Joe Rohde Reveals He Pitched Tropical Americas for 15 Years as Dinoland Replacement
Following the extinction of Dinoland USA, Disney Legend(ary) Imagineer Joe Rohde has been paying tribute to the much-maligned dinosaur area of Animal Kingdom. He also shared that despite his fondness for Dino-Rama, he tried for 15 years to get Tropical Americas built at Walt Disney World, with many such pitches involving the “gutting” of Dinoland to do it.
Before we dig into Rohde’s praise for the Tropical Americas concept, it’s worth adding more context to his praise of Dinoland USA. On the day of that land’s closing, Rohde wrote that he’d “miss its sly and droll sense of humor, and the way in which it attempted to take a complicated subject like paleontology and turn it into a series of entertainment experiences.”
Like so many Walt Disney World fans, he pointed to Dinoland’s backstory, and “Venn diagram of ideas in play. The old school professors defending outmoded ideas. The young students with challenging new theories. The corporate financiers and their amoral profit motive. The roadside America entrepreneurs and their simple non-academic love of dinosaurs for pure fun.”
Since then, Rohde has shared nearly a dozen Dinoland tribute posts on Instagram. The salient points with all of these is that he still very clearly feels connected to Animal Kingdom, and that Dinoland was misunderstood or underappreciated. A lot of fans have reached this same conclusion over the years, many with an assist from Rohde’s past posts praising Dinoland USA.
As has been well-established over the years, we are not among these fans. I take Rohde’s points and can see how he and other fans would fall in love with Dinoland. The backstory is clever. There are a lot of interesting and thought-provoking ideas at play. The humor is sharp and witty.
To Rohde and his team’s immense credit, they tried to make lemonade out of lemons with the budget and constraints for the park’s dinosaur land. They tried to pull off a low-budget, high concept land.
The only problem? All of that falls apart when you step into the land itself. Theme parks exist as built environments, serving actual guests. The on paper explanation, great as it was, simply never lived up to the experience of visiting the land. My view has long been that “the thing speaks for itself,” and Dinoland always felt like the disjointed, weakest link at Animal Kingdom, which is otherwise an exemplar of themed design.
I believe Rohde loves Dinoland, just like a parent loves all of their children. But I do not believe that it was the dinosaur land he would’ve built at Animal Kingdom if given a bottomless budget, creative freedom, and time to do the concept justice.
I similarly do not believe Pandora is the mythical creatures land he would’ve built if given complete autonomy (we have concept art in coffee table books revealing what was actually intended for the original Animal Kingdom but cut for budget, in both cases). The difference is that Rohde got more of a blank check for Avatar and the impressive results speak for themselves.
Regardless, Rohde’s words carry a lot of weight. Much more than those of some random dude with a blog, so it’s very worthwhile to read and digest what he has to say about DAK. Aside from Walt and Disneyland, there’s probably no one person as closely connected with a park as Joe Rohde is with Animal Kingdom.
These parks are collaborative efforts and he had a huge team along with corporate mandates, but DAK is largely his baby. Joe Rohde is as close as possible to being the “auteur” of Animal Kingdom. His words on the park are rightfully viewed by many Walt Disney World fans as the gospel.
Accordingly, it’s also interesting to read his latest post on Tropical Americas:
For all my posting about the late great DinoLand, I do want to make something clear.
Up until the day of my retirement, my team and I tried for fifteen years to get a Tropical America land into this park and many such design attempts involved gutting DinoLand to do it.
This particular version continues certain of those motivations, but post-dates my career, and I’ve only been able to see it as a consultant now and again, but I congratulate the team on finally being able to lock a deal, which I was not. The underlying business has changed in all those years so this version is a response to those new realities, just as the previous versions were responding to theirs.
It is not my place to steal the thunder from the team by leaking, hinting or otherwise giving away what that design is. It is theirs to reveal as they choose.
But I can vouch for the team itself, some of whom I have known for decades as veterans of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and others whom I’ve come to know more recently. They are excellent. The level of research involved is excellent. The sophistication of the detail is excellent. Their commitment to the vision of the park is unwavering. And just as it always is…the work is hard. The path to excellence is neither smooth nor straight nor level. But these Imagineers are devoted to the task.
Parks exist to create memories. Dinoland created memories. Those memories still exist and they are the true product, not the property itself. The new land will create more memories and they too will be treasured. It may have to find its own audience and that audience may be distinct from Dino-aficionados. But, as for depth and quality…it is there…for example, if you take one look at even the impressionistic early representation of the Maya pyramid on the D23 model or the marketing rendering, and you are a fan of precolumbian cultures…well…if ya know, ya know.
