Disney Shares New Details About DINOSAUR's Closing Date at Animal Kingdom

Dec 03, 2024 in "Dinosaur"

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Dinosaur overview - July 2020

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Posted: Tuesday December 3, 2024 10:30am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In an update shared today, Disney provided new insight into the future of DINOSAUR at Animal Kingdom, suggesting the ride will remain operational through 2025 before closing permanently to make way for the Tropical Americas expansion.

Dinosaur overview - July 2020

The update encourages guests to experience the ride while they still can, stating:

"While you're visiting, make sure you 'go get that dino' at DINOSAUR. We've previously shared this attraction will be closing to make way for the new Tropical Americas land – 2025 is your year to visit before it goes extinct!"

In an infographic, Disney says "THROUGH 2025 Go get that dino ... before extinction"

This announcement marks the clearest indication yet that DINOSAUR will remain a part of Animal Kingdom's lineup throughout next year, giving fans more time to experience the thrill ride before its eventual transformation, with a closing date sometime in 2026.

Tropical Americas Concept Art

DINOSAUR has been a cornerstone of Animal Kingdom since the park's opening in 1998, immersing guests in a time-travel adventure to save an Iguanodon from extinction. As part of the broader reimagining of Dinoland U.S.A. into the Tropical Americas, the ride will eventually be replaced by a new Indiana Jones attraction, which Disney says will feature a journey through a newly discovered Maya temple.

Indiana Jones Attraction Concept Art

While demolition and construction are set to begin in parts of Dinoland U.S.A. as early as January 2025, this new update confirms that DINOSAUR will remain open for the time being, allowing fans one last opportunity to experience the prehistoric adventure.

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James Alucobond28 minutes ago

Right ... I guess I'm misunderstanding your point a bit. I thought you wanted a ton of visual gags or incidental things happening in the background when that's not typically been the case for the film-based rides. As for being addressed directly by the characters in the ride, this generally only happens when they're either establishing a framing device (e.g. Scuttle in Mermaid) or inventing some novel extrafilmic narrative in which you as the rider are supposed to be involved in the events of the ride (e.g. Frozen Ever After, Tiana's Bayou Adventure). Encanto is actually kind of unique in that the narrative being recounted actually favorably meshes with you being part of the ride since the entire village is invited into Casa Madrigal for Antonio's gift ceremony.

TrainsOfDisney36 minutes ago

It’s an even bigger issue in Frozen and Pandora River. At least Tiana has a few scenes with smaller AA’s to fill out the scene.

Casper Gutman42 minutes ago

There is a distinction between the older IP and non-IP rides, but I’d argue you’re overstating it. Pan has the boat fight, for instance, Scary has the dance scene and dwarf chase finale, Pooh has the windy day and rainy day. There aren’t as many characters as in Pirates or Mansion, but they’re formed into scenes and are interacting with one another. None of the rides you mentioned except Frozen and Mermaid have the figures directly addressing the riders. Frozen is really the prime example of how not to do a dark ride.

Tom Morrow42 minutes ago

Agreed - please fill out the show scenes, don't give us scarcely populated and decorated rooms with one fancy animatronic flailing at us. Another issue with the approach they took on Tiana is that if that ONE key animatronic goes down, that is a very big stretch of the ride track that is lifeless. Also having the very advanced animatronics means they are more prone to breaking down in the first place.

britain1 hour ago

Wizard of Oz segment at The Great Movie Ride disagrees. But besides that, I concede your point: Most IP based attractions don't immerse guests in crowds of animatronics. Really the whole concept of 'cocktail party' is rooted in the technical limitation of continuous looping action. As soon as the tech became sophisticated enough to move guests into a room where something can happen and then guests leave and the figures reset before the next vehicle of guests, the cocktail party was thrown out.

britain1 hour ago

I still don't really understand what that projection mapped face is good for. "Hey, a tear can now trickle down the face of the figure, or a scrape can appear when it wasn't there before!" Unless you are either up REALLY close or you are in a very contrived story where you are required to focus your attention on the figure's cheek, this doesn't seem to be worth it. I think rubber head Harrison Ford works just fine.

CoastalElite641 hour ago

I kinda picture us getting a tour of the house and them looking and singing at us. Maybe in the attraction we take the role of the villagers from the movie? At least theres a reference for it from the movie.

James Alucobond1 hour ago

Thing is, that has literally never been the design of attractions re-telling events from one of their tentpole films. Scary Adventure, Peter Pan, Alice, Pooh, Frozen, Tangled, etc. are always going to be bouncing between (relatively) few animatronics because there are few core characters and the vast majority of the scenes they want to depict involve maybe 2-4 characters unless it’s the opening or finale. The best you might get in some of these scenarios are lots of background non-human characters (e.g. Mermaid, Splash). The whole notion of the cocktail party only ever played out meaningfully for attractions that didn’t have a specific film narrative they were trying to reproduce (e.g. Pirates, Mansion, etc.). So, depending on what Villains is, perhaps something to that effect could materialize, but I’d lean toward no. Encanto, no way. Unless you just mean not having them address you directly at all, in which case maybe.

Touchdown2 hours ago

Floating dock by FT BBQ, drones are set up nightly by technicians, they never actually leave the Lagoon or transverse guest areas.

Haymarket20082 hours ago

This. Not a singular AA at the end of a hallway leading to another AA in between a transitional space, etc

mattpeto2 hours ago

Not an expert here... I was trying to figure out if maybe the AK ampitheater is just too small of a lagoon to shoot off drones and provide a limited safe crash zone (water). At least according to AI for sizes, it appears that's not the case as it does somewhat mimic Adventure Bay in terms of acreage. Adventure Bay: ~7.5 acres EPCOT lagoon: ~40 acres (~5× bigger) Animal Kingdom Rivers of Light lagoon: roughly the same scale They would still have to figure out a way to get the drones to the middle of area and make sure there was no way it could fall onguests. AK ampitheater is not a perfect circle obviously so maybe it's harder to find a safe spot to launch them from the middle. Probably a tougher sell with risk management is my gut.

Gusey2 hours ago

It'll be interesting to see how the water drones at Disney Adventure World look/sound. Could be something they could use with the Rivers of Light screen

davis_unoxx4 hours ago

Hopefully announced at D23...

Nickm20224 hours ago

I'd be surprised if Indy has many AA's but I do think Encanto and Villains will have a good amount of AA's. At least more than Tiana's and hopefully these one's actually work. Personally I am more curious if they're gonna used that new projection mapping face they teased on the imagineering video they posted recently as I could see that being used for indy