Can you believe it?! It won’t be too long before we get Pueblo Esperanza in Disney’s Animal Kingdom!!

Back during the D23 2024: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, we had the confirmation of the new Tropical Americas (Pueblo Esperanza) land as well as the new Indiana Jones attraction coming to it. So, specifically we wanted to do a deep dive into the concept art and see if we could glean some info about the new Indiana Jones attraction that’ll be coming to Disney World!

As we were saying, as part of the new Pueblo Esperanza land coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney confirmed that there will be an Indiana Jones attraction coming to the land in 2027 (ultimately replacing DINOSAUR), and will feature a brand-new story. So, it will not be a carbon copy of the one in Disneyland.They also shared their concept art for the new attraction.

About the new ride, Disney shared it will follow “the man with the hat” during a time when he 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… but will there be snakes? We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Now, Disney has yet to announce an official closing date for DINOSAUR which will mark the beginning of the area’s transformation. However, they did share that construction on the land is set to begin this fall adding, “but don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to experience Dinosaur again (and get that dino).” Also, we saw that three permits were filed recently about the Tropical Americas transformation.

Now, let’s have a closer look at some of the concept art and see what we can learn about the new ride!

First things first, let’s zoom into where the new attraction is going. We’ve circled three areas of note. The yellow is where the new gift shop will be that replaces Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures. The red circle will be the new restaurant that replaces Restaurantosaurus. The blue circle is where the new attraction will be and replace DINOSAUR.

Here’s a look at a close up of the attraction.

And here is a Google Maps view of the area as it is currently:

Now, let’s look at the concept art of the front of the attraction:

When we zoom in, we can see that they will be redesigning the courtyard and removing the fountain (which we’ve circled in yellow).

This is what it looks like currently:

Moving on to the concept art that Disney has shared about the ride specifically, we’ve got this picture:

Let’s have a close look at the ride vehicle:

This looks quite similar to the ride vehicles they currently use.

We can probably expect that the new ride vehicles will have a very similar capacity with three rows of four seats. Also, we might be able to expect that they will use the same or similar technology and overall track layout, which would help to reduce just how much they will have to do in the construction process.

Moving on from there, we see Indiana Jones with a lit torch. We’ve got questions about this. Will this be an animatronic Indiana? Or could it possibly be a live performer like the ones used back on the Great Movie Ride? Our bet in an animatronic.

Disney shared that Indiana has “heard rumors about a mythical creature deep within the temple — and he’s got to see it for himself“, which makes us wonder if the concept art gives us a hint about this “mythical creature.” Perhaps it could be this one:

Or it might look like this one:

Either way, if the attraction follows much of the same layout as DINOSAUR, that would mean we’ll probably be encountering this creature at the last moment of the ride where we’re face-to-face with the main Carnotaurus.

Well, that’s all we’ve got for you at the moment, and now we’d like to hear from you on what you’re looking forward to with this new ride!

As always, stay tuned to Disney Food Blog, where we will continue to monitor any news about the construction of the Tropical Americas in Animal Kingdom. 

Disney World Files 3 NEW Permits for Transformation of DinoLand, U.S.A. to Tropical Americas

Are you excited about Indiana Jones coming to Animal Kingdom? Please let us know with a comment!