Conservation Station, Affection Section Temporarily Closing Ahead of Bluey Arrival

Animal Kingdom’s Affection Section and Conservation Station will close temporarily beginning February 23, 2026, as both areas are reworked ahead of Bluey and Bingo arriving at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. The Wildlife Express Train will also be offline during the downtime, since it would only deliver guests to a dead end.

In addition, Disney shared that The Animation Experience is closing the same day, but they didn’t include “temporarily” in that announcement. We previously reported that the drawing class is moving to Hollywood Studios.

Operationally, this isn’t nothing. With DinoLand U.S.A. now gone, the rest of the park has to absorb DINOSAUR’s numbers. Taking another small chunk of capacity offline adds a little more pressure to an already lean attraction lineup.

When Disney announced Bluey’s arrival, it also teased that guests would be able to “step outside to discover an experience with animals native to Bluey’s home country of Australia.” Back in December, we reported that this meant Affection Section would lose its goats, pigs, and other residents. At the time, we wondered if the petting zoo concept was going away entirely.

That might still be the case, but today’s announcement suggests some level of interaction will stick around. Given that most Australian animals aren’t exactly hands-on friendly, wallabies may be all we get. And honestly, I’d call that a win. It’s also possible Affection Section comes back with an entirely new kind of interactive experience. One thing feels non-negotiable, though: nobody is petting a kangaroo.