Sparks were flying at the site of the new Tropical Americas land in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Thursday morning. There was a lot of activity as crew members worked on steel and removed a sign from the extinct Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures.

Tropical Americas Construction

There has been a lot of development around the new land’s carousel, with block walls and steel framing now reaching a few feet above construction walls. A crew member appeared to be welding steel on the framework.

We saw bursts of sparks every few seconds as they welded steel together. This framework may be for a covered queue alongside the carousel.

We also saw crew members working around the block walls. The foundation visible beyond the walls is for the actual carousel.

In the foreground of this photo is more of that steel frame. In the background is Restaurantosaurus. The Airstream trailer was removed last week, leaving a large hole in the wall that is now covered by tarps. Through those tarps, however, we can see that the last Restaurantosaurus sign has been removed along with wall paneling.

The edges of one roof are now lined with tarps. We previously saw crew members removing roofing here.

Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures has been closed since January 2025 and removal of the store’s signs and billboards began that same month. But a few signs remained on the buildings.

On Thursday, April 9, crew members were finally removing a yellow explosion flat that was once the background of a dinosaur sign.

There is still an arrow sign as well as some billboard supports on the rooftops. The store will be converted to match the Tropical Americas theming.

For reference, below is what the store once looked like.

The yellow explosion background featured a pair of dinosaurs holding up a broken sign reading “You don’t need to go to the end of the earth, you’re here now!”

A lot of exterior paneling has been removed from the gift shop, leaving black sheathing exposed in some areas. It was previously made to look like an old gas station converted into a gift shop operated by the DinoLand original characters Chester and Hester.

Keep up to date with our Tropical Americas construction updates.

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