Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Ride Review: Good, Bad & Opossum Optimism for What’s Missing.

Following a 16 month closure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has reopened at Walt Disney World. This covers our review of the refurbished ride, changes to the classic Magic Kingdom attraction, and what else is still coming.

As basic background, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closed for a lengthy refurbishment project early last January. The ride was down for over a full year for a “crevasse-deep to mountain-top refurbishment” in addition to “new magic” being added to the attraction. The ride returned earlier this month to much excitement and fanfare…plus one minor fire.

I’ve had a chance to ride the refreshed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad several times, and am still in the process of doing field testing to update our 2026 Magic Kingdom Rope Drop & Early Entry Strategy. With both Frontierland attractions up and running with standby lines and Lightning Lanes for the first time since before Splash Mountain closed, the dynamic is pretty much back to ~2019 normal. In any case, I wanted to share some thoughts on the changes, starting with a tease of what’s still to come…

Opossum Optimism

During a recent media event at Walt Disney World, we had a chance to hear a presentation by leadership about how they reinvest in classic experiences, spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year in the parks & resorts. These efforts and expenditures are part of a broad effort to ensure existing experiences receive the care, to maintain the guest experience.

As part of that presentation, Michael Hundgen, Imagineering Portfolio Executive for Walt Disney World Resort and Sarah Riles, VP of Magic Kingdom, discussed the recent refurbishment to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They explained how Imagineering and Facilities Asset Management collaborated for years on planning and logistics to ensure the project wasn’t derailed.

Despite outward appearances, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad project was massive in magnitude with a lot of moving parts. Suffice to say, it isn’t easy to replace the entire track, ride vehicles, control system, and other critical infrastructure, all in an operational theme park and around existing thematic environments.

They were particularly pleased with the engineering team’s ability to increase the iconic ride’s reliability, while also making it a more comfortable experience that more guests can enjoy by virtue of the lowered height requirement (as discussed below).

Imagineering likewise was keen to have an extended amount of downtime to fix long-broken effects and visual gags, while giving the town of Tumbleweed much needed TLC. And they should be, because it looks fantastic. One of the reasons that I keep riding again and again is trying to spot all of the updates in this blink and you’ll miss it scene. (As a side note, this makes me really miss the Walt Disney World Railroad even more right now!)

They also touched on one thing about which diehard Walt Disney World fans have been displeased in this scene: The Curious Case of the Omitted Opossums.

For those who haven’t already grabbed the pitchforks over the opossums disappearance and are unfamiliar with these cute (or creepy) critters, this family of little fellas hung by their tails from a tree’s branches outside the town of Tumbleweed on one of the straightaways aboard Big Thunder Mountain. (The tree is just out of frame in the above photo.)

And just so everyone is on the same page, this is a family of opossums, as opposed to possums. If we’re going to be sticklers for thematic integrity, we should remember that Big Thunder Mountain is set in the American West, not Australasia. And while we’re at it, the beautiful beasts on Living with the Land are bison, not buffalo. (Just having some fun–I’m a firm supporter of using conversational language and colloquialisms!)

Anyway, the opossums were removed during refurbishment and did not return when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened. The reason they have yet to return is due to safety clearance when Disney conducted ride envelope testing. For those who are unfamiliar with that term, the ride envelope testing checks rider reach to ensure even guests with the widest wingspan cannot touch anything in the perimeter of the attraction.

The opossums apparently failed that, so Disney is working on finding a way to bring them back. But Walt Disney World assured us that the little fellas are returning, they just need to make some adjustments first that could not be accomplished before the ride reopened.

New Track & Trains

As mentioned above by Magic Kingdom’s VP, the key part of the refurbishment was installing a new track and refreshed passenger trains. These updates were carefully planned to preserve the classic attraction’s trademark hootin’ and hollerin’ energy, while adding freshness to the experience.

When riding the refreshed Big Thunder, the track replacement is immediately evident. The ride is smooth instead of clickety clackety, thrilling instead of needlessly punishing. I know some fans favor the rough ride for the sake of the runaway mine train theme, and I get that. But I’m also getting old. At my age, I can still do incredibly intense coasters, but not rough ones.

