I know a lot of people want dinosaurs to remain at DAK: realistically what could’ve been done to save the land as “Dinoland”? Personally, while I would’ve loved to see “the excavator” happen, I don’t think it would really be the best option for DAK as it is today.
Dinoland is a lost cause sans the DINOSAUR ride area, but the space should've been used as a different approach for a Prehistoric Animal land, and here are my three/four approaches:
Dinosaurs, The Animal, how they were in real life to current knowledge:
Complete integration into a "North America" area where a dinosaur mini-land based off the Hell Creek formation is apart of it (sponsored by Disney's partner: Apple, worked on by Jon Favreau based off his work on Prehistoric Planet). Hell Creek let's them use most of the iconic dinosaurs such as T.rex, Triceratops, ankylosaurus, almost everything short of sauropods (unless you wanna theorize!).
Ice Age/Dinosaurs the Cartoon, how kids see dinosaurs:
Ice Age IP land with some edutainment areas based off education on Prehistoric mammals, dinosaurs, but the priority is given to making it a more 'fantasyland' styled land based off Ice Age.
Dinosaurs but it's My way and How I wanna do it and I'm insane:
Join Earl Sinclair and the rest of the Sinclair family in JIM HENSON'S DINOSAURS: EARL'S DAY OFF, using the track from Dinosaur, join Earl Sinclair and Roy as they avoid their tyrant boss BP Richfield who wants to take away their day off.
Back on track...
Dinosaurs, the movie monster, how we idolize dinosaurs as icons of fear:
A Fantasia-themed area based off the Rite of Spring short, featuring a ride depicting the iconic short itself featuring a chase from a vicious T-Rex. Where the rest of the land teaches the guest about the end of the Cretaceous period, and how it affects us to this day.