WeNamedTheDogIndiana
Well-Known Member
That's a bummer - my husband and I are going the first week of September, and we were hoping to squeeze in one more ride. Guess that's why we got the discount.
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News Big Thunder Mountain to receive full retrack
- Thread starter TheCoasterNerd
- Start date
peter11435
Well-Known Member
I would not expect to ride BTM in September
WeNamedTheDogIndiana
Well-Known Member
Do you think they're expecting TBA to soak up closure crowds?
peter11435
Well-Known Member
I don’t think that’s really part of the consideration. The work has to happen. BTM needs to close. They just won’t do it until MK has a little more capacity to compensate.
WeNamedTheDogIndiana
Well-Known Member
So it's kind of a "yes, and?"
How does closing it this year make sense at all then? MK’s capacity isn’t really going to increase THAT much with TBA back online - and considering TBA will have a greater height requirement than BTMRR, it seems even more confusing.
Maybe I’m just bitter because it’s my absolute favorite ride and means I won’t get to ride it in December but it sucks this couldn’t wait until AFTER Beyond Big Thunder or at least the Moana ride was up and running.
mikejs78
Well-Known Member
I think it's just that the needed maintenance is so critical.
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
And I suspect some of TBA’s capacity will be paywalled behind VQ or ILL…
peter11435
Well-Known Member
What?
The work has to happen. It needs to happen sooner rather than later. They are already waiting as long as they can in order to get TBA open before this goes down. That short downtime thunder had earlier this year was a pop up refurb so it could make it until later this year.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
TBA and BRMRR are both 40”. But BTMRR does have a higher hourly capacity. I would guess, however, that there are people afraid of the TBA drop that outnumber anyone afraid of BTMRR (can’t imagine that’s a high number beyond people who don’t tolerate coasters).
Disgruntled Walt
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
So it will likely still be closed in July/August 2025 then?
VQ isn't a paywall.
Sorry my point was if they have resisted taking it down due to capacity, waiting until TBA is up doesn’t really help that issue. At best it’s a wash, and at worse it’s a net reduction in capacity because BTMRR has a higher hourly output and as @ToTBellHop mentioned, there are more likely more people in general who will ride BTMRR instead of TBA because of the large drop vs the mild BTMRR coaster.
Really my point is the covid closure/slowdown would have been the time for them to do things like this (when cash was CHEAP) but this basically keeps MK at the status quo on capacity and running at a decreased load from January of 2023 to roughly July-Sept of 2025. It’s somewhat insane to think their flagship property won’t have operated at full capacity for over two years+.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Better start building Moana, because Space Mtn. will need to follow, and then it will surely be time for another MK e-ticket. And on and on. They’ve deferred too many rides for too long.
I mean in all seriousness how many times now since 2013 have they deferred the SM re-track? I would think at least 3.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
I’m really not sure how you figure that waiting for Tiana doesn’t help. Tiana certainly doesn’t cover all of the capacity lost. But having BTM down is certainly better than having BTM AND Tiana down.
There are many reason why projects like this didn’t happen during Covid.
The MK should never be operating at “full capacity.” There should always be an attraction or attractions closed for refurbishment. Disneys poor track record of properly maintaining attractions at WDW has conditioned you and others to think that attractions should never be closed. How often is every attraction operating at TDL?
Yes they should, parks open all year need to take down rides for maintenance. You should expect one major ride to be closed in two parks, and double that if you are going in Jan-Feb, Aug-Sept. it’s a fact of life, and if you want rides not to fall apart this needs to happen. Disney needs to up capacity at all the parks to lessen this impact.
mikejs78
Well-Known Member
I remember as a kid in the 80s - every time we went, something significant was down. We all complain about lack of maintenance at the parks. Maybe this is the turning point.