It’s been a long time coming, but at Destination D23 in September 2023 Disney finally confirmed that Dinoland USA will be replaced. Specifically, it’s going to be replaced by a land themed to “Tropical Americas”. Then at D23 in 2024, we got more details of what’s being planned. In this post, I’m going to highlight my hopes and expectations for this transformation.
Update: Dinoland Changes Begin January 13, 2025
Beginning January 13, 2025, the following attractions / areas in Dinoland (Animal Kingdom) will be closed:
TriceraTop Spin (the aerial carousel ride)
Fossil Fun Games (the carnival games)
Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures (the store)
As of now, this means that Restaurantosaurus, DINOSAUR, and The Boneyard will remain open for some time after January 12. It was expected that Dinoland would close in phases, so this isn’t a surprise. We expect closures for these to be announced at some later time.
What we know So Far
With D23 2024 wrapped up, we’ve gotten a few more details about the new land.
The Land is “Pueblo Esperanza”
The Dinoland USA replacement will be called Pueblo Esperanza. It will be themed to “Tropical Americas” (think South America, Central America, and Mexico).
We know Encanto and Indiana Jones have been mentioned as possible influences. Other than that…nothing. We don’t have a timeline or any clear information on what new rides or overlaid current rides to expect.
There Will be Three Rides
The new land will have three rides. This is an upgrade from the current two in Dinoland, USA, and welcome news since Animal Kingdom definitely needs more rides since the loss of Primeval Whirl.
Pueblo Esperanza will have three rides: a carousel, a ride themed to Encanto’s Casita, and an Indiana Jones ride.
About the carousel, Disney has said: “a woodcarver has created a giant working carousel featuring his favorite animals from Disney stories. It’s a new take on a classic attraction that young families are going to love.”
The Indiana Jones attraction will replace DINOSAUR and feature Indy exploring a Mayan temple. Here we have to pause for a moment. Many of you know that DINOSAUR actually shared the same track system as Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. It’s reasonable to expect, then, that we’re basically going to get a newer/better version of that ride in the new land.
While this is a tad disappointing—who wouldn’t like a fully original ride?—the upside is that the existing Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland is already a really great ride. So if Imagineers can actually improve on that ride, it is something of a win for the park.
Finally, about the Encanto ride: “Inside the Casita, Antonio has just received his special gift — the ability to communicate with animals — and his room has transformed into a rainforest. It’s time to go explore alongside him, and you never know what member of the family you might bump into.”
Based on the sole piece of concept art we’ve seen about this one so far, I’m betting on something in the style of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. That ride style is excellent at making scenery “come to life,” which is exactly what we need from a ride in Casita.
I think this qualifies as satisfying one hope I outlined before the details were announced:
My “reach” hope is that they take the time to add a new, genuine E-ticket attraction. Flight of Passage is still a fantastic ride, but Animal Kingdom needs more to keep people coming back and to keep them in the park from 9AM to 9PM.
Work Begins Soon
Per Disney: “Construction on the land is set to begin this fall and will open in 2027 — but don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to experience Dinosaur again (and get that dino).”
The first closures arrive January 13, 2025, when TriceraTop Spin (the aerial carousel ride), Fossil Fun Games (the carnival games), and Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures (the store) close.
More commentary on the timeline in a bit. But first, my biggest worry…
Is It Extinction Time for the Boneyard?
Bias alert: my kid loves the Boneyard. The Boneyard is a playground with both a traditional climbing / slide area and, across a bridge, an area to dig for dinosaur bones. Besides arguably Tom Sawyer Island (which is confirmed going to close for the Frontierland expansion) it’s the largest space for kids to play freely at Disney World.
Epcot has a playground and some fun areas in Future World. Hollywood Studios missed an opportunity for something epic in this regard with Andy’s Backyard. But the bottom line is that I hope they find a way to keep this. I think Zoe will get less and less use out of it going forward, but I think even if my other hopes come true, it will still be great part of a day at Animal Kingdom for future families with small kids.
I originally hoped they’d find a way to have a Casita-themed area replace boneyard. But now we know Casita will be an attraction in the old Primeval Whirl space, which means I’m definitely not getting that wish. But will Boneyard be spared in some form? Probably not.
Let’s take a quick peek at the geography of the concept art and existing area. I’ve used red and blue lines to indicate the main pathways through the land:
Now, the concept art on the bottom is always subject to change. And there’s no reason the existing pathways have to be preserved—they could be rerouted. But looking at the concept art compared to the existing map, it seems like they’ll be putting the new carousel in the area of the Boneyard, while all of Dino-Rama will be converted to a new space highlighted by the Casita attraction.
Maybe I’m being a bit too pessimistic here. You could almost as easily interpret the new carousel as replacing TriceraTop Spin, leaving space for an appropriate Boneyard replacement below the concept art. But I’m officially worried.
Will we avoid Constructionville USA?
Note: As discussed above, Dino-Rama will begin closures on January 13, 2025, with DINOSAUR to remain open sometime after that.
This is pretty straightforward. If you want a new land to be as good and cohesive as possible, it needs to be built in one go. You can’t do it piece by piece. Piece-by-piece design results in a land feeling uncanny when paint colors don’t fade just the same, or a facade designer left between two parts of the project, or whatever else.
But you can’t close The Boneyard, TriceraTop Spin, and DINOSAUR all at once. The park just can’t go 2-ish years with such a low attraction count. Luckily, there’s an obvious, good, in-between solution: leave DINOSAUR open while you build everything else, then replace DINOSAUR.
DINOSAUR is physically disconnected from the rest of Dinoland USA. When it gets replaced, if the facade is a little off, no one will notice because it won’t be immediately next to the first part of the land. The work on the ride itself will take place away from guest sight anyways.
Now, maybe I’m wrong and people won’t make the long walk through Constructionville USA just to get to DINOSAUR, but I think the ride is worth that.
Let’s look at earlier quote from Disney again: “Construction on the land is set to begin this fall and will open in 2027 — but don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to experience Dinosaur again (and get that dino).”
To me, this sounds like “we’ll be starting work on everything else before we close DINOSAUR.” Does this mean we’ll get DINSOAUR open the entire time a brand new e-Ticket (Casita) is being built? Probably not. But I’m hopeful the amount of time without either of these rides open will probably only be a year or less.
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