Tropical Americas Models Reveal Show Scenes, Ride Vehicles & Animatronics for Encanto, Indy & Carousel

The Imagineering booth on the show floor of the 2026 D23 Expo features a section devoted to the critter carousel, Indiana Jones Adventure and Encanto attractions that will come to life in the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom in 2027. This shares new model photos, and everything we know so far about the upcoming land.

Let’s start with basic background about the Walt Disney Imagineering booth at this year’s D23 event in Anaheim. This is the largest pavilion that WDI has ever done, and wow does it show. In addition to multiple Marvel models, plus ones for the Avatar Destination at Disney California Adventure, Space Mountain Earthrise at Tokyo Disneyland, Lion King Pride Lands at Disney Adventure World, along with the massive model for Piston Peak Cars Land at Magic Kingdom, there’s space for presentations and a whole lot more.

For the 2026 D23 Expo, Walt Disney Imagineering intentionally designed a pavilion that captures the excitement WDI feels as it brings projects to life that were announced in 2024 at the Horizons Showcase (Parks Panel). Aptly named, the “Imagineering: Horizons” pavilion celebrates this extraordinary moment of growth and momentum happening across Disney Experiences, with each resort represented throughout the space.

I’m live on the ground at the 2026 D23 Expo (if you see me, please say hello!) and I’ve spent about 75% of my time at the Imagineering: Horizons pavilion. Between poring over these models to spot new-to-me details and watching the presentations on the Tom Morrow-land Terrace Stage, most of my weekend is accounted for. Accordingly, this post and others like it are going to be photo-heavy and commentary-light.

For Tropical Americas coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, guests will get a new look inside the upcoming Encanto attraction, including Audio-Animatronics figures that will appear in one of the scenes. The display will also feature a model of the Indiana Jones attraction temple façade. In addition, four sculpts will be on display showcasing character friends guests will find in the carousel within Tropical Americas.

Here’s a rundown of what’s coming to Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom, with basic background on each area, plus model photos and quick thoughts…

Pueblo Esperanza

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. Here are models of the ride vehicles from the show floor of the 2026 D23 Expo:

Thankfully, they get Disney+ out of their system 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.

A carousel is obviously just a carousel, but Animal Kingdom needs all of the attractions it can get. Not only that, but flat rides fill a valuable role–our toddler would choose to loop the critter carousel as opposed to riding the Encanto attraction at all; here’s hoping that changes between now and 2027! The quality looks top notch, and far better than anything that was previously in this location in Dino-Rama.

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a land with just a critter carousel…

Encanto

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.

Here are photos of the Encanto Madrigal Casita dark ride vehicles, along with a show scene and animal Audio Animatronics:

This show scene model is set in the kitchen of Casita decorated for Antonio’s birthday. The scene features various animals, including a pig and donkey. There’s a bird on the chandelier, and even catwalks above that are part of the attraction infrastructure (a fun touch).

Audio-Animatronics models are also on display, including a donkey and toucan appearing together. The toucan is perched atop the donkey, who carries party supplies for Antonio’s birthday. Separately, there’s a capybara AA, which is Antonio’s friend Chispi. Regrettably, there is no chupacabra featured at D23, but we’re still holding out hope.

Disney also revealed the colorful ride vehicles, which are cobbled together with furniture that include a piano and dresser. Our hope and expectation is that each ride vehicle is fairly unique, with a wide range of household items brought to life. Guests will be seated on benches that are designed to look like couches or chairs—two rows with four seats in each row.

This is expected to be an Encanto-ized version of Mystic Manor. However, as we’ve been saying for a while, we do not expect this to be trackless. That has not yet been officially confirmed by Disney (to the contrary, we couldn’t get any Imagineers to speak as to the ride system), but it’s our understanding that this will be an advanced track-based ride with a greater than normal range of motion.

Indiana Jones Adventure

To the right from Pueblo Esperanza is a new Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which replaces 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.

The mythical creature featured in Indiana Jones Adventure in Tropical Americas is expected to be the Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl (the former being its Mayan name, the latter its Aztec). Both are 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.

The teases of the original story for this Indiana Jones Adventure thus far have been very intriguing. One of our D23 predictions for the Parks Panel is a full reveal of the ride, including the storyline and more concept art, so stayed tuned for more from inside the attraction.

For now, we have new photos of a model of the exterior of Indiana Jones Adventure in Tropical Americas:

Tropical Americas is the project at Walt Disney World that’s furthest along. It’s also the only expansion for either coast with a confirmed opening before the next D23 Expo, and possibly even Destination D23.

This should mean Tropical Americas gets the “deep dive” treatment, with new concept art and details about the show scenes, model ride vehicles, story specifics for each attraction, and proper names. Footage of Audio Animatronics and effects being tested by Imagineers would be sure to impress the D23 audience.

As discussed in When Will Tropical Americas Open at Animal Kingdom?, our big prediction here is that the expansion gets an opening timeline. Walt Disney World will want to start setting its 2027 slate to convert excitement into bookings, and revealing when Tropical Americas will start to debut checks that box.

Tropical Americas Full Model (Last D23/DHS)

The model above and below is not featured at the 2026 D23 Expo. Rather, it first appeared at the last D23 Expo in Anaheim, has since moved to Walt Disney World! You can now find it at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where an all-new Walt Disney Imagineering exhibit debuted last fall to showcase upcoming Walt Disney World projects.

The new display can be found within the Walt Disney Presents walk-through. The display features the entire Tropical Americas Land model shown below, plus less noteworthy displays for Monstropolis at DHS and Piston Peak Cars Land coming to Magic Kingdom.

The full Tropical Americas 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 now and when Tropical Americas starts opening It’s like a taste of the Imagineering booth at D23!

Here are more photos of that original Tropical Americas model that is showcased at DHS:

Ultimately, we’re really looking forward to Tropical Americas. For one thing, this project is the one that’s most necessary, as Animal Kingdom badly needs about a half-dozen new rides. Three will have to suffice for now, but hopefully this is just the start of big plans to make DAK a full-day park for the average guests and not just super fans.

For another thing, all of these concepts look fantastic. The Encanto Madrigal Casita dark ride has tremendous potential to be a great family-friendly dark ride, and everything we’ve heard has us optimistic. (It honestly doesn’t bother me in the least that this isn’t trackless–most guests won’t even know as the ride profile should be very dynamic.)

Ditto Indiana Jones Adventure, which is very promising both in story and ambition. It should easily surpass DINOSAUR, which admittedly isn’t a high bar. Even the critter carousel and ‘Village of Hope’ look like they should deliver a great central hub to the land. Tropical Americas reminds us a bit of Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea, and although it’s unlikely the attractions will rise to that level, it’s nevertheless nice to see that level of attention to detail and three rides that should be tremendous assets to Animal Kingdom. We can’t wait!

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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 Adventure and Encanto, or even the critter carousel? 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!