It's A Small World

[sherylemomof2]

I received an email today from a relative stating that It's a Small World will be closed for refurbishment for 10 months starting January 08 Can anyone confirm this? We are going to WDW in May and this is my favorite ride and my kids love it! Thanks

 

[ImaYoyo]

I had not heard this. It would be very odd to close it for that long considering it just received a major update before DL's 50th birthday.

 

[rainfully]

I haven't heard of any rehabs to the ride at WDW, however the ride at Disneyland will be down for about a year... that's probably what the e-mail was referring to!

 

[Kingdom WDW]

Yes, the only thing closed in January-February 2008 is Splash Mountain (!), Minnie's Country House, and Snow White's Scary Adventrues. I'm surprised why Splash Mountain is closed for a month and a half!

 

[Jerm]

It is the DL version not the WDW version.

J

 

[SDav10495]

And according to Miceage, it's because today's more corpulent guests have been weighing down the boats, meaning the original fleet has to be replaced entirely...officially making this my favorite reason for a rehab ever.

 

[TP2000]

Disneyland's version is closing for 10+ months, from January 2008 until November 2008.

The Disneyland version still uses the original flume and boat fleet from the 1964 New York World's Fair, and they are replacing it all because Americans are much fatter today than they were in the 1960's. The boats are too heavy now even with some seats purposely left empty by the CM's, and the heavy boats get stuck inside the ride.

Al Lutz covered this and broke the news on this weighty issue on October 9th on his Miceage website, and now media all over the country is picking up on it and mentioning it too. Even Jay Leno in his Tonight Show monologue. :lol:

The Walt Disney World version of the ride is not affected, and will not be closing.

 

[brkgnews]

They must have heard that I was going to be there in Jaunary. :lookaroun

:lol:

Meh -- all I'm interested in is seeing the outside.

 

[Kingdom WDW]

Yeah...I can't understand sarcasm online so I can't tell if you are joking or not...

What's the 'real' reason they are closing down?

 

[Rob562]

Scary thing is, they're not joking...

Though I'm sure this won't be the ONLY thing done during the refurb. It's just the funniest one.

-Rob

 

[sherylemomof2]

Thank You

:dazzle: You made my day that it is not at WDW! I appreciate all your help Sheryle

 

[Jerm]

Meh -- all I'm interested in is seeing the outside.

Odds are high you wont be seeing that either. One of the things they are going to do is replace the facade and add fiber optics to it so they don't have to worry about the christmas lights anymore.

 

[brkgnews]

Odds are high you wont be seeing that either. One of the things they are going to do is replace the facade and add fiber optics to it so they don't have to worry about the christmas lights anymore.

Figures. Maybe I'll squeeze in early enough. If not, no huge worries. I'll just have to go back again.

And as for the sarcasm, I've heard similar things... John Corigliano told me during C25 that when they rode DL's version one time, they were having to push the boat along by hand at points! (Keep in mind that the DL version is on a narrow trough, as opposed to WDW's which has that "overflow pool" system with metal guides underneath).

 

[darthjohnny]

Yeah...I can't understand sarcasm online so I can't tell if you are joking or not...

What's the 'real' reason they are closing down?

Supposedly, that is the real reason that Disneyland's Small World is closing.

They want to make more buoyant boats and a deeper flume to prevent these types of problems from happening. There is also the standard refurb stuff like painting and improving audio. Plus, I assume they also want to put a new security system in the ride, which surprsingly, they didn't have before.

 

[Fluxuated]

It's a BIG world after all. :lol: