The Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Liberty Square Riverboat are all now permanently closed at Walt Disney World, with Frontierland Station temporarily closed. This comes as Imagineering begins demolition and construction of the Cars and Villains Lands that will replace this area of Magic Kingdom. This covers what’s already happened, what to expect in the next few months, and our commentary.
In case you missed it, well, you missed it. The last day to experience any of the aforementioned attractions and areas at Magic Kingdom was over the Independence Day holiday weekend. The Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and Liberty Square Riverboat are all extinct as of today, July 7, 2025. For our tribute to the aesthetics and artistic value of this area of Magic Kingdom, see Why the Rivers of America is Worth Saving. The sentiment there is part of an overarching and ongoing debate that extends far beyond this one decision.
Along with these permanent closures, “shuttle mode” operations of the Walt Disney World Railroad have now begun as of July 7, 2025. This is due to the temporary closure of the Frontierland Station, which is occurring to accommodate Cars and Villains Land construction. The staging areas and the construction sites are on opposite sides of the railroad tracks, hence the closure. This means you can no longer experience the Grand Circle Tour of the Walt Disney World Railroad for (probably) the next few years. But honestly, we’re just happy the WDW Railroad isn’t closed completely (again).
As a refresher, the permit for all of this was issued by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) in Winter 2025, giving Imagineering until February 17, 2030 to redevelop the area. The underlying SFWMD permit is massive in scale and scope, encompassing over 300 acres around Magic Kingdom and beyond.
The project site itself is about 14-plus acres, and will begin with the removal of the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, while also necessitating the closure of the Liberty Square Riverboat. In place of these areas, Walt Disney World announced two all-new Cars attractions in a reimagined area of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom and Villains Land expansion at Magic Kingdom, essentially behind the Cars miniland, and between/behind Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion.
The first step in this progress occurred almost immediately after Magic Kingdom closed on July 6, with an updated park map being released:
At the risk of stating the obvious, Walt Disney World did not plant a forest overnight. Instead, their map wizards used the clone stamp tool to quickly “transplant” vegetation to fill in the former Rivers of America. If only it were that easy in real life!
While this is incredibly common practice–we saw it with the EPCOT overhaul, Dino-Rama, and just last month with Muppets Courtyard–I can’t help but wonder if it’s a little confusing for the average guest in this particular case. Those other areas were or are totally walled off and completely concealed from guest view. For all we know, there is a thick forest on the other side of them.
In this case, the Rivers of America is still there and visible. There are currently a couple of spots where walls or planters are up, but they’re only to block off access points–the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island, landing for the Liberty Square Riverboat, along with exits and small pathways for the same. At this point, it looks like under 5% of the waterfront is walled-off.
From a wayfinding perspective, this is thus a bit odd. The only people using these maps for their intended purpose is first-timers and navigationally-challenged regulars, so it’s an interesting choice to have a forest appear where guests will actually see a waterfront (for now). Not a huge deal–they’ll figure it out!
In actuality, Walt Disney Imagineering and construction crews are wasting no time in getting to work. As we previously reported, permits have already been filed for the demolition of Tom Sawyer Island. Already today, countless workers have been spotted on the island, with boats transporting trash cans and other props away.
The other big change as of July 7 is that the Liberty Belle has been moved backstage to the marina and is no longer visible from guest areas of Magic Kingdom. The Liberty Square landing is roped off, with the dock blocked by rolling planters. As mentioned above, the exit ramps have been walled-off with construction doorways.
Any potential future plans for the Liberty Square Riverboat have not yet been revealed, but teams at Imagineering and Walt Disney World are working together to evaluate and determine what’s possible. In a perfect world, it would’ve been permanently docked in front of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but since that’s not happening, here’s hoping for Port Orleans or Disney Springs. I’m not holding my breath at this point, though.
Otherwise, the current changes–or lack thereof–are exactly what we expected and have been covered previously. Back when this closure was first announced, Walt Disney World indicated that construction walls would not go up overnight on July 7, 2025 in Frontierland obstructing the project site. Rather, walls will go up gradually over the course of a couple of weeks, so expect to see them by late July–just in time for the debut of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away.
When we inquired, a Walt Disney World spokesperson advised us that construction walls will not impact viewing areas for the new Starlight Night Parade in Magic Kingdom. They also shared that construction walls will not impact crowd flow or bypasses in Frontierland for those who do not want to see Starlight.
This means that the waterfront promenade in Frontierland will remain open for the foreseeable future, which is precisely why it still appears at the edge of the New Frontierland Forest in the map above. Presumably, construction walls will go up on the other side of the boardwalk. This is at least a small victory for those of us who appreciate this Frontierland ‘shortcut’ or were/are fearing the worst with crowdflow for Starlight.
Personally, I’m really curious to see how this will all unfold, what kind of visual blight will exist in Frontierland, and how the project site will evolve. When the Rivers of America has been drained in the past for refurbishment and repairs to the riverbed, there haven’t been walls at all (see above).
My assumption is that it was deemed to be too herculean of a task to install walls all around the perimeter of the Rivers of America in Frontierland and Liberty Square, and arguably counterproductive. Which is worse: a view of a dry riverbed with some work vehicles driving around and the natural environment of Tom Sawyer Island beyond it, or construction walls that make the land feel smaller and more claustrophobic?