To each their own, but I view the smoother ride as a big win. I can now loop BTMRR endlessly (and already have!) without my back and butt regretting the decision. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is every bit as fast and exhilarating as before, just minus the rough ride.

As a parent to a toddler, I’m also looking forward to benefiting from that lowered height requirement of 38” (down from 40″). This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s huge for young families. We just reached 35″ milestone and did Chip ‘n’ Dale’s GADGETcoaster for the first time, which was actually horrible in the moment but has since become a point of pride and excitement, and look forward to BTMRR as our daughter’s first “big” coaster when she’s ready. Two inches could move that forward by a full year or more!

Regardless of all that, installing a new track & trains and lowering the height requirement by “only” two inches is not the kind of thing that gets Walt Disney World fans excited. I’m not here to tell you that it should, but I do want to offer a bit of context.

First, this type of preventative work is crucial to extend the useful life of the roller coaster, ensuring the ride’s longevity and operational status for decades to come. As fans of classic attractions, we should be happy to see their future secured. (I’d also note that this is especially important at BTMRR, which has a track record of issues arising from deferred maintenance.)

Second, this type of asset investment isn’t exactly cheap! We aren’t privy to project budgets, but this basically amounted to building a new roller coaster and refreshing the existing thematic elements. While not as expensive as a brand-new attraction, this probably cost a lot more than you’d expect.

Historically, this is the type of non-marketable maintenance project that Walt Disney World has been reluctant to undertake until absolutely necessary given the monetary and time cost, with little needle-moving upside. For years and years, we’ve practically begged Walt Disney World to be more like Disneyland, focusing on maintenance and show quality standards. This is that!

In fact, it’s our understanding that Imagineering has attempted to take BTMRR down for multi-month or year-long refurbishments a few times over the last decade, but just like the mountain itself, Walt Disney World leadership pushed back. As a result, lengthy projects that were previously planned got truncated into routine ‘duct tape’ maintenance to keep the roller coaster running a little longer.

While the ride has had a number of winter-time closures for several weeks to over a month in the last several years, the last lengthy closure was in 2016 when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was down for 4 months in the late summer and early fall. Prior to that, BTMRR had multiple closures in 2012 for maintenance and installation of the interactive queue.

Every other worldwide version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has had lengthier closures in recent years. The most notable of these was BTMRR at Disneyland in 2013-2014, which yielded much of the same end results with replaced or refreshed infrastructure, along with a complete restoration of the Rainbow Ridge Mining Town and an explosive finale. The Disneyland ‘blueprint’ for this project undoubtedly set expectations for a lot of Walt Disney World fans.

Expanded BTMRR Backstory

The story of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad dates back to the early days of America’s first major gold rush. When Barnabas T. Bullion struck gold in the Big Thunder region, he saw a future full of riches and hustled to start the Big Thunder Mountain Company. At first, the gold flowed freely.

However, those shiny dreams rarely come without a cost, and Bullion quickly found himself in a battle with the forces of nature and in a whole heap of trouble. The easy pickings started to dwindle by the day. Miners were forced to dig deeper and deeper into the mountainside.

Strange and unexplainable things quickly started happening. Despite Bullion’s efforts to continue to push forward at full speed, machines and equipment began to fail. Cave-ins shut miners out of rich strikes, and rumbles of thunder came from deep inside the angry mountain.

As Bullion’s grand operation crumbles beneath the weight of the protective forces of the mountain, a substantial vein of gold hasn’t been found in months inside the mines, and very few miners (outside a few, brave seekers) remain based in the area.

That’s the ride premise in a nutshell. The Barnabas T. Bullion and Big Thunder Mining Company tall tale was already one of our favorite backstories at Walt Disney World, and this just heightens it for me. I also appreciate that it’s not necessary to know or understand all of this to appreciate BTMRR.

A CliffsNotes version of the story is signposted by the attraction itself and evident to even casual riders. That’s exactly how this should be, with a surface level story that’s clear to all along with deeper details and lore for the diehards. Big Thunder threads that needle perfectly, and is a good contrast to nearby Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which manages the exact opposite: both way too much lore and not enough on-ride story.

