Disney Finally Reveals What’s Happening at Animal Kingdom Theme Park
New paperwork from Walt Disney Imagineering gives fans their clearest look yet at what’s coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
In January 2025, Walt Disney World Resort closed TriceraTop Spin, Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, and the entire Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama, including the Fossil Fun Games. The closures followed the 2020 removal of Primeval Whirl, the roller coaster that was dismantled years before Disney revealed its replacement plans.
Guests who visited the area earlier this year saw construction walls quickly surround the space, while towering structures like the Cementasaurus vanished almost overnight. Recent aerial photos confirm the land is nothing more than a dirt lot, completely cleared for its next chapter.
That next chapter is Pueblo Esperanza, a Tropical Americas-themed land anchored by new attractions inspired by Encanto (2021) and the Indiana Jones franchise. Disney is sunsetting DinoLand U.S.A. in phases, with the Boneyard play area scheduled to close on September 2. DINOSAUR and the land’s Quick Service dining spots will continue operating until early 2026, when the attraction will be rethemed into an Indiana Jones ride.
This week, Walt Disney Imagineering filed two “Notice of Commencement” permits for installing trailers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. One permit lists an area just outside the Encanto construction site, while the other details an Imagineering trailer complex backstage near Expedition Everest. Whiting-Turner, the contractor named on the permits, has previously handled major Walt Disney World Resort projects, including TRON Lightcycle / Run and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Their involvement here suggests the trailers will be directly tied to construction for the new Encanto attraction buildings.
Walt Disney World Resort plans to complete the Pueblo Esperanza project sometime in 2027, though no exact opening date has been confirmed.
Have you been impacted by construction during your visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park? Share your experience with Disney Dining in the comments!
