New Aerial Photos Show Tropical Americas Carousel Foundation Taking Shape at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Feb 16, 2026 in "Tropical Americas"

Gallery / 5 Photos
Tropical Americas Carousel Construction - Aerial Views, February 15, 2025

Posted: Monday February 16, 2026 8:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

New aerial photos from @bioreconstruct give us the clearest look yet at construction progress on the carousel planned for the Tropical Americas expansion at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Tropical Americas Carousel Construction - Aerial Views, February 15, 2025

The images, taken this week, show concrete footer and foundation work actively underway at the site. A large circular form - clearly the base of the carousel structure - is visible along with adjacent rectangular foundation sections that likely support ride infrastructure and surrounding structures.

Tropical Americas Carousel Construction - Aerial Views, February 15, 2025

Tropical Americas Concept Art

The carousel is one of three new attractions coming to the 11-acre Tropical Americas land, which is scheduled to open in 2027. Disney has described it as a new take on a classic carousel format, featuring hand-carved wooden animals from Disney stories - all created by a fictional resident of Pueblo Esperanza, the town at the heart of the new land.

Tropical Americas Pueblo Esperanza carousel

Pueblo Esperanza is designed as a lush, open-air village inspired by research trips Walt Disney Imagineering took to biodiverse regions of northern South America and Central America. The town will feature a central fountain, an open-air market, and a large hacienda-style quick-service restaurant that Disney says will be one of the largest at Walt Disney World.

The carousel sits alongside two other headline attractions for the land:

A new Indiana Jones adventure set inside a Mayan temple, different from any other Indy attraction currently operating
The first-ever Encanto-themed attraction, centered on Antonio Madrigal receiving his gift and joining guests on a celebration through Casita

Tropical Americas Carousel Construction - Aerial Views, February 15, 2025

Tropical Americas is set to open at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2027.

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GordoInTheParks4 days ago

Thank you for the additional details. That lines up with what I heard later about the track distance and ride time being roughly the same.

TrainsOfDisney6 days ago

Disneyland has a covered maintenance area next to the show building. I think the actual ride and “show scene” area is the same.

eddie1046 days ago

Thats very interesting. So hopefully with a full gut of the space they a lot of room to work with.

Touchdown6 days ago

It was seriously one of my favorites because it often had stuff that wasn’t anywhere else. I had so many great finds there.

aladdin20076 days ago

just down to dirt in there I imagine, but agree the theming was impeccable.

Goat_Lord6 days ago

And there goes the greatest giftshop in WDW. I've been dying to know what's left inside for like a year ;-;

cookiee_munster24 days ago

His vids are always great, I especially liked this one. I've not really done much digging regarding the recent events held around the trips out for research, but he gave a great breakdown especially regarding the tree of life and the symbolism it creates. I really hope that the conservation aspect is focused on it in this way, and it's not some feathered serpent you have to "escape" from being the main part of the story/theme. Also bats. I never noticed those on the construction walls. I know there's already a bat section in the Maharajah Jungle Trek, but it'd be great if there was some kind of dark/cave exhibit you could go into in the Tropical Americas area.

GordoInTheParks24 days ago

I'm wondering if they'll be able to do that, if they are indeed keeping the same track layout. I also wonder if they would have a good spot with no track underneath. It looks like maybe the "Cearadactyl Nest" portion can open up? I don't think that it needs to be a straight copy, with that bridge going straight across the middle of the room, but just have an event in one big open space, in order to really sell the ride! I have also been looking up how this ride works, and it's interesting that the vehicles are actually individually programmable, so the motions could actually completely change, as well. That was definitely another concern.

GordoInTheParks24 days ago

Well, I could have sworn that I saw that info, but I just did a quick search for it, and I can find no mention of a confirmation of the track actually changing in any significant way. I either heard incorrectly or got some bad info, since I've actually seen more evidence of the contrary, stating the permits are mainly for retheming only. (sorry, Jack! You keep being you!) I definitely didn't intend to spread misleading info here. One interesting thing that I did find in my search, was that the Indiana Jones show building in Disneyland is only 57.4K square feet, while the Dinosaur show building is 85K square feet, according to the Google machine. It's hard to see any reflection of this on the ride, though. Especially since there is no big open room in Dinosaur, which is a little worrisome for the upcoming design of this attraction, TBH. I did watch a ride-through with the lights on, and there's definitely a lot of space that's all vegetation and large animatronics, so it should really open up outward, at least.

Disney Analyst24 days ago

Has it? I have not seen anything anywhere stating the track or layout was changing. There is technically already the open space there, you still go down below the track. It just depends if they take out the “ceiling” in that area.

GordoInTheParks24 days ago

While I like Jack at DSNY, I do believe that the one thing that he's missing in that video, is that I thought that it's already been stated that the track layout will be completely redone from Dinosaur, so the previous track layout has no bearing on whether it not there will be a bridge scene or not... depending on how the new layout will be set up, and if the track can go up high enough with an open space for it, that is. I'm still not sure how much of the DL version that they should keep, though. Edit: I could definitely be wrong on that claim that the track will be significantly changing, as I'm now seeing much more evidence to the contrary, sadly, as this greatly limits the amount of creativity that will go into the new ride.

TrainsOfDisney25 days ago

“The bridge part” involves lots of physical effects that Disney doesn’t typically do anymore. I agree it’s the best part and when everything is working…. Oh my goodness it’s perfection.

Nickm202226 days ago

Saw it and really liked the video. will say while I am happy the actual ride is very different then Disneyland and TokyoDisneysea, I do hope they figure out how to add the bridge scene some how as that's the best part

Gremlin Gus26 days ago

To get this thread back on track, DSNY Newscast recently did a video about news and speculation about the Indiana Jones ride coming to Tropical Americas and I think there's some interesting stuff to think about in this!