Magic Kingdom Park Inexplicably Shuts Down, Refuses Entry to Thousands of Guests

On Monday morning, Magic Kingdom Park opened without three of its most popular attractions. Thousands of Central Florida Disney Park guests scrambled to reevaluate their vacation plans as wait times for other Walt Disney World Resort attractions climbed.

Magic Kingdom is the original Walt Disney World Resort theme park, but it won’t always look the way it does now. At D23 Expo earlier this month, Chairman of Disney Experiences Josh D’Amaro revealed that two significant expansions are on their way to Magic Kingdom Park.

A Villains Land “beyond Big Thunder Mountain Railroad” will join Liberty Square, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Main Street, U.S.A., as one of Magic Kingdom Park’s staple areas. In Frontierland, two Cars (2006) rides will replace Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America. Construction is said to begin next year.

Until those new areas open, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and TRON Lightcycle / Run are the newest attractions at Magic Kingdom Park. Both require Virtual Queue reservations to ride, but guests can only book one Virtual Queue at a time.

On Monday, guests who chose Tiana’s Bayou Adventure over TRON Lightcycle / Run were disappointed when they entered Magic Kingdom Park. When the Disney park opened, the Splash Mountain retheme was inexplicably closed alongside two of the other most popular Magic Kingdom rides, Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

“Tiana’s, Space Mountain, and Seven Dwarves all closed this morning,” u/sabrebadger wrote on Reddit. “It’s been over two hours since opening and no updates.”

Wait times for other attractions shot up as guests who hoped to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Space Mountain, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train dispersed throughout Magic Kingdom Park. All three rides remained closed for hours.

According to the Disney Park guest and My Disney Experience app, Space Mountain opened around noon on Monday. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure never opened its second Virtual Queue reservation window at 1:00 p.m. but resumed operations around 2:30 p.m. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train didn’t reopen until after 6:00 p.m.

Disney Parks fans accused Walt Disney World Resort of not properly maintaining its rides.

“Disney routinely utilizes their parks after hours for things like filming and productions,” said u/Triple_deke87. “We walked past this at EPCOT upon rope drop where a crew was wrapping up production in the British pub. They could easily service rides before open but choose not to as a cost savings measure…I wish Disney did a better job ensuring their rides were operational.”

“Disney World maintenance is really bad,” u/OkDirection8015 agreed. “They don’t do a lot of [annual] or monthly refurbishments as they should.”

Has a ride broken down during your visit to Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park? Share your story with Inside the Magic in the comments.