New aerial photos from friend of the site Bioreconstruct reveal new progress on the Encanto attraction coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Construction appeared to stall a bit in recent months, leading us to call it a sluggish summer for the project. That said, recently filed permits from Walt Disney Imagineering appeared to hint at an uptick in activity for the remainder of the year and into 2026. Now, new aerial photos show some wonderful progress on the site as crews prepare for an all-new Encanto attraction. Here’s the latest!
Aerial Photos Show Berm Demolition at Animal Kingdom
We begin with an overview of the construction site. Nearly all of the dirt you see will be utilized for the upcoming Encanto-themed attraction. How do we know? Back in October 2024, Walt Disney World filed a permit showing the final layout for the Tropical Americas land, including the footprint of the Encanto ride. We won’t rehash it here, but check out our earlier article for the details!
The most notable progress here is the demolition of the final section of berm that used to separate “on stage” areas with “backstage” areas. To illustrate the difference, here’s an October 2024 photo that we took when the Dino-Rama section of DinoLand was still open. As you can see in the photo below, there used to be a large berm with pretty thick foliage to prevent guests from seeing into backstage areas.
Here are some more angles of the work.
In this final aerial photo of the construction site below, you can see the segment of metal retaining wall that Disney recently installed. The new segment of wall curves to the right, toward a backstage building and near the Finding Nemo theater restroom building. This new retaining wall signals that Disney plans to keep the rest of the berm in place.
Once the old berm is fully demolished, Disney can work on grading the site and then beginning the installation of the show building. I’m not privy to the construction timelines, but I would love to see the Encanto show building go vertical sometime this year. Bonus points if it can be done before Thanksgiving.
Before we wrap up this article, we want to take a look at one more aerial photo from Bioreconstruct.
Laydown Yard Scenic Element Tests
The photo below is of the Walt Disney Imagineering laydown yard for the Tropical Americas project. This laydown yard is just north of Expedition Everest, and it’s a place for Imagineering to test out materials and scenic paint before construction. The photo reveals that a large number of wall tests and walkway tests are underway. There are even some mountain pieces and other scenic props that are all likely going to be represented in the Tropical Americas land. It’s very exciting to see work progressing along nicely toward the 2027 opening timeframe.
For the latest info on the Encanto-themed ride and the Tropical Americas land as a whole, check out our coverage from last year’s D23 Expo. We hope to hear more about Tropical Americas at the upcoming Destination D23 event at the end of this month, but with no major theme park presentation planned, it seems unlikely that we’ll get anything of substance.
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!