Walt Disney World has formally confirmed a prolonged experience refurbishment of Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom, beginning in 2025 and lasting via 2026. Right here’s all the things we learn about this Walt Disney World experience closure, timing for the downtime, our hypothesis about what they could entail, and extra.
First, this Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad closure is the third main refurbishment that we first coated months in the past in Magic Kingdom Trip Refurbishment Rumors. It follows the month-plus closure of Peter Pan’s Flight over the summer season, which resulted in a brand new scene with Tiger Lily and different Indians. (Irrelevant, however I feel that scene is very well finished and suits the spirit of the attraction.)
Following this, Jungle Cruise closed for a multi-month refurbishment. This venture was by no means formally introduced, and its actual scope of labor is unknown. No less than, formally. Disney did file permits with a contractor that does underwater engineering, and Forged Members stationed exterior the attraction have indicated that the venture entails solely routine upkeep to the waterway infrastructure. Fairly protected wager that’s what’s taking place. As we coated in our submit about that venture, Jungle Cruise is now scheduled to reopen early.
The ultimate main refurbishment of the trio is Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad. Our suspicion was and is that Walt Disney World was ready for different items of the puzzle–the opposite refurbishments wrapping up in addition to Tiana’s Bayou Journey opening and working reliability–earlier than saying the BTMRR closure. They have been probably backed right into a nook by these timeframes.
Tiana’s Bayou Journey is nonetheless utilizing a digital queue with no signal of it going away anytime quickly. Walt Disney World initially said that the digital queue would solely be used throughout the “preliminary opening days” of Tiana’s Bayou Journey, and the experience has now been open for a number of months.
The excellent news is that Tiana’s Bayou Journey’s downtime state of affairs has been enhancing over the past month-plus. The experience nonetheless has downtime (and dangerous days), but it surely’s nothing like the three+ hours of common every day downtime that the experience was experiencing just about daily over the primary few months. It’s been significantly better because the begin of September.
It’s to the purpose that we now absolutely count on Walt Disney World to retire the digital queue for Tiana’s Bayou Journey earlier than the Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment begins. Truthfully, it wouldn’t shock us to see the VQ retired any day now–particularly with cooler climate proper across the nook. However that’s not the purpose of at the moment’s submit.
Walt Disney World has now introduced that Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad will shut for refurbishment on January 6, 2025.
The final day to expertise BTMRR in its present type is January 5, 2025. The wildest experience within the wilderness is deliberate to reopen in 2026 with just a little bit of latest magic.
It’s additionally our understanding that Tiana’s Bayou Journey is not going to obtain a Winter 2025 refurbishment, which was customary for Splash Mountain. The attraction remains to be brand-new (or newly-redone), so this is smart.
Taking BTMRR down for refurbishment on the identical time that the work begins to fill within the Rivers of America and start Automobiles development is smart.
With that mentioned, one essential factor to notice is that we don’t count on the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, or the Liberty Sq. Riverboat to shut in early 2025. Primarily based on what we’ve heard and the general public allowing course of, these closures are a number of months behind BTMRR, at greatest.
For a way more thorough dialogue of after we count on to see these points of interest and areas to completely shut, see When Will Rivers of America & Tom Sawyer Island Shut at Magic Kingdom?
Regardless, work on Automobiles Land is more likely to begin sooner or later earlier than 2026. Having Huge Thunder closed whereas filling within the Rivers of America will surely expedite the method and make development simpler. Not solely that, however there shall be a path that connects Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad and Frontierland with Liberty Sq. and Villains Land, so work on this could start throughout the refurbishment.
The BTMRR year-plus closure has been an open secret for a number of months now–we first reported on it in mid-Could.
After that, Walt Disney World filed a allow for “common development” at an tackle corresponding with Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom. It’s value noting that this allow was filed again in June when the venture was anticipated to begin firstly of August or September on the newest.
There are a few key particulars right here that we are able to glean from the allow, with the primary being that it has an expiration date of August 8, 2025. The default 1-year timeline isn’t noteworthy, however shorter or longer ones at all times are, as they’re prolonged or diminished purposefully. That means that there’s a cause for doing so. (With the beginning date of the refurbishment delayed, you may count on that let to be prolonged by 6-8 months.)
On this case, that’s as a result of the work is anticipated to take longer than one 12 months–which aligns with the earlier rumors about this venture taking on one 12 months and being important in scale and scope. Meaning it’s not only a routine refurbishment, like BTMRR receives pretty repeatedly. (These usually do not contain development permits of any length.)
It’s our understanding that this refurbishment has a number of transferring items, and the largest is probably going encompassed by that let.
The opposite key element is that the allow is assigned to Coastal Metal, an organization with a variety of experience and expertise, from experience programs to metal fabrication and erection. If that identify sounds acquainted, it’s since you in all probability simply heard about that contractor for the Check Monitor reimagining, which will even take a few 12 months.
Exterior of that reimagining, Coastal Metal has collaborated with Walt Disney World on a number of points of interest. For instance, Coastal Metal labored with Walt Disney World on a variety of tasks, from the development of Expedition Everest and Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare to Blizzard Seaside, Mickey’s Toontown Truthful, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and TRON Lightcycle Run.
