New permit information obtained by BlogMickey.com sheds some light on the location of a previously announced playground coming to the Tropical Americas-themed land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The new themed play area was confirmed by Walt Disney World in a June 2025 announcement of a closing date for The Boneyard. New permit info confirms the planned location for the playground. Here’s the latest!
Location of New Playground Coming to Tropical Americas Land
New permit info obtained by BlogMickey.com reveals the location of the upcoming playground coming to Tropical Americas. We’ll start with a look at the new information, followed by some previously released information as well as some of our old speculation. Here’s what’s new.
The new playground coming to Tropical Americas will take over the area near the Cretaceous Trail. New permitting info shows that Disney is utilizing the address reserved for the “DinoLand Goofy Pluto Meet and Greet”. Of course, those two characters most recently met together behind the former Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures gift shop, but the actual permitting address is listed as 594 DinoLand Drive, which resolves to the “Welcome Center” gas station meet and greet area shown below (decorated for the 2024 holiday season).
Work listed in the permit for this address includes “New Build Playground”, along with infrastructure work related to the playground, including new hardscape, landscape, concrete slabs, posts, railings, and a fence. Additionally, there is work related to the installation of show lighting, special effects, and fans, among other work. There will also be at least one drinking fountain at the playground location.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, why did you say that this area is taking over the Cretaceous Trail? Isn’t the Cretaceous Trail located on the other side of those trees? Yes, it is. For a better understanding of where the playground area will be, we have to turn to previously released permits and some of our earlier speculation.
First, here’s a look at the DinoLand USA layout of buildings and hardscape, per an October 2024 filing with the state water management department. This document contains the old Dino-Rama area, including the TriceraTop Spin attraction and the Primeval Whirl attraction. Both have been demolished for a new Encanto-themed attraction, but that’s not why we’re here. Draw your attention to the middle left of the permit, and the winding brown path through the forest of green space. That’s the Cretaceous Trail.
Looking now to the “after” permit, showcasing the layout of the Tropical Americas land, we can see that the Cretaceous Trail has been turned into a more rectangular area, creating more wide-open spaces: perfect for a playground. In fact, we speculated that this would be where the playground ends up going in an October 2024 article.
Still, you may be wondering why Disney is using the address for a nearby meet and greet and not the Cretaceous Trail for the new playground, if, in fact, this is where the playground is going. The answer to that is that the Cretaceous Trail doesn’t have an address listed in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District database. There are no buildings in the Cretaceous Trail, so it doesn’t have a proper address.
Here’s a closer look at the playground, which appears to have two entrances. Or, at least, a main entrance over near the Restaurantosaurus quick-service restaurant and an access path on the opposite end of the playground toward the former Dinosaur Treasures gift shop. Given that this is a playground, we’d expect that Disney would simply have one entrance and one exit, and that the pathway represented on the right side of the playground below would be a backstage path, but permit data reviewed by BlogMickey.com does not outline the use of pathways.
So, what does this new playground look like in the Tropical Americas scale model on display in Disney’s Hollywood Studios? A lot of nothing. In fact, the playground isn’t represented in the model. Well, the playground entrance appears to be represented, but not the actual playground itself. Here’s a closer look.
Pulling out the zoom lens reveals that this area is actually represented as a walking path in the scale model. It’s unclear if Disney simply didn’t want to tip their hand as to the use of this area when creating the model, or if this area wasn’t intended to be a playground when the model was constructed. Either way, we see a more relaxing walking trail represented in the model, as seen in the photos below.
Regardless, the new permit data does list this area as being the playground, unequivocally. As to what the playground may look like or be themed to, we would imagine that it would take on the theming of the nearby Indiana Jones-themed ride, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.
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!
I love the new playground, but what i really love is to not let Indiana Jones replace Dinosaur.
Mash-up? Indiana Jones discovers Doyle’s Lost World (which was located in South America)
The most important question has yet to be answered: will there be a nature trail as in four of the five other lands??
*correction: The Oasis doesn’t have a nature trail. But it still has permanent animal exhibits, which is what Tropical Americas needs