This Disney California Adventure and Disneyland ride refurbishment calendar for 2024 lists temporary attraction closures so you know what won’t be operating before planning your vacation. Additionally, we offer info about reimagining projects that are underway to enhance experiences around the resort. (Updated August 16, 2024.)
While no one wants attraction closures during their visit, they are a necessary part of keeping Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in good condition, as routine maintenance, safety upgrades, and attraction improvements are all done during scheduled ride closures. Usually, there are only a handful of simultaneous closed rides, plus new attractions being built.
Having an idea of which attractions are closed at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure is important, but we recommend consulting our 2024 Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide for more comprehensive info. That covers everything from saving money on park tickets and hotels to where to eat, when to visit, and more.
In addition to scheduled attraction refurbs, unscheduled downtime can also occur during a visit. This usually only occurs for a few hours at a time, so if you find an attraction is closed during your visit to Disneyland Resort and it’s not listed below, it’s likely a temporary closure that will last a few hours. Check with nearby Cast Members to confirm.
Below is a schedule of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure refurbishments, when the closure starts, and when the refurbishment will conclude. To the extent that specific dates are not yet listed, those will be updated once Disneyland Resort provides precise start and/or end dates. The following day will be when the attraction is scheduled to reopen.
Here are the closure schedules for Disney California Adventure and Disneyland…
Disney California Adventure
- Anna & Elsa’s Royal Welcome in the Disney Animation Building – Reopening Date Unknown
- Animation Academy in the Disney Animation Building – Reopening Date Unknown
- Turtle Talk with Crush in the Disney Animation Building – Reopening Date Unknown
- Beast’s Library in the Disney Animation Building – Permanently Closed
- Paint the Night Parade – Return Date Unknown
- Rogers: The Musical – Return Date Unknown
The main additions to the closure calendar at DCA are all inside the Disney Animation Building. Interestingly, it doesn’t appear (at least currently) that the building itself will close–so perhaps the lobby will remain open, offering an air-conditioned respite? Or maybe it’ll also close and just isn’t listed yet.
Next, let’s take a look at the 2024 Disneyland attraction closure calendar…
Disneyland
- Disneyland Railroad – Closed for refurbishment
- Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes – Reopening on August 19, 2024
- Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – Reopening Date TBD
- Indiana Jones Adventure – Closed for refurbishment starting September 9, 2024
- “it’s a small world” – Closed from September 16 until November 15, 2024
- “it’s a small world” – Closed from January 21, 2025 until Spring 2025
- Jungle Cruise – Closed starting September 16, 2024 (Likely reopening by Columbus Day)
- Main Street Electrical Parade – Return Date Unknown
- Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – Reopening Date TBD (Likely Fall 2024)
- “Mickey’s Mix Magic” – Return Date Unknown
- Space Mountain – Closed until September 5, 2024
- Splash Mountain – Permanently Closed
- Tale of the Lion King – Permanently Closed
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure – Opening Date Unknown
- Wondrous Journeys Fireworks – Return Date Unknown
“it’s a small world” is the latest addition to the refurbishment calendar.
This is an annual closure, with the downtime necessary to add the seasonal overlay and convert the attraction to “it’s a small world” holiday. A bit of downtime at the beginning and end of the Christmas season are well-worth this excellent overlay, if you ask us.
This year, the closures will be longer and also incorporate general maintenance and ride system maintenance. As a result, “it’s a small world” will close earlier in Fall 2024 and reopen later in Spring 2025. Still worth it from our perspective, especially since there would be a multi-month closure for regular refurbishments, regardless.
Another recent update is that Haunted Mansion Holiday has reopened early and is using a virtual queue. It’s expected that the rest of the queue won’t be ready until late August or September, which is around the start of Halloween Time at Disneyland. Whenever the full queue is ready, the ride should drop the virtual queue–and resume using a standby line and Lightning Lane.
