New Aerial Photos Reveal Tropical Americas Construction Progress at Disney's Animal Kingdom

24 days ago in "Tropical Americas"

Gallery / 3 Photos
Tropical Americas Construction - Aerial Views - June 13, 2025

Posted: Friday June 13, 2025 3:35pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

New aerial photos from @bioreconstruct on X reveal the latest progress on the Tropical Americas expansion at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, as work moves beyond the former Dino-Rama footprint and into a previously backstage area.

Photo from @bioreconstruct on X

Demolition and grading have advanced into a former backstage operations zone, which aligns with Disney’s earlier announcement that Tropical Americas will span 11 acres.

Along with the continued ground clearing and leveling across the site, a large crane is on site, assisting with utility and infrastructure preparation.

Photo from @bioreconstruct on X

The original Dino-Rama structures, including TriceraTop Spin, Fossil Fun Games, and the Cementosaurus, have all been demolished over the past several months. Disney has also removed the smaller themed items like the Dino-Institute billboards.

What’s Coming to Tropical Americas

Tropical Americas Concept Art

The new land, opening in 2027, will feature:

A first Encanto ride-through attraction, set inside the magical casita of the Madrigal family
A brand-new Indiana Jones attraction, replacing DINOSAUR in 2026, set inside a Maya temple
A large quick-service restaurant designed like a traditional hacienda
A wood-carved carousel featuring Disney-inspired animals
Themed to a fictional village named Pueblo Esperanza, drawing from Central and South American influences

Indiana Jones Attraction Concept Art

Encanto-themed ride concept art

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HMF1 hour ago

You can blame Iger, Universal and the worlds most infamous TERF for that.

gerarar6 hours ago

New Dinosaur merch just dropped. I need the pin. I've been looking for a Dinosaur pin on my visits in the last couple years to no success. :(

BlakeW399 hours ago

So agreed. Constant regurgitation of familiar IP is arguably the worst part of the modern film industry, but it's the ENTIRETY of the theme park industry. Even setting aside the issue of thematic cohesion. I am so tired of constant movie rides and movie lands.

DCLcruiser12 hours ago

I’m late to the party, but for me, as a kid growing up watching Indy movies, we need more of him in the parks. The Stunt Show was never enough. Other parks have coasters or the car ride. DAK is a great location for Indy’s adventures. He fits into the treasure hunting side of things (we are throwing out paleontology for archeology), the action/adventure side (like Everest), as well as simply the location and incorporation of snakes, or any jungle creature you want. It works. Just make it a great ride.

FigmentFan8213 hours ago

So how’s construction going?

Incomudro13 hours ago

Thing is - problem for Disney is - with the right mindset, with the right creative teams (key word creative) the Starcruiser could have been a spectacular success. The expensive and hideous eyesore barges would have never been installed in the World Showcase Lagoon. And, Tiana's would be one of the greatest rides in the park.

TomboyJanet13 hours ago

I both agree and disagree. My problem still number one is that they can't generate park original ip anymore, which makes it look like they are so uncreative. Number two, is those screens....boring....and minimalism.....lame. Its all just corporate packages.

TomboyJanet13 hours ago

well as long as it's not snakes....

TomboyJanet13 hours ago

Figment can relate to that.....

AidenRodriguez73116 hours ago

Welcome to survivorship bias, no one is going to vividly remember all the weird one offs and bad attractions from long enough ago because they didn't make that much of an impact or nostalgia blinded them completely.

BlakeW3917 hours ago

The reason Indy conflicts with the themes of DAK isn't because he can't explore man's relationship with nature. Actually, archaeologists study that kind of thing all the time. Man's relationship with nature isn't a theme though. It's a topic. Themes are how an author approaches a topic and what they have to say about it. Stuff like, nature has intrinsic value, and you should want to preserve it. That's the stuff an Indy ride needs to get right. Just being about man & nature won't make the ride fit in Animal Kingdom. You've got to get the themes right and Indy simply does not care about any of DAK's themes. If Indy studies man's relationship to nature, it will be in a way that is purely anthropocentric, because he's an anthropologist, and he would only study animals for the extrinsic reasons of how they relate to humans, not for their own intrinsic worth. And if that's the case, then the ride will struggle to deliver a message of conservation, which again, is not really a message Indiana Jones lends itself to in any way.

BrianLo20 hours ago

I see what you are saying, but I’m not sure we run that risk here. The ride is still taking place during a portion of the film. Honestly, even if this wasn’t going in Animal Kingdom, the two very clear entry points into the Casita are when the village is invited for his door day or if they throw a house warming once its rebuilt. I think the link of the door day happening to coincide with the character with magical animal speech powers created a situation of convenience. It is a bit funny the gestalt seems to be a preference towards a return to book report rides though.

Disgruntled Walt21 hours ago

Again, all of those things are incidental to who he is. The "why" of his being in this temple is important, and THAT'S what makes it a poor fit. By Disney's OWN admission, Indy's reason for being there is to SEE the mythical creature for himself. That's never been his character. And this is what the official Parks Blog says. I screenshot it several pages ago in this thread. His adventures always have a material purpose—retrieval of some item for safekeeping and study in a museum. It doesn't always work out for him, but that's the main reason he starts out on whatever he's doing. Based on what Disney has said, he is suddenly a mythical animal enthusiast who somehow got approval from Marcus Brody to go on a wild Quetzalcoatl chase while on leave from his teaching. Entering a temple and encountering a mythical animal isn't anathema to Animal Kingdom, and isn't a bad fit for the park; it's fine. It's the fact that it's INDIANA JONES, a character whose motivations are fully defined and fleshed out in several films (and they are openly stating his mythical animal-motivations). This is the problem.