5 Long-Term CLOSURES To Watch Out For in Disney World Next Week

Imagine you’ve just arrived at Magic Kingdom. You’ve been planning this trip for ages, and now you’re HERE! You walk down Main Street, U.S.A., drinking in all the sights and sounds. Incredible smells are wafting out of the Confectionery. But there’s no time to stop — you head straight for your favorite ride. But what’s this? What’s happened? The ride is CLOSED?!

Main Street

Encountering unexpected ride closures can be one of the most disappointing parts of a Disney World vacation. Sometimes those closures pop up suddenly due to bad weather in the area or technical difficulties, but others are planned ahead of time, so you can prepare for them! To help you prepare, we’ve got a full list of next week’s planned ride and restaurant closures.

Magic Kingdom

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Splash Mountain closed on January 23rd for a long refurbishment. The ride is being re-themed to become Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, with a Princess and the Frog theme.

That’s some serious construction!

The new ride will reopen sometime in late 2024. We’ll be watching for more updates on the reopening timeline. The tree at the top of this ride has been removed as Disney continues construction, and several new rock structures have been built at the bottom of the drop. There’s a new water tower as well, which says “Tiana’s Foods” on the front and “Never, ever lose sight of what’s really important” on the back. It’s topped with Tiana’s crown, which has two stars on it to represent Ray and Evangeline.

Cute!

If you miss Splash Mountain or want to celebrate the new ride, you should check out our DFB t-shirts! We have a Splash Mountain Farwell Tour shirt…

DFB Exclusive!

…and a Tiana tee as well!

Check out our new Tiana-inspired merch!

You can shop both tees (and lots of other Disney merch) at our online store.

Click here to shop our DFB merchandise store.

Barrel Bridge on Tom Sawyer Island

Over on Tom Sawyer Island, the Barrel Bridge is currently missing.

Barrel Bridge is closed

A Cast Member told us that it has been removed for maintenance, and they didn’t know when it might return. The rest of the island is still open to explore, though!

Click here to see Magic Kingdom’s NEW look!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Voyage of the Little Mermaid

This Little Mermaid-themed stage show has been closed in Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a long time now.

Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Disney hasn’t announced when or if the Voyage of the Little Mermaid will reopen.

Check out this Disney World hack that CHANGES the way we do Hollywood Studios.

EPCOT

In the Japan Pavilion, Tokyo Dining is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, and will not reopen until summer 2023. For now, this restaurant isn’t showing opening hours at least through mid-August (as far as Disney’s calendar is showing for now).

Construction on Tokyo Dining

However, a brand new restaurant is coming to EPCOT this summer: Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya will be a table-service restaurant featuring a “festive dining experience in a sharable Izakaya-style.”

©Disney

The restaurant will be located in the Japan Pavilion, on the second floor (above the Mitsukoshi Department Store), and will offer “stunning views of EPCOT, the World Showcase Lagoon, and, of course, fireworks.” That location sure sounds a LOT like the current location of Tokyo Dining. Disney has not confirmed that this new restaurant will be taking over the Tokyo Dining location, but we’re certainly keeping our eyes and ears peeled for more news!