Disney Shares New Details About DINOSAUR's Closing Date at Animal Kingdom

8 days ago in "Dinosaur"

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Dinosaur overview

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Posted: Tuesday December 3, 2024 10:30am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In an update shared today, Disney provided new insight into the future of DINOSAUR at Animal Kingdom, suggesting the ride will remain operational through 2025 before closing permanently to make way for the Tropical Americas expansion.

Dinosaur overview

The update encourages guests to experience the ride while they still can, stating:

"While you're visiting, make sure you 'go get that dino' at DINOSAUR. We've previously shared this attraction will be closing to make way for the new Tropical Americas land – 2025 is your year to visit before it goes extinct!"

In an infographic, Disney says "THROUGH 2025 Go get that dino ... before extinction"

This announcement marks the clearest indication yet that DINOSAUR will remain a part of Animal Kingdom's lineup throughout next year, giving fans more time to experience the thrill ride before its eventual transformation, with a closing date sometime in 2026.

Tropical Americas Concept Art

DINOSAUR has been a cornerstone of Animal Kingdom since the park's opening in 1998, immersing guests in a time-travel adventure to save an Iguanodon from extinction. As part of the broader reimagining of Dinoland U.S.A. into the Tropical Americas, the ride will eventually be replaced by a new Indiana Jones attraction, which Disney says will feature a journey through a newly discovered Maya temple.

Indiana Jones Attraction Concept Art

While demolition and construction are set to begin in parts of Dinoland U.S.A. as early as January 2025, this new update confirms that DINOSAUR will remain open for the time being, allowing fans one last opportunity to experience the prehistoric adventure.

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MR.Dis3 hours ago

Animal Kingdom has been my wife's favorite park for years. People have a poor memory, as it is an untapped gem waiting for some TLC. Pandora officially opened in 2017, so I went back and checked the attendance for 2018. Per AECOM, Animal Kingdom had the second highest attendance in all WDW with over 12 mm guests. The issue is and has been lack of attractions. What they have is good to very good, just very limited. If a family is sending upward of $150 per person, you better darn well give them a full days of entertainment.

BrianLo1 day ago

I will say that WDW currently feels like it has some slack. The attendance softening from 2019 peaks is making the entire resort feel quite pleasant. The only reason Dino even sees 20 minute waits is that the park has a bare bones 10H operational day. Now actually feels like an acceptable time to close/renovate some things without bursting the bubble. But your greater point is quite valid. They need to prepare for the wave they are about to generate and that does require forward looking actual capacity expansion. Something they are achieving with Magic Kingdom and half heartedly nudging the needle at 2/4 parks. I’m a bit surprised the DAK project became so anemic, it’s quite a bit less than what they did in 2017 park wide. But I guess the powers that be saw what happened to DAK when it didn’t do anything for going on 7 years now and wanted to get ahead at DHS.

The Leader of the Club1 day ago

Precisely. DAK keeps getting great additions and then nothing else for a decade. It definitely needs a more consistent addition cycle.

rd8051 day ago

Yes, but if you continue investing in all the experiences & not letting the park grow stale without expansion/updates, then all of these new experiences even out. When you just release one new epic ride, and then don't do anything for 4-6 years...that's where Disney has gotten into absurd wait times.

BrianLo3 days ago

I foresee all the upcoming attractions being monetized quite easily. Even if they are not good, most of them feel destined for LLSP or a top LLMP priority. It is clearly influencing their investment strategy. What isn’t is their current, somewhat surprising, entertainment spend.

Loose Pebble3 days ago

Yeah that's the sad part. If they open an awesome new land and it doesn't lead to more crowds, they may deem it a failure because it didn't lead to increase in attendance. (unless it significantly raises per guest spending, which may be tough without more crowds to push LL).

UNCgolf3 days ago

From a Disney perspective, yes, but from a guest perspective, it will just mean more of the park is crowded. It won't make Pandora less crowded than it already is unless, as @lazyboy97o said, park visitation is stagnant or declines.

JackCH3 days ago

Had to go to the Big List of Abbreviations for that one.

Centauri Space Station3 days ago

I visit DAK a few times a year and have never waited more than 20 mins for DINOSAUR

MisterPenguin3 days ago

GSATs are as important as queues. If a retheme changes nothing about capacity, it should at least raise Guest Satisfaction.

Brer Panther3 days ago

Isn't it gonna be an Ominmover?

Timothy_Q3 days ago

How well a park is able to spread crowds has to do with having a somewhat uniform roster of big draw attractions across all corners of the park, regardless whether the park visitation numbers are going up or down. Right now DAK is leaning heavily on Pandora. With Encanto and Indy, crowds will be more evenly spread across lands

dmc4933 days ago

I don't think it's a wild statement to say that Indy will have a more consistently full/longer queue than Dinosaur. Because of newness, (probable) better quality ride, and because there's going to be a new marquee attraction right nearby. So it should definitely absorb more people than Dino does currently.