Disney World Reveals Closing Dates for Magic Kingdom Kiosks Ahead of Likely Frontierland Shortcut Closure

Over two months after Walt Disney World first filed curious construction permits for a trio of locations at Magic Kingdom, those three kiosks in Frontierland now have closing dates. While unconfirmed, it remains our expectation that demolition or removal of the venues lays the groundwork for the closure of the Frontierland shortcut during the peak of Piston Peak Cars Land construction.

This saga started when Walt Disney World filed new Notices of Commencement for addresses in Magic Kingdom that correspond to locations in Frontierland. Those permits are assigned to Buena Vista Construction Company (BVCC) as the contractor, which is Walt Disney World’s in-house team.

The permits correspond to three separate food & beverage and merchandise locations along the Frontierland thoroughfare: Big Al’s (merchandise), as well as Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart (both snack stands). It was our expectation even before these permits were filed that the kiosks would be demolished sometime soon.

In case you’re unfamiliar with them, these kiosks are across from the buildings on the main drag in Frontierland, including UNESCO World Heritage Site, Country Bear Theater. We’d add that they all abut the (former) waterfront walkway, which abuts the construction zone for Cars and Villains Land in Magic Kingdom.

Further reinforcing rumors of the kiosk demolition, the three venues were removed from the My Disney Experience digital map back in March. Shortly thereafter, construction walls started inching out into Frontierland. It seemed that the days were limited for these longstanding Magic Kingdom staples, and that they’d be extinct before Spring Break.

Fast-forward to the ‘heart’ of Shoulder Season, and the kiosks are still kicking. It seemed that either plans had been postponed or changed. That is, until today, when Walt Disney World made a calendar change signaling that these venues will finally close. Here’s the latest…

Walt Disney World has updated the official website for the only two of these locations with their own webpages, Big Al’s and Westward Ho. The respective calendars reflect the following closing dates:

• Big Al’s: Open May 10, 2026 from 9 am to 10 pm; closed starting May 11, 2026
• Westward Ho: Open June 21, 2026 from 9:30 am to 9 pm; closed starting June 22, 2026

It is likely that the Frontierland Churro Wagon Cart will also close by or before June 22, 2026. It is also possible that this one could be relocated; the ‘construction’ permit is sufficiently vague and doesn’t dictate demolition for all three locations. Consistent with its cart-like character, this one has wheels.

I’m not one to mourn the loss of rudimentary kiosks as some great tragedy, but will miss Big Al’s. For one, I love the charm of its sign and the old school Big Al art on it. It’s been around for a while and I could swear that my parents purchased Country Bear mugs that I still have today here. (That could be memories blurring together.)

Regardless, it’s an old school ticket booth from back when Country Bear Jamboree was an E-Ticket. I know what you’re thinking: it still is! But I mean when the attraction was a literal E-Ticket, not just a figurative one.

As for the why of this, our best guess is that it’s a precursor for closing the Frontierland “shortcut.”

The latest aerial construction photos (above and below) via friend-of-the-site @bioreconstruct reveal progress on the vertical concrete retaining wall that’ll separate the new Piston Peak National Park landscape from the existing Frontierland. This has grown quite tall over by Big Thunder Mountain, and there’s a crane positioned along the promenade.

If you were to follow this around, you’d see what looks like the snaking shape of a smaller stream, roughly one-third or one-quarter the width of the previous guest-facing Rivers of America waterfront in Liberty Square and Frontierland. As work progresses on this further, construction is going to get very close to the promenade. Probably a bit too close to guest areas for the comfort of Disney Legal.

The good news is that we know this walkway, or a version of it, will exist again in the future.

The Fun Map of Piston Peak that Walt Disney World previously released confirms that there’s a rushing river that runs between Frontierland and Piston Peak National Park, along with a waterfront promenade. I can also confirm that this was also in the model of Piston Peak National Park that we were shown during a media briefing last year.

What’s unclear is whether the current boardwalk will remain or be replaced and rebuilt. It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising for Disney to tear out this waterway out of necessity during construction, and rebuild a new walkway in its place–or even slightly closer to the Frontierland thoroughfare to free up a bit more space for the stream (which was seemingly added to the project later).

