{"id":224236,"date":"2026-04-09T01:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224236\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T01:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:29:07","slug":"big-thunder-mountain-railroad-coaster-returns-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224236\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster returns in May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyworld.disney.go.com\/attractions\/magic-kingdom\/big-thunder-mountain-railroad\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big Thunder Mountain Railroad<\/a> will be back in operation at <a href=\"https:\/\/disneyworld.disney.go.com\/destinations\/magic-kingdom\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Magic Kingdom<\/a> theme park as of May 3, <a href=\"http:\/\/disneyworld.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Walt Disney World<\/a> revealed Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The roller coaster has been closed for refurbishment since January 2025.\u00a0 Work has included replacing the rails and refreshing the ride vehicles, according to the official <a href=\"http:\/\/disneyparksblog.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Disney Parks Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The coaster\u2019s comeback will include a change in its height requirement. Riders will now be at least 38 inches tall, compared with the previous 40-inch requirement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGuests 38 inches and taller will be able to ride, so even more families will enjoy this classic adventure together,\u201d said Walt Disney World President <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/jeffvahle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Vahle<\/a> in a social-media post.\u00a0 He also put up a photo of himself in the ride vehicle, seated with Magic Kingdom Vice President <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/sarahfriles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sarah Riles<\/a> and Imagineer <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/wyattbwinter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wyatt Winter<\/a> plus images including other members of the project team.<\/p>\n<p>The refurbishment includes new show elements, but Disney hasn\u2019t elaborated much beyond the addition of \u201cspectacular natural caverns full of phosphorescent pools,\u201d according to the parks blog.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/08\/gatorland-buddy-0409\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Beloved Buddy, the biggest alligator at Gatorland, has died<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disney did not announce any form of passholder previews or \u201csoft opening\u201d days for the ride.<\/p>\n<p>The attraction debuted in Magic Kingdom\u2019s Frontierland in 1980.\u00a0 The site is surrounded by updated and under-construction elements of Magic Kingdom. It neighbors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2024\/06\/27\/disney-world-splash-mountain-history-tianas-bayou-adventure-opens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure<\/a>, the remodeled log flume ride once known as Splash Mountain. And it faces the former Rivers of America and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2024\/10\/01\/disney-tom-sawyer-island-closing-cars-fort-rivers-of-america\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Sawyer Island<\/a>, which were closed to make way for two future \u201cCars\u201d-related attractions, and is near the theme park\u2019s planned villains-based land.<\/p>\n<p>It has also been a touchpoint as executives sometimes floated ideas as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2024\/04\/05\/disney-world-magic-kingdom-expansion-beyond-big-thunder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cbeyond Big Thunder.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/03\/23\/buzz-back-0324\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Disney: First ride of Buzz Lightyear\u2019s comeback at Magic Kingdom<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are also Big Thunder attractions at Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Magic Kingdom recently reopened an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/03\/23\/buzz-back-0324\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">updated version of Buzz Lightyear\u2019s Space Ranger Spin<\/a>, a dark ride in Tomorrowland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/03\/videogame-rides-0406\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shooting match: Theme-park rides that double as games<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Email me at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/08\/big-thunder-back-0410\/mailto:dbevil@orlandosentinel.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at <a href=\"http:\/\/orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be back in operation at Magic Kingdom theme park as of May 3,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,2659,104,28,9571,114,266,1335,139,141,140,109,76686,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-224236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-disney-world","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-lake-buena-vista","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-orlando-headlines","18":"tag-orlando-news","19":"tag-social","20":"tag-social-business","21":"tag-social-entertainment","22":"tag-social-theme-parks","23":"tag-social-travel","24":"tag-theme-parks","25":"tag-things-to-do","26":"tag-tourism","27":"tag-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}