Construction on Tropical Americas in Animal Kingdom has accelerated again, with the entire project site now being worked on following Dinoland’s extinction. Here’s an aerial update on the critter carousel, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Encanto attraction, which just reached yet another major milestone!
In the two weeks since Dinoland USA closed, crews have wasted no time in expanding the project site to encompass DINOSAUR, Restaurantosaurus, and everything else that remained open to guests through early 2026. The entirety of Tropical Americas is now a construction zone, as the maze of walls giving guests access to the aforementioned areas of Dinoland are gone. Work has now started on the Indiana Jones area of the expansion, and with that, we’re seeing the dinosaurs disappear.
As basic background, Dinoland USA are being replaced by three areas of Tropical Americas. First is Pueblo Esperanza, the hub in heart of the rainforest that’s name translates to “Village of Hope.” This will be home to a large quick-service restaurant (Restaurantosaurus, reimagined), critter carousel, and other placemaking (plus hopefully an animal enclosure).
After leaving the Pueblo Esperanza, guests can venture deeper into the rainforest to find two signature attractions. To the right from Pueblo Esperanza is a new Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which will replace DINOSAUR.
This will be a new twist on the ride with a storyline unique to Animal Kingdom, making this the third non-cloned version of the attraction. The mythical creature featured in Indiana Jones Adventure in Tropical Americas is expected to be the Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl (the former being its Mayan name, the latter its Aztec). The teases of the original story for this IJA thus far have been very intriguing.
To the left is the Encanto magical Madrigal Casita dark ride, which is a family-friendly dark ride. It’s expected to be an Encanto-ized version of Mystic Manor, except not trackless.
The premise of the Encanto dark ride is that Antonio has just received the ability to communicate with animals, and his room has transformed into a rainforest. It’s time to go explore the casita alongside him, and you never know what member of the family you might bump into.
Let’s turn to the latest construction development, which is that the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom project is moving fast as of mid-February 2026. As always, all aerial photos are courtesy of theme park eye in the sky bioreconstruct:
Above is basically a high-level aerial establishing shot.
DINOSAUR is the green building lower left corner. The front will get a new facade, but there’s no reason to believe anything else about the show building will be altered. This is more or less how the other versions of the Indiana Jones Adventure show building look.
Immediately to the right of DINOSAUR is where the Encanto show building is being built, and fast. The new development with this update is that the construction walls previously cutting through above that to create a guest corridor are gone. At the top of the photo is the critter carousel construction zone and future ‘Village of Hope.’ At the top right is the Theater in the Wild, home to Finding Nemo: The Musical and former/future (?) nighttime spectacular seating area.
For the last few months, there’s been a tower crane on site for construction of the Encanto casita attraction. The show building for the attraction starting going vertical in late October, and was visible to guests from on the ground in Animal Kingdom around the start of the holiday season.
This process began with concrete walls poured and support columns constructed near the back of the construction site and show building. Foundations were poured, footers installed, and utilities buried. All of that started several months ago, paving the way for the structural steel frame to go vertical.
Work on the building’s structural steel frame has happened fast. The show building is being built from back to front, with the side farthest from the guest-facing side of the park going up first.
The first steel frame was placed in early December. And now, take a close look at the next photo…
That’s crews installing the second to last steel beam on the Encanto attraction.
From start to finish, this has taken a little over two months, or about 10 weeks. This phase of projects always tends to move fast, but this one is flying. Thankfully, as this one needs to move at “Universal Pace” in order to hit that 2027 target for opening.
Here’s a closer look at the installation of that second to last steel beam. Below that is the mysterious pit, which almost certainly has a mundane purpose.
Speaking of which, Walt Disney Imagineering just shared photos of the project team signing the final steel beam:
From the caption on LinkedIn:
Imagineers recently gathered for a beam signing, leaving their mark on the last beam that needs to be installed for the upcoming Encanto attraction. It’s a meaningful tradition that celebrates the collaboration, craftsmanship, and countless hours of creativity behind the scenes.
Moments like these remind us that every immersive experience begins with the people who build it.
It wasn’t that long ago that frontline Cast Members at Animal Kingdom were signing the first steel beam!
As progress zooms along to enclose the building, construction crews continue to work inside the show building on what’s already been erected. You can start to see different floors, rooms, and a catwalk. We’re expecting the climactic scene to be a multi-level set piece, so overhead access to that makes sense.
It won’t be too long before the building is fully enclosed, concealing our views of visible progress. Of course, there’s still the casita itself to construct and the transformation of the remnants of Dinoland into Tropical Americas.
As you can see from the above, the middle of the project site is just dirt. There’s still all of the placemaking and landscaping to be done! That’ll all be fun to watch, too.
Let’s turn our attention to the other side of the site, where the critter carousel is replacing the Boneyard. Construction of the new attraction is underway, with foundations being built for the upcoming critter carousel.
In addition to the critter carousel, this is essentially where the fountain and entrance to Tropical Americas will be built. The new playground is not being built here. It’ll be between the souvenir shop and Indiana Jones Adventure; the permits suggest it’ll be smaller and simpler than the Boneyard.
Taking a closer look, we can see the central ride base for the carousel is now defined:
It looks like crews are preparing for the installation of the actual carousel base and mechanism. I’ve never watched carousel construction unfold from above, but I’d hazard a guess we’re going to see that happen fast. At the risk of stating the obvious, this ride is much simpler than the Encanto attraction.