While I wouldn’t rule that out, as Walt Disney World seems to enjoy rebuilding substantially similar structures, my best guess is that the primary driver of the likely walkway closure is simply that construction will soon get too close to a guest area. Consequently, Disney needs to close this walkway temporarily out of liability or whatever concerns until construction progresses past a certain point.

If the walkway is to close, it would impact Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart because Operations needs a new “shortcut.”

That walkway is more than a peaceful promenade or fun Frontierland shortcut; it’s important for crowdflow. That’s precisely why Walt Disney World left it open after everything else closed last July. It wasn’t as a “courtesy” to intrepid bloggers so we could document the circle of life as Ibis ate long lost MagicBands, that was just a happy accident.

The real reason was because the Frontierland “shortcut” is needed as a bypass corridor for Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, Festival of Fantasy, and other parades. Meaning that if it closes to accommodate construction, the Parade Audience Control (PAC) team needs an alternative route to wave through guests behind parade viewing.

This will be doubly necessary once Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens on May 3, 2026.

With just Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, maybe PAC could try to require a crossing towards Adventureland during breaks, but with both, it strikes me as more necessary to offer a guest flow corridor along that side of Frontierland, which also connects all the way to Haunted Mansion and Fantasyland. Requiring guests to cross to Adventureland makes the path much longer and more convoluted, and I just can’t see Walt Disney World do that except as an absolute last resort.

Big Thunder Mountain’s reopening being pushed into early May might also explain the delay in closing the kiosks a few months after rumored or permitted. Disney might want to wait until BTMRR has been open for a few weeks, and initial pent-up demand has burned off before taking the shortcut offline.

In a nutshell, we strongly suspect that’s why Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart are closing. If you have any nostalgia for the carts, we’d recommend visiting now to say your goodbyes.

Removing them will free up space behind parade viewing, which can then be used as a temporary bypass. That, in turn, enables Walt Disney World to take the Frontierland “shortcut” offline to accommodate construction. There’s not a better explanation from my perspective, so by process of elimination, it’s this.

This wouldn’t be the first time in the last year that we’ve seen a project of (loosely) this nature in Magic Kingdom, either! One of the big fan controversies last spring was the changes Walt Disney World made to the Emporium, which made it feel emptier, among other things. That was also for a makeshift Starlight bypass.

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Although we’re pretty confident that Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart will all be removed in short order to accommodate a parade bypass, we are far less certain about the future of the former waterfront walkway or Frontierland “shortcut.”

This boardwalk is one of my favorite places in all of Magic Kingdom. One of my original hangups with this whole Cars project was losing the waterfront and this walkway.

The big reassurance offered by the Fun Map and last year’s Piston Peak reveal was that Walt Disney World was preserving the peaceful promenade and the ambiance it added while walking past the main drag of Frontierland.

Long term, I don’t expect that to change, even if this project does end up entailing demolition and replacement of the walkway. We already know it’s coming back, so if Disney opts to tear it out temporarily, that’s not a huge concern when discussing the downstream impact of the project.

In the here and now, though, this will increase the visual impact of construction in Magic Kingdom. One of the nice things the promenade was doing previously was adding a buffer between the walls and construction zone. With each recent visit, that’s already been less and less true, and this project will definitely feel closer to guests once the walkway closes.

Same goes when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens, and offers more views across the park. It’s already a bit jarring just how expansive and empty some sightlines are from over by Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or the right elevated spots elsewhere in Frontierland. You can see all the way across the park! But that’s another topic for another day–we’re planning a big Magic Kingdom construction impact post next month once all of this starts kicking into high gear.

Bigger picture and longer term, my worry is about the size of the stream, or the Creek of Piston Peak. Fun Maps have exaggerated features, and there wasn’t much of a visible water feature in the original art. So either it’s concealed in that art, something changed, or the Fun Map isn’t true to life. My fear is that the rushing river shown in that art is actually a tiny trickle.

My hope here is for whatever outcome produces the widest waterway along a peaceful promenade. I’m not particularly concerned with how that’s accomplished or what changes are made to accommodate construction in the next couple of years.

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Your Thoughts

Thoughts on the closing of Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart? Will you be disappointed if/when the peaceful promenade closes? Or is it already not-so-peaceful with the crane and construction looming nearby? Do you likewise love this tranquil shortcut around Frontierland? 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!