Popular Opening Day Attraction Closing in 2027 at Universal Orlando Resort
Which Ride Is Closing?
A soaking on Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges is rarely accidental. Guests board the circular raft knowing that, by the time they return to Toon Lagoon, dry clothing will probably be a memory.
Those planning an early 2027 visit, however, will need a different strategy for cooling down.
Universal Orlando Resort has scheduled Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges to close temporarily at Universal Islands of Adventure from January 4 through February 2, 2027. The newly published window takes the original 1999 attraction off the schedule for 30 days, giving travelers approximately five months to adjust affected vacations.
The closure is confirmed on Universal Orlando’s official operating calendar, although the resort cautions that all listed dates remain subject to change.
Universal Orlando Sets a 30-Day Popeye Ride Closure
Universal has not announced what work will take place during the closure. Its calendar classifies the dates under “Temporary Closures,” which supports a planned return rather than a permanent removal, retheme, or replacement.
Guests should therefore resist reading a larger Toon Lagoon project into the listing. Universal has not connected the downtime to any broader change in the land, nor has it announced alterations to the ride itself.
Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges sends circular rafts through a series of rapids, waterfalls, water cannons, and oversized cartoon environments. Universal’s official attraction guide describes it as a way to cool off during the middle or end of a park day—an understatement familiar to anyone who has stepped off completely drenched.
The attraction is one of two large water rides in Toon Lagoon, alongside Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. Me Ship, The Olive, the nearby interactive play structure, also lets visitors fire water cannons toward passing rafts.
Universal has not listed Me Ship, The Olive as part of the January 2027 closure. Its location and operational connection to the ride make it worth monitoring, but any disruption to the play area remains unconfirmed.
What the Closure Changes for Islands of Adventure Guests
The practical consequence is straightforward: anyone visiting between January 4 and February 2 should plan as though Bilge-Rat Barges will be unavailable throughout the trip.
That removes one full-scale attraction from Islands of Adventure’s lineup and one of the park’s most reliable ways to get thoroughly soaked. Guests specifically building a vacation around the ride will need to visit by January 3 or schedule their trip after the published closure window.
The dates may also matter to travelers dividing their vacation among Universal’s parks. The same official calendar lists Fyre Drill at Epic Universe as temporarily closed from January 25 through February 4, 2027. Between January 25 and February 2, both water attractions are scheduled to be unavailable, although they operate in different parks and the closures are not known to be related.
Visitors should recheck Universal’s calendar shortly before departure. A listed ending date does not guarantee that an attraction will reopen the following morning, particularly because Universal explicitly reserves the right to modify its schedule.
The 2027 Downtime Is Not Unusually Long
The absence of a comparable scheduled closure in 2026 makes the new listing notable, but the 2027 window is not unusually lengthy by the ride’s recent standards.
An unofficial closure history maintained by TouringPlans records no extended Bilge-Rat Barges refurbishment during 2026. That supports the observation made by X user Dean (@dean8001), who first highlighted the 2027 dates and the unusually early notice.
It does not establish that the attraction received no maintenance whatsoever in 2026. Work can occur overnight, during short operational interruptions, or without appearing as a prolonged public closure.
More importantly, the new closure is shorter than recent scheduled refurbishments. Inside the Magic previously reported that the ride was unavailable from February 2 through March 15 during its adjusted 2024 refurbishment. It again spent more than a month offline in 2025 before its scheduled March 15 reopening.
That history makes the 30-day 2027 closure look more like a return to the attraction’s established winter-maintenance rhythm than evidence of an unprecedented project.
Universal has recently devoted considerable downtime to maintaining Islands of Adventure’s water-heavy attractions. Jurassic Park River Adventure received a far longer January-to-November 2026 refurbishment, while Me Ship, The Olive underwent its own temporary 2026 closure before its scheduled June return.
For now, the most consequential part of the Popeye announcement is not a rumored transformation. It is the notice itself. Universal has placed a specific 2027 vacation window on the calendar early enough for guests to move a park day—or decide whether one missing soaking changes the trip.
