April 1, 2023

Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Western River Expedition and Tiana's Bayou Adventure Puzzle

Yes, that title is a mouthful!

There's exactly one single scene in Walt Disney World's great Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that I wish had made its way over to Disneyland, and the concept art above shows it. Certainly Florida's Magic Kingdom had the blessing of size that Walt's Anaheim park did not. This alone may be the reason for the exclusion. Perhaps the Imagineers on Tony Baxter's team just wanted to offer something new instead of a straight clone. (Wouldn't that thinking be welcomed today by us hard core theme park fans?) 

Even my last visit to the World, I couldn't help but walk by Big Thunder itself and wonder what it would have been like if Western River Expedition and the whole of the Thunder Mesa mega-complex had been built. (See here for the details.) The upcoming Tiana's Bayou Adventure aka Splash Mountain probably would not have been built- but I think it would have been a more than fair swap to get something that unique in Florida. There wouldn't have been an East Coast version of Pirates of the Caribbean, though. Regardless of how it is a much lesser version of the original, it is pure old school Disney. Not having it - and no slam on Tiana's cooking skills- but that would be something harder to digest.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

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