Disney's Animal Kingdom Tropical Americas Playground and Site Layout Revealed in New Permit Filing

13 days ago in "Tropical Americas"

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Disney's Animal Kingdom Tropical Americas Playground Site Plans

Posted: Friday January 30, 2026 7:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has filed plans with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that reveal details about a new playground coming to the Tropical Americas section of Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The playground will be built on the site of the former Cretaceous Trail, located between the Dinosaur attraction (which will become the Indiana Jones ride) and the former Chester and Hester's store that's being converted for Tropical Americas retail.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Tropical Americas Playground Site Plans

Cretaceous Trail

The wastewater permit documents include a site layout showing the playground's footprint and its position within the new land. The design appears similar to the former Boneyard playground that operated in DinoLand U.S.A. for years.

Based on the plans, the playground will include:

Multiple slides
A climbing structure
Play areas integrated into the Tropical Americas theme

The location places the playground between two major Tropical Americas attractions, giving families with young children a dedicated play space in the new land.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Tropical Americas Playground Site Plans

Disney's Animal Kingdom's original Boneyard playground was located in DinoLand U.S.A. and was demolished to make way for the new carousel coming to Tropical Americas.

The Boneyard overview

Tropical Americas Development

The playground is part of the larger Tropical Americas project that's replacing DinoLand U.S.A. The transformation includes:

Converting Dinosaur into an Indiana Jones-themed ride
Adding a new Encanto attraction
Reimagining retail and dining locations
Redesigning the entire area with Central and South American themes

Tropical Americas Scale Model

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James Alucobond1 hour ago

Conceptually, it'd be fine there, but I also think it makes sense to not "waste" the carousel ride type on Discovery Island because it's the flat ride that you can easily sell as the most low-tech and mundane, allowing it to still fit well visually into the villages. Meanwhile, Discovery Island could actually probably handle something that looked a bit more modern and exotic. Honestly, having some flat on DI with three sets of vehicles where one set was themed to real animals, another to ancient animals, and another to imagined animals would be a good way to continue to reference all of those things even as the lands themselves change.

Brer Panther3 hours ago

Does anyone else think the carousel would fit better in Discovery Island?

DrummerxDrummer4 hours ago

I’ve had this cool idea for years where you could take the ride system for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (the Tokyo version) and reskin it with avatar’s flora and fauna. The ride vehicles are small seating up to four per vehicle. But think it would still be a cool experience if the right people were behind it.

Timothy_Q4 hours ago

I agree that DAK needs more smaller rides as well, but my point is DAK has no E ticket dark rides for the whole family, so Navi has to carry that weight even though it wasn't designed to do so People expect it to be a headliner like POTC, HM or Rise, when in reality it's meant to be more in line with a (really gorgeous) modern Fantasyland dark ride that's short and sweet

James Alucobond5 hours ago

Maaaybe? At least two of those three are massive E-tickets that would be built with the intention of drawing even more traffic to the park. What you actually need are a few more rides that match or are just a bit below Na'vi in terms of scope and appeal (though hopefully with higher capacity) so that you balance demand with suitably variable wait times. A 60- or 80-minute wait for an E-ticket is way less offensive if you can also blast through a bunch of other things in less than 20 minutes apiece. I honestly find it kind of odd that they've never added a Discovery Island flat ride or a genuine daytime river parade (no, I'm not counting the weird COVID boat cavalcade things). Where Encanto genuinely helps is with having more things to do indoors, but it may actually worsen crowds and wait times.

Timothy_Q5 hours ago

Encanto, a Lion King flume, and a 3rd Pandora ride would fix the Navi issues of wait times and expectations

mattpeto6 hours ago

I like Navi and the East projects should help the standby.

Disney Analyst6 hours ago

Navi is gorgeous. It really just needed to be longer.

Nickm20226 hours ago

Navi river is the ying to the yang that is flight of passage. It is a needed calm in a land full of insanity. but the real issue is it is being used and treated like an e-ticket despite the fact that it's at most a b or c ticket. And the only reason this is happening is simply because it's in a park with currently only 4 other rides. If AK had tropical americas open, plus lets say rides for UP, Black Panther, Lion King, Junglebook, and a whole new land or two in the back themed around North America or the Middle East then navi river would be thought of as a nice calm break you only waited less then 20 minutes for like the people mover. So when you wait 50+ minutes for the ride and are expecting an action ride the warrants a 50 min wait ofc your disappointed. point being Navi is a great ride but is being forced to meet needs it wasn't designed to meet. However I would argue in 20+ years Navi will be considered a way better ride, and will age better w time. And AK needs more filler rides like Navi hence why I think its great Ak is getting the carousel in TA

HMF19 hours ago

I would describe Navi as being a greats setup for an attraction of a similar quality to DL's POTC, but ends suddenly at the point of DL's Pirates Grotto sequence.

UNCgolf19 hours ago

I couldn't disagree more -- I think Na'vi is one of the better rides Disney has built this century (at least at WDW). I don't think it's boring at all; it's relaxing and beautiful (and I've never seen any of the Avatar films so I have zero knowledge of or connection to the IP). Of course it would be better if it was longer and of full of amazing creature animatronics, but I think it's then a D at the very least, if not an E. While I do wish we had that version of the ride, the one that actually exists was never intended to be that. It's an immersive ride down a river in an alien jungle; it doesn't really need to be anything more than that IMO.

Disgruntled Walt20 hours ago

Na'vi River Journey needed some amazing, full-size Pandora creature animatronics. It's boring as heck until you see the dancing lady. Actually, it's still boring even then! As someone who didn't care for Avatar the film at all, Pandora needed to really draw me in, and the outdoor theming did, but the attractions (ESPECIALLY NA'VI) really disappointed me. Flight of Passage was fun, but I did not prioritize riding it on my last trip (which was my first in 8 years). In fact, I didn't set foot in Pandora at all. That's why both of these new attractions in Tropical Americas really have a lot riding on them. I'm hopeful that lots of animatronics will make up for the questionable inclusion of these rides in Animal Kingdom. (It can't really make up for it, because neither Encanto nor Indiana Jones could ever really fit, but it will be an easier pill to swallow.)

UNCgolf22 hours ago

I agree that using screens/projections isn't inherently bad -- Na'vi River Journey is a good example of a ride that uses them almost perfectly -- but I don't think Guardians got it right at all. Using screens/projections does make sense for a roller coaster in a dark warehouse, but the actual execution was poor. People enjoy the ride for the physical motion and the soundtrack; hardly anyone cares about the attempt at story. Shanghai Pirates is much better, although they failed in a few places there as well.

veritas5523 hours ago

yeah, I never subscribed to the view that all screens are necessarily bad or cheap. There's a right place for newer technology -- and Guardians got it right. (So did Shanghai Pirates, albeit with many more practical effects, which you can do with a boat ride, but much less so on a moving coaster.)