{"id":224836,"date":"2026-04-09T13:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224836\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:40:20","slug":"disney-worlds-big-thunder-mountain-railroad-reopening-date-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224836\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney World&#8217;s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopening date set"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Disney World&#8217;s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopening date set<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768911270_880_wesh.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WESH logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 4:43 PM EDT Apr 8, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesh.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBig Thunder Mountain Railroad is scheduled to reopen on May 3, according to an Instagram post from Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle on Wednesday.First opened on Nov. 15, 1980, the Disney World roller coaster ride closed in early 2025 for a &#8220;mountaintop-to-cavern refurbishment.&#8221;According to the WDW press release, &#8220;Big Thunder Mountain will feature new magic for fans to discover including a journey through the spectacular natural phenomena of the Rainbow Caverns, which may not be as welcoming as they first appear.&#8221;Along with new show elements and ride vehicles, the height requirement for the &#8220;wildest ride in the wilderness&#8221; has also been changed from 41 inches to 38 inches or taller, allowing more families to enjoy the classic adventure together.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tFLORIDA \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyworld.disney.go.com\/attractions\/magic-kingdom\/big-thunder-mountain-railroad\/?msockid=38d6d043cb0962a82380c5e7cab76341\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Big Thunder Mountain Railroad<\/a> is scheduled to reopen on May 3, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jeffvahle\/p\/DW4Uvv3GGQF\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram post from Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>First opened on Nov. 15, 1980, the Disney World roller coaster ride closed in early 2025 for a &#8220;mountaintop-to-cavern refurbishment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the WDW press release, &#8220;Big Thunder Mountain will feature new magic for fans to discover including a journey through the spectacular natural phenomena of the Rainbow Caverns, which may not be as welcoming as they first appear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Along with new show elements and ride vehicles, the height requirement for the &#8220;wildest ride in the wilderness&#8221; has also been changed from 41 inches to 38 inches or taller, allowing more families to enjoy the classic adventure together. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney World&#8217;s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopening date set Updated: 4:43 PM EDT Apr 8, 2026 Editorial Standards&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[90256,27154,2659,19188,101574,17240,24503,6134,101571,101575,1093,139,141,140,101572,101573,2486,101576],"class_list":{"0":"post-224836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-big-thunder-mountain-railroad","9":"tag-date-set","10":"tag-disney-world","11":"tag-fan","12":"tag-height-requirement","13":"tag-inch","14":"tag-instagram-post","15":"tag-journey","16":"tag-new-magic","17":"tag-new-show-element","18":"tag-nov","19":"tag-orlando","20":"tag-orlando-headlines","21":"tag-orlando-news","22":"tag-ride-vehicle","23":"tag-spectacular-natural-phenomenon","24":"tag-wednesday","25":"tag-wild-ride"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224836","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=224836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}