Joe Rohde has always spoken his mind, and his social media posts have become even more candid since departing Disney. So there’s no reason to believe this is revisionist history meant to toe the corporate line or whatever. That just isn’t Rohde. His praise for Dinoland is sincere and comes from the heart, and so too does this.
There’s also the reality that this is not the first time he’s shared that he tried to get Tropical Americas built at Animal Kingdom. I ran into him at the last D23 Expo in Summer 2024, and he shared much of the same sentiment. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
As far as Tropical Americas goes, Rohde was enthusiastic and optimistic. He indicated that this was a region of the world he’d wanted to see incorporated into the park, but could never get done. Rohde felt that it was time for the park to evolve in this way, saying it would be a good addition especially post-Pandora. He seemed most curious about the Encanto casita, and suggested one of the biggest challenges for Imagineering would be marrying the more whimsical style of that with the gritty look of the rest of the park.
Anyway, just wanted to share this as there’s been a lot of mourning Dinoland this week among Walt Disney World fans, and understandably so. It is fair to call DINOSAUR a cult classic, and Dinoland had redeeming qualities. Regardless of all that, fans form nostalgia for everything, as so much of what makes a theme park impactful is the memories we make along the way, which forms an emotional attachment to the spaces.
As a bit of an antidote to all of that, there’s good reason for optimism about Dinoland’s replacement! Everything we’ve heard about Tropical Americas since the project’s announcement has left me more reassured and excited about it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s the Walt Disney World project for which I’m most excited, since Villains Land is hard to top, but Tropical Americas is up there for #2.
Joe Rohde’s post is the latest example, but it’s one of many. There was also last year’s Maya and the Mouse conference, which really underscored that the Tropical Americas project team “gets it.” Much of what has come out reinforces that Imagineering is still treating Animal Kingdom with reverence, attempting to thread the needle on cultural authenticity and thematic integrity at the last bastion of it at Walt Disney World. And although we’d prefer to see him fully return to Imagineering to helm projects, it’s nevertheless great to have Rohde back as a consultant, helping to shepherd the project in the right direction.
Someday, I hope Rohde or Disney reveal what was in previous pitches for Tropical Americas. Obviously, Encanto was not part of them from the beginning, since it did not exist over a decade ago. But my bet is that reimagining DINOSAUR into Indiana Jones Adventure was always part of the equation, as putting that ride system as originally intended is a slam dunk decision.
I’m also curious as to how Tropical Americas finally got greenlit 15 years later. It is quite the, ahem, coincidence that Bruce Vaughn returned to lead Imagineering, this expansion switched from Moana and Zootopia to revive the Tropical Americas concept, and Rohde was also brought back to mentor and consult Imagineers…all around the exact same time. It is similarly quite the coincidence that plans were dusted off for the 15-year old Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster plans for Disney’s Hollywood Studios around the same time. As the saying goes, great ideas never really die at Imagineering.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Tropical Americas expansion at Animal Kingdom? What about the potential of Indiana Jones and Encanto in DAK? Excited or underwhelmed by the Walt Disney World expansion plans? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m just wondering how Indiana Jones is going to fit in with animals. Will it just be a bunch of snakes or what?
I would still love to see a few easy changes that could enhance the overall experience for guests and extend the day. I know it isn’t animal-focused, but adding a Yak & Yeti character breakfast with Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar, Mulan & Li Shang would be a draw for many families and extend the day while still having a great option at Tusker House for all times. I know that you couldn’t have a Black Panther-specific area with licensing, but it would be easy to do a Dora Milaje/Wakandan Army training like the former Jedi Training at HS (also, please bring this back). Focus it on Wakanda and their appreciation and respect for nature and animals as part of a focus to be warriors for nature. It’s an easy activity and very kid-friendly. Bring back an afternoon water parade where Rivers of Light was located with a mix of animals and characters weaving the story of the partnerships between animals and people. Perhaps offer a few NatGeo collaborations as well or even bring back the Discovery Boats with a focus on animal facts and education. There are so many attractions which would help as well, but these are reasonably small additions that would offer more for visitors as longer-term plans continue to be assessed.
I’ve been following Joe Rohde for a while and enjoy his observations and commentary. Joe also engages comments quite often, which is really cool. Especially fun when it challenges/clarifies some of the fan-groupthink that can get overwhelming at times. His comment, that there was no other place for TA while keeping Dinoland, was interesting.
I was a little on the fence about Tropical Americas – being unsure if the idea came from good intentions and meshing with AKs core theme. Hearing Joe Rhode and team had pitched this in different form made me feel a whole lot better about this expansion.
