Former Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde revealed that Tiffins Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has always had a reference to the upcoming Tropical Americas land. Tiffins opened in 2016 — eight years before Tropical Americas was announced.

Tropical Americas Reference in Tiffins

During a recent Walt Disney World trip, Rohde shared a video of a wood-carved world map within the restaurant, zooming in on a Maya temple located in the Tropical Americas region. He wrote:

Had an early final dinner at Tiffins today. Leaving tomorrow. Could not help but notice a detail on our carved wooden map, executed by our Balinese carving friends in 2015. The map indicates places where imaginary or animal sciences people had traveled on behalf of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Kinda hard to update since it’s a piece of carved wood… So you kinda have to bet on some futures.

The new Indiana Jones ride within the Tropical Americas land will be set within a Maya temple. The temple in the Tropical Americas concept art and model bear some resemblance to the temple on the Tiffins map.

Rohde recently revealed that he had been trying to get Tropical Americas added to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for 15 years, which would have crossed over with the creation of Tiffins. He even praised the Maya temple model in his post about the land.

We don’t know that Rohde’s plans for a Tropical Americas land would have included an Indiana Jones ride, but the Tiffins map indicates his team were at least researching Maya architecture.

Tropical Americas will open in 2027 and replaces DinoLand, U.S.A. Are you excited for this new area? Let us know on social media.

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