Tropical Americas Model: Indiana Jones Adventure, Encanto Casito & Critter Carousel
Walt Disney World officially announced that Indiana Jones and Encanto attractions will come to life in the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom. This shares new concept art & model photos, and everything we know so far about the upcoming land. Plus, my chance encounter with legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde.
Our latest update is that the model shown here, which first appeared at last summer’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, has moved to Walt Disney World! You can now find it at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where an all-new Walt Disney Imagineering exhibit has debuted as of October 10, 2025 to showcase upcoming Walt Disney World projects!
The new display can be found within the Walt Disney Presents walk-through, towards the end in a gallery that used to feature Disney Cruise Line. The display features the entire Tropical Americas Land model shown in this post, plus less noteworthy displays for Monstropolis at DHS (although the construction wall has better concept art and offers a glimpse at the work being done) and Piston Peak Cars Land coming to Magic Kingdom.
Just wanted to give you a heads up so you could check this out for yourself, in person. The full model is very cool and detailed, and it’s one of the biggest and best sneak peeks we’ve had at Walt Disney World of an upcoming project in a long time. Many fans pass over Walt Disney Presents since not much (if anything) changes from visit to visit, but you will definitely want to stop by if you’re visiting between late 2025 and 2027!
What follows is our original post offering an overview of Tropical Americas, followed by a photo tour of the scale models of the land, and encounter with Joe Rohde while we were checking it out on the show floor of the D23 Expo…
Just like Harambe, the Tropical Americas area feels lived in, with a long, rich history. There are essentially three areas of this land, the first of which is Pueblo Esperanza, the hub in heart of the rainforest that’s name translates to “Village of Hope.”
The Pueblo Esperanza community center will be lush and sprawling, featuring a large fountain in the center where the villagers like to gather and tell stories. There’s also a large hacienda which will be one of the largest quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort.
Additionally, a woodcarver has repurposed a horse stable into a giant working carousel for the kids from Pueblo Esperanza to enjoy. Thankfully, they get Disney+ out in Pueblo Esperanza (stellar broadband service in the rainforest) and the woodcarver crafted some of his favorite animals from Disney stories. Imagineering is promising a new take on a classic attraction that young families are going to love.
Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a land with just a critter carousel. After leaving the Pueblo Esperanza, guests can venture deeper into the rainforest to find not one but two signature attractions! To the left is the Encanto magical Madrigal Casita dark ride, which is likely to be a family-friendly Omnimover–perhaps like an Encanto-ized version of Mystic Manor.
If you’re a fan of drawers, floors, and doors, let’s go! The first-ever Encanto-themed ride-through attraction is coming to Animal Kingdom, featuring the beloved Madrigal family from the Walt Disney Animation Studios film.
Inside the Casita, Antonio has just received his special gift — the ability to communicate with animals — and his room has transformed into a rainforest. It’s time to go explore alongside him, and you never know what member of the family you might bump into.
To the right from Pueblo Esperanza is a new Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which will replace DINOSAUR. This will be a new twist on IJA that will be different from the existing versions of the attraction at Disneyland in California and Tokyo DisneySea. Both of those are quite different from one another, and this will be the third non-cloned version of the attraction. Obviously, they all bear similarities–but also all tell unique and distinct stories.
In this new adventure at Animal Kingdom, the man with the hat has recently discovered a perfectly preserved Maya temple, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to explore it. He’s heard rumors about a mythical creature deep within the temple — and he’s got to see it for himself. So, he brings us along on the adventure.
As a bit of an aside, I’ve seen speculation that the mythical creature will be Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl (the former being its Mayan name, the latter its Aztec). I’m sure someone with greater cultural/mythical creature knowledge can share insight into the distinctions between the two beasts, but both appear to be feathered serpent gods. This would be a fun riff on Indy’s fear of snakes, and in keeping with the culture meets creatures intersection of Animal Kingdom.
Construction on the land is set to begin in early 2025 and will open in 2027 — but don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to experience Dinosaur again. Our expectation is that DINOSAUR will actually start construction last, meaning that you might have until the second half of 2025 to experience it.
