I am loving all these new Disney rides that are finally opening, or more specifically, REopening!! We all have our favorite attractions and can be resistant to change. Disney usually gets it right, but the anticipation can sometimes drive me crazy! Let’s actually look back a little further to April for the first of four “reimagined” rides that have opened so far and see what I liked, what I loved and what fell flat!
What seems like lightyears ago, Laura and I headed to Magic Kingdom back on April 12th to check out the updates to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin which reopened a few days before. This ride has special meaning to us as it was the first Disney ride we ever went on together! It was on Easter Sunday exactly 11 years and 7 days earlier! As it was our second date, we may not have said it out loud, but we were very competitive with each other. As you can see below, she went from sweet to savage within a year!
I eventually fought back!
We’ve battled it out at Disneyland where the scores were pathetic:
And at Disneyland Paris, on our honeymoon!
But Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom is one of our happy places! Especially mine because I always win! Don’t feel bad for her though. She always wins on Toy Story Mania AND Web Slingers!!
When Disney announced a refurbishment last year, I was both excited and nervous. This ride had seen better days and needed some TLC but what if my winning streak was over?! Well, we headed to Magic Kingdom early one morning to find out.
I will say, they did a great job with the refurbishment! Everything looks nice and crisp, the new targets are cool looking and it’s much more obvious when you actually score points on a target. For some reason, I have never been as successful with the Disneyland version despite the handheld laser guns which SHOULD make it easier. Luckily, those didn’t seem to be a problem with this new update. Laura and I both had a blast!! My score was lower than what I’m used to, but I still just barely came out with the win!!
There would be absolutely no waiting for our chance to ride the next attraction on the reopening list, my all-time favorite ride in any park, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!! I have loved this ride for as long as I can remember and was sad that it was closed for over a year. We really tried to make it to the park for rope drop, but didn’t quite get there. I did run 5 miles early that morning but there was no way I was missing this! We made it to the ride at about 9:30 to find the posted wait time was 145 minutes!!!
But what did I just say? There was no way I was missing Big Thunders reopening so we got in line. All the way over on the opposite side of the Rivers of America. Well along the construction wall on the other side of what used to be the Rivers of America! The cast member at the end of the line was telling people it was a 165 minute wait! Oh well!!
Luckily, the wait time was way overestimated. We ended up only waiting 68 minutes and it was a nice and pleasant overcast morning. I really liked the queue. Once we made it into the official queue, we got a great view of the Piston Peak and Villains Land construction sites. The area is massive!! It was so strange being able to see right across to the Haunted Mansion and we could even see Rapunzel’s tower!
There were also so many additions to the queue that setup the updated storyline for the ride. This is where we were introduced to Barnabus T. Bullion, founder of the Big Thunder Mining Company and member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.). I love S.E.A. lore and also love that my favorite ride is now connected to so many other amazing rides located in Disney Parks worldwide! I wore my S.E.A. shirt and was thrilled to get comments from other guests and cast members who actually knew what it was! It’s not very well known here in Florida. Like many S.E.A. members, Bullion was a money hungry scoundrel. As Laura taught me while we waited in line, his tactics were actually a very realistic representation of what really happened in the mining towns of the 1800s.
After our 68 minute wait, it was finally our turn to take the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!! I was impressed from the very beginning. The mine tunnel was sooooo dark and appeared to have hundreds of bats with their eyes staring back at us!! Then we moved into the bright and colorful Rainbow Cavern which was a beautiful nod to an early predecessor to this ride at Disneyland circa the 1950s, the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train! I also noticed just how smooth the ride felt from the very beginning. Once we made it outside, we got our usual Big Thunder Selfie on the lift hill! This has been a tradition of mine for years, even before I met Laura.
The outside portions of the ride were pretty much the same but in pristine condition. Or as pristine as the old western mining town of Tumbleweed can look! As we rode, I kind of thought the ride felt slower than it used to be. It made me wonder if the brand new, smooth track may have taken some of the charm out of this rickety old mine train that we all know and love. Though it definitely felt better on my back!
I knew there was one more big update near the end of the attraction, but I tried to avoid spoilers and assumed it would be the same as the explosion scene that was added at Disneyland a few years ago. It turns out that we found a giant golden nugget! It seemed a little odd that it just appeared out of nowhere. I was still expecting an explosion but nothing happened. It was a little anti-climatic but I will attribute that to my false expectations.
In the end, Big Thunder left me thinking I need to ride this again to answer my questions! Did I just imagine that it was slower? What was that last scene all about? I’ve been on this ride in 4 different parks and no matter where I go, it is still my favorite! I just need another ride to fully form my opinion of this update.
Laura and I enjoyed most of the morning around Magic Kingdom and luckily headed out just as the clouds parted and exposed us to the sun! This blog is long enough already, so I’m going to close it out for now. I attended Annual Passholder Previews on back to back days this week for Soarin’ Across America and Rockin’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets so come back soon to read my reviews in Part 2!!
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