Enhanced Rainbow Caverns

Throughout the refurbishment, Imagineering teased that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad would reopen with “new magic” for Walt Disney World fans to discover.

One such moment comes when the trains rattle their way underground to spectacular natural caverns full of phosphorescent pools, shimmering and illuminating iridescent stalagmites (the ones on the floor) and stalactites (the ones on the ceiling). There’s also a veritable swarm of bats.

The new lighting package here is a loving nod to Disneyland’s defunct Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. It’s vibrant and majestic, and adds a lot to the attraction’s opening act. As one of the longest ‘scenes’ in this roller coaster, improving this was a smart move.

What I most appreciate is this scene’s simple and straightforward conveyance of the aforementioned story. With a flash of lightning, the beauty gives way to ominous red lighting that warns you something’s about to go terribly wrong and you need to leave (pictured below). This isn’t anything mind-blowing, but it’s effective and well done.

Mother Lode of Gold Finale

The most controversial change to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad comes in the finale. For over a year, Walt Disney World fans had speculated about the explosive ending with dynamite blasting riders out of the mountain found at Disneyland.

While we originally assumed that would be added, we’ve been cautioning readers not to get their hopes up for that since last August. Even so, fans were understandably disappointed when the dynamite finale wasn’t cloned over. It’s a fun effect that works well (when it works).

I’m not going to fixate on this too much since it’s bound to be an unpopular opinion, but I like the Mother Lode of Gold finale at Magic Kingdom’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. But perhaps I’m just a MK Mountain Range contrarian, because I also prefer our Space Mountain!

I appreciate that the gold finale is different on each coast. The shimmering strike being in plain sight but just out of reach fits both the story and the cautionary tale nature of the attraction. If you want to be pedantic, I also think it’s possible to question the why? of the dynamite finale at Disneyland within the story.

At the same time, I also recognize that the Mother Lode of Gold finale was undoubtedly cheaper than the explosive ending at Disneyland. That’s unquestionably the bigger wow-moment and more fun effect. It’s more ambitious and impressive, despite being over a decade older.

The Mother Lode of Gold finale could’ve been even better than that with modern technology, plus a bit more time and money spent on it. With this being such a lengthy closure, it is disappointing that Disney didn’t invest more in an actual show-stopping scene here.

I also think that the execution here is only okay, and it could’ve been conveyed more effectively that the mountain isn’t letting you have the gold. So while this finale is better than what was here before, it still falls short of reasonable expectations.

In the end, the Mother Lode of Gold finale feels like a missed opportunity. This is really unfortunate, but Imagineers clearly put a lot of love into this project, fixing long-dormant effects and making Big Thunder Mountain Railroad look and feel the best it has since I’ve been coming as an adult. But by failing to seize the opportunity to add something show-stopping after such a lengthy project, WDW diehards are going to walk away saying “that’s it?”

Ultimately, the refurbishment of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Few fans are going to experience this, and think of the ride as having been redone or reimagined. Even though, ironically enough, the track replacement and new trains make it closer to “all new” than any of the recently refreshed rides that we’re more likely to view as reimagined.

That should underscore that, with Disney, it rightfully all comes down to detail and themed design. And this just isn’t as meaningful in those regards as other smaller-scale, shorter projects. Even so, the expanded backstory, new lighting in the Rainbow Caverns, and Mother Lode of Gold finale, among other things, are all appreciated enhancements.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a classic for good reason, and it’s great to have this iconic attraction operating at Magic Kingdom for the first time in over a year. It’s also fantastic to see Walt Disney World investing in needed maintenance, preservation, and TLC.

A ton of time, money, and passion was invested into this year-plus track replacement and top to bottom refurbishment project, restoring long-dormant effects, improving show scenes, and other little things. It might seem basic, but that’s the type of thing we’re used to seeing Disneyland do, but Walt Disney World much less so.

More than the guest-facing changes, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad project is significant in what it symbolizes. It’s this type of project that makes me more confident both Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney World are on the right track, headed in the correct direction. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get derailed before future projects can come to fruition.

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Your Thoughts

Have you experienced the refreshed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? What did you think of the new track, trains, Rainbow Caverns, Mother Lode of Gold finale, or anything else? Excited for the iconic attraction to be back? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!