It’s good to have Haunted Mansion Holiday open, even with a virtual queue (which is thankfully easy to join) because there are a lot of closures slated to start soon, including both Space Mountain and the Disneyland Railroad. Disney hasn’t announced a reopening date for Disneyland Railroad, but they have revealed that Space Mountain will reopen on September 6, 2024. The iconic roller coaster is getting updated lighting, including the ride’s tunnel–our hope is that Space Mountain also returns in its Ghost Galaxy form for Halloween. We miss that campy classic overlay!
Aside from Haunted Mansion, every attraction on that side of the park in nearby Critter Country is closed. Check out New Orleans Square & Critter Country Construction Updates for a look at progress as of last month. There’s still a lot of work to be done.
This includes the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes, Hungry Bear Restaurant, plus the gift shops and the character meet & greets. No reopening date has been given, but it’s assumed to be the opening date of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which is November 15, 2024.
Disneyland’s stated reason for the closure is to convert two of the gift shops into Princess and the Frog themed locations. However, this is a relatively small scale change and could likely be accomplished in short order without closing the whole land.
Our belief is that there are concerns about crowd flow. Between that and a desire to have the entirety of Critter Country closed to facilitate smoother construction on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, it just makes sense to close the land until the reimagined ride is ready.
On a negative note, the version of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World is now operating and has been plagued by problems. (See our Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Ride Review: Failure, Flawed or Fantastic?) Honestly, even beyond the reliability and downtime woes, we hope Imagineers are able to fix the obvious issues with the substance of the attraction before the Disneyland version opens.
Another ongoing closure is Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. This is going to lengthy refurbishment–Disneyland filed building permits valued at $5 million with the City of Anaheim to replace show elements, lighting, audio and show systems in the Main Street Opera House.
Most notably, the construction permit indicates that a show platform will be replaced, and a new turntable will be installed. Disneyland has already confirmed that the Lincoln Audio Animatronics isn’t going anywhere, and they’re mum about what substantive changes will come to the attraction. All we do know at this point is that Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln will be closed through at least mid-summer. Our guess is that the closure lasts for several more months.
The turntable opens the door for a number of possibilities, some of which have been rumored or speculated. One leading “theory” is that a Walt Disney Audio Animatronics figure or hologram (a la the Disney100 show) will be introduced. I haven’t heard anything (credible) directly about this, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility. In my view, it’s equally likely that Disneyland wants a turntable so this stage can be used as a flex space of sorts for other shows or panel presentations that are not Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Now, a few notes about the above refurbishments. Disneyland is notorious for changing its refurbishment schedules, adding or canceling planned downtimes weeks or days in advance. While this practice is still relatively uncommon in the grand scheme of things, it’s worth pointing out because it does happen.
Now, here’s a bit of our philosophy concerning refurbishments, with the specific example of the recent multi-year Disneyland Railroad refurbishment used to illustrate…
Thoughts on Refurbishments
Nobody likes a favorite attraction to be refurbished during their vacation. It means missing out and potentially not being able to experience the ride for another year or longer, depending upon the frequency of your visits to Disneyland. A couple of years ago, the Disneyland Railroad closed for an extended refurbishment due to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge construction.
At first, we were really disappointed. This might seem like an odd attraction to lament the closure of, but as Southern Californians with Disneyland Annual Passes, this was an absolute favorite of ours. We rode regularly when we wanted to rest our feet, or simply a break from the crowds. With the exception of maybe ‘it’s a small world’, we did Disneyland Railroad more than any other attraction.
However, that initial disappointment pretty quickly gave way to excitement. We began thinking about ways Disneyland Railroad could be plussed, improving the experience for years to come. Disney had already announced that some changes would be made (as the track needed to be re-routed), and we were excited for the prospect of new show scenes or other visuals.
From my perspective, investing in the long-term quality of an attraction is far more important than the temporary satisfaction I’ll get out of riding it on my next visit. This is why it always perplexes me when regulars contend that their vacation will be ruined because their favorite attraction will be closed.
If it’s your favorite attraction and you’re active in the Disney fan community, that means you’ve been to Disneyland before and probably will visit again. It would thus stand to reason that you would want something you love to get the TLC it deserves, and continue to improve.
