It’s been a cold and rainy week in Central Florida but crew members are still hard at work demolishing DinoLand U.S.A. in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
DinoLand Demolition
Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama closed permanently earlier this month, with construction walls dividing DinoLand in half. DINOSAUR, The Boneyard, Restaurantosaurus, and character meet and greets remain while TriceraTop Spin, Fossil Fun Games, and Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures have gone extinct.
TriceraTop Spin was the first thing we checked on during our Thursday morning visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. There have been no visible changes to the attraction since our last DinoLand construction update when we noted the Triceratops was removed from the top of the ride. The ride’s queue is still intact, too.
Around the corner is Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, the land’s former gift shop. Still open on the right is Donald’s meet and greet area.
The store is behind a row of rolling planters. Most of the themed signs and billboards are gone from the store’s rooftops. We saw the main sign removed last week.
The yellow sign used to have a pair of dinosaurs holding up ads for the store. Support frames for many of the billboards remain. Behind the planters, we can still see the World’s Largest Pin Truck, though its board has been emptied.
Some of the truck’s signage has been removed and a tarp covers what remains.
Speaking of trucks — we saw crew members driving a truck around the construction site. The truck carried shovels, green poles, and other materials.
The large Dino-Rama signs, held up by life-size dinosaur figures, remain in place. As do string lights crisscrossing the carnival area. A new “Encanto” ride will be constructed in this space as part of the Tropical Americas land replacing DinoLand.
We couldn’t see any changes to the Fossil Fun Games. But it was within the game area that Disney held a groundbreaking ceremony, so we know work has begun in earnest.
Over near DINOSAUR, there’s one small construction wall between green fences. This blocks the back way into Dino-Rama, behind Dinosaur Treasures.
Despite the wall and fence, we can still see the walkway, which is a bit messy from the recent bad weather. More notable is the removal of a dinosaur cutout that advertised Dino-Rama. Its wooden support pole is still in place. Look closely behind that pole though — we can actually see straight through Dinosaur Treasures now.
See the dinosaur cutout as it looked before extinction below.

Tropical Americas Land


The Tropical Americas land will include the fictional town of Pueblo Esperanza, home to a hacienda that will be one of the largest quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World. A new attraction in Pueblo Esperanza will be a carousel created by a local woodcarver, according to the land’s backstory. The ride’s seats will be Disney animals, including Kevin from “Up.”


DINOSAUR will be turned into an Indiana Jones attraction. It’s expected to be similar to Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, which use the same ride system as DINOSAUR. However, the Tropical Americas version will have a brand new Indiana Jones story.


The “Encanto” attraction will see guests visit the Casita on Antonio’s birthday — the day he receives his gift of talking to animals. Guests will ride furniture-inspired vehicles, journeying into Antonio’s jungle-themed room and meeting members of the Madrigal family. Disney said the ride will “go beyond” the movie.
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