Big Thunder rehab

mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It has been confirmed that Big Thunder will be shut down until at least late fall for rehab. From looking at a Fresh Baked video on the ride, it shows that one reason for the closure is to address the wood, particularly on the load area building, but also in other areas as well:


What I want to know is, what needs to be addressed with the wood? Do they need to tear out the old wood and replace it with new? Because if that's the case, then it's going to require a lot longer timeframe than late fall.

I was just there last weekend, and it's very disappointing that it was closed then because Big Thunder is one of my absolute favorite attractions. However, I was prepared for it because we had been planning the trip for a while and in the meantime, we received notice on its closure. So it was disappointing, but not necessarily surprising.

However, we are going to make another trip in January, and I hope that the ride will be open again by then.
 
pdude81

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Is there any indication when this might come back up? This is my son's favorite ride at DL and we're traveling out for Halloween and sticking around a few days. I wasn't too worried before, but this is the first time I've seen anybody mention "late" Fall
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
pdude81 said:
Is there any indication when this might come back up? This is my son's favorite ride at DL and we're traveling out for Halloween and sticking around a few days. I wasn't too worried before, but this is the first time I've seen anybody mention "late" Fall
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No clue, but I doubt it will be open again by Halloween.
 
Dear Prudence

Dear Prudence

Well-Known Member
I am honestly super bummed. This is down, as is Tarzan's Tree House and Tom Sawyer Island. I wonder if there was some sort of damage to all of the wood-based attractions over the last year no one was able to address because of Covid! :eek:
 
Emmanuel

Emmanuel

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
No clue, but I doubt it will be open again by Halloween.
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Yeah. Late fall would indicate sometime in November or December. (Actual winter season starts December 21st). So depending on how much needs to be done, we're looking at a possible reopening timeframe around November to mid-December.
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Emmanuel said:
Yeah. Late fall would indicate sometime in November or December. (Actual winter season starts December 21st). So depending on how much needs to be done, we're looking at a possible reopening timeframe around November to mid-December.
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But if that video is to be believed (along with @truecoat's comment on rats eating the wood), then I would think it's going to take a very long time to repair/replace the wood, unless they did the replacement work offstage and then brought it in where they just needed to put the pieces in place.
 
Emmanuel

Emmanuel

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But if that video is to be believed (along with @truecoat's comment on rats eating the wood), then I would think it's going to take a very long time to repair/replace the wood, unless they did the replacement work offstage and then brought it in where they just needed to put the pieces in place.
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Likely the replacements have already been made off site.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
mharrington said:
But if that video is to be believed (along with @truecoat's comment on rats eating the wood), then I would think it's going to take a very long time to repair/replace the wood, unless they did the replacement work offstage and then brought it in where they just needed to put the pieces in place.
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Just FYI the poster was joking about the rats. Its poking fun at the CM created "rumor" of rats destroying the engines being the reason the trams aren't running.

If its just repair and replacement of some wood features that wouldn't take that long a couple weeks maybe. As it doesn't take that long to measure, cut, install, and paint/de-age wood. However if they are doing track work and lift hill effects also that would take a bit longer I would guess.

So a late fall (think late November/early December) if they are doing more than just wood, but late October if they are doing just the wood.
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Disney Irish said:
Several sites, and the DL App, are reporting Big Thunder reopens Nov 5th.
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Recently, another FreshBaked video has surfaced, showing the ride being tested:


I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I would think this would mean that the ride would reopen much sooner than November 5, if they're testing the trains right now. I would think it doesn't take more than a month to test out the ride vehicles for a preexisting ride.

Regardless, hopefully, that means we can go on when we go in January (for the 35th anniversary of Star Tours).
 

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