Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland is reopening following its two-month closure! The ride was removed from the refurbishment calendar yesterday as a surprise and was in operation at some points during the day. This happened after multiple closure extensions.
While there were no major additions during the ride’s refurbishment, there was one notable change to the first part of the ride that we spotted, which we will share below. At Mickey Visit, we are always tracking the latest Disneyland ride closures and reopenings, like this closure of a popular thrill ride that was just extended. Now, we just saw this change corrected.
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Disneyland Big Thunder Mountain Change
There is a change to Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the cavern scene, addressing an effect that was not always operational.
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In the first scene, when the train ascends the lift hill under a waterfall, the waterfalls are currently replaced by two misters on either side. We assume they made this change for consistency’s sake, given that the waterfall wasn’t always working.
This may also not be a permanent change to the ride, and the waterfalls could be back in the future. However, they did reopen the ride with this new effect, so we believe it’s notable to share a look at the difference.
Here’s a look at the before and after of the change.
And here’s a look at the current waterfall set up with the misters on either side.
You can see the change shown in our Instagram video below. Some are disappointed by the switch, as they would stick their hand out to splash the water. A few have commented that this is a temporary solution as they are still fixing the waterfalls, but we do not know for sure at this point. We will keep an eye on this to see if there is another change in the future.
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The recent footage of the ride was shared by Matt (@disneyscoopguy on Instagram) for us to use in our comparison video.
On his post, some commented that some other aspects of the ride felt different. According to Theme Park IQ who looked into the permits for the attraction refurbishment, “There were a lot of other changes as well like replacing chain motors on lift hills which changed the pacing of the attraction.”
Interestingly, many comments mentioned that it looks a lot slower, but it’s difficult to confirm if this is accurate or just referring to the speed of ascending the lift hills. Others pointed out that the smoke appears to be missing from the dynamite scene. Perhaps this is another effect they are still in the process of fixing.
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None of these are very major changes compared to the bigger ones happening at the version of the ride in Magic Kingdom on the other coast. You can see those changes and concept art here. The concept artwork below is for the new version of the ride at Magic Kingdom.
We know that Disney is likely still finetuning the ride after its closure, given the downtime it experienced during its soft opening.
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