We’re still wondering whether the critter carousel might be able to open ahead of Encanto and Indiana Jones Adventure. Normally, Walt Disney World would want to open Tropical Americas all at once to make for a splashy event and marketable expansion.
However, Animal Kingdom is really light on rides. Walt Disney World is clearly sensitive about closing too much at once. Having the critter carousel, large hacienda, and maybe even the gift shop open by Christmas 2026 or first half of 2027 might be the target simply for increasing/restoring park capacity. And I don’t think that type of phased opening would ‘steal the thunder’ of the grand opening of the rest of Tropical Americas.
Then again, Disney might be okay with Animal Kingdom having a rough year or two. If everything opens around or after October 2027, that puts Tropical Americas at the start of a new fiscal year. If so, “easier comps” for this park to lap in 2028 and beyond mean that Tropical Americas can be trumpeted as a demonstrable success to Wall Street. (Good for us, as it supports the case for continued investments.)
Regardless, there’s likely a reason why Walt Disney World moved forward the Boneyard’s closure by several months. And likewise, why they’re moving so quickly on construction for the carousel area. It doesn’t need to take another 18 months to build a carousel and reimagine Restaurantosaurus. It will, however, take much longer to reimagine DINOSAUR into Indiana Jones Adventure.
Speaking of which, let’s turn our attention to the recently-closed Dinoland…
The DINOSAUR courtyard and fountain have been demolished. Aladar the Iguanodon has gone missing. This time, presumably, for good.
As a reminder, the facade of this building is being transformed into a Mayan temple. Here’s how it’ll look once finished:
If you squint, you can kinda see how existing elements of the facade will be repurposed with the temple rising in the middle.
I really hope the lush, overgrown quality exists in real life and isn’t just artistic liberty in the concept art. These temples at Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea look really cool, and this subsection of Tropical Americas having a Lost River Delta (TDS) vibe would be fantastic.
For now, it’s a bit bittersweet to see Aladar the Iguanodon and DINOSAUR as a whole disappear. As I wrote elsewhere, I’m not the person to eulogize DINOSAUR. I think Indiana Jones Adventure will be an unequivocal improvement.
At the same time, I do have nostalgia for DINOSAUR and its unabashed campiness. It was quintessential 1990s Disney; a ride with personality and charm, and that counted for a lot.
And as I’ve also said, I think dinosaurs were ‘done dirty’ by Disney, and should’ve had a much better land. That is the reimagining we should’ve gotten. It’s unfortunate the only good dinosaur IP somehow belongs to Universal.
In even more disappointing dinosaur disappearance news, the Dino-Sue skeleton has been removed.
The fossil cast was an exact replica of Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, back on August 12, 1990 by Sue Hendrickson and the Black Hills Institute. Equally significant about Sue’s story is the legal battle that ensued between the land owner where the discovery was made and the institute that found her.
The land owner prevailed, and auctioned off the skeleton. That was won by the Chicago Field Museum at $8.3 million and partially funded by McDonald’s and Walt Disney World. For its investment, Disney got marketing for the upcoming Animal Kingdom, and a complete cast for display in the park.
I really hope Disney has an intended future use or home for Dino-Sue. To quote the future inhabitant of this area, “it belongs in a museum.” Or at least, on display elsewhere in Animal Kingdom. I don’t even care if it’s presented without context in the Oasis or whatever.
Dinosaur skeletons are awesome and inspiring, and no one is going to say, “wait a minute, that’s not on theme with this turtle.” Guests will say “cool dinosaur” as they enter and leave the park. Perfect first and final impression of Animal Kingdom.
Here’s a video of the Tropical Americas construction site via bioreconstruct that shows a more dynamic view:
Aerial video of construction in Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom. Including
• Demolition at Dinosaur.
• Carousel construction.
• Encanto ride show building. pic.twitter.com/l39g8O89Eo— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) February 15, 2026
We’re at the point in the project where weekly updates will continue to show major and measurable progress. It’ll be cool to see the erection of the Encanto casita, which should be visible from Expedition Everest.
With Tropical Americas already at this point and Monstropolis not far behind, this should be a fun year to track Walt Disney World construction. Piston Peak is already starting to take shape, a development that has happened far earlier than we expected.
I’m looking forward to this summer’s D23 Expo, when more should be revealed about the future of Animal Kingdom. And not just Tropical Americas. Walt Disney World will likely try to transform this into a full day park (again). That didn’t quite go as planned with Pandora, but take two should succeed.
Ultimately, we’re pleased to see the progress on Tropical Americas, and there should be a lot more over the next few months. Walt Disney World needs to make explosive progress on Tropical Americas if the land is going to meet its 2027 target date. Our strong suspicion is that, even with the most aggressive timeline, the two marquee attractions won’t be done before October 2027.
A lot can happen in two years, but it’s likely that Tropical Americas is a Christmas 2027 opening. That’s a long wait, but the good news is that Tropical Americas and Monstropolis probably aren’t a year apart. Once late 2027 arrives, Walt Disney World should have major additions coming online every ~6 months or so. Some might even call this growth turbocharged. (Not me, that’s dorky.)
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Excited about Encanto, Indiana Jones, and Tropical Americas? Thoughts on recent progress or anything else? Think our timeline speculation is right or wrong? 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!