Pueblo Esperanza - All the details
What is Pueblo Esperanza?
Pueblo Esperanza is Walt Disney’s new project that is set to replace Dinoland USA in Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. The project is set to feature two E-Ticket attractions, a wooden carrousel, and one of the largest quick service restaurants at WDW. All of this set to the beautiful backdrop of the South American rainforest. The land will feature many beloved characters such as the Madrigal family from Encanto, and everybody’s favorite adventurer Indiana Jones. So let’s dig into the details on everything that I know so far and make sure to keep checking back in here as I will be updating this post as new information is released to the public. (Last Update February 19, 2025)
Planned Rides
Indiana Jones Adventure
One of the rides announced is Indiana Jones Adventure, Disney has confirmed that this iteration of Indiana Jones will take place in a mayan temple, located in a south american jungle. In Disney Park Blog’s post regarding Pueblo Esperanza(Link to story), there was mention of a “mythical creature” deep inside. Could this mean that we can look forward to a large new state of the art animatronic? But first, lets talk about the queue.
The Queue
Disney opened their first Indian Jones ride the “Temple of the Forbidden Eye” at Disneyland in 1995. This ride has one of the best queues and as a kid growing up, I never once got tired waiting for this ride. The queue tells a convincing story of walking through a ancient temple, the rockwork is incredible, the lighting is . I think we can expect to see something similar in this iteration of an Indiana Jones ride.
The Ride
It has got me wondering what kind of creature we might be seeing in this ride, so I did a little research into what kind of creatures the ancient mayan cultures believed in. According to my research there are quite a few directions that the Imagineers could take this. One mythical creature I found was “Xtabay”, described as an evil spirit woman who would lure wandering men to a gruesome end. Another I found was Tsukán, which is described as a giant snake and we all know how Indy feels about snakes. Disney even hinted to this in their blog “but will there be snakes? We’ll just have to wait and see!”
I can guarantee that this is going to be using the same ride vehicles and show building as the current ride dinosaur. Will the track be the same? Who knows. But, these vehicles which are also used in Disneyland’s version can make any track feel different simply by the way they move. This is all we know about the new Indiana Jones Adventure, but that’s not all Disney has planned for Pueblo Esperanza. Up next I will be talking about the Encanto River Ride.
Encanto River Adventure
So far we don’t have an official name for the Encanto ride but Disney has let us in on some details regarding what we can expect. The story of the ride is described in Disney Park’s Blog post “Inside the Casita, Antonio has just received his special gift — the ability to communicate with animals — and his room has transformed into a rainforest. It’s time to go explore alongside him, and you never know what member of the family you might bump into”
The Queue
I am incredibly excited to see how WDI handles the queue. I feel confident saying that the queue will lead us through the Casita, showcasing it’s magic qualities as seen in the movie. Then, we will walk into Antonio’s room which has been transformed into a beautiful rainforest.
The Ride
The quote I included earlier is truly the only details that Disney has released to us so far. However, we can draw speculations on the ride by looking at what they have done with their other similar rides. My guess is that we will board the boats in Antonio’s room then we will be guided through a lush river surrounded by talking animals as this is what Disney says is Antonio’s gift. I do wonder what song Disney will choose for this adventure. Will they choose a beloved favorite from the movie that will recur through the whole story?(Like Pirates of the Caribbean) Will they create a medley of favorites? Only time will tell.
Now if you have kids you might be asking yourself if this ride will be friendly for them or will it be a drop ride. I feel pretty confident that Disney will make this a pretty tame ride. They are replacing ALOT of kid friendly space making way for Pueblo Esperanza, so I think this new ride will definitely be kid-friendly and tame.
The Woodcarver's Carrousel
As I stated before, Disney is getting rid of ALOT of younger kid focused attractions such as The Boneyard, the Dinoland USA rides, and The Dig Pit. So one of their solutions to this problem is this beautiful carrousel that has been described in their blog “a woodcarver has created a giant working carousel featuring his favorite animals from Disney stories”. I personally cannot wait to see this carrousel, what was described sounds like the classic Disney that we all have fell in love with year after year and we have seen so many amazing woodworking pieces all over the parks. I’ll include a picture from the Magic Kingdom’s carrosel. Althought the image showcases the details we can expect, I think the imagineers will take a more raw wood approach with the one in Pueblo Esperanza.
Food & Shopping
The Hacienda
Another detail that Disney mentioned was “a large hacienda which will be one of the largest quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort”. If this is going to be the largest quick service restaurant at WDW, this this is going to be HUGE! They didn’t announce any type of particular cuisine but I think we can expect to see a diverse menu featuring items from several spots in south america. I will update this once we have more info.
The Shops
Now, for shops Disney hasn’t detailed exactly what we can expect. But, they did mention that the overall feel of this section will be similar to what we find over in Harambe Market. So I think it’s fair to say we will probably find a few walk in stores with area specific merch and I can almost guarantee that they will have a store selling merchandise that has been “carved” by the same woodworker who built the carousel.