Decent roller coaster, amazing atmosphere.
Written: Aug 16 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent scenery
Cons: Will probably disappoint hardcore roller coaster enthusiasts
The Bottom Line: This is one of those attractions that make up the proper Disney experience, so try not to miss it.
|
|
|
| cactus_matt's Full Review: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad |
The Magic Kingdom is not a place renowned for the extremity and quantity of its roller coasters. The coasters there are actually some of the tamest you’ll find at any major theme park, and there’s only two of them. What these coasters lack in intensity, however, they make up for with incredible theming and ingenuity. The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is the more recent of the two, having been built in 1980, roughly three years after Disneyland got theirs. As an ‘E Ticket’ attraction, that makes it considerably young.
Disneyland’s version of this attraction took over an older area of Frontierland originally known as Nature’s Wonderland. Nature’s Wonderland included all sorts of southwestern outdoorsy types of things, most notably a slow-moving mine train ride that traveled over prairies, past rock formations, and through the ‘Rainbow Caverns,’ a series of tunnels full of psychedelic waterfalls and manmade geological oddities. More or less, a Frontier-themed Jungle Cruise, complete with live narrator and bad jokes. Nature’s Wonderland was also home to the now-infamous pack mule excursion and a covered-wagon ride.
The pack mules and the covered-wagon ride didn’t last long because of the unpredictability of live animals. When it was time for the mine train to go, they kept a lot of the original scenery and more or less built a roller coaster around it. The Magic Kingdom never had the benefit of its own Nature’s Wonderland – it had to start from scratch. A lot of the most notable scenery made it into this version, but there are still a great many dissimilarities between the two. Amusingly, at 197 feet, Big Thunder Mountain is the tallest mountain in all of Florida.
They spared no effort in creating the look of this ride. The queue area is done up with all sorts of old mining equipment and oversized rocks. A lot of the mining equipment is supposedly real, brought in to lend some authenticity to the attraction. Lines here can be pretty long, although never as bad as Space Mountain. A typical wait time would be from 20-45 minutes. I recommend showing up early in the morning or during parades (or at night, but I’ll get to that in a moment). People tend to flood in all at once, so don’t get caught in the back of the crowd.
They also recently installed Fastpass here, although I haven’t bothered using it yet. The queue area is pretty huge. It starts out on the outside, and the southwestern motif really heats up under the Florida sun, so beware if the line extends this far. Luckily, the latter portion of the line is inside, or at least under cover. Water fountains are provided along the way if you really need them.
The trains you’ll board have five cars, with each car holding six people (three rows of two seats). There’s also a dummy ‘engine’ up front, both helping to keep up with the theming and to add a little weight. As the train is given the signal to depart, a voice with a deep southern drawl spouts safety messages and warns ‘Hang on to your hats and glasses, cause this here’s the wildest ride in the wilderness!’ The train takes off and twists around into a cave where a chainlift takes you up as a number of chirping bats hang from the walls.
It’s pretty difficult to accurately synopsize a roller coaster, but let me say that you’ll speed by all sorts of scenery, including spouting geysers, dig sites, dinosaur bones, and various animatronic animals. There’s three separate chainlifts in all throughout the course of the ride – the one through the cave, one outside, and another through a collapsing mine shaft. All of them are exceedingly loud, grinding on yours nerves and leading you to believe that a huge drop is coming. It never does, though. In fact, there’s really nothing here that could be officially labeled as a drop at all. A couple of brief dips, perhaps. You spend most of the time speeding around wide curves.
The train averages about 30 mph and tops out at about 40, maybe a little faster when extra cars are added to better handle large crowds. Either way, it’s still pretty slow for a roller coaster. Plus, three chainlifts means a lot of abrupt halts to take you back up and regain momentum. That’s just not typical. Personally, the ride is just fine for me, but people who seek a more intense coaster to test their mettle will simply not find what they’re looking for.
The real star of the attraction, as always with Disney, is the scenery. There is a ton to see, and you’ll find a whole new ride at night when everything is lit up. I almost wish that this one acted as a slow-moving dark ride so that I could catch a glimpse of everything I’ve missed.
As for little kids, I’d say that they’re generally scared at the beginning, but shouldn’t be too overwhelmed once they get moving. I was strongly against riding this one as a young child myself, but, if you’ve read very many of my Disney reviews, then you’ll probably know that I was a very wimpy little kid as it was. There is a 40-inch height requirement, and they’re surprisingly stringent about it, so watch out for that. These days, I’m always up to ride, as long as lines aren’t too long.
The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad didn’t take long to become a staple attraction at the Magic Kingdom, and you can still see why today. Disney fans will like it because of the outrageous setting, and thrill-seekers will like it because it’s one of the few roller coasters the park has to offer. I really can’t find enough wrong with this one.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
cactus_matt
|
|
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 24 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.