you can expect the morning to start out slower as the temperature is forecast to be 29 degrees (not a typo) at park opening.
A final factor is that DINOSAUR is probably more popular than other recent closures. That’s not the story that the comparative online outrage would tell, but in what’s becoming a trend with this week’s content, our strong suspicion is that real world reactions differ.
It’s possible that more fans beyond the internet bubble care about DINOSAUR than MuppetVision or the Rivers of America. Hence Walt Disney World offering much more notice about this closure than the others, as they wanted fans to be able to say proper goodbyes…and give DAK a needed gate-click in the process to boost attendance stats.
Or not. It’s also possible that Walt Disney World has simply planned better and more meticulously for Dinoland’s demise, since Animal Kingdom cannot afford to lose capacity prematurely. This would explain the staggered closures, and nothing being taken offline any earlier than absolutely necessary. (Unlike MuppetVision.)
Regardless, we wouldn’t be too worried about crowds for the next few days. Although DINOSAUR has seen its wait time spike to 60 minute territory and been the longest line in Animal Kingdom a couple of times this week, that’s not the norm. It’s also not inconsistent with this time of year. In looking at ‘smoothed out’ daily wait times data, I’m not seeing anything abnormal…yet.
Even right now as I write this, it’s ~90 minutes after park opening only a few days before DINOSAUR’s extinction event, and it has a 10 minute posted wait time. That’s the second-shortest line in Animal Kingdom, ahead of only Kali River Rapids. (The temperature is currently a balmy 42 degrees.)
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that 10 minute wait is actually a walk-on, and DINOSAUR is dispatching Time Rovers that aren’t completely full. The wait time will absolutely increase later this morning and afternoon, but the low wait right now is no surprise. Mornings start slow at Animal Kingdom.
Suffice to say, if you can visit Animal Kingdom in the next couple of days during Early Entry or at regular rope drop, you should have no issue knocking out DINOSAUR with ease. Saturday might bring bigger crowds and longer lines, but we doubt the morning will be even remotely bad.
Honestly, I would still prioritize Pandora even if I wanted to say goodbye to DINOSAUR in the next couple of days. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Ride Strategy (or, “How I Did Every Ride at DAK Before 10:30am.”) I’d probably bump up DINOSAUR in the order of attractions for the next few days, but not to #1 overall.
The late afternoon and evening are more of a wildcard. Animal Kingdom is open from 8 AM until 7 PM or 8 PM each of the next three days after today, and normally, the park would clear out during those final few hours and DINOSAUR would be a walk-on, or close to it. We wouldn’t count on that going forward, as Floridians might opt for goodbye rides after work or doing something else in the morning on the weekend.
All bets are off on Sunday. The best time to do DINOSAUR will be during Early Entry or at regular rope drop, and it still wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a walk-on (or close to it) for the first hour of the day given the winter weather. But once 10 am rolls around, we fully expect a 60+ minute wait. I would err on the side of prioritizing it over Pandora; the Avatar attractions will have lower waits later in the day, but DINOSAUR will only get worse closer to park closing.
It’s not a question of whether DINOSAUR will be busy; it’s how many hours the peak wait time will be. My guess is between 180 and 200 minutes. I wouldn’t bet against it exceeding a 240 or even 300 minute posted wait time, but I’d be surprised if the high is below 180 minutes.
However, this doesn’t mean the actual wait is that long. It’s very difficult for Walt Disney World to accurately forecast waits in these type of one-off circumstances, so they often err on the side of aiming high with estimates. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the last guests out of DAK on Sunday night leave later than the last guests out of all three other parks. That’s a rarity.
As always, these farewell day crowds are almost always localized to the attraction and area in question. If you already have firm plans to visit Animal Kingdom on Sunday and are now worried that it’ll be a 10/10 crowd day…don’t. It won’t.
Just get in and get out of Dinoland USA as quickly as possible, as that entire land–or what remains of it–will be busy throughout the day. DINOSAUR, lines for PhotoPass, the characters, and even Restaurantosaurus. All of it will have high feels like crowds and congestion. If you’ve got a culinary craving that only a mediocre meal can satisfy, you might want to place a Mobile Order for Restaurantosaurus first thing in the morning. But if you’ve got working taste buds, crowds shouldn’t be any worse than normal at Satu’li Canteen.
The rest of the park might see a mild uptick in average wait times, but it shouldn’t be anything too terrible or all that noticeable. Usually, the fans who attend these farewell days are there for that express purpose and don’t do much else. This could differ slightly, in that the advance notice might draw in more non-locals. There’s also the reality that Animal Kingdom is awful at absorbing crowds, so what would be a negligible impact at DHS or MK might be non-negligible at DAK.
Accordingly, Animal Kingdom as a whole might be busier than would otherwise be the case on a random Sunday in early February, but not significantly so. The best practice is avoiding the park that day if you don’t care about DINOSAUR, but if that’s not possible, don’t sweat it. This is still the least strategy-intensive park at Walt Disney World, and the park is open from 8 AM to 8 PM. Instead of finishing everything via standby lines by 2 PM, maybe it’ll take until 3 PM.
The silver lining in all of this for DINOSAUR diehards is that the ride’s spirit and literal layout will live on. This is a ride reimagining, and the attraction replacing DINOSAUR is a new version of Indiana Jones Adventure. As diehard fans likely know, the track layout of the two attractions is nearly identical, and DINOSAUR itself is/was a new twist on IJA when the concept was ported from Disneyland.
This reimagined ride will be a new twist on Indiana Jones Adventure that will be different from the existing versions of the attraction at Disneyland in California and Tokyo DisneySea. Both of those are quite different from one another, and this will be the third non-cloned version of the attraction. Obviously, they all bear similarities–but also all tell unique and distinct stories.
In this new adventure, Indiana Jones has discovered a perfectly preserved Maya temple, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to explore it. He’s heard rumors about a mythical creature deep within the temple — and he’s got to see it for himself. So, he brings us along on the adventure.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be at Animal Kingdom for a final farewell to DINOSAUR and Dinoland this weekend before they go extinct on February 2, 2026? Peak wait time prediction? Expect it to be a madhouse or suspect winter weather will keep Floridians away? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!