If this land is opening all at once instead of in phases, there’s more work to be done on Encanto–a brand new build–than there is on Indiana Jones Adventure, which will reuse the existing ride system from DINOSAUR. Obviously, all of this is unconfirmed–and the longer DINOSAUR is closed, the more time Imagineering has to do justice to an ambitious reimagining. So we’d love to see it close earlier.
Anyway, here are the models and more from Tropical Americas that were showcased on the show floor at the D23 Expo:
I’m still torn on Tropical Americas. On the one hand, everything I’ve heard about this land makes me more optimistic about it. The Encanto casita attraction seems much more ambitious than I had first heard last year, and the size of the show building is further reassuring. This could be a blockbuster attraction, or at the very least, a high-capacity people-eater.
Then there’s Indiana Jones Adventure. This E-Ticket is so far superior to its prehistoric counterpart that it’s completely understandable that guests don’t realize they’re (basically) the same underlying ride. Whereas DINOSAUR leans heavily on darkness, more darkness, empty show scenes and non-working effects, Indiana Jones Adventure is jam-packed with brilliantly-staged show scenes and an interior that’s far more engaging and satisfying. It’s a definitive demonstration of why ride systems aren’t everything–or really, anything–and it’s all about how they’re utilized. I can’t wait for Walt Disney World diehards to experience this for the first time–they’re in for a real treat.
I’m also bullish on how both franchises will fit Animal Kingdom thematically. I’m not suggesting either will be pure or perfect fits–they definitely won’t. But Imagineering leaning into the wildlife, natural worlds, and animal-centric thematic elements of both seems fitting. Indiana Jones, in particular, has a lot of potential as a cautionary tale, much like Avatar. There are elements of that franchise that are thematically at odds with Animal Kingdom, which could be precisely the point–the park doesn’t have to endorse the titular character’s actions any more than Villains Land needs to endorse evil. It can exist as a thematic exploration, much like (again) Pandora or even Kali River Rapids.
The biggest wildcard for me is the actual wildlife. That’s integral to Animal Kingdom from my perspective, and the jury is still out as to whether it’ll be incorporated into the area. A couple of trails and exhibits would go a long ways towards appeasing fans and also just making Tropical Americas a better fit. Obvious candidates are capybara and chupacabra, both of which are definitely real animals and not at all made up freaks of nature.
On the other hand, I’m still disappointed that Disney is abandoning dinosaurs. That’s as a concept, with a lowercase “d.” Dino-Rama didn’t fail because it lacks recognizable animated characters or synergy. It failed because it sucks. Normal guests don’t care about backstory, and all that lipstick couldn’t save the pig that is Dino-Rama. The land being unpopular and bad has nothing to do with dinosaurs and everything to do with its original budget being, like, twenty-five bucks. Fix the funding and you fix the problem.
Dinosaurs are also basically the ultimate intellectual property, and it’s almost criminal that Disney hasn’t released a great movie featuring them. (The Good Dinosaur had so much potential–I still appreciate it as a weird little ‘warts and all’ movie.) It feels almost criminal to remove the one theme park land devoted to these magnificent creatures, rather than doubling down on them.
There is so much unrealized potential with a land devoted to dinosaurs, and if given a big budget, Imagineering could create something truly magical and awe-inspiring that would have tremendous guest drawing power. Even IP integration could come over time once the studios finally come to their senses, stop the gratuitous remakes, and start making movies about dinosaurs. Heck, that’s already happened once in Dinoland!
I get why Walt Disney World is doing this–because Universal has developed a monopoly on dinosaurs thanks to Jurassic Park. As much as I love that franchise, it’s a travesty. Universal has likewise mostly squandered dinosaurs, giving them a bunch of only okay attractions or great ones with very tenuous dinosaur connections. (If anything, what Universal has done is worse–since Jurassic Park is one of the all-time great brands and has a built-in theme park connection.)
