New Aerial Photos Reveal Site Preparation for Tropical Americas Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Oct 14, 2024 in "Tropical Americas"

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Tropical Americas Concept Art

Posted: Monday October 14, 2024 10:52am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

New aerial photos from @bioreconstruct reveal significant site preparation underway for the Walt Disney Imagineering trailer compound to support the construction of Disney's Animal Kingdom's upcoming Tropical Americas land.

The photos show extensive land clearing and utility work behind Kali River Rapids, marking the first visible steps in the much-anticipated transformation of the park.

Imagineering Trailer Compound

Walt Disney Imagineering recently filed several Notices of Commencement related to the Tropical Americas expansion. The most recent filing, assigned to Modular Building Systems International, details the installation of trailers at the back of the park. These types of facilities are standard for large-scale construction projects at Disney parks. Similar temporary compounds were used during the Fantasyland redevelopment at Magic Kingdom and the creation of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The trailer compound will serve as a hub for the teams working on the redevelopment of DinoLand U.S.A.

Disney's Animal Kingdom WDI Trailer Compound Permit

Encanto and Indiana Jones Transform DinoLand U.S.A.

During the D23 Fan Event in 2023, Disney revealed that the new experiences in this area would draw from Encanto, the Academy Award-winning animated film, and the beloved Indiana Jones franchise. The land will replace the entire DinoLand U.S.A. area, with Indiana Jones taking over the existing DINOSAUR ride, and Encanto set to reimagine the Dino-Rama section.

Tropical Americas Concept Model

Bruce Vaughn, head of Imagineering, shared insights into the vision for this new land:

"Imagine a land filled with authentic experiences from this part of the world. With all of the placemaking and storytelling you'd expect. It's a beautiful region to explore and has been the inspiration for so many magical stories over the years. We're looking forward to bringing all of that to life."

Tropical Americas Concept Art

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Nickm20222 days ago

I find the mayan playground area so interesting because 1. That sounds so cool and well positioned I don't know why Disney hasn't released concept art for it and 2. It could be food carts or something else like show. Personally I've been saying move the UP bird show here

Disstevefan13 days ago

Oh good. You had me worried.

lentesta3 days ago

It is. But Disney drew it differently in the two separate SFWMD filings, so I think it's going to be fully covered.

lentesta3 days ago

Upper left corner. :P

Trueblood3 days ago

I'm a little disappointed that there are no featured animals, and "Tropical Americas" ecology will likely only be represented in the attraction queues, if at all. At least you could squint really hard and see the conservation message in Pandora, this... they have some work to do.

Disstevefan13 days ago

Its about time since Primeval Whirl has been closed since 2019....

Gusey3 days ago

I think that the part labelled "New Indy Covered/Indoor Queue" is the Dinosaur extended queue? It just hasn't been used much in the past

MisterPenguin3 days ago

Where's the DVC kiosk?

lentesta3 days ago

I did a blog post that looked at the SFWMD filings for Tropical Americas, and then made some educated guesses about where and what everything is. Here's the end result map:

Starship8243 days ago

They aren't wasting any time with this project I guess.

Fox&Hound3 days ago

Yay!! Let’s get this thing started :)

sedati3 days ago

Exciting, though the sample more resembles the rock-work at Everest than anything we're expecting at Tropical Americas. In fact, the only new rock-work shown so far is some lush mountain backdrops on top of the Encanto show-building. Could this just be for training, or something else entirely? The mock ups done previously were never so large but did accurately reflect what was coming.

gerarar3 days ago

Trailers/offices now on site and a theme test wall in progress. Source and more:

GoofGoof10 days ago

I feel the same. I was at DLR shortly after Galaxy’s Edge opened (without Rise). I was still happy to see the new land and ride MF but it was disappointing that the headliner wasn’t open. I do think that if part of the land is ready by the start of the Summer and the rest won’t be done until Fall it will probably open in phases. If it’s a few months difference in off times maybe all at once. Disney also probably wouldn’t want people delaying a trip to wait for the land to open. That happened some with Star Wars and was a bigger deal for Universal in the year before each Harry Potter land opened. Maybe this is too minor an addition to move the needle. The Potter lands and SW were much more anticipated.