DAK 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[Starship824]

The "Possible Animal Exhibit" is the new play area, probably Mayan themed. Allegedly.

The blue buildings with the current Dinorama restrooms are restrooms and a new character greeting venue. Allegedly.

The Carousel will also be the DVC kiosk location, as well as covered queue area. Allegedly.

The long, rectangular blue area across from the kiosk is supposedly part of the village theming. Allegedly.

And the circular thing on the path into the land is the new fountain. Allegedly.

Allegedly, possibly, maybe.

 

[bmr1591]

I don't believe that Animal Kingdom needs new live animal exhibits, IMO this is not the future. As long as the park is about animals and their environment then that's fine, it can be done without live animals (erm, Dinosaur, Kali, Everest...). Remains to be seen how well Encanto and Indiana Jones can do this.

What's crazy is that Joe Rohde sold the idea of Animal Kingdom by bringing a live tiger into the board room. Encounters with real animals are exciting and engaging. Whether they have animals or not in CA remains to be seen, but it would be disappointing if there are none.

 

[Bocabear]

How long until the fountain becomes a planter?

TBH, the way things seem to go, it may end up one before it is finished.....maybe they could put lights in the pavement around it..... oh wait, nevermind....
A large plaza fountain would be a beautiful addition... something nice about moving water... visually cooling in what is the hottest of the Theme parks.

 

[Ayla]

How long until the fountain becomes a planter?

Oh lordt...I so want to make a nsfw reference here, but I'll restrain myself.

 

[Coaster Lover]

TBH, the way things seem to go, it may end up one before it is finished.....maybe they could put lights in the pavement around it..... oh wait, nevermind....

Based on the way the new planter looks at EPCOT, I have a pretty good suspicion what the new fountain at DAK will look like!

 

[FettFan]

I haven't been to Animal Kingdom in over a decade, but I remember there was a fairly large and empty shaded area near Dinosaur. It looked like an area where they planned to build more animal exhibits but ran out of time and/or money to complete.

Are you referring to the area that pathways from Dinosaur’s exit to the gas-station themed gift shop?

 

[FettFan]

The "Possible Animal Exhibit" is the new play area, probably Mayan themed. Allegedly.

The blue buildings with the current Dinorama restrooms are restrooms and a new character greeting venue. Allegedly.

I still think not having llamas and a Kuzco meet is a huge missed opportunity.

Plus, Kronk’s spinach puffs.

 

[Chester&Hester Enthusiast]

I don’t disagree that wait time is less useful when comparing 2 rides with very different capacity like Pan and Pirates but with Dinosaur it’s easy enough to just compare it to its operational clone at Disneyland. The Indy ride there has a very similar capacity (maybe the same?) but has much longer waits so I think it’s fair to call that ride more popular. As I said before I think that’s not just the theme/IP being more popular. There is way more foot traffic past that ride at DL vs Dinoland at AK.

I'm way late to this party, so somebody may have already pointed this out, but Disneyland sees almost twice as many daily visitors as DAK on average. I would assume that plays into wait times. If you're going to use wait times as a metric for comparing popularity, you need to account for all variables.

 

[Moth]

I will smuggle in ducks and squirrels.

It's Florida, those two and the Black and White Argentine Tegu.... Wait...

EUREKA! Disney can just grab a bunch of those guys from the Florida wilderness since they're invasive!

I'd rather a Play Area versus live animals for a hypothetical phase one, a play area being there will make life easier in the long run for any live animals housed. Also animals require a lot of paper work and approval, down to each inch of the habitat, so I wouldn't be shocked if Disney wanted to take it bit by bit.

 

[ToTBellHop]

It's Florida, those two and the Black and White Argentine Tegu.... Wait...

EUREKA! Disney can just grab a bunch of those guys from the Florida wilderness since they're invasive!

I'd rather a Play Area versus live animals for a hypothetical phase one, a play area being there will make life easier in the long run for any live animals housed. Also animals require a lot of paper work and approval, down to each inch of the habitat, so I wouldn't be shocked if Disney wanted to take it bit by bit.

Sooner or later, there will be anacondas on public display!

 

[PizzaPlanet]

The park needs more rides. I think it already has the perfect amount of animal exhibits.

 

[lentesta]

I still think not having llamas and a Kuzco meet is a huge missed opportunity.

Plus, Kronk’s spinach puffs.

100% hard agree.

 

[MrPromey]

I don't believe that Animal Kingdom needs new live animal exhibits, IMO this is not the future. As long as the park is about animals and their environment then that's fine, it can be done without live animals (erm, Dinosaur, Kali, Everest...). Remains to be seen how well Encanto and Indiana Jones can do this.

It's a darn shame the name "Islands of Adventure" is already taken. I wonder if they could put Disney in front and change the park name to "Disney's Islands of Adventure®" to better reflect the direction they're moving in... or maybe they could call it "Disney's Continents of Adventure®".

Or - and maybe this is more on-brand - they could do like they did when they decided to open a property on the east coast that was larger than the the original and just rename the park "Adventure World" where unlike that corner of the MK, they have the "blessing of size"?

 

[etc98]

I’m curious if they’ll re-theme the area outside the land’s boundaries or leave it generic looking.

(When walking into Dinoland from Discovery Island, the walkway to your left, before the Boneyard, running along the amphitheater’s edge, past the Theatre in the Wild and to the bridge to Asia)

It wasn’t included at all in the plans that were just released so my guess is they won’t change it. Probably want to be able to keep that section open so there won’t be any dead ends in the park even during construction

 

[mattpeto]

The park needs more rides. I think it already has the perfect amount of animal exhibits.

The last park expansion, Pandora also worked out nicely without animals.

Still, having an animal exhibit in Tropical Americas would have been a nice "nod" to the theme park namesake.

 

[MisterPenguin]

The "Possible Animal Exhibit" is the new play area, probably Mayan themed. Allegedly.

We can watch the young of new world monkeys play!!

Sooner or later, there will be anacondas on public display!

Can't keep them in captivity. They keep getting sprung.

 

[ToTBellHop]

We can watch the young of new world monkeys play!!




Can't keep them in captivity. They keep getting sprung.

The good news for Disney is that anacondas have no problem eating $26 cake.

 

[Incomudro]

It's Florida, those two and the Black and White Argentine Tegu.... Wait...

EUREKA! Disney can just grab a bunch of those guys from the Florida wilderness since they're invasive!

I'd rather a Play Area versus live animals for a hypothetical phase one, a play area being there will make life easier in the long run for any live animals housed. Also animals require a lot of paper work and approval, down to each inch of the habitat, so I wouldn't be shocked if Disney wanted to take it bit by bit.

Only a matter of time 'till Anaconda become native to Florida too.
Perhaps Jaguars... They can put a check on the Alligator population.

 

[Moth]

Only a matter of time 'till Anaconda become native to Florida too.
Perhaps Jaguars... They can put a check on the Alligator population.

There's been sightings of them in southern Florida! Anacondas, I mean. Jaguars are in Texas.

 

[Starship824]

I have a feeling that if there was an animal exhibit instead of a play area there would tons of complaints that there isn't a play area after they replaced the boneyard. Now, of course none of this in confirmed so it's possible there is an animal exhibit and it's possible there is no play area. But I doubt that. I personally don't see a problem with this not having animal exhibits considering Dino Land only had one and most people didn't know it was there and the rest of the land is to put it bluntly, bad.