The bottom line is that dinosaurs should not go extinct at Walt Disney World. But at the same time, this particular dinosaur land is absolutely nothing special, and doesn’t deserve to be mourned. My hope is that down the road, Disney will give dinosaurs a second chance–much like the late, great John Hammond–what could possibly go wrong?
Finally, by sheer chance and dumb luck, I happened upon legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde at the Tropical Americas model–or more accurately, he happened upon me. Like a total doofus, I got in his way while photographing the model, not noticing that he was behind me. (Side note: if you ever want to meet and chat with Imagineers, there’s no better place than the D23 Expo show floor–it’s always swarming with them.)
Anyway, it was a right place at the right time moment, as Mike from BlogMickey and I were the only ones in front of the model, and we had a chance to chat with Joe Rohde for a bit after he took photos of it on his phone. I figured this was worth sharing not as a humble-brag (although it is a two birds with one stone sorta deal), but because when I posted the photo on social media, everyone wanted to know what Joe thought of Tropical Americas.
Fans wanting to hear his take on Encanto and Indiana Jones at Animal Kingdom makes sense. Aside from Walt and Disneyland, there’s probably no one person as closely connected with a park as Joe Rohde is with Animal Kingdom. Yes, these parks are collaborative efforts and he had a huge team along with corporate mandates. Still, Rohde is as close to as an “auteur” as possible with Animal Kingdom. His word on the park is rightfully viewed by fans as the gospel, and he often is not shy about speaking his mind.
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. (All of this is paraphrased and to the best of my recollection.)
With all of that said, this was the day when Rohde was inducted as a Disney Legend. Although his social media posts offer a certain amount of candor (and always have), he’s also a skilled and savvy spokesperson. You don’t get as far as he did in a company like Disney without being adept at corporate politics. He’s not just going to start badmouthing upcoming projects in the presence of current Imagineers to random fans. There are ex-Imagineers who do this, but Rohde isn’t one of them.
To the extent he has critique of the Tropical Americas (if any), Rohde is going to share that in private with Imagineers working on the project. He’s already returned to Imagineering to lead master class workshops and (possibly) serve as a creative consultant. He’s been spotted with teams of Imagineers on both coasts in the last few months, so he has every opportunity to communicate with them firsthand and actually shape the Tropical Americas project from the inside.
Nothing would undermine that faster than criticizing Tropical Americas publicly, which also explains why he hasn’t posted an Instagram essay about it. Even with his own past projects, Rohde didn’t publicly share his concerns until long after they opened and were huge successes.
Sure, we know now that he had misgivings about Pandora and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, but those are a lot easier to hear because we know that he managed to overcome those obstacles. At the time those were in development, his comments were positive and in keeping with Disney PR. It’ll probably be much of the same here with Tropical Americas.
Hopefully, Rohde is still “on the inside” enough to guide in the direction of this new Indiana Jones and Encanto expansion in much the same way, and it too will similarly be a success story about overcoming obstacles. It’s entirely possible that Joe Rohde was being frank, and his feelings about Tropical Americas are entirely positive. But our conversation with him wouldn’t necessarily be dispositive of that.
Personally, I’m inclined to believe this project’s biggest problem to overcome was switching from Moana and Zootopia to Tropical Americas, and that already happened with the return of Bruce Vaughn (perhaps with an assist from Rohde?). Who knows, maybe the lone remaining challenge this project faces is making the fit and finishing on the Encanto casita feel at home in Animal Kingdom. That’s certainly my hope, but regardless, I cannot imagine it being worse than the dumpster fire it’s replacing in Dino-Rama. Given everything we know so far, I’m excited for Tropical Americas.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Tropical Americas expansion announced for Animal Kingdom? What about the potential of Indiana Jones and Encanto in DAK? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? 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 a but surprised there isn’t more integration with “Up” in Animal Kingdom. It’s a great movie, loved by everyone, and takes place in the Americas, while featuring a lot of beautiful nature images and animals. The film even has wilderness explorers! On a serious note, it seems like it would fit aesthetically, and it would be easy to develop a ride based on the floating house. Plus, Kevin already has a presence there.
