WDW Refurb Update: Extended Closure for ‘it’s a small world’ — Are Disney Characters Being Added?
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Thanks to a tip, we have learned that ‘it’s a small world’ at the Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom has been scheduled for an extended refurbishment beginning August 1 and ending October 22. The refurbishment is listed on the official Walt Disney World website daily view for those dates and a call to the Resort did confirm the closure.
We’re sure in time that more about the details of the refurbishment will come to light, but until then, one can only speculate. With the addition of Disney characters at first Hong Kong Disneyland and then Disneyland in 2009, could the Magic Kingdom be far behind?
Below is a video released from Disney Parks which highlights the changes made to the Disneyland version last year:
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Update: According to the LA Times Fun Blog, both Disney Parks and WDI have denied that there will be characters added to the attraction, which still leaves one to wonder why the attraction will be closed for such a long time when it just experienced an extensive refurbishment about five years ago.
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Actually the timing more likely suggests that they will be doing it's a small world holiday. This is about the same amount of time that Disneyland needed the first year of it's a small world holiday. They may also choose to add the Disney Characters at the same time, but my bet is that the holiday version will show up this year as well.
Tim from the WDW Fan Boys podcast here. From what I've heard this closure will be for facade and queue work. Perhaps the objective is to make the Fantasyland queues a bit more interesting (and even interactive). The changes to Winnie the Pooh lead me to believe that this is very likely going to be exterior work.
Of course, this doesn't explain why the ride needs to close, so what do I know?
I bet characters will be added. Disneyland California said they would NOT put characters in to the ride, but late into the refurb they changed their mind and announced characters would be added resulting in an uproar of fans who wanted the original ride to remain the same as it always had.