Big Thunder Mountain Railroad recently reopened at Magic Kingdom with a number of updates and enhancements following an over one-year closure. Here are my thoughts on what went right and what didn’t for The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness:

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The Magic Kingdom is going through a major transformation. Not only is it experiencing one of the biggest expansions in the history of the park—including a Villain’s Land that is possibly going to be the envy of all Disney parks around the world—but also the Piston Peak National Park area that will feature the Cars franchise.

Amidst all of that, there are a number of cosmetic and other incremental changes and improvements happening all around the park. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin just went through a major reimagining, Carousel of Progress is going to receive a new introduction with an audio animatronic Walt Disney, and Cinderella Castle has been painted back to its gray and blue color scheme.

In that same vein, Big Thunder Mountain just reopened from a 12+ month refurbishment that reinvigorates and reimagines this classic. There are several changes, which we take a look at below.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Originally when the Magic Kingdom was envisioned, Imagineer Marc Davis had several ideas to make the park unique from Disneyland, which was the only other existing Disney park at the time. One of those ideas was his biggest passion project: the Western River Expedition, which would have been “Cowboys and Indians” meets Pirates of the Caribbean. A lot of the scenes planned in the attraction were a bit offensive even by the mid 1970s, when the attraction had been pushed off from the opening of Walt Disney World into a later phase of plans.

As part of the Western River Expedition megastructure, there were plans for a number of other attractions, some small, some large. One of the larger ancillary attractions was a runaway mine train roller coaster. Marc Davis’s protégé at the time was a young Imagineer by the name of Tony Baxter. Tony, as the lore goes, saw that Mark’s big Western River Expedition project was not going to get approved in the mid 1970s for a number of reasons (one of which was he oil crisis at the time). Tony decided to try to sell the idea of separating the roller coaster from the mountain as its own standalone attraction.

At some point, the two even coexisted in a plan where there was a show building that just held the Western River boat ride, and then off to the side was a separate facility, which was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Eventually Walt Disney World decided, especially after the success of Space Mountain, that they probably just needed the roller coaster. The funny thing is, in the midst of all that, somehow Disneyland got the attraction first. So, in 1979, the first Big Thunder opened, replacing the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland and some portion of the existing Frontierland at Disneyland.

And then, just 14 months later, Walt Disney World would get its Big Thunder Mountain, taking up some of the land intended for the Western River Expedition ride. The rest of the space eventually got used for Splash Mountain in 1992. But with that, in 1980, the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness” became a part of the Magic Kingdom, and since then, it has become an indelible part of the Disney castle parks around the world.

While Big Thunder has been a staple of these classic parks, it has faded away to time with the last version (and arguably the best) being built in 1992 at Disneyland Paris. Disney has built another western runaway train ride in Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, but it is safe to say that they will likely never build another BTMR. With the aging nature of original coaster, Big Thunder has had several updates through time to keep it relevant to younger generations. Of all the parks, however, Disney World’s version felt the most neglected.

The last major refurbishment of Walt Disney World’s Big Thunder was in 2013. While some necessary maintenance was done at that time, an interactive queue and a new backstory was the main focus of the project. In this same timeframe, Disneyland Park and Disneyland Paris added a new scene on the last lift hill, where it appears that the dynamite is exploding all around you to blast the gold out of Big Thunder. When it works, it has an incredible effect. It’s achieved via mist that is projected onto, so it looks like it’s fire. Obviously, it’s not, but it’s a very, very good scene. The projection mapping also makes it look like the fuses are lit and following you up the lift hill. It’s great, when it works.

Now, the problem is that it’s not a reliable effect at either location. It has its share of problems at Disneyland. It doesn’t always fire off the mist effects, and it happens even less often in Paris.

The years go by, and Paris and Anaheim continue to run this great finale scene. And here at Walt Disney World, we all sit and wonder when we are going to get that finale scene. And the sad answer is never because the pump house is a consistent problem at the other two attractions.

