Disney's Animal Kingdom Clears Another Landmark as Dino-Rama's Cementosaurus is Demolished

Mar 06, 2025 in "Tropical Americas"

Posted: Thursday March 6, 2025 9:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The large concrete dinosaur, Cementosaurus, once at the entrance to Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama at Disney's Animal Kingdom, is now gone.

Overnight, demolition crews took down the towering structure, marking another major step in the transformation of Dinoland U.S.A. into the upcoming Tropical Americas expansion.

Cementosaurus seen before work on Tropical Americas began earlier this year

Dino-Rama Overview

Dino-Rama is Now Almost Completely Cleared

With the dinosaur's removal, nearly all remnants of Dino-Rama have now been demolished. Over the past few weeks, crews have methodically taken down TriceraTop Spin, Fossil Fun Games, Dino-Rama billboards,
Queue structures and signage.

Now, with the entrance dinosaur gone, only piles of rubble and construction equipment remain in the area as Disney prepares the site for redevelopment.

What's Next?

The demolition work has rapidly progressed, meaning the next steps will likely involve:

Final debris removal and site grading to level the land.
Utility and foundation work ahead of vertical construction.
Visible signs of new development for the Tropical Americas expansion, expected to open in phases by 2027.

Dino-Rama, once a nostalgic nod to roadside attractions, is now a thing of the past. In its place, Disney will introduce a land celebrating the cultures and environments of Central and South America, featuring:

A first-ever Encanto attraction, where guests can explore the Madrigal family's casita and experience Antonio's gift of communicating with animals.
A new Indiana Jones adventure, set to replace the DINOSAUR ride when it closes in early 2026.

Tropical Americas Concept Art

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Fox&Hound1 hour ago

I wish “Up” got a proper ride. Or a show? I just feel like the house with balloons is such a great weenie for a land and synonymous with Pixar I am shocked they have not capitalized on this IP yet (yes they have the adventure badges at AK and the short lived bird show tie-in). I was so excited when I I saw Disneyland Paris was getting an “Up” ride and then I saw it was an uninspired swings ride. It would fit this new land nicely….

Brer Panther2 hours ago

It'd be weird having Tarzan in Tropical Americas instead of Africa, though. Not that having it in Dinoland USA wasn't weird too...

WaltsTreasureChest2 hours ago

You know I would love a Tarzan show instead, fits AK so much

Timothy_Q3 hours ago

The name "Tropical Americas" is Disney's way of combining central and south america into a single land name without calling it latin america, as that's a sociopolitical definition. For all intents and purposes though this is the latin america land and any story set in the continent would be a natural fit, just like its neighbor lands of Asia and Africa, which also showcase different ecosystems inside each continent. Saying only certain parts of central and south america fit the central and south america land would pointlessly tie Disney's hands and make it needlessly confusing for guests.

aladdin20073 hours ago

The park is just screaming for this Lion King ride, I am a little surprised it was not fast tracked for AK. I guess they want it exclusive to DLP, but there would be nothing more perfect for AK. Except if it ever does come here will probably end up being a scaled down version.

Loose Pebble4 hours ago

Thought you were talking about Nemo in Epcot for a sec. Then realized this could honestly work for every Nemo attraction across every Disney park in the world...

Gremlin Gus4 hours ago

Only issue with that is Coco takes place in a village outside of Mexico City (I forgot where specifically) which no area around Mexico City is considered "tropical", plus the fact the Indiana Jones attraction is based off a Mayan temple, idk if Disney wants to have 2 IP's set in Mexico in a land that's based off of the tropical regions of Central and South America. If I personally had to replace the Finding Nemo show, I'd just either demolish it and replace it with another ride, maybe a water ride, or keep the building and replace the show with something else though idk what they could replace it with, I thought at first Encanto as that could work as a stage show, but at the same time, I feel like that would make the land way too oversaturated with Encanto seeing as it's getting a ride and representation on the carousel (If concept art is to be believed), the other one I think could work is Emperor's New Groove but idk how relevant that IP is nowadays, but It would a cool theatre show imo.

Timothy_Q4 hours ago

If we're replacing Nemo might as well replace it with a movie that takes place in latin america like Coco

ednamodedarling6 hours ago

I am also holding out hope for a NEMO replacement. Maybe Tarzan, Jungle Book, Moana or some sort of hybrid musical revue show. Any of these would fit much better in Tropical Americas. I am ready for them to retire the inferior downgraded version of Nemo.

Fox&Hound8 hours ago

Yes we desperately need this ride in AK, even if it is similar to Splash.

Timothy_Q9 hours ago

With the news that the DLP Lion King ride will have 3 drops, the tallest being as tall as Splash, and it will have great capacity with 3 seater logs, I'm now hoping even more that they decide to build it at Africa too

Gremlin Gus22 hours ago

In my opinion, I think Dinoland should have always been about extinct animals in general regardless of the time period (including dinosaurs), that way, I feel like Imagineering could've done a lot more with that whole idea of extinct animals and how conservation is important and all. In complete fairness, the bar isn't that high for the Encanto attraction to be good as the ride could be very "meh" and it still would be better than what was previously (Though I really am hoping that the attraction is good). The only loss we really are getting is Dinosaur but even then imo, it's not the worst loss that we've had, there's far more "worse" losses like The Great Movie Ride, Splash Mountain, or RoA. Regarding the relevance Encanto has to animals, yeah even as a fan of Encanto I do agree that the film doesn't have that much to do with animals besides butterflies and Antonio's gift to talking to animals. But at the same time, I guess it does make sense to put an Encanto attraction there as the idea for an Encanto attraction does sound like a good idea as it's a popular IP that can draw in crowds and it's not a hard attraction to create as you could do a "book report" telling of the story of the film or what Disney is doing with the attraction in TA with it being set during the film with us experiencing an event/scene we didn't see in the movie. The only problem is however is there really isn't a land they could put an Encanto in without making it a mini-land or a part of a preexisting land as I doubt Disney wants to build a Columbia pavilion in EPCOT for just Encanto and there really isn't any place in MK to put it there as well as Beyond BTMR seems to be either shelfed or merged with the villains land, and seeing as Tropical Americas is based off of the tropical regions of Central and South America and Encanto is set in the rainforest of Columbia, yeah I suppose it does make sense to put it there despite the movie not really being about animals.