Disneyland Railroad works as a good example here…in large part because it did receive significant changes and enhancements. (Arguably, the Rivers of America suffered due to being condensed, but that’s another topic for another day–we cover all aspects of this in our New-Look Grand Circle Tour of Disneyland post.)
The point extends to other attractions that have seen similar plussings, but also have more of a problem with effects breaking. Take Indiana Jones Adventure, for example. This is a ride that seems to get a refurbishment about every other year (sometimes more frequently) and we’d argue that it could probably use more regular maintenance than that.
If you are a long-term fan, would you rather experience Indiana Jones Adventure every single visit with 75% of the effects working, or every single visit minus one or two with 95% of the effects working? For me, the answer to that is easy. I’ll take a superior long term experience every time.
Beyond that, there’s the much more compelling justification for regular refurbishments: they are essential for the safety of attractions. While we may think of these attractions as all fun and games that offer a safe sense of exhilaration, that’s when they are properly maintained.
It’s unpleasant to think about, but there have been several preventable deaths in the history of Disney’s parks. During a dark era of Disneyland history, improper maintenance was the cause of death on Big Thunder Mountain. Likewise, years of neglect at Disneyland Paris have led to incidents of injury that could be attributed to a lack of maintenance. In both cases, this has been addressed, and maintenance has improved considerably.
This is not meant to scare anyone or provoke an emotional reaction. Disney’s worldwide safety record is sterling as compared to other park operators. It’s still important to remember that these fun, ‘magical’ places also exist in the real world and use a lot of potentially dangerous elements if safety is not viewed as key. (Or, in Disney’s case, one of the Four Keys.)
When it comes to maintenance that is not essential to the safe operation of an attraction, we are left to contemplate what amount of show quality should be accepted. If following a strict Nunis-ian interpretation of the Four Keys, show is an important consideration, and it should always be 100%. This is a nice goal to strive for, but the practical reality is that 100% show quality is an unworkably high threshold sometimes.
In my estimation, this is a good example of balancing guest interests with show quality. Get the effects working that are easily fixable, and find other ways to address effects that are frequently breaking. We’re not talking about safety here, just random effects. Indiana Jones Adventure has had a number of effects disabled or replaced over the years because they were unreliable.
Guests are understandably concerned when it appears an inordinate number of attractions are closing during their vacation, especially out of state visitors. Trips to California are not cheap and are often once in a lifetime experiences; first-timers certainly do not want to miss out on experiences about which they’ve read extensive hype.
With that said, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure ought to be publishing their routine refurbishment schedules several months in advance, allowing guests to plan around closures. Disney plans maintenance well in advance, and this info should be passed along to guests. For the most part, it is.
Obviously, unplanned maintenance can occur, which takes rides out of commission for hours or even days at the last minute. This is an unavoidable part of sophisticated theme park attractions, and there’s no real way to “plan around” this. It just is what it is.
However, the problem with a “not during my vacation” attitude like this is that it’s always going to be someone’s (or tens of thousands of someones) vacation. If Disneyland and Disney California Adventure attractions with show quality issues aren’t close for refurbishments for fear of some guests during a time-limited window missing out, all guests in perpetuity are going to have a lesser experience.
The end result of that thinking is a duct-tapped approach to attraction maintenance, with whatever work that can be done overnight accomplished, and two parks full of attractions with half their effects broken. First-timers would be left wondering why there was so much hype about Disneyland in the first place, as so many components of rides simply don’t work. If you’re reading this as a lifelong fan, well…maybe you wouldn’t have become a lifelong fan if this were actually Disneyland’s modus operandi.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts…
Any questions about the current refurbishments at Disneyland Resort? What do you think about refurbishments at the Disney Parks? Are you more concerned about an improved long-term experience, or do you think “not during my vacation!”? Any other factors you think are worth considering? As mentioned, we think this is a conversation, so please share your ‘refurbishment philosophy’, or any other thoughts or questions you have, in the comments!
