Mansion Butler
Active Member
I think you are asking how long the last Mansion refurb was, right? I listed those dates about 10 posts ago, but... The last one was in January, 2007. The Haunted Mansion was closed from January 8th through January 17th. It was closed for 10 days. If you are asking about the last update to the Mansion that resulted in the new technology added to the attic and stuff, that was done in January 2006. That downtime took them about a month to install all of the new stuff, if I remember right.
As for the Rivers of America, you must have visited in the winter of 2007 when the only ride operating during construction of Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island was the Canoes. The Mark Twain was overhauled and repainted and the Columbia remained moored at the dock and was only open as a maritime museum. The rafts and island were closed to be turned into Pirate's Lair, which just left the Canoes running from mid February until late May.
Or you may have visited in the winter of 2003 when the river was drained for maintenance. They drain the river for maintenance every 10 to 12 years or so. The last time that had been done was the winter of 1992 during the construction of Fantasmic!. They'll probably drain the river again around the winter of 2013 if past practice holds.
Spring of 2003 and the last two times my friend (who now works there) was there, it was fenced.