Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: Refurbishment Watch

[Elias1901]

Upon viewing the live stream cam-feed of the resort, I noticed that the large yellow crane that was brought in to work on BTMR was still "hanging" around. I am curious if this is quite the eyesore around property or if it is hidden quite well, except around the Big Thunder area.

I heard that BTMR will open again in late Septemeber, however my next DLR trip will be August 12th - 16th (6th - 11th doing other stuff). Now, I am curious if perhaps they may have any slight possibility of re-opening early? Has any attraction in Disneyland's history ever been noted to come back from refurbs earlier than anticipated? I just love Big Thunder Mountain so much and will certainly be bummed to have to miss it (especially considering it will be my friend's first visit).

[tinkwest]

The crane is less of an eyesore than the walls that go up to partition off attractions being refurbished, IMO. I was aware of it when I was taking pictures of the new Fantasy Faire area, but really, other than that we didn't even notice it. The fact that BTM is off in its own little corner helps hide the fact that something major is going on.

I wouldn't count on seeing BTMRR open as early as August. It seems that ride reopenings are usually calculated out fairly accurately. Any soft openings are usually going to be within a month of reopening.

[Elias1901]

I wouldn't count on seeing BTMRR open as early as August. It seems that ride reopenings are usually calculated out fairly accurately. Any soft openings are usually going to be within a month of reopening.

Have attractions coming back from refrubs even been known to have soft openings? In most cases I've heard, only brand new attractions have soft openings. I could be wrong on that notion.

[Melanie]

I remember coming into the area for the first time in January and being very struck by the crane. In fact, we joked and called it "Craneland". But like Linda said, the walls are a bit of an eyesore as well.

I'm sad it won't be open over the Half Marathon weekend, but I'm excited to ride again in November. A trip to Disneyland (or the MK) just isn't truly complete without going on the wildest ride in the wilderness!

[Elias1901]

I certainly hope that with the closure of BTMR in place, they do not close any other attractions until Big Thunder is back up and running. It is bad enough to have one E-Ticket closed but all I need is one more closure to have a mini panic-attack!

I'm thinking the majority of the rides will remain open as August is still a Summer month. Also, the D23 Expo will only draw in more crowds around that time too. I guess I just got a bit extra-paranoid about things like when I heard about the OSHA closures of attractions such as Space Mountain, Soarin' Over California, Matterhorn, etc.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has got to be one of my all-time favorite attractions and has been ever since I was a young boy. I really hate to admit it, but I guess I'll have to prepare myself to accept the fact that my friend simply won't be able to experience one of Disney's greatest Mountain Range attractions.

[Elias1901]

I remember coming into the area for the first time in January and being very struck by the crane. In fact, we joked and called it "Craneland".

I could be wrong but it appears as if the crane is gone. I am just deducing this from the web-feed of the park (not actually in-person). Either they have finished with the crane aspect of the refurbishment or it has only been rotated in such a way to hide behind the peak of the Matterhorn mountain from the angle I am viewing it.

The only part of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad structure I can see from the live-feed I am viewing, is only the very tallest point of the orange rock peaking from the trees of the park. But again, the crane is either gone or hiding. Is anybody able to confirm or deny this? Yeehaw!!

[Melanie]

Some fellow INTERCOTees are there right now. I'll ask and get back with you.

[BrerGnat]

Have attractions coming back from refrubs even been known to have soft openings? In most cases I've heard, only brand new attractions have soft openings. I could be wrong on that notion.

Generally, no. They do not come back online early.

They SOMETIMES do soft openings after really long, major refurbishments. However, that is usually only by a day or two ahead of "scheduled" reopen. If they are saying late September, you won't see it open in August. Sorry.

[tinkwest]

Here's a peek behind the walls of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

[seanyred]

I have read on several other sites that BTMRR refurb has been delayed and won't open till February. Anyone know if this is true or just a rumor.

If it is closed I till February then I hope the December refurb of Space Mtn is pushed back. I just don't want both mountains to be down for our December trip.

[Carol]

Nothing has been announced officially. I will be very mad if it is since it was down in January during my last visit.