Just went to AK yesterday. We looped Everest 3x before 8am and left it is really a travesty to see the empty amphitheater along the lake. I don’t understand why there is no show there. Kite tails was not good but rivers of light was great. I’m really excited about Encanto and new animals, and I’m fine with losing the kitschy dinoland although bone yard is the biggest loss for kids as it was the best play area in all of Walt Disney World. AK does have superior dining and fun relaxing vibes, I enjoy the animal trails and shows but since we are only getting one new attraction out of this I don’t think it’s ultimately going to solve AKs positioning as a 1/2 day park. Retheming dinosaur doesn’t actually increase ride capacity or give you more to do. I love Encanto and I’m excited for that for sure but I think they really needed to do even more to fill it out. When my kids were little I swear there was a parade at AK??? Did I imagine that?? Like.. bring in some more day time and night time entertainment is what I want to see.
For some reason I couldn’t reply to Aaron’s comment, but there is an interesting story behind this:
“Eisner famously hacked and slashed the budget for Animal Kingdom due to the then failure of Euro Disney and to spend more money on animal care.”
Before Asia was approved, Bob Lamb, then VP for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, went to Eisner and basically said, “If attendance is terrible, you are going to wish you had added another area in order to help increase attendance. If attendance is great, you are go wish you had added another area because you are going to need to capacity.” Among the budget slashing, he did convince Eisner a new area was needed even before Animal Kingdom opened.
Dinoland before Dino-Rama was a magical place, where budget cuts eliminated the number of attractions but not the quality of their theming. Before the budget cut on top of a budget cut of rides from the county fair, I got to see scientists assemble a dinosaur skeleton and gawked at multiple finished ones inside an area with a great mix of actual science/Dino Institute signage and theming. If more of those dinos were kept, I would have been much happier.
The opening of the Fantasyland Circus area was the final straw for me and Dino-Rama, because that showed how to do a well-themed carnival area with a decent budget. I’ll definitely miss the rest of Dinoland, though.
Rohde is revered, and for good reason. Personally, I love Animal Kingdom. It is WDW’s worst-performing park, though. Where do you think the blame lies for that? Rohde? The budget? Something else?
Probably just that it feels like it has the least stuff to do so it feels the most skippable for people doing 3 day vacations.
I think a lot of it has to do with accessibility. It’s definitely the hardest park to get to.
Beyond that, my understanding (maybe incorrect) is that it was made to be viewed in a slow paced, attention to detail type way. I think that is often at odds with how our attention is patterned in 2025, where things tend to be fast paced, stimulating, and designed for dopamine (and glutamate… everyone talks about dopamine and forgets glutamate) stimulation.
Good question! One thing to note is that AK was WDW’s *second* best park in 2018 and 2019, and was ahead of the Studios in 2017. It’s reasonable to assume it wasn’t Rhode, whose design of Pandora was seen as a success to fans and the general public when it opened in mid-2017. Those outlier years is why I believe it’s the lack of budget for attractions that has affected AK.
Eisner famously hacked and slashed the budget for Animal Kingdom due to the then failure of Euro Disney and to spend more money on animal care. Tigers were removed from Asia’s Tiger Rapids Run, Dinoland U.S.A. was cut down to size, and Beastly Kingdom disappeared off the map. As a result, the park relied on entertainment shows to expand the attraction list. (Most shows tend not to drive attendance to parks, although they do help fill out the day; for instance, I’ve never missed any version of Flights of Wonder once I’m in the park, but I’m not rope dropping it or going to AK because of it.)
After Kali River Rapids finally opened in 1999, the only new rides for AK before Pandora were the Dino-Rama carnival rides in 2002 and Everest in 2006. Every other park started with more attractions *and* got more new attractions than AK, both before and after Pandora opened. Again, Pandora vaulted AK to the top of the non-castle park charts; in my opinion, you’d have to be a real Chapek not to know to follow up on that ASAP.
I enjoyed this post. I think in terms of the Tropical Americas concept it’s not surprising as it’s kind of a “multiple discovery / simultaneous invention” scenario here. I was pushing for South and Central America for this land well before Disney announced or hinted at “Tropical Americas”, and I was far from alone — it just made logical sense in a park where Africa and Asia were the two main “lands” and Australia/Oceania was represented with the Finding Nemo show.
