Credit: Inside the MagicFor the fourth day in a row, one Walt Disney World Resort ride isn’t welcoming guests.
On Sunday afternoon, the Astro Orbiter abruptly shut down at Magic Kingdom Park. Temporary ride closures at Walt Disney World Resort are hardly news; when attractions welcome thousands of guests daily, 365 days a year, issues are unavoidable.
Shutdowns are often the result of inclement weather, minor technical issues, or guest misbehavior (like spreading ashes on the Haunted Mansion or dropping a hat on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance).
Unlike most attraction closures, which are usually resolved within a few hours, the Astro Orbiter remained closed for the rest of the day on Sunday, July 13. The Walt Disney World Resort ride failed to reopen on Monday and Tuesday.
What made the shutdown even stranger was that the Astro Orbiter just reopened on June 27, 2025, after a six-month closure. In January, a crane arrived in Tomorrowland to disassemble the ride for an offsite refurbishment. For a few months, there was no sign of the attraction that once sat atop the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover loading platform.
The crane eventually returned, and the Astro Orbiter was reassembled piece by piece. Disney cast members spent weeks testing the refurbished attraction before it reopened to guests last month. Now, some Disney Park guests are questioning whether the refurbishment accomplished its goal.
On July 14, X (formerly known as Twitter) user @BeastCoasters wrote:
I don’t think Astro Orbiter opened at all today so I guess the refurb ended a bit too soon 🤷♂️
I don't think Astro Orbiter opened at all today so I guess the refurb ended a bit too soon 🤷♂️
— BeastCoasters (@BeastCoasters) July 14, 2025
As of Wednesday, July 16, the Astro Orbiter remains closed at Magic Kingdom Park. Walt Disney World Resort has not issued any public statements about the closure, and the My Disney Experience app lists the ride as “temporarily closed.”
*Update: As of around 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16, the Astro Orbiter has reopened at Magic Kingdom Park.
Have you spotted anything strange around the Astro Orbiter this week? Share your story with Inside the Magic in the comments!