It's Honesty Hour — Here's What We REALLY Think About The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Changes

The day has finally arrived: we just had a chance to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom. It’s been OVER a year since we last took a ride on the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, and we’re so glad that it’s officially open to the public again.

Big Thunder is back in business!

So why the long closure? Well, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad got a series of MAJOR updates, the kind that take a while to put in place. Well, we’re going to show you how we reacted when we finally saw those changes for ourselves, so let’s go!

So first, we noticed that some changes have been made to the exterior. Disney wanted this part of the ride to blend seamlessly with the new Cars expansion, Piston Peak, which is currently being built in Frontierland. While Piston Peak hasn’t been built yet, so we can’t tell how it’s going to blend in with the rest of the land, we can say that we do really love the brightness that’s been added, especially since it doesn’t take away from the dilapidated feel.

New paint, but same feel!

We’re also big fans of how there’s even more story that’s been added into the ride, and how new aspects added enhance that story further than before. In case you’re not familiar, the story goes like this: Barnabus T. Buillion struck gold in the area during the big Gold Rush. So he started the Big Thunder Mountain Company with hopes and dreams to become even wealthier. But nature around the mountain had other ideas…and a lot of things went awry while Buillion’s company was searching for gold, and while you’re on the ride, you’ll get the same warning they did — this is NOT the place to be right now!

These caverns are trying to tell us something!

Part of the refurbishment is that the track has been replaced, and there are new ride vehicles. While we totally understood why the ride used to be as rough as it was, seeing that guests are traveling through a rough mine that may or may not be about to fall apart, it did mean that sometimes we HURT when getting off of it. With this new track, it’s much smoother than before, so much so that it reminds us of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in a way. We’re a little split on our team about this — some of us wish it were still a little rougher to match the storyline, but the other half of us are grateful that we don’t hobble off of it wanting a chiropractor.

New ride vehicles!

Most of our team are fans of the new additions to the ride, such as the Rainbow Caverns and (spoiler alert) the big golden nugget you see at the end. One of our team members specifically brought up that they love the gold nugget part because it pays homage to the Disneyland version of the ride while not being an exact copy! However, we can see why some people are already saying it feels cheesy, or that they’re not a big fan of it because it doesn’t feel like a big finale moment like Disneyland’s is, but most of our team feels it’s a nice payoff moment to help tie the story together.

Golden Nugget

However, we do want to pass on a warning that not one, but TWO of our team members said — the ride is LOUD. It was loud before, but we especially feel that while they appreciate the plussed up sounds, we do feel it’s disproportionately loud, especially in the first cave sequence. So, if you or someone in your party is sensitive to noise, we recommend keeping that in mind and perhaps wearing earplugs on the ride!

It’s loud in here!

We do really appreciate that the lighting in the cave is better, though, because it means we can see more details!

Much easier to see it all!

We certainly had a blast riding the new version of the ride, and while reviews are mixed right now, we think there were some pretty great changes made, and we are thrilled that it’s finally back open for guests to experience. We’ll be covering even more Disney World news, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

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What do you think of the changes to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? Let us know in the comments!