Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a place where we can appreciate the beauty of nature.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
What happens when that is no longer the case? We got some information recently that makes us nervous for the future of the beauty of one of our FAVORITE parks.
We LOVE Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the tranquility, nature views and the overall ambiance it has to offer. It is a unique experience that you can’t find anywhere else.
©Disney
At the 2023 Destination D23 fan convention, we found out that Disney plans to retheme Dinoland USA to the Tropical Americas. We got to thinking … and realized that this retheme could turn DAK into a construction zone, a la EPCOT.
Lots of crowds and construction
This retheme will change an ENTIRE section of the park, which means that the whole section will be closed down and walled off for the safety of guests and cast members alike. We understand the necessity– but it doesn’t make us dislike it any less.
Dinoland, USA
A bigger question might be– how long will this retheme take? The EPCOT construction walls have become more and more frustrating the longer they have been up (and we’re going on 4 years, y’all). Maybe the length of time the retheme will take won’t matter, and the walls will just be another obstacle to face when travelling around the park — I guess we’ll find out once construction begins.
Is this goodbye to It’s Tough To Be A Bug?
It doesn’t stop with the Dinoland retheme, though. Disney also announced that the Tree of Life Theater (current home to the “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” show) will be changed to host a Zootopia show.
Its Tough to be a Bug Entrance from Discovery Island!
While a lot of this retheme will be indoors, we can’t help but think about the construction that will be done in the queue and entrance, which is located in one of the main hubs of Discovery Island. We’re hoping they keep the construction walls there minimal so the area doesn’t become congested during peak seasons with heavy crowds.
Tree of Life Garden
It also led us to thinking– how will this impact the Tree of Life Gardens? The queue for “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” and the Tree of Life Gardens are very close to one another, and sometimes feel like they’re sharing walking paths. We hope it remains open with minimal construction walls obstructing our view, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Waterfalls at Animal Kingdom
With the construction walls that inevitably come up with these changes, we can at least hope that they’ll be themed to the areas that they’re in. We know they’re not ideal to have all over the park– but we’ll keep reminding ourselves that they are only temporary and we will probably LOVE what will come after them.
Tree of Life
With new information coming out about these rethemes, be sure to keep checking in with us at DFB to get the latest news!
Click here to check out what’s new at Disney’s Animal Kingdom!
How do you feel about the retheme at Animal Kingdom? Let us know in the comments below!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
When might this construction-retheming begin? We will visit WDW around Christmas this year
Why not open a brand new area before you re-theme the Dino area???
I don’t mind change,but Disney takes so long to do things ,I probably won’t be here by the time they finish
Bless their hearts , another Wallcot!😡🙄
Reading this reminds me of when areas of DAK were blocked off for construction of Pandora (I think it was being called Avatar Land at the time) back in around 2014. If I recall correctly, Camp Minie-Micky was blocked off at the bridge from Discovery Island. (memory might not be quite right about that, though…). So, I imagine that Dinoland will be completely blocked off at the bridges from Discovery Island and from Asia, at least at some point. Hopefully, for a while at least, they can just block off Dinoland at its’ 2 entrances/exits, leaving the path in front of Finding Nemo open. I think building Pandora took like 6 years from the point Disney started talking about it and 3 years from ground-breaking. But, you can’t fit 10lbs of #&^@* into a 5lb sock, as they say :). I think they’ll have to limit the # of people who can come into the park to keep it from being unpleasantly crowded…. but…. we know Disney and my experience over the years is that they will choose to let ‘too many’ people in. Sometimes – like at Disneyland where the beginning of New Orleans Square is met by the path from both Frontierland and Adventureland – I have felt that Disney let the crowd levels get to just barely under panicked stampeding. Like, literally. I could feel in the air that a huge crowd of people couldn’t move in any direction and were beginning to freak out about it a little bit. Like, I felt like I couldn’t move in any direction – not even an inch – and I was being pushed on from every direction. People with strollers were beginning to yell into the crowd “Please let us through – we need to get to the bathroom right now!” and stuff like that. So. I hope Disney doesn’t push it this far at DAK. When Pandora was being built, I don’t think I remember it being like that but I do remember it feeling a bit inconvenient.
Zootopia is garbage. Keep “It’s Tough to Be a Bug! Blocking off Dinoland probably won’t affect traffic flow but it sucks to loose Dinosaur. That area needs some revamping but the ride should stay. Add others if you want but keep that one. We’ll see what happens.