[BadBoyBill]

They just announced Big Thunder is now closed till 2/15/2014 :-(

[seanyred]

The Disney Blog posted yesterday that BTMRR is expected to open in Winter 2014 meaning anytime between January and March 2014. This stinks for my family since we are making our trip in December 2013. I was really hoping it would be up by December. Oh well...we will still have fun anyway.

[tinkwest]

The signage at Disneyland (around the Big Thunder Mountain area) has changed as well. Disappointing on one hand yet on the other hand better that things are getting done right the first time rather than opening and then closing again soon after to "fix" things. Will keep updating with more specific dates in the Refurbishment thread as they are officially announced by Disney.

[Gator]

Seems like it takes longer to refurb it than to originally build it! My son won't be too happy next month.

[Elias1901]

I'm jumping back into my old thread again.

I can't believe that Disneyland has pushed BTMRR's return from the 31st of last October to early this year... this is getting to be quite an extensive length of time for an attraction refurb. I just finished booking our next vacation to Disneyland. We are visiting from February 27th through March 3rd.
Big Thunder must be up and operational by then, right? Right? RIGHT!? ... my God... I hope so!!

[tinkwest]

Currently scheduled for a February 1st reopening.

[Elias1901]

Currently scheduled for a February 1st reopening.

Then we theoretically should be safe.

[Elias1901]

I have heard that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's opening may be delayed until sometime in March.*

My response:

This had better not be the case. February 1st must be the re-opening. We have already went on two "wasted" (as far as riding BTMRR is concerned) trips... and if this happens again, Disney is going to have no mister nice guy to deal with, they will be getting an earful from me. We went in August of last year when it was down. And okay, I'll give them that. It was fully announced at the beginning of the year and made known to everyone. So, while dissapointed, we were okay with this.

The spectacular and triumphant return of Big Thunder was to be Halloween night, October 31st. "Oh great! Let's book another trip then!", we said. Oh, what's that? Big Thunder isn't ready? We were very bitter about that but managed to work our blood pressures down after much dissapointment in our travel party. Even for myself, Thunder is one of my, if not my favourite attraction! Then after chatting with a CM... AT LENGTH... on the phone, she says that it is "almost gauranteed" that it will make it's new deadline of February 1st... and then they officially announce it. After some debating after what happened to us the last couple times, we hesitantly booked a trip for the very end of February and very early in March.

Yes, I get it. Attractions are complex things... but the attraction operated fine before the rehab, so what's the issue when you're supposed to be IMPROVING things??? As I mentioned, we've already booked a trip for February 27th - March 3rd to celebrate Big Thunder's return on the first of February... if this is not going to be the case... god... I am going to be furious! Stark raving mad, I tells ya!

And Disney... if you're reading this... I don't care what you have to do to get this done, just get it done by the 2nd deadline you've made, breaking the original was bad enough. I don't care if you have to beg and plead and re-hire Imagineering legend, Tony Baxter back onto your team full-time to get his attraction back and running. JUST DO IT. You are not Darth Vader! You cannot alter the deal further and get away with it every time you do! You keep sucking money away from other guests and myself included, when we make arrangements based on your re-opening dates. We are all eagerly awaiting the return of Thunder. Remember us?

This all better be untrue for Disney's sake. Somehow, I doubt they would have it up by exactly March 1st if this all goes down the way it is rumored. Perhaps a week or two in. But I doubt the very start of the month the way this is trending. Currently, the Disneyland Resort operations calendar still has it set to re-open after January 31st. I really hope all of this nonsense is false. Geez, get someone on this project that knows what they're doing! NO MORE WAITING!

*This portion edited by moderator.

[Elias1901]

I have heard that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's opening may be delayed until sometime in March.

Yep. Looks like things have pretty much all went according to what hear-say suggested. As of this afternoon, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is listed as being under refurbishment from now through March 6th, 2015... which is the last date available on the Disneyland Resort calendar... it actually could potentially be down for longer, much longer. This is really getting crazy! Well, there goes our 3rd trip attempt to try and make it on this ride when they said they'd be opening...