So Anaheim changes, Paris changes, and then in Florida and Tokyo, we still just have this scene that seems like something’s missing from it. When we found out that when the Magic Kingdom was embarking on this big expansion, we knew the timing was right for the Big Thunder re-tracking project, and so we thought this has got to be when we get a new final lift hill scene. And we did, but it’s not only not the one that we all wanted, it’s not even really a version of the one we all wanted. More on that in a few moments…

Nonetheless, it was time for the over one-year closure of Big Thunder to replace all of the track and to get new vehicles. Of course, the American Disney Parks audience does often expect with these long refurbishment projects that there will be new scenes and magic added to these classic rides. Disney teased that new additions would be made, eventually telling us about an enhanced bat cave and rainbow caverns, but still telling us there were more surprises to come. Then very haphazardly over the last week, we heard about the motherlode of gold final lift hill scene. It was dropped to us abruptly in a phone interview we had with an Imagineer on the project, and then it got mentioned a couple other times in press and social media postings over the last week.

So let’s take a ride on the new Big Thunder Mountain Mountain Railroad at the Magic Kingdom. Number one, some changes to the approach were made. These will probably make a lot more sense once Piston Peak National Park opens and more construction walls are out of the way. We know coming from the Haunted Mansion side and crossing around the north edge of Piston Peak National Park that there’s going to be a new area filled with geysers for us to walk through, but it will be years until we can do that.

On the way up to Big Thunder, there definitely seems like there’s more path space. There’s a small planter that, to my surprise, does not have a fence around it. And as I came off of my first ride on Sunday, there were children playing in the planter. I think a fence is going to have to go up, sadly.

As far as the rest of the approach, I’ve seen Imagineering talk about work on the new entrance and exit sequence of the ride, but as far as the entrance sequence beyond that planter and the widened pathways, I didn’t notice anything different. It had the same signage, the same standby and Lightning Lane entrances. I didn’t see a whole lot new, although those aspects were definitely freshened up.

I know they did a lot of pavement replacement in the area, but honestly it was so busy Sunday that it was very hard to appreciate the work that was completed. Going up through the queue, you could tell very much that they refreshed a great number of things, but also didn’t touch several other things. The Clarkdale wagon that’s out front got removed, repainted, and it was put back in. It’s wonderful to see things like this restored to their former glory.

They actually have the smoke working again that comes off the smoke stacks on the roof of the Big Thunder Mining Company building. I can’t even remember the last time that those functioned. Sadly, a lot of the things in the interactive queue were not working on Sunday. I assume they’re not completely done with this project and will restore all of those effects over the coming days.

Otherwise the queue looked very nice. There were large sections where you could tell they replaced the wood, and others where it was clear they did not.

There are two weird additions in the queue that are not bad, but not great either. One is in that latter half of the upper queue where those last two interactive queue elements are. There’s one wall that faces towards Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that they painted the Big Thunder Mining Company logo on, but it’s broken up by the interactive displays and a window. It’s certainly not a bad addition, but so little was changed in the queue that I’m perplexed as to why this particular effort was made.

The one that does make sense to me is the addition of some graphics and a bulletin board at the front of the load platforms. It makes that space downstairs feel a little more lived in.

The trains themselves are brand new, and they look beautiful. They appear as if they’ve lived through more real experience despite being young thanks to the weathering and revamped color scheme on them. There’s more realism to them that than previous batch, which is probably a little ironic given how much of Frontierland is becoming cartoonified, much like other parts of the Magic Kingdom have over the decades.

Now let’s talk about the on-ride portion. Number one, they replaced all the coaster track. So yes, it is incredibly smooth. The bad thing is when a Big Thunder gets redone and it’s incredibly smooth, it also kind of sucks the theme out of the ride. The older it gets and the more worn it gets, the more it feels like it’s supposed to, like a runaway train. The good news about this change is that is the height requirement has come down. It used to be 40″ and is now 38″, meaning younger guests are going to be able to ride. For a number of guests, this is going to be their first roller coaster, which is pretty neat.

Now, let’s talk about the scenes along the actual ride portion. There is a lot of new and refreshed lighting throughout the ride. There’s some mining equipment that’s lit well on the right side now that used to just sit in darkness. All I can remember about the opening of this Big Thunder is the wood slats and the natural sunlight would come through, and that was the most of the lighting you really ever saw in that scene.

Then you enter the very much-plussed batcave sequence. A new danger warning has been written on one side of the cave. It could be a warning because it’s a blasting area, for the presence of the bats, or it could be a warning because someone encountered these spirits that very much don’t want us to be in the mountain. In the bat space, a lot of depth has been added. To have the appearance of thousands of bats gives you an immediate eeriness that seems tonally in line with where they’ve gone with this ride now. The whimsical and comedic overtones are lesser and the ominous feelings are emphasized.

