TriceraTop Spin Disassembly Begins as Construction Walls Go Up at Disney's Animal Kingdom

4 days ago in "Tropical Americas"

Triceratop Spin Removal and Construction Walls January 14, 2025
Posted: Tuesday January 14, 2025 11:10am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Visible progress is underway at Disney's Animal Kingdom as crews have begun disassembling TriceraTop Spin, the dinosaur-themed ride in Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama. Additionally, construction walls have replaced the temporary planters that initially blocked access to the closed area, signaling the start of more extensive work for the Tropical Americas expansion.

TriceraTop Spin's Final Days

The family-friendly attraction, known for its flying dinosaur vehicles, officially closed on January 12, 2025, along with the rest of Dino-Rama's attractions, including Fossil Fun Games and Dinosaur Treasures. Now, sections of the ride's structure have been removed.

Construction Walls Replace Temporary Barriers

In the day immediately following the closure, large planters were used as temporary barriers to block off the Dino-Rama area. Most of these planters have now been replaced with construction walls, enclosing the entire site and providing a more permanent perimeter for the upcoming redevelopment work.


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    mysto1 hour ago

    I'm pretty sure it makes life difficult for the resident animals who cannot choose to escape the loud noise and lights like people can. It's the same reason the park closes so early.

    EagleScout6102 hours ago

    https://attractionsmagazine.com/animal-kingdom-construction-january-2025-tropical-americas-triceratop-spin/

    AidenRodriguez7313 hours ago

    I guess it can stop people from getting in lines for "one last ride" on FOP. Since they won't make it to the queue before the park close. Much easier to clear people out with one last show than keep open what rides they would go on for a last ride on for longer.

    gerarar4 hours ago

    They sometimes add a late FOTLK showing right at park closing. Can't remember the exact reason why but it was done very recently. Edit: It was extended evening hours. Say park closed normally at 6pm, there were FOTLK showtimes at 6pm and 7pm. It's rare, but they often do late showings.

    MagicHappens19715 hours ago

    The theater show performers are unionized and there are restrictions on how many shows they can perform a day and rest times and such. They already have two casts for this reason, another thing is that these closing shows would probably not bring in enough guests to justify adding the cost.

    MrPromey9 hours ago

    Only thing I can think of is cast pay/scheduling which feels like a solvable "problem".

    MrPromey9 hours ago

    I never heard. Was there a logistic or animal safety reason why night safaris couldn't continue other than the park no-longer being open past dark? Having been on one, I didn't think it was a bad experience. Certainly not the same as the day one and it felt like fewer animals but being in relative darkness also changed the feel of it, too making it seem in some ways like a different ride - something worth trying even if you'd already done the day one, for instance.

    IMDREW9 hours ago

    Question, why do park shows never run at nighttime? Whats stopping Nemo and Lion King from a performance at like 8?

    SpectreJordan10 hours ago

    I'd say they'd need another ride in Africa first; the rumored Lion King ride would be perfect. The Africa land is essentially dead at night since they have to close the Safari, trails & show early. It'd be really difficult to justify this park being open later if there's a big land in the middle that closes early.

    djlaosc10 hours ago

    People may joke about things like this, but, unless they move, the only place that people would be able to get Chicken Tenders in Animal Kingdom now will be the kids menus in Harambe Market and Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes. The only place to get a quick service burger in Animal Kingdom will be Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes - the "American Kobe Burger". Having Dinoland as a location for "American" foods, suitable for picky eaters, with other lands providing things for more adventurous eaters, was a useful thing for many people/families. Hopefully they will move some of the Restaurantosaurus menu items to Flame Tree Barbecue or Pizzafari, so picky eaters will still be able to find things to eat in the park, and this would allow them to be in a "neutral" land, rather than worrying people that other lands' menus are being replaced and homogenised.

    Bleed0range12 hours ago

    I’ve been playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Troy Baker did such an amazing job voicing Indy I really hope they get him to do the voicing on the new Indiana Jones ride. And give Indy more lines since he sounds so close to Harrison. I’m not even kidding that game is amazing.

    MrPromey12 hours ago

    Where have I seen a photo shockingly similar to this pile of dirt before supposedly indicating the start of construction? 🤔 I know, I know. This time it's different. Every time is different, though the results seem shockingly similar each time. I'll be a lot less skeptical after vertical construction starts.

    MrPromey12 hours ago

    The approach should always be "This is the experience we want to create. What is the best ride system for that?" It could be omnimover, or trackless or boat or... hanging from a ceiling or anything else but deciding on the tech first and then trying to figure out what ride to build around it is 100% the wrong approach. That's what they do with IP referb/overlays and it always kind of sucks because it's obvious that the ride system wasn't built for the experience you're getting. Nobody should wish that to be how they build from scratch. Of course, there are other considerations like hourly capacity and such, too but from a pure ride experience, you usually can't even see the track on an omnimover because of the continues chain of vehicles which has the ability to ascend and descend with relative ease (just look at Spaceship Earth for the best example) where as trackless seems to require an almost perfectly flat floor and lift systems for it to do much more than that. To me, the flat path, everywhere it goes is the immersion breaker that doesn't fit in a lot of themes. It might as well be a track, especially when you've ridden a few times and come to realize that trackless doesn't mean it's going to do something different each time. Sure, your omnimover may be following a train of other vehicles up a staircase in the casa (just like it follows them down from the attic in Haunted mansion) but at least it can effectively appear to be going up and down the stars. Now imagine if they were to combine an omnimover system with a basic tilt base for the vehicle so it could simulate different terrains, speed changes (a tilt slightly forward to simulate an increase or slightly back to simulate a slowdown, all while never actually changing speed since they're interlinked) and other effects. There would be logistics to work out like how this responds to things like ride stops for special needs access but I could also see them developing a modern system with certain cars being modular that could set up to not even require a stop or slowdown for load/unload with those folks.

    EagleScout61015 hours ago