You Won't Believe the CROWDS on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's Last Day In Magic Kingdom

The day is finally here. Today, January 5th, marks the last day that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is open before its extended temporary closure for refurbishment.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

The ride is expected to be closed for a year or longer, opening sometime in 2026 with a “little bit of new magic.” While we don’t know what the new magic will include, we do know that this will be a very long closure for one of the most popular Magic Kingdom rides. So, as January 6th and the closure nears, we stopped by for one last ride and to check out the crowds at the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness.”

We headed to Magic Kingdom right away in the morning on January 5th, the last day Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was open before its extended closure. We got to the ride around 9 AM, and the posted wait time was already at 45 minutes, with a line extending out of the queue.

Big Thunder Mountain is closing for AT LEAST a year starting tomorrow! Right now, the wait is at 45 minutes. We’ll see how long it gets throughout the day! pic.twitter.com/Yy5TnYc78w

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) January 5, 2025

We jumped into the line, and ended up only waiting around 30 minutes before being boarded.

Let’s ride the wildest train in Magic Kingdom!

When we got off the ride, the wait was posted at 50 minutes, but we jumped back into it because we couldn’t settle with just one ride knowing we won’t ride it again for over a year! This time, we waited 52 minutes.

Breedlove is bringing us all of the Big Thunder wait time updates today! pic.twitter.com/95TVLhIVzy

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) January 5, 2025

After our second ride, the wait was up to 60 minutes around 11:40 AM. We have seen the wait time jumping up and down a bit, and we expect that to continue throughout the day.