Tom, rumored Lion King ride? Not just the one at DLP? Tell me more. It’s no doubt my favorite Disney film and I think deserves more love in the parks. I think getting rid of Dinoland will be sad, because I love its kitsch, but this seems optimistically something that will be a great addition to DAK.
There’s an expansion pad between Pandora and the Lion King show where it is rumored a Lion King ride may go after Tropical Americas. I think it would be quite similar to the one in Paris, but maybe not a water ride.
lol, I thought Zootopia was a much better idea, you know, because animals and all that.
The problem is Zootopia isn’t really about animals. The animal characters are used as an indirect way to depict human prejudice. Zootopia has as much to do with animals as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck do.
I took my son when he was 9 months old to Disney and he loved the dinosaur dig area. A safe space to crawl around, buckets and shovels, other kids to engage with, shaded with fans, and plenty of seating. This area was a huge win. Disney needs more spaces for the crawling not walking crowd. It’s supposed to be a family park for all ages. We often used the baby care centers for a crawl break but those floors are dirty and it’s not truly meant for that, especially at Hollywood studies. The boneyard is a huge loss for families like us. Disney needs to realize that when you cater instantly to what’s popular with most people, there’s a fringe of people that you eventually cut out all together. Part of the magic of the park that Walt created was a true family experience that didn’t cut the fringe out. Losing the river boat, Tom Sawyer island, the bone yard, these are all baby friendly attractions, great to be at the heat, slower paced things which at times are much needed.
I agree- losing the Boneyard will be a big loss for my family and it could easily be converted to Indiana Jones theme just be changing the signs and music
Agreed and well put. I wish every park had a playground area, and I hope Disney considers this as they build new lands. Encanto and Indiana Jones both have great potential for themed playgrounds, and Cars and Monsters could too. A playground isn’t that expensive and the value-added for families with small children is so high – playgrounds are basically the cure for overstimulated toddlers/preschoolers, plus it’s a great distraction to let parents do rider swap or wait in line to buy some food. We are taking our kids (ages 1 and 4) to Disney for the first time in January 2025, and I really hope Boneyard and Tom Sawyer’s Island will still be open!
They definitely need to have animals from that part of the world. Jaguars especially – in an enclosure similar to the one the tigers are in.
For animals, they could relocate the Flights of Wonder macaw show to Tropical Americas, since macaws are Latin American birds.
I’m an Orlando resident & haven’t gotten out to Disneyland very often, but when I have visited, one of my fave attractions was the Indiana Jones ride, and I wished we would have it here. I consoled myself by thinking we did have the similar Dinosaur ride. Even though the film the ride was based on was simply called Dinosaur, I still think the original name Countdown to Extinction was catchier & more specific. Dinosaur is perhaps my fave attraction at Animal Kingdom, but I think an Indiana Jones overlay will be an upgrade. I’m a fan of “Temple of Doom” but not so much the other Indy movies, but I only watched Dinosaur once & forget a lot about it. I think of the Dinosaur ride as a fantasy because the idea that dinosaurs existed millions of years before mankind is bogus. If you’re wondering why I say that, look up info on creation dot com. They have a search engine. And Donald’s Dino Bash was also ridiculous for teaching that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
Is this a serious comment?
Great write up – thank you! Just wanted to take the opportunity, in case Disney is paying attention, that including actual animals is so important for this land. It really will make the difference of this being “good enough” versus great. Animal Kingdom needs great, and it feels like such an easy thing to add/include to hit the mark. Separately, I agree that a Lion King water/dark ride addition would be such a win for this park.
glad to see others are wondering about the actual animal integration besides me. so many great options- parrots, toucans, capybara, reptiles, jaguars, sloths. lots of top notch possibilities.
“… Indiana Jones Adventure, which will reuse the existing ride system from DINOSAUR.” What I expected, but also what I feared. I’d have much preferred and entirely new ride system than a re-skin. Mind you, I think it’s certain to be better than DINO, because this is a ride that gets long lines despite its relative lack of popularity. I’d be willing to be that at least 80% of those who go on this don’t even realize it was based on a movie.