Primarily based on earlier rumors over the course of the final 6 months, it’s our understanding that Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster wants a big refurbishment involving substantial work on the experience system and retracking. This long-planned venture is seen as preventative work that’s essential to increase the helpful lifetime of the curler coaster, guaranteeing the experience’s longevity and operational standing for many years to come back.
Whereas the experience has had a variety of winter-time closures for a number of weeks to over a month within the final a number of years, the final prolonged closure was in 2016 when Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad was down for 4 months within the late summer season and early fall. Previous to that, BTMRR had a number of closures in 2012 for in depth work, set up of the interactive queue, in addition to the Barnabas T. Bullion and Huge Thunder Mining Firm backstory.
It’s additionally our understanding that Imagineering has tried to take BTMRR down for multi-month or year-long refurbishments a couple of occasions over the past a number of years, however park administration pushed again each time. Because of this, prolonged tasks that have been beforehand deliberate obtained truncated into weeklong routine upkeep.
Each model of Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad has had in depth closures lately–besides Magic Kingdom.
Maybe most instructive is the BTMRR at Disneyland, which closed for a serious renovation in January 2013. This venture had the same scope as what’s rumored for Magic Kingdom, with new experience autos, monitor substitute, repainting the mountain, and likewise restoring the Rainbow Ridge Mining City.
That was initially scheduled to be accomplished by Fall 2013, but it surely wasn’t finished till March 2014. By the point Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad did reopen over a 12 months later, its return got here with a lot fanfare and new options–and a possible “blueprint” for different tasks of this nature that we’re now probably seeing with Haunted Mansion and Fantasmic at Disneyland. Type of a quasi “Disney Vault” strategy to excite followers.
I’d count on one thing related with the Magic Kingdom model of Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad. A closure that lasted 14 months roughly one decade in the past interprets to at the very least 18 months when adjusted for development timeline inflation. (A factor I made up, however you recognize what I imply–and that it’s an actual Disney phenomenon!)
There’s no method Walt Disney World goes to shut Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad for between a 12 months and 18 months and never have something marketable to point out for it when the attraction returns. There’ll probably be new raise hill results, nighttime lighting, redone present scenes with Easter eggs and different historic tributes–one thing, something.
Given the price in money and time, I absolutely consider they’ll make it depend and this gained’t “simply” be a closure for invisible work that “solely” extends the lifetime of the curler coaster. Walt Disney World has kind of confirmed as a lot with the obscure line about added magic.
With a closure that’s going to final roughly a 12 months, timing doesn’t make an enormous distinction. In spite of everything, it’s going to be down throughout each week and season, anyway. Not solely that, however Walt Disney World has proven a willingness to shut marquee points of interest at common occasions of the 12 months. Look no additional than Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster throughout spring break (twice!), Tower of Terror throughout spring and summer season, and the upcoming Check Monitor closure from summer season via at the very least the vacation season.
If in any respect attainable, it would make sense to get the Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment finished earlier than October 2026. That is purely speculative on our half and lots might change between from time to time–clearly. Nevertheless, we suspect Disney would’ve indicated if the plan have been to have BTMRR again up and operating by early or mid-2026. Between the scope of labor on this venture itself and the filling in of Rivers of America for Automobiles Land, downtime lasting into the second half of 2026 makes full sense.
Summer season crowds usually begin winding down in direction of the tip of July and drop off a cliff firstly of August. If it is a year-plus closure, it’s logical to have BTMRR down for the months of August and September twice than it does the months of October via December. However in fact, that assumes they’ve a alternative and may dictate timing–a daring assumption!
In the end, we’d count on extra reimaginings and refurbishments of this nature for a few causes. The primary is that there was lots of deferred upkeep and proportionately fewer closures in the previous few years attributable to pent-up demand and finances cuts. So a number of points of interest are overdue for refurbishments and can in all probability get them within the subsequent couple of years.
Second, the cash spigot is about to be turned on for Parks & Resorts, permitting for extra tasks of this nature to (lastly!) occur. Certain, it’s not as thrilling as brand-new points of interest–and lots of of chances are you’ll lament extra rides being closed throughout your trip–however refurbishments are very a lot a necessity for sustaining applicable attraction requirements and guaranteeing that breakdowns don’t proceed to occur at a extra frequent fee. So right here’s hoping we see extra on this entrance!
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see whether or not Walt Disney World scrambles to schedule extra temporary refurbishment tasks in Magic Kingdom between now and January 2025. Whereas this usually wouldn’t be the time for closures, it’s attainable that Disney will need to get as many temporary refurbishments out of the best way earlier than Huge Thunder goes down for over a 12 months. We’ll maintain you posted!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider the prolonged experience refurbishment/reimagining of Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad? Hope these classics are up to date to make sure their longevity for many years to come back? Do any points of interest at Walt Disney World strike you as being prime candidates for experience reimaginings? Do you agree or disagree with our selections? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
