DinoLand U.S.A. at Animal Kingdom

DinoLand U.S.A. is on its way out. DINOSAUR, the park's dark ride since opening day, took its last riders on February 2, 2026, and Restaurantosaurus closed the same day. Primeval Whirl had already gone in 2020. What remains open is Theater in the Wild, where Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond! plays; The Boneyard, still the best playground at Walt Disney World; and TriceraTop Spin, a hub spinner with a shorter line than its Magic Kingdom equivalent.

Replacing it is Tropical Americas, which Disney has said will open in 2027 - the only future date anywhere on this park's construction slate with official backing behind it. The announced components are an Encanto ride-through built around the Madrigal casita, an Indiana Jones adventure using the same enhanced motion vehicle system as Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure, a carousel, and a village setting called Pueblo Esperanza tying it together.

In the meantime this quarter is the least rewarding walk in the park. Construction walls, no dining at all now that Restaurantosaurus is gone, and a route to the Nemo theater that used to be interesting and currently is not. Plan food before you come over, not after.

The original DinoLand was a deliberate joke - a roadside tourist trap built by fictional graduate students next to a serious paleontology institute, with carnival games and a spinning coaster that were supposed to look cheap. Plenty of guests never got the joke, which is part of why it is being replaced.

Do not miss

Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond! and its Michael Curry puppets
The Boneyard playground and its mammoth dig pit
TriceraTop Spin, a Dumbo-style spinner with no wait
Tropical Americas taking shape behind the walls for 2027

DinoLand U.S.A. tips

There is no dining left in DinoLand. Eat before you walk over, or plan a ten-minute walk back to Discovery Island.
Theater in the Wild almost never fills. Arriving ten minutes before the Nemo show is plenty - do not treat it like Festival of the Lion King.
The Boneyard is shaded through most of the afternoon, which makes it the best place to park young children while the rest of your group rides Expedition Everest.

Attractions in DinoLand U.S.A.

Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!

Any height

Stage show · 25 min · Multi Pass

A 25-minute puppet musical at Theater in the Wild with world-class puppetry, a Lopez score, and the best air conditioning in DinoLand.

Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond! opened in 2022 at Theater in the Wild, replacing Finding Nemo - The Musical, which had run in the same venue since 2007. The puppets, designed by Michael Curry, are the reason to go: large, articulated ocean creatures operated in full view by performers who sing while working them. Curry's work is the same design lineage as The Lion King on Broadway, and at close range the craft is obvious.

Tips for Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!

Do not arrive thirty minutes early. This theater rarely fills, unlike Festival of the Lion King, and early arrival buys you nothing but sitting time.
Rows ten to twenty in the center give the best balance of puppet detail and full-stage view.
Use it as your midday air conditioning if the Lion King showtimes do not line up. Twenty-five minutes plus seating in a cool dark theater at 2 PM is worth more than another queue.
Repeat-visitor note: if you remember the forty-minute Finding Nemo - The Musical, this is not that show. The score survives, the puppets survive, most of the narrative does not. Go in expecting a revue, not a musical.
The anglerfish sequence involves a sudden bright light and a loud sting in an otherwise dark theater. Warn a nervous child a few seconds ahead.

Full guide to Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond! →

TriceraTop Spin

Any height

Spinner · 1½ min · Multi Pass

A dinosaur-themed hub spinner in DinoLand - mechanically identical to Dumbo, with a fraction of the wait.

TriceraTop Spin is a classic hub-and-spoke spinner: sixteen dinosaur vehicles on arms around a central tin-toy structure, with a lever inside each car that raises and lowers you. The ride lasts about ninety seconds. If your child has ridden Dumbo the Flying Elephant at Magic Kingdom, this is that ride wearing a different costume.

Tips for TriceraTop Spin

Front seat controls the height lever. If two children are riding together, decide who gets it before you board rather than during.
Skip it entirely if you have done Dumbo. It is the same ride with a different shell and there is nothing here you have not experienced.
There is no shade in the queue. On a hot afternoon a ten-minute wait here is worse than a thirty-minute wait somewhere covered.
Repeat-visitor note: this is the only remaining ride in DinoLand U.S.A. now that DINOSAUR has closed, and it sits inside an area being redeveloped as Tropical Americas. Do not build a plan around DinoLand as a land - there is very little left there.

The Boneyard

Any height

Play area · 30 min

A multi-level dig-site playground with slides, nets and a sand pit where kids brush off a buried mammoth skeleton - the best playground at Walt Disney World.

The Boneyard is a fossil dig site rebuilt as a climbing structure: ramps, rope nets, tunnels, a caving slide, an excavation-themed maze of scaffolding, and at the back a large sand pit with a partially buried woolly mammoth skeleton and brushes so children can uncover it themselves. It has been here since 1998 and it is still the most substantial play area in any Walt Disney World park.

Tips for The Boneyard

Establish a meeting point at the sand pit before your kids go in. The upper structure has enclosed tunnels and you will lose visual contact - that is normal, not a failure.
The sand pit is the sleeper attraction, not the slides. Kids who are too old for the climbing structure will spend twenty minutes brushing sand off a mammoth.
Bring a change of socks or plan a shoe-shake. The sand gets everywhere and stays there for the rest of the day.
Repeat-visitor note: the structure is shaded through most of the afternoon, unlike almost everything else in this half of the park. If you are cycling a hot day with young children, this beats a queue for a spinner every time.
There is only one way in and out, which is the single best design decision in the place. Position an adult near it if you have a runner.

Eating in DinoLand U.S.A.

Quick service · DinoLand U.S.A.

Restaurantosaurus

Permanently closed on February 2, 2026 - the DinoLand burger hall that fed families for twenty-five years, cleared for Tropical Americas.

$$

CuisineAmerican burgers and sandwiches
ReservationsNo reservations

Nearby

Disney's Animal Kingdom map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disney's Animal Kingdom Discovery Island The park's hub, built around the 145-foot Tree of Life, holding the best food and the only routes to everywhere else. Pandora - The World of Avatar Eleven floating mountains, the best ride at Walt Disney World, and bioluminescent paint that only exists after dark.