I will say I found the Walt Disney World version was the most kitschy of the bunch, especially the Tumbleweed town. Given the ensuing comedy, you might forget that the earthquakes have caused a flood. In the latest iteration, there is this reminder that something bad is happening here.

The next portion of the lift hill is the rainbow caverns, obviously with the new lighting package and everything they did in there. It is gorgeous and very much a beautiful representation of Disneyland’s Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. It looks really great, but what I love the most is the transition. I love that we get the rainbow caverns and the beauty of that nature, and then it fades away to pure red to let you know something’s wrong and you should not be here. I love that juxtaposition of being in a natural beautiful environment, but then being warned that you aren’t supposed to be there.

Then you get pushed out of the mountain down the track through a very harrowing part of the ride which is still the same as it’s ever been. Again, just much much smoother. The town of Tumbleweed looks awesome. The problem is on Big Thunder Mountain, you don’t get to really see it very much. If you’re sitting on the left side you get an okay look. Sit on the right side and you really don’t. Either way, you’re going so fast that it’s hard to take in a lot of it.

There were some things that should have moved that weren’t moving on opening day or that were missing. The possums on the tree branch were missing. I don’t know if they just weren’t ready yet or if they are just gone. I hope it is the former. I do love the enchanted scene with the Marc Davis pigs enjoying a bath from the water tower.

Again, the town looks great, practically brand new in fact. The donkeys were moving really well, the goat looked good, as did the ram. I wish I could take it in a little more because I know a lot of work went into restoring this, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the Walt Disney World Railroad to return to this stretch of the park in a few years time.

After the lift hill, we go through more of the coaster portion of the ride and then get to the final lift hill. In that final lift hill, what you’ll notice is through modern lighting technology, there are now veins of gold going up the left and right side of the lift, and they lead to a giant opening at the at the top overhead. At some point, there’s a really interesting piece of ambient music here, that I don’t know if I love it or I hate it, but the mountain reveals its motherlode of gold, and as soon as you could admire it, you are pushed out.

Now, I say pushed out purely by the gravity of the ride. I thought there would be some story payoff here, like “here’s the gold, but you’re not getting it.” Maybe things would shake and move or an explosion would happen or something would transpire to let us know that those spirits or whatever supernatural force is protecting the mountain is getting rid of us. But that doesn’t happen. We just get this big, illuminated motherlode of gold and then we leave. I think I like the ominous music here, I just wish there was a payoff to the earlier warning from the rainbow caverns and that never happens.

Since the foreshadowing never pays off, the whole thing just felt very anti-climactic. The end of Big Thunder has always felt a little tamer than the rest of the ride, but now it feels especially so with this strange transition and smoother track.

And so the ride ends. I’m not completely disappointed because I love how much care went into fixing this ride. It’s clear that the people who worked on it cared very much. The ride is undoubtedly better than it was before and it is in beautiful shape. And now, Walt Disney World, you have to do what has been the greatest challenge to you over these last three decades: maintain it. This group of talented people has put in over a year of work to make this beautiful again. You can’t let it fall apart. There’s no reason to let this ride look the way it did before this project, except for to pinch pennies.

The reputation of the Vacation Kingdom of the World in the age of the internet is that Imagineers come in and get rides to look sparkling and new, but then Walt Disney World just runs them into the ground until a lengthy refurbishment is necessary. I’ve already joked that the smoke stacks will probably be broken in three weeks, and they wont get fixed. In an age where Disney rides directly bring in revenue with Lightning Lanes, some of that revenue should be going into upkeep of these assets.

When you get off the ride, I’m sure there is new stuff to see at the exit. I know they fixed the exit geysers and that’s great, but it’s such a mess outside of Big Thunder because of Piston Peak and Villains construction that it was not something we could admire right now. Even though this has opened, we’re not really going to get to see the full finished product of this reimagining until Piston Peak opens and that walkway exists to we see the added geysers and really get the full lay of the land of what this area looks like.

All in all, I think Imagineers did an admirable job. The one negative for me is I wish there was something more to that finale, if not even something moving, just some sort of payoff story-wise to what was foreshadowed in the rainbow cavern scene. If Disney parks are built upon story, then it is the most important aspect of the ride, and right now, it’s missing something.

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