Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Major Refurbishment Confirmed: Closure Begins January 2025

Oct 14, 2024 in "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad"

Gallery / 5 Photos
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad overview

Posted: Monday October 14, 2024 3:05pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one of the Magic Kingdom's most iconic attractions, is scheduled to close for a major refurbishment beginning January 6, 2025.

Disney has confirmed that the fan-favorite Frontierland roller coaster will be shut down for over a year, with plans to reopen it in 2026, promising that the ride will return with "a little bit of new magic."

This refurbishment has been long in the works. Disney previously filed a permit for the project, assigned to their trusted construction partner Coastal Steel Inc. The permit, which broadly mentions "General Construction," expires in August 2025. While initial speculation hinted at a September 2024 closure, Disney's confirmation of a January 2025 start marks a firm timeline for this major refurbishment.

Extensive Ride System Overhaul

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is set to undergo substantial renovations, with significant work planned for the ride system to enhance its longevity and ensure smooth operations for years to come. Sources familiar with the project have emphasized that this will be the most extensive refurbishment in the ride's history, much larger in scope than the 2012 renovation, which saw the ride closed for four months.

The 2025 project is expected to follow the footsteps of Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad renovation in 2012, which brought new ride vehicles, track replacements, and freshened mountain scenery to the Disneyland version of the ride. Magic Kingdom's version will likely see similar updates.

The Longest Closure in the Ride's History

This refurbishment marks the longest closure in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's history. The attraction, which opened at Magic Kingdom in 1980, has seen numerous short-term closures over the years for maintenance and minor updates.

Stay tuned for more updates as Disney shares additional details about what changes are in store for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

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Disstevefan13 hours ago

True. After thinking about it, its easier to chop the facade.

peter114354 hours ago

It’s not the track that will be adjusted

Disstevefan14 hours ago

Envelope test failed? Could they be envelope testing AS they replace track is it seems to me that would be the time to adjust track, NOT after retrack is complete?

ToTBellHop5 hours ago

I presume this means the track is complete?

SplashJacket19 hours ago

Ride envelope testing began as early as May 4th

DCBaker1 day ago

It appears there is a ride envelope testing vehicle on the track - photos from today: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54524658582_be06138817_k.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525876960_174dd078b9_k.jpg Here are a few more photos: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525720449_91a160f4fa_k.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525532476_65ea52429d_k.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525878550_b1be95669e_k.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525774723_f52c17e2c1_k.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525531351_551354910d_k.jpg [url=https://flic.kr/p/2r5eBje]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525532981_3860be9786_k.jpg [url=https://flic.kr/p/2r5fzaF]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525720869_d2c2bed6b1_k.jpg [url=https://flic.kr/p/2r5gnEF]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525877295_53b34c1e1c_k.jpg [url=https://flic.kr/p/2r5fyLu]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54525719524_dd0c7d08cb_k.jpg

Mr. Sullivan11 days ago

It’s quite interesting to follow along with, yes. These retrack/overhaul projects always are.

Delta-711 days ago

Is this for third lift hill stuff or could they be adding new scenery elsewhere on the ride?

Goofyernmost11 days ago

The comparison good or bad with the 3 year time for Epcot. Yes, they built an entire park in 3 years, but that means that at least one of the attractions took the full 3 years to build and if many have been only two, but it doesn't matter. If it took 3 years to build a complete land when they were basically working on all the attractions at the same time, what makes one think that building one would take any less time if the per attraction work staff was comparable. You know 6 or 7 attractions being built by 6 or 7 crews all at the same time and one crew building one. And also the old one about how Disneyland was only 1 year. We all seem to forget two very important things. First the degree of sophistication between the 1955 D'land and the requirement of technology used in the shows today is not even worthy of comment. DL was basically a few buildings (very low tech) and second, a few more advanced, simple and extremely problematic engineering designs that for the first few weeks broke down as much as they operated. That is what happens when you rush production and don't test what has been built. You don't find the flaws until a whole group of people have to find out about it right in the middle of the experience. Also a number of those being talked about like "Rise of the Resistance" and Tron and even Galaxy, crossed over in the time of Covid. Not much of anything was built during a lot of that time. I'm sure they could do it faster if it wasn't for that pesky thing like hiring extra help, training said help in all sorts of possible scenario's and just getting the bug out of things before the public was involved. I'm sure that Epic Universal was built the same way all the other Disney parks were built with massive numbers of overlapping construction with a large workforce of hundreds of workers all at the same time. There are just so many that can be present on a singular jobsite before they all just get in each others way and cannot accomplish anything. Also, when they are building a whole park they can do that in the daytime whereas something built in an existing land is usually done at night. Highly skilled people needed to build these high tech attractions of today are in high demand and it's hard to put together a highly skilled group of people that are willing to work at night and those that do are very well paid explaining some of the ridicules cost of building an attraction..

Goofyernmost11 days ago

OMG, they have hidden much bigger things than that. Have you ever seen the overhead view of the Haunted Mansion?

DCBaker12 days ago

A new Notice of Commencement from Walt Disney Imagineering was recorded today for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: 4485 CARIBBEAN WY (BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN) - Mecca Productions, Inc. - Install set elements