Steel framing is rising up in front of the old DINOSAUR attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Construction is speeding along to transform the exterior of the Dino Institute into an ancient Mayan temple that will soon be home to a new Indiana Jones adventure. Let’s take a look at all of the recent progress.
Our eye-in-the-sky reporter @bioreconstruct captured a fresh look at the steel construction. The new Tropical Americas land is really starting to come to life!
In addition to the new steel framing rising up at the front of the building, take note of what’s missing. The Aladar (Iguanodon) statue and small pool are extinct. Gone but not forgotten.
Views from the side and behind the old Dino Institute building help show the depth of the Mayan temple facade.
It looks like guests will still enter the attraction using the same entrance layout that DINOSAUR utilized. But, based on the concept art, guests will be able to get pretty close to the Mayan temple facade to snap some pictures.
How long until a guest tries to climb the temple? We’ve seen drunken climbing attempts made over at the Mexico pavilion in EPCOT. We’ll assume Disney is designing this temple with that possibility in mind.
What kind of adventure will Indiana Jones find inside this Mayan temple? Disney has said Indy has heard rumors of a mythical creature living inside, and he’s on a quest to see if those rumors are true. Hopefully there won’t be any snakes.
We also know the attraction will still use DINOSAUR’s ride system. That means it may look and feel familiar to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride in Disneyland Park. However, Disney has stated that this is a brand new story and won’t be a clone of Disneyland’s Indy ride.
The Tropical Americas land is currently expected to open in 2027 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. However, it’s unclear if Disney will open the land in phases. We’d hate to see the land open in phases (we think it’s a big disservice to open new lands this way), but it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Disney chose that direction.
