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Credit: DisneyWalt Disney World Resort has filed two new construction permits for the new Pueblo Esperanza area at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. This Tropical Americas-themed land, featuring attractions inspired by Encanto (2021) and Indiana Jones, will replace DinoLand U.S.A., the original “theme park within a theme park” in Central Florida.
In January 2025, TriceraTop Spin, Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, and Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama (including the Fossil Fun Games) closed permanently at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. This followed the 2020 closure of Primeval Whirl, which was disassembled long before Walt Disney World Resort announced its plans to build Pueblo Esperanza.
In the immediate aftermath of the DinoLand U.S.A. closures earlier this year, construction walls surrounded the area. Disney Park guests watched towering structures like the Cementasaurus and TriceraTop Spin disappear overnight. Recent aerial images show the area has been completely bulldozed, leaving a flat dirt space behind the construction walls.
Walt Disney World Resort was quick to demolish the DinoLand U.S.A. area, but it’s been slow to start building the two new Encanto attractions in its place. This week, Walt Disney Imagineering finally took some first steps toward construction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
Imagineering has filed two “Notice of Commencement” permits for installing trailers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. One lists an area just outside the Encanto construction site, and the other lists an Imagineering trailer complex backstage near Expedition Everest.
Whiting-Turner is listed as the contractor on both permits. This firm has worked on several major projects at Walt Disney World Resort, including TRON Lightcycle / Run, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and Toy Story Mania!. If Whiting-Turner is building a trailer near the Imagineering complex at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, they might be tied to the construction of the Encanto attraction buildings.
The rest of DinoLand U.S.A. will close in phases for its transformation into Pueblo Esperanza. The Boneyard play area will shut down on September 2, while DINOSAUR and the land’s Quick Service dining locations will remain open through early 2026. The DINOSAUR attraction will be reskinned into an Indiana Jones ride to fit into the new land.
Walt Disney World Resort has claimed that the Pueblo Esperanza project will be completed in 2027, but it hasn’t announced an exact opening date for the new land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
What do you hope to see in Pueblo Esperanza at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!