Good afternoon from Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where land clearing and preparation continue for an Encanto-themed attraction, set to open in 2027. It’s been two months since our last in-park update, and about a month since the last aerial update for the project. From what we can tell, there has been marginal progress on the construction site, but progress nonetheless. Let’s take a look at what has changed.
Land Clearing & Preparation for Encanto Attraction Coming to Animal Kingdom
I’ll be honest, looking at this first photo below, taken some 24-30 months before this land is supposed to open, doesn’t instill a ton of confidence. I’m not ready to start throwing “2028” into the ether, but I think I’d feel better with a bit more activity on the site. Anyway, Disney says 2027, so 2027 it is.
In terms of progress on the site, there isn’t a ton to report on if we’re looking at just the photo below. We’ll soon head to the Oldengate Bridge to see if we can see any sort of positive progress.
From the Oldengate Bridge in the Boneyard, we can see trucks and construction equipment seemingly unaware that this area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is no longer a parking lot. Perhaps midday on a Monday was a bad time, we’ll circle back in the coming weeks to see if we can capture a more active construction site.
Zooming in a bit, we can start to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together to try and figure out where on the construction schedule we are at. First and foremost, I think it’s clear that we’re still in the land preparation stage. Shifting our angle a bit, and zooming in, we can see that there is still some debris and land clearing going on.
The good news is that the continued demolition of this retaining wall has progressed over the last month. The better news is that any sort of infrastructure work/staging is out of view from within Disney’s Animal Kingdom itself. For the full picture, we have to rely on aerial photos from the eye-in-the-sky Bioreconstruct.
Shifting our vantage point again, we can see that while the former Dinosaur Treasures Gift Shop has had its signage removed, the building and nearby restrooms remain standing. In fact, these buildings are present in the Tropical Americas concept art and model. As I always say, if you have a reliable restroom, don’t demolish it. Come to think of it, I’ve actually probably never said that, but someone in Walt Disney Imagineering likely has, and so this building complex will stick around.
Here’s where the Cementosaurus used to stand proud. It was demolished back in early March.
Here’s a peek at the construction site, with a small crew visible on the left side of the photo below. Based on the equipment present, it looks like there are a couple of things going on right now. The big blue truck is an industrial vacuum, used to clear sewer lines and other applications. I would bet that Disney is cleaning any lines that will remain in place for the Tropical Americas land.
Other than that, we can see a mini excavator and a compaction roller. This is likely for smaller jobs and land preparation.
All in all, we’re still very much in the preparation phase. If we take a look back at the permit for the Encanto ride and Tropical Americas land, we will see that the building will stretch past the berm/retaining wall that is still standing. Until that is flattened, and the land behind it is built up to be level or close to level with the existing Dino-Rama section, we likely won’t see any substantial progress.
With a massive construction project set to begin at Magic Kingdom this Summer, I would’ve liked to have seen this area a little further along in the process, but perhaps Disney can build a brand new attraction from scratch in less than two years. Oh, and retheme a ride. And retheme a restaurant. And build a new ride. And retheme an entire land. 2027 doesn’t feel like it’s that far away. We’ll see.
For everything you need to know about the Tropical Americas retheme project for DinoLand USA, check out our article below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
