We’ve been following the progress of the Otter Grotto (Presented by OtterBox) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with wild fervor. For months, we’ve been peering behind construction walls, trying to catch a spare glimpse of the newly refurbished Otter Grotto. Well, today is the day! It’s actually been a full year since construction walls went up here (We found a Photo Report dating back to 4/18/18 when it first closed!), but Otter Grotto is back and newly reopened for guests to see and helplessly smile over these amazing, adorable sea weasels.

The Otter Grotto is located at Discovery Island, near Pizzafari.

Signs now have OtterBox branding on them. It’s an appropriate brand partnership, we’ve gotta say.

The island in the middle has received some love in the form of fresh green grass and new stones/climbing areas.

If you look closely in the back, you can see the new house they’ve built to bring in the otters once it’s their bedtime.

The slide and the stump are definitely new. The stump has an automatic feeder feature, so they’re training the otters to put clams in the stump to receive a reward.

The cave where you can watch the otters frolic underwater is back and fairly popular due to the shade and views it provides.

And now, for what you really clicked through for: the otters!

There seems to be some inter-otter drama, so there are only five out on display and apparently five otters offstage. Sounds like they’ll swap them out from time to time.

Here’s our walkthrough of the newly reopened space, as well as, of course, a few scenes of wading, frolicking otters:

The other interconnected trails that were also being refurbished as part of this project have yet to open, but we’ll keep you updated as they are reopened. The Paroon Shark catfish exhibit and a lot of the views into the kangaroo exhibit are still blocked off due to construction.

The otters will only be out until 3:00 PM today and for the next few days until construction is fully finalized.

Well, what do you think of the newly reopened Otter Grotto? We’re just happy that Otter Watch 2018-19 is finally over. Now, if you’ll need us, we’ll be audibly squealing over otters for the next few days.