Going back to my youth, a the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago spent 7 years creating a highly themed and immersive indoor “show building” for animals that they called Tropic World and billed as “the zoo of the future”. Definitely one of the precursors to what Animal Kingdom would become. Lots of imagineered details debuted in 1982 that would gradually stop working and go away, like simulated lighting and thunder followed by “rain” falling throughout the exhibit. And the three “worlds” were: Asia, Africa, and South America. DAK was never going to feel complete without all three, and when Encanto gained a huge following, there was finally an IP tie-in that fit perfectly with the geographic location and synergistically with Disney corporate strategy.
I’m really curious what other concepts occupied the other ‘half’ of this land over the years. (I assume it’s always been Indiana Jones Adventure on one side–I know there was one version of this overhaul that had the Excavator Coaster on the other side, but that wasn’t Tropical Americas.)
My bet is that the later versions involved a modified Mystic Manor, with animals but no IP. That then evolved into Encanto. But I wonder what came before all of that.
Huge AK fan! But I always hated Dino land. It felt so unthemed comparatively. I don’t like carnival/circus vibe in a theme park (He’s looking at you Toy Story Land) Super excited about tropical Americas and it’s a great fit at AK. It’s a good start but AK needs more.
I like the idea of Zootopia and think this would be a good fit for the rafiki planet watch area…. Would be kinda cool to take the train to Zootopia.
Also a nighttime show return! So sad seeing the empty amphitheater.
Also fun transport between AK lodge and AK would be cool. Doesn’t even have to be skyliner. An open air safari shuttle would be good enough to keep the theming from AK lodge to the park.
Memories can be fooled, and evidence can be shadowed by prejudgments, so forgive me if I am misremembering or I lost something somewhere along the way… but I never thought I’d see the day when Tom Bricker would say dinoland has redeeming qualities, or a clever backstory!
Ha! Dinoland did have some redeeming qualities (at the absolute minimum, DINOSAUR’s pre-show was top-notch) and the backstory was clever on paper.
But there’s also a reason I wasn’t one of the people penning tributes to the land or tearful goodbyes. I do have conflicted feelings about dinosaurs going extinct from Walt Disney World, and I do have some nostalgia for DINOSAUR, but I am not the least bit sad to see that land–as it actually existed–be replaced.
I debated writing a post on that topic, but it’s a tough needle to thread and I don’t want to sound like I’m dancing on Dinoland’s grave as other fans are mourning it. So this one will have to suffice for now.
Dinoland has been underwhelming for some time, so its replacement is long overdue. However it doesn’t solve a core problem at Animal Kingdom, which is not enough attractions to be a full day + evening park.
My suggestion to solve that would be two-fold:
– Add an evening drone show opposite Everest. I would use the roof of the Nemo show building as the launching zone.
– Add a Wakanda zone to the east of rafiki’s and north of Harambe, with a pair of rides. A dark ride similar in goals to Na’vi river journey- tell the story of the black panther. The second would be a launch coaster without big hills emphasizing speed and smoothness as a “Vibranium technical demonstrator”.
Finally to solve the lack of transport, I would add a new skyliner route:
Animal Kingdom Lodge (between Jambo and Kidani in the parking lot)
Animal kingdom (up front)
Blizzard beach ( it needs to turn so why not make a station)
Coronado Springs
Speedway – existing turning station becomes a station, and adds a new route
Hollywood studios (replacing the lowest number bus ramps)
This not only improves the transport for Animal Kingdom, it elevates AKL and Coronado Springs, and can probably make the tower a full deluxe status, and adds $50 per room/night in value to Kidani, Jambo and Coronado that can justify a price hike.
Strongly agree with point one of your two-point suggestion. What I’ve, ahem, come to understand is that Disney isn’t ready to launch a nighttime spectacular because there’s not enough to keep people in the park until nighttime. That they need a “bridge,” of sorts, and I suspect that comes via Tropical Americas.
While I would’ve loved to see a drone show this summer…or last summer…or the summer before that…I do get the logic. Part of why Rivers of Light failed was because not enough people were staying in the park that late. Launching prematurely might be setting up another show for failure.
I strongly suspect another DAK expansion is in the pipeline. I’d be surprised if it’s Marvel-related.
Skyliner expansion is tricky. While your route is perfectly logical, there’s the question of whether Walt Disney World actually *wants* to elevate the status of all those resorts. They need hotel inventory at a variety of price-points, after all.
I just learned that Rhode is publishing a memoir due out in September. It’s already on my Christmas list.
I’m also very excited for it!
I just hope his editor isn’t heavy-handed. A lot of what makes Rohde’s Instagram so appealing is that it’s unfiltered and he doesn’t do a lot of hand-holding. If his book is similar in style and tone to his social media, it’ll be unlike any Imagineering book ever. I have high hopes!