A Walt Disney World Ride Was Just Pulled Out Of The Park Ahead Of Refurbishment, And I Didn't Even Realize They Could Do That

Attractions at Walt Disney World get closed for refurbishment all the time. Rare is the trip to the most magical place on Earth when you will not find yourself looking at a construction wall somewhere along the way. The walls go up and work begins on, and it's usually, basic maintenance, though occasionally rides come out from refurbishment significantly updated or changed.

One ride that’s currently closed for refurbishment at Magic Kingdom is The Astro Orbitor, the simple flying carousel found in Tomorrowland. However, the work on that ride requires no construction walls, partly because the attraction is three stories in the air, and partly because as of today, Astro Orbitors is… gone. It’s just… it’s just gone.

Astro Orbitors Has Been Removed From Magic Kingdom, But It Will Be Back

If a ride is being completely replaced with something new, then of course we expect to see it disappear. Tom Sawyer Island will be disappearing soon when work begins on a new Cars area in Magic Kingdom's Frontierland. But Astro Orbitors is simply being refurbished, not replaced. And yet, as of this morning, all parts of the ride mechanism that are visible from ground level are missing. Blog Mickey got the pictures.

Astro Orbitor isn’t exactly the biggest or the most complex attraction in the world, but it never occurred to me that one could just come in with a crane and remove the entire thing from the park.

The exterior decoration is still there, but the functional part of the attraction is just gone. If you didn't know better, you wouldn't know there was ever a ride there. It’s sort of disconcerting to look at the platform and just have it not be there like Carman Sandiego came in and stole the thing overnight.

The Astro Orbitor went through a pretty significant refurb at Disneyland recently, and it seems it's now time for the Magic Kingdom version to get a similar overhaul. Scheduled maintenance helps make sure that attractions don't break down in more serious ways when it's less convenient. While there's rarely a time that isn't crowded at Disney World, the period immediately following the holiday season is as close to a "slow season" as the resort gets.

However, when it happened at Disneyland, the attraction, which can be found at the entrance to Tomorrowland from Main Street U.S.A., just got the standard construction walls. The attraction didn’t leave the park. The Magic Kingdom Astro Orbitor is one of the rides that’s better at Disney World than Disneyland because its location high up in the air makes for much better views.

What Happens Next?

I have so many questions about what happens next. Does the attraction get refurbished offsite and then put back in place, good as new? Or will it essentially be rebuilt from scratch like the Astro Orbitor of Theseus?

We’ll find out in the coming weeks and months just how this is going to work. Astro Orbitor isn’t expected to reopen until this summer, so we may just go several months of a massive empty platform that completely changes the skyline of Magic Kingdom.