Unlike California’s Disney Parks, Florida’s Walt Disney World has been alive and kicking since summer of last year, with social distancing measures in place for its guests and limited capacity. However, the theme park has not been without some extended closures to attractions since COVID-19. One underrated favorite, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, has been closed since March 2020, but is now finally open. For real this time.
Since Magic Kingdom’s PeopleMover officially closed down with the entire park last spring, there has been a considerable amount of speculation regarding when it would officially get going again and why it extended its closures. The president of Walt Disney World Jeff Vahle has now revealed that the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover is back as of this weekend. Check out his post from Instagram down below:
The closure of the PeopleMover has been greatly due to refurbishment of the ride, following some operational issues that were discovered last year. Prior to Walt Disney World’s wide shutdown due to the pandemic, a collision occurred while the Tomorrowland ride was moving guests around. The February incident led the DisneyWorld staff to take extra time to determine the problems with the ride and perhaps fix its issues with added care.
The ride, formerly known as WEDway PeopleMover, has been open since 1975. It’s a slow moving ride that allows guests to relax their feet and rollercoaster voices for a 10-minute narrated tour through Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. It also allows Disney fans to go behind the scenes of the land’s attractions including Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Space Mountain and Star Traders retail shop, along with seeing architectural models of Progress City and the original plans for Epcot.
The PeopleMover’s ride to reopening has been a winding one, as guests were previously told it would come back in March of this year, and then told again it would come back on April 4. Those turned out to be wrong estimations unfortunately, but now it’s official. The park officials appear to have been putting a lot of time into getting things right with the theme park staple so, hopefully, the Tomorrowland attraction will run smoother than ever after a prolonged absence.
Although Walt Disney World remains open to the public, there are a number of attractions that have yet to open back up, including live performances such as Animal Kingdom’s Finding Nemo: The Musical and Hollywood Studios’ Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage. Magic Kingdom’s Walt Disney Railroad continues to be closed, with a “TBD” date along with a number of other Florida attractions.
Disney’s California parks are gearing up for their first reopenings since the historic March 2020 closures next weekend. We’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend for more updates on Walt Disney Parks and other theme parks.
