Disney's Big Thunder earns its spot atop its coaster class
What is the most popular roller coaster in the world?
Here at Theme Park Insider, we have a list of our readers’ picks for the best roller coasters in the world. But I just asked about popularity, not overall quality. What is the coaster that more people on this planet have ridden than any other?
I figure that it has to be a Disney coaster, given the huge attendance lead that Disney has over all other theme park operators. And if you do not think of Disney when you think of coasters, think again. Disney started the modern roller coaster industry in 1959 with the world’s first tubular steel roller coaster, Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds.
That was a one-off, however, so I think that the title of the world’s most popular roller coaster has to go to one of Disney’s other long-time coasters – one that it has built in multiple parks: Space Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Thunder is the one of those two that appears in our Theme Park Insider Top 40. Thunder is also one of the rides that I worked at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. So forgive me Space Mountain fans as I declare Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as the world’s most popular roller coaster.
Now, one of the inherent problems with that title is that any roller coaster that endures long enough to win that level of popularity also last long enough to fall apart. Preventive maintenance can extend any complicated machinery’s lifespan, but at some point, a rebuild becomes necessary to ensure a coaster’s future.
And thus it is with Thunder. This month, Walt Disney World reopened its Big Thunder Mountain Railroad after a year-plus rebuild. Now when Disney takes its big attractions down for extended refurbishments, it often cannot resist the temptation to do a little work on their narratives as they also work on the mechanics.
Again, thus it has been with Thunder over the years. When I worked on the Mountain, its backstory was simple – miners drilled into a mountain considered sacred by the local indigenous population. In its defense, the mountain emitted thunderous protest, scaring away the miners, whose abandoned town you can see in the middle of the ride.
Over the years, Disney expanded that backstory. Barnabas T. Bullion started the Big Thunder Mining Company after striking gold in the area. Bullion is a member of Disney's Society of Explorers and Adventurers, a collection of real and imagined people that Disney created as a backstory for its Tokyo DisneySea theme park. (Society of Explorers and Adventurers - SEA - Get it?)
The battle between those who seek to exploit nature and culture and those who work to protect them is the driving narrative in the SEA's stories, which now include several Disney theme park and cruise line attractions around the world. In this case, Bullion is one of those exploitative baddies. And nature has a way of fighting back against such baddies.
So strange things started happening in the Big Thunder mine - incidents that ultimately led the miners and the company to abandon Big Thunder Mountain. Today, ghostly possessed trains carry visitors onto and into the mountain, to show them the power of Big Thunder and to warn against ever again trying to abuse it.
The most recent change comes on the ride’s third – or “C” lift. This is the little one near the end of the ride. It’s a hill so short that the first car on Thunder’s five-car trains reaches the bottom of the hill before the train crests. But on the other side of the lift hill, riders now see one of Thunder Mountain’s gold nuggets – the ethereal mineral that drove Barnabas T. Bullion to embrace his evil ways.
Whether that is an upgrade from Disneyland’s TNT explosion version of the C lift hill, I will leave you to debate in the comments. But I welcomed the opportunity this morning to return to Big Thunder Mountain and ride this refreshed classic for myself.
With an industry trend toward themed family coasters, it's worth remembering that Thunder is the OG of this class. It also remains one of the best, made even smoother and visually rewarding with this rebuild.
Thunder has earned its place among the world's most popular roller coasters. And among the best.
Here are a couple of my favorite stories from when I worked as a cast member on the Mountain:
Replies (4)
There's an intentionally "bumpy" moment in the middle of the ride that felt so intentional that it still registered to me as smooth.
If only Disney had bought this grade of Vekoma retrack for RnRC.
And one wonders, will Disney ever retrack the Space Mountain at WDW?
It is now "The wildest ride in the middle of a massive construction site"
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Every review of the new BTMRR is extremely effusive of the smoothness of the new track. Personally, I didn't think it was that rough (after all it is "the wildest ride in the Wilderness"), but it says something about the products that Vekoma has been producing over the past 5+ years compared to the previous 2+ decades.