Which is one of the problems with putting a ride out on THE CURRENT BIG THING. Just because something is hot today, and even has been for a couple of years, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be hot next year, or 5 years from now. For example, if Disney had waited a decade to see how the final Star Wars trilogy held up, we would NEVER have been stuck with the Galaxy’s Edge we received.
Which is one thing that bothers me about the Encanto ride. Disney has been pushing this as a classic, hard. However, I’m unconvinced. It might become so, but I have a very good track record on what becomes classic and what doesn’t, and a classic is something you NEVER have to push. My fear is that by the time this is released, Encanto will be just another Disney movie, one that was good, but failed to rise to the level of classic. I’m not saying it won’t become a classic, but Disney is pushing soooo hard to make this movie fit this land, because it’s the only game in town… just like DINOSAUR was the only dino-game in town for DAK when it was built.
Other than those issues, with one more to come, the land looks good, fitting in with the weathered theme of DAK, and yes, they need animals. But back to the Indy ride, one I’m looking forward to, but one that I have a big concern about: capacity/line length. I would expect this to be wildly more popular than DINO ever was and given how long line waits could & still get at DINO, I have serious questions whether the re-skin is going to be able to handle that capacity. We’re certainly looking at years of a virtual queue and premium price to ride on this attraction. After that, it might be worse than Mine Train during peak times of peak days and make Flight of Passage’s peak standby wait seem reasonable by comparison.
To be fair, Dinosaur is itself a re-skin if the Indiana Jones Adventure. So this is more like peeling off the Dino skin and revealing the Indy ride that was hiding underneath all along.
“The biggest wildcard for me is the actual wildlife. That’s integral to Animal Kingdom from my perspective, and the jury is still out as to whether it’ll be incorporated into the area. A couple of trails and exhibits would go a long ways towards appeasing fans and also just making Tropical Americas a better fit.”
So glad to see you bring this up. I hope WDI is listening because I agree that the new attractions are important and exciting, but as you say wildlife is also an integral part of Animal Kingdom.
Overall another great write up!
Say what, you’re totally dissing that sweet little Indy coaster at DLP? What gives? I got one of my favorite green hoodies there, themed to Indy.
This looks like a great expansion! And unlike the announced (and stupid) destruction of the RoA at MK, this looks like an actual expansion fitting two large-scale attractions into the space. Maybe they could add a second version of Jock Lindsay’s on the ‘road’ to the newly-found temple… All of us D3 folks would be happy to see that!
The Encanto model looks pretty awesome. I’m psyched about this NEW area. This is what should’ve happened for Tiana at MK, instead of the incongruous, pathetic ruination of Splash we got saddled with.
I love the whole thing – with the exception of the carousel replacing the Boneyard.
in terms of aesthetics I think people will probably enjoy it. But for your kids who loved the Boneyard, it’s a downgrade.
I too hope they incorporate live animals somehow, and South America has a long list they can chose from. The model helps to bring the new layout into view, and thank goodness there’s shade! No one wants to be in Dino-land because it’s so exposed.
This is the one area that I think Disney absolutely nailed at D23 and I think Rhode’s consultant fingerprints may be all over it! As well as covering the ‘other’ continent, the concept for Indy directly links to the founding concepts for the park – mythical beasts. Encanto to me is also a good fit – stories about displaced people just work well in a park about conservation.
Having said all this- this isn’t enough and 2027 is too far! Much of this work should have been started as soon as Guardians opened at Epcot (if not before).
“Having said all this- this isn’t enough and 2027 is too far! Much of this work should have been started as soon as Guardians opened at Epcot (if not before).”
Yep. This is my big issue. DAK attendance has been trending down for the last few years, and it’s only going to get worse with Epic Universe opening.
Hopefully that means we get a lot of big entertainment to stem the bleeding between now and 2027!
