Walt Disney World's Worst Ride Is Finally Facing Extinction

A dormant ride at Walt Disney World could finally disappear for good in the coming months. Earlier this month, Disney Parks filed a permit for "general construction" at the site of the long-dormant Primeval Whirl site at Animal Kingdom. This mini-roller coaster has been shut down for over a year and has sat empty in the DinoLand USA part of the park. This is the second permit filed for the site, following one placed earlier this year for "labor, material and/or electrical for construction." While the cars for the roller coaster were pulled from the site when the ride permanently closed last year, no other construction has been visible and Disney has provided no additional plans about what could take its place. As the permits expire in April of next year, attendees will likely see some sort of progress or update to the ride in the coming months.

Primeval Whirl originally opened in 2002 and was a spinning roller coaster set up at Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama, an area themed to resemble a roadside attraction in keeping with DinoLand USA's wider (fictional) history. The roller coaster was themed with a time travel motif, with riders "traveling back into time" to just before a meteor strike caused the extinction of all dinosaurs. There are at least two documented incidents of Disney cast members dying after sustaining injuries associated with the ride. In 2019, Disney announced that the Primeval Whirl would become a seasonal ride and then permanently shut the ride down in 2020.

DinoLand USA is one of the stranger areas of Animal Kingdom, with a weird mash-up of carnival attractions and the Dinosaur time travel ride built into a stately museum. Many Disney Parks fans have wondered if DinoLand USA will be renovated or removed entirely from Animal Kingdom. The area is a poor fit with the other parts of the park, and it has received very few updates compared to other areas. With the pending removal of one of its two main rides, it seems certain that big changes are coming to this much-derided area of Animal Kingdom.