Walt Disney World has formally confirmed a prolonged experience refurbishment of Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom, beginning in 2025 and lasting by 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 Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad closure is the third main refurbishment that we first lined months in the past in Magic Kingdom Experience 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 believe that scene is rather well achieved and matches the spirit of the attraction.)
Following this, Jungle Cruise closed for a multi-month refurbishment. This challenge was by no means formally introduced, and its precise scope of labor is unknown. No less than, formally. Disney did file permits with a contractor that does underwater engineering, and Solid Members stationed outdoors the attraction have indicated that the challenge entails solely routine upkeep to the waterway infrastructure. Fairly secure guess that’s what’s taking place. As we lined in our publish about that challenge, Jungle Cruise is now scheduled to reopen early.
The ultimate main refurbishment of the trio is Massive 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 seemingly 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 acknowledged 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 bettering over the past month-plus. The experience nonetheless has downtime (and unhealthy days), nevertheless it’s nothing like the three+ hours of common each day downtime that the experience was experiencing just about each day over the primary few months. It’s been significantly better because the begin of September.
It’s to the purpose that we now absolutely anticipate Walt Disney World to retire the digital queue for Tiana’s Bayou Journey earlier than the Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment begins. Actually, 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 right now’s publish.
Walt Disney World has now introduced that Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad will shut for refurbishment on January 6, 2025.
The final day to expertise BTMRR in its present kind is January 5, 2025. The wildest experience within the wilderness is deliberate to reopen in 2026 with a bit bit of recent magic.
It’s additionally our understanding that Tiana’s Bayou Journey won’t obtain a Winter 2025 refurbishment, which was customary for Splash Mountain. The attraction continues to be brand-new (or newly-redone), so this is sensible.
Taking BTMRR down for refurbishment on the identical time that the work begins to fill within the Rivers of America and start Vehicles building is sensible.
With that mentioned, one vital factor to notice is that we don’t anticipate 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 anticipate to see these sights and areas to completely shut, see When Will Rivers of America & Tom Sawyer Island Shut at Magic Kingdom?
Regardless, work on Vehicles Land is more likely to begin sooner or later earlier than 2026. Having Massive Thunder closed whereas filling within the Rivers of America will surely expedite the method and make building simpler. Not solely that, however there will probably be a path that connects Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad and Frontierland with Liberty Sq. and Villains Land, so work on this will 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-Might.
After that, Walt Disney World filed a allow for “common building” at an handle corresponding with Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom. It’s value noting that this allow was filed again in June when the challenge was anticipated to start out at the start of August or September on the newest.
There are a few key particulars right here that we will glean from the allow, with the primary being that it has an expiration date of August 8, 2025. The default 1-year timeline is rarely noteworthy, however shorter or longer ones at all times are, as they’re prolonged or lowered purposefully. That means that there’s a purpose for doing so. (With the beginning date of the refurbishment delayed, you’ll be able to anticipate 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 yr–which aligns with the earlier rumors about this challenge taking on one yr and being vital in scale and scope. Meaning it’s not only a routine refurbishment, like BTMRR receives pretty usually. (These usually do not contain building permits of any period.)
It’s our understanding that this refurbishment has a number of transferring items, and the most important 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 methods to metal fabrication and erection. If that identify sounds acquainted, it’s since you in all probability simply heard about that contractor for the Take a look at Observe reimagining, which may even take a couple of yr.
Outdoors of that reimagining, Coastal Metal has collaborated with Walt Disney World on a number of sights. For instance, Coastal Metal labored with Walt Disney World on a spread of tasks, from the development of Expedition Everest and Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare to Blizzard Seashore, 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 Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster wants a major refurbishment involving substantial work on the experience system and retracking. This long-planned challenge 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 lot 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 Massive 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 Massive Thunder Mining Firm backstory.
It’s additionally our understanding that Imagineering has tried to take BTMRR down for multi-month or year-long refurbishments just a few 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 acquired truncated into weeklong routine upkeep.
Each model of Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad has had in depth closures lately–besides Magic Kingdom.
Maybe most instructive is the BTMRR at Disneyland, which closed for a significant renovation in January 2013. This challenge had the same scope as what’s rumored for Magic Kingdom, with new experience autos, monitor alternative, repainting the mountain, and in addition restoring the Rainbow Ridge Mining City.
That was initially scheduled to be accomplished by Fall 2013, nevertheless it wasn’t achieved till March 2014. By the point Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad did reopen over a yr 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. Kind of a quasi “Disney Vault” strategy to excite followers.
I’d anticipate one thing comparable with the Magic Kingdom model of Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad. A closure that lasted 14 months roughly one decade in the past interprets to at the least 18 months when adjusted for building timeline inflation. (A factor I made up, however you already know what I imply–and that it’s an actual Disney phenomenon!)
There’s no means Walt Disney World goes to shut Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad for between a yr and 18 months and never have something marketable to indicate for it when the attraction returns. There’ll seemingly be new elevate hill results, nighttime lighting, redone present scenes with Easter eggs and different historic tributes–one thing, something.
Given the associated fee in money and time, I absolutely imagine 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 roughly confirmed as a lot with the obscure line about added magic.
With a closure that’s going to final roughly a yr, 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 sights at well-liked occasions of the yr. Look no additional than Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster throughout spring break (twice!), Tower of Terror throughout spring and summer season, and the upcoming Take a look at Observe closure from summer season by at the least the vacation season.
If in any respect attainable, it’d make sense to get the Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment achieved earlier than October 2026. That is purely speculative on our half and loads might change between at times–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 challenge itself and the filling in of Rivers of America for Vehicles Land, downtime lasting into the second half of 2026 makes full sense.
Summer season crowds usually begin winding down in the direction of the top of July and drop off a cliff at the start of August. If this can be 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 by December. However in fact, that assumes they’ve a selection and may dictate timing–a daring assumption!
In the end, we’d anticipate extra reimaginings and refurbishments of this nature for a few causes. The primary is that there was a variety of deferred upkeep and proportionately fewer closures in the previous few years on account of pent-up demand and finances cuts. So a number of sights 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. Positive, it’s not as thrilling as brand-new sights–and plenty 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 charge. 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 transient 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 transient refurbishments out of the best way earlier than Massive Thunder goes down for over a yr. We’ll hold you posted!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider the prolonged experience refurbishment/reimagining of Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad? Hope these classics are up to date to make sure their longevity for many years to come back? Do any sights 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 also 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 under within the feedback!