Obviously, this is much different in duration, scale and scope. For one thing, it’s not just a multi-month project to repair the riverbed–this is a multi-year construction project that’ll materially alter the environment. For another, there won’t be the beautiful natural vista of Tom Sawyer Island in the distance. It’ll be demolition and look ugly until the new mountains really start taking shape, which will take several years.
Even if there are walls at ground level, it’ll still be possible to see work from Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, once the latter reopens. Same goes for the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and other elevated areas of the park.
Then there’s the project perimeter itself, as it’ll be challenging to install construction walls in some locations that meaningfully obstruct views of the carnage. I mean construction. Whether it’s from the queue of Haunted Mansion, areas adjacent to the riverboat dock or over by Big Thunder, it seems like the walls will be ‘porous.’
One way or another, motivated and intrepid fans are going to find a way to see the demolition, destruction and, eventually, the construction. Perhaps it’s the thought that counts, and Walt Disney World is only concerned with this from a ‘good show’ perspective and obscuring work from regular guests who happen to be passing by.
As for what’s next, we should start to see drainage and lots of dirt moving by Fall 2025–maybe as early as August. My guess would be there’s visible demolition of Tom Sawyer Island in the coming weeks. Whereas I was giddy about seeing the carnage in Dino-Rama, it’s going to be a gut-punch the day when Harper’s Mill comes down.
Within the last month, work has already began backstage. This is something we covered recently in Massive Magic Kingdom Land Clearing Beyond Big Thunder. Honestly, we’re surprised at just how much land has been cleared already. It’s still possible that more is done backstage before work begins in earnest on infilling the Rivers of America. Even though that land is cleared, more needs to be done to transform it into usable gravel laydown yards.
In total, there will be three such gravel laydown yards around the northwestern perimeter of Magic Kingdom used for construction equipment, heavy machinery, materials staging, earth-moving, etc. One will become a parking lot for construction workers and field office for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Disney also needs to create a new retention pond for stormwater management that’s roughly three-quarters of a mile to the northwest of Magic Kingdom. It’s likely that the ground removed when digging the new pond will be used for filling the Rivers of America. Even though a lot of land has been cleared since April, all of this will take time to accomplish–potentially several months.
I’m selfishly hoping that not much more changes within Magic Kingdom for the next ~10 days. Not expecting the Rivers of America to close on such short notice, we didn’t have a chance to plan a separate ‘farewell’ trip to Florida. However, we have made goodbye visits to Tom Sawyer Island during each trip since last Christmas just to be safe.
We had family visiting for Independence Day, so we said our goodbyes in spirit by spending our July 6th at Disneyland, enjoying that Rivers of America. We also spent a lot of time at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which has become our daughter’s favorite attraction. Obviously, that has nothing to do with this project, but we want to ‘vote’ with our attraction utilization in favor of more play areas in the parks. For the record, Redwood Creek is almost always fairly busy with kids running around and parents resting. (I really wish this ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project entailed a play area on par with Redwood Creek–it’d be a perfect fit for Frontierland!)
Anyway, we will be at Walt Disney World for the debut of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, so the hope is that the Rivers of America will still largely look intact for the remainder of this month so we can savor the scenery and serenity one last time. After that, here’s hoping the draining and demolition begins ASAP in August.
As heartbreaking as it’ll be to see Harper’s Mill demolished, Rivers of America drained and filled in, my hope is that Imagineering is fast-tracking all of this and plans to do as much as simultaneously as possible. We’ve been against the replacement of the Rivers of America from the start, and maintain that perspective to this day.
However, now that it’s crystal clear that this project is happening, we want it to be fast-tracked. Minimize the amount of time there’s construction blight in Magic Kingdom, avoiding a repeat of the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit fiasco. The longer any project drags on, the more likely it is that to be budget-cut or value engineered into oblivion.
That’s what makes this bittersweet. I still don’t love this idea, but it’s going to happen and there’s nothing I can do to change the course of this Piston Peak project except at the margins (e.g. adding water features, placemaking, and ‘play’ elements for kids). Accordingly, I would love nothing more than for the future-former Rivers of America to be unrecognizable by January 2026, and cranes appearing on site to commence vertical construction. Get this done quickly to minimize the guest impact and have Piston Peak open ASAP.
As discussed in Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Construction Plan, the site prepwork alone for Piston Peak and Villains Land will be a herculean undertaking that will take many months. We’re actually feeling increasingly optimistic about Piston Peak debuting in 2029, which is a reasonable timeline by historical standards (especially the last development cycle).
It just seems far-fetched based on the last few years, but those were (hopefully) anomalies. Already in 2025, we’re seeing a greater sense of urgency and projects progress through the pipeline faster. As we’ve written before, Burbank has turned on the money spigot, and theme park investment is once again top priority. No more second-fiddle to streaming. Thankfully.
At the very least, Walt Disney World will want to get moving on the groundwork for the walkway connecting Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion, running behind Piston Peak National Park and in front of Villains Land, during the current closure of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That year-plus refurbishment is slated to wrap up sometime in the first half of 2026 (likely before spring break), and we’d expect progress on a pathway by then.
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the closure of Tom Sawyer Island, Rivers of America, and the Liberty Square Riverboat? Did you have a chance to say your goodbyes? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