Disney and the Imagineers are hitting it out of the park with this one. Animal Kingdom is my favorite park, mostly due to the atmosphere and theming of its various lands. Each one is unique and incredibly detailed. The Tree of Life, Harambe, Asia, and Pandora all feel immersive and real. The weak spot has always been Dinoland USA. Like Tom, I am sad that dinosaurs will not be represented at Animal Kingdom. But I think the compensation more than offsets it. Tropical Americas, like Africa and Asia, is a part of the world that kids are often unable to see. I trust that it will be fantastic to be immersed in this pueblo, if it is anything like Harambe or Asia. The rides also look great, and we are getting variety between a modern, though whimsical hacienda, and an ancient Mayan temple. I have no doubt AK will continue being my favorite park.
DAK is the park that I love the idea of (because I agree that it’s so well-themed), but don’t actually spend as much time in simply because it doesn’t have better balance and enough with repeatability. This is yet another step in the right direction that’ll help fix that.
I still hope the rumored Lion King ride is on the horizon. It needs more even after this, IMO.
I actually have no reason to think Rohde was being insincere when he expressed optimism about Tropical Americas. I’m very optimistic too. In this era of IP-driven theme park decisions, it’s a real pleasant surprise to see them plan a new land set in an original locale and designed to suit the Animal Kingdom’s theme. Let’s not forget that Rohde himself had to contend with Iger’s insistence on adding Avatar to the park, and while he and his team executed it brilliantly, it’s hard to argue that the movie is an ideal fit. After all that, hearing about Tropical Americas must have felt like a breath of fresh air to him.
I don’t mean to imply that he’s being insincere–after all, he didn’t have to say anything positive at all. Just that even if he did have anything negative to say about Tropical Americas, he probably would not say it in that particular situation.
My strong suspicion is that Bruce Vaughn is the reason that Animal Kingdom suddenly shifted from having Moana and Zootopia expansion in this location to Encanto and Indiana Jones. I’d like to think–and wouldn’t be surprised–that involved speaking with Joe Rohde about what he felt could be better incorporated into DAK.
Tom- I think you’re 100% right good call. It’s a dramatic U Turn from ‘random IP corner’ (Moana/Zootopia) to Tropical Americas. Someone pulled a few strings out of respect to Rhode and ‘his’ park.
I am hoping that Disney incorporates real animals (such as jaguars) into this land. The animals and the ambience are the reason we love AK. We are not fans of Encanto or the Dinosaur ride (it’s too rough on our back and neck), and Indiana Jones does not fit the theming for Animal Kingdom. Disney also needs to bring back a night show to AK. We never visit the Disney parks before late afternoon, so we rarely visit AK these days. It’s sad for us because we love having dinner at Tiffins.
I agree. However, as I love AK I always go more than once. that’s said, it does need more rides, but in keeping with the theme and ethos of the Park!
Thank you for posting all of these great photos! The model really helps me get my bearings on the land as a whole, better even than aerial view concept art. I think this all looks and sounds great, and I have high hopes for this addition. I particularly like that it is catering to a broad range of ages, with the carousel for the little little ones, Encanto for all ages, and Indiana Jones for older kids/thrill seekers. I think the Casita in particular has a lot of promise to be a wow-inducing, both the show building itself and the actual attraction.
Tom: I share your cautious optimism on incorporating Tropical Americas into DAK. I hope, like you, that we get a trail. In my old age, I’ve really enjoyed the other trails in DAK and hope we get one in Tropical Americas too. Good work on the post and site!
Wow ! What a treat to meet the great Joe Rohde!! I laughed out loud at this line – “Like a total doofus, I got in his way while photographing the model, not noticing that he was behind me.”
And as always thank you for the great pictures and insight. I also hope they incorporate some animals into this new section of the park. I’m sure the operating cost would be extremely high , but it would be so worth it to have a relaxing walking trail on this side of the park too!! Jaguars (Dora the Explorer) ; Tortoises and yes the Capybara to name a few!! Lets get this done!!!!