Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Now Open from Long Refurbishment in 2024

Refurbishment season at Walt Disney World is in the air again, and this time, one of the most popular rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is reopening from a long refurbishment that has taken most of 2024.

From time to time Disney needs to close down its rides in order to service them and give them the maintenance they need. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in Disney’s Hollywood Studios closed on January 8, 2024, for what has been a multi-month refurb.

(UPDATE) – Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster with Aerosmith reopened to guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios starting on July 1, 2024. This is nearly one month earlier than the original reopening date.

They also announced that the closure was for routine maintenance and no major changes were made to the attraction, such has a re-theming.

Rumors are always flying about Disney changing the theme of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and dropping Aerosmith from the attraction. Recently Muppets Mayhem creator Jeff Yorks speculated that a Muppets Mayhem makeover may be coming to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Keep reading more more info on this.

How Long was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Closed?

The popular Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is now open once again. It reopened on July 1, 2024. Since it closed back in January, that means the refurbishment lasted almost 7 months by the time it’s complete. After hearing about all the work needed, it’s no wonder that it took longer than we originally thought.

The popular Hollywood Studios roller coaster has been experiencing extended downtime in recent years, and this is the latest refurbishment scheduled to resolve those issues. Some outside companies have been involved in the refurb which would indicate a more extensive project.

One of the companies is Adena Corporation which has done work on several other Disney attractions like TRON Lightcycle Run and they were also involved with the EPCOT redesign project.

Originally, Disney’s official website stated that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster would return in “Summer 2024”, which technically could be anywhere from the end of May to early September. However, Disney was ahead of schedule with the refurb and it reopened nearly one month earlier than originally announced.

This is a nice surprise since things can always happen to delay attraction refurbishments. In fact, Disney is notorious for giving reopening dates for attraction refurbishments and then postponing the date to a later time. However, delays usually come when they haven’t listed a specific date and it’s more generic like “Summer 2024.”

Is the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Changing Theme?

Ever since the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster opened in 1998, guests have been jamming out to the tunes of Aerosmith as they looped and twisted their way to the concert. However, rumors persist that it all might be change soon. So what’s the deal?

First of all, we want to say that it has been confirmed that there have been no significant changes to the theme of Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster during this last refurbishment. Everything about the story and theming elements are still the same as they were before.

It’s possible that could still come down the road, but for now, no big changes have been made. However, for those of you who are curious about a potential re-theming, here is all the previous rumor info…

The most recent rumors of a Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster re-theme comes from Muppets Mayhem creator Jeff Yorkes who took to Twitter (now X) in June 2023. There he answered questions regarding the rumors of a Muppets Mayhem theme coming to the attraction saying:

“Not gonna lie — this was absolutely part of our original pitch and is another piece of this dream. Fingers-crossed that it happens.”

Since those comments though, Muppets Mayhem has been canceled after only one season on Disney+, so would Disney really invest all the money needed to overhaul the theme of the ride for a show that hardly anyone even cared about? Not likely.

Other rumors came from Ken Marino, an actor from the original pre-show for the ride who appeared on an episode of ‘Office Hours Live’ on YouTube. During this interview, he said that Aerosmith will be replaced with Queen as the theme of the popular Hollywood Studios attraction.

He quickly changed his tune in a recent tweet about the interview when he said: “I have no idea what they are changing it to. Some one said that to me at some point so then I said it. It was more of rumor than anything else I suppose. Maybe it’s gonna be the new Billie Holiday ride. Could be good.”

So far Disney has always denied rumors of a theme change to the ride, but with the ride expected to be down longer than originally hoped for, could there be something to this change?

We know that rumors of Disney removing Aerosmith from the ride and retheming it to some Disney IP have been going on for years now, but now it looks more and more possible due to allegations against frontman Steven Tyler. It wouldn’t surprise us to know that Disney would like to take the ride in a different direction.

Even before the latest scandal, there is the fact that Aerosmith was very popular when the ride first opened in 1998, but it’s no secret that they are not exactly the most popular group with today’s young people.

In fact, many fans were already hoping for a complete overhaul of the ride before this latest rumor. Could some other Disney IP be moving in its place?

Without a complete overhaul of the ride, Disney could move in another music group like Queen, as Marino initially suggested. We have to admit, we love the idea of blasting off to “Having a Good Time,” the lyrics work so well for this attraction.

While Queen or a similar group could be a good fit, our guess is it’s probably not happening right now and these are only rumors. Sure, the rumors of a theme change here seem more likely than ever, but we have to see more to really take it seriously.

We have to think that even though Ken Marion had a small role in the original pre-show for the ride, at this point he may not be connected to the situation at all and he likely doesn’t know Disney’s real plan for the attraction (if there are any).

Disney usually doesn’t mention exactly what work they are doing on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster when they do a refurb, and there is no word of it being anything except regular maintenance due to extended downtime. These types of refurbishments are normal in Walt Disney World and are necessary to keep the rides running properly.

What we were most worried about is how this would continue to affect wait times in Hollywood Studios. This was already one of the parks with the fewest rides and longest wait times. Removing one of the most popular rides has not helped.

Already during Spring Break and Easter 2024, Hollywood Studios was even more crowded than usual, so the park really couldn’t afford to have one of its premier attractions closed for too long. Thankfully, the crowds have slowed down some coming into the summer so it wasn’t felt as much as it could have been. Still, the sooner an attraction comes back online, the better.

We’ll be sure to update you with more details on the project as soon as they are released, especially if there is something new coming to the ride.

This is just one of many refurbishments Disney has announced or finished in recent weeks. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is likely closing in late 2024 for a time, and other rides like Kali River Rapids closed in January 2024. The latter has since reopened.

At Disney’s Magic Kingdom, we are happy to announce the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure which has taken over the space previously occupied by Splash Mountain. While it is impressive technically, we miss the superior storytelling elements to Splash Mountain and feel Imagineers could have done a better job here.

Over in EPCOT, there are some small closures like Frozen Ever After for a few days in the Winter, but the big news is Test Track getting a complete overhaul with a new theme. We are calling this “Test Track 3.0.”

Also, the Walt Disney World Railroad recently reopened after being closed for 4 years to make room for the TRON roller coaster which opened in April of last year. It’s nice to finally have it back at least!

We’ll keep you updated on the refurbishment of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and let you know if there are any big changes to announce or if some new IP is coming to the attraction.

Check out our Walt Disney World refurbishments page for more details on all the closures and stay tuned here at Ziggy Knows Disney for more…

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Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster closing for refurbishment in 2024…

• Are you upset by it?
